Touring the Wye Marsh

The Wye Marsh is a sort of nature conservatory and open-walled zoo in one. It's an interesting place to visit anytime, although, because my mother volunteers there and I can visit at no charge, I probably visit more than most.

Here I am with KwandongAlex. He is watching the Blandings Turtle or maybe the stuffed beaver while I am recovering from rollerblading to the Marsh.

The turtle has an interesting and sad back-story. I asked the curator about it's asymmetrical shell- it was more like a cresting wave than a smooth semi-circle- and he told me it had started as a pet and suffered from malnutrition. The lack of vitamin D gave it a weak shell that deformed when it was young. It seems comfortable enough now.

These days, the Marsh is known for it's work to re-introduce Trumpeter Swans into the region. Here is one - the white thing behind it is in fact a rock.

On Sunday evening, I joined a guided canoe tour through some of the marsh. Sara (below) and Adrian, the curator, sterned two large canoes and took twelve clients deep into the unknown. If you click on the picture, it will expand. At the top, one-third from the left, is the Martyr's Shrine, approximately where we started. Although it seems like open field, between us and that hill are nothing but cattails and bullrushes.

The Marsh is used for a variety of research purposes and is home to at least a few endangered species. We saw one, the black tern, during our paddle.

The Marsh, as with every other public space, has bureaucratic challenges to overcome. The part of the marsh that most visitors see is a National Wildlife area that the volunteer organization, "Friends of the Wye Marsh" run. The greater marsh is a Provincial Wildlife Area that the organization has stewardship over. The provincially controlled area is more open to the public and hunting and fishing are permitted while the Nationally controlled area is limited access and hunting or fishing are controlled my the Friends of the Wye Marsh. To help support the programs and care of the Marsh, Ducks Unlimited is involved. They or their money has made berms and dams in the marsh to maintain water levels. I suspect that they require hunting be allowed in the PWA to keep the Ducks Unlimited funding.

The canoe trip ran from seven to ten at night. Here we are paddling back to our cars. All right, here I am, the others weren't exactly eager to have their photos pasted on a stranger's blog.

Near the end of the trip, a flock of small birds raced, jinked and zigzagged just overhead. I took this picture hoping that something would be in the field. (click to enlarge). I think all the white specks are insects while on the left, just at the height of the bullrushes, is a nightbird of some sort.

From the local paper

Clarence was my maternal grandfather. He died when I was young but I think I remember him taking me fishing.

Recently, I learned of a high school acquaintance who won more than $10,000 at a fishing contest. What a difference forty years makes!

Can you see me now?

A few weeks ago, I tried to visit my own site (yeah, yeah, unrestrained vanity and all that) and couldn't. All I got was a blue screen.

Lately, I have had no problems with seeing my blog but the Nomad commented that he could see none of the pictures.

If anyone has time to comment, can you see the pic in this post and also the pics in earlier posts? Thanks for your time.

Georgian Bay Islands National Park

I have just returned from the park and will probably keep this post short. With two friends, I kayaked around Beausoliel Island, the one island of the park open to visitors. Georgian Bay, a part of Lake Huron, has more than 30,000 islands; the park consists of about ten. With so many islands, the waterways sometimes look like rivers as in this photo.Here I am, posing for the camera. Of the three, I had the most experience with sea kayaking and had visited the island a few times previously (six years or more ago). I said I had the most experience, not that I had a lot of experience. We figured the vultures were waiting for us!
One side of the island is sheltered and the water calm. On the open water side, there is more than a hundred kilometres for the waves to build up. These swells wouldn't look out-of-place on the ocean. We reached this point and studied the waves for twenty minutes before deciding to push on. We had all been competitive swimmers and ironically would have felt safer crossing the open water stretch by swimming than by kayaking.
On the little island is Brebeuf lighthouse. Brebeuf was a Jesuit 'black robe' locally famous as part of Ontario's earliest white settlement, St. Marie Among the Hurons.
In a post below (I'll fiddle with the datestamps so it appears under this post) I'll write more.

a night on Beausoleil and more wierd stuff

Now, this bug is wierd. I've never seen antennae shaped liked brooms before. I took the picture of it on our picnic table at Christian Beach on the open water side of Beausoleil. The conditions we were in made it only a passing thought, though.
We had reached Christian Beach after six pm and were pretty tired. We set up tents and soaked in the lake for half an hour. That might have been a mistake...

We got out of the water as the sky filled with clouds and the wind picked up. You may remember that the wind was already strong. I set up the camp stove with two little coolers to block the wind. That wasn't enough. My friends, the Kaiser and Nine-toes, stood to block the wind. Still not enough. Finally, we moved the second picnic table on it's side and that helped.
Below are Nine-toes and the Kaiser trying to enjoy kraft dinner salted with wind-driven beach-grit.

Look again at that sunset!

It was a mighty storm with a lot of wind and lightning but not so much rain. I am really proud of my Eureka tent which didn't even shudder. The Kaiser's tent, similar in shape to mine, also did well. Nine-toes had a big tent with exceptional headroom but it was almost folded over in the wind.

How bad was the storm? Well, I've read that in Korea, the Han flooded even more than previous summers and a Gangwon highway was closed due to a mudslide so perhaps our storm wasn't quite that bad. Still, according to the Toronto Star:

The flash storm late Monday night swept through Greater Toronto and parts of southern Ontario, leaving destruction in its wake. In Callander and Mattawa, the storm was so destructive, the mayors declared states of emergency.
...
You think camping is a safe activity, but with all these freak storms coming up, you just never know ... ."
...
Ontario Provincial Police also blamed a tree felled by the storm for the death of Jeff Grey, 26, of Michigan, who had been in a tent in Algonquin Provincial Park, south of Kiosk, Ont.

