Herrick Lake

Mom, Dad, and I took a walk around a local park today. The weather is beautiful in the Chicago area these days. The Herrick Lake Forest Preserve has a lake, forest, marsh, and an area of restored Illinois prairie.An old oak treeA sumac treeA butterflyOne of the 17-year cicadas, partying like it's 2007Herrick Lake itself

From the Land of the Morning Calm to the Land of Lincoln

I am home! Today is the first day of a five-week vacation with my family in Illinois. It's a more than welcome break. As much as I love Korea, I'm glad to be back in Illinois and very happy to see my family again.

I had two good flights between Seoul and Chicago. I was bumped up to Business Class on my flight from Seoul to Tokyo. My bus to the airport was late, so I arrived with less than the requisite 2-hours-before-your-flight check-in time. The line at the United counter was really long, so I got in, sure that by the time I got to the counter, they would tell me there wasn't enough time and I'd have to take another flight. I stood there in line, starting to worry. An airline employee and tapped me on the shoulder. "Do you have your passport?" he asked. I showed him my passport. "Okay, come with me."

I followed him over to the First Class counter (no line), where he proceeded to check me in and then handed me my boarding pass, not in the usual navy blue folder of Economy Class seats but in the shiny gold folder of Business and First Class seats. A little slow on the uptake, I didn't catch on to the fact that I had been bumped up.

I glanced down at my boarding pass and saw that I was in seat 14B, a middle or an aisle seat, and not 19A, the window seat I had requested. "Excuse me," I said. "Is there any way I can have a window seat?"

"I moved you up to Business Class," he said.

Suddenly I felt very stupid and overly demanding. "You did?! Thank you!" I exclaimed. "No complaints."I am here to report that Business Class rocks. I could stretch my legs all the way out and not touch the seat in front of me!The food is better in Business Class, too.Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed my 2.5 hours in the comfortable seats in the airplane. The Business Class travelers around me probably thought I was a little nuts as I played with all the gadgets and took pictures of my own feet, and giggled at the two forks on my tray, but that didn't bother me. I was flying Business Class. Wow, that guy in the airport is my new favorite person.

I had a 4.5 hour layover in Tokyo. I really like the Tokyo-Narita Airport, so I was able to keep myself moderately entertained before boarding my next plane. Here is my airplane at the gate in Tokyo.I had a window seat, but since I was in the Economy Plus section (five extra inches of legroom, baby!), I was directly over the wing. There was still a great view of the sunrise, somewhere over the Pacific, just south of Alaska.After a total 13.5 hours of air travel (and 6 hours of sitting at airports), I looked down and saw a very welcome sight . . . northern Illinois! I'm home.

Sometimes Korea Makes Me Laugh

These ads are on the Seoul subway system. They're for dandruff shampoo with natural ingredients like pine needles and cacti. They make me laugh. I think I'd rather have dandruff than cacti or pine needles coming from my head.

Petting Zoo

The preschool was supposed to take a field trip to a zoo today, but since the weather forecast was bad, they changed plans and brought animals to the school instead. The kids had a great time, and I ended up with a snake around my neck. Oh no!

Mountains and Temples

Here's another post on one of my favorite themes: mountains and temples. Fortunately for me, in Korea, the two always seem to go together. Today I hiked to the top of the mountain that flanks my town. I hadn't been up there in a really long time, and I could feel how out-of-shape I've become as I was huffing and puffing my way to the top. I really enjoyed the hike, despite the exertion, and it made me wonder why I don't go more often. Laziness is my only excuse.

This is the view of my town from the top of the mountain. It's hard to believe that I can look at that mess of concrete and see a place that's become a second (third, fourth, fifth . . . actually, I think I'm up to 14th) home to me.On my way down the mountain, I ran into the family of two of my students. They were surprised to see me out of my usual environment, i.e., the classroom. The little boys had significantly more energy than I had and were running uphill. Good grief. I'm officially going to try to go there more often and get back to the hiking/jogging routine I was pretty disciplined about last summer.

As I continued on my way down, I passed two temples, so I took some time to stroll around the grounds. At the first temple, they had some buried kimchi pots. Most people use special kimchi refrigerators now, especially in cities, so it was kind of exciting to see the pots buried in the ground for refrigeration.There were also a lot of pots that were not buried. I think they're quite pretty in their simplicity.The temple also had its own beehive. This is as close as I was willing to get.The artesian well had these cute little Buddha statues all around it.Here's a shot of the trim of the temple. I love the colors and patterns.They still had some of the lanterns up from Buddha's birthday.Then I continued on my way down the mountain and stopped at another temple.From there it was just a short walk to my apartment. This beautiful park is practically in my backyard. I need to soak in its beauty and tranquility more often.

