Sean the Korean

Because I don't have anything interesting to say

2010-10-29T09:20:00.003+09:00

and these people do. And because they encouraged me to include this in my blog. Well, not just me, I guess. Anyone and everyone, really. And they made it really easy. So here ya go: Is Google a monopoly? Anybody's guess, at this point.

UPDATE: and.... Blogspot made it difficult. Stupid blogspot. Anyway, just click the damn picture and it'll let you see the whole thing, I promise. It is pretty interesting.

Research by Scores.org

Last published on April 17

2010-08-02T11:35:00.004+09:00

Wow. I suck. Hm... not much has happened since then, I swear. Heh...

Teachers trip to Geoje-do and various and sundry other islands was fun. I think there are even pictures up here, so take a look. Yes, one whole island is a manicured garden. It's nuts. Also, we visited a Korean War POW camp memorial site, hence the plane. Also, and I can't emphasize this enough, Koreans love to drink and sing karaoke when they're riding on buses. The first thing that happened when we got on the bus (at 8am) was the vice principal pouring me a full(!) cup of soju. Keep in mind, soju is right around 20% alcohol... so half the strength of vodka, let's say. A full cup. And it was all downhill from there. The singing and drinking pictures all took place before noon. Good stuff.

Went swimming with my students one day in July, which was awesome. Sadly, there aren't any pictures from that -- sorry. But it can't be helped.

Caught a baseball game in June with Mi Sun and a few of her friends. Apparently, unlike America, here they don't really give a shit if fans get drunk and run around like idiots on the field. It happened not once but twice, and the second time they let the kid run from the right field fence all the way to second base. He proceeded to slide into 2nd, get up and go to 3rd, where he slid again. He actually made it across home plate before they escorted him off. And there was none of this tackling or chasing business either... they just waited till he got tired and then took him by the arm and led him off the field. This happened just a few days after that kid got his ass tased in Philly, which I think was why it stuck with me. There are pictures from this little adventure, it's just that I don't have them yet. This will probably develop into a running theme pretty quick here.

English camp just finished up last Friday, and I feel like it went pretty well, all things considered. There are pictures from this, but I don't have them yet. Will probably have to wait until school starts again next semester. Also, vacation!!! Right now, actually, and for the next three weeks, which is awesome. I'm planning to spend about 4 hours every day at the gym; we'll see how long I can keep that up, huh? No big travel plans, just a few small ones. Also, thinking about squeezing in a trip to Japan, finally. Can't believe I've been here for almost 2 years, and Japan is literally a boat-ride away (or an hour~ flight) and I haven't been yet. Gonna have to fix that.

Last weekend I went on a little weekend getaway with Mi Sun and her siblings. Brother/wife/2 sons, sister/husband/1 son, and me. Yay for family time! It was actually really nice -- we got this little pension, they call it, by a river near 양평. We spent a day drinking, barbecuing, and playing and fishing in the river. It was a quiet, relaxing weekend... more importantly, I'm pretty sure I made a good impression on Mi Sun's brother and sister, which will help things when I meet her parents. Right...?

I'm going golfing on Friday! Whoo-ee! First time in Korea. Normally it's absurdly expensive, but I guess we've got some kind of hookup so it's only gonna be like $50 or so... which isn't too bad, all things considered. I would love to link to the website of the golf course, but uh... can't seem to find one. Anyway, I'll try to take some pictures of my first (and only) Korean golf experience.

Finally -- this past weekend Mi Sun and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary! Crazy, right? I can't believe we've already been together for a year... it's amazing. To celebrate, we spent the weekend in Seoul -- got a beautiful exective room at the Millennium Seoul (got a helluva deal too!), did some shopping in 명동 (for a bikini, so that was fun for everyone involved), ate dinner at La Plancha, a Spanish restaurant in 이태원, and took a cable car up to the top of 남산, the central mountain in Seoul. We rode up to the top of N Seoul Tower, which is... I mean, great views, but totally not worth the hassle of getting all the way up there. It's like an hour and a half of waiting in lines for a 2 minute cable car ride and a 2 minute elevator ride and then you just look at Seoul. I don't know -- it was a nice view but doesn't compare to the experience of the Eiffel Tower or even the Hancock Building, where you can usually just ride on up and relax and have a drink. Definitely my least favorite part of the day, and I wouldn't recommend anyone do this on a summer weekend evening. Nonetheless, it was pretty much a perfect anniversary celebration, and I can't wait for the next one. Same deal about pictures though -- they're coming one of these days.

Well, I think that gets us more or less caught up. And now I won't have to see "Last published on April 17" anymore, so that's a plus. More pictures coming soon, and I'll post to update you when they become available.

Thanks for sticking with me, ya'll.

It's been a great week

2010-04-17T21:28:00.002+09:00

or however long it's been since I wrote last. But I'm talking especially about the last 168 hours. Ready to dive in with me? The water's warm. Here we go.

Last weekend, Mi Sun's friend Ji Sun got married. I caught a bus early Saturday morning and met up with the girl at the bus terminal near her village... we drove toward Yeoju and picked up her friend, whose name I've completely forgotten but was cute and very eager to speak her limited English with me in between catching up with Mi Sun. I guess they hadn't seen each other in like 7 years, so they were all chatty gabby on the drive. It took about 2 and a half hours to get to Gangneung on the East Sea (or Sea of Japan, as it's known everywhere else in the world. But trust me, don't bring that up to a Korean). The drive was beautiful. Fields, forests, rivers and mountains rolled past, unheralded, like an old-timey film turning to reveal each new scene. We arrived in Gangneung about an hour before the wedding, and it quickly became apparent that neither of my car-buddies knew where in the hell we were supposed to go. After many (many) phone calls and a couple stops to ask directions, we eventually found our way to the wedding hall. There were several weddings scheduled for the day, so it took us a while to find the correct chapel(? Actually, they weren't really churches. Just wedding halls. But anyway). After going into the bridal display room... I have know idea what it was called, but for hours before the service the bride has to sit on a couch in a little room while people come in to gawk at and take pictures with her. Then lunch. I don't recall the name of the noodle, but it was a plain noodle in salty broth, and is a traditional celebration food in Korea.

Next we went to the service. We walked in about 10 minutes after it started, and then stood in the back and chatted (well, they chatted, I just stood there awkwardly and smiled for some pictures and took others). Most people paid no attention to the service whatsoever. I asked Mi Sun if we weren't being rude, and she said "yeah, but it's really boring." I couldn't disagree. Anyway, after the service it was picture time for the bride and groom, then with both families (Moms wearing hanbok, Korean traditional dress... dads wearing suits), then with all their friends. I hung back to take pictures, and got to see Mi Sun catch the bouquet. Know, it's not at all like we do this particular part of the festivities. People say that Koreans acquired all of our driving laws without the etiquette or rationale to back it up -- red lights are mere suggestions, lane lines mean nothing... Korean behavior takes over when they're actually driving, regardless of the civilized laws that are supposed to govern behavior. Well, this was similar: they knew about tossing the bouquet, and they knew that it should have some significance. However, instead of the bridesmaid catfight we've all come to know and love, they simply decided that Mi Sun would catch the bouquet, brought her out in front of everyone, and then let the bride toss her the bouquet. 3 times. Because the camera guy screwed up once and then the bride threw it too far the second time. Cracked me up. Anyway.

After the wedding we went to a restaurant owned by a friend of the groom. Before entering, I got to witness a Gangneung tradition. Upon getting married, a guy gets his ass beat by his friends, apparently. So, before we went into the restaurant, his friends made him take off his shoes and then tied a giant pink bow around his waist. He was then put in a harness and tied to the back of a van. As the van started driving, he had to run along behind it while his friends sat in the back of the van and smacked his legs with long wooden sticks. I mean, it would have been brutal if it had continued much longer, but I think they only went around the block. So, back to groom's-friend's restaurant. This guy could throw down, and he wasn't screwing around. We had like a 5 course meal accompanied by beer, wine, soju, and several other liquors. Raw fish salad, chile-fried shrimp, pork that was coated in donut-batter and deep fried with candy sprinkles, plus a few other things that I don't even remember. At some point during the meal, the groom took off his shoes and socks and his buddy picked him up over his shoulder. Another friend recited what sounded like a litany of blessings while repeatedly smacking the bottom of his feet with another cane. Ji Sun, the bride, looked scared. Everyone else laughed. I joined in... what else could I do, right?

Next -- the noraebang. The best man decided on a game. After singing, you get a score from the computer; each person who scored over 90 had to donate 10 bucks to the pot... each person who scored under 90 had to be a backup dancer for the next person to sing. I only did one song (guess which one?) and I duly paid my 10,000won. A drunk guy fell on the floor; a drunk girl fell onto me, twice. I'd have thought she was sending me some kinda signal if I thought she had any idea what the hell she was doing, but sadly, there's no way that was true. Finally, we ended up at a raw-fish restaurant (we were on the coast, after all) for a shitload of fish, oysters, clams, crab, mussels, and several things that we don't have words for in English, but are all mostly just horrifying monsters anyway, so it's probably for the best. All raw, except the clams, which were delicious and in a nice brothy soup. I mean, everything I tried was good. Like sushi (sorta) without the rice, seaweed wrap, vegetables, or any pretense of being anything but raw fish. Also, there was soju; I think I mentioned that. That helps.

Went back to the hotel (with ocean-view rooms, according to the sign... although you had to practically climb out the window to see the water) and crashed. Next morning we went out for tofu soup, which is the other specialty of Gangneung... it's not bad. Just has very little flavor. Once you add soy sauce and chili paste, and eat a bunch of kimchi dipped in it, it's quite good. Had some coffee... walked to the beach, and took some random pictures while watching the waves crash in. There are lots of big rocks dotting the coast there, and some solid surf. So there were lots of those "ooooh" moments when a big wave crashed against a big rock and sent up a spray of white foamy surf. And that was the weekend. Highlight of the trip home -- Mi Sun was sleepy (from my snoring, apparently? shocked? haha) and let me drive all the way home. I succeeded. Even managed to negotiate a crazy Korean rest stop for cookies, chips, and coffee to keep me awake (also from my snoring, I have a feeling. It's a curse, I tells ya).

