CCAP Caravan

“It is already one thing to be happy in the company of children; To be genuinely humbled by their hopes and dreams as I experience life with them is another...”

It may be because my stay in South Korea is already numbered, but for whatever reason it is, I find no excuse in not expressing my sincerest gratitude to UNESCO’s Cross-Cultural Awareness Program (CCAP) for including me in their roster of volunteers for this year’s caravan.

Not everyone is privileged to be at arm’s reach to what this diverse world has to offer, and the CCAP caravan is simply the perfect wheel to be close to where the most curious minds are willing to be opened. So armed with my curtain poles and plastic cups (yeehah!), I went onboard with the whole UNESCO crew to Gangwon Province for a two-day cultural immersion.

I have earlier met up and coordinated with my interpreter and co-teacher for this special cultural class, for there was just so much excitement that I would not want to put to waste. I had to remind myself that even though I will get the perks of traveling and seeing a new place, it is the students’ learning that I should put more weight on.

After four hours of travel, we finally reached the mountainous and foggy municipality of Dogye and headed to the all-girls middle school to prepare for our cultural classes. The bannered countries include Japan, India, Germany, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, and the Philippines. We were promptly welcomed by the school head and the teachers, and were even rendered a dance by the students before we went to set-up our own separate classes.


DAY 1- FIRST ROUND of the PHILIPPINE CULTURAL CLASSES

Richard, a fellow “kababayan” from Cebu, spearheaded the first cultural class. His jolly and funny aura sure drove the girls to a number of laughs. It wasn’t hard for our expert teacher-coordinator to connect to the students, given his fluency in the Korean language. Guided by his PowerPoint presentation, he showcased the Philippines through what commonly defines the country— monkey-eating eagles, yellow bananas, active volcanoes, and halo-halo, among many others. He also made the class interactive by giving prizes to correct answers to his short quizzes.

The class progressed from video-aided lectures to fun dance demonstrations that sure put my resourcefulness to the extreme challenge. The Philippines has long prided itself of its skillful and graceful folk dances adorned with equally traditional materials like bamboo poles and glassed candles. While these materials are a little hard to provide, the curtain poles for the Tinikling (traditional dance) and the plastic cups for the Pandanggo sa Ilaw (another traditional dance) served to be humble, yet extremely resourceful alternatives. The girls had fun balancing the cups on their heads and jumping over the tapped beats of the two poles.

HOME-STAY ACQUAINTANCE IN A FUN CAVE ADVENTURE
AND FOOD-FILLED TEMPLE STAY

After that first round of formal CCAP classes, it was time for everyone to chill and enjoy the rest of the afternoon off by going around the mountains and mists that define the province of Gangwon-do. School teachers, foreign volunteers, and local students joined together on a hike to the famous Hwanseon Cave. This was where I got to meet Haeri, my home-stay partner. Her family has been kind enough to offer their house for me and Yuree, my KIV (Korean Interpreter Volunteer), as we intended to spend the night at the province. It definitely made me enjoy the very steep monorail ride more, as well as the steel bars and stairs that we had to walk on inside the cave. It sure was a pleasure talking and bonding with my Korean student and new-found friend.

After the long and dark stroll inside the cave, our tummies were rightfully replenished by a mouth-watering array of ‘temple’ food. I have never really appreciated eating vegetables until I got to South Korea. No wonder monks in the temple live longer… it is because they live simply and they eat healthily.

THE HOME-STAY EXPERIENCE

The home-stay experience will probably be the most meaningful activity in the whole caravan for me, because I was showered with such generosity and kindness by a Korean family. Home-stays allow us to take a peek into the most mundane, yet genuinely-lived lives of families from a different culture, and let us understand and appreciate its uniqueness.

