nanoomi

To celebrate moving into a new building, Pagoda teachers, students and staff cleaned around Cheonggyecheon for an hour yesterday. The hagwon obviously thought that the deed was in and of itself worthwhile, and did nothing to draw attention to the participants or itself.

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Hello Again Everyone,

When people think of a foreigner in Korea they usually think of an English language teacher, a soldier, or a professor.  However, there are several people out there in the foreign community in Korea that contribute a lot more to Korean society than what you might imagine.

I’ve been very lucky that in my time in Korea I’ve met a lot of interesting and inspiring people, but none more so than the Buddhist monk Chong Go Sunim. By chance, he discovered my blog, and ever since then we have been emailing each other back and forth.

To let you know a bit more about Chong Go Sunim, he’s a Buddhist American monk that has been living in Korea for the past 17 years. He had been practicing Buddhism in the U.S.A. for many years on his own; but according to him, he wasn’t making much progress. Eventually, he met and listened to the Korean monk Daehaeng Kun Sunim. And as he describes it, “It was as if I’d been looking at a dirty painting, with only a small clean spot in the middle. When I began listening to Daehaeng Kun Sunim, it was as if the clean spot had suddenly become much larger and I could see what had been hidden. What she showed me seemed exactly what should be there, but had been unable to see for myself.”

Recently, I was fortunate enough to be allowed to ask him a couple questions about what it’s like being an American living in Korea as a Buddhist monk.  Here are the questions I asked him and their corresponding answers:

Q: 1. Tell me a little about yourself (i.e., where you’re originally from, etc.)

A: I’m originally from eastern Oregon and Washington. I lived and went to school there, until I came to Korea when I was 25.

Q: 2. When and why did you first become interested in Buddhism?

A:  I was probably about 12 when I first became interested in Buddhism, and one of the things that impressed me were the rock edicts of the Indian king, Ashoka. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but he was encouraging people to treat each other well, and said that he who slanders another’s religion slanders his own. There was a sense of inclusiveness that really impressed me.

Q: 3. What idea/teaching of Buddhism would you say is the most important part?

A: Letting go of “me” and “mine,” remembering that we’re not the ones doing things and instead relying upon our inherent Buddha-nature, and not giving into the desire to blame or criticize others.

The question is a bit like saying “Which finger could you do without?” “Umm, they’re all kind of useful, actually.” But these are three really huge, if someone diligently tries to apply these; they’ll definitely see good results.

Q: 4. Why did you want to become a monk?

A: Basically, I wanted to do this spiritual practice more than anything else.

Q: 5. Why did you decide to move to Korea?

A: I was very impressed with the quality of monks and nuns from Korea, and the teacher I felt the most connection with also came from Korea.

Q: 6. Presently, what are you working on in Korea?

A: As a part of my practice, I’m working with the Hanmaum International Culture Institute on translating the works of Seon Master Daehaeng.

Q: 7. What are your future plans?

A: I’ll probably get a cup of coffee, and then go have some dinner.

So the next time you too narrowly or stereotypically think of what foreigners are doing in Korea, and how they contribute different things to Korean society, think of Chong Go Sunim.

For more information on Chong Go Sunim, you can check out his blog  Wake Up and Laugh.

I was thinking just yesterday when writing my last post that with only 112 negative articles about foreign English teachers this year (up to yesterday), things had improved a lot over last year, when there were over 280 380 negative articles by year’s end. I actually thought to myself, “There would have to be some big event to push the numbers up to the level of, say 2008.” Needless to say, it’s arrived.

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Chris Backe of Chris in South Korea fame, has been working on an iPhone app called Seoul Taxi. designed to make life easier for visitors and residents alike, the app concentrates on making your communications with Seoul’s many and varied taxi drivers something of a more pleasant experience. Chris was  gracious enough to give me a free copy to review.

