A Merry Christmas to all from K'Brian and K'Alex

perhaps even a Crazy Christmas!

The little guy and I were playing with the 'photobooth' feature.  Here's another:

Christmas at our home isn't particularly Christian, I have to say:

Centred in the first shot is a dreidel, a gift from a coworker.  In the second photo are a Tibetan, um, necklace ornament (centre), and near the bottom, from left-to-right, are an old-fashioned coin, an amber bead and two phone ornaments at the edge of the photo.

If you are in the giving spirit, John Yost and his accident are mentioned a post or two down.  He could use some help (and long-timers should be concerned about more complete health insurance - Korea is cheap for typical visits to the doctor, but too many foreigners have been driven to asking for aid.  I don't begrudge them, but I need to prepare myself better - and so should you!).  Kevin Kim could use some cheering up these days as well.

Solving the birthrate crisis.

Birthrate incentives need to focus of returning women to the workforce.

Korea's incredibly low birthrate has been in the news a lot lately and I recently promised a serious post on the subject.  I will try to keep this post 'serious' but I am not sure how deep or authoritative it will be.  It may be serious in tone, but not so much in length.  alright, it is finished and it is a serious length, I would say.

From the Herald:

The government will soon launch a nationwide anti-abortion campaign and aggressively seek more foreigners to come and settle down here as part of efforts to keep the country's population from shrinking, a presidential council said Wednesday.

According to Yonhap News, the move comes as the country again marked one of the lowest birthrates in the world this year.

Let me start with the bad.  I am moderately pro-choice: there are good reasons to have an abortion and there are terrible reasons for having an abortion.  With one exception, I would like to separate this the subject of abortion from birthrate.  That exception is abortion due to the gender of the fetus.  I may return to this point later.

The plans to increase immigration are interesting.  I've been in Korea for a long time, possibly too long, but am not sure how educated I am about the culture (Two humourous links on the subject: asktheexpat, dokdoisours - back to serious-stuff) but this contradicts everything I know about minjok and keeping bloodlines pure.  I like the idea of Korea being more multi-cultural and being more a part of the world than it currently is, but it's clear we aren't thinking about birthrates anymore.

From the Times:

Recognizing the grave nature of this matter, the Presidential Council for Future and Vision proposed Wednesday a package of measures to lift the birthrate and provide support for childcare and education. One of the steps is to offer incentives for families with three or more children which include special interest rates on their mortgages. Third or additional children can also receive bonus scores on college entrance exams and job applications

...

The government has so far announced a series of different measures to promote marriages and childbirth to avert a looming population crisis. But we have to admit that those measures have proven to be unsuccessful at producing tangible results.

The Times also mentions immigration and the seriousness of Korea's low birthrate, but that's not the focus of this post.

The news about mortgages and universities is definitely part of this post.

I can't hold back from saying that it is so weird reading about such a strong government involvement in increasing the birthrate, when in the recent past, having more than one child in China would invite negative government involvement.

Alright, mortgage relief does sound like a good idea and it directly addresses the problem of finding a home big enough for a large family.  Scholarship and financial assistance would also help.  On the other hand, boosting a university entrance exam score and moving a job application higher in it's queue sound terrible.

The Chosun describes two reasons for the low birthrate.  The first is the high cost of raising a child, and the second, related, is the high cost of being a senior citizen:

Advanced countries offer comprehensive welfare benefits. They not only support the cost of raising children, but also guarantee the financial stability of elderly citizens after retirement. But the situation is quite different for the average Korean worker, who faces the constant threat of layoffs, may have already cashed in his pension, and lives in a nation where programs such as annuity insurance to prepare for life after retirement are just budding. Everyone feels pressured to have fewer children so they can save for retirement.

Here is a point that sounds exactly right to me.  I already see myself working until I am grey and bent over, then moving into a grim storage locker for my final days.  I will spend whatever it takes to raise a great child, but fear the cost of a second child.

We've heard enough from the papers; here are my thoughts.

