A Tree Grows in Korea

Last weekend I got some fresh air in Andong, a folk village where my friend Youngji grew up. Her parents have a summer house there and we ate our way through the eastern part of Korea all the way to the coast. Here are some pictures from the trip...including this first one at the subway station in Jamsil. This is funny for several reasons but most specifically because it conjures images of Lord of the Rings instead of mismatched Korean fashion...and considering the fact that every piece of clothing in the store has sparkles, bows and some misspelled english words on it, GRACEFUL isn't the word I would use. But I digress...behold the glory of the roadtrip!!!!!!Did you think I would forget to chronicle the reststop bathroom? I think this bathroom was so interesting to me because it FELT so weird and open like the creepy kind of bathroom you find yourself in during a crazy nightmare where clowns chase you through the halls...At the beginning of the trip the bathrooms looked like this...a veritable oasis of peeing with toilets of BOTH kinds (squat on the ground and western) and a lovely gardenesque display in the middle. By the end of the trip, there was not a western toilet to be found and I got really good at not peeing on myself. Youngji wearing her mother's driving sleeve. I'm not kidding. It's to cover her arm so she doesn't get that one arm tan.
Evidently if you wear flowers in your hair in Korea, they call you crazy girl...so here we are, 4 wild and crazy girls. haha.

basking in grass that I'm allowed (and not afraid) to lay in...these pictures remind me a bit of that little park in SLC where I used to lay in grass on my lunch break back before grass signaled something sinister and untouchable.

Rice paddy. First time I had seen one. Kind of cool. These next pics are of a traditional Korean family house...The Shin family owned this house built in the 1800's. The compound has 99 rooms which is supposed to signal wealth. The oldest son would live here and his wife would keep the house and make the food for anyone in the extended family who came to visit. That's a lot of food.
This is how they heated the floors back in the day...kitchen stove, fire under the house that would heat up a large slab of stone. The stone stayed warm for a night and you slept directly on it. The modern derivitive is the stone bed that I now sleep on. Pretty inventive if you ask me. A little smelly maybe and definitely HARD but inventive!

We found a little stream in the mountain after eating our "energy chicken" soup (each region is known for a specific food item and Andong is famous for salty makerel fish (yum) and this ricey chicken soup that you're supposed to eat when it's hot to combat the heat with more heat???) and we dipped our feet in and lounged around like lizards on the rocks...eventually it degenerated into singing the songs on our cell phone hold music and that's when we decided to go to the east coast of the ocean...

Rocky, pebbly, not sandy...this ocean was deep blue and angry..the stuff of poetry. I spent quite a bit of time contemplating life and lost love on the rocks while the surf pounded in with the coming tide. I wanted to write something sad and purposeful like the waves but I didn't bring my journal so I sent the poem out to the cloudless sky to be translated to the language of water someday when I return.

I loved being there especially because I can now say that I've been to the ocean on three continents. I think I will spend my 30th birthday in August at the Korean Coast (a follow up to 29 on the South Australian coast!) but maybe down south a bit more where the waves won't make me cry.

Andong was nice...a perfect escape from the city and a needed reconnection with my own fragility. Nature is so amazing.

Father's Day of the Future for Celebrities

My childhood friend Amy Steele is in this little short fathers day movie playing Suri Cruise. One time I accidently blew a snot in her hair when I was braiding it and she was still my friend. And now she is an actress is LA.

Really.

Things I've seen in Seoul in the last week:

- 3 men urinating in public. 2 of these men were my commute bus drivers. We're trucking along the highway and just as we merge onto another road, the bus pulls over for an unscheduled stop. I appear to be the only person concerned since everyone else is asleep with the curtains pulled on the bus to block out the possibility of a ray of light (did I mention that makeup here is called things like "superwhite" and "whiteout" and "pastywhite"?) When the bus driver reappeared a few minutes later from behind the bush zipping his pants, I realized what was going on. Not that I take umbrage. I do hold the Creativity School record for the most trips to the bathroom within a 1 hour period. If I was a Seoul busdriver, I think I would just wear diapers or spend my life dehydrated, the latter not being a very difficult acheivement in a place where they sell corn water in bottles the size of a thimble and call it refreshment.

-A sign that read "Mr. Pizza...made for women." I'm not kidding...their entire advertising campaign is all about how they make pizza for the female population. Exactly HOW do you make a gender specific pizza? Extra estrogen? Oddly enough, it was the best pizza I've had in korea. Maybe the secret ingredient is subliminal messaging... This girl I met once here wrote a blog all about Korean pizza that is hilarious...read it here: http://www.misskoco.com/2007_03_01_archive.html

- A Red Dodge Ram. You might not think this noteworthy but I promise you it is. I swear that with as many SUV's as Seoulites own, there is not ONE car any color other than white, black and maybe MAYBE silver...a Red American TRUCK is like a total fish out of water. It made me happy for a minute.