Two others died in the storm.

On a lighter note, that Nine-toes is probably a better photographer with his own camera. Here is his picture of me with the Kaiser on my camera:

Yeah, my friends have funny names but what can you expect from a guy who goes by 'GeorgianBayBrian'? Nine-toes actually has a full complement of pedal appendages, if you care.

On Tuesday we rounded the northernmost point of the island and returned to sheltered waters. We saw huge carp frolicking (or something) in the shallows many hideously expensive yachts hiding from the previous night's weather.

The island is pretty cool and for those who don't kayak, it is full of hiking trails as well.

More beef than I'd eaten in all my time in Korea

Yesterday, I had dinner with some old, school friends. They are part of a farm family and when you eat there, expect to be filled. Here are the honkin' huge steak just before they hit the Barbeque. I was even able to get the history of the steak; Bob the cow was a friendly sort who met his end last fall.
Bob, thank you for your sacrifice, you were great!

Here are two of my giant friends. One thing I've had to get used to is not standing out in a crowd. I'm 175cm, which is middling tall in the general population in Korea (around average for the male university students), but possibly on the short side of average in Canada. These guys are both over 180cm and well over 110kg (sadly, I am not that far under 100kg - especially after this meal).

On the table are mashed potatoes, Brussels Sprouts (Those Belgians are lucky they make such great beer and chocolate; inflicting these tiny cabbages on the world needs a lot of forgiving!), bread and cheese sauce..and those giant steak!

I've had kalbi and bulgogi in Korea and in Jan 2005, I had a pretty good, and good-sized, steak, but these monsters...WOW! Once again, this is one of the things I was looking forward to for my trip home. If I bought this meat in Korea, it would likely top 200,000 won. Here, probably twelve dollars.

Another thing you don't see very often in Korea. Note the 'Beware of Dog' sign in the background.

Before I went to Bracebridge, mom and I had dinner on her deck. A beautiful bird visited.
We knew it wasn't local. Eventually, I just reached out, grabbed it and took in to the Humane Society.

Gar

I expect in the near future to take my own pictures of these cool fish, but here is what I've found online.
(Photo found at this site).

Briancoad's website describes them almost as a link between fish and amphibians:

The swimbladder has a rich blood supply enabling the
fish to breathe air through a connection to the gut. A school of gars will break the water surface to breathe air at the same time and reduce the chances of attack by predators. Vertebrae are peculiar in having an opisthocoelous shape ...- which is almost unique in fishes and more usually associated with amphibians and reptiles.

The thing that makes them most interesting to me is their habit of sunning themselves in shallow water - really shallow. At a local beach, I chased and almost caught one in less than a foot of water (30cm)- and this was a fish close to a metre in length.

I've been having trouble seeing my own site. The Seoul Hero suggests a bad link or imbed for a photo. If you can read this, please leave a message -ah, before July 12th, let's say. Thanks.

You poor bastards in Korea

I just finished a great, but very short, canoe ride and rushed to the computer to brag. My mom lives on the west shore of Georgian Bay and normally the wind makes nearly ocean-sized surf here; very unpleasant for canoeing. Today, the wind was mild.

The three of us, Mom, myself and GeorgianBayAlex, tried canoeing but the little guy really didn't like it. This afternoon, while he slept and mom kept an eye on him, I experimented with poling.

I am a fairly skilled canoeist although those skills are currently rusty. I'm pretty comfortable standing in the canoe and when the conditions are right, it's a great way to see further and deeper into the water. Here I am, posing near our beach.













Although I am comfortable standing, I still make mistakes.











After using the canoe, I have to put it away. Note the dent in the bow-seat. I did that years ago but may have deepened it today.



Before actually traveling in the canoe, I used it to remove several hundred kilos of rocks from the beach. Who's the guy, Sisyphus, that has to push a rock uphill forever? Removing the rocks creates the same feeling; there are always more just below the ones you cart away.

Anyway, I loaded the canoe and took it out a little to dump where we won't be walking. I had to shift all the stone to one side of the canoe and was terrified that in trying to tip it, I would just fill it with water and have it sink on an even keel. Then, I would have to lift every fricking stone again to raise the canoe. Luckily, it sank on one side and with massive effort, I was able to tip it enough to recover the canoe.

Then I went swimming to some nearby old dock-cribs. There, I saw some monster-bass (Naa, naa, Nomad!) and a frightened looking crayfish. I shot them with a disposable camera so you may see the photos someday.

Then, I went poling in the canoe. Observing from a five-foot-plus vantage is way better than the seated three foot vantage point. I saw a fox or milk snake. I used to know the difference but now only could confirm on sight that it wasn't a rattler, nor a watersnake. I chased it awhile and shot it with the camera a few times. I crossed the little bay and found several garpike.

I am new to this part of Georgian Bay; I am more familiar with the northern waters. Garpike are new and exotic. They are gold and pike shaped with long mouths. Pretty darn cool to see as they frequently sun themselves in shallow water and take off like torpedoes when approached.

On returning home, a mink ran across mom's beach. We later saw it eat a crayfish.

Although I haven't seen any really big mammals like bear or moose, today is what being in Canada is all about for me. It's already been a great trip.