The rest of the week was tame: work, lessons, working out, dinners with the girl. She came over and cooked me this awesome like... meat thing last night. Not sure how to explain it: ground pork and beef with scallions, sesame oil, soy sauce, and diced mushrooms, all mixed up with salt and pepper and pressed into little mini-burgers and then fried. Served over rice with more sauteed mushrooms. It was awesome, whatever it was. I had the leftovers with a fried egg on a sandwich this morning, and also with rice for dinner tonight. Watched the Cards game today (Go Lopex! Grand Salami baby!) and went to the gym... tonight I've just been studying Korean and I'm going to bed soon. Actually, I think I'm gonna call my mom first. So mom, if you're reading this, it was (preemptively) nice talking to you this weekend!

A good night to all, and to all a good night.

OK -- time for a little perspective

2010-03-10T21:57:00.002+09:00

I realize that last post sounded pretty whiny and bitchy. Well, I guess I was in a bad mood. I definitely feel better since classes started this week. Not suffering under the soul-crushing boredom I'd been growing accustomed to. Yep, I totally just used the words soul-crushing. I like hyperbole. Deal with it.

I got my class materials for TESOL Certification. Should be able to rip this out in a couple weeks... once I download the test I have 24 hours to complete and submit it. I've always been pretty good at test-taking anyway... and also, it is entirely open-book. I could probably go ahead and do the thing right now and be ok. Meh, what the hell, I guess I'll spend a few days actually learning something first. I ain't got much else going on anyway.

Don't know if you guys are still reading this (or if anyone is, come to that), but congrats to Stu-dawg on getting accepted into 3 law schools thus far. I didn't actually talk to him or read the blog to find out if more are on the way, but 3 outta ... um, probably lots, but anyway, it still ain't bad. So way to go man.

This Sunday is White Day in Korea. On Valentine's Day I got chocolates from the girl, so this Sunday is my day to reciprocate. Apparently non-chocolate candy is the norm, but Mi Sun informs me that if I'm at all attached to our relationship, I will ignore this mandate from the masses and just buy the damn chocolate. So, chocolate it is. Other acceptable gifts apparently include white chocolate, white candy/mints, marshmallows (which I gotta say, I've never actually seen here... hm) and white lingerie. Also, apparently, it's considered cute to the point of hurling to buy a special matching outfit to wear when you're out on your White Day date. Well, it's not just for White Day. Korean couples do this all the time, but I guess even if you don't normally do it, White Day is like, a good day to start. Or something. It's like guys who never want to be seen buying flowers for their girlfriend in the States don't feel so self-conscious on V-day because everyone's doing it. Now, I know this sounds a little gay to you, and I totally agree with you, but I'm still fucking doing it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to wear matching clothes with my girlfriend and not be mercilessly ridiculed. It's gonna happen. End of story.

I made an awesome chicken fried rice for dinner tonight. Orange and red bell peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, broccoli and chicken all sauteed in sesame oil, mixed in with rice in the skillet, and then hit near the end with soy sauce and eggs. Damn was it good. My regrets are twofold: I totally forgot to put onion in there (oops!) and I wish I would have used more broccoli. That was my favorite part and there just wasn't enough of it.

Just a short post today, trying to get back in the swing of writing more. Let's hope it takes this go-round. I gotta study my TESOL stuff now. Whoo-ee.

Continuing with my Awesome Blogging Schedule

2010-03-06T15:16:00.002+09:00

In my head, when I typed that, I pronounced it "shedule." My uncle says it like that sometimes, to be funny. I usually don't. I guess you could say I'm feeling a bit homesick.

Really, I'm not sure what my problem is... On the surface, things are fine. My job is (and has been recently, especially) easy. It's also really boring. Not at all what you would call fulfilling. On the other hand, Mi Sun no longer works there and I spend an inordinate amount of time just reading articles online or watching American TV. I miss working with my sweetheart, what can I say? I'm sure there's a cure for this, which will be next week when we finally begin actual classes. However, the fact that I can only see the little lady for like a half-hour when she finally gets off work at 9:30pm isn't really cutting it for me.

I quit smoking a couple weeks ago... yes, for serious. It had been getting steadily worse for the last few years. 2007, I think, was the last time I made a serious effort to quit and managed to for about 4 months. So I'm pretty much riding the ridge of mental meltdown all the time right now. That'll pass, of course, but in the meantime, I'm feeling especially on edge, which makes everything seem a bit worse than it really is. I've also gained like 5 pounds in that time, which makes the whole easier breathing thing at the gym seem like less of a benefit than it really is. I mean, seriously, when I'm home, I'm eating. Probably doesn't help that the market down the street started stocking bags of tortilla chips and I've made it a point to buy more American foods the last few times I've been in Seoul. Yeah, burgers, bacon, salsa, burrito-sized tortillas, giant pre-cooked ham, pepper jack cheese, Kraft mac n' cheese, Valentine's candy... all those things are technically comfort foods, especially when living outside the US, but it sure makes for bad eating habits.

Just today, actually, I finally registered for an online TEFL class. I am... how should I put this... not excited about the idea anymore. Sure, it was less than $200 and it will mean I get an extra 100 bucks a month at my job after I finish; and yes, it will allow me to find at least a decent part-time job in pretty much any big city after I finish working in Korea... I don't know. Yay for semi-pointless career advancement, I guess, right? =) I mean, hell, I'm here, I might as well go ahead and do this, for the extra money if nothing else. Of course I should've done it a year ago. Still, better late than never.

What else is new? Um, the Olympics were awesome! Especially living in Korea... get this. Perhaps you noticed, but Koreans tend to excel in speed skating, especially the short track. So, for the first 10 days or so (basically until the figure skating happened and Kim Yeon A went all ballistic on history), whenever there were no live events on which is pretty often due to the time difference, they would replay the speed skating events that Koreans won. And I'm not talking about no once-in-a-while thing here either. I mean over and over and over again. The same race. I must have seen that Korean guy win the 500m like 45 times. It was absolutely asinine. I mean, I can totally understand making it a point to show the Koreans more often than everything else, but we would literally watch a portion of the race -- the people who finished in the top 4 or 5 followed by the winning Korean -- and then a minute later watch the same thing over again. It was... hypnotic and mind-boggling, all at once.

Although, from what I could gather of NBC's coverage, this might not have been so bad. At least I got to see some curling and hockey and ski jumping and alpine events LIVE! Not on a tape delay interspersed with feel-good puff pieces. So, there was that. Also, the Korean figure skater. Her name is not pronounced Kim Yoo-nah. It just isn't... in Korean it's 김연아. The pronunciation of 연 really depends on the speaker, but it sounds fairly similar to yawn if you don't drag it out too much. Rhymes somewhere between yawn and sun. And the last name is just "A." Pronounced ah. Like, ah, it feels really nice to stretch and yawn when you first wake up. Anyway, that's enough of that little rant.

OK, that's all I got for now. Peace, ya'll.

One post in January... and now one in February. Hope I can keep up this massive pace.

2010-02-02T13:50:00.003+09:00

Um, to follow up from last post, which... I dunno, I just got a comment on there requesting I go be on Korean TV, so, do me a favor while we're on the subject. Go look at the comments from that and let me know what you think. On the one hand, it sounds a little fake. On the other hand -- TV!!! So anyways, yeah, tell me whether or not you think that sounds legit.

Avatar was awesome. Especially since I'd heard a lot going in about how ridiculous the story was and to get any enjoyment out of it at all you have to pretty much turn off your bullshit radar and suspend disbelief and all that jazz... so I did. And it was freakin great. 3D. Beautiful scenery, intense action sequences... I had to consciously force myself to relax a couple times after I noticed myself squeezing the girl's hand way too hard. Anyway, do yourself a favor and go see it in 3D while you still can. And don't worry too much about the story, or you could easily get very annoyed with the movie and ruin it. So just relax and breathe deep and let that shit go man.

After the movie we went to a restaurant called Marche at 잠실역 (Jamsil Station) where they have this ginormous underground shopping mall. Several levels of shopping with restaurants, an amusement park, an ice rink... you name it. I think there's even a firing range down there. It's insane. Anyway, Marche (I just spent way too long looking for a link to the website, and failed -- sorry) is like an all-you-can-eat-in-2-hours restaurant. And boy, did we eat. Salads, soups, fried appetizers to start. Some sushi to cool off. A small pasta and risotto course, cause I didn't want to get too full. 2 courses of grilled meat with a few slices of roasted potato and sweet potato (pork and chicken... beef is too expensive in Korea to be giving it away in a place like this), then perhaps some steamed clams, bibimbap, and finally, at long last, desert. Which was cookies, brownies, frozen yogurt and some lychee fruit, which is actually kind of delightful. And that's saying something after like 90 solid minutes of stuffing your face. Also, a shout out to Mi Sun here: for someone who weighs like 110 at the most, that girl can put away just mind-boggling, jaw-dropping amounts of food. I think my portions were slightly bigger than hers throughout the meal, but she went back like 2 more times after I was writhing around in agony, clutching at my digestive system as best I could, you know, from the outside. So, other than those painful moments immediately following the consumption of roughly 3 times as much food as any human should at one sitting, it was a wonderful day!

A propos of nothing, I just found some really kickass FREE software to use with my Kindle. It's called Calibre. Go take a look at it. It works with any of the major ebook readers, converts files from and to (to and fro?) just about any format you'd ever need, includes its own e-reading software if you don't have a reader and just want to read on your computer (which I actually kinda hate, but it's there... whatever), and the coolest thing: you can schedule it to go online and fetch new articles off of about 200 different news websites. So everyday I'm now getting ESPN, The BBC, The NYTimes top stories, and (hopefully) the Onion delivered to my Kindle in some kind of device-optimized format. The Onion stuff I got didn't work today though, so we'll see if it was an aberration or if I have to cancel my "subscription." Anyway, this program rocks my world.

I just celebrated (actually, the celebration was pretty tame, but "had" sounds kinda weak) my 6-month semi-versary with Mi Sun. I'll wait for the cheering to die down before continuing...
...
...
I... oh, you're still going in the back there, ok...
...
...
That's enough!!! We'll never get through this if you keep screaming and clapping...
...
Actually, that's all I had to say about that. Go white boy go white boy go!

I didn't actually post any of those pictures that I promised you last time yet. I'm doing to do that like... right... now. Yep, I did it. You can find them here. Thanks to momma for providing most of those. I know there are some more, and I need to go back and find some pictures from the Frye family Christmas. Updates coming soon. Really, this time. I'm all over it. Like ugly on an ape.

Work is still boring, so we're not gonna talk about that. In fact, that's about all I got. Skiing (I really hope) next weekend. Or, actually this coming weekend. Whoo-ee!

