Friday, May 26, 2006

THE RAINY DAY WONKTA BLUES

I've made it no secret that I've been extra homesick lately. I'm almost rounding out a year, and the constant pandering to Confucianism, fake smiles and exasperating language mishaps can be just plain exhausting. Skyping and letters to home at times can make you feel FURTHER away I think - it's like letting a hungry person smell a big ol cinnabon but not letting him actually get a taste, and thinking that somehow the smell satisfies almost as well. Yes, to all my family and friends out there reading this: I want to taste your cinnabons.

Anyway. Today was no different, and with the rain and the clouds and the fact that I'm still recovering from mild food poisoning from my trip to the mainland, I wasn't exactly pickin' daisies. But I decided to get on up'n'out of this funk, and took a walk down to the cinema to check on the times for the Da Vinci Code tonight.

First though, let me give you guys a little background on the word "wonkta". I don't know very much Korean, but from what I do know, a wonkta at least in the classroom setting is nothing short of a pariah. There are a couple of wonktas at my school, and they sit alone in the cafeteria, have the saddest expressions on their faces, never speak a word at any time, and I've actually been prevented by my coteachers from including them in the activities. I was a little mad at first at such blatant discrimination, but I guess it was done with the kindest of intentions, to shield them from further attacks from the students. Though if they're never called upon in class, they'll never have a chance to prove themselves, or to climb out of their wonkta status through academic recognition from their peers. It's a tricky issue. The very fact though that Korean has a word that fully encompasses the concept seems to me to be a tacit approval of the wonkta's place (or lack thereof) in society. We have the terms "outcast" or "social reject" but those terms can mean other things - we can refer to an entire group of people as being outcasts in society, or we can refer to a lone wolf as being an outcast in wolf society, or we can use reject as a verb in other situations. As far as I know, wonkta only refers to people, and only in the situation of extreme aloneness.

One of my friends over here was trying to explain the Columbine shootings to her advanced class last fall, and to try to deliver her point mentioned that the gunmen were wonkta. She was chilled when the class said "no no teacher, there were two of them! they had a friend!" Wonktas are totally and completely isolated. And unlike America with its almost limitless youth sub and countercultures (particularly in this case, goth), the kids don't have any identity to turn to when mainstream society spurns them. Even Japan has seen the rise of weekend cosplay displays, popular mostly with high school girls who are taunted during the week. Without a subculture to identify with, the wonkta is left utterly alone.

It was in that state that I, turning a corner, passed one of our Daesin Middle School students. She was standing on a corner waiting to cross, and she was crying. It wasn't just tears - this was full-on, shoulder-heaving ... sobs. It was a singular moment - my mind had been flitting back and forth through all the things that I had to complain about - missing family and friends, feeling constrained in a homestay, feeling like an alien in Korea. But I'm a traveller in another country, all of that is understandable. Here was a girl whose own culture had bitterly rejected her. Lord knows she had everything in the world to sob about.

What was I going to do? Our eyes never met, I don't know if she saw me. I wanted to hug her, I wanted to tell her it would be alright, I wanted to do something - but honestly if I had approached her she would have run away in shame. And things won't be alright for her. She's going to have to wake up tomorrow and deal with it all again. I truly do not understand how this goes on in Korea. In Korean society, wonkta might be treated as less than human - but I think this girl's weeping was the most singularly human act I've witnessed all year.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

FAIRY TALES: ALIVE AND WELL IN KOREA

So my homestay mom made homemade jam yesterday. The jar is now sitting on top of the kitchen table. I'm fixing myself a snack and my homestay brother comes in and wraps his arms around it. "It's my jam!" (He likes to claim things. Everything.)
"Oh yeah?" I say. "Yeah!" he replies. "His name is James." I laugh. "James, can I eat you?" I laugh harder as he puts his ear to the jar. "He says yes! I will drink your blood! James, you are so kind!"