North Korea launches a missile

You can see how upset GeorgianbayAlex is about the launch. He might be worried about his mommy as she is likely in for a long day at the Coast Guard office.

We were watching CNN when we heard the news. I learned of an even greater crisis...

Call VANK: repeatedly, CNN described the missile as falling the Sea of Japan!

Oh, as a side note: I am satisfied with this post but expect others -including the one below discussing a ride-along with the OPP, to be more than usually cryptic, with some, possibly vital, information missing. Being a single parent is tough: I have had to stop writing mid-post and run off a few times to care for the little guy.
I told a friend earlier today that I have a blog and even over the phone I could hear his eyes roll. Most blogs are poorly edited, with little use of the spell-check provided and with key info missing. My blog, never considered to be the literary standard, is joining the great unwashed while I vacation.

A ride-along with an OPP boat patrol

Below is a not-completely-linear account of a ride-along my wife and I did with an Ontario Provincial Police boat patrol. You may recall that my wife is a member of the Korean Coast Guard or Maritime Police so we felt it would be interesting to see what and how things are done here. My father was an OPP officer so we have a few contacts and before we arrived, mom had arranged for us to do a ride-along.

Below is an excerpt from what I emailed my wife about our experiences. She wanted me to write an account to compare with hers. Eventually, something may be posted in the Korean Coast Guard monthly newsletter.

We signed a waiver agreeing not to sue if things went bad but there was no confidentiality request or anything. Still, one of the officers is a friend and general blogging ettiquette is to be cautious with names so I removed them and made some other slight changes... Nothing underhanded occurred but you will not see the boat-owners of the boats that were inspected, for example.
I also added a bit about locks as I think there are none in Korea (until Seoul Mayor and presidential candidate Lee Myoung-bak has his way and makes a rediculous canal connecting the Han and Nakdong).

We started at Couchiching Narrows, a narrow point between Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe, at 12 noon. We crossed Couchiching and entered the Severn waterway and travelled about two kilometres to Lock 42. Further information can be found here:

On the way to the Severn waterway, we stopped one boat. At the lock, Constable Dave handed out T-shirts to a boatload of children wearing their lifejackets. On the waterway we crossed under a very low (nine feet or just under 3metres) railway bridge.

Returning to Lake Couchiching, we stopped four boats for equipment inspections. The first held a family and was well-prepared for water travel. The second held a group of university students and they were missing batteries for their flashlight. The police were concerned they might have damaged the student's boat as it was mishandled approaching the police boat and caught under some metal part of the police boat stern (it may have a nautical name and I am a fairly nautical guy, but I don't know it- the student's boat was NOT under the police boat- naturally).

The third boat was also well prepared but the officers had expected to find problems as it was a pontoon boat or "party barge"- the sort of boat where alcohol is often found.
The fourth boat attracted their attention as it had a kid up front without a lifejacket. Upon inspection is was found to be missing several items. The fines would have totalled over three hundred dollars but the man was very cooperative so they reduced the fine to one hundred and twenty-five. He passed the all-important "attitude test".

The officers told us they had "zero tolerance for lifejacket and alcohol violations" but minor problems in other areas might get merely a warning.








Yesterday was a sad day for members of the Kwandong family. My wife and her second cousin (the girl on the right, below) went home to Korea, while the little guy and I will remain in paradise for most of July.

Photos from home (1)

I'll post more later but I'm worried that people will forget about me if I don't post here frequently enough.

I wrote earlier about the flies and mosquitoes here in their millions. In fact, my wifes-cousin's-daughter, who is traveling with us, stratched a mosquito bite on the sole of her foot and it became infected, requiring a trip to a walk-in clinic. I guess that gives her a chance to learn about Canada's health care system - good enough for residents but painfully slow for everyone.

There was a bloom of damselflies when I arrived and soon millions of them died and the wind pushed them into shore. Here they are, as deep as two inches and in a band about two feet thick (that's 5 cm and 60 cm for civilized folk) across our beach and much of the western shoreline.

Little GeorgianBayAlex likes the little pool we have in the backyard but doesn't really care for the lake. it's still a little cold.

Here's the best wife in the world, GeorgianBayYoungnam!

things I had forgotten about home

The last summer I was home was 2003, I think. Here are a few things that have surprised me or caught my attention.

The wonderfully clear horizons. Recently, I posted a picture of Ulsan Bowi, a cliff face seen from Sokcho. The mountain is clear and details are apparent. During the previous three months, the mountains were visible but obscured by a veil of haze.

Here, there is no haze and distance objects are clear. It's not a big deal, I guess, but the everyday sightlines here are matched only after the occassional overnight rain in Korea.

Bugs are everywhere. mosquitoes cut short a hike I had started this morning. I would have pushed on, but we were worried about our baby son and so turned back. Damselflies are practically coating some walls and exterior surfaces and the water has many insect corpses floating on it.

There's more, but it is a reasonable time to sleep so I will try. This afternooon, I slept for four hours and could have slept longer but for Alex waking me.

Bound for Canada

In a few hours I will leave Sokcho for a vacation with my family.

I'm looking forward to being in Canada but not really excited about getting there. KwandongAlex turns one year old today - he's walking and that's great, but I still can't explain to him why we need to stay in one seat for four hours on the first bus, an hour on the second bus and 13 hours on the plane.

Expect to find posts comparing Canadian culture with Korean, particularly about tourist culture as I live in tourist areas in Korea and my mother also does in Canada. I will credit these posts to "GeorgianBayBrian". I will also follow some Korean news through the online papers and may have comments on events here as well.