And finally, as a present for reading this far, Happy Birthday Scottie! You're celebrating the Silver Anniversary of your 25th birthday today, so that's pretty exciting. Don't get too crazy... don't do anything I wouldn't do. That still leaves you kind of a lot of wiggle room, I guess. I dunno, don't do anything Mom wouldn't do? Haha... anyway, have a good one!

Well, I'm back...

2010-01-16T08:11:00.002+09:00

in Korea. The trip home was awesome. A bit stressful, especially physically, but awesome. I had fun hanging out with all of you. Thanks guys!

And now, I'm back at work. See, last year we did this thing at my school where, if we didn't have class or English camp, I didn't have to go to school. Well, apparently GEPIK, the governing body of education in this province, sent out a missive to all its member schools and whatnot that all foreign teachers have to be at school during breaks, unless we specifically take a vacation -- which we get 4 weeks of every year. Basically what this means is that I've had to go sit in the teachers room at my school (not even the same office where I work the rest of the year, because the Global Center is all locked up tight for the winter break), and hang out with the Vice Principal and the 3rd grade teacher. Neither of whom speak any English. All. Day. Long. On the plus side, I don't have to actually do anything, so... I mean, I can't really complain too much. It's just awful boring. I suppose I can do there exactly what I'd do at home... play online, watch sports online, read on my new Kindle (thanks Momma!!!), although it is a bit awkward trying to watch porn. Something about it, I dunno... just kills the mood.

And that's about the extent of work-related matters. Oh! No it's not! Winter camp starts on Monday. I had kinda forgotten about it because thanks to the hiring of Mr. Other Foreign Teacher (Leland) I don't have to plan anything! I just gotsta show up and get paid... it's how I like to do business. So yeah, that's for the next two weeks, in the afternoons. Should be fun. I'll try to take some pictures or something. Ha!!! We all know how well that goes, huh? I suck.

But speaking of which, there will be some pictures from home posted soon, I promise! I took all the pictures off my mom's camera, so there's some Christmas, some family birthday parties, and whatnot. I'll try to sort through those and post some within a few days. "Try" being the operative word there, naturally.

Fun fact: it's actually colder and shittier in Seoul and surrounding area than in Chicago right now. Although yesterday did feel a bit warmer, especially in the afternoon.

Fun fact #2: I'm going to see Avatar today with Mi Sun. Well, assuming we can get in, I guess. One theater we looked at was entirely booked, at least to see it in 3D, until 11:30 tonight. At which time there were 2 seats available. She tells me she has a coupon from a different theater that is only a couple stops down on the subway, and it's supposedly a really nice one... so I'm guessing they're probably all booked up as well, but we'll see.

Fun fact #3: We're finally (a smidge) out in the open with this whole relationship thing! I mean, we told a few people that we used to work with till the whole Global Center fiasco forced them to stop, you know, working there. And since Mi Sun and I are no longer working together, apparently it's all copacetic now. Although I still don't think she's told her parents. Chicken.

Alright, that's all I got. I need to go get ready for this excursion to Seoul. Keep it real.

Oh, no, one more thing! I've been getting a lot of spam comments on here, so I made a couple changes. You'll now see one of those CAPTCHA things (possibly, I haven't actually tested it out but it should be there) before you can leave a comment. Please don't let this scare you. Also, if you want to leave a comment on posts older than 2 weeks old (and again, feel free. Go back and read the whole damn blog if you want -- it's good!), then those comments need to be approved by me before they'll show up. No biggie, just didn't want to scare anybody. Alright, peace.

Airport update

2009-12-19T13:41:00.002+09:00

So I'm in Incheon Airport, waiting on my flight home(!!!!). I heard about this lounge here, run by Asiana, the airline I'm flying home. Sounded pretty cool, thought I'd get here early to check it out. Of course, that also served the dual purpose of forcing me to leave for the airport several hours early, just in case anything went wrong. Which, by the way, it almost did. I mean, not seriously wrong or anything, but just like a back pimple wrong. You know it's there, and it would bother you, but it's not gonna seriously mess up prom night or anything like that. Oh, speaking of messing up prom night, boy howdy. I almost left all my luggage laying on the curb outside the airport. Not even joking. When my bus arrived I was so preoccupied with getting my backpack off the bus and making sure I still had my passport and all the stuff in my pockets, and then finding my check-in point and so on and so forth... well, ha. I got my backpack, neglecting the giant bag and suitcase that I had stashed under the bus in Icheon, y'know, for safe-keeping and all, and headed on inside. Made it past the doors, was on my way to the information desk, when all of a sudden it hit me. Walking was waaaay too easy. I turn around and sure enough the bus driver is standing there, my bags laying next to him, looking bewildered. He was all set to just get back on the bus and head off when I came running up. Blushing profusely, I just kinda smiled, picked up my bags, and walked away. Woulda been a hell of a start to the trip, no?

Nevertheless, crisis averted.

Check-in, security, immigration, all that was a breeze. Seriously amazing airport they've got here. Literally 10 minutes from finding Asiana's check-in desk, which by the way had like 60 agents working and no lines whatsoever, I was all stamped and secured and on my way to the gate.

I had heard something about this lounge run by Asiana here, basically a business-class type lounge except anyone can go in. Sounded pretty cool. Thought I'd check it out. On a scale of 1 to Grey Goose, I give this place a Svedka. Not as hip or popular, definitely not too expensive, but convenient, cheap, good vibe and definitely gets the job done. So here's the skinny: $20 to get in. Yes, even though it's a Korean airline, operating in a Korean airport, she asked me for, well, to be perfectly honest, she asked me for 21 dollars, not 20. But still... that was weird. Good thing I changed some money before I left Janghowon. Had to take advantage of that exchange rate while the getting was good, ya know? So, I dropped her a couple dead presidents and I'm in the door. It's mostly comfy chairs and small round tables, with windows overlooking the ticketing area on the floor below us. It's a bustling, yet somehow soothing sight. Some kind of schadenfreude, probably, but watching other people stress the hell out from a comfortable vantage point brings its own kind of joy. Just the way it is.

Anyway, I sat down at a table and plugged in the ole trusty laptop. So far so good. I notice an espresso machine, grinning at me amiably from the counter. I go over to shake his hand, and like a maitre d' at a fine french restaurant, come away clutching an ill-gotten gain in my right hand. Complimentary cafe latte, all the way, baby. Giddy up. Feeling pretty good, right about now. Drank the coffee, surfed the web, and rubbed my hands together, grinning evilly like Donald McScrooge. Now feeling self-satisfied and alert, I took a better look around. 20 feet to my right is a little buffet table. I hadn't eaten since about 8:00 (it was, at this point, like 1:30 -- hungry-time, in other words), so I went and loaded up a plate. Paella (not great, but certainly passable), German sausage with mustard, mini spring rolls, finger sandwiches, fixins for bibimbap (mixed rice with veggies and chili paste), cream of potato soup... all in all, not a bad spread, and quite international in the spirit of my season. Sated, I turned my attention to the non-coffee drinks available.

There is a Coke fountain machine next to the espresso maker, and a fridge filled with juice and water and oh lord god there's beer in there. And what's that next to it? Is that, bottles of freaking booze, just sitting out waiting for anybody and their dog to get a drink? What the hell kind of Christmas miracle have I stumbled upon here? Sure enough, an ice bucket, emblazoned with the Dewar's logo, just sitting there all smug and shit, knowing what's about to happen. I mean, what could I do? I'd obviously already paid to be here. There's low-ball glasses, Jack Daniels, ice, and Coke all within a 10-foot radius. There was simply nothing else to be done at that point. At least, that's what I'm telling myself as I sip on an icy cold Jack n Coke and type up this here airport lounge review. You, on the other hand, can think what you like. I'm happy here, and that's all there is to it. I give it 2 over-enthusiastic thumbs up. And next time I leave the country, I am most certainly, definitely and without a doubt coming back here. I'd recommend you do the same, should you ever find yourself at Incheon Airport on a stopover with Asiana Airlines. Seriously, do it do it.

Oh, and also, I'm excited to be going home! First plans -- my little cousin's 14th(? wow!) birthday party later tonight, hitting up some old haunts to meet up with friends and catch the Bears game tomorrow, then lunch with Em on Monday, and then catching the train home to Marion Monday night. On tap for Marion: spending time with my folks, meeting Adam and Felicia's little girl (my adopted niece), family Christmases, meeting my real niece (and accompanying sister-in-law) for the first time, lots of relaxing, and who knows what else? The universe (or at least the hub of it) is my oyster.

T- 4 Days and counting

2009-12-16T10:37:00.002+09:00

Yep, I'll be home in the States on December 19th, at 4:30pm. After leaving Seoul on December 19th, at 6pm. I love the international date line. Time travel for the win.

Still need to pack, of course. And do laundry, and clean my apartment. And, maybe... buy just a couple more Christmas presents, although these are the type that I could find in an airport gift store if need be, I suppose.

Short post today, and boring. But I'm coming home! Exciting!!! See you soon, America.

Trust me?

2009-11-20T21:05:00.003+09:00

I would apologize for not blogging more, but you know what? Screw you guys. I'm doing this for me, not you. Me, and posterity. And they're gonna read these blog posts all at once (like an episodic novel), without having to wait for weeks on end between updates. So there. =Þ

Yeah, I know how to use ASCII to make a smiley tongue face. Can you do that? I didn't think so.

So, Korean girl (who shall remain nameless, but you all know who I'm talking about) is really frustrating. Like, the same reason I like her (which is because she's so cute and dainty and girly and delightful) is the same reason I get all pissed off sometimes (because she's so flighty or flaky or fliggety-flammety). I mean, I totally understand that girls can change their minds, and I respect that, but come on. We had a date planned... don't tell me (and only after I ask, mind you) that no, you're not coming over in a couple hours so we can have dinner (or staying over for a couple hours so we can have dinner) together. And by the way, don't even tell me that. It's not so much about waiting until you're put on the spot. Have the balls (I really like parenthetical expressions, did you notice?) to tell me that you're feeling tired, before 6pm when you're leaving my apartment.

On the plus side, and apart from all that, things are good here. For our 100 day anniversary (which, by the way, I'm only using that term because there aren't any good ones in English, but seriously, they celebrate 100 days together here), she gave me this really awesome grey Reebok hoodie (which, by the way, is cool as shit here) that I have to fight the urge to wear every day. I gave her these kind of expensive purple gemstone earrings (that I thought were perfect for her skin tone, plus were totally trendy and gilten... is that the right word? anyway... she didn't like them, for whatever reason. oops). She's kind of an awesome girlfriend, but there are just some things that apparently are ok here that wouldn't fly back home (and vice versa).