Designed for iOS 4 , the app is specifically for iPhone and iPad Touch and gets scaled if you use it on iPad. I can understand the choice here, if you are going to a destination I guess you are more likely to take your phone with you. On the other hand the iPhone’s display is a little small for your average middle aged taxi driver. Having to hand one’s phone over to a taxi driver is always a dodgy proposition while in contrast holding up the iPad’s 10 inch display is fine for even the most far sighted of Seoul’s taxi drivers!

The app lists over 2000 destinations in Seoul including over 800 restaurants and close to 100 hotels as well as other destinations ranging from art galleries (who knew there were so many galleries in Seoul) to over 150 bars.

Now if you know where you are going and are strictly using the app to assist you in your taxi dealings, simply enter the name of your  destination and hit search, odds are you’ll get the info you need.

Once you have found your destination you are presented with a couple of options. Selecting “Taxi Card”will display the address information in big , bold, white-on-black Korean which you then show your driver. Being an iOS app, hitting the phone number will place a call to the destination – particularly good if your driver still hasn’t figured out where to go from the address and hitting the location address option will bring up Google Maps just in case the taxi driver still has no idea where to go.

one of the best features of Taxi Guide Seoul is being able to share the taxi card information. You are able to send the address to people via MMS message – handy if you are meeting a group of people and need to give them directions. Finally you can create your own cards for destinations you find that Chris and his developer HoodHot have yet to discover.

The big advantage of Taxi Guide is its ability to be used off line – visitors to Seoul don’t want to be paying expensive roaming charges.

However this means some features that would otherwise be standard in an app like this are missing. Any app that deals with destinations these days needs Foursquare integration. It just makes sense that upon arrival at your destination you would “check-in”. And for the legions of people intent on sharing every aspect of their lives, Twitter is also missing. Elsewhere, Seoul is constantly changing and apps like this need frequent updates. Future updates will have to be potentially large downloads, where as a “live” app might be able to handle the dynamic nature of Seoul more efficiently. A way around this might be to make users own notes able to be uploaded and shared beyond just their friends.

the only other quibble I might have is the price. while I scored a free copy for review, HoodHot’s other apps for other destinations in Asia range from $4.99 at launch to a whopping $9.99. I would have to say I would not be prepared to pay that much for an app that has no social media integration and lacks the ability to upload and share user created information, and especially when there are a number of (albeit slightly more complicated) free alternatives, such as Google maps and even Foursquare which provide address and direction / destination information.

Bimbo Rating ★★★✩  – half a star off for lack of social, 1 star off for price.

You’ll recall I went to The Middle Kingdom over my summer break. This is the first of a couple of posts on how I spent my summer, not relaxing, but wandering around Beijing with two middle aged sisters.

I don’t care what you say. For some Beijing is an ancient city. The centre of oriental intrigue and mystery that stretches millennia in to the past. The Forbidden City and quaint alleyways or Hutong, the ancient alleyways that run for blocks behind well lit main streets.

For others it’s all about the boom. The building, the burgeoning Middle Class, newly found affluence. Indigenous Bejingers, often with a wry smile, will make out that the “Crane” is China’s national bird. The crane they refer to of course are those that dominate the skyline, my own hotel room view spoiled by such a rusting yellow creature employed in the construction of a new Waldorf Astoria hotel.

For others still Beijing and China is about the human rights, or the lack thereof. Tienanmen square and Tibet. Somehow Google gets thrown in there as well.

Beijing is all these things. And more. But there is no argument in my mind as to what Beijing is the most.

Beijing is food.

Donghuamen Night Market

Literally 500m down the road from the Beijing Novotel Peace on Wangfujing Street is the Donghuamen Night Market. Existing in one form or another in the area around Wangfujing since about 1984 the night market brings together vendors selling upwards of 60 dishes from around China (and in one case Dokbukki and “Korean Kimbab”).