Have a great summer!

Falcon Chicks

In the previous post, I wrote about a falcon's nest in a neighboring apartment verandah. Today, I nervously went to the apartment and knocked on the door. The resident, a cheerful ajummah, welcomed me as soon as the word, "Seh" (bird) left my mouth. She guided me to the verandah and told me about the birds as I watched them and took pictures.

Don't worry the pictures below are much clearer and less obscured - I just put this one in as a teaser.
She said the birds were "hwang JoRongHe" and I am uncertain how to write that in Korean and find the english name. I may have the name wrong - I am sure of the first three syllables but I may be off with the 'he'. Babelfish tells me I just typed "hwang bird cage" and I hope that is not what the lady told me. There were six chicks and three flew off. I thought there were only two on the verandah...

...but then I looked around the planters and found a third (the left hand bird in both pictures is the same bird). The one on the verandah deck looks to be the youngest.

I was surprised to hear about six (or possible five- the smallest chick may not be in a good way) healthy offspring. Falcons, and most birds, typically have clutches perhaps as large as six but with the expectation that many will die, leaving one or two to reach adulthood.

From CBC's Quirks and Quarks (click the link to hear an interview on the subject):

Parents often produce too many young to raise and, as a result, the natural world is rife with infanticide. Mothers will ignore some offspring and prefer others.

On the other hand, if the stress of close human activity is not too much, a verandah is a great place to be. The birds are safe from predators and from falling off the 'cliff'. Also, the ajummah supplies some food to the chicks.

Human activity nearby is a serious problem for many birds so I probably will not return to the apartment to take more photos. I may upload a short video but my computer is reaching the end of it's useful lifespan and I am concerned about downloading the Videoegg software here. Perhaps I will do that on my office computer.

I don't know why the falcons chose that apartment to make a nest. Well, I do know that it is one of the few without an outer layer of glass doors so it is easily accessable but I don't know if the woman somehow encouraged the birds or what. As I wrote earlier, the chicks can be darn loud and not everyone would be pleased to have them so close.

Falcon

There is a falcon's nest in a neighboring apartment building's verandah. The young cry out loudly enough for me to hear them in my apartment so they must be really annoying for the residents of that apartment. Here are two terrible shots of a parent.

Perhaps I didn't need to circle the bird.


I have visited the apartment and knocked on the door but no one was inside. The young seem to be active and large and I am going away for the weekend; I am not sure if they will still be there on Monday. If I see them then, expect updates and (possibly better) photos.

A beautiful day -finally

Today, the mountains were so close and clear, they seemed to loom over the city. The sun was out and my classes finished yesterday. It was a great day in Sokcho!

In the afternoon I got some swimming in. The water was cold at first but I acclimated and tried to bodysurf. The waves were coming to shore at an angle and the surfing was almost impossible. The waves bouncing off shore met the incoming ones at nearly right angles and in the chaos of moving water, I was tossed around like a 2oo pound toothpick. This evening, I had no need for salt in my food.

I guess there's no special message in this post; I hope everyone had a good day, too.

Forums (mostly focusing on Korea)

This post can be reached (or has been reached) by the 'Forums' link on my sidebar. For information about this post, read below the links. I expect the links to be the reason people read this post so they are on top. I will comment on the links (and erase this sentence) at some future date.

Life in Korea

usfkforums

usfkclassifieds

Longly planet Thorntree Korea -northeast Asia forum

Dave's ESL

Galbijim

ESL/EFL

EFLgeek forums

EFLgeek wiki

English spectrum (just kidding - this is too hot for me)

Dave's ESL



The other day I recieved an email from a forum site asking me to link to it. I checked out the site and although I am uninterested in the US military in Korea (uninterested in their daily activities and recreation - damn happy they're here) it is a very slick and professional site with content for non-military folk.

Still, I've never asked to be linked to and it feels strange, like fishing for compliments, to ask for linkage. Wait, maybe I asked Melvin ("Pack the el Camino" on my blogroll) to link to me. He gave me a strange look -like I'd crossed an ettiquette line and that's what I feel here.

One of the reasons I began reading blogs was to learn about the Korea that is not covered in the Herald or the Times. That's a large subject area, by the way. That's part of the reason I began blogging myself; I think I have something to offer to others. For this reason, I feel listing local forums to be a worthy part of this site.

I have thought about increasing the number of links on the sidebar but I don't want a blogroll longer than my arm. As a consequence, on the sidebar should be a link titled simply, "forums" that will bring you to this post. This post will grow and change and I will try to comment on the forums themselves rather than simply listing them

My New Diploma

I'm so proud to be recognised by the Economist. I'm not sure what I did to merit such praise but I'm a sucker for flattery.



I'm so proud that I have no plans to ever take it out of the wrapping. I've put it on the wall of my office -I always wanted a "brag wall" full of commendations and accreditations and now it is started.
I wanted a goofy pose here and it is definitely goofy but not in the cool way the Hominid manages in his self-portraits. Does he spend a lot of time in front of the mirror practicing his facial expressions?

Congrats to the Korean Goldfish!

Melissa and Dong-jin (? -I mean to say Melissa and her husband - I'm not sure that this is his name - but I am sure he is the father!) just became parents.

They currently live in the wonderful town I met my wife in, Masan.

I admire Melissa for the vaguely Shakespearian description of her "Most perfectest baby".

Congrats and best wishes for the family!

