A Day In The Life

As time goes on, you get a little more comfortable with your surroundings. I've managed to get a good handle on my job to a point where I know what I'm doing, allowing me to be more carefree. This week at work I started sketching during some down time and one thing lead to another. The end result was a cartoon of a typical day in class. It shows a teacher in a Korean classroom where the students are shouting the things that they yell every time you see them.


Allow me to give a little explanation to the quotes that you're reading on the image. My students constantly call me fat, not enough to break my self esteem though. They love blue eyes and it always impresses them when I open my eyes real wide. I think they believe anyone that doesn't have black hair and black eyes is handsome. Or when I announce a homework assignment they'll shout that I'm handsome to try and get out of it, it doesn't work. The kids always want to play games and they'll let you know during the whole class. 진짜 (pronounced chin-cha) translates to "really?", picture yourself saying it in a disappointed fashion. Whenever students are done with an in class assignment they will get your attention by saying "finish-ie", always with the "ie" sound at the end of it, I make fun of them because of it. Their hobbies or anything they do that is entertaining is never just "fun" it's always "funny" and the younger students apparently hope everyday is sunny. All students have cellphones equipped with a dictionary for all those tough words to figure out, they always ask before using them. Daily Bridge is a detention for the misbehaved students, I would threaten them with this by writing their names on the board, after two checks you're staying late. 김 아담 (pronounced kim ah-dahm) translates to "kim adam", my giving Korean name from some students and I'm delicious. Also, I'm constantly teaching kids how to write essays, they'll get it one day.

Locked Love and Lasting(?)

Could you think of a better way to show your affection for someone than climbing a mountain 262 meters, tackling great feats with your lover to lock up a lock on a mountain, signifying a binding of each other together forever and throwing away the key to symbolize that you're locked in and will never be apart? Well yeah, I'm sure you probably could think of a more original way to do something of the sort. But many couples flock to South Korea's 남산 (Namsan; or South Mountain) to bind a love between them to ensure its existence.















When I say "many couples", I'm underestimating it. Hundreds and hundreds of locks are left dangling from the gates that protect visitors from slipping off the edge. All inscribed in sharpie with devoted words of dedication. An overwhelming amount of lovebirds from around the world looking for a secure sense of romance. This comes as no surprise but the mountain does not hold any mystical powers of establishing an enduring love, as I've read, the management has actually witnessed repeat offenders at the mountains surface trying their luck again to lock in with a different mate.

However, even if you're living the single life these days the mountain still provides something that you may be proud of doing on your own or with friends. The North Seoul Tower stands high on this particular mountain and offers relief from the rushing buses and crowded walkways of downtown. Being 479 meters above sea level at its peak, spending the 8,000 Won for the elevator ride to the third floor observation deck of the tower will bestow on you a view of central Seoul that leaves you in awe. Day or night standing atop gazing at the urban Korean life down below as the city folk sit, drink their Soju and chew their samgyeopsal. You stand there over millions of people with your imagination in gear creating stories for the dwellers under you.

Wandering Out of Buffalo

Before coming to the Korean peninsula, much thought was tossed around in my mind if it would be the right decision or not. With no question, it's a big decision to just pack up your things leave your friends and family behind even if it is just for one year, especially if you're never been abroad before. Leaving what you're comfortable with, what you've known so perfectly for the majority of your life and depending on how you perceive it, a year could be a long time or seem like a very short time. Things like that can't really be answered until you actually get to your destination and start living the experience. If you hate it, time could drag and obviously if you enjoy it, the time will go a bit quicker. Just one example of the questions that rush through your head before inking the contract.

But if you think about it, would you really not want to have the opportunity to see other parts of the world? I couldn't stand thinking that way. Grow up, live and die in Buffalo. Not that there is anything wrong with it, some people have very successful meaningful lives living in one city their whole life. I'm just not one of those lucky ones, I didn't have much going on in Buffalo. I was trapped at an unsatisfying office job, trying to pursue journalist opportunities within the city for resume fodder and thinking about graduate school. All of those aspects in life are a recipe for frustration and an urge for distraction. Teaching abroad was on the back burner of my brain months before I actually considered going for it. I've heard about it through friends and family, always hearing positive things. However, hearing the good things didn't exactly make me feel any better about it, I mean someone has to not like it, right?

My curiosity finally hooked me in and I finally decided to send in the papers to get things started. It took about three months the finalize everything. Going through the obnoxious bureaucratic steps of sending criminal records reports, getting authentications, certifications, apostilles and sending them from departments of county to other county departments to the department of state to Korea was rather redundant. Meeting with the Korean consulate in New York City was the final step, they would finalize my working visa and in a couple weeks I'd be shipped to South Korea to teach English.