Anyway, things are more or less good. I'm way into "Curb Your Enthusiasm" now, and "Deadwood," and "Breaking Bad." I think these things are making me more wordy than I deserve to be. They have great writers. I don't. Please forgive me.

I did, however, just find my tin of Burts' Bees lip balm, so I'm feeling cool as a cucumber at the moment, lip-wise. Yeah.

So, the other native English teacher here, Leland, just celebrated his birthday last week. Our Korean coteacher, Bo Il, gave him this awesome, poster-sized print of a photo he took while out on a trip with a photography club this fall. And when I told him (Bo Il, not Leland) how cool of a gift that was, he offered me one too. I accepted, because how ya gonna turn that down, am I right? So now I have this kick-ass framed print of a river lined by gorgeous red... flowers (not a botanist, though I do love a good parenthetical), and beautiful reflection of the sunlight. Hanging (well, not so much hanging, but sitting on the floor directly underneath the place where it will soon be hanging once I get the nails and hammer and such) on the wall across from my bed. That wasn't even a full sentence. What kind of English teacher am I?

Yes, I realize I never completed the story about the DMZ, or even started the Halloween storytelling (which was awesome), but both of those tasks will be completed in due time, I promise. Pinky swear, even.

Trust me? ;)

Silly hackers

2009-11-02T20:55:00.003+09:00

Just got a message from an old friend on Facebook chat. Well, I say old friend because the last time we actually talked was probably in high school... and "friend" might be a little strong. I mean, I wouldn't punch him in the face if I saw him on the street, but I probably wouldn't invite him to my son's bar mitzvah, either. Anyway... I got no problem with this guy, but also no reason to believe that it was actually him messaging me. I vaguely remembered reading online about these things called Nigerian 419 scams, which are happening on facebook now.

Well, it turns out that like the first half of the conversation is no longer showing up in the chat screen. That blows. But allow me to summarize, at least from Mr. Haxxor's point of view:

Dude, please come online and help! I'm stuck in London! I got robbed at gunpoint! They took my phone! I injured my leg! I have a plane ticket home but I need $900 for my hotel and cab fare! Can you please Western Union me the money?!

Me: mostly stalling and making ridiculous observations about how hard this situation sucks for him. Finally I give in... which leads to "searching for WU locations," and this:

Sean

well, sorta. i think all the locations are actual banks, which are closed right now

i'm still looking. hang on man

7:37pmsilly hacker

7:39pmSean

dude, the closest place is like 20 miles from here

7:39pmsilly hacker

7:40pmSean

but I gotta take a bus to get there

it might be... an hour? can you wait that long?

7:40pmsilly hacker

30 Leicester Square.
City, London
United Kingdom. WC2H 7LA

Name:Eric redacted

Allow me to interject here and draw your attention to how instantaneously he got this address in there. I mean, it followed about 3 seconds behind the "ok." Cut and pastey, time no wastey.

7:41pmSean

and what's your full name? i don't even remember your middle name man. sorry... that's kinda jacked up, but i wanna make sure you can get the money when it gets there

7:41pmsilly hacker

that's all the info you need

Gettin a bit snippy, aren't we? I mean, I am sending you almost a thousand dollars, here... jeez!

7:42pmSean

oh... if you're sure. will they give me a confirmation number or something to make sure it goes through? sorry, i've never used western union before

7:43pmsilly hacker

yes,

you will be given a confirmation number(MTCN#)

all i need is the senders name,and confirmation number to get the money.

7:45pmSean

ok, well you got my name. i'll let you know the confirmation number when i get it. will you still be online when i get there?

7:45pmsilly hacker

yes

7:46pmSean

or hell... you got a phone number where i can call you?

7:46pmsilly hacker

Ah, come on! It was worth a shot, right?

7:46pmSean

that'll be faster than waiting for me to go and come back

oh...

no public phone, hotel phone, something?

7:47pmsilly hacker

u can send me a mail (redacted.eric@yahoo.com)or +447024074948

that's the hotel number.

got it?

This is, I'm almost certain, not his real email address. I actually have no idea... but when I looked at his facebook profile page, this address wasn't actually typed in, if that makes sense. Instead, someone had posted an image file with this email address written on it. Sneaky sneaky, little hacker. Also, the UK apparently doesn't do reverse directory, and I don't really feel like calling this number from my cell phone. If anybody wants to skype it and get back to me, I'd love to know who picks up the phone.

7:49pmSean

yeah, i got it. alright man.. give me like an hour. i'll call you when i get it all worked out, cool?

7:49pmsilly hacker

thanks.

7:50pmSean

any time...i mean, this must have been terrible for you

7:53pmsilly hacker

are you gone?

7:55pmSean

not yet. just getting better directions on how to get to this place

7:55pmsilly hacker

7:55pmSean

what's up?

8:00pmsilly hacker

you can send me the western union details to my mail.(redacted.eric@yahoo.com)

I'll be waiting.

8:02pmsilly hacker

have you gotten a better description?

u still there?

8:04pmSean

yeah, i think so

where is the money being sent again?

i need to write that down

8:04pmsilly hacker

30 Leicester Square.
City, London
United Kingdom. WC2H 7LA

got it?

8:05pmSean

what's the name of the place?

is it a bank, or ...?

8:06pmsilly hacker

it's a western union outlet nearby.

please you need to get going.

Haha. So far as I can tell, there is no Western Union outlet nearby. Also, are we really trying to send $900 "nearby"?! Don't you want it sent to exactly the right place? I don't have the most sophisticated software on the planet, but google (who very well might have the most sophisticated software on the planet... who knows?) came up with nothing for this address and Western Union. Or banks.

8:07pmSean

ok, i'm leaving now man. just hang tight

8:07pmsilly hacker

I'll be waiting.

8:08pmSean

yep, you will. got no other choice, huh? haha

8:42pmEric is offline.

So I figured that was the end of it, but wait! While I'm gone to Western Union (which will take an hour, one way, on the bus, mind you) he comes back! I didn't answer, of course. Didn't want to ruin the illusion, but anyway, this happened:

Eric is online.

9:10pmsilly hacker

u there?

9:12pmsilly hacker

Sean are you there?

9:16pmEric is offline.

Any quick thinkers got any other ways for me to screw with this guy? I kinda figured if he thought he was getting paid and I wasted some of his time, I could keep him from targeting other people for a bit until hopefully Eric or his wife wake up and realize what's going on. Your advice is appreciated! I'll update if I have the pleasure of chatting further with this wanker.

Get it? Wanker? Cause he's in jolly old England... haha. Anyway, that was my entertainment for the evening.

DMZ: The Prologue

2009-10-20T12:53:00.004+09:00

So I went to the DMZ last Saturday. Here's my story.

Started off with an uneventful bus ride to Seoul after school. Read a little bit of my book, relaxed, and looked forward to the weekend ahead. Rolled into town around 7pm and jumped on the subway over to foreigner-ville, AKA Itaewon. I was supposed to meet up Tom, who planned the trip, and some other folks around 8 or 8:30. I called Tom and told him to meet me at the Wolfhound, a fairly well known Irish pub in Itaewon. I sat down at the bar upstairs, chatted with the bartender (who spoke really good English), and ordered an AlleyKat, which tastes sort of fresh and hoppy and may or may not be an IPA, but is definitely delicious. I start playing sudoku on my phone and get really into it. I finally beat this really hard puzzle I've been struggling over off and on for about 3 weeks. I have a couple of beers. I chat with some other American guys, Army guys I think, for a bit, and then look at my phone. 9:15?! Where is everybody?? I text Tom. The reply: "Wolfhound." Doh.

So I pay my tab and take a walk downstairs. Sure enough, there's Tom, Travis, and a couple of girls hanging out and drinking. I order another beer and we sit and chat for a while about how we need to bounce pretty early and get to sleep so we can make our 7am call at the USO Office. A couple beers later and we decide to order club sandwiches and potato wedges. Then this South African chick, Nomfundo, shows up and we get more food: steak and kidney pie or some such. More beers. Next thing we know it's like 1am and Nomfundo talks us into coming back to her motel. So, by this time the other chicks are gone and it's just the 4 of us. The guys figure we can all share a room for a few hours, so we decide to walk over there. And stop at the Family Mart, to buy more beer and some soju, naturally. Like, that wasn't even an option, for real. Anyway, as we're walking it begins to thunder and lightning, and then to rain more and more heavily. You know, we're not that upset, because we've got beer and the plastic bags that the beer came in to put over our heads. But as it turns from storm to raging downpour, we start looking for little eaves and awnings and whatnot to hide under. Then the kicker: Nomfundo can't remember where her hotel is! But no worries: She's got a business card! But wait -- the address doesn't mean anything to us, because we're not from Seoul! But it's ok because it's got a phone number! But hornswaggle -- we can't speak Korean! Idea: we'll find a taxi and make him call and find out where it is! Bullspit -- no taxi's will stop because we're not by a designated taxi stand. And soaking wet. I'm sure that didn't help...

After about 20 minutes standing on this corner waving and cursing at every cab that came by, we finally got one to not only stop, but also call the hotel, find out where it is, and take us there. Awesome: it's like 2 minutes away from that corner we've been huddling on. Even more awesome: it's smack dab in the middle of the Red Light District. Yep, on both sides of the road, just hookers. And not old dirty ones either... these girls were hot! I'm sure the cab driver was... well, probably not at all surprised that 3 white guys had found this particular hotel out of all the options in Seoul, but seriously: we're here to learn, folks! Not to make out with you! Billy Madison... anyone? Anyone? Ok, never mind. So yeah... we did take a quick stroll (in the pouring rain, mind you) to see what was for sale, because I for one had never been to a Korean RLD before, but it was strictly window shopping. Anyway, back to the hotel for about 3 hours sleep and then we're off to the DMZ.

Morning, hangover, quick walk, quicker cab ride, no breakfast, check-in, bus ride. Korean tour guide, Freedom Road (along the Han River, protected with fences to keep invading North Korean marine units off the freeway), and up to the actual De-Militarized Zone.There we receive a briefing at Camp Bonifas ("In Front of Them All") about the DMZ and expected behavior and such. Highlights? In front of the North Korean guards (whom we only saw from a distance): no gestures, no pointing, basically don't acknowledge their presence in any way. You can take pictures, but they will remotely scan any and all electronic equipment that you carry. In other words, don't make yourself a target and don't be a dumbass. Done and done.

