I'm simultaneously excited and anxious about the election in America these days. Last Wednesday, I cast my absentee ballot via e-mail for Obama in Monroe County, Indiana. I really think he will be the better candidate this time, as most of you already know to be a complete understatement from me, and although we haven't ever talked much politics between us here at this blog, it's clear to me that, even apart from the wars, willful deception, and eroding of civil liberties within America under President Bush, that the Republicans must go.
The stories I had been hearing about the disasters in the American economy have finally come home to rest here in Korea, as they have in almost every economy in the world over the past few weeks. The other day I was trying to send US$150 home to mom so she could pay my storage facility bills and it cost me 233,000 Korean Won, or what would normally be around US$230. The Korean Won has devalued to the point that my nearly $2,000/month salary is now really more like $1,300/month. If I'm going to be bringing any money home at all when I change it all out in December, something is going to have to change, starting with failed American leadership.
Related to the election, I asked some of my 13 year-old Korean students on their internet homework who they thought would win the American election and got some humorous responses! I'll include a couple here:
"I think Obama will win the United States presidential elecion.
Yesterday, I saw the newspaper.
And I saw the news about United States presidential election.
Democrat Barack Obama looked calm and genial.
But Republican John McCain looked pressing.
So Obama will new United States president."
"I think 'Democrat Barack Obama' will be the USA's president.
Because Obama will be president, people won't racial discrimination anymore.
And Mcline is slandering Obama now.
That's very bad thing.
The president is representative of the country.
So the president have good personality.
So I think Obama will be president of the USA."
"오 바 마
O BAMA
you know that he had get more votes.
(I hope the black man will win.)
(I don't like women.)
(Plus, I don't hope that O BAMA will do the same thing as LEE MYUNG BAK please.)
And I think he is a good character.
(Don't you think women will be so fret?)
I hope very hope O B A M A please."*
*This guy's post is interesting for two reasons: 1st, it shows the Koreanized Hangul spelling of Obama (오바마) and, 2nd because it showcases this kid's unabashed sexism and apparent belief that Obama is still running against Hillary Clinton like back in the Democratic Primary!
ah-hahahaha! Lee Myung Bak is the current Korean president, an unpopular Conservative.
"Ahh.. Hi Jonathan
...I don't know that thing detail, but I write by my own knowledge
I think Obama will elected president because Obama is more friendly and popular name in Korea that mean Obama is more popular in the world (average)
I think so....
and Obama is will be reception policy
So I like Obama
But It can false think or false information!!
Bye Bye"
"..................huh?
Well, Let's start the main topic.
Nowadays, Amearica's vote result is getting 'hot potato.'
Because If McCain is elected, We could eat abnormal beef at least in 10 years.(...)
That means, if McCain is elected, Lee Myung Bak and McCain will play each other like child.(of course, it is black humor;한국말로 하면, Mc가 되면 2MB랑 짝짜꿍 잘 놀것이다.)It means, McCain has less support->Obama has more support->Obama will be elected.
conclusion is:
오 바 마
O BAMA."**
**This guy's post relates to the fact that all Koreans are generally terrified that American beef (which they only resumed importing again back in February after a ban since 2003) will expose them to "Crazy Cow" (a.k.a.-Mad Cow Disease), and the popularly-held belief that Korean Conservative Lee Myung Bak will work more closely with American Conservative John McCain in conspiring to make the Korean people eat "dangerous" beef indefinitely!
Anyways, those are just some of the more humorous and more well-informed opinions from the students, but they, like the adults here too, are curiously watching to see what America will do on November 4th. Personally, I'm with them in hoping that all Americans will cast a vote that strengthens the Korean Won (so I can keep some of the money I'm making over here!) and, to a lesser degree, so that the poor Koreans won't have to keep worrying about "Crazy Cows" rotting holes in their brains (with regards to that issue at least, sometimes I think that they already have!)
Monday, November 3, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Vietnam: First Night/Second Day: Hue
That night, after rushing back to the airport, I took a local flight from Hanoi to the 18th century capital city of Hue. Hue was the only city that the North Vietnamese were able to hold for more than a few days (in fact they held if for several weeks) after seizing it during the Tet Offensive. Bisected by the Perfume River, the city had a slower, prettier feel than Hanoi.