A new one for me

Students have tried to sleep in class but never during an exam, before.
Sleep in class, get posted on the web.

Kwandong, don't go!

2006 is the last year the Yangyang campus of Kwandong University will offer classes. This is a transition year, with many classes already being held at the much-larger Gangneung campus. For me, personally, the closing of the Yangyang campus is annoying; we moved to Sokcho to be closer to my wife's workplace and that is even further from the Gangneung campus.

For the people of Yangyang, the economic effects are more significant. The loss of students and faculty is one thing but also the housing market bucket is about to get a hole in the bottom.
Below is a banner (click to enlarge) from Yangyang District office, asking the university to stay. Aside from exclamation points, I don't know if the district is offering anything in return.
I am not a good longterm planner myself but I have to shake my head when I recall that although the Gangneung campus is more than fifty years old, the Yangyang campus is only six or seven years old. Also, the foreign staff are housed in new apartments built by Myoungji Construction (Myoungji also funded the university) five years ago. Myoungji may now have trouble filling it's own apartments.

Well, I prefer the Gangneung campus myself and I hope the move will help the engineering students (Yangyang is the engineering campus) stop feeling like second class members of the university.

Yes, the closing of the campus is a big deal - yet I didn't hear or see anything about it in the last election. Did nobody care one week ago?

Oh, the last I heard, the campus may be converted to a 'silvertown' - silver as in 'hair'. It may become a home for senior citizens.

While I sympathize with Yangyang district, their choice of placement for the sign makes me think there is good reason to get out of town.

For those who don't see my objection (and they would comprise all the banner making and hanging organizations in Korea), it completely blocks the crosswalk. It's between the sidewalk and the crosswalk. Perhaps this best displays the value some Koreans hold for crosswalks.

Painting a watermelon is expensive!

I saw these watermelons at the local E-mart. The first says something like, "Keep the dream alive" and both refer to 2006 World Cup. Perhaps selling these watermelon is how the players get paid. If you click to enlarge, you will see that the price tag is for 59,800won or about $60.00!

Voting for foreigners

Skindleshanks might, or might not, be able to vote tomorrow. Many foreigners will, in fact be able to.

This brings to mind Twain's comment that many people complain about the weather but no one ever does anything about it. Well, Korea's political-scene bloggers may soon be able to do more than just complain.
Well, I can't do justice to Skindleshanks' post.

Flowers in the field are so lovely

I don't normally comment on the funny english I see here in Korea. I once told students that I saw many 'am' (암) on the weekend. They very kindly explained that 'am' meant cancer and they had no idea what I was talking about (I had meant hermitage or 'attached temple' - I think I was talking about the hermitages near haeinsa in particular). Make a few mistakes like that and you learn to forgive other's mistakes.

Besides, there is nothing really wrong with this package. Maybe it is only dirty old men or childish men (is there a difference?) who would wonder where you should apply 'Booby Band' to on your body and if men should use it at all.


My plan for the rest of the month is to use 'Flowers in the fields are so lovely' as a euphemism describing the sight of low cut dresses and the like. After all, Spring is Booby season.
The bear does seem to in on some kind of joke. I don't think he'll be upset.

Skindleshanks has his own comments on the brandname.

The Seoul Hero gets a new job title: Father

Congrats go out to Nathan and his family, including the newest member. I have linked to his may 2006 archive as the birth occured near the end of the month and over the course of Friday morning he has managed to write several posts on the subject.

I don't think I am that capable of being profound but Nathan's blog title of Seoul Hero made me consider that only the strongest heros can take on the perils of fatherhood.

All the best to the three of them.

Is North Korea evil?

I don't normally delve into politics and although I have opinions about American politics, they don't really fit the nature of this blog so I have kept them to myself. In general, I find myself against the Bush administration but I like to think I am an open-minded person.

Recently, I found an interesting quote by Condoleezza Rice. From Yonhap:
Rice said there is no other term for North Korea and former Iraq but "evil," despite the incendiary nature of the word. Actually, I guess I am quoting the paper paraphrasing her, but I am certain they captured the spirit of her words quite clearly.

Now, I don't know about Iraq. I read the papers and watch CNN but I haven't paid careful attention. I have absorbed enough news about North Korea to have a strong opinion that is based on the evidence. I won't be joining any national think-tank nor publishing any books on the subject but, as with most people living within a hundred kilometres of the border, I have a hobbyist's enthusiasm for the subject.

And I agree completely with Rice.

I am not giving up my views on other politcal hot-potatoes, but perhaps I will look at them again. If we agree on this subject, perhaps I am wrong on others.

It's a struggle keeping an open mind, but i'm trying.

Choosing to be Korean, Part 2

A few weeks ago, I interviewed a coworker, Marcus, regarding his reasons for choosing to take Korean citizenship.

Today, I interviewed another coworker who has also chosen to be Korean. Tammy has been here for almost thirty years and has been Korean for about twenty years. Although Marcus' decision was based on logic, Tammy's was based more on emotion. She simply feels at home here.

This is my third podcast and I find recording them interesting. Odeo offers a great service but for each of the three recordings, the first time through didn't save properly and I had to do the interviews a second time. Such repetition might have made my delivery smoother but I also find that I reference the previous (and erased) podcast in the current one. I hope this isn't too distracting.

I am satisfied with the interview but I found myself at least once concentrating on the mechanics of recording (volume level, elapsed time,...) too much and giving a sort of meaningless grunt when she stopped talking. Interviewing people requires real skills!