And that's where the story ends for today, ladies and gents. Pictures can be found here.

Curiouser and curiouser

2009-10-05T12:50:00.004+09:00

UPDATE!!! Link to Sports Day pictures is now working. So, go look. Also, costumes and such.

Actually, a more appropriate title for this would have been lazier and lazier, but that just doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well. So here we are. 3 weeks later and with a title that makes no sense. You're just gonna have to bear with me though. Or... not, I guess. I mean, I don't know if anybody's still checking this site for updates or not anymore. I hear the best way to gain readers to a blog is to actually blog consistently. So... failing that, I guess I could promise naked pictures of Megan Fox or miracle weight-loss techniques or a way to get your house clean without actually doing anything. So... yeah. If that last sentence doesn't draw in at least a few hits from google (hi guys! fooled ya!) then I don't know what this world's coming to.

So what's happened since last I wrote? Hung with out the teachers a few times. Samgyeopsal, kalbi, dalk kalbi. Lots and lots of soju and beer. Man those guys love to drink. We did sports day at our school, at which I took lots of awesome pictures which will soon be up on facebook and my google pictures site. And by soon, I mean later today. Once they're there, I'll come back and add the links. But, you know, I was finally in the mood to write something, and based on how rarely that's happened recently, it would've been dumb to delay it just to upload photos. But they're awesome. And they're already on my computer, just waiting to be captioned and rotated and such.

Went out with the rest of the Janghowon crew a few days ago for booze and chicken and noraebang. The karaoke is actually more fun with white people... I mean, it's fun with Koreans too, but at least with the westerners we all know the same music. So we can all rock out to Bon Jovi, Queen, and Sir Mix-a-Lot at the same time, without having to intersperse it with Kpop.

Went shopping yesterday with the girl. Bought a kick-ass UH Cougar-style (note: not actually a UH jacket; those are impossible to find in the states... the odds against finding one here are astronomical) red white and navy Puma wind-jacket-type thing for like $12 at the outlet. I must be losing weight, cuz as far as Puma jackets go, I can now wear a Korean size medium. Which is kinda ridiculous. Now, like in shirts and stuff, that's not true. But baby steps, ya'll, baby steps. Also, got some new weight-lifting gloves on sale at the Nike outlet and then hit up E-Mart for some groceries. Got pork 'n' beans, snack-sized snickers, arizona green tea, some more dill pickles, some crunchy peanut butter (which is still way too expensive here, but sometimes ya just gotta say screw it), and a big ole jar of sundried tomato alfredo sauce, which I'm using tonight. I'm doing a chicken, shrimp, and spinach alfredo over pasta, and I hear at one of the bakeries in town you can actually get garlic bread with no sugar on it (joy!), so I'm gonna hit that up as well. I'm excited! =)

Oh, and before shopping, we went and saw this god-awful movie that I hadn't even heard of until we got to the theater. "Fame," I believe it's called. Anyway, it has Kelsey Grammer and his ex-wife Lilith, whoever the hell that actress is. Also, the chick who played that obnoxious lady in Will and Grace, and uh... yeah. Anyway, it's terrible. It's like getting humped by a dolphin until you drown terrible. Because you can't actually drown. And, to top things off, I spilled my bucket of popcorn about 30 minutes in. It was actually kinda cool, because the way it fell, I guess there was some kind of centrifugal force on the popcorn. So, it pretty much all stayed in the bucket, which then landed perfectly open-side down next to my feet. So, at least I got to spend the rest of the movie trying to figure out ways to use the objects in my pockets to somehow salvage all but the bottom layer of popcorn and get the rest of it into my belly. My efforts were futile and made a gigantic mess in the aisle, but it was certainly better than actually watching that piece of shit movie.

Today is the end of the Chuseok holiday. Chuseok is like Korean thanksgiving, I guess. Family all gathers, there's lots of food, and then they all drive to their family's ancestral burial mountain to bow to the graves of their forefathers. Just like in America. So, tomorrow it's back to work, but today I'm gonna go look for new bedcovers. I feel like a change. And apparently, the really awesome soft ones I bought when I arrived here last year are like, a winter seasonal item. So they just arrived in stores again this past week. All the summer ones suck, by the way.

So, to recap, here are some links which for now, mean nothing, but soon will have signifieds and therefore become signifiers.

My Chuseok gift set can be found . . .
School Sports Day is moving in right over here!!!
Some other random photos including me dressing up in all sorts of fun and exotic costumes are here!!!

Stay tuned.

Peace.

Bullet points are my friend

2009-09-11T15:12:00.002+09:00

Swine Flu

Currently not teaching; the Global center is on hiatus due to swine flu concerns. Not sure who's concerned, but somebody, somewhere, is really freaking out about this.
Instead of teaching, they have us doing other things. Grading papers, helping out the homeroom teachers, what have you. Yesterday, we weeded the garden beside the parking lot. I hope we can just go back to teaching soon.
We have a new foreign teacher. Leland from Minnesota. He arrived last Saturday but hasn't been able to come to school yet. He's in quarantine. Apart from that, he's a pretty cool guy.
Of course, they encouraged me and the other English-speaking teachers to help him out, hang out, whatever. And then, you know, come to school. Defeat the purpose much?

Food

Tonight Mi Sun and Mi Jin are coming over for Korean dinner night at my house. Mi Sun's cooking japchae. I'm excited!
We had an awesome cookout last Saturday at the school. Someone had shot and killed a wild boar, so we grilled that bad boy up. Lots of beer and soju and wild swine. At school, mind you. Awesome.

Travel

Less than 2 months till I get to make my visa run to Fukuoka, Japan. More information coming on this later.
A little more than 3 months till I get to make my vacation run to America. The more I think about this, the more excited I'm getting. More info etc. coming later.

Miscellaneous

Things with the girl are awesome.
I'm hungry.
Been spending more time listening to Korean music... especially riding in the car. I'm really tired of K-pop. It's like, I always kinda hated it. But it's just so damn catchy, that you end up singing the only 3 lines you can understand from a god-awful song for like 2 solid days.
I accidentally got some bleach/detergent spots on my green stripey polo shirt that I like when it was in the wash. Those spots are now exactly the same shade of sky blue as one of the stripes. Win. Too bad they're random and on the sleeve. Still, it surely won't prevent me from wearing it.
Don't call me Shirley.

I'm really hoping to get to 100 posts soon

2009-08-28T13:23:00.002+09:00

Because that'll feel like an accomplishment, even though it's a pretty arbitrary number. You know, it takes 500 homeruns or 3000 hits to be a lock for the hall of fame. Well, it takes 100 blog posts to be a "blogger."

There's not really much going on here, it turns out. I've been spending a lot of the time with the girl lately, and that's going fantastic! However, due to a sensitive situation at the house of learning that employs her, she doesn't feel comfortable making things public around here. So... I don't know. Apart from that, things are really really good. She said she likes being my secret girlfriend. Of course, it's only secret here. In Seokcho and Seoul (where we're going shopping tomorrow, by the way) she's been plenty expressive. Just, around Janghowon... because it's so small and everyone knows everyone else... we're keepin things on the downlow.

Also, I watched the tail-end of the Bucs-Dolphins preseason football game, and after the game was over I got Friends and Seinfeld on whatever Fox affiliate this is. Awesome!

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes -- it's nice to know people are still thinking about me! =) I feel like I've been gone a long time, but only a few more months till I come home to visit! Whoo-ee! And extra special super-duper thanks to Mom for the awesome care package: Some shirts, jeans, brown work pants (which Mi Sun said were all 예쁘다! handsome and/or pretty!), and... Miracle Whip, 2 King-size Paydays which I love, and 2 boxes of Kraft bluebox Mac & Cheese! It's the Cheesiest! Too bad about the bacon, but it's the thought that counts. =)

Also -- thanks for the postcard, Emily! I will send you one, I promise. Anyone else who wants one... I'm going to Seoul tomorrow so I'll pick up a stack. I do need addresses though, so anyone interested, email your info to seanmfrye@gmail.com. I'll get those right out to ya, promise!

Oh, and two months later, here's some pictures from that baseball game I went to back in June. Enjoy! Seokcho photos coming soon! Until then, I bid you adieu.

생일 축하합니다

2009-08-23T23:13:00.004+09:00

Yep, today is (or rather was, since I'm way out here in the farther eastern part of the world) my birthday. So, birthday = 생일 (sang-il). Congratulations (in its most polite form) = 축하합니다 (chookha-ham-nida). Happy birthday to me.

It was a pretty good birthday, considering I'm several thousand miles removed from my closest friends and family. Mom -- thanks for the package, and don't worry about the bacon-destruction-by-fire costs. I got it. =) It's the thought that counts, and I'm glad that you thought of me and decided that bacon was a suitable birthday gift. Apparently, I'm doing something right. Awesome. And for all the facebook and email birthday wishes, I'm very grateful.

So -- the party. Last night I went out with Bo Il, Mi Sun, Mi Jin, and Yu Sun. Most of the foreign teachers here either don't like me or were out of the country on vacation. Not sure... but what I am sure of is that it was their loss. We met up in Icheon, went to the sports bar (which, unlike America, does not show copious amounts of sports on big screen TVs). Drank, ate anju, drank more... played Titanic, an awesome Korean drinking game. Basically, you pour a glass mostly full of beer, then float an empty shot glass in there. You take turns pouring soju into the shot glass. The one who makes it sink (hence the name) has to chug the whole thing. Poor Mi Sun -- she was a trooper though, I gotta say. Also had these evil little cocktails, where you take a half-shot of coke in a shot glass and put it in the bottom of a beer glass. Then you take a half-shot of soju and put it on top of the coke shot glass. Then you pour beer into the glass until it's nearly full, while the two shot glasses (if constructed properly) should maintain structural integrity. Then you chug the thing. Good times. Like a Korean car bomb, I guess... although the name does leave something to be desired.

The sports bar also has a Wii, so we played some Wii boxing while all the other Koreans in the bar cheered us on. I kicked ass, in case you were wondering. Undefeated heavyweight champion of the wooooooooorld... and so on. Also played some Wii tennis, which was less fun, it turns out. I mean, still fun, but the rest of the bar lost interest at that point, and what's the point of kicking someone's ass if there's not 30 random people cheering you on? Exactly. We also played some darts. I was on fire the first game (and no, in case you were wondering, I'm not good at darts) but I was nailing bulls-eyes left and right. Won handily at 501. Then came round 2. Since there were 5 of us and only 4 players can play at a time, I got to play as a team with Mi Jin the second game. Now, I'd like to say that this cramped my style, but I was definitely the flat tire on the vehicle that was our losing team. I actually scored a 3 on one turn. Total. With 3 darts. And 3 ones. Ouch. Anyway, our penalty for losing was that we had to finish all the booze left on the table so that we could go bowling. Now, I know what you're thinking... and yes, losing is awesome. Maybe better than winning.