The view from my hotel balcony in the morning.
A view of the Perfume River from the back of a motorbike.
My first terrifying ride on a motorbike!
Bullet holes in the wall surrounding a tomb complex.
The path around the wall to the tomb complex. Kids kept coming out of the forest on the right side trying to sell us stuff.
There two of them are now! I could never figure out where they were coming from, there didn't seem to be any dwellings or modern buildings around the place.
They opened these gates only once, to carry the Emporer's body into the tomb. Haven't opened them again since.
Met this from London, Sabrina, later in the trip. She was interesting and we talked about politics.
There's our tour guide, speaking first in Vietnamese and then in English, to try to explain the things we're seeing.
There's the entrance again.
From whence we came...
This is the top of the Perfume River, formed by the joining of two lesser rivers.
Then we went to the second of 3 tomb complexes for the day...
Blending in...
Tour guide and people on the tour.
The Emporer buried here while he was still alive, before 1933 I think.
Then we went to a small stretch of road outside of Hue where the locals made art, fans, conical hats, and (pictured here) colorful incense.
The most important items for sale, however, were liquids. I drank a lychee juice and then I drank some sort of Lipton's tea I think. It was so hot outside...
Then we went to the third and final tomb complex.
Bill and Colleen Dee were an incredibly interesting couple. He fought around Saigon during the war after the Tet Offensive while his brother fought farther north. After the war at some point, he married his Canadian wife, Colleen, and eventually they decided to come back to Saigon and teach English to the kids, which they are currently doing. His brother has no plans to ever return. They promised me information about teaching in Vietnam, and I need to follow up on that and see how they are doing. We talked about a lot of stuff, especially history, current Vietnamese (and Korean) politics, and the war.
Me on the other side of the lunch table with Laura (I think?) and a woman who was doing college in Thailand but had come back to visit her homeland whose name I've forgotten.
Sabrina, Bill, and Colleen; interesting people all.
There were bullet holes in the elevated wooden part of this building. Apparently, the Americans were in there firing to the right back into the complex where the Communists were holed up.
Bill said that one of his big impressions of Vietnam before he went to war was a TV image of an American soldier and others pinned down just at the near side of the pictured bridge. He said the soldier stood up and ran somewhere else and something like his hat fell off, but that he seemed okay. Bill said he always wondered if that soldier had survived that battle, let alone the war. It was amazing to be in a place like this and to hear a story like that that took place in exactly this location.
The direction the Americans/ARVN were facing.
Crossing the bridge between some lotus ponds.
Fish feeding on something.
This reminds me of some cats I've had!
If you displeased the Vietnamese Emporer, apparently he had you boiled in one of these!
Bullet holes in the floor around the entrance to the mandarin's clothing area. I guess the Communists must have been inside this building at that point.
At this point in the day, my camera's battery started to die...
:(
A lot more to see, but I couldn't get pictures of most of it, tragically. I had left the spare battery back at the hotel.
The view from my hotel balcony in the morning.
A view of the Perfume River from the back of a motorbike.
My first terrifying ride on a motorbike!
Bullet holes in the wall surrounding a tomb complex.
The path around the wall to the tomb complex. Kids kept coming out of the forest on the right side trying to sell us stuff.
There two of them are now! I could never figure out where they were coming from, there didn't seem to be any dwellings or modern buildings around the place.
They opened these gates only once, to carry the Emporer's body into the tomb. Haven't opened them again since.
Met this from London, Sabrina, later in the trip. She was interesting and we talked about politics.
There's our tour guide, speaking first in Vietnamese and then in English, to try to explain the things we're seeing.
There's the entrance again.
From whence we came...
This is the top of the Perfume River, formed by the joining of two lesser rivers.
Then we went to the second of 3 tomb complexes for the day...
Blending in...
Tour guide and people on the tour.
The Emporer buried here while he was still alive, before 1933 I think.
Then we went to a small stretch of road outside of Hue where the locals made art, fans, conical hats, and (pictured here) colorful incense.
