A Cardiology Conference and a Hike in the Mountains

Things are starting to get a little busy as I wrap up for the big move. But the apartment has been noticeably quieter since John departed for Canada. I find myself filling the solitude by watching more Korean TV and blogging more often.

Once you get used to living with someone for a while, it's kinda weird when they're gone all of a sudden. But then you get used to living alone and then the reverse becomes true. Life is all about getting used to stuff.

Recently at headquarters, Ms Jeong asked me to put together a science project for the April English Intensives program. It had to be based around one of Newton's three laws of motion and be able to fit into a 45 minute class. My first idea was for the students to build and explain a Newton's Cradle, using cheap equipment. So we went to the nearby fishing store and bought fishing line and weights. I hooked it up to a cardboard box.
Unfortunately though, the fishing weights weren't heavy enough to induce an elastic collision. When the end one was dropped, it just hit the ones in the middle and sat there. Hmmm.

So we tried with some larger christmas decorations we had. Not quite as good either. The problem lies in the fact that the collisions are absorbed unevenly if the weights are of low quality.

I therefore concluded that to make a decent Newton's Cradle with household materials, one first needs to obtain weights of sufficient mass and density.

We're ordering some.

Anthony's uncle, Thach Nguyen, arrived in Busan last weekend for the annual conference on Cardial Vascularisation at the Lotte Hotel. Dr Nguyen is a leading cardiologist and an editor of two cardiology journals. He's also an honorary professor of medicine from the Capital University of Beijing and Director of Cardiology at St Mary's hospital in Indiana.

He invited us to the conference, although we knew almost nothing about cardiology. On the way to the venue, I was trying to remember the difference between an aorta and a ventricle.

But the main reason we went was for Anthony to see his uncle and also to enjoy a nice free dinner. The talks were on open-heart surgery and some of it was fairly interesting. These days they have infrared fibre optic cameras that they use to search for lesions in your arteries. What will they think of next?

I sat next to a surgeon from Daegu who was pretty interesting. He described heart surgery as being 'very stressful'.

One thing I couldn't help noticing was the affinity that the attendees had for butter. Don't they know that the stuff clogs your arteries?

I guess even cardiologists have to live it up, once in a while.

We were even invited back the following day. Here's Anthony on the cellphone talking to the new Busanjin teachers, Jenny and Brian, while enjoying the view from level 42 of the Lotte Hotel. We were waiting for Anthony's uncle to arrive, but later found out that we were in the wrong room.

For lunch we had a Bento box, which are actually called dosirak in Korea. It was quite nice. I feel like making a quip about the saying "there's no such thing as a free lunch."

But I shall refrain.

Dr Nguyen also gave me a copy of his book: the Practical Handbook of Advanced Interventional Cardiology. It has some interesting chapter titles like Exotic Complex Interventions for the Urban Weekend Warrior.
Luckily I still remember how to do CPR from my Boy Scout days, because there's no mention of it in here.

There's Anthony's uncle, sitting on the panel while listening to the various speeches. There were doctors from Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Japan and the US. The most interesting case study won a US$1000 cheque. From time to time, Anthony's uncle would ask the speakers a question that they couldn't answer, and then tell them the answer. When you're able to do that to leading medical surgeons, you know you're good.

Then we were invited to dinner. Fortunately, English being the language of international communication, we were able to understand all of the small talk.

We ate at Madang House and had Korean beef of particularly good quality. If you aren't paying, you can get an estimate of price in Korean restaurants by the amount of 'service' (the Konglish word for freebies) that the restaurant adds to your table, with no extra charge. Our service came as waves of premium Korean wine, roasted fish and soup.

Here we are at the table. That's Anthony's uncle sitting up, right behind him. The collective experience at the table of thousands of hours of surgical experience was rather humbling.

They were also pretty good at cutting up the barbecue meat.

These are two Busan based surgeons, making soju-bombs for everyone.
Everything in moderation, including moderation.

I've always been a fan of geek humour and in-jokes. Listening intently at the table, we heard a couple of interesting stories. Here's one:

During open heart surgery, the patient will often be awake and able to talk with the doctor. One particular Korean doctor was talking to a Chinese patient in Japanese, which was their only common language. They got along quite well and talked throughout the operation. At the end of the successful surgery, the doctor went out to celebrate while the patient recovered in hospital. However the doctor got so drunk that he was eventually picked up in an ambulance and admitted to the emergency room of the hospital where he worked at. In the morning when he woke up, the first thing he heard in fluent Japanese was "Hey doctor, what are you doing back here?"