I like the increased immigration plan for a variety of reasons.  It will bring more productive people to Korea and possibly decrease overpopulation elsewhere.  There might be a win-win thing going here and that always feels good.  I hope that immigrants can send some money home and take home some expertise to further assist other countries.  Unfortunately, this would dilute Korean stock and culture - while I don't have much respect for 'pure blood', I don't like the homogenization, the McDonald'sification  of the world.  I guess this is a luxury that we must do without to better care for our seniors.

While I do like the financial aid, I don't think it is fixing the specific limiting reagent involved.  I am a feminist and know that, in my profession, women are at least as capable as I.  Yet, somehow, women must be convinced to give up a year of professional growth, and probably longer.  Indeed, it almost has to be longer; after a year away from work, upon her return, a women might reasonably be less efficient than a man who has not taken time from work.  Presuming this is a traditional family with a wife and husband, it makes better financial sense for the man to keep working and the woman to stay home as long as is best for the child.

I love my son and love most of the time I spend with him but I also enjoy working and my job.  Most women feel the same way, I expect.  If a woman is being asked to have two or three or more children, that is a long time away from the workforce.

All this means women need educational and employment assistance for themselves as much as their children do.

--

Near the top of this post I mentioned abortion and new restrictions.  I can see that a lack of abortion services might raise the birthrate, but I foresee not only more children, but more miserable children.  I felt this way in the post leading up to this one - it described plans to lower the minimum age to enter school.  As a childish adult, I want to see happier children; children who are able to enjoy childhood, more than I want to see more children in general.  The Times touches on this point with "some education experts express concerns that the measure may bring about side effects such as children's difficulty in adapting themselves to school life at a younger age. They point out that education should not be tackled only from the point of economic efficiency."

I can't tell if this is a deliberate pun

From the Korean Times, I found the headline:

Embracing Minorities Key to Fertile Nations

Perhaps the 'free hugs' movement is a way to embrace foreigners.

The article is a long and thoughtful one about maintaining population sizes, how the US and France are managing it in different ways, and what Korean could learn from the two disparate* examples.

I wrote more, then deleted it. I still think the title is amusing, but I am not sure how I feel about the article. Is it encouraging births out-of-marriage or merely reporting on it? Am I so conservative that I automatically disapprove of single-mothers? I need to think more about this article and I am not sure that I will be posted the results of my meditation.

----

*vocab question:

This is the first time I have used "disparate" - it means something like 'diverse', right?

Hmmm... Sounds good.

A few months ago, I helped, in a marginal way, with producing motivational slogans for an organization in Gangwondo. Based on the way it was described and the examples they gave from other groups, it seemed they felt slogans would be more cost effective than actually fixing things or making improvements. Improve attitudes and you don't need to improve facilities.

The Dong-a notes that,

To encourage childbirth, the Health, Welfare and Family Affairs Ministry has announced six slogans.

Here are two that particularly seemed interesting.

“Childbirth is touching, childcare is rewarding, and families are happy”; “The joy of childbirth, growing happiness, younger Korea”

I am the father of a usually wonderful boy and the highs I feel when things go right are very high. My son can make many things go right. He can make a similar number of things go wrong, however. My understanding is that parents experience highs and positive emotions in greater intensity than the childless can but that we also experience as much or more time at the negative side of the scale. Dealing with temper tantrums, endless negotiations for everyday things - everyday* - and guilt when you feel happy to get away for a time are all part of parenting, too.

I'm satisfied with being a parent and don't want to stop; being a parent is now part of how I define myself. Still, I'm not wearing rose-colored glasses; "families are happy" is an oversimplification, at best.

My favourite slogan, though, is the second one listed. "The joy of childbirth" -ha, ha, ha.

-------

* Every night, I spend ten or more minutes working to convince the little one to brush his teeth, or, more accurately, to let me brush them. Every night, there are tears - only his, but I sometimes want to shed a few, too.

-------

Not completely on topic: Kevin recently summarized a review of a book about over-dependance on positive thinking.

Someone comes to town, someone leaves town.

Doctorow wrote a cool and weird story with that title, but my story deals more with how someone came and left.

My brother-in-law drove here on Saturday evening and took the bus home on Sunday afternoon.

