This is the helpful handout I passed around. Helps keep things clear(ish)
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The end is nigh. At least according to the blowing of the Nordic trumpet in York, now heralded by the Jorvik Viking Centre as the warning for the arrival of Ragnarok, the war of the gods. If their claims run true, we’ve got until tomorrow to wind up our affairs and party like there’s no tomorrow, viking-style. Luckily, I’ve got friends in Korea who say it’s already Saturday there and they’re keeping me updated on the status of our future.
With all the hype over the foretold end and my eternal love of Loki from The Avengers, I’ve recently been looking into the Norse legends, but I was surprised at the great irony wrapped up in the myth (and happy that finally Loki gets some of his own back!).
Remember how the great Odin was sadly absent an eye in the film and the big question was whether he represented an alternative Fury? Well, the short answer is no–Odin lost his centuries before the story we saw began. You know the legends, of how Loki was born to two frost giants but grew into the feared god of mischief in Odin’s court. However, the story is much deeper than this.
According to legend, Odin was a wandering god, traveling high and low across the worlds in search of ever-greater knowledge. At last he came upon Mimir’s Well, also known as the Well of Wisdom. The well offered those who drank from it sight of the events in the past, the present and the future, attracting Odin’s interest. In exchange for Odin’s eye, he was permitted to drink the waters and so watched as all the sorrows of the world passed through his mind. One such sorrow was the coming of Ragnarok and the end of the gods.
Odin watched as the future children of Loki destroyed the world at their father’s side, killing the gods and burning the planet. Horrified, began to watch and wait. Why he failed to keep his counsel to himself, we don’t know, but apparently news of Odin’s vision spread for soon the other gods picked up on his fear. Angered at Loki’s apparent betrayal, they began to turn on him, casting his further aside with derisive comments about his future destructive behavior. Furious, they refused him entry into the feasting halls, even Thor joined in with the bullying tactics. Already derided for his questionable ancestry and love of practical jokes, Loki was titled “the Betrayer” before he ever made a move.
Tomzj1’s “LOKI–The hell’s children”
Then came the dark-fated children–Fenrir, the wolf; Hel, godess of the underworld; Jormungandr, the great serpent; Vali, the shapeshifter; Sleipnir, the horse; and Nari/Narfi, the boy. And if any creatures were ever to be pitied, it was them. Sadly, Sleipnir perhaps fared the best, forcibly claimed by Odin as his warhorse, bearing the god on long journeys. The others were less lucky.
The first to suffer were Vali and Nari/Narfi. When the other gods refused to give Loki a seat at a dinner because of the “threat” he posed, Loki grew enraged and started mocking them for their unwillingness to do something about him if he was truly such a great threat. Angered, Thor and the other gods caught Loki and his two sons, bringing them deep into a cave. There, they deliberately forced Vali to shift into his wolf form and set him upon his vulnerable brother. After ripping his brother apart, Vali was executed and Loki bound to the cavern rocks with Narfi’s guts. That would have been enough to drive anyone insane!
This seems to have been the beginning of the end. Not long afterwards, Odin had Fenrir, Hel, and Jormungandr brought before him under “peaceful” terms. Once trapped, he cast Jormungandr ocean. Hel, Odin sent to the underworld, forcing upon her the task of housing the dead. Out of sight, out of mind I suppose. Fenrir, who was prophesied to be Odin’s future killer, faced the most painful betrayal of all. At first, Odin’s guards simply kept his as a pet. But as he continued to grow, they tricked Fenrir into trying on a collar meant to control his fearsome power. Once he was bound, they chained him to the earth, forcing a sword into his tender gums to keep him from biting down. Continue reading
Most people have forgotten about it, if they ever even knew in the first place. They called it Operation Kindertransport–the mission that to save endangered children. At the time it began, Hitler already ruled Germany and Austria; the holocaust was in its beginning stages. Then Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) saw Nazi forces implementing a series of programs against Jewish families resulting in the death of 91 and the arrest and assignment to concentration camps for 30,000 others. Suddenly, those watching knew that things were about to get a lot worse.
Five days later, several concerned Jewish and Quaker UK citizens went to the British government asking for help in a rescue mission they were planning to help children most at risk. The original idea was to collect children or teens in danger of arrest, orphans, and children whose parents were imprisoned. The UK would then house and Continue reading
I’d like to start by stating that US and Canadian laws have been ashamedly horrible to Chinese immigrants. Yep, and that’s really Horrible with all caps, lots of exclamation points, and a few “WTFs” thrown in. I mean seriously. . . I’ve never read such racially loaded piles of SH**. I mean, the legislative discussion behind these laws covers everything from racism to victim blaming to sexism to placing them at the bottom of the freaking “Caste” system. I mean, when have we ever even had a caste system! Here are some of the key descriptions of the Chinese used in excusing such terrible racist legal movements:
The list goes on. They even mention that, of the Chinese women in the US in the late 1800s (after the Civil War was fought), most were “in a state of servitude, beside which African slavery was a beneficent captivity.” They talk about how many of these women were being forced into sexual slavery, but promptly use that as a reason to banish the population as a whole from American shores! Canada, with no just cause outside of racism, even taxed every Chinese immigrant $500 throughout the early 1900s, took away many of their rights (include the right to vote, own property, own a business, etc.) and eventually outlawed Chinese immigration almost completely (only 15 immigrants from China were allowed in from 1924 to 1944). This continued even when Chinese-heritage soldiers rose up to fight with Canadian forces during WWII. They were our allies, and this was still going on! NO SUCH LAW WAS IMPOSED AGAINST EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS. The Chinese residents and natural citizen already there even had to get a special permit to alert the government of their residency and alert the government of any traveling plans they had.