-A little girl about the same age as my students learning how to walk after a surgery. It was humbling. She had to stop every couple of steps and her mother had to encourage her the entire way. I saw this while Lumina and I sat on a bench making fun of Korean fashionistas (no kidding, green, brown, yellow and navy blue all in one costume) to make myself feel better about the fact that not one pair of shoes will ever fit me here and that the only skirts I can buy have elastic waists...And the reality is, as imperfect as our bodies may be, they are a gift. We walk, we move, we dance, we emote, we feel. I wasn't feeling sorry for the little girl...It was more like a deep sense of wonder at the resiliency of the human body and spirit and the lengths that we have to go to make them work together. It was a really nice reminder that there are better ways to deal with my discontent than dragging another person through the mud (even if they are wearing stilleto heals with cuffed jean shorts) and that I can do better at treating my body with the respect it deserves.

-Baked Cheetos. I saw baked cheetos in my hand and in my mouth. A taste explosion of orange MSG goodness thanks to Liz who knows how to make a homesick girl ALL BETTER!

Went to Andong Folk Village with Youngji and JiHyun and Lumina this weekend and miracle of miracles, my camera worked...so pictures coming soon!

Broken Camera and Other Lame Excuses

I have not written in my blog because...

1. my camera is broken, finally, completely, utterly. No pictures to post makes me feel lame now.

2. I have been really really really really busy at school. It's quarterly progress report time and one more reminder that I don't REALLY know what I'm doing! Lumina and I stayed here at the school writing the reports until 1 am thursday night. Problem #1...I care too much about making it flow...at one point I had to remind myself that the people reading the reports are less University professor, more English As A Second Language Korean parents. That helped ease the stress a little bit, but it still made for an insane couple of days...

3. I got my 3rd calling at church...I'm now the Nursery Leader, choir pianist and activities committee member. Nothing like a branch to make use of every talent you never knew you had. But this time, the joke is on them. I can play like three hymns, so I guess our choir is going to get really good at "God Be With You Till We Meet Again".

4. I've been too busy bearing my testimony "sniff sniff, I didn't want to come, but...snivle snivel, now I'm so glad I did because you guys totally rock!!!!" at Youth Conference. I'm not kidding. Ok, so it wasn't really YOUTH conference, but there were bunk beds, boys, DDR, sand pit volley ball and a testimony meeting. We went to the military base religious retreat center and had a singles conference. We listened to our guest speaker, Barbara Barrington Jones (who's completely convinced me that I need to marry someone who has a good second last name possibility) and played theater sports (which reminded me that I'm not very good at improv comedy. sigh.)

5. I'm a little weirded out that Korea is NOT a vacation. I'm struggling to understand how to convey the details of my life here to help everyone understand that most of the time, I feel like I'm living in Salt Lake again. The novelty of living overseas seems to have passed. Although I still find funny weird Korea only things, I want to just write about life and how it's the same struggle to understand myself and my motivations that I have anywhere that I live. The location, though a bit more exotic than SLC, has become simply the backdrop of my life rather than the meat of my existence. I miss my friends, but I like life here. I'm settled in. I'm here and I'm not just visiting. This is home. so strange.

so please to accept my apologies! glad to be back.

The Accidental Artist

I'm not much of a visual artist. I come from a long line of painters, illustrators and what have you....and here I am, a certified doodler. To add insult to artistic injury, my digital camera quickly began revolting shortly after I spent way too much money for it...it would eat my batteries in one fell swoop and then the screen would go blank or (on a good day) appear with a gentle but firm smack only to roll like a ghetto tv screen without cable. I've often thought that this was in protest of my poor picture taking ability which I confirmed when I moved to Korea and the camera completely decided to just stop being digital... After a week of taking pictures through that picture thingy on the back (like an old school camera), the digital screen reappeared now possessed by the spirit of a photographer much more interesting than me. And just in time for the Lotus Festival (in honor of buddah's birthday!)

Evidently, though Korea reportedly celebrates Christmas in relative obscurity and with a bucket of KFC, buddah's birthday garners parades full of beautiful lighted lanterns and a glorious day off work (this coming thursday!!!) Here are the pictures with less commentary than usual. I'm tired.

This parade is well attended by foreigners and it seemed that the parade participants were looking for waygookin action the whole time. I had my hair down and so I was easiest to spot in the sea of thick black hair. This meant that I was given 2 free lanterns, 1 beaded bracelet by children screaming, "HI HI HI" and mauled by drunk Korean men twice. And the performers played right to us! This was fun!