He left us with...

A Mercedes! Alright, a Mercedes licensed engine, in a Korando (and that is now three times that I have tried to spell the vehicle name and written Korean instead).
The truck is not new but seriously 'like new'. My B-I-L took excellent care of his truck and actually took a lot of time into explaining how to care for it. He learned basic mechanics on the farm and was a driver for a general during his military service so he has the right background.

You might wonder how or why he would decide to sell or give us his car. Well, he is getting a new one for himself and we helped finance him eight years ago when he bought this one.

I am excited to own a car again. Previously, I had bought a car, a Honda Civic and two weeks later, my girlfriend came to Canada. Three weeks after that, I proposed and began planning how I would move back to Korea. Nine months later, I sold that car.

I have ten months of car ownership experience and, as with most North Americans, several years of driving experience. I briefly worked for an ambulance service and so qualified for my small bus license and considered myself, again briefly, to be a pretty good driver.

Honestly, though, I am not. I might have been a fair driver (maybe) but I foresee taking the car to an empty parking lot and practicing a lot of parallel parking and reversing and such to make up for several years of being a passenger.

My son is eager to practice, too.
I won't be properly insured or registered until Wednesday, so I have a few days before my life is transformed.

Consistent readers of this blog will know that I am at least somewhat anti-private car and greatly interested in how public transportation works (or doesn't) and what alternative forms of transportation can do. I don't like the way cities and people have adjusted to make things more convenient - for cars - to the inconvenience of people.

On Wednesday, that paragraph will read as:

Consistent readers of this blog will know that I was at least somewhat anti-private car and greatly interested in how public transportation works (or doesn't) and what alternative forms of transportation can do. I didn't like the way cities and people have adjusted to make things more convenient - for cars - to the inconvenience of people.

Just kidding. I don't expect to entirely give up cycling or public transportation. Still, I will enjoy and take advantage of the increased freedom a car gives. I need to set some rules for myself, preferably before I do start driving, regarding how much I will drive and what situations legitimately give me a good excuse to drive to work rather than take the free bus.

Still, this blog will return to featuring more travel entries - even though they will be local, limited to the distance that the little guy feels comfortable with.

Is this a lily pad?

I was at the in-laws for a day on the weekend and found my little guy with this plant.Most lily pads I've seen have a definite 'start' and 'finish' to the leaf - at 11:40, the edge clearly folds into and at 12:20, it bulges out again, showing apparent endpoints. Not this leaf.
They grow in swampy water, like lily pads, but the stalk is strong enough to carry the leaf well above the water.
Finally, do these look like frog eggs or the like? I have heard of some frogs that glue their eggs above the water, so that the tadpoles dive into the water upon hatching.
The visit with the in-laws went well, with me managing to not embarrass myself in helping with the farm-work. I helped plant about twenty rows of potatoes, each row around 200 metres long - with the whole extended family, it took around four hours.

Cottaging on the Pickeral River

My plans for a big canoe or kayak trip were too ambitious- my friends were unable to join in them and I was too out of shape for prolonged paddling. Instead, we visited an uncle's cottage.
We rented a canoe at Grundy Lake Supply Post -they set us up well with a canoe and gear and are open until 8:00pm, which is much better than Swift Canoe rentals.
I want to also recommend the French River Visitor Area, which is between the French and Pickeral rivers on Highway 69. A lot of local history is described and displayed there but, it being built by the Ontario government, doesn't advertise much for fear of disrupting local businesses.

Anyway, we paddled for fifteen minutes to the cottage past lots of bare rock and bent-over pine. Some find it beautiful.

While there, my uncle taught his grand-nephew how to drive.
Near the cottage is a railroad and a tunnel was dug through a ridge of rock at some point. I have explored by flashlight the whole tunnel but on this day, we just peered into the opening.
Around my mother's house and in central Ontario generally, I have seen a lot of cormorants and no loons. I worried that the cormorants had out-competed the loons as both are fish-eaters. I was happy to see a pair of loons near the cottage.
Apparently, turtles are in decline. We saw eight of them in one day, so we were satisfied.
We also saw a small water snake that allowed us to get quite close.

