The one where the wind comes whistling through the panes

I got up this morning and read the outside temperature as 38°F (3°C).  That's the lowest I have seen so far, and it's depressing.  But it's Korea, so having the windows closed doesn't necessarily mean the cold wind stays outside.  The window and door sealing products industry does a brisk business, pardon the pun, during the initial shock of winter.  Korean construction techniques are probably the worst in the world north of the 30th parallel.  They are shoddy, unsafe, and wasteful.  My friends and I often shake our heads when even the simplest room isn't square or plumb and floors crown or tilt.  Windows are placed in buildings where the openings vary in size so much that even an extra tube of silicon putty isn't enough to seal some of them. That is one of the drawbacks of their poured concrete method of building walls and floors.  In come the sealant products to the rescue.  Even our Homeplus, as small as it is, sticks three racks of sealant products in the middle of an aisle because they are guaranteed sales.

In 12 years, I have seen little let-up to the deplorable construction methods here.  Buildings have stopped falling down, though, so I suppose there has been some improvement in oversight.  Unscrupulous construction company owners would often scrimp on concrete quality to line their pockets leading to the deaths of innocent people when the bridge or store or housing unit collapsed.  It's probably only a matter of time before bribes reach the necessary level to allow for that again.  The public, instead of demanding better quality construction techniques, simply do what they've always done, take it in the ass and say "Thank you", then go spend too much money on temporary fixes every year that allow them to sit in their homes with a modicum of comfort.

Why don't they stand up to the construction companies and demand better quality or better building techniques?  Because Koreans seem to believe that they are powerless against such huge forces.  They are not a people of individual independence, ambition, or resolve.  They are not the kind of people who see a problem and independently make a point to take it on and solve it.  They are not the kind of people who see trash on a public floor and pick it up to throw it away.  They do not see themselves as actors within the play of society. They are passive and prefer to lie low hoping to be  overlooked by the terrible forces of life swirling about them.  Not all, but many, enough to create a national characteristic of acquiescent docility.  They are also fanatical about Korea appearing better than it really is.  They ignore problems and go out of their way to cover them up.  If Korea can save face by filling its country with jerrybuilt crap, so be it.  However, it's impossible to hide their characteristics from us who live here.  A Korean might break into tears reading this and wish I would leave their country and never come back because I say such "hateful" things. An independent thinker, a grown-up, would read this and say, "It's true" and try to do something, anything, to make things better.  Not to please foreigners, but to please themselves.  To make their own lives more comfortable, to save money in the long run, to enjoy good buildings that last more than a few years, to be able to say, "We do things right and we're proud of it."

The one about dignity

People in my profession, teaching English to speakers of other languages, we sometimes find the right place and settle in, sometimes we just drift from country to country.  Maybe it depends on one's age, I don't know, personal disposition maybe, but I have been in Korea now for over 12 years.  That isn't to say I don't fantasize about the liberty of youth who think little of hopscotching around the globe teaching in whatever countries they want or can.  I do.  Anyone in this profession who isn't married to a Korean more than likely dreams of wandering to other lands every so often. We aren't paid as well as Korean English teachers, of course, and we're not respected for what we do, but it's a peaceful country with generally nice people who pretty much leave us alone to pursue our various pastimes.  It grows on you.  The initial shock of their lifestyle fades after a few weeks.  The garish town life and piles of trash become the accepted norm.  

The constant noise (of all kinds) was hard to handle at first, and health suffers from the tension it creates.  However, you can learn how to deal with it, to accept it, to let it run in the background without affecting you mentally or physically, if you want to.  A lot of people come here to teach, but don't figure out how to handle the filth, the noise, the tasteless neon, the dirty air, and the lack of space.  They usually end up leaving before their time, and I don't blame anyone who does that.  Few people help foreigners adjust to the unusual world of Korea, and when the foreigner cannot handle the craziness on his own, he has no choice but to leave in order to salvage his health and well-being.  I understand that.  I have almost left a couple times myself just to get my mind back from the brink. On the outside, it seems like a dishonest thing to do, to leave before your time, but from a human point of view, it's sometimes the right thing to do.  The Koreans often bring this on themselves, so I have little sympathy for their plaints against those who choose to leave.  We are not going to "become Korean" just because we are in their country.  They are not going to get run-of-the-mill people to come here.  People who go to live and work in other countries are not a common breed.  There is something a little unconventional about us from the start.  We are braver than many. We value our freedom.  We are curious.  We are willing to learn.  But, we will not sacrifice our dignity indefinitely.

The one where christianity disproves itself

This is from ProfMTH on YouTube. He outlines one of the points about the cult of christ that got me re-thinking my commitment to this nonsense several years back now. He uses examples of some christian sects, but there are so, so many who declare Jesus as the son of god, but these believers are divided, sometimes violently, among themselves. My own former faith, the Anglicans, have been dividing over their views of the bible lately, a collection of literature that should surely be ignored by intelligent people. Many other sects have divided over a lot less. Believers in christ must see that this division is contrary to the teachings of their magic book, but they persist in it anyway. The bible says that you must believe that Jesus is the son of god in order to be saved, yet each sect has decided to add something more to the requirement, to expand on that simple notion. They decided not to associate with those who don't like their new take on things. They sometimes fight those who disagree. They excommunicate or ostracize people who haven't quite bought the sect's point of view completely. The very proof that the cult of christ is wrong is in the people who claim it as their own.

The one with the battery

 For about a month I've been having to push start my motorcycle.  At work, parking on a hill helps, but at home, on level terrain, well, let's just say I left out a note to my loved ones every morning in case I had a heart attack trying to start my bike.  However, yesterday was free and I went in to have the oil changed and the battery looked at.  And he said I needed a new battery, but since he had just put one in last March, he didn't charge me for the new battery.

I was fascinated to see the process of preparing a battery and installing it in the bike.  They take this package of liquid, unseal it, and stick it in the holes in the case.  (Rob tells me over my shoulder that it is distilled water.)  Then they hook it up to an electrical current to charge it, and it goes under the seat.  What you can't learn by observing, eh?

Today for lunch, I whipped up some meat pies since Rob was up visiting from Busan and I try to have something Western when he visits.
It actually tastes pretty good, if I do say so myself... and I do.