Yikes

I miss a lot of things about my life in Daegu, but the summer weather isn't one of them.  Those violent storms early in the week are relatively short, and just make everything even more humid and swamp-like.

How It's Done

My former home of Daegu, South Korea, was the first city outside of China to be hit by the coronavirus.  It all went down February of last year, 2020.

On the one hand, that sucks.

On the other hand, South Korea is arguably the one country you'd want to be in during a public health emergency:

"South Korean officials made a plan. They needed to test as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, to figure out how bad the outbreak was. Then they had to find out who might have come into contact with the infected people. And they needed all of those people — both the infected and the potentially exposed — to isolate themselves to prevent the virus from spreading any further.

It was a three-step protocol: test, trace, and isolate. And it worked. Within a week of Patient 31’s diagnosis, the country was performing the most Covid-19 tests in the world; it implemented perhaps the most elaborate contact tracing program anywhere; and it set up isolation centers so thousands of patients could quarantine.

As other countries saw their outbreaks spiral out of control, measures like these helped South Korea keep Covid-19 in check. On March 1, South Korea had about 3,700 confirmed cases; Italy, the first hot spot in Europe, had 1,700 and the US had just 32 cases, though its dismal testing meant the virus was likely spreading unsurveilled. By the end of April, Italy had topped 200,000 cases; confirmed cases in the US were already above 1 million. South Korea still had fewer than 11,000. Adjusted for population, South Korea’s first wave of coronavirus cases was about one-tenth as big as that in the United States."

This is what happens when you have an excellent public health system, leadership that is interested in keeping the infection rate low, not personal ego, and a public that is usually willing to go along with mask and distance protocols if it means the greater good of ending the outbreak is served.

South Korea had all of this, plus a very technology-friendly culture.  Within days everyone, including dumb foreigners like me, were getting multiple text messages a day telling us the specific locations of stores, restaurants, or subway stations where an infected person had been present.

The only Americans who think our health system is the best in the world are the ones who have never left the country.

Making The Rounds

Between multiple farewell dinners out and then two consecutive in-class pizza-and-chicken parties with adult students, it's safe to say I've been in a more sentimental mood than usual.

That said, saying goodbye to my two local convenience store owners (one 7-11, one E-mart) -- my morning coffee and my evening water-and-beer guys -- honesty got me a little choked up.

To balance things out, my office building cleaning lady couldn't have given less of a fuck.

So Long For Now

Dynamic Duo, "Chul-Chek"

I never did take to K-pop.  Korean hip-hop, however, is the balls.  The good stuff, at least.

I'm in my office at lovely Daegu Health College for the last time today, taking care of some stuff.  It's actually freezing outside, but it's supposed to warm up a bit this weekend.  I'm going home to do some more cleaning and packing (haven't started the latter, to be honest), and tomorrow morning I'll get a COVID test (i.e., the "brain Q-tip").  I'll head up to Incheon Airport on Monday.

This is easily the best job I've ever had, and I realize I was very lucky in finding a boss in Korea who was for the most part both supportive and flexible, and willing to let me do my thing as long as the students (both college and adult) were happy.  For the most part, they were.

I'll get to Bellingham Monday and enter a new world of caring full-time for my dad.  I wouldn't say I'm either optimistic or pessimistic about it -- just ready to make sure his needs (at almost 92) are being met.  He's stubborn and fiercely independent though, so what will be tough is walking the line between taking care of him as needed, but not babying him or taking away his sense of power or volition.  His house, his rules, as they say.

I'm looking forward to the mild weather, the beautiful mountain and forest views, and air that is as fresh as fresh gets.  As I close out my to-do list here, I've got a new one for Bellingham as well, but it's not nearly as extensive.  The goal is to adjust and continue from there.  I'll be taking a long walk every morning after coffee with my dad, and probably one in the afternoon as well when he takes a nap.