Travellers to China, upon their return, often regale their friends with sordid stories of deep fried scorpions and seahorse and the intestinal fortitude required to consume these “delicacies”. And there is some of this on offer at Donghuamen. Apart from the initial psychological hurdle these dishes – usually served on a stick – are about as tasty as anything else served on a stick. Indeed the scorpion I had tasted more of the unclean beef tallow it was fried in than anything else.

Scorpion, Starfish and Seahorse ready to be consumed.

There were other insect-ual delicacies on hand, with one vendor helpfully labelling his wares in English as if to dare the Australian backpackers in front of me to try their luck and show how manly they were. While the silkworm larvae are essentially big (giant) versions of Korea’s own Beondegi (번데기), in the picture below I’m betting the only thing labelled in Chinese is the most deadly thing there!

I’m thinking it is pressed cakes of offal, on a stick. Kudos to anyone who can translate in the comments.

On offer elsewhere – some of the freshest vegetable and pork stir-fry you will ever find:

And more whole animals – too small to be duck, I am unsure as to these birds providence, I’m thinking pigeon, I’m hoping farmed pigeon, as Beijing has a suspicious lack of pigeons on its streets and in the air. With that suspicion in mind I didn’t try these.

And a selection of some of the other grilled goodies on display and available at Donghuamen:

Whole Baby Shark

A few items not available on-a-stick, whole freshwater crab, and stuffed Oysters

And what might be described (above) as an a la carte Chinese Budaechigae – you decide what goes in.

Octopus

Squid legs (arms?)

Steering away from the meat I was intrigued by some of the fruity goodness on offer. In stark contrast to the crisp, smoky flavoured meats were a selection of fruits and deserts that made my mouth and the mouths f my companions water.

Just what the doctor ordered after multiple sticks of greasy lamb, a cherry and mangostine fruit salad bathed in a sugary pineapple juice – with an umbrella on top! You’d be forgiven for thinking that everything in China comes “on a sticK’. Here we have a selection of whole fruit, skewered and coated in a sweet honey glaze; Kiwi, Kiwi and pineapple, pineapple, mangostine, plum…. The thick crust on the table underneath the fruit being a build up of the sugar glaze dripping from these delicious deserts.

Donghuamen is probably a good way for those who don’t have the strongest stomachs (my Mum and Aunt accompanied me to Donghuamen and only partook in the fruit) to experience “Street food” and the exotic delicacies on offer are not all that ’strange’ or gag inducing. Westerners will often comment about the smell of Asian cuisine being prepared and if you or anyone travelling with you to Beijing fall into that category, Donghuamen is not much of an assault on the olfactory senses.

Rather the delicious aroma of grilling meat fills the air supplemented by spices and sauces. Like so much in China it is government regulated and just as clean as any stall in Gangnam or Jeongno where you would pound down Soondae with lashings of Dokbukki after a few too many beers at a Noraebang

(I can personally recommend the cake with pig inside – a glutinous pita with pork mice, vegetables with spoonfuls of soy sauce!)

Vendors are polite, if not competitive, prices are stated in menus above each stall and if you can translate the hilarious Chinglish a cheap gastronomic adventure awaits at Donghuamen.

As noted at the Marmot’s Hole Monday, another Korean-American wanted for (attempted) murder has been found to have worked as an English teacher in Korea, and in this case even ran an SAT hagwon. Here’s what the Joongang Daily had to say about it:

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In April this year Apple came clean and said that its iPhone and iPad collected a whole lot more location data on users than it was letting on. As nefarious as it sounds the huge amount of data collected by the iPhone / iPad was sent to Apple’s servers and used to help the device zero in on its location for use with location aware apps. Read the full story

On July 11, 1971, the Korea Times published the following story about an incident in Pyeongtaek which occurred July 9.

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Recently my wife, Jo, had a great idea. Travel around and learn about the area from those that know it best. This is the result, a new series entitled, “Your Neck of the Woods.” In this first installment, we visit with YouTuber GreenEggsAndHamster near Mia Station.

For more travel videos and blogs, visit QiRanger.com.