You can download the mp3 here.

Or, listen to it below.



powered by ODEO

Korean as a second language podcast

Intro: This is the first of who-knows-how-many podcasts about learning Korean. At this point, I can't say that much about what future podcasts will cover but I expect they will include a sample conversation, possibly a vocabulary list, and a pronunciation guide. Naturally, the pronuncation segment will cover problems I know I have; there are likely to other problems I am unaware of. The first few 'casts will be a review of lessons a have already completed - I don't want to sound too terrible right away.

My expectation for these casts is that listeners review the shownotes while listening the first (or first few)time(s). Then, they will be able to listen again for review purposes anywhere. That's if all goes well. A more modest or reasonable expectation is that listeners will turn off and delete the podcast a minute after the intro.

After a few 'casts, I will reorder the 'casts each time a new one is made. In other words, if a future cast seems simpler in content than this one, it will be listed first.

I have some desire and even a need to learn Korean but a limited motivation. I own several Korean Language books and have completed a few units of each. The first few 'casts, including this one, will be based on a unit from one of these books. Today's cast is based on lesson 12 from 'Korean through English, book one' from Seoul National University. The title of the lesson is, "where are you going?" I will not repeat the complete unit here and I will only use one or possibly two units from any one book so I don't think I am running afoul of copyright infringement. If anything, perhaps I will encourage you to buy the book.

With me today is a student of mine, Bak Ji-min. She will read the conversation, we will repeat it and then work on alternatives. Then she will help me with the pronunciation. Today's pronunciation exercise involves pronouncing and recognizing some Korean vowel sounds. The modern transliteration of hangeul to english would spell these vowels as "a", "eo" and "eu". The closest English comparison would be "a" as in 'bat, 'o' as in dot and 'u' as in but. Again, the Korean sounds are not exact matches with the English letters they are represented by. For example, Koreans spell the english word "cop" - police officer - an 'a'.

In my translation of the conversation, I left out the subject a few times as Koreans typically don't use the subject if it is already clear.

If you do choose to listen more than once, the Korean starts at around 3:20

Where are you going?

A: 어디가세요? --Where are you going?
B: 학교에 가요. --going to school.
Alternatives:힉원, 운동장

A: 수업이 있어요? --Do you have a class?
B: 네, 수업이 있어요. --Yes, I have a class.

A: 몇 시에 시작해요? --When does your class start?
B: 열시에 시작해요. --Starts at 10.

A: 벌써 아홉시 반이에요. -- It's already 9:30.
빨리 가세요. -- Should hurry

Pronunciation

a.................... eo............................ eu
'아' .................'어'............................'으'
감........................검......................................금
Persimmon.......sword................................gold

사.......................서
temple suffix...west

차........................처
Tea....................Wife

가........................거......................................그
Go.......................'big' -Chinese...................He

상........................성......................................승
'Leaf' -Chinese...Castle..............................Buddhist monk




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Find the MP3 here.

A slow news day?

As Kent Brockman once said, "I guess you could say... this barely qualifies as news."

I am sure Penman is a good guy (he lives in coastal Gangwondo so he has good taste, anyway) and I don't really blame him for his article. The Herald, after all, chose to run it.

He spent some time in China and then moved to Korea. Korea was a surprise. A pleasant surprise. The end.

As the Herald closes it's archives after a week, I'll post the section the Herald must have loved here:

...Koreans keep their sense of a truly unique national identity. I think this rubs off into the psyche of the people, as most Koreans are modest and polite. This, coupled with Korea's geographical position in Asia and, up until very recently, a troubled relationship with their true brothers, North Korea, makes South Korea an exciting and interesting place to live! I can't yet offer a subjective comparative to Japan, unfortunately, because, simply, I've never been, but it's hard to imagine them being too far ahead! Admittedly, I, like most Western people my age, didn't have to many ideas about Korea, but it is safe to assume, if I had made many negative ones they might have been dispelled quickly. So far, I'm lovin' it!

At first read, this sounds pretty naive but, then, I have to agree that most Koreans are modest and polite. It is only the loud ones who are very loud that alter my perception. Perhaps I owe Penman some thanks for reminding me.

Low birthrates, pro and con

Note: I mispelled a name. My apologies.

I just read Rick Ruffin's article about birthrates and the previous article he was commenting on. Korea has an amazingly low birthrate and the two articles discuss whether this is good or bad. The first article makes the case that Korea is reaching a dangerously lopsided ratio of employed population to total population. The few of employable age will need to pay greater and greater taxes to maintain the elderly.

The most outstanding problem with low birthrates is it increases the ratio of old people to young people. It spawns an awesome situation of a shrinking labor force. The reduction in the number of taxpayers is set to cause the collapse of various welfare funds on which a growing number of elderly rely. The situation is serious enough to threaten existence of the nation itself.

Ruffin's reply is that reducing the population by having fewer children is the best way to reduce overcrowding, pollution, farm-field exhaustion and other problems.

Almost every environmental problem- and most social and political problems throughout the world today- are because of human population increase. Pollution, famine, pestilence, over-development and war can all be attributed to high concentrations of humans. And you are encouraging everyone to have more kids! You are concerned that there will not be enough people paying into the "system" to support the increasing aging population. Well I say the money saved from not having to deal with pollution and waste created by too many people can more than make up for the money needed to support all the grandmothers and grandfathers soon to appear on the scene.

Reducing the population through reducing the number of children per family does sound like one of the most benign ways to protect the environment but it all comes down to numbers.

