Seoul-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

On Friday night I went to the Golden Bell Festival at Kwandong University in Gangneung. We arrived to a huge fireworks display and hundreds of young, drunk Korean students. The field was covered in white tents, one for each faculty. The students had set it all up and were selling food and drinks at their tents to raise money. There was a portable noraebang machine that they were rolling around to different tables and this weird boxing ring that was making the rounds. For a few thousand won, you could put on gloves and get in on some of the action. We started slowly with beer and then soju and lots of anju. By 2am I was drinking water out of a bowl. The bathrooms were pretty nasty too, probably the most disgusting toilet I've ever seen in my life! And they were washing dishes outside with a hose in the sand. Late in the night, a few fights were breaking out, but nothing too crazy. It was really just one big, drunk college party, a great night! I made it home at 4:30ish...

I'm now in Seoul again for the Lotus Lantern Festival celebrating Buddha's Birthday (on Wednesday). I left Saturday morning on the 11:15am bus and arrived around 2pm. I spent the next four hours on a wild goose chase to parts of Seoul I've never heard of or seen before. I didn't find what I was looking for, unfortunately, and gave up. I met up with Allison and Rochelle in Yaksu and we made our way to the rooftop patio at Nashville Extensions in Itaewon. Kate showed up about an hour later. Pitchers of beer and fries led to Burger King, led to Polly's Kettle, led to several Kettles, led to me yelling at MPs, led to Gecko's, led to Limelight, led to me yelling at hookers, led to street-meat, led to me talking about yelling at MPs, led to me talking about yelling at hookers, led to me doing some sort of stupid Irish accent, led to Kate's ass, led back to Yaksu. It was a night of drunken debauchery. A certain member of our party started hooking up left, right and center with military men who followed us like little dogs around Itaewon begging for her hand. It started mostly as night of observation on my part but soon the alcohol overwhelmed my better judgement and I turned into just another drunk soldier running from the police! What am I talking about?

Everyone has split up now and I'm still in Yaksu researching the rest of our day. We'll meet up in an hour or so and then head to Insa-dong for the festivities...

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Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea

The Wrath of the Red Mask Ghost


I only heard the story yesterday but after doing some research on the internet, this all apparently should have started on the 5th, Children's Day. Quiet whisperings at first, I actually had several girl students crying. I sent them out of the room to be comforted by the Korean teachers. Here's the deal: Apparently, 20 years ago an urban legend was started somewhere in Japan and has moved into the minds of Korean youngsters. A female ghost, suffering from a botched cosmetic surgery job, kills young girls by stretching open their lips, into a wide distorted smile from eye to eye. Children's Day, May 5th, is supposed to be the birthday of this woman, and she only attacks young, beautiful girls. If you write the Chinese character for dog (which looks just like the Korean character for an aspirated "j" --> ㅊ) you are protected from harm. As the story goes, the Red Mask is afraid of dogs.

So other than having to deal with all the frightened students, yesterday went pretty well. Candy, my director's daughter was absolutely petrified of the Red Mask coming to get her at 6:00. She had the Chinese "dog" character on her hand and kept looking behind her all class long. I wanted to be a little malicious and start drawing scary faces on the board...But though better of it, and instead told them that it wasn't true...
Of course, they didn't believe me, a friend of someone's sister was killed by the Red Mask etc...etc...typical urban legend fare...

Here's an excerpt from a weblog I found at www.torgodevil.com:

Currently there is a so-mun, or rumor going around school. I started hearing about a story of a ghost sometime last week, but nothing more than a few whispers from students as I walked into the room before class started. What started as a few whispers has turned into the major topic of discussion in some classes now for all the students.

When I first heard of the ghost story, It was fairly simplistic in nature. The being was just named the "Red Mask Ghost", and anyone who was unfortunate enough to see the entity died. Some claimed that two students died over the weekend having encountered the ghost. Whenever I try to get a name, they say they don't know or that a friend had told them about it.

It's an new urban legend that's gaining popularity at our school however. Since we didn't have school for the Children's day holiday yesterday, rumors of this ghost spread like wildfire since the students had plenty of time for gossip. Here is what I heard of this new legend today by interviewing the students:

Students in the fourth grade seem to think that the "Red Mask Ghost" is a woman with failed cosmetic surgery, possibly from Japan. She kills people by grabbing their lips, and stretching their lips upwards into a grotesque smile the length of their entire head, temple to temple.

This strange grinning smile of death, they say, is also what the "mask" of the ghost looks like. I heard conflicting reports about the ghost having teeth in the mask, or not, so no one could give me a definitive description of the entire mask. Some said the eyes of the ghosts didn't appear menacing, or oddly shaped, others disagreed. They also say that whatever clothing the ghost wears, it's long enough that her hands are hidden in the sleeves, and that her arms are unnaturally long when she reaches out to grab you to stretch your smile. How they can know what a ghost that can kill on sight looks like isn't explained to me.

However, I am told that the only way to survive an encounter with the ghost is by writing the Chinese letter for the word "dog" on your hand. The students explained that the Red Mask ghost will not attack anyone with that symbol because it is afraid of dogs for some reason, yet unknown. I also heard that Children's day happens to be the ghosts "birthday", which confuses me since I thought a ghost would have to be dead. No one was able to tell me the reason behind the ghost's haunting.