The man standing up is Professor Kim, an experienced hospital director who gave us an interesting speech.

Now that I think about it, if I could choose a completely new career path, cardiology would be in the top 10.

The first is still a jet pilot.

The following day, Anthony's uncle went back to Indiana, and I went hiking with Heather and her father. It's been pretty chilly in Korea these days and while waiting at the bus stop I bought these $1 gloves from an ajumma. The writing on it says "Fighting, Korea."
A fairly ingrained Konglish mnemonic here is that the word 'fighting' in English means 'you can do it' or 'come on.' So at sports events and things, you'll hear the crowd yelling "Fighting!", which is supposed to be a supportive cheer, just like 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!' is in Australia. However, there is no letter 'F' in the Korean language, so instead of saying 'fighting' these gloves say 'hwighting', which is supposedly the next best thing.

How did I take this photo with both of my hands in it?

Good question.

We went to hike up Mandeok Mountain, which is behind Heather's house.

I think it has another name, but I'll just call it that.

It was a good 2 hour hike, but toward the top it was getting quite steep. Hikers have installed ropes to aid passage around the large rocks, but it's still pretty scary considering the amount of older people who use them.

Here's what some of the edges look like. I don't think anyone's ever fallen down, but Korean hikers do like to have alcoholic picnics at the tops of mountains here.

It was an interesting climb. I hadn't done this sort of activity since the commando course back at Woodhouse. Hopefully when I go to Seoul, I'll be able to get back into shape again.

6am morning runs around the Seoul campus? We'll see.

A favourite pastime of older Koreans is to hike up a mountain with a friend on the weekend, find a nice little spot and have lunch.

Seems pleasant enough.

Flying overhead every once in a while was this helicopter, warning people about mountain fires via a megaphone. It also played some music.

Here are some picnicking Koreans on various perches at the summit of Mandeok Mountain.

Is 'picnicking' even a word?

Heather's father wisely packed some fruit and hot water. He was also carrying an AM radio with a speaker, so we were able to listen to some classic Korean songs as we hiked.

I enjoyed a hot coffee while enjoying the view. I'm more of a night person, but it was nice to get out in the daytime for a change.

We spent some time enjoying the scenery and then headed home, which was conveniently located at the bottom of the other side of the mountain. Those vertical rocks were once horizontal layers of bedrock. It's funny what a few million years can do.

Have a good Christmas everyone!

See you next time.

Odds and Ends

We just arrived back from Jeju Island yesterday (Sunday) and had a good time there. I'll upload those photos and share them with you when I have some spare time. This post is a little shorter and covers the week before we left.
Unfortunately for that particular weekend I left my camera at the hagwon, which was a little silly of me. So half of these photos were taken by friends and associates who I've tracked down on Facebook.

Jordan and Michelle have always had a nice rooftop on their apartment building, so for Tyler's birthday they decided to hold a rooftop barbecue party. It was a nice spring afternoon with a light breeze and plenty of sunshine. Photo: Nicole Kalisz

Here's the view looking west. Saha is the furthest suburb on this side of the city but a good public transport system puts everything within reach. Our school branch is just off the photo to the left. Photo: Nicole Kalisz

Jordan and Michelle have always been great hosts, holding quite a few dinners for everyone in the past. We took a portable barbecue upstairs and Jordan grilled chicken skewers and hamburger patties, while the rest of us looked on. Jordan drank light beer while he was cooking, which has long been part of an unwritten code for those who take on the burden of cooking at barbecues. My respect to those who do. Photo: Theresa Nicolai

We started at 3pm in the afternoon which was nice for a change. But that meant we were a little tipsy by sundown. Evidently we were a little jovial for this particular photo and it appears that I had finished eating by this time. Photo: Niko Davis

The very next day at 9:30 am, we went on a charity run for breast cancer research. CDI South put together a small team to represent. Here we are at Millak station, although the reason we met at this particular location still eludes me. Note the pretty flowers and brick wall in the background. Photo: Jareb Steines

I don't exercise these days due to time restraints, but I used to jog fairly regularly. I ran in the 10km and pushed myself. In the end I got a time of 1 hour and 1 minute. But for the next two days I had difficulty walking and transferring from a standing position to a sitting position. Now I feel okay though. Photo: Maya Son

Our Korean school had a special cooking lesson on Thursday last week. We're nearing the end of the term and it's been good, but I'm looking forward to getting some more free time in my schedule. We went to a cooking school out in Dongnae.