Bowling -- I'm sure you're curious, so let me clear this up. It's exactly the same as it is in America. They even have the computers that keep score for you. The only difference is, Koreans don't drink when they bowl. Which is totally backwards, because they drink at pretty much all other times. Weird. Anyway, I was the clear winner at this little competition. It took me a while to find my groove, and by the end of the 2nd game I was pretty tired, but even with those setbacks and using the house ball I managed a couple of games in the 150 range. Which I was pretty happy with.

Then, off to another bar. More drinking. Then home for sleep. Now then, a list of presents: I got a new Nike golf glove; a "massage stick" with a stuffed puppy on top (no... just no. Not like that); a box of seaweed soup mix; a kick-ass cappucino flavored cake with disgusting amounts of chocolate utensil-shaped thingies on it. My analysis -- the golf glove: very cool. Needed a new one anyway. Can't wait to go golfing and try it out. The "massage stick": at the time, Mi Jin told me it was a one-shot stick. "One-shot" is the Korean way of saying bottoms up. It means that everyone will chug whatever drink they're holding. I'm assuming that the stuffed dog stick is for beating people who don't comply. Which is way more fun than hitting your own back in some kind of masochistic massage ritual, I gotta say. The seaweed soup: this is a traditional Korean birthday meal. It's like eating ham and beans or split peas on New Years; it brings you good luck. So, I dutifully cooked myself a big ole bowl of seaweed soup and rice for lunch today. And it was absolutely delicious. We actually eat this fairly often for school lunch... and it is, I'm sure, much better than it sounds. You don't even really notice that you're eating seaweed. It's just a nice flavorful broth with green things in it, which also taste good and more or less like the broth. So yeah, I think most everyone I know would enjoy it (except perhaps for Gran and my little cousin Erik, but he doesn't count -- he won't even eat pizza). I'll keep you posted on the good luck.

Perhaps the best present of the day was the news my coteacher gave me. We're getting a new foreign teacher next week! An American guy, and that's all they know right now. What this means for me, however, is no more teaching after school classes! He's in charge of that mess now. As much as I love my kids, I'm pretty happy about this no more lesson planning thing. I assume I'll have to help him out for the first couple of weeks, but maybe he's like a teaching ninja and will totally rock the house -- more free time for me! Also, found out I'm getting a Christmas vacation this year! So *sings* I'll... be home.... for Christmas....

And I'll see some (most? all? who even still reads this thing after I completely flaked out on the updates?) of you in a few months! What a great day!

Oh... and today, the girl came over and we watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I love that movie. I'm a dork. But it was really nice -- she just wanted to be here with me on my birthday. 고마와! 너는 최고!

And that was my birthday, Korea-style. I'm planning a little jaunt down to Busan and some of the surrounding countryside for later in the week. Updates on that coming soon, as well as pictures from my weekend by the sea in Sokcho. Don't be a stranger, and I won't be strange.

Last Weekend: A Prologue

2009-08-20T17:53:00.002+09:00

This is another of the reasons I love Korea. Last week, I was walking home from the gym and texting Mi Sun when it started to absolutely pour. I had no umbrella, because it was all hot and sunny when I left the house. Naturally.

So, I'm walking home in flip flops and my workout clothes, trudging through the torrential rain, and realize that as I'm texting, the phone is probably getting a lot wetter than is good for it. Next I realize that the shorts I'm wearing are completely soaked through, so the pocket probably isn't a much better place for it. I resign myself to the fact that it's just gonna be wet, and kinda hold it against my belly under my t-shirt, trying to keep the water from literally running all over it.

When I got home, everything seemed to work just fine... that is until (maybe the next day, or the day after) I tried to make a phone call. And the person I called couldn't hear me at all. Thinking it was just a bad connection, I hung up and tried again. Same story. At this point I'm starting to freak out a little, making the connection between prior downpour and current malfunction. This phone was expensive! And while I didn't have to buy the original one, I'm pretty sure I'm on the hook for the replacement if it comes to that, ya know?

Well, I explained what happened to Mi Sun, and she suggests that we take it to the Samsung Service Center to have it looked at. Fortunately we were doing our grocery shopping at E-Mart in Icheon on Friday before the trip, and her friend Yu Sun knew of a Samsung place just down the street. So we go in there and give them the phone. Didn't even have to explain that this was completely my fault. Just told them, the mic's not working, no one can hear me. Please fix it. 45 minutes, they said. Took Mi Sun's number and said they'd call when it was done.

So, they call. We finish shopping (and ate some McDonald's... mmm, Big Mac) and drive back over there. Not only did they replace the mic, they put in a whole new keyboard unit because apparently the first one looked as if it might stop working soon. And, icing on the cake, this repair was absolutely, 100%, god-as-my-witness FREE. Yep, not a dollar, not a dime, not a single red penny did I pay for this 40%-new phone. Awesome!

So, on Friday I got 3 new cotton t-shirts, swimming trunks, McDonald's, a giant bottle of beer (for later of course!) and a newly-functional phone, all for less than 30 bucks. Great start to a great weekend! More updates coming soon, with pictures!

Since last we met

2009-08-17T11:23:00.003+09:00

This past weekend I went on a little trip to Sokcho, which is on the east coast of Korea. It was a pretty tiring yet relaxing weekend, the way those little trips can sometimes be. We stayed in a "condo," which is Konglish for basically, a hotel-like resort where the rooms have little kitchenettes. Cooked several delicious meals. Went to the beach on Saturday and got pretty sunburned. Checked out an awesome Buddhist temple Saturday afternoon/evening. Sunday after breakfast we went and hiked Seorak Mountain. Then went down to this fishing area and ate... well, I'm going to tell you all of this in another post anyway, as well as put up some pictures, so we'll leave that part for later. =) My camera is currently in Mi Sun's car, so the pictures will have to wait. Also, she and her friends Yu Sun and Ji Sun (easy enough to remember, right?) got way more pictures than I did, so I need to do some consolidation. But rest assured, pictures will be up soon.

First things first, though: the English Camp I did at Buwon High School! This was, as you may or may not remember, an English Conversation class with 18 9th-graders from all over the Icheon city area. These kids were obviously smart, and for the most part really well-behaved. I had a lot of fun with this camp. It's so much easier to deal with kids who can understand most of what I'm saying -- I think I'd do much better in a high school setting than in my current job, but it's all about expanding my horizons, right? Anyway, back to the lecture at hand. The camp, first off, was crazy. Two weeks of English and Math. Apart from my class, they were mostly preparing for high school entrance exams, which will hopefully allow them to get into some of the more prestigious private schools around. So, from what I could gather, they would wake up around 5:30 every morning, have mandatory exercise and self-study time, then basically do English, Math, English, Math, lunch, English, Math, English, Math, dinner, English, Math, English, Math, self study, and in bed by 1 or 2 in the morning. Oh, and I think there was occasionally some golf thrown in as well(?). Sounds like an awesome way to spend your summer vacay, no? Well, the upshot of this was that my class at 8:30 in the morning frequently turned into nap time. I mean, I did wake them up and all, but I tried to be understanding about it. Two solid weeks of only a few hours sleep each night will take its toll on anybody I guess, but especially 15 year olds.

So, mostly we just played games. Amanda, I took your suggestion and busted out some theatre improv-type warmup games... which they inevitably complained about as being too hard. I also made them write and perform scripts for TV news-style interviews... that was pretty much a disaster. We talked about different types of events that are often covered on the news, either local (which I'm not entirely sure they even have here, to be honest) or national. Then the reporter was supposed to give us the facts (answering the "w" question words, of course) and then he/she would interview an eyewitness or two. I guess, it wasn't totally bad. One group covered the Harry Potter premier in London... another a Big Bang concert in Tokyo. One group reported on why the air conditioning wasn't working in our classroom, which was actually pretty funny. I think, perhaps, my expectations were a little high going in, and they actually did a pretty good job. And yes, I did just talk myself into that conviction, thanks for asking.

I also used a lot of conversation starter questions I found on this kickass ESL website to get them talking with each other. Made things much easier for me, as I could just kick back and observe. I mean, it was actually pretty easy.

I had meant to make this longer, but Mi Sun's coming over for lunch in a few minutes and I need to get ready. More updates coming soon, and this time I do promise. Come back soon!

Pink is my favorite color!

2009-07-31T21:15:00.002+09:00

I do like Aerosmith, in fact, but that's not the reason for the title, in case you wondering.

I had promised some more Korean cultural oddities in a previous post, but this isn't it. This is just a hold-you-over, snack type thing till we get to the meat of the situation.

But seriously, Koreans really like pink. And not the girls, either. I mean, they like pink too, but that's sort of to be expected, right? I'm talking about the boys. In the past few days of summer camp (and judging by past experience, this seems to be the norm) I've seen pink polos, pink t-shirts, pink-striped shorts, pink socks, pink Converses, pink pencils and pens, pink notebooks, even pink calculators.

It's sorta weird, but Koreans are very flashy in some areas and extremely conservative when it comes to others. For instance -- the socks. Korean socks are awesome. They're largely pink or yellow, and lots of them have pictures of cartoon characters on them. The guys wear a lot of shiny suits, skinny ties, bright shirts and crazy-colored socks... while the girls seem to settle for more muted colors. Of course, they do tend to wear little skirts and tiny shorts over patterned tights, and ridiculously high-heeled shoes... but generally it's earthy tones, with maybe a purple or green here and there.

This whole randomly-conservative thing persists with cars as well. Basically, you get 3 "colors." Most of the cars you see in Korea are white, black, or silver. You see the occasional red, and lots of the work-specific trucks are navy blue, but for the most part the road is pretty boring when it comes to the colors. However, they make up for the lack of visual excitement in other ways.

