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Of Ymir's flesh the earth was shaped,
of his blood, the briny sea,
of his hair, the trees, the hills of his bones,
out of his blood, the sky.

But of his lashes the loving gods made
Mithgarth for the sons of men;
from his brow they made the menacing clouds
which in the heavens hover.

The above is from The Lay of Grinmir, as translated from the Norse original by Lee M. Hollander. I think the second stanza is a late addition, but more on that later. One of the great things about my January schedule is that I'm getting a lot of reading done in the day. I am now over half-way through the Poetic Edda, and am enjoying it immensely. There will be a full post on this when I finish the book.

Fish Update

This is so extraordinary that I'm going to write about it, before I head off to bed. About two weeks ago, I had three visitors in one or two days to my "Monty Python" fish "with a human head" pages: one visitor was from Germany, one was from the United Arab Emirates, and was from the US. These people found my site by googling. Now, just today more people are finding my site, some by googling; others are coming from an online forum. Should any of these visitors (today from Brazil, Canada, Portugal, Taiwan, and the US) find their way to the main page, I would wish them a warm welcome! Here are the two pages:

Fishy, Fishy Fish (Please scroll down at this link for the picture)

Fish update (text only)

My Friends in the Adult Class & My First Birthday in Seoul

 

What a special day! Just when I was starting to get really down again, so many people made me feel so special! The highlight of the day, of course, was a suprise party with my adult students! First, however, I walked into the room in my morning class, to find two paper cards on my desk and a huge "Happy Birthday Mr. Bauman" written on the chalkboard, along with a picture of a red-ginseng (홍삼) candy, something everyone here knows I'm totally addicted to! ;-D Young Joon, the special boy who knows I collect Canadian and world currency, gave me three Chinese bills and a great smile! I'm told that posting pictures online here is quite common, and so I'm finally posting a picture of my children in my 3pm class. They're adorable and full of energy, as you can see!


My 3pm class! 

When I walked into my 3pm class, the students belted out the first line (which was all they knew), of the Happy Birthday song! I was very suprised! Two pens & a box of cookies, wrapped in lovely paper, were on my desk! Then there was my adult class, which is always my favorite class because I'm becoming friends with my students. I walked in the door; the light was off, and "gunshots" were fired! There were sparks, candles, ribbons, chips, cake, and lovely smiles! In this next picture, I'm serving the cake (eaten with chopsticks!).


The Birthday Boy! 

Here are some more pictures of these dear people!


Oooh! ;-) Gookheon & Young Sug 


Hea Suk and Suk (both pronounced "sook") 


Oooh! Shin-Hee and Young-Hye 

Shin Hee gave me two small "Italian towels," special scrub pads that are used to remove dead skin during showers and baths. They are very popular here in South Korea, although not everyone uses them. Apparently they're quite powerful! I'll be using one tomorrow morning. Thank you, Shin-Hee! I also received a box of wonderful 홍삼 tea!


Lady in Red! 


Ok Soon, MeeKyoung, and Sue 

It is a wonderful and humbling experience to be so cared for by these people, who definitely succeeded in their stated aim of making me happy! Here's a good one of most of us:


Cute! 

After the dinner, we had some magic, fun and games! Here, the class, divided into two teams, is playing a sort of adapted "Hangman," or "Wheel of Fortune." There were idioms, words and phrases, and song titles! Gookheon showed his adept command of the English language by being amazingly quick to guess whole phrases correctly. I must admit that most of the guessers were faster than I (and it should be kept in mind that they already have a very substantial vocabulary!).


Fun and games! 


Young Hye providing some magical entertainment! 

Young Hye amazed us all with her uncanny telepathic abilities (well, with the skills she's learning in a sleight-of-hand magic class)! It was great fun. Thank you, Young-Hye!

I should mention that when the night was over, Suhl Kee, one of the male part-timers in the office, looked me dead in the eye and wished me a very sincere set of birthday wishes.

Finally, after class, Chea Young treated me to a rare Caesar salad, and gave me a lovely CD of classical chamber music performed by Yuhki Kuramoto). Also, I was touched that two people remembered me today: Seung Hee (one of my favorite office ladies, whom I told about my birthday only yesterday), gave me a box of baked goods, wrapped up, again, in lovely paper. Also wrapped up was a small picture frame that a girl in my Monday/Wednesday/Friday class gave me today.