Some numbers can be found in a pdf at 'weforum'. There, I found, "Korea will need to figure out how to support a growing inactive population with fewer workers. As shown in the figure above, if Korea maintains its current activity rates between 2000 and 2030, the ratio of workers to retirees is expected to plummet from nearly 7.1 to 2.7."

Click on the picture for a larger view of the population pyramid.

I have no basis for comparison to the ratio of nearly three workers to one retiree but the ratio for children is absent. Naturally, there will still be some children even with the small birthrate and they will also need care.

Korea of 2030 may continue to be viable with these ratios but it will have even less breathing room. There will be less surplus and a big surplus is needed considering our neighbor to the north. Should reunification happen, caring for the North Koreans will be difficult now; in the near future, it will be all but impossible.

There is another way to look at the decreasing birthrate. There will be fewer 'pureblooded' Koreans. I do not feel this is bad in itself and I don't want to belittle my own son's racial mixture but the broader perspective is that the world is 'samifying'. The world culture is already becoming western and the world's people are losing their distinctiveness. Koreans and Indians choose to wear western suits rather than hanboks or saris. McDonalds is everywhere...
Anyway, there is a book describing how the world's cultures are becoming more similar. I have only listened to the interview but the book can be found here.

I do agree that if the world's population can be kept stable, or preferably, drop slightly but steadily for a few generations, the world will be a better place. It just seems to me that Korea is experiencing a precipitious drop rather than the gentle one that would allow greater longterm stability.

I don't know if this next article, in the Times the same day as Raffin's article, has any relevance but it is ironic to find the two together.
The article describes a Kyongsang family with 12 children. An excerpt:

A church pastor and his wife living in Kumi, North Kyongsang Province, gave birth to their 12th child Sunday, adding another member to their already large family. Rev. Kim Suk-tae, 47, and his wife Um Kye-suk, 42, a couple married for 20 years, will now shepherd the country's largest single family.

Here is one couple that should be well-taken-care-of when they retire!

Cycling: broken teeth, bears and a mild rant

Actually my two stories are not connected at all - well, bikes are in both stories.

My teeth are fine but apparently my bike gears have some serious tooth decay. During this riding season, I found that when I really made a powerful stroke, the chain would skip and sometimes fall loose. At the bike shop, the owner brought to my attention the sad state of my middle ring- the one connected to the peddles. Several teeth are broken and many are unnaturally sharp. While the smaller and larger rings are in better shape, they too show the effects of grinding.

I left the shop with my bike and the need to consider what to do. I think I need to replace the three rings, but do I also need to replace the chain? A friend in Canada, Barry Faulkner, showed me how to measure the chain. Apparently, 12 links should be 12 inches. I have not yet measured it, by the way. He told me that chains stretch a little and should be replaced every 15,000km or so ( or was it miles - all errors in this post are my own). At the time, it didn't seem all that important; a long ride was 50km and most were commuting-type rides of under 5km. 15,000km would take years.

Well, I've had my bike for about 13 years now and have cycled across most of Canada (Yes, I am so damn proud of that that I try to fit into every bike post. Sorry to annoy you). I've also covered fair ground here in Korea. I guess I probably am at or above 15,000 by now.

If I didn't mention it before, a stretched chain doesn't fit the gear properly anymore and so grinds them. I suppose other things can grind gears, like not shifting far enough to allow the chain to fit tightly to the gear.

The bike shop owner has given me good service in the past but this is a major overhaul and likely to be exensive. His shop caters to mountain bikes - as all shops in Korea seem to - and I worry about his ordering the right parts. I guess I should start investigating the situation - the gears have the Shimano brandname and a number and such so product matching should be simple - instead of writing about it.

By before I go, a story about a Canadian cyclist -in Canada- who was attacked by a black bear.

A mountain biker in Alberta was apparently chased down and attacked. He is in the hospital but will be okay, he has a few broken bones and such but the article suggested that he would recover more or less completely.

Firstly, I feel for the guy. If he saw the bear approaching, I guess he would try to pedal away. The article didn't have a lot of details but he could have been climbing a hill or just finished climbing a hill and unable to race away. Or maybe it was simple, level ground; bears are much faster than they look. Once the bear got him, it had him for hours. Other cyclists found him and the bear, left to get help and then rescued him. I can't imagine hearing or seeing help so close leaving again.

Back to my trip across Canada (fit it in again. Woo-hoo!). On my trip I saw one grizzly at a distance and a black bear cub near road on two occassions. Seeing the grizzly was cool and I would have missed it except that I first saw and questioned the student standing on the roadside beside her car and waving a big antennae array. She pointed to the grey mass several hundred meters away. This opportunity for a close connection with the location is why I love cycling.

Seeing the cubs was much scarier. The first time, I was on level ground and the cub was in some brush very near the highway's shoulder. I began to edge into traffic as I approached and the horn of a surprised driver scared the bear away. I am sure that I upset the driver (who was oblivious to the bear) but I am glad he sounded his horn. The second time, I had just finished a fair climb, there were no cars nearby and I was tired. As I passed the bear I 1)tried to take a picture holding the camera sideways and hoping it was in the frame 2) looked anxiously for it's mother and 3) struggled to come up with any reasonable speed to pull away from a possibly dangerous situation.

Yeah, I feel for the guy and wish him a fast recovery.