It was indeed a very homey abode, with a kind mother who prepared well for our one-night stay. After fetching and driving us to their house, Haeri’s mother let us use one of her daughter’s bedrooms (Haeri’s older sister’s room). She also let us eat small cherries, which she got from their backyard, as we spent the rest of the night sharing stories and experiences. I couldn’t be more thankful to have Yuree around to help me relay what I wanted to tell the mother and what I needed to say whenever the mother asked me questions. I also feel grateful for the interest that they showed in wanting to know more about my country just as well.

The night ended with a very much enjoyed and heartfelt talk with Hae-ri, Hae-Yon (older sister), and Yu-ree. These girls sure made me miss my own sisters back in the Philippines as we also used to curl up in the bedroom to have occasional “girl talks”. I would like to think that despite my little language handicap, I was able to get myself across in the same way that I get to sink their messages into my heart.

I mentioned about being humbled by somebody’s hopes and dreams at the beginning of this little story, and it is actually from the very strong-willed and independent dream of Hae-Yon to get into the best school for her education. There was just too much passion that dwelled into her. It must be from hearing Yuree’s own feat in getting into one of the best universities in Seoul, despite spending most of her school life in Daegu, a province in South Korea. The foreign face that she saw in me might also have contributed, in letting her realize how cultural diversity can go and how much there is beyond the foggy mountains that wall her Gangwon-do hometown.

DAY 2- SECOND ROUND of the PHILIPPINE CULTURAL CLASSES

There was littler time allotted for the second class which I led this time around. In trying to spark more interest from the Philippine culture, I shared some tourist spots in the country, discussed the connecting history between the Philippines and South Korea, and compared the lives of Filipino and South Korean students. The heavier themes were nonetheless balanced out by teaching the students a common Filipino game that they enjoyed. I have always regarded Korean students as generally shy, but it did not really take long before we brought out the perky sides in them with that game that prompted some ladies to shake their hips in front of everyone.

GANGNEUNG DANOJE FESTIVAL

We had to end our enjoyable overnight stay at Dogye Middle School, but the rewards to a successful cultural caravan did not finish too soon. The volunteers and CCAP staff participated in a festival in Gangneung, another municipality in Gangwon-do.

It was a fine Saturday afternoon that I personally enjoyed with my co-CEV’s and KIV friends. The festival was of course jam-packed with people who wanted to see a number of “sameulnori” performances. There were booths that gave visitors or tourists several Korean traditional activities to try out like fan, mask, and tile paintings. There were also free tteok’s and makgoelli’s for anyone who can wait for their turns in the long lines.

THE WHOLE CARAVAN EXPERIENCE

The whole CCAP caravan experience is a testament to such fleeting fulfillment of reaching out and contributing to a more open exchange and dialogue of life and culture. Apart from traveling and being able to set foot on a new place, there is that special kind of hype that comes with meeting people, making friends, and strengthening personal relationships. The cultural exchange volunteers (CEVs) do not only get to teach, but oftentimes, are also being taught one of the greatest lessons of their lives.

Thank you CCAP and UNESCO!

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On Airports

I just got home from sending-off a friend at South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, and realized that I’ve been to the airport more than I have been to any place in South Korea in less than six months. That’s not considering my workplace which will obviously take the number one spot in my top recurring destinations in South Korea. That’s four times so I could fetch people arriving here, and four times to send them back home to the Philippines.

Okay fine, so my weekly trips to the church may take the real second spot, but I guess what I am just trying to get here is the airport’s just been too much, and I don’t seem to like the feeling of it.

But to set the record straight, it’s not like I have qualms over welcoming or sending-off people at the airport, nor such tasks have been much of a disturbance to me.

I had these thoughts upon getting back to the apartment because as I was walking my way to the AREX tonight (the train connecting the airport to Seoul’s metro rail system), I had the same pangs of sadness, which doesn’t really feel good when you’ve just been from a good kind of high from seeing family and friends who came over to visit and tour with you.

It’s a long walk from the airport departure grounds to the AREX area, if I may tell, and it’s usually that dark, wide and barren area in the airport, so those moments of sadness can really take a toll on you.