During my recruitment all I knew is that I wanted to teach in Seoul or close to Seoul. The first interview was the first job that was offered to me in Gimpo and I accepted it. Gimpo, which is considered the "country side" by some Koreans that I've met, is approximately an hour away from the hot spots in the country's capital. It may seem like a long time to travel but isn't a big deal at all. The hagwon (학원) where I'm employed is Avalon English, where I'm going to spend the next 10 months of my English teaching career.

Hagwons in Korea are for profit academies utilized to give children further education in their choice subject. Mainly, hagwons offer subjects like math, foreign languages, arts, music or science. These kids come to these private academies directly after getting their public school education. They are constantly being educated all day long. One misconception that I had before coming to Korea was that teachers are highly respected. I can't necessarily say it's not entirely true but kids are kids. They want to play, fool around and talk to their friends. So they come into these academies exhausted and at times hard to grasp on to their full attention.

Avalon has this corporate feel to it that I'm just not really in to but from what I've heard Avalon is one of the top rated hagwons for English in Korea. It's expected to be the best and so I assume it's one of the most expensive. Parents are paying for their children to come there and since they are the ones paying they are the ones that we are to keep happy. I quivered from hearing one of the Korean teachers title them almost hauntingly as "our precious customers". There's definitely a tough balance to uphold at a hagwon. Parents want their kids to work hard and make sure the text books that they shell out cash for are filled in completely. As I mentioned before kids are kids, they want to play and have fun, if you're a kid being lectured all day long filling in a boring workbook, you're going to go home and whine about it . This causes a chain reaction of your approval rating to dwindle, causing you to shift from educator to entertainer. After the swift shift of roles the kids start enjoying themselves a little more after the parents complain that their child isn't happy there. Then the books start to become a little more incomplete causing the parents to become unhappy. It's a strange cycle. It could be quite annoying depending where your academic standards lie. Do you want to be portrayed as an educator or a foreigner coming to jump through hoops?

Despite the queer algorithm of parent and student pleasing, coming to teach English in Korea was a good decision. The sense of camaraderie between foreigners here is awesome and you meet a ton of new people every weekend in Seoul. I'm finally stumbling upon live music, something that I've missed ever since leaving my hometown. I'm also getting into the experience, learning the language, culture and seeing some things people might not always have the opportunity too. Two months here and I'm already wondering if I were to come back to Buffalo (besides the obvious), what would it be for?

Love Your Water

It really strikes the curiosity when digging up trash that washed ashore on a lake or creek. You could imagine yourself sort of a domesticated archeologist. Where did this come from? How did it end up here? All this dreck has a story. Of course some debris is more interesting than others, a plastic bag you fish out isn't going to make you wonder as much as a ceiling fan. But if you think about it, at one point it served some sort of purpose for someone. What will we fish out next? Questions that I'm sure arise for the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper organization as they set out for their biannual shoreline sweeps.

For the past twenty years the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper organization has made efforts to dig the trash and tidy up all your local waterways and lakes. With goals to make cleaner water for the environment and comfortable viewing for better scenery the riverkeepers recruit local volunteers who take pride in their community. The Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper shoreline sweep is a part of the Great American Cleanup, which is an annual nationwide attempt between March 1st and May 31st to get people involved in cleaning up their communities. And it seems to be catching on, according to the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper website Spring of 2009 proved to have the largest amount of volunteers to date. With numbers totaling around 1300 people, volunteers came out to show their support and sweep through their 37 designated locations in the Buffalo Niagara region.

The Spring 2010 shoreline sweep was my second time volunteering for this event. I had first heard about it in Fall 2009 through a facebook invite. Both times I've volunteered has been for the Hoyt Lake location. It seemed like a good idea despite the 8:30 am Saturday morning commitment tied to it. But the way I figured, I frequent the park a lot whether it be walking with a friend or cruising through it on bicycle, so of course why not give back a little bit. If you're looking for something entertaining to do and for some self satisfaction this shoreline sweep is a good option. Go down there with friends, make new ones, amuse the people around you with your findings. It's a great start to your day and you're getting the satisfaction of doing a positive thing for your community. Each sweep runs for a short three hours, though this seasons was cut an hour short due to the freezing weather conditions.