Traffic lights in Korea, or at least in the rural areas, are completely voluntary. I can't count the number of times I've been in a car where the driver (a normally respectable Korean citizen, by the way) just decides to go for it. Red lights are more or less suggestions here. If there's no one (that you can see) approaching an intersection, it's perfectly acceptable to just hit the gas and burn through that red light. Actually, it's broader than that. It seems like anything that's physically possible in a car is also borderline legal. If you can pull off a U-turn on a crowded street, due to pedestrians blocking oncoming traffic or a school bus picking up passengers, that's definitely fair game. If you can scream through a crowded intersection without killing anyone, feel free! If you can slam the parking brake, spin the wheel, and pull off a 360 while flipping the car end over end blindly through a crowded market without landing on any small children -- well, not sure that actually happens very often, but if you can -- be my guest! And this is why I decided not to buy a motorcycle here. Well... I don't have license, either, but that's mostly why.

PINK! It's the color of passion!

In case you're planning a Korean party...

2009-07-29T13:44:00.003+09:00

I've eaten some interesting foods recently. Let me tell you about them.

First, and this ranks pretty low on the list of strange or icky or what-have-you: 쭈꾸미; in English -- jjook-goomi. Even more in English, spicy baby octopus. With carrots and some other junk. Freakin delicious. I've been to this restaurant 3 times already, and I'll probably be back soon.

Next -- and this was also way better than it sounds, I have to say: 닭발; talk-bal, which literally translates to "chicken feet." I would never have thought to eat this part of the bird, myself, but I know people all over the world do it, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Again, it's spicy, served with vegetables. This one is bar-food in Korea... 안주, they call it. Anju literally means side dishes served with beer or liquor, and you can pretty much find something weird to eat at any Korean bar. I've only tried it once, when Mi Jin ordered it... but I'd eat it again. It's just really really effin' spicy... so you've kinda gotta be in one of those pump-yourself-up-for-the-pain moods.

Let's see, moving on up the ickiness scale, we come to... probably the raw beef liver. It wasn't terrible... just velvety soft and with very little flavor. Again, raw, so it's a little chewy, but only a little. It's actually got a very mushy, unresisting texture. I think, if it were very lightly sauteed, it would be quite nice.

Next stop -- 순대 (soondae) and also the soup made from it, 순대국 (soondae-guk). Bet you can't guess what 국 means... :) Anyway, I ate this dish several times during the winter camp, and had it again last week. I guess I had never really asked what was in it, or maybe I did and then promptly blocked it out. But here's the fun list of ingredients for this traditional Korean specialty -- which I would eat again. Actually, the soup isn't great. But a dish of just soondae and side-dishes is pretty heavenly, believe it or not. But it's a "blood sausage-y" mix... blood (pig's, I think, although I'm not entirely sure on that), clear noodles, and barley or other filler... wrapped in a pig intestine and steamed, and then served in a soup with other various entrails, plus onions and potatoes and such. Also, you pick the soondae out of the soup with your chopsticks and dip into a sauce made of tiny (1cm, maybe?) pickled shrimps. Whole and uncooked shrimps. It gives it a really nice salty kick. Really tasty, but definitely getting up there on my newly-formed ick scale.

And finally -- the ick winner. Mostly because it tasted like complete ass, and also looked, smelled, and felt really just vomit-inducing. I don't know what the Korean word for it is, and apparently there is no English word for it, presumably because no one who speaks English has ever wanted to eat one. They were served in a big bowl of 해물 갈국수 that I had last week. That's hae-mul kal-guk-su, or seafood noodle soup. Now, this also comes with dried fish, shrimp with the heads on, and various and sundry other fun seafoods. The fish and clams were delicious, actually, and the soup itself was pretty rockin too. But then there were these... otherworldly alien things, in the soup. Kinda spiny, kinda squishy, yet still crunchy. Like, if you tap them with a chopstick, they make a noise. Anyway, Bo Il was eating them, or at least, I think he was and not just pretending to get me to put one of the damn things in my mouth. So, after letting it cool an appropriate amount of time, I chose the smallest, least-spiny looking of the bunch and chowed down. On the outside, naturally, it tasted pretty much like the soup. Not bad... then I punctured the shell, and all kinds of unholy hell-spawn gushed forth. I mean, this thing was like 11 different kinds of awful, all rolled up into one completely repulsive crunchy-shell-covered goo. And yes, this is the only thing on this list that I definitely, certainly, without a doubt will NOT eat ever again. Even if it does get an English name.

So, to recap: octopus < chicken feet < raw beef liver < blood sausage < unnamed demon-child of the outer deeps.

Bon appetit!

Some kinda big news!

2009-07-28T15:27:00.002+09:00

First off, I want to offer a correction, retraction, whatever the heck you call it. I no longer promise that I will blog more often, more regularly, or anything of the sort. I'm tired of being a liar. I mean, I will try, but no more promises. I just feel like there's too many letdowns, too many broken hearts, too many shattered dreams.

On the smaller news front, I don't think I'm going out of the country on vacation this summer. Sad but true. I'm doing this English camp at the private school down the street, and I'm having to use my official vacation days to do so. You know, with work visa restrictions being all... uh, strict (yeah, who's an English teacher now?) and stuff, I can't officially work at this job without going on vacation from my full-time job. Anyway, the upshot is that I can't technically leave the country this summer. So after I finish up with this camp, I'm gonna do a little tour of Korea instead... check out some beaches, see the sights, all that good stuff. It kinda sucks, but I think it'll all work out.

The reason I say "it'll all work out," and also for the long-awaited "Big News!!!" portion of our broadcast this evening, it's official. I am... staying another year in Korea!

Craziness, right? Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking about this, and there are just... a lot of reasons to stay. I mean, there's a lot of reasons to come home as well, but most of those are people. And people just aren't that important.... um, haha? Anyway, I miss all you guys, I really do. But I really like my job here, the kids, the teachers... And of course, as I'm sure you're all aware, the money and the food are big factors too. Plus, I'm in better shape than I've been... well, since Spain in 2001, probably. Today at the gym, I dropped under a certain weight threshhold that I've been eyeing for a while now (and this was with a good layer of sweaty gym clothes too, although no shoes), and also benchpressed like 20 more pounds than I've ever done before. Ever. I don't know, I just feel pretty good here.

For the record, I'm not staying in Korea permanently. I do have other things that I want to do in my life... so you know, don't worry about that. Also for the record, I will be home (for sure So-Il, maybe Chi-town, probably not Houston) for a couple weeks, I'm just not sure exactly when. I'm shooting for the Holidays/New Year, but I don't know if that's going to be possible. But there will definitely be more updates forthcoming long before the day arrives.

Some posts to look forward to: I'm working on compiling some funny and interesting Konglish, should have that up soon. Also, per (repeated) request, I'll try to put up some pictures of my students, and also the results of the pottery adventures #1 and #2. Oh, and the 2nd part of my post on uh... Korean cultural oddments and strange-alities. So, yeah, don't stop reading and I won't stop writing. At least, not for more than a week or two. Promise. =Þ

Summer camp update

2009-07-15T20:58:00.003+09:00

3 days of English camp down, 7 more to go. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice weather, warm and sunny... a true rarity in the past few weeks of monsoon season. So I've decided tomorrow is going to be American games day. I think we'll start inside, play "Heads up, seven up" and "Honey, do you love me?" and then head outside for some "Red rover," "What's the time, Mr. Wolf?" and "Colored Hair." I don't actually remember playing those last two, but they were pretty prominent on lists of games kids play, so I'll take their word for it. Plus, they just sound fun and they actually incorporate a bit of English as well, so that's a plus.

Just as a reminder:

Honey, do you love me? One person is it and everyone else sits in a circle. It has to go up to a target and ask "Honey, do you love me?" Target replies "Honey, I love you but I just can't smile." It then has to try to make target smile. If successful, target is now it. If not, it tries again -- I remember this from summer/church camps in the past and it was always a good time.

What's the time, Mr. Wolf? One person is wolf, standing with their back to the group, and everyone else lines up 30 feet or so away. They call out "What's the time, Mr. (Miss) Wolf?" Wolf says a time (It's nine o'clock!) and then turns around... while everyone takes that many steps towards the wolf. Wolf turns back around, and we do it again. If anyone gets close enough to touch the wolf, the wolf loses and we do it again. Eventually the wolf says "Dinner time!" turns around, and chases the group back to the starting line. If they catch someone, that person's the new wolf.

Colored Hair. Again, one person is the wolf. There's a starting line, a finish point, and side boundaries. Each person (not the wolf) picks a color, out of maybe 5 different choices. Wolf: "Knock, knock." Group: "Who's there?" Wolf? "A big bad wolf with (choose a color) hair!" Everyone who has that color has to run, touch the finish point, and run back to the start without getting tagged. The wolf chases... first person tagged becomes the new wolf.

I also liked "Statues," but I'm not sure how well it would work. In this, there are 3 groups: buyers, sellers, and statues. Sellers spin the statues 3 times and then give them a push. However statues land/fall, they have to stay that way. Then sellers tell them what they will be. Buyers come in and ask about the statues... sellers explain/describe their statues and then push the "on" button -- touching the nose. Statues come alive and demonstrate their role, and then buyers choose the best statue. Then the groups are changed. Sounds like fun, but perhaps a shade too difficult.

However, I've agreed to run a summer camp up the road at one of the local high schools. Pros: Well, 1 major pro, anyway. I get paid kind of a lot of money for it. And it's only 2 hours a day for nine days. And it should be a good experience. All the kids in 8th and 9th grade who wanted to attend the camp had to take a test, and I'm getting the top 20. So at least I'm hopeful that I'll have some kids who not only want to be there but have a decent level of proficiency in English. Cons: 2 major ones... it cuts down my vacation time by 2 weeks (but I've been saying this whole time I'm here to save money and not go crazy with travel, so I shouldn't complain), and I have no idea what I'm going to do with these kids.

The focus of my class is supposed to be conversation. I've got a few ideas, I guess... I just need about 15 more. For instance: roleplaying. I'm going to set up some scenes that involve Korean celebrities in different situations. Seeing an ex-girlfriend/boyfriend, talking to crazy fans, deciding whether or not to do an embarrassing movie role, etc... and have them act out the scenes. I've got some time to refine this, but at least they'll be interested (I think!) and able to express themselves in English (I hope!). Also, the statues game I mentioned above might be much more fun with this age group, so I might save it for that. 20 Questions might be fun also... and I think that there's a similar game played here in Korea so it wouldn't be a big deal to adapt it for an English setting. Oh, and Taboo! Get them to describe something without using any of the "taboo" words and the other students get to guess what it is.