I mean, come on!!! The governments’ treatment of these poor immigrants was just a pile of SH** And this type of conversation and treatment went on clear up through the late 1900s!!! How sick is that?!? Some of the laws were in place as late as the 1980s! Seriously, that’s basically within my lifetime — less than 30 years. I have young friends who were alive then!
Now, excuse me. I think I’ll go scream at the ignorance of idiots right now. . .
We’ve all read the history books that quote the facts: Names, Dates, Medals won, Statistics; but it’s hard to really bring those facts to life in all their significance. There have been books, films, radio shows, and pictures that convey portions and glimpses into what the soldiers face, but still something is missing. We have seen the horror in the blood, and the screams, and the war–but we lose track of the Continue reading
The people of Tianjin, China are very proud of their cuisine; and for good reason. I am an extremely picky eater due to allergies (Pork, Fish, Tomatoes, Soy, Nuts, and more) and I usually have to subsist on Pringles and Microwave meals from the Convenience stores when I stay in Asia. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that Tianjin is actually not as bad for me as some of the other places. Most of the food served in Chinese restaurants there are actually vegetable dishes. I expected tons of rice, but found that you frequently only got a teeny tiny bowl at the end of your meal. Most dishes were pea pods, cashews, leafy greens, mushrooms, peppers (green, red, and yellow), eggplant, and other such organic foods mixed together with varied sauces and meats. While I did find myself eating a lot of pork; my allergy to that isn’t so bad so I was able to bypass the effects there and they served a lot of beef, duck, and lamb dishes. Amazingly, I found that their concept of dessert was fruit: Watermelon, Cantaloupe, and Grapes were served all summer as a refreshing meal end. I actually lost more than 20 lbs this summer between the exercise and healthy foods. To give you a taste, here are some of the great dinners we had!
Nonetheless, while Tianjin cooks serve hundreds of yummy dishes, they are most famous for three different Continue reading
I ended up choosing a room hosted by a man named Jinwoo. You can see the link that he had posted on AirBnB here. My requirements were pretty simple:
A cheap room for 18 days in the middle of Seoul in a safe neighborhood that had free internet,a Lock on the door with a Key I could keep on hand. Since I couldn’t pay upfront, I also needed to put down a deposit instead.
You can read from my other post most of the process I went through, but to sum it up:
Per the owner’s instruction, upon arrival at Incheon Airport, I grabbed the #6020 Limosuine bus for Seoul (it takes about an hour at ₩15,000 = approx. $15). It took me to the Seoul Nat’l. University of Education (SNUE) stop (be careful–there is a Seoul Nat’l. University stop, but it isn’t the same one; look for the Education part of the title). This was the intersection where the SNUE Subway Station was located. It’s too close to take a taxi and the owner recommends taking the subway up to Seocho Station. However, I was carrying 2 heavy suitcases that didn’t make it feasible to go up and down the subway stairs so instead I hiked it. I was glad to discover that from Exit 9 of the SNUE subway station (you can see the numbers from the sidewalk above and each has a map posted at the top of the stairs), it was only about a 2-3 block straight walk to Seocho Station’s Exit #1. From there I was told to take the first right then the first left and look for a kimchi shop. I’ve marked the location on the map below with a star so you can see it’s exact location. It only took about 2 minutes from the subway station. It took me a long time because I had to figure out how to get to Seocho Station from where the bus dropped me off and the walk was uphill; plus I wasn’t sure which Kimchi shop. But overall, it was really easy to find.
The “Gangnam” title is a little bit of a misnomer since it’s actually about 3 subway stops away from Gangnam Station; however I didn’t find that to be a detraction. The hotel was 2 minutes away from a subway station (amazing location for Seoul–the subway is your lifeline), which was on a busy intersection where tons of taxis pass by. If you couldn’t get to your location via subway, there was always a taxi. There’s nothing there for tourists, but it’s right beside the Prosecutor’s office, the Supreme Court, and a bunch of other legal facilities so it’s definitely in a safe location. This part of town is also close to a major college, so there are several coffee shops on the main road and some local restaurants across the street and next door. The main road also had a Lotteria and a 24 hour convenience Mart less than a minute (literally maybe 2 buildings) from the subway. There was a bar across the street and the restaurant downstairs served alcohol so people could sometimes get pretty loud, but closing the window fixed that. One nice thing was that you always used Seocho Station as your taxi’s address (they knew where it was just by me saying Seocho Yok (station)) and you only had a minute’s walk so you didn’t have to carry the address around and it was easy to locate 🙂 . All in all, I liked the location.
At last we come to the room itself. The room was incredibly small (barely walking room, maybe the size of my bathroom back home) and included:
It didn’t have bells and whistles, but it was what I had been looking for. A cheap room to myself that came with internet and a lock. The heat could be a nuisance, and sometimes I got claustrophobic, but overall it was definitely worth the cheap price.
So the hotel came with some amenities that I admittedly didn’t take that much advantage of.
Conclusion= For $15/per night, it was definitely worth it!
Have I got stories for you! China is just a fabulous place to visit!! I had such an amazing time visiting with and learning from these amazing people. Their kindness to my group was immeasurable; I cannot even being to tell how wonderful everything was. And this next couple weeks I’ll start updating with pics, stories, and reviews. But to give you a little taste; here are some of the cool things I saw and did!
“She was free in her wildness. She was a wanderess, a drop of free water. She belonged to no man and to no city” ~ Roman Payne
Language Translation
Deceptively Blonde 