Craigleith Provincial Park

This trip home has been a sort of nostalgia-fest for me as I take the little guy to places I liked. I barely remember Craigleith Park, indeed, I thought it was named Craigleaf, but I did remember the fossils. It was hard to explain that we would not be finding dinosaur fossils but rather much smaller critters, albeit also much older.

Click to embiggen any photo.

It was not a warm day and the wind had lots of room to gather strength before reaching us. Spring jackets were required. Look at that open water behind the little guy!


Along shore at Craigleith Park, the shale is comprised of many layers - and chock full of trilobites and the like.


There was one danger that, so far, we have avoided. We found some poison ivy at the park but stayed away. I hoope the same is true for our trip to an uncle's cottage later this week.

posted by GeorgianBayBrian.

Santa's Village

Santa's summer Ho-ho-home is in Bracebridge, Ontario because Bracebridge is halfway between the equator and the North Pole -yeah, that makes sense.

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Santa's Village - I had enjoyed going there as a child and my son likes it now but they did not hire me when I applied 28 years ago. The first job I applied to and they shut me down, while hiring all my friends.*

The roller coaster in the trees is a good example of the rides there. The coaster was exciting enough for GeorgianBayAlex and the views were scenic enough for me. As the pictures show, this coaster had the right combination of terror and fun for the little guy.




Santa was there and greeted each child warmly. A few of the elves appeared tired but most were perky and in character.
We went to Santa's Village with my mother and my sister and her kids. There we met four of her friends and their mothers and kids. It was a big group going around. One of the grandmothers invited us all to her house for dinner and play by Lake muskoka. This duck wandered by and let me get extremely close, even while a Golden Lab was playing ten or twenty metres away. Strange, but beautiful.
---
*Is this a typical Korean ESL teacher story? A loser who wasn't hired by the local equivelent of McDonald's goes on to work in Korea? Much as I hate that stereotype, I fit it in this regard (ONLY!)

Posted by GeorgianBayBrian.

Canada Day Pics

We had a good time, although, what with wearing coats and long pants, it felt like early spring not summer.

First, we went to Midland for a parade and their celebrations. Below is a heritage-recognized house with a 'widow's walk'. Many of the older homes have them so women could watch for their lake-faring husband's return in times of yore.

This truck, in Coast Guard colors and design, was driven and prepared by the Shriners - I don't know if there was any Coast Guard involvement. As Kwandongwife is in in the Korean CG, I begged the men to take the little guy aboard for the photo. There were large crowds for a while after that and I wasn't able to collect my son for some time - I think they were regretting their kindness by the time I was able to pick him up.
At Little Lake Park, there were many exhibits and activities. in contrast to a Korean festival, it was not a chance to go shopping. Here, the little guy is touching a rat snake, the largest snake in Canada and non-venomous.
Back in Penetang, the lawn of a museum was home to the celebrations. Entrance to the museum was free and below is a picture of a book-keepers desk. The abacus on the right caught my eye.
The little guy is almost on track for sleeping now, which means he missed the fireworks. Here is my best photo of the night.

Happy Canada Day!

It's six am and the little guy and I have just come in from a walk to the dock, where we saw two or three beavers and some Canada geese - a good way to start Canada Day.

The picture is from a recent trip to Tim Horton's donuts. I had planned to write about some new symbols of Canada that I don't care for - Tim Horton's is one, although I like the food - but I'll leave it to be grumpy on another day.

We have a lot of events to take the little guy to, so expect photos about when my Korean readership wakes up.

Balm Beach

We had some incredibly hot weather yesterday - a welcome change for the locals as this has been a wet spring and start to summer here.

Pictures are again out of order - not broken but not n the order I took them in. Click on any to enlarge.

To cool off, we had some ice cream. Mom and I ingested ours but GeorgianBayAlex choose to apply his as a salve. Perhaps he was uncertain about the name of the beach: Balm probably refers to the cool water more than the ice cream available nearby.

Mom and the little guy at the edge of the public beach.





The beach was nice although some kids nearby had a very limited vocabulary -there's more than one adjective available.