My dad is scheduled for a vaccine, but not until late March (this is where I mention he's a die-hard Trump supporter).  I'm guessing at best I'll get mine in summer at earliest.  Hell, that could be optimistic.

And from there?  Nobody knows what happens next, other than I'll be living in a nice house in the quietest of neighborhoods five minutes from the border of Canada.

I'm pretty sure I'll read a lot of books.

As for Daegu, I hope this wretched virus gets handled as soon as it's possible.  I want people wandering around eating and drinking and laughing downtown again.  I want the undergraduates back, in person of course, studying hard and goofing off all at the same time.  I want my local movie theater to stay in business if it can.  I want the local restaurants and coffee shops of Chilgok / Northern Daegu to make as much money as possible.  I want to see Samsung Lions Park filled with people cheering and drinking beer and eating fried chicken at yet another spring or summer ballgame.

Samsung usually loses.  I don't care.  True fans know winning is only ever a part of it all.

Last Meals

 
Ginormous seafood platter, Daegu, South Korea.

Right now Korea is on partial lock-down, so restaurants can serve no more than four guests at a time.  Last Saturday night I met three former adult students for this avalanche of mostly raw seafood -- oysters, octopus, conch, abalone, sea snail, etc.

A lot of college gigs here don't require the teaching of adult night classes, but I wouldn't have traded this job for the world.  My best friends here usually came from attending my conversation classes.

Anyhow, I'm also feeling sufficiently fattened for slaughter since instead of one big farewell dinner, we're doing roughly three or four.

Korea On Top

Daegu, South Korea.

"You there, eating the paste!"

Daegu, South Korea.

Monorail!

It's maybe not the greatest picture I've ever snapped, but this photo taken on New Year's Day tells a nice little story about my soon-to-be-former town of northern Daegu.  First, you've got the stream which was neglected when I moved here ten years ago.  It's been widened and cleaned up a bit.  Next, you've got the monorail or, more properly, Daegu Metro Line Three.  Lines One and Two run on subway lines easterly-westerly, but new-ish Line Three filled the gap of running north-south.  Throw in the ducks and egrets (at least I think they're egrets), the walking and biking paths, and not far away some public exercise equipment, and you've got a perfectly pleasant little scene.

Nine times out of ten, the South Korean local governments do a really great job managing and improving public and green space.  It's definitely something I'll miss from here.  It can be done right in America of course, but it seems there's much less will to to do so.

"pan it, can't understand it, ban it"

 

MF Doom, "Money Folder"

Happy New Year from lurvely Daegu.  It's Monday afternoon, and I just turned in my final hard-copy grades and attendance sheets for my last semester here in South Korea.

While the Lunar New Year isn't until February 12th, it's safe to say we're moving from the Year of the Rat to the Year of the Ox.

As we've gone back to restaurant lock-down of no more than four people per table, I did pretty much nothing for New Year's (just like Christmas!).  I called my Dad and I think it's finally sinking in with him that we're going to be room-mates soon.

So back to bank and pension office visits.  The former is actually pretty much done, the latter will take a bit more extra paperwork.  (Have I mentioned Korea pretty much runs on paperwork?  Yes, millions of times.)

R.I.P. MF Doom.

Christmas Line Man

Daegu, South Korea.

My exercise bike gave up the ghost not long ago, so with only a month left in Korea I've been taking lots of long walks throughout the northern part of the city for exercise.  From Christmas Day, which is a national holiday in South Korea, it was interesting to see which businesses chose to close and which chose to stay open.  (Corona is also making something of a comeback, which is horrible.)

I don't thing this technically counts as graffiti (rare but not unknown here) but just a friendly reminder that this here restaurant is closed for now, but it misses you very much and hopes you come back soon.

Farewell Transmission

Songs: Ohia, "Farewell Transmission"

Didn't start listening to Jason Molina until I landed in South Korea.  Go figure.

I just spoke with my boss and made it official -- I'll be leaving South Korea and my current job this February.