Mi Sun said the English class she took in Australia was done this way -- mostly games -- so she's going to look through some of her old materials for ideas. Still, anything ya'll could suggest would be greatly appreciated. Remember, 14-15 year olds, high level of English... although in Korea that generally means high level of reading/writing, much lower on speaking, hence the conversation focus of the camp.

On a completely different note, the maintenance guy came by to look at my window frame this afternoon. It was leaking like crazy last night... water dripping (nay, streaming) down from this space -- invisible, but obviously present -- between my bedroom wall and the window frame. I had 3 different bowls and a pot catching streams of water when I went to bed last night... thankfully, the rain let up and they weren't yet full when I woke up. The dripping/streaming had stopped too. Anyway, I met the guy at my place after school today, and he went to work on his (hopefully) temporary fix. Which was to put up a sheet of plastic over my windows. Now, the main problem I see with this is that the sheet isn't really long enough to cover the whole window opening. So, he taped it to the wall above the leaky area, and then (partially) taped the bottom of the sheet to the windows themselves. Like, in 3 places, over a 5-foot wide window opening. I mean, I guess it'll keep my bed and wall outlet from getting wet, but he's just directed all the incoming water into the tracks at the bottom of the window frame...

I just hope this isn't the permanent solution, because with this sheet taped to the windows, I can no longer open them. I'm told that, this being monsoon season, nobody does outside construction-type work, and I just have to wait for the weather to improve. Wonder when that'll be? I hear that the monsoon only lasts a few weeks this far north, so I'm hoping to have this all resolved within the next week or so. But still, this can't be good: I mean, there's some serious structural integrity being breached, I'm sure, and this building is less than 9 months old. I even went out in the stairway last night just to peek at those windows, and sure enough! 2 out of the 3 were leaking in the same way mine was. Shoddy construction... tsk tsk tsk!

OK -- time to watch the new episode of Weeds and then get some rest! Peace and love, ya'll.

When it rains, it pours

2009-07-14T22:42:00.003+09:00

You know those conversations that start with "We need to talk" and then have a lot of things happen in the middle and then end with "And that's why I don't think we should see each other anymore"?

Well, my right leg had that conversation with me today. At least, that's what it felt like. And for all of you who were expecting relationship issues... ha. Not today. =) But yeah, after school Mi Sun and I had dinner and then went to the library to look for some books for her upcoming TEPS exam (which looks like it sucks, by the way), and then she dropped me off at the gym. I got there around 6:30, so, much later than usual. And I went to the squash court to hit the ball around for a while before going upstairs to lift. You know, get the blood flowing, muscles loose, get a good sweat going, all that. By the time I finished, however, 3 of the girls I work with (Yun Kyoung, Un Ju, and another whose name I've forgotten at the moment! oopsie!) were getting ready for their squash practice. Yun Kyoung and I played for a bit and then she suggested a quick game. I was feelin pretty good, up maybe 12-5 when I hit a short drop shot. As she was running for the ball she kinda stumble/tripped and (I think) rolled her ankle. It turned pretty red, but their squash coach was right there and sprayed some kind of icy-hot medicine-smelling stuff on there, and she would be ok less than an hour later. So, girl-whose-name-I-don't-know jumped in the box with me, thinking she might be able to avenge the loss of her friend. Alas, I regulated that shit. I beat the snot out of her, like 21-8. Maybe 21-10, but it wasn't really that close. So, at this point, I'm thinkin, yeah... I can play this game. Alright.

I sat down to grab some water and rest for a bit, and watched these two older guys play. Right away, I could tell that this was a whole nother level of squash. I sorta know one of the guys from the gym -- we've talked a few times... he's a Methodist minister, name of Rev. Shin. Yes, it's a common name here... Mi Sun's last name, also. Anyway, he won the first game, but lost the second, and of course, I'd talked myself into thinking I might be able to play with these guys. You know, when you watch pro tennis or golf and you think to yourself "I coulda hit that shot!" Same principle. So when they were done he sat down and we chatted for a bit, watching another game. When that game ended, he asked if I wanted to play him. I said sure! Not feeling like I'd win, necessarily, but at least that I wouldn't embarrass myself. Oh, how wrong I was.

Long story short, he beat me 21-5. I don't really think he was trying. I did hit a few really nice winners, but the general feeling was one of hopelessness. Well, I've only just started playing this game. Maybe a few years down the road, right? Haha... That's when reality set in. Mr. Shin's partner, who'd played him pretty even before, got his ass beat by this even older guy, musta been in his 50's I'd guess, but just looked so smooth moving around the court. So, I'd just watched the guy who beat the guy who beat me, get beat. Badly. And still, there was the coach guy (who's much younger than most of them, probably around my age), sitting down with this serene grin on his face, watching and cheering them on. Finally I got to watch him play, and I'm not sure he lost more than a few points. He didn't play the older guys who took it all serious, but some of the women who were there (and yes, I'm certain these chicks were better than me). But he was routinely hitting different shots backwards, between his legs, slamming the ball off the back wall to hit all 4 walls before it hit the ground, left-handed, you name it... and it looked like he never took more than 2 steps to get anywhere on the court. I'm not sure how you'd even go about scoring points on this guy, to be honest. Guess I've got some practicing to do, eh...

So I'm home now, and just realized that my bedroom window frame leaks. It sucks, really. I've got some bowls and pots there to catch the dripping, but this is a brand-new building! It wasn't finished yet when I moved to Korea last November. Just blows. I've had to move my bed out away from the wall, unplug everything that was plugged into the outlet on that wall, just in case... you know. But I've got no idea who to get ahold of for fixing something like this! My co-teacher, who might actually be able to help, isn't answering his phone... so, I'm kind of at a loss. Bowls and towels for the night, I guess. I just wish it would stop raining!

Oh, and the opening of this post -- my right leg really hurts. I think I might have slightly pulled my groin, but it really hurts to lift my right leg above parallel. Like, hurts to the point that I more or less can't do it at all. I noticed a little twinge earlier when I was playing, but nothing big. The longer it goes (and the more I tried stretching it out), the worse it feels. Hence the whole relationship metaphor. Nothing I say or do makes it any better! This will never work! We should just end things now, before one of us gets hurt! And I say, "It's too late! I'm already hurt!"

OK, I think that's the end of the road for tonight. Wish me luck with the leaky bedroom thing. Peace ya'll.

Teachers' Retreat

2009-07-12T21:58:00.005+09:00

What a weekend! Friday was uneventful -- students were on a field trip to Icheon to go swimming, so it was awful quiet around the school. Mrs. Kim brought in a bunch of kimbap for lunch, and Mi Sun and I finished watching the first Lord of the Rings movie and started on the second. With no students coming to the Global Center, we've had quite a bit of free time... and the Icheon Experience classroom has a laptop connected to a projector with a giant screen, so we've pulled a bunch of cushions in there and set up our own private movie theatre. Good times!

At 4:30, we boarded a bus with the rest of the teachers, bound for ... well, I knew not what. But as I boarded the bus, in the school parking lot mind you, I was handed a warm can of beer and a bag of dried squid. It was gonna be that kind of party, it turned out. All the teachers were already crackin open the beers, so I happily joined in. Not two minutes out of the parking lot, Mr. Kim (no relation to Mrs. Kim from earlier -- Kim is a really common last name here) handed me another beer, so I threw down the first one and popped open number 2. Number 3 would follow soon after, as there seemed to be no shortage of booze on the school bus. Yep -- school bus. And yes, drinking in a moving vehicle is perfectly legal here, and actually somewhat of a tradition, I'm told. Beer number 3 carried us to the tomb of King Sejong, but most of us (including me, actually) had been there before, so we walked around for a bit (it was on a free day to celebrate the designation as a UNESCO Heritage Site) and then got back on the bus.

We drove for a bit longer before stopping for dinner. The "restaurant" was on side of the street, but they didn't actually sell food, I don't think. Well, side dishes and stuff, but the main dish, the beef, was sold at little butcher shops across the street. So we purchased an ass-load of beef to cook at the restaurant to accompany the massive amounts of soju we ordered. Now, this beef was supposed to be something special -- all Korean-grown, very exclusive. I mean, it tasted great, don't get me wrong, but I saw the price tags on this stuff and Jesus H Tapdancing Christ! Probably... um, not worth it, is all I'm gonna say. Delicious, yes... but $30/pound delicious? I don't think so... Also -- I tried raw beef liver for the first time. Some of the other teachers were wolfing it down, but Mi Sun and I were both looking at kinda warily. So we decided to "kawi-bawi-bo!" for it... that's Korean for rock-paper-scissors. I lost. It wasn't bad -- honestly, it had a silky smooth texture and not much flavor... I made her try some too, and we both agreed it was pretty inoffensive. Of course, dessert mostly consisted of liquor, and then...

After dinner we headed to the hotel and got settled in. The men-folk hunkered down for a night of gambling and drinking, but the card game was way too complex for me to learn quickly, especially in my already-nearly-inebriated state. Luckily, Bo Il and several of the girls were headed to the noraebang, so that was my new destination. At the noraebang I was forced to choose from the usual lame selection of English songs so I fell back on my standard Aerosmith, Oasis, and the Beatles... but Mi Sun was on fire! This girl was jumping around, headbanging, dancing her little Korean ass off! Never seen that before -- it was a nice change of pace, I gotta say. I think the fact that she wasn't driving anywhere was a big factor. I need to hang out with her when there's no driving involved more often. After a couple hours of singing, we headed back to the hotel.

The boys were still playing cards, so I grabbed a beer, some soju and some watermelon and started trying to figure out the game. Well, I got the basics of it but the simple fact that the cards have only pictures (no words, no numbers, nothing else) was too much for me. However, I realized I could pretty much play the game blind... just like poker. Get a feel for each guys behavior's and you could start to see patterns, who had a hand, who was bluffing. I even got to the point where I was ready to join in, but they wouldn't let me! I got kinda pissed off, but there were two reasons for it: 1) one of the teachers was down like 200 bucks and didn't want the dynamic of the game to change (although I woulda thought he'd be all for it! haha) and 2) they didn't want me to lose all my money and 3) racism? ha... whatever... I was pretty lit up and it probably would have been a bad idea anyway.

Woke up at 7am Saturday morning, still wearing all my clothes but in a different room than I remember being in. Well, I slowly inched the door open and there were like 8 people passed out in the main room, so maybe it was just as well. I stumbled to the bathroom and got cleaned up. Brushed teeth, washed, clean clothes. Then, thanks to my oversized and angry head, I realized the extent of my hangover, so I headed to the kitchen for something to make me feel better. We had, of