I was in the cafeteria when I noticed one of my students had a name written on her gym uniform sweatshirt that wasn't hers. I point it out and ask, "who's that?" She replies, beaming, "my boyfriend!" Me: "Yeah? Wow! How long have you been dating?" "Two days!"
"Oh, so short! When did you meet him?"
"Once upon a time!" :)

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

halcy0nX: at my college religion was sociology without the statistics
halcy0nX: philosophy without the accountability
halcy0nX: psychology without the experimentation
sethzeren: which leaves what...
sethzeren: ??
sethzeren: :-D
halcy0nX: yeah, thats what we were trying to figure out ;-)
halcy0nX: but somewhere along the line
halcy0nX: i graduated
halcy0nX: and then got a fulbright
halcy0nX: and then ... a scholarship to study this ephemeral something further

This past Saturday I was out with my friend JiHyoung and we decided to have a little campfire on the beach and drink some hot tea before we went down the road to the newly built Lotte Cinema to see MI3 (don't see it - that's my review). The beach was a small one, at the end of a walking trail by the southern cliffs of the island - rocky, secluded, and perfect. We got one going despite the wind, and it was just dying down when a group of maybe 5 people with backpacks came down the stairs, shining flashlights around and generally acting very confused. They settled down at the base of the cliff and we decided they must be a group of ajoshi out for a late night soju picnic. Just then, full moon peeked out from behind a bank of clouds and in that picture postcard moment a gong sounded maybe a hundred yards up the shoreline from us. One of the group had snuck down there with a kkwaenggwari . We put out the fire and crept closer. A group of ajummas were setting up for a shaman kut! I had seen a kut (ritual) before, but in the formal confines of a ... fish warehouse in Jeju City, with distinguished members of the community there, video cameras, and all the huzzah huzzah Korean culture buzz going all around. If we hadn't been there, these women would have only the sea as their witness. One of the women circled burning incense sticks above her head, another woman bowed to north south east and west, and another lit candles among the rocks. The gong continued to sound from the shoreline and we could make out chanting from that same direction.
Some of the peripherary members sitting on rocks could have been men, it was hard to tell in the moonlight. The women were just ... Korean women - they were wearing track suits and baseball caps, and one of them was texting on her mobile. But they were here, among the volcanic rocks and the sea and the gorgeous big full moon. Watching them felt like being invited into another world, one so close to ours that it might be separated by the most transparent glass. And that night, by some crazy twist of luck and fate, that I passed right through that glass for a moment.

So, I guess that's what religion means to me.

Monday, May 15, 2006

THE HOMESTIZZLE

Lemme tell ya, I have a lot of fun here. At times it suprises me. :) My homestay brother Kyeong-Hwan is such a great kid, and I dare say a lifelong friend. This weekend we went to the PCbang (PC gaming cafe), where we played a really addictive game called Chaos, which is a mod of Warcraft (a Korean version of DOTA). Here's Kyeong-Hwan contemplating his imminent defeat:



But let the record show that last time, it was ME weeping in utter Warcraft ruin.

Today he saw me writing letters and getting things from my art box, so he dug around in there till he found my sticker letters. Our dog Jeong was quite pleased.





Boshintang anyone?

Sunday, May 14, 2006

It has certainly been a while. I ... went to Japan! Now I'm back. Man, do I have a lot to catch up on.

It isn't often when something lives up to and even exceeds your expectations - even less often when that something is travel related. To all those Japan-o-philes I've known in my life - Chris Langevin, I'm talking to YOU - you were right all along. Korea is the "hot ham water" to Japan's thick, viscous, giblet-filled Thanksgiving gravy. The temples were beautifully minimalistic, the gardens were gorgeous, the anime was nudie, and the fashions were insane. Oh and the sake was good too. Sushi tastes best from a conveyer belt. Chilled green tea tastes best from vending machines, located approximately 50 feet from each other (this extends well into densely wooded countrysides). I want to learn Japanese so I can live in a manga internet cafe for the rest of my life. :) Yeah, I loved it. There are maybe a hundred new pictures on Flickr.

The legendary Ryoanji Zen rock garden in Kyoto:



Sunset over Tokyo skyline:



Rachael has an educational experience at the Yebisu Beer Museum:



Shibuya station is more city than I've ever experienced ...



Mist, temples and giant trees in Nikkho, north of Tokyo:



Me and a torii in Meiji, Tokyo:



And perhaps most important, to Japan's gardens and really everyone, is the VIM (very important moss). In comes in many varieties, as you can see here:



Despite my torrid love affair with Japan, it is nice to be back in Korea. I think my kids have been extra adorable lately. The sun is warm, the air is clear, and life on the island smells GOOD. :)

"I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive." ~ Joseph Campbell

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