I never liked airports. My childhood memory has branded it as such a taboo, a place for sure- ball traumas. Visits to the airport for me meant the end of fun weekend mall trips and complete family dinners. It meant no more chocolates on the fridge and no more splurge of new stuffs to be fancied from a dad who’s willing to give it all. It’s because dad needs to go back to work, in a place far away from home. The airport is, always in my mind, the one who can always take my dad away.

I remember telling myself one time when I was a kid that I will never marry a soldier, a pilot, a seaman, or anyone who has to be away for a considerable amount of time for work. A week or two for some work-related trips may do, but I said I would not want to apply the term “monthly allotment” to my everyday life. Being the kid that I was, I cared so much about the uneasiness that such situation may bring, devoid of the real painful reason why so many people, including my father, needed to do it.

Never did I realize that I have actually tried to dodge on being the one who’s left behind by being the one who needs to leave. But here’s the thing. What made it painful for us family before was that we cannot afford to visit our father in that faraway workplace. Now that I have people who can afford to visit me, I still get that feeling of being left behind.

Just my two cents of emotional rollercoaster high.

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The Future

Everyone in my workplace is so stoked to predicting the future. They want to be the one who gets ahead with what’s ahead. It’s that unforeseeable future that forces all to come up with mile-long mathematical models and an equally unfathomable gut feel of things to break it. In knowing the future, they get a sense of assurance from the unsure and either avoid any pitfalls or win over some advantage.

I caught on the online website of a magazine called the FUTURIST, which basically blabs everything about forecasts, trends, and ideas of the future. I must say that the list to follow are some of the most (laughably) fascinating things to expect, if ever. Read on, for I found them so fun to imagine. Who doesn’t want telepathies and artificial micro- islands? The ET’s are just too scary to think, though.

Top 10 Forecast for 2010
(I know it’s already almost half of 2010, but hey, they seem to be applicable, still in the next coming years).

1. Your phone will tell you when you’re in love. Mobile devices are enabling new spontaneous connections in real-world settings, including love connections. One day soon, your phone will play matchmaker, recommending that you introduce yourself to someone nearby whose online profile displays tastes or passions similar to yours. Impossible? An iPhone application called Serendipity is currently being commercialized by MIT researchers. —Erica Orange, “Mining Information from the Data Clouds,” July-Aug 2009, p. 17

2. In the design economy of the future, people will download and print their own products, including auto parts, jewelry, and even the kitchen sink. Rapid prototyping, or 3-D printing, and devices like the RepRap self-reproducing printer are allowing people to design, customize, and print objects from their home computers. In the future, cheaper versions of these devices could disrupt manufacturing business models, resulting in far cheaper products individually tailored to every customer’s desire. —Thomas A. Easton, “The Design Economy,” Jan-Feb 2009, p. 43

3. The era of brain-to-brain telepathy dawns. Neuroscientist David Poeppel says that telepathic communication between brains is possible, so long as “communication” is understood to be electromagnetic signals and not words. Technologies like magnetoencephalography, which pick up the various signals the brain sends out, could be used to pick up specific signals and convey them. If you could train your brain to signal in Morse code, sensors in a helmet could pick up the message and send it to another helmet. —Patrick Tucker, “Reinventing Morality,” Jan-Feb 2009, p. 23

4. Tomorrow’s inventors will spend their days writing descriptions of the problems they want to solve, and then letting computers find the solutions. Invention programs like Gregory Hornby’s “evolutionary algorithm” have been used to invent real-world objects, such as a special space antenna, based entirely on engineering specifications. Continued advances will increasingly rely on cross-fertilization between the fields of biology and computer science. As a result, we will develop not only software that can produce better inventions but also inventions that are able to adapt to their environments. —Robert Plotkin, “The Automation of Invention,” July-Aug 2009, p. 24