There was a lot of pollen in the water.

There is also controversy at the beach. In Canada, property owners can only own land to the high water mark of a lake. Practically, that means anyone can walk along a shore. That would be fine except that beachgoers ocassionally leave trash behind - less often, I think, thanvisitors to Sokcho Beach, but frequently enough.







This cottager has put up a fence that actually extends to into the water to deter walkers. You might be able to see burn marks on the fence, which has also been attacked with chainsaws and police are frequently called to the scene.

Jumpcut is closing

My old computer came with Microsoft Movie Maker but it didn't have the power to handle video - I could organize stills and add narration, but couldn't edit video. Luckily, I found jumpcut online and was able to edit video there. Well, it closes today (which is why, in addition to laziness, I am not going to bother linking).

Previously, Jumpcut didn't allow you to download the video you made, although you could export them to blogs and such. Well, a few old blog posts will now have holes in them.

Now, as the service closes, they are enabling downloads. I may plug those old holes or just place them in current posts so everyone can enjoy them again.

Here, is my son, age one and a half, dancing to the very quiet drums at Naksan Temple.

obsessed with numbers

The little guy is just shy of his fourth birthday -by my reckoning; here, he has been five for several months - and suddenly loves reading numbers.  Walking through a parking lot, with all those license plates, is an ordeal now.

For the record, this started a few weeks ago, perhaps at 3 years ten months, or a little later.

It reminds me of when I first learned to pronounce Hangeul.  I was an adult at the time, so I remember it clearly.  After a month in Korea, I could reliably struggle through a word or short sentence.  Riding the bus home in the evening was exhausting because I found myself trying to read each sign we passed - and street signs are horribly thick here - but almost never finishing before we had passed it.  Obsessively on to the next one.  And the next one...

He sometimes has trouble distinguishing between '6' and '9'.

Time to work on his actually writing them.

He's a lady's man

As part of their game, which involved me chasing them, the little guy just naturally took his playmate's hand and held it through the chase.

Smooth, yes, but not that chivalrous.  When I, the monster, got too close, he let her go and escaped alone.

Born with the gift of laughter and the knowledge the world was mad

The quote above might be as true for me as it was for Sabitini's Scaramouch.

Random bit of bad news: KwandongAlex was sick and feverish ten days ago, KwandongWife was sick and feverish two days ago (and may still be) and now I, too, have tonsillitis.  It looks like I won't need surgery, just medicine and I've started taking the normal-for-Korea pack of six pills after each meal.

I have always had a cold or a runny nose.  I have a few allergies and foreigner's long nose but mine is pinched and narrow so all my life I have sneezed a few times a day -except now.  Tonsillitis has given me a sore throat but my breathing is so much clearer and easier.

I don't really understand the random illnesses I have had here. I've had pneumonia, Bells Palsy and now tonsillitis.  Bell's Palsy, in particular, is disease that strikes randomly and I've always considered myself too healthy to worry about pneumonia.

Random bit of good news: MSN Messenger on the Windows side side of the partition has 'found' the video camera so KwandongAlex chatted with GeorgianBayGrandma last night.  I had started to investigate why the camera wouldn't work, wasn't recognized, in Windows, but hadn't done anything.  Suddenly, now it works.  woo-hoo!

--

Oh, Scaramouch is a great, swashbuckling sort of movie, but the end of the book resorts to some ugly politics (for our era, at least) to sort out the plot.

Biryeong Falls, Seorak National Park

Today, the Coast Guard had their semi-annual picnic in Seoraksan and the picnic included a hike to Biryeong Falls.  As Kwandongwife is a coastie, the little guy and I were invited.

Although I thought I had been just about everyplace in the park, I had missed this place.

From the Seorak Dong entrance (closest to Sokcho), your choices are some seriously long hikes or several around 2-4 km.  These shorter hikes all seem to be pool table flat for eighty percent of the hike and ranging from steep to very steep for the final bit.  The hike to Biryeong is no exception and wheelchairs could probably make the first kilometer and a half.  The final 700 meters include a lot of steel stairs, some with fencing overhead to stop or slow down falling rocks.