Back in the day I used to be a restaurant cook for a lot of my high school and university years. I've been a bit out of practice in Korea but the cooking instincts still remain. One of the first things I want to do when I get back to Australia is to walk back into my old kitchen and feel the weight of a decent wok in my hand again. I used to work 6 nights a week in that kitchen, saving up the money to come to Korea.

Good times.

We were split into smaller groups and divided the tasks up accordingly. On the left is Anna, a Chinese student from our other level 3 class, and on the right is Ge-Ge, who is the only Mongolian student in the school. She's also the only Mongolian I've ever met.

It seems that digital cameras became a standard inventory item for everyone sometime ago. This girl was cycling through six cameras to take photos while her friends were cooking. I remember the days when I used to wind on my disposable cameras and get photos back from the developer that were a little less pleasing than I expected.

This was the end product of our toils, chapchae, which is a noodle dish made with beef, vegetables and clear mung bean noodles. Koreans will often eat this dish during festive times. It tasted pretty good for a group effort. We also made seafood pancakes.

Here we are enjoying our concoctions. It was actually a lot more fun than I expected.


This is a video I made of my classmates reading the dialogue that they wrote for class. Our teacher is recording them with an MP3 player. The entire class is taught in Korean but I can manage fairly well these days. Learning Korean remains one of the most difficult things I've ever encountered. It will be an ongoing process.

And here are some of my students. These boys are naughty at times but generally in good spirits. The one closest to the photo recently requested that his English name be changed to 'Farrand'. I granted his request, but it was interesting, because it coincidentally happens to be my surname. When I asked him how he thought up that name he told me that it's a secret.

Anyway, I'll be posting up the trip from Jeju when I have time.

Stay tuned!

Gyeongju by Scooter

Over the past couple of weeks I've been out and about in various places. The new school term started at our branch and we also have a new teacher. I'll introduce you guys in a bit.

It was John's birthday a few weeks ago. He's the guy sitting in the white shirt on the left. This shot was taken later in the night when most people had gone home. Singing what may or may not have been a Backstreet Boys song in the foreground is Tim, with the appropriate facial expression. We ended up going home after a free breakfast at the casino that night.

But it all started off as a larger gathering of people, some of whom were enjoying a 4-player Halo 3 tournament at our apartment. That's a good way to start off any party, really.

Then we headed out for dinner at a dakgalbi restaurant. Dakgalbi is a fried rice and chicken dish cooked and served on your table.You choose the basic recipe and can add cheese, rice cake and other things to it. The waiters will stir-fry it for you until it's ready and our waiter made it into a loveheart at the end for the birthday boy.

Here's a video of the waiter at work. By this time it was smelling pretty good.

After dinner we went to a room at a booking club. Booking clubs are places to meet single people in Korea and are usually rather expensive. This one was no exception. It's usually best to pre-drink at a convenience store around the corner first.

The booking clubs, called naiteu in Korean (konglish for 'night'), sometimes put on stage shows with dancers. I made a video of this one too, but unfortunately the quality was not sufficiently Lee's Korea Blog-worthy.

And not long after John's birthday came Yang-min's. He's also there in a white birthday shirt and is married to a Canadian teacher at our company. Next week he's heading off to Canada with her to travel for a couple of months with their baby daughter. In this photo he's about to cut his cake in the reception area of my new branch.

Later that night we ended up at O'Brien's, the Irish bar near my old school. Yang-min is a fan of Irish Car Bombs, which are cocktails we introduced him to earlier in the year. For the first round, we lined up nine of them. It was a good night.

Last weekend the teachers from the Saha branch headed out to Gyeongju, an old city north of Busan. There were a lot of historical things to see like tombs, temples and museums, but I forgot my camera. These photos were taken by my co-workers. In Gyeongju, hiring a scooter for a day will cost you about twenty dollars. So all of us hopped on them and cruised around the city. It was freezing cold but a whole lot of fun. I'd highly recommend it. Photo: Nicole Kalisz

This is the Saha branch representing (themselves). 'Represent' is a catch-word that my American counterparts here like to use and it's starting to rub off on me. Everytime we go out together, someone will yell out 'Saha-Gu REPRESENT!', at least once or twice. In this photo we're posing in the carpark of a museum in Gyeongju. That's me on the right with Heather on the back.