On the other hand, he was wearing headphones when he was attacked. Now, they may have had nothing to do with his injuries. It's completley possible that listening to whatever was not a factor in being attacked or in not being able to escape. I just hate the idea of listening to music or podcasts or non-natural sounds when exercising in natural surroundings. This is probably material for a separate post so I'll be brief here. I wear headphones in the gym and find they help fill in the time spent on the exercise bike but I would never use them while riding outside. I listen to podcasts while walking downtown but would never listen while hiking.

Part of the reason is concentration. I have already implied that the cyclist attacked by the bear might not have been concentrating because of what he was listening too. Road cycling is concentration intensive and I think headphones are illegal while cycling or even driving a car. I'm not sure about the illegal part, but it is known to be a bad idea.

I do find background music helps me concentrate when I study or do a variety of other tasks (marking papers and other school work but also wood carving), however . Odd, that.

The main reason I disapprove of listening to music and the like in natural settings is that I respect the settings too much - unlike some students, I wouldn't listen to my MP3 player in class or at meetings or at church and I feel forests deserve the same treatment. I am of the view that hiking, canoeing and other outdoor sports cannot be fully enjoyed without really immersing yourself in the situation.

This view may bring me back to the concentration issue. I do not want to immerse myself in cycling when I am at the gym because it is pretty monotonous but I do want to immerse myself in cycling on a quiet back-country road because it is peaceful.

Anyway, I hope the guy will soon be well and, regardless of their responsibility in his injuries, I also hope he leaves his headphones at home or, well, not on his head, when he next goes riding.

Tour de/da/ Korea

It hasn't been a great Tour De Korea. I was working throughout the races so I was unable to watch any of them but I did see these signs. Is 'Da' an Italianized version (brought to mind by the 'Da Vinci Code' publicity)? The two signs faced one another - I cut'n'pasted the top one in.

Seoul bloggers have been commenting on the good weather but here it has been miserable. I've gone back to wearing a jacket and carrying a new umbrella - my old one was bent up in the wind. Man, rain and wind; those cyclists must be loving the race.

The organizers can't be too happy with the weather either. I saw one pace car in the ditch; I guess because of slippery driving conditions. Perhaps the riders look on the bright side by thinking, "At least there are no fires and water reserves are back up to where they should be."

Children's day Coast Guard Tour

I had a chance to to ride on a Coast Guard boat on Children's Day. I love being on the water and had a good time. Our little guy didn't care for the rocking though and was pretty sick. He was sick while he was inside the galley cabin and a little time in the fresh air fixed him up. We finally found the perfect location; in the doorway where we could be warm enough yet still have some moving air.
Below, a 250 ton Coast Guard ship.

KwandongAlex and I in front of the 50 ton ship we toured in.
I had wanted to see Naksan from this vantage for years and finally got the chance.

Fun at E-mart

He seems to be having fun. A good thing, too. I had to hunt around to find a cart. Actually, at ten months old, him riding in the cart was probably more important to me than to him.

Tour De Korea

I saw a sign in Yangyang that this year's Tour De Korea is about to start. The race starts in Seoul and takes two days to reach Yangyang, then they have some time trials and circuit racing.

I could find no information about this year's race but here are some links from last year's.

Oranckay was all over it last year. Recently he had some connectivity problems but he is the best source for the tour.

I also found a website forum with a discussion about the race.

The Tour of Korea is a fairly hard race. Mike Carter, a friend and racer who got 2nd there last year and 8th this year, told me a little bit about who is elligible to get in the race and what it's like when I saw him while he was here doing it this June.Basically, elite-level racers and professionals are the only racers allowed in. That means that the people who do the race have all been racing for at least a few years. Because there is no road racing for people to partake in to learn to race in South Korea, the 'local' riders consist mostly of racers who compete in track events, and a few who
comprise a road team that travels to different Asian countries to race during
the summer. According to Mike, the track riders have alot of trouble even
finishing each stage, let alone being a factor in the race. Apparently, and to
the behest of the riders who were finishing the stages, the officials were
allowing these local riders to drop out half way through some of the stages and
still start the next-day's stage -- a definite violation of UCI (International
governing organization of cycling) rules. But, being as the race is "the Tour of
Korea," they wanted to be able to say that at least some Koreans finished the
race.

Sorry that I'm still in 'quote mode'. I don't know how to get out. Anyway, I also rode about last year's race but I just rehashed what others said. If you like, check the archive for May 2005.

An interesting place to park illegally

My father was a police officer and we lived near the station. I would often see the brakelights of cars come on as the drivers realized a police station was ahead. If they thought about it, they would realize that police stations are not (or weren't, I don't know about nowadays) armored fortresses with cameras and people guarding the roads nearby. They don't particlularly care if you're speeding. I guess that the locals aren't that fussy about what happens just outside their stations either, but it does look bad.

Audio is working in post below.

It took some effort to make the player in the post below work and I found that once it worked, every time I went back to add this update, it stopped working. It took a lot of work to get that player going - you had better LOVE it!

Oh, the problem mostly went away when I used 'Firefox' browser instead of Explorer.

Choosing to be Korean

Update: I am trying to get the audio to work on my site. You can still follow the link to ODEO and listen there.

Today I interviewed Marcus, or Masuro, about his decision to be a Korean citizen. It is a subject I am very curious about because being Canadian is important to me; it's a emotional issue. For Marcus, however, it seems to be the practical choice.

This is not my first time playing with audioblogging but I am a novice - one manifestation of my lack of experience is the low volume of the audio. Crank it up. The conversation is just under eleven minutes.

To listen to the audio as an MP3, visit Odeo.