Seung Hee 

Finally, I should note that I may be updating this post with a few additional pictures. Stay tuned.

Perhaps the thing that meant the most to me was the card all my adult students signed (each with an individual message, in English). The messages were sweet, and so very kind. Indeed, I don't think I've deserved to be treated as well as they have treated me every day since I took over the class in November. It is truly an honor and a priviledge to be their teacher. Thank you so much, dear friends!
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It might be anti-climactic to mention this, but yesterday I received a serendipitous present also: a record number of hits on one day. This was mostly due to a record-setting "Instalanche" from Glenn Reynolds which benefited all the members of the Red Ensign bloggers, inasmuch as he linked to the most recent Red Ensign Standard. I'm a peripheral member, and I still got 177 page loads with 62 unique visitors.

Thank you! (UPDATED for Those at Home)

I would like to thank all those who made my birthday yesterday a special day: my family, my adult students, and my friends! And thanks to everyone who either emailed or left comments on this site! I will be posting photographs tonight of the suprise party my adult students through for me. Also, I will respond to the comments today.

UPDATE: Naming names, thank you to my family, Mrs. & Mr. Fuhrmann, Jen & Lyle (who sent the BEST birthday ecard I've ever seen!), my good buddy Brian Mullins, my dear friends Thomas & Insoon for their email greetings, and to "VW," Kangmi, and Mike for their comments on this site.

January 18th, 1978.

On this day in history I was born. Yep, you read that right: it's my birthday!

An Old-Style Korean Toilet

 

I took this picture today while at work, as I thought I owed my North American readers a picture of the traditional Korean toilet. These toilets are going the way of the buffalo, which is to say, they're being replaced by western-style toilets. In fact, I've never had to use one.

One mistake I made today was in not concealing my camera when I came out of the bathroom. One of the Korean mothers saw me, and I'm afraid she might have drawn a most unfortunate conclusion! I was too embarassed to approach her, but I did show the office lady on duty my pictures, just to clarify that nothing untowards was done. (The bathroom was empty when I took the pictures, this one, and another one like it). Still, in light of some recent scandals involving some English teachers(detailed on the Marmot's blog, and even, now, on Shawn's Korea Life Blog), I'm somewhat worried about being tarred with the wrong brush. Many Koreans tend to see people in group terms, rather than as individuals (witness the continued anger at Japan present even amongst my middle schoolers!).

PICTORIAL UPDATES

In the last few days, I've managed to take some fairly nice pictures. Accordingly, I've updated the post for Myongdong Cathedral. My reasons for updating the post are spelled out at the end of the above link.

I've also updated THIS POST with the promised picture of me and La Mort de Marat that was taken by Ian! Scroll down at the above link to see the picture!

History's First Armored Sea Ships

Turtle ship 

The Story of 이 순 신 and the 거 북 선 ("Ee Soon Shin and the 'Turtle-ships' ")

"Preparation Prevents Troubles," said this famous general. Today the monument to this ingenious man stands guard on the boulevard leading to the main gate of Gyungbokgung, and beyond, to the Presidential Palace. 이 순 신 is credited with the world's first armored sea ships, called 거 북 선 ("koboksun") in Korean. These ships were covered on their tops with metal sheets which protected the soldiers and seamen from the fire of the enemy. The ships were equipped with canons, and measured 26-28m x 9-10m x 6-6.5m. In the 1590's, Ee led 12 koboksun's to victory against a Japanese invasion force of 133 vessels. Like many a war hero in history, Ee suffered from the jealousy of others, and was sentenced to death for displeasing the Korean emperor. It appears that the person behind the rumors that led to this sentence was the deputy-general who took over Ee's post, although my guess is that the Emperor thought he was engaging in a little preparation himself. The sign for this monument also credits the Japanese for this turn of events, but this seems to be an example of a Korean tendency to blame foreigners, and especially the Japanese, for problems experienced from time to time (foreigners do, however, have some black history in this country, as I noted in my Gangwha Island post). In any case, the sentence was commuted, and the Emperor was forced to put Ee back in command some years after the first battle, when, again, Ee routed a larger Japanese force with his Koboksun's. General Ee died in 1598 in battle with the Japanese, leaving behind both traditional poetry and a detailed account of the war, the "Nanjung-ilki."

For a related post, including pictures of the statue of Ee at the top of this monument, click HERE.