After the sweep volunteers are invited to the American Legion Post on Amherst Street for a cook out. Hot dogs, chips, and cookies are laid out for volunteers to devour after a days work. Rock folk duo Left On Red provided music entertainment for the crowd as they ate and shared conversation. Organizers then amused the crowd by showing off the most interesting finds of the day such as a doll, stop signs, shopping carts, a part of a shotgun, and even a ceiling fan still pretty much intact and looking like new. Majority of the interesting trash was dug out of the Scajaquada Creek, which from what I hear accumulates the most garbage out of all the locations. Tokens of appreciation are given out also to some children volunteers encouraging them for a job well done. Prizes including tee shirts, hats, and framed historic Buffalo prints.

Their slogan "Love Your Water" (which seemed an appropriate title for this entry) sums it up and is printed on the free tee shirts and cups you receive for extending a hand. They're raising awareness to the community to take some pride in their parks and waterways. Making it so it eventually doesn't become an eyesore. The city can only employ so many people for the parks and I'm sure could use the extra hands in keeping it preserved. Trash will never go away, but there is an appropriate place for it. We should all make the effort to be conscious of keeping the city we live in a clean, comfortable place.

The biannual shoreline sweeps are only part of what the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper organization does. They also participate in other local events which you can learn about at their website www.bnriverkeeper.org. I would encourage to check it out, you can even view a tally of items and the number of pounds of trash dug out of the water in Western New York and combined with the whole New York State.

Extreme Community Take Over

As all are very aware the Buffalo, New York edition of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition aired on television network ABC Sunday night. It was the talk of the town back in November when they started filming and has just been revived due to its airing. Hundreds of Buffalonians tuned in to witness what their city was portrayed like for a national audience. I had a chance to watch a good majority of the show as I was at my mother's house and she wouldn't let me keep the NFC Championship game on. The community was shaken up by this a bit as there were some points pointed out by a number of cynics, skeptics and critics alike.

If anyone has heard or watched this show before you're aware of their routine. You have to keep in mind that it is on television and television does not exactly portray reality to the most honest degree. This show is scripted and edited to be overly dramatic and to tug at its viewers heartstrings. People like to watch it for that reason, they like to be entertained with the notions of an extreme omni-good non-conflicted world. Which is fine, I'm all about charity and helping out. The show did its job and showed Buffalo in a light that looked really good and I'm sure people who watched this in Arkansas thought "Wow, what a great group of people they have der in Buffalo." Which I completely agree with, we have an excellent community, strong and faithful to fellow neighbors.

Here's how the episode went, Delores Powell moved here from Jamaica for a better life with her family. She purchased a house on Buffalo's west side for twelve thousand dollars not realizing it was falling in on itself. Delores soon found out that the house was on the demolition list and was soon to be knocked down. She tried contacting the seller, he fled the city, she was stuck twelve thousand dollars gone and no money to bring the house up to code to save it. The house was a mess, the foundation was crumbling, no hot water, no sink in the bathroom and holes in the floor. This is the kind of stuff the people at Extreme Makeover crave. It's no wonder they chose to come to Buffalo and completely 'change the lives' of this family.

In this particular episode the Extreme Makeover team decided to not only build this family a new home but fix up the neighboring houses and clean up the block. They repainted, built new porches, cleaned up the yards and gardens for the neighbors. A record breaking amount of volunteers showed up for this cause to help out their neighbors on Buffalo's west side. A big question that raises from this is, where are all of these volunteers now? Or even where were all of them before? Now that the television cameras left, so have they. It seems as if just because a national television show comes to Buffalo everyone just jumps on the bandwagon to help out. Why aren't these people still giving up their time to make an extra change and effort in this city? Television cameras seem to have an intoxicating effect on people and they'll do anything as long as they're recognized by a larger number of people. If this wasn't a national show and something on public access, I guarantee that amount of people would not show up to help Buffalo's west side. Granted though you need to take into consideration that the Extreme Makeover team definitely has a lot more publicity and recognition than someone with a public access show. A lot more funding for promotion to get the word out about the project. As I said before though, television doesn't portray reality to the most honest degree and in reality we don't have that many people to spend their time and energy to reconstruct the whole city.

Perhaps the most scandalous part of this episode was Canisius College's "generous donation" of a full scholarship to everyone in the family, all six of them even the mother. At the beginning of this episode I did think to myself that the kids in this family were pretty ambitious, with one mentioning he wanted to be an architect and one of his sisters saying she wanted to be a lawyer. But, doesn't anyone think that it's a little much to give? Canisius is not a cheap school to attend and probably one of the better schools around to get your education. And they just give it to this family for nothing? Sure that's great and very generous but doesn't it question the integrity of their educational system? Education should be more of a quest and challenge. What if these kids aren't even smart enough to get into the school and take the classes there? They should have offered something a little less and had them work for the rest, more of a boost to start their education and not a free ride.