Super Students

It's been a busy week here. I'm adjusting to my new apartment. I'm not finished cleaning, and I still haven't put everything away, but I'm making progress. It's been another insanely busy week at school, but my little students always bring me great joy. Here are some photos from Wednesday.We're working on a health unit in a few of my classes. The kids said "My (arm, hand, head, leg, etc.) hurts!" and I made toilet paper bandages for them. The kids thought it was fantastic, and I got pretty good at wrapping arms and wrists, but I don't think a career in pediatrics is in my future. Here are my very cute patients.

Moving Day and My New Roommates

I moved this weekend! My new apartment is bigger, though it's still one room. I moved down a couple floors, so I'm not quite high enough to see over the other buildings, which is a little disappointing. The apartment was really dirty, so I spent most of the weekend cleaning. I'm still not done, but it's livable for now. Besides the extra space, I'm most excited about my two new roommates . . .

ROOMMATE #1: A full-sized refrigerator (with a freezer!)In my old apartment, I had a small dorm-style refrigerator and no freezer. I'm sitting here drinking a glass of ice water as I type. It's the first time in a year and half that I've had ice in my own home. What a novelty! I also have a box in the freezer, so after the ice has frozen in the trays, I can dump the ice cubes into the box and fill the trays up with water again. The result is that now I have a lot of ice in my freezer. I'm very pleased.

ROOMMATE #2: A washing machine!My old apartment didn't have a washing machine, and there wasn't really a place to put one anyway, so for the past year, I've been taking my laundry downstairs to a dry cleaners every week. They wash it for me and then put it in a plastic bag. When I pick it up in the evening, the wet laundry has been in a plastic bag all day, so it's all wrinkled. Now I can do my laundry anytime, and hang it up as soon as the cycle finishes. Wow!

So I'm very pleased with these two new roommates. I have a third roommate that I'm not quite so pleased about--a very big, brown couch. Right now I'm just kind of tolerating it. I'm hoping I'll warm up to it once I've had a chance to wash the cushions and vacuum it. Right now it just seems a little like a health hazard.

A Walk through a Public Market

Today was a national holiday--Memorial Day--so I had the day off. I met my friend Ute for coffee this morning. I wanted to go hiking this afternoon, but it looked like it might rain, so I decided I'd be better off to stay in the city. I took the subway into Seoul and spent the day walking through the oriental medicine market and a large public market across the street from it. It was all fascinating but also a little disturbing at times. Today was one of the very few days since I came to Korea that I found myself being very critical of what I observed. I try to view this country with as much of an open mind and with as much respect as possible, but on a few rare occasions, I've found own values and culture at irreconcilable odds with what's going on around me. Today, though fascinating, was one of those days.

First, before I even got on the subway, I encountered this woman selling tiny chicks in my town. This is not the first time I've seen this, but it is the first time I've photographed it. She had them all crowded together in cardboard boxes. When someone bought a chick, she gave it to them in a plastic bag. I watched several mothers buy them for their young children. I'm not opposed to kids having pets, but I do find the notion of a disposable pet disgusting. Animals can be great to teach kids about compassion, respect, and responsibility, but what does it teach kids to hand them a living thing in plastic bag and let them walk down the street swinging it, dropping it, squeezing it to make it squeak? And how much of a chance do these little chicks have? No doubt, most of them will be dead tomorrow. If they do manage to survive, then what? Cute little chicks grow into chickens, and who keeps chickens in an apartment? So, this woman ignited my thoughts about cultural differences and standards of acceptability. It was probably the best possible warm up I could have had for the rest of the day.

Once in Seoul, I had to walk a few blocks to get to the market district. It was an interesting walk past small shops and businesses in an unimpressive part of the city. On my way, I passed a man who was selling plates on the street--and he had a lot of them. It made me wonder if he packs them up every evening or just throws a tarp over them at night.
Then I passed a woman selling big aloe leaves--for big sunburns, I guess.
Finally I came to the oriental medicine market. It's not an open market but a square of a couple city blocks by a couple city blocks that has many oriental medicine practitioners, pharmacies, and shops that sell all sorts of dried leaves, sticks, berries, mushrooms, and other unidentifiable things. There are also businesses where you can take the things that you buy in these stores, and they cook them in pressure cookers and create herbal tonics. Mind you, I didn't do this. I just observed.

The smells of the market most impressed me. I wish I could have photographed the smell. It didn't smell bad. It wasn't overpowering. It was even pleasant in its own way but definitely distinct--sort of like a very concentrated spice bread baking in the oven. I can't really describe it. The air just smelled spicy.
After taking in the sights and smells of the oriental medicine market, I crossed the street and wandered through a large public market. There is a small public market in my city that I have visited a couple times. It's a good place to buy fruit and vegetables and the occasional household item. Though I never have, you can buy fresh fish and kimchi there as well. This market in Seoul appeared similar, but the deeper I got into it, the more of an eye-opener it was.