My dad is getting older and needs full-time care, whereas for the past five years or so he could get by with part-time care.  My sister has been doing more than her share of maintenance, and it's time for me to step up.

To say I have mixed feelings is an understatement.  I love Korea, and I really like my job here.

But it's also been 12 years (!) since I came here thinking I'd just do a year or two.

Timing is a feeling more than anything else.  Or maybe an instinct.

I'm just chuckling to myself in my office right now -- Obama wasn't even president yet when I started this little English-teaching adventure back in 2008.

And while moving back to America in the midst of the Trump Virus and Recession might seem daunting, I think it's going to work out.  I'll be living with my Dad in Bellingham, Washington, a beautiful and bizarro place closer to Vancouver than it is to Seattle.  (It's Twin Peaks with a shittier economy and more hippies and meth labs.)  I'll get to spend time with the old man, but also get to see my sister and nephew more than just once every summer.

I'm planning on buying a real bike for what it's worth once I touch down, and taking more pictures, and keeping up with my Korean language skills, and playing guitar again.  (My Fender Strat -- American made! -- sits unused for over a decade in my dad's garage.)

This blog shall remain in place.  I'm sure I'll still have some semi-intelligent things to say about Korea from time to time, but also incredibly fascinating insights into elder-care, or the fact that my 91 year-old dad still loves to talk about his sex life in fairly graphic terms, both past and present.

I'm sad.  I'm happy.  I'm moving on.

Shablime!

It's Korean style shabu-shabu!  Which is strange, because Koreans equate the dish with Vietnamese food instead of Japanese.

It's quite nummy all the same, and a great choice if you're looking for a light or vegetarian meal in South Korea.  (We ordered beef because we're dirty carnivores, but it's not mandatory.)

On the right you can spy the rice paper wraps.  You dip them into boiling water to soften them, then load them up however you like.

There was also a buffet for veggies and noodles as needed, and a fruit bar for dessert.

This here lunch special will run you about ten bucks total, in Daegu at least.

"You should see him move the masses"

Candy Machine, "Spotlight"

I know I say it all the time but these guys were really, really good.  Also, Baltimore was Portland before Portland was Portland.

It's a beautiful Monday afternoon here in Daegu.  I taught my adult students this morning, and they agreed the the American system of electing new presidents is pretty damn ass-backwards, thanks to the Electoral College (which makes no sense to anybody, including most Americans).

In the elevator down out of my apartment I noticed I had the hugest, most wrinkled eye bags ever.  Two cups of coffee this morning, and one more after lunch has made the day bearable.  I really need to get back on a normal sleep schedule, which at least should be possible now.

I ate absolute garbage last week as well.  One night for dinner I managed to combine some leftover fried chicken with a plate of home-made nachos.  Just grateful that bikini season is over.

I didn't get drunk on election night, for what it's worth, but early Sunday morning when the final result came in I did crack a Stella Artois tall-boy that I'd forgotten in the back of my fridge.

Exercise-wise, I've actually done pretty well with 90 minute to two hour anxiety walks through all parts of northern Daegu.  My exercise bike, which I've owned for about 10 years now, seems to be giving up the ghost -- one of the pedals is making a horrible grinding sound.  The weather really has been gorgeous though, so getting outside seems like the thing thing to do.

As for Trump, my hope of hopes is that he really is cuffed and dragged screaming from the White House by the Secret Service, but I'm sure the reality will be much more boring as he jets off to Mar-A-Lago in a cloud of spite and miserable failure.

As I mentioned, he'll never lose that particular loser stench.

Spooky Daegu

Daegu, South Korea.

Prosecute The Scooter Looter Freebooters

Last month  I was complaining about waves of rental scooters showing up and basically choking the street corners of Daegu.  Turns out I'm not alone in my distaste for these things:

"The number of complaints relating to the use of electric scooters this year reached 1,951 as of end of July, according to data from the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission. For full-year 2019, the number was 1,927, and in 2018, it was 511.