The little guy had a fever through the night, but recovered in the morning.  Still, I didn't begrudge carrying him when he asked.  By the end of the event, he was tired and now he is feverish again.  I foresee a trip to the hospital soon.

Anyway, we saw a few animals along the way.
I caught this frog and showed him to my son.  After I returned him to his pond, a man told me to wash carefully.  I planned to, anyway, because the pond water was dirty and I was worried about parasites.  He explained, though, that he was concerned about poison.

The frog did have bright warning-style coloration, but only on it's wonderfully orange belly.  I didn't think there were poisonous frogs in Korea.  I did wash my hands and don't seem to have suffered any strange effects.

I was more cautious with the snake we saw and chose not to catch it.  It was about 30cm long and not at all afraid.
The hike started at an overflow parking lot 2km from the main entrance.  We then hiked to the entrance, which was about the halfway point of the hike.  Once we had visited the waterfalls, we returned to entrance area and picnicked under some trees.  Carrying the little guy slowed us down so we arrived late - happily I was carrying my beach blanket so we settled down to lunch quickly.
I recommend the hike, especially if you don't have much time.  This hike doesn't have the long views that the other hikes do.  This is more intimate, although not private.  Actually, I don't know how many people normally do this hike as I was surrounded by over 100 coasties.  Still, no short hike near the main entrance is going to be solitary.

Oh, in case of emergency,  figured I could call 122, as it would be a Coast Guard emergency - is that funny?

Boats, big and small

The weather for Children's day was fantastic. The little guy's mood was more variable and I was lucky to finish the day on a high note so he didn't go to bed cranky.

Someday, I'll learn what order to upload photos. This pic of people on sit-on-top kayaks was the last thing we did that I took pictures at.

I was concerned that the boat wouldn't hold me. With the little guy aboard, we topped 105 kg and every other boat was paddled by a child less than half my weight.

The boat was fine but KwandongAlex was disturbed by the rocking and by the way the paddle dripped water on his head on occasion. Later, we had cotton candy and he was cheered immensely.

This was at the Canoe Club on Lake Yeongnang. It is actually a club for competitive Kayaking and no canoes, recreational or sprint, were in sight.

Before attempting the kayaks, we went to tour the Coast Guard ships.

A three-year-old with a gatling gun!

A SAR boat. It looks like a lot of fun to race around on.
On the main deck.

Our final stop on Children's Day was Sokcho Beach, where we had a good time, I swam (very briefly) and we picked up 25 discarded, twisted sparklers.

having fun

My mother took the first picture, although I trimmed it a fair bit.

Road Trip

My mother is visiting and we rented a car on the weekend as I have Monday off. I had planned to go to Yeongwol and Taebaek, but decided they were too far. They probably aren't that far, but we were travelling with the little guy and I wanted a trip we all could have fun on. For the record, the longest drives were about two hours and the little guy was great in the car.

So, instead of Yeongwol (I wanted to visit the astronomy observatory), we went to Jeongdongjin and Donghae, returning through Odaesan.

The pictures are in reverse order - I seem to recall blogger uploaded photos in the order I placed them in the past - so I will tell my story in reverse

.elpmet gnoejloW...
Alright, we arrived in Odaesan just before dusk and ran through Woljeong Temple and Sangwon Temple. Below is Sangwon seen from the trail.

Before Odaesan, we went, not to Donghae, but to Mangsang's (just north of Donghae) whale museum. We all enjoyed the whole museum but the little guy most liked the dinosaur models. There were also some fossilized dinosaur footprints that were pretty cool.

Before Donghae, we were in Jeongdongjin. We enjoyed the beach and the hourglass (yearglass?) but the best part was the ship on the hill, part of Suncruise Resorts.
We had an expensive but good meal -your entry ticket gives you a discount, don't throw it away.
Our first stop was the Pre-history museum in Yangyang. There were signs for the museum before construction began so I didn't believe there really was a museum. There is, it's big, beautiful and modern, and it's fun. I wouldn't come to Yangyang for it, but if you are already here, you should see it. It's just across the street from Sol Beach resort.