These energetic women constituted the most tenatious choir I've ever seen...2 hours of singing a 2 line long chant song that my friend Nari tried to teach me. It said, "Thank you for your buddist blessing." over. and over. and over...

I took this picture for my students because THIS is Tech V or something like that...a huge cartoon hero...I liked the way the float made it look like he was tromping through Asia like it's a set on an old japanese creature movie.

The story is that buddah was born out of a lotus flower. I don't know much more than that. But this picture was essential.

The parade was lovely and I think the perfect representation of Korea.... I have more to write about my life but it really is late and I have some other things to do. I will try to post more tomorrow.

My Mom by Ninny Beth

Today is Mother's Day. I forgot all about it until I was at church and the primary children got up to sing that one song, you know the one that's all about mothers and love and awwwwwww! fer Cute! Of course it made me cry and it made me miss my mommy and I started to think about what it is that makes her so special. I think the answer lies in a Yellow Michael Jackson Jacket from Kmart.

As with most children, my memories of childhood events are colored by my perceptions...as the third oldest of seven children I remember a youth filled with late summer nights chasing fireflies in the parking lot across from our house in New Jersey and waking up on cold winter mornings to hot Cream of Wheat and butter toast and then walking to school backwards while my little brother Kevin cried because of the whipping wind. I remember understanding even as a child that we did not have much money and things were always tight...most of my clothes were hand-me-downs from my cousins Ang and Steph (lucky! from a family of only TWO kids) and I was so excited when a new black garbage bag full of new old clothes would arrive with visiting relatives. (perhaps this explains my love of thrift shopping now?)

I also remember feeling plagued by the meanness of other children. Social things seemed to be very difficult for all of the Daley children. I imagine now with my clearer adult perception that I *may* have been an annoying child (can you imagine???)...verbal and insecure and easily swayed by my peers in my effort to be liked by everyone. I was a showoff with a big mouth and even from a young age I was aware that I didn't really fit in with the norm. This was painful and it must have been especially painful for my parents to watch from the sidelines...As an older sister, I often internalized the social trauma of my siblings and I can only imagine what it does to a parent who has little or no control over such things but still has to comfort and somehow try to assuage the damage.

And that brings me to the Michael Jackson jacket. In the second grade at Elmer Elementary School it was very clear what was cool and what was not cool...Michael Jackson was cool...flowered canvas jackets were not cool. I owned a flowered canvas jacket (probably a hand-me-down) and by extension was NOT cool. I don't remember exactly who made fun of me, what they said or why it caused me such intense emotion but I came home from school that day absolutely devastated. I'm sure that I was acting positively beastly, the way any devastated overly-dramatic show off child would act and though I don't remember any of the details of the ensuing conversation with my mom, I remember that she took me to a store that night and bought me the most beautiful reversible yellow Michael Jackson jacket you have ever seen. It was the color of duck feathers and made of cheap pleather but I wore it to school the next day as though Michael had worn it on the Pepsi tour himself.

The significance of this story is in the adult realization that this coat represents to me all the sacrafices made by my mother during times of great financial and emotional distress. I know my mom really well and I don't imagine that she was particularly happy to have to buy me a new coat...in fact she was probably a little annoyed that I was making such a big deal about it. She had 7 kids under the age of 12 by then and would have had to load us up in the car to take us all to the store to buy the jacket. It probably wasn't very expensive but still would have been an unexpected expense on an already tight budget. And still she did it, perhaps with some pain in her heart that she couldn't do more to make life a little easier for her children.

My mom is brave and strong and takes control of situations. She is not prone to much wallowing and has always taught me the value of compassion. When I was on my mission, a friend asked me to take care of her seven year old son for a year while she was incarcerated. When she asked me, I felt something stir within me that said, "yes". I told her that I would do it even though I was not even sure how I would get a job after my mission or where I was going to live. I knew this meant that my parents would have to help a lot. She asked, "what will your mom say?" and I was able to answer with clarity and conviction that I KNEW what my mom would say, "My mother will say yes." and it burned within me at that moment that I had been taught by "goodly parents". When I did call my mother to ask her if she could help, she said exactly what I knew she would say, "KaRyn, we are our brother's keeper. We can do this."

Today at church, so very far away from my home, I was again grateful for the sacrafices of my super-mom, those sacrafices that have helped to shape and define my life...I'm grateful for the woman that she is and the woman she has helped me to become. She is a creative, deep thinker who has great compassion for others. She is smart and capable and nurturing. She is, like all of us will be as mothers, imperfect...but she exemplifies Christ and teaches me with each new day how to be more like him and to forgive myself for my flaws while seeking higher ground. She is my dearest friend!