5. Micronations built on artificial islands will dramatically shift the face of global politics. New forms of government and unusual political models will begin to emerge, including corporate nation-states, religious states, tax-free zones, single-function countries, cause-related countries, and even rental nation-states, where organizations can “rent a country” for a year or two to test a specific project. —Thomas Frey, “Own Your Own Island Nation,” May-June 2009, p. 30

6. Young people will read more, and the old will play more video games. According to the 2007 American Time Use Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed some surprising findings. In 2007, adults aged 75 and older spent nearly twice as much time playing video games (about 20 minutes) as they did in 2006. Teens aged 15–19 spent twice as much time reading as they did before (about 14 minutes) and less time using a computer for games or casual surfing. —World Trends & Forecasts, Nov-Dec 2008, p. 14

7. Ammonia may become the fuel of choice for cars by 2020. As a candidate source for hydrogen used in fuel cells, ammonia (comprising one nitrogen and three hydrogen atoms) is plentiful, easier to liquefy than methane, and emits nitrogen rather than carbon, thus having fewer negative impacts on the climate. —J. Storrs Hall, “Ammonia, the Fuel of the Future,” Sep-Oct 2009, p. 10

8. Algae may become the new oil. According to researchers at a Department of Energy plant in New Mexico, single-celled microalgae, grown in pond water, produce a biofuel that is lead-free and biodegradable, emits two-thirds less carbon dioxide and other pollutants than gasoline, and can run any modern diesel engine. Even better, algae require only a fraction of the land area of biofuel-producing crops. —Robert McIntyre, “Algae’s Powerful Future,” Mar-Apr 2009, p. 25

9. Radical methods of altering the planet may be the only way to prevent the worst effects of climate change. Geoengineering may be inevitable because, even if humans could instantly end all greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures would continue to increase for the next 20–30 years, triggering feedback loops and more warming. Potential megascale geoengineering projects include sending space mirrors into orbit, sequestering carbon in the ground in biomass charcoal, and increasing the amount of carbon that the ocean can absorb by forcing plankton blooms in the seas. —Jamais Cascio, author of Hacking the Earth, reviewed by Bob Olson, July-Aug 2009, p. 51

10. The existence of extraterrestrial life will be confirmed or conclusively denied within a generation. New space missions and advanced computer technology could confirm the existence of extraterrestrials soon. Scientists using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have found that at least 20%—and perhaps as many as 60%—of Sun-like stars could have rocky planets. Next generation, AI-driven space probes may allow us to plot the location of every planetary body in the known universe. Among the more than 300 extra-solar worlds already discovered, probably one has some form of life, according to Dimitar Sasselov, an astronomer and director of Harvard University’s Origins of Life Initiative. —Gregory Georgiou, “The Real Life Search for E.T. Heats Up,” Nov-Dec 2008, p. 20

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A Day After the Elections

I should probably give the ex-president’s son the benefit of the doubt. Besides, as I have said, he’s never really been a bad guy to me-- just not much of a doer (so far) to fit the role of a president, when you got other candidates who have done more. Especially if it’s an economically lagging and impoverished country like the Philippines, competent economic management is vital. I mean, investors have long fled and no one would currently want to even think of the Philippines as a good buy. I may then need to bank on this man's supposed clean character and hope that this would eventually push the Philippines to its full potential.

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Election Day: The Lesser Evil Prevails

I suppose the “voting-for-the-lesser-evil” logic has prevailed. The Philippines has moved forward in automating this year’s elections, yet its ways of voting are still way too backward. Oligarchy and political dynasties still rule. Oh well.

For the record, I have nothing ill to speak about Ninoy Aquino who is currently leading the polls. I just don’t like the kind of emotion that the people poured onto the guy. It makes him the type who can be easily swayed. But hey, I may be too harsh.

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Why I Am Putting My Stakes on Gordon

My dear blog, please allow me to highlight my Philippines this time around. Thanks.