The most important items for sale, however, were liquids. I drank a lychee juice and then I drank some sort of Lipton's tea I think. It was so hot outside...
Then we went to the third and final tomb complex.
Bill and Colleen Dee were an incredibly interesting couple. He fought around Saigon during the war after the Tet Offensive while his brother fought farther north. After the war at some point, he married his Canadian wife, Colleen, and eventually they decided to come back to Saigon and teach English to the kids, which they are currently doing. His brother has no plans to ever return. They promised me information about teaching in Vietnam, and I need to follow up on that and see how they are doing. We talked about a lot of stuff, especially history, current Vietnamese (and Korean) politics, and the war.
Me on the other side of the lunch table with Laura (I think?) and a woman who was doing college in Thailand but had come back to visit her homeland whose name I've forgotten.
Sabrina, Bill, and Colleen; interesting people all.
After lunch we went to the Citadel, an ancient square-shaped oriental capital city, similar to those found in China and probably some places in Korea, too, in some ways. Inside, hundreds of bullet holes and impact marks commemorated the intense battles that took place during the 1968 Tet Offensive as, after 2-3 weeks of Communist control, the American and ARVN troops fought house-to-ancient-house to retake the old capital.
There were bullet holes in the elevated wooden part of this building. Apparently, the Americans were in there firing to the right back into the complex where the Communists were holed up.
Bill said that one of his big impressions of Vietnam before he went to war was a TV image of an American soldier and others pinned down just at the near side of the pictured bridge. He said the soldier stood up and ran somewhere else and something like his hat fell off, but that he seemed okay. Bill said he always wondered if that soldier had survived that battle, let alone the war. It was amazing to be in a place like this and to hear a story like that that took place in exactly this location.
The direction the Americans/ARVN were facing.
Crossing the bridge between some lotus ponds.
Fish feeding on something.
This reminds me of some cats I've had!
If you displeased the Vietnamese Emporer, apparently he had you boiled in one of these!
Bullet holes in the floor around the entrance to the mandarin's clothing area. I guess the Communists must have been inside this building at that point.
At this point in the day, my camera's battery started to die...
:(
A lot more to see, but I couldn't get pictures of most of it, tragically. I had left the spare battery back at the hotel.
This is a Buddhist statue from the pagoda on the Perfume River that became famous because it housed the monks who became famous for immolating themselves in protest of the Diem government's pro-Catholic/anti-Buddhist policies. Even as the war between the Communists and the American-supported Diem regime was raging, there was a miniature civil war taking place throughout the countryside between the Catholics and Buddhists, with disasterous consequences for the Buddhists.
--------------------
After the Buddhis pagoda, we all got on a medium-sized river boat and travelled a little bit to the point where we randomly were to be dropped. Bill, Colleen, and Sabrina were going for a beer and dinner and invited me to join them, which I desperately wanted to do, but the breakneck pace of my trip wouldn't allow it. I had fewer than 30 minutes to get to the Hue bus terminal before the last bus leaving for Da Nang would roll out, so I said hasty goodbyes to the friends I had made that day, envying them their uninterrupted comaraderie, and jumped in a taxi back to the hotel, then rode the hotel's motorbike taxi to the bus terminal, and rode a local bus, which the hotel had warned me was dangerous, for about 4 hours down the beautiful coast to Da Nang. Pictures of that next time.
--------------------
After the Buddhis pagoda, we all got on a medium-sized river boat and travelled a little bit to the point where we randomly were to be dropped. Bill, Colleen, and Sabrina were going for a beer and dinner and invited me to join them, which I desperately wanted to do, but the breakneck pace of my trip wouldn't allow it. I had fewer than 30 minutes to get to the Hue bus terminal before the last bus leaving for Da Nang would roll out, so I said hasty goodbyes to the friends I had made that day, envying them their uninterrupted comaraderie, and jumped in a taxi back to the hotel, then rode the hotel's motorbike taxi to the bus terminal, and rode a local bus, which the hotel had warned me was dangerous, for about 4 hours down the beautiful coast to Da Nang. Pictures of that next time.
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