'We receive at least 10 complaints a day about electric scooters parked on sidewalks or at subway station exits where lots of people pass by,' an employee from Gangdong District Office’s transportation policy department said. 'When we actually visit the location, the electric scooter is no longer there as it has already been taken by another user. It’s really difficult for us to regulate them.'

Operators of scooter-sharing services are making efforts to tackle the backlash. Olulo, operator of Kickgoing, and PUMP, operator of Xing xing, established 24-hour-a-day hotlines for local district offices so that company employees can clear their scooters within two hours of a complaint.  

 Some critics argue that foreign companies have recklessly increased the number of scooters in pursuit of revenue, to the point that it has become nearly impossible for them to respond to problems."

If they are left on public streets or sidewalks, they are literally pieces of trash.  Treat them as such.

King Sejong Was A Pimp

And a happy Hangul Day to you.

The weather here in Daegu is autumn perfection.  Off to take a long walk around the north part of the city.

Monorail!

Daegu, South Korea.

It occurs to me that after ten years in lovely Daegu I really haven't taken more pictures of my more immediate neighborhood of Chilgok / North Daegu.

It's a perfectly nice area, but before COVID arrived I spent much more of my free time in other parts of the city, either downtown or way to the east at the ballpark.

What's cool here is that you can see a few things that have definitely improved the area recently.  The glass building on the left is Guam Station, on the Line Three Monorail (in addition to Lines One and Two, traditional subway lines).  Getting downtown is now a breeze compared to the bus lines.

Also, they've finished construction on a really nice foot and bike path along this stream.  When the weather is good (like it was today) people flock to the stream side.  I know it doesn't look amazing, but it's a big change from what used to be pretty much an overlooked drainage ditch.

Spam Spam Spam

 

Yes, Spam is a traditional (and expensive) gift here in South Korea for major holidays.

Daegu, South Korea.

Dalmatian Station

Daegu, South Korea.

Happy Chuseok!

It's Chuseok again, Korean Thanksgiving, and the city, or at least the northern suburb where I live, is totally quiet.  There's the occasional shriek of kids playing, but that's about it.  The weather is Platonically ideal at 75 with a few clouds, and I'm in the middle of a five-day weekend staycation.

I had pizza for dinner last night, which I haven't had in over a year if I'm remembering correctly.

For what it's worth, there is decent South Korean pizza out there but the place I ordered from on a bit of a whim was not it.

Insert bad pizza / sex jokes here.

It's already October.  Three months left to ago in this hell-year.  I got an e-mail from Washington State to let me know my e-ballot has been received.

It's something, I guess.

Happy Chuseok to you and your family.

(To get technical, far too often Korean pizza cheese and toppings don't "meld" with the crust.  They sort glide on top and come off way too easily.  The flavors are there, but the marriage between crust and cheese and toppings never seems to come together like it should.  And I'm pretty sure this places makes their dough from scratch, so the problem is somehow in the cooking process, not the ingredients.)

Fall in Daegu

 

Sam Prekop, "Above Our Heads"

Can The Sea and Cake or any variation thereof do wrong?  I don't think so.

Summer can run a little long here in lurvely Daegu, but safe to say as of today there's that slight crispness in the air which means fall is almost here.

And I know I write this same post every year, but after the hellish blast furnace of Daegu summer there really is a slight smile on my face walking to work, and taking the extra-long way home and not turning into a ball of sweat.  I sleep with all my apartment windows wide open.

Soon enough the hills around northern Daegu will start browning, then yellowing and redding and oranging.

And I know I've said this before but this is probably my last fall in South Korea.  My dad needs full-time assistance now.  He can't drive.  He lives in the middle of nowhere.  His "girlfriend" is threatening to leave him.  (And that's probably for the best.)

So I'm going to try and appreciate every damn day I have left in Korea, until this February when my current contract finishes up.

And for what it's worth, winter isn't so bad here either.  But it ain't fall.