Tomorrow, the Filipinos will partake in what I feel is a very important right and obligation for them— voting in the presidential elections. I have already done my share of the “absentee voting” at the Philippine embassy in South Korea a week before. That marked just my second time to cast my vote, yet I feel the need to express my more independent stance on life-changing political decisions like these at this time around. I guess this is what getting out from under your parents’ skirts do to you, much so if life has recently allowed you to physically leave a country you desperately want to go back to in the hope of reliving it with more realizable hopes and dreams.

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On Taking Risks

I raved about Korea's fast internet service in my last post because I really wanted to see the movie that beat Avatar in the run for Oscar’s Best Picture and the director who beat James Cameron. I went ahead and took a copy using Torrent. I know, I am normally not in the loop, so I got to watch the movie only now. Haha.

Anyway, as to the winners of the 2010 Oscar’s, it’s the “Hurt Locker” for best movie and ex-wife of James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow for best director. Wow, that’s straight-in-your-face International Women’s Day that the world is celebrating on this date. Bigelow is said to be the first woman ever to win the “Best Director” title in the Oscar’s. Neat!

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Happy 25th or 27th, your call.

Unlike last year when I went panicky on how to go about in celebrating my birthday outside the country for the first time, I was more willing to let my 25th year on earth today pass by just like any ordinary day. I wasn’t as excited as how I would normally be, recalling the 23 times that I have celebrated it in the Philippines. And I have my reasons: (1) instant pre-occupation with life and work in South Korea, and (2) acceptance of the difference in birthday norms here and my home country.

I remember sharing my February-4 birthday last year with my male housemate, lucky that the moon told him to take that date, too. For this year though, my housemate’s birthday has moved away to a later date, which I think as of writing, he still has not quite figured out when.

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The New Year 2010 Post

Again, sorry for the lame title.

I am still wheezing my lungs out as I write this, having traveled from a hot afternoon in the Philippines to a freezing evening in South Korea four hours after. See how suddenly contradicting a person’s life could turn just like that? Here I am now in front of my laptop, contacting my parents via Yahoo messager to tell them that I got back safely to my residence here in South Korea. It’s just weird to think that how I am quietly coiled back to my room in Seoul right now actually feels like I have been this way all my life, when just four hours ago and the two weeks before that, I was sanely back to how I have always REALLY been... un-claustrophobic and more able to gas out from my always-laughing mouth. Put simply, back to my old, distinguishable self. Hahaha.

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My Back-to-Pinas Christmas

How does it really feel like going home for the holidays in the Philippines? Okay, it’s not like I have been in and out of the country for ten or twenty years to fully capture this whole “homecoming” and “balikbayan” feeling, but I sure have my personal regard for this sappy home-country longings and returns…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

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My Typical Emotional Rollercoaster Ride

Sundays have primarily been a church appointment and a Korean language class for me— occasionally alternating on the time that I actually hear the mass (9am- Myeongdong Cathedral / 1.30pm- Hyehwa church / 7.30 pm- Sogang University’s chapel) and sometimes escaping my afternoon Hangeul language sessions when laziness simply strikes at me.

Some unusual air of enthusiasm seem to have breathed in me today though, to feel extra good about doing these same, old stuff. You know how it is when you’ve been doing things out of some habit or routine? Yeah, exactly just that. You kind of don’t take note of how significant they can actually turn out to be, especially if you have been doing them (1) out of sheer childhood practice and (2) just so you can chill out and meet people.

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Plain Vanilla Vent (Cough-Free)

My length of stay here in South Korea is long enough to mold and bring forth a child into this world, had I actually been a pregnant mother who arrived here last August. Recalling the nine months that I have wrestled for my independence in this country, I can now understand why and how I am able to have this time to do some thinking... or reflections, if I should get any deeper.

I just got back from a one-week vacation, thanks to the three days of sick leaves that I took on the working days that came in between the May 1 and May 5 holidays of this year (following the South Korean working calendar). Well, I must say that I have always been a smart ass in requesting for leaves in the office on “sandwich-ed working days” so I can have the luxury of calling these short leaves as ample vacation time.

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On My First Bookstore Trip

It’s a bookstore to me when it could have been a salon for the more normal women. And it’s a book on the racks when it could have been a haircut--- you know this cliché on the usual state of women when they actually decide to go to a salon alone to even have their hair razored for hell’s sake? Ha-ha. There. I just wouldn’t want to outrightly admit— I am at it again. D-------d. I’m just surprised to find out that I tend to be geeky when I am on a big D. Boo-hoo.

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Birthday Post

I know. Such a lame title above. Ha-ha.

“Are you at work today?”
“Yeah. I’m chatting with you in the office.”
“Tell everybody that it’s your birthday, so you can make it even for a half-day leave. Tell them it’s the Philippine working culture.”

And all I can do is hold back the giggles. “I am at the office”, I had to remind myself.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

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Intriguing Quotes

This is a sure Saturday slump that I am giving myself today, having decided to just stay inside our room in the officetel building. Serves me right I guess for tiring myself from last Saturday's hike in the mountains and this week's dreaded report presentation in the office. All I really wanted to do this whole day, as I have promised myself since last night, is pig out and be sober. Hahaha. As if there's a lot to take out from the fridge. Oh, anyway...

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High-Breed Brain Cells

A few minutes before lunch time today, one of the PhD Economist in the team that I am in approached me to correct himself.

"Remember the lecture that I gave to you a month before?"
"Oh yes, of course. What about it, Mr. Lee?"
"I said it's just a global slowdown, right? But I think it's a global recession already."

I saw three small dots at the end of his statement, waiting for it to be filled with an equally witty remark. "Oh, really?" And that was all I was able to say. Wahahaha.

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Hangnails

If you could actually see my hands, hangnails have grown that I play around in removing them, yet the real (hard core) nails have not been cut. Try to hold my hands and it would feel a little coarse and those little lumps brought about by the veins have protruded more. You can to look at me straight in the eye, but you’ll first notice those pores that have become more visible in that area near my nose, and you can already count on the pimple scars that have occupied my now eye-bagged face.

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Thanksgiving Buggers

Korea is celebrating one of its anticipated holidays from today until Monday. Chuseok or Hangawi is Korean’s very own version of the American Thanksgiving, and this is most emphasized by the time that these Koreans set to visit their ancestral hometowns and feast on the abundant harvest with the family.

As for new expats like me, with just a little over a month of stay here, I had to suffice myself with the goodies that the company gave each employee for the holiday—- a box full of ORION chips and cookies and biscuits to feel the spirit of the occasion. I have no family here to celebrate the holiday with.

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My Kind of Bed

South Korea is a sure more prosperous country, with a picture of wider streets and highways, faster trains coming to and fro in subway stations, as well as statuesque buildings housing Korean workaholics who constantly work in doubling their money and wealth. But these don’t exempt this country from the slightly unpleasant reality called poverty.

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What Am I Really Doing Here?

I don’t even know at times. I just constantly remind myself to plainly take whatever fate is slapping me with. EVEN THE UNFAVORABLE ONES.

I of course came to South Korea for work. Just like how a normal Filipino would treat outside-the-country endeavors. With current inflation hitting household pockets and business balance sheets, it would be impractical to say that it’s purely for fun or vacation. How I wish I were some old-aged Caucasian backpacker just out to squander all the money that his 401(k) is giving him. Hell no. But I am out to make my parents just like them, and so I am willing to take the risk, and the upright challenge and adventure that goes with it. I am in my twenties, done with school, and out to head on with anything to help paint my future, so I could give it all back to my parents who worked their asses out in letting me finish school. I am still on shaky waters, though.

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