I know that believing in the supernatural is enforced fairly early here, and these are fairly young children hearing things via word of mouth about a supernatural force. Gossip and rumors fly around very quickly. Watching one class react as I would share what another class told me, and how they would incorporate bits and pieces of the story into their own version of the tale was highly amusing. I expect to hear new things for the next few days before the story gets bolted down completely and finalized for easier retelling.

Not all students believe in ghosts. Some students wanted only my opinions on the matter, and bolstered by my skepticism about the entire phenomenon a few students resisted the urge to believe what everyone else was telling them to think. However, these students simply substituted their urge to follow peer pressure with the urge to listen to someone older in authority, which is just as bad an idea when done unquestioning.

The best response I heard about the Red Mask Ghost came from a student who was being queried by his fellow classmate about what he would do keep himself if he saw such a being. The student said, "I'd probably just show him this", and held up his middle finger.

The Big 25

Well, for those that don't know. Today is my birthday. I'm 25...and feeling old. It's also Teacher's Day, here in Korea. So yesterday I ended up receiving many, many gifts. Mostly socks, but also a couple of bottles of really nice cologne and some sort of facial toner. I also got a vase of carnations and a couple of roses (one was fake). Alice gave me a clear plastic tube with candy yellow roses in it, I felt bad because when I thanked her I called her Helen (by accident). Sorry, Alice...My director bought me a cake and we did a big birthday thing with my Morning Kindergarten class. It was really touching, they were all bowing and saying Happy Birthday all day long.

There were already three other cakes making the rounds of the classrooms yesterday, so didn't need to cut mine up. I took it home, so now it's gonna be cake for breakfast, cake for lunch, cake for dinner...hmmmm

Christa gave me some ideas on how to reward my classes for good behavior. Yesterday I started the Magic Box and it went over surprisingly well. I told them that if they got two checks on the board they wouldn't be able to participate in the Magic Box game. It kept most of them in check throughout class. The other day I went to some sort of dollar store outlet here in Kyo-dong and picked up all kinds of treats: pencil sharpeners, erasers, felts, crayons, erasers and small candies. I put one prize in the Magic Box and then let me students ask questions to try and find out what's inside. Whoever guesses first gets the prize. They were all happy about the chance of getting this special prize and as a result I had fairly well behaved classes all day!

My oldest class had been pressing me for the last couple of days to take them to Hanaro Mart, a short walk from my school for a field trip. Hanaro Mart is just your typical Korean grocery store, but they were all really excited about the trip. I guess they don't enjoy conjugating verbs as much as I do. After spending twenty minutes talking about the Red Mask, I told them that I didn't want to hear any more Korean in class that day. They had three chances...they used up two of them in the first five minutes but smartened up and I ended up taking them on the field trip. They bought slurpees and looked at all the books and magazines in the store. Matthew bought me a really cool calligraphy pen for my birthday and a notebook for writing and Don got me a small notebook as well. It was nice, I wasn't expecting anything from them...They kept asking me what I wanted for my birthday...and I said "All I want is for you guys to behave..." God, I sound like my parents!

Last night, I went out for dinner with Christa. We went to this cool Western-Korean fusion restaurant called Bin out in the rice paddy fields near Kyo-dong. We both had Chicken Fajitas, a delicacy I haven't had the pleasure of eating in almost a year now. They were pretty good...and came with the classic Korean plate of pickled garlic cloves, gimchi radish and sweet pickles...yum sweet pickles on fajitas.

Tonight, I'm gonna get myself in trouble, I know it. First dinner and a couple of bars in Kyo-dong and then downtown to finish the night off. I was planning on going to the Warehouse, but apparently it's another "All You Can Drink Night" at Bumpin' so I'll probably end up there. Unlimited cocktails and beer for 30,000 won is to hard to pass up.

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Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea

So I haven't updated in awhile, just want to let everyone know I'm still alive. Things have been going really well here. The weather is beautiful everyday which always makes it easier. My students are still pretty crazy, I'm not putting up with anymore shit now and at the first signs of conflict I send them out of the room, it's just too much to deal with them myself anymore, they refuse to listen to me.

I spent last weekend in Seoul and saw some of the sights I was planning on visiting. Club Night was a wash, but that's another story...

I bought a burned copy of "Lost In Translation" in Itaewon and watched it Sunday night. It was great; the last really, really good movie I've watched. Most of it was funny because of the parallels between Mr. Hollis' experiences and my own here in this foreign country.

I also bought and finished, in two days, Chuck Palahniuk's "Lullaby" from What The Book? (I also ordered Alex Garland's "The Tesseract" which should be arriving any day). He wrote "Fight Club" if his name doesn't ring a bell. "Lullaby" was the story of a journalist who discovers an ancient culling spell in a book of rhymes and poems. He reads it to his family and kills them. Soon after, he discovers that the same poem has killed many newborn children across the country and goes on a quest to destroy all copies of the book. It's very anti-establishment, like Fight Club, and dark and twisted. Carl Streator, the main character befriends a real-estate agent who has harnessed the power of the spell. She now works secretly for governments across the world as a hit (wo)man, using the spell as her weapon. She works in exchange for large cut diamonds. The two travel together searching for the Grimoire or "Book of Shadows," the original witches spell collection from which the spell was plagiarized. It was a really good book, amazing how Palahniuk mixed witchcraft with his beliefs on government and big corporations and the fate of humanity...and there were many parallels drawn in the tone of the writing between Tyler Durden and Carl Streator....both glorious, unforgettable, anti-heroes...

Well, I've got more to say, not now though, class starts in ten minutes...I'll do a bigger update this weekend and should have some new photos in the next couple of weeks...

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