Happy Mother's Day Mom. I love you!

Hi! Seoul Part Deux

Well, Hello There, Seoul! We did it again...another weekend full of festival-ness in the city. I knew this saturday wouldn't let us down when we saw this gold lame (that's pronounced Luhmay) pig outside the Yongsan electronics market. It is, afterall, the year of the golden pig in asia which has sparked an increase in pregnancies so that parents can cash in on the supposed inherent luckiness of children born during this year. I had just seen Blades of Glory and kept imagining the part where Will Ferrell barfs into his Grublets costume head. It was gruesome imagery, but funny. Now to the business at hand. Our guidebook encouraged us to take a walk across the Han River on specially made walking bridges that were submerged slightly under water. This seemed about as extreme sport as anything else Hi Seoul offered since river pollution increased the chance of coming out on the other side with a mutated super power and hair growing on your feet at an accelerated rate. This in addition the promise of a farmer's produce market on the other side made it a natural choice for our Saturday excursion. So off we headed to the Han with great anticipation... only to discover that the line to walk across the submerged bridge was monsterous due to the fact that they were making walkers sport not only a life jacket but also a HELMET. People were lined up to walk across a polluted river in 30 cm of water in a costume usually reserved for level 5 rapids and epileptics. Yeah. Lucky for us there was another less cumbersome bridge a little further down ye olde river and it was delightfully adorned with flags and tar paper.

And what do you think we found on the other side? The advertised, "Operation of Agricultural Products Market"? Well, sure. Hi Seoul doesn't lie....it just sort of exaggerates. What we found was less farmer's market more dirt parking lot with three tents full of dried squid and black beans. In an effort to simplify my blog for future writing, Lumina and I have created a name for this uniquely Korean maneuver: The Korean Twist...oh, it's there like we promised, it's just a little...well...different...sorry we forgot to tell you.... I hope it doesn't change EVERY PLAN YOU'VE EVER MADE... The "farmers market"

Me trying my hand at tak-making (gooey rice cakes)

Wacky fun for all ages at the Hi! Seoul Festival... This was the most occupied "traditional art" tent at the festival. These kids seemed oddly content to snuggle up with mom in a hay filled tent on a sweltering day in the dirt parking lot just tying the hay together into boring garlic holders. I guess that makes sense when your other options are straining tofu through a cheesecloth and dancing on the dirt parking lot.

Later that evening after a delightful session of Stake Conference, we went to the "International DJ Festival and Concert" A quick quote from the guidebook to get you as excited as we were "Seoul World DJ Festival was born with the upgraded version from the explosive passion and exciting. That is the Nanji District were anybody can shout loudly, sing a song, play music and dance without trying to read someone's mind!...In addition, the Nanjido Campsite will operate a festival village where visitors may eat, sleep and enjoy themselves. Would it be a good time to be with a number of people, including families, groups and associations, as well as foreign tourists?" Well, certainly! Who wouldn't want to be with associations when they are enjoying themselves? (that's for you, alie.)

There was a Korean Hippie drum circle. I danced with them, but I don't think they really wanted me to. Not real hippies after all.

And this....this....large....creepy...marionette...creepy....puppet thingy named TARA. There were all these weird signs all over seoul teasing us that "She's Back" and I thought it was a horror movie advert. Turns out that the "she" is tara...Like watching a train wreck. You can't tear your eyes away and you're not really sure why you're so intrigued with something so inherently wrong...all you know is...
...you'll be forever changed at the gym.
And here's another Korean Twist...so after giving up hope of ever catching the "ghost bus" that the festival brochure promised would come to pick up all the foreigners...we walked approximately 5 miles to the waterfront only to have half of our group (military friends) turn around after reaching the gate so that they could walk the 5 miles back and hop on a train to get back to base before curfew. The rest of us went in and listened to some relatively lame (pronounced L.A.M.E) Kpop and resigned ourselves to the fact that THIS lame lame concert was the much touted International DJ festival. Sigh. As we were leaving, we heard something that sounded like two turntables and a microphone coming from somewhere outside the main stage area...what....was....this....?????

The REAL DJ festival was happening right outside the main gates the WHOLE TIME...this was where all the other cool people were...and this was what we looked like when we discovered this little twist. oh, korea.The next day we took a mormon fieldtrip after stake conference... I wore my cute kenneth cole sandals and limped home with bloody feet. That's bloody in the red bodily fluids way and not the cute british swear word way.

more to come...

I've Been Spending Too Much Time On MYSPACE

I'm sure everyone has already seen this...but it made me laugh and cry just a little because I got every joke.