I passed by alleyways full of people selling the usual fruit, vegetables, fish, and kimchi, among other things. These huge bags of dried peppers impressed me. It was actually a little hard to breathe as I walked past them, and it irritated my eyes as well, because the smell of pepper was so strong in the air. There were also stalls that sold ground red pepper in similarly sized bags. It was even more difficult to breathe while walking past those. Do the people who work there just get used to it?

I also passed by stalls that sold any type of grain imaginable. It was really tempting to dip my hands into them.
I passed by the fresh seafood stalls. First, there were people selling frozen fish in styrofoam boxes, then people selling live fish out of tanks. Then I came to the part of the market where they sold crabs of all sizes. These tiny, live crabs could be bought by the bowl. I'm not sure what you do with them.
The next part is where the market started to get a little disturbing. After the crab stalls were the stalls selling frogs and turtles. I'm not sure if the frogs and turtles were sold as meat or as oriental medicine. I think they're used in both, but I'm not sure about that. Anyway, even though I know they were being sold to be killed, it bothered me to see them in such crowded tanks.
I watched these soft-shelled turtles climb on top of each other and attempt to climb out of the tank until one actually succeeded.
I was hoping he'd be able to make a run for safety, but just after I snapped the picture, the man working at that stall came by and kicked the turtle's head really hard and sent it flying back into the tank.
I know, the turtle is being sold to be killed, but to me, it's just wrong to kick a living creature. The same effect could have been had simply by picking the turtle up and returning it to the tank. If he didn't want to touch it, he could have nudged it with his foot, but he kicked it--hard. I moved on.

After the turtle episode, I had to stop taking pictures, because the rest of the market was truly disturbing. Fascinating, yes. Educational, indeed. But disturbing. Continue reading at your own discretion.

After the turtles and frogs, there were more live animals--chickens, roosters, ducks, rabbits, goats, dogs. Remember, this market is in the middle of Seoul, so it's not likely that any of these animals will be taken to a farm. I'm not sure if they slaughter them right there. I didn't look too closely and certainly didn't ask. The animals all looked sick, malnourished, and dirty. The cages were too small, dirty, crowded, and dark. Some of the animals looked apathetic and had a a glassy expression in their eyes. Others were terrified. I saw a woman swinging two ducks around by their wings, while the ducks made panicked and pathetic quacks. The dog cages were perhaps the most disturbing, because the dog were not there to be sold as pets, if you get my drift. I kept walking.

Next, I came across a stall that sold various types of eggs. They also sold barrels of chicken and duck embryos. I don't mean eggs. I mean unhatched chicks and ducklings that had been taken from their shells. They were all slimy and covered in raw eggs, with egg yolks lying on top of them. Then there were several stalls selling dead chickens--whole chickens, plucked but with feet and heads still attached. If you just wanted chicken feet, there were barrels of them, too.

After the chicken stalls, there were stalls selling other types of meat and some sausages. I passed a couple places that were selling whole, cooked pigs' heads. After that, there was a table that had a whole, cooked animal lying on top of it. At first glance, I thought it was a pig, but when I looked at it a few seconds longer, I realized that it was not a pig but a dog. A whole, cooked dog. A whole, boiled-alive dog. I stood there, feeling slightly sick to my stomach, when the man working there looked at me, waved me along, and said "Pass! Pass!" He didn't really need to tell me twice. I decided I had seen enough and found my way out of the market. I had intended to stop on my way out to buy some fruit to share with the people at work, but at this point, I wasn't willing to work my way back to the fruit section. I made my way to the nearest subway stop and headed for home.

On my way, I stopped at the jjimjilbang (public bathhouse) to relax, reflect on the day, and remind myself of the cultural differences that I do appreciate here.

I love living in Korea, but today, I realized that I can't totally embrace everything here. I realize that some of the things I saw today were not necessarily the mainstream culture, and I also realize that there are things about my own country and culture which I do not entirely find acceptable, but at the end of the day today, I am finding myself feeling a little disturbed. Beginning with the chicks in the boxes, seeing the treatment of live animals today really bothered me. Even animals destined to be slaughtered for human consumption should be treated and prepared humanely, and keeping animals in those tiny cages, kicking and swinging them, and boiling them alive certainly doesn't qualify.

I don't eat a lot of meat these days--just a habit, not out of any sense of ethics; my teenage vegetarian phase is long over--but when I do, I'm always mindful that my meal has cost a living thing its life. I like the Native American traditions of thanking the animal for its life and then using or consuming all of it so that none is just discarded without thought. Maybe I'm overly sensitive here, but it seems to me that humans, with all of our power, need to be respectful and reverent of life, especially if we're about to take another for our own sustenance.