I took a drive down Massachusetts street today just to check it out. I noticed the house, but almost drove by it. The extreme team definitely did a good job making that street look completely different on screen. I couldn't tell where it was driving up through it. It's still the same old west side only with a newer looking house on the block. There's still a little bodega on the corner with some hoodlums hanging around outside and trash blowing around in the street. You really have to wonder if all the effort will prove worth it. Will the Powell's keep up with the maintenance? Or will the weight of the surrounding neighborhood force it to crumble again over the years? Regardless, it is fun when Buffalo has the spotlight shined on them for something other than our sports teams or scandal. Everyone in the community gets a little giddy because of the pride we carry and if you say you don't, you're lying. Maybe this will get people more involved with community efforts, but they did do this back in November and since then I haven't heard or seen any efforts or changes. It is the cold winter now so possibly when the sun starts to shine again and we have some milder temps? But I do doubt it, and only because so much time has passed and many people tend to move on to other ambitions. I am glad this city was shown as a good community, at least we had that despite the overly dramatic tendencies of the show. Or did it just look that way because of the editing?

Inner City Pressure

Upon watching this film I expected it to be the ol' poor battle, black versus white inner city documentary that you could probably get in any poor city in America. Two young Buffalonians, Addison Henderson and Korey Green, hook up together to explore the crime and poverty in Buffalo after a murder. Their linkage is a bit unique, Addison being a friend of the murdered and Korey who was a friend of the murderer. This sparked the endeavor to really break down as to why murders happen and the crime rate is so high.

I realize that this could be any city. One might argue that it's making Buffalo look worse than it is. But, I think the filmmakers perspectives were to show what really goes on IN BUFFALO. I read a comment on the where I watch the film (http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/the_forgotten_city/) and it read that it could be any city, well yes they're right but Henderson and Greens' vision was to show a reality that the people of Buffalo in the inner city deal with. A reality that many aren't aware of. Every so often we do read in the paper or hear on the news of a murder or shooting on the east side but don't realize that it's a day to day thing.

The film is low budget so you have to expect some of the blunders that were in it. At the beginning of the film Green mutters "I ask myself, what would've happened if the Bills won the Super Bowl? Maybe we wouldn't be considered a cursed city. But we didn't, we lost four straight." I didn't quite understand his linkage at that point on how football would effect the cities poverty and crime level. Is he implying that if the Bills won a Super Bowl that crime, racism and poverty levels would be down? I don't think that the Bills losing any Super Bowl has any major effect on the cities downward spiral. Also, there was a part in the film where Henderson and Green travel to Toronto, Canada to speak with the people about Buffalo there. Their conclusion was that people of Toronto don't really know much about Buffalo crime and poverty issues. And I ask, why should they though? We're a neighboring city but we're in a different country and why should they worry about the problems that Buffalo is facing? I'm sure if we asked Henderson and Green about the crime or poverty issues in Detroit or Cleveland they wouldn't know much about those cities. At least the people of Toronto don't associate Buffalo with just crime and poverty. After asking questions on the street Henderson and Green proceeded to crash a rally that the people of Canada were having about their troops in Afghanistan and shouted about the problems of Buffalo. I mean come on, I care about this city as much as the next Buffalonian but crashing another country while they're rallying about there own political issues and yelling about Buffalo's issues? They're supposed to be representing this city and that just looked ridiculous.

Henderson and Green are kids from the streets with a vision. Being from the neighborhood they have the opportunity to interview people that actually live in the troubled locations and are even invited into some of the homes of drug dealers, addicts and criminals. So despite of the blunders in the film you really get the perspective of how these people live on a daily basis. It is a pretty scary site. Women sitting around the house sharing a crack pipe complaining about the economy and dysfunctional relationships with their families, drug dealers houses where weapons lie around with a naked woman in which the occupant of the house explains "that's for all of us" referring to her, along with people just walking around in the street with guns holstered in the belts on their pants. To my surprise all the people they interview suggested that they wanted a different lifestyle, the addicts, drug dealers and criminals. They want better for themselves and the community they live in. Which is great, turns out they don't have a complete "fuck the man" attitude that I figured most of them did. But the question is what are they doing to change it around? Many of them want it handed to them and play the blame game. They also are so locked in their grooves of routine with the drugs and way of life that it must be hard to get out of. I would suggest since there isn't much money in the community that instead of doing the drugs to feel good or to kill time, maybe use that time to learn a trait or skill that could be bartered between neighbors. The barter of skills could produce a stronger thriving community without the use of money. There are also free resources available that could help the people with learning to read, so they could go to the library, learn a trait from a book. And sad to say it but you really need to question the integrity of the people living in the poor neighborhoods. Dealing drugs is a lot easier to do than taking the time to learn something new. Drugs sell themselves and you don't need to learn sales or marketing for that. They need to take responsibility and start making a change, the city of Buffalo doesn't have much money as it is they can't just start dumping it into somewhere that looks grim and going no where.