The funny thing about hiring these scooters (which were brand new) was that the man who lent them to us didn't ask us to sign anything. He just took my identification and wanted us back by 7pm. He also told us to not get hurt because there was no insurance. Back in Australia, that would be considered reckless, but in Korea it's just 'mildly questionable'. Photo: Nicole Kalisz

The museum complex was pretty good but too much to see in one day. Here's a huge bell from the Shilla dynasty hanging in a specially-built structure. It weighs 30 tons and will resonate for over a minute if you gong it. We weren't allowed to gong it. Photo: Logan Fry

After that we went to Bulguksa Temple, one of the largest and most beautiful temple complexes in Korea. A lot of the structures in the complex are centuries old and the foundations were made by master stonemasons. Photo: Logan Fry

And then we came home by coach bus and ended up in Vinyl Underground, a western nightclub in Kyungsung. During the middle of the night we got a little tipsy and uninhibited. That's Logan and me up there dancing on the stage. Photo: Logan Fry

It's always nice to get some culture of a different kind, which is why I always say 'yes please' when Heather asks me out to one of these kinds of things. This is an orchestral performance by the Ukrainian National Orchestra in the same place we went to a few blogposts back. It was pretty good, partly because one of the percussionists misplaced his music sheet and spent some of the performance conspicuously wandering around and looking for it.

This is Andrew and his Korean wife on the day of their wedding two weeks ago. Andrew is the Australian half-owner of the O'Brien's pub and has been living here for five years. Recently he opened up another bar in Jangsan. He decided to tie the knot and after the wedding he opened up his bar for free drinks. Right now, he and his wife are honeymooning in the Maldives. How's that for a happy story?

Makchang is fast becoming a staple food of the Saha Branch. It's a barbecue type affair, in which you cook up marinated pig's intestines. Makchang is actually the large intestine of the pig, while gopchang is the small intestine. You then wrap it up in a leaf and eat it with garlic. I didn't like it the first time I tried it, but it grew on me. It tastes much better than it sounds. I've never met anyone here who hasn't tried it twice and not liked it.

On the left there is Nicole, our new teacher from New York. She's settled in pretty nicely, evident in the fact that she likes makchang already. She used to teach middle-schoolers in New York and has the necessary attitude to whip our little Korean students into academic powerhouses.

On the right is Christine, my new Korean tutor who works at the branch. I graduated from Korean school at the university with an 80% score which got me into Level 3, but I didn't enrol again because of timetabling difficulties. Now Christine is teaching me in the mornings and I'm paying her the same fee.

I'd never really known anything about American football until John started watching it on his computer. There's a small footballing community here in Korea and we went along to see a game. On the field in this photo are the Seoul and Busan teams, who had nearly identical uniforms.

Do you remember Mr Incredible from Halloween night? That's him right there, proudly sporting a Busan team jersey. Busan ended up beating Seoul by a ridiculous score (23 - 0?) and now they're in the finals. Hooray for Busan!

We just finished the first term at the new branch and went out to celebrate last Friday. This is from our company-sponsored dinner at a barbecue restaurant. Free food and alcohol are always enjoyable. Posing in the yellow is Julie, our super enthusiastic branch manager.

Here's a leaf wrap that I prepared for John. I remember when I first came to Korea I couldn't construct them properly and bits kept falling out onto my clothes. Now I'm a master engineer and can make works of culinary art. If you're ever out eating with me in Korea, I'll make one for you.

Here's some more thoughtful English in a noraebang in Seomyeon. What always amazes me is that they'll write these kinds of phrases anywhere, without checking whether it makes sense. Maybe it does make sense, in an abstract Korean way.

It says "I wake up to the sound. I fall a sleep purposely..'

And saying goodbye for us this week are two of my upper level reading students, Tony and Ben. On the last day of term I gave them a gymnastic task using a blind that fell off the window. You're supposed to step through the hole made by your arms, twice, without letting go and in the same direction. I did it once to show them but they couldn't do it, despite their best efforts. I know that Tony reads this blog so all I have to say is "Haha to you Tony, Mr Lee is more flexible than you!"

See you next time!