Could they live a normal life if giving the opportunity to? Their slogan was "Jobs Not Jails" suggesting more funding should be placed into producing more jobs and not into more jails. But could it possibly be because the people living there leave the city leaders no choice but to put more funding in jails because the people living there put no effort into a better way of life? If the people of the community got off the drugs and started applying themselves, could more jobs be available to them to hire or get hired? So many questions arise from this problem.

The documentary itself is worth watching if you're from or live in Buffalo. It opens your eyes to a world most of us have not witnessed. Despite the lack of writing and good interviewing questions they do have some good insight from scholars, teachers and even the mayor. The footage they show you of the inner city will make you think, is there hope for this part of the city? Will it ever get better?

Yes, Everything Except For The Reading Part

In Buffalo New York you would probably expect a number of people struggling to read or having trouble finding places to learn English, I mean it is a pretty poor city. As a city with a very affordable cost of living we have a high rate of refugees coming to settle in our city and obviously being from a different country English isn't taught or really used there. It is a big problem in the city as well as all over America, not only for the illiterate people themselves but for the city too. In this country if you can't read or speak English it could be very detrimental to your way of life. You would be unable to vote for government, figure out directions to a destination, read a manual to operate something, get a job, read job postings to get the job or even read some great philosophy books. It's something we don't realize because being literate it just flows with our everyday life. Picture if you couldn't read or speak English how lost would you feel? I couldn't imagine it, not being able to write, to transfer my creative thought to a hard copy. It would be horrible.

The definition of literacy according to the National Assessment of Literacy (NAAL) is using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve goals, and to develop knowledge and potential. Now I'd say that is a pretty hardy definition of literacy and rightfully so. We shouldn't just take the easy way out and suggest that if people can read at a second grade level or read at all label them literate. Well after all they can read right? No, people should be able to use information obtained from written document and apply it. But unfortunately that isn't always the case and it sometimes not the persons fault, maybe they were born into a very poor family, schools and education resources weren't always available to them. Then there are the other cases of illiteracy, where the little jerk kids don't care about their education blow it off because it isn't the cool thing to do. Then they go on becoming drug dealers or contributing to the crime rate in your city because that's all they know how to do. Or their parents don't care when they're young and the parents don't even know how to read themselves creating a sliding effect of illiterate people.

So, with future plans to go to the Peace Corps I started on a journey to not only benefit the Buffalo community with this issue but also to benefit my volunteer portion of the application. With teaching English being my main focus I came across two organizations in Buffalo that teach English to the less fortunate. My first stop was The International Institute of Buffalo located on Delaware Avenue. I set up a meeting with one of the volunteer coordinators there to get more information and to see if it was a good fit for me. Coming to find out that they seem to be a little more intense of a program there usually requiring a little previous experience. They did say I could come in for four hours a week only in the afternoon. Mostly because the guy who runs the afternoon class is a little more lenient to people with no ESL experience. Bottom line I couldn't really work it out with my work schedule and I didn't know how comfortable I was without experience. A friend of mine then turned me onto the second place, Literacy Volunteers. Currently located on Main Street in Buffalo's historic Squier Mansion but moving to the central library in a couple months due to lack of funding. This organization recruits volunteers and actually trains them for either ESL or Basic Reading tutoring. So needless to say I was a little more comfortable knowing I would be trained to teach English.

Fortunately we live in a city where people do care about their fellow neighbor. One woman that is starting up the training actually drove from the south towns to the city to volunteer. All people with different motivations of why they are there stemming from "My foreign parents didn't have this opportunity when they came over. So I want to give back." to "I'm retired looking for something to do." or "I love to read and want to share the joy I get from it." Basically the cliched remarks from everyone. I'm there because I think people should know the language, they could pass it on to their family members and help them with everyday life and be functional in society. They will be able to contribute to the community more. And that's all for the greater good, right? One thing that struck my curiosity is how these people who can't read or speak English know who to find the place? It has to be a more word of mouth strategy to get people in there. You can't exactly hand out flyers or post ads.

Regardless, this should be an interesting venture. Another cool thing to do around Buffalo for all those people who complain that there isn't anything to do around here. I don't think you even need a degree to volunteer at the Literacy Volunteers. They teach you and if you can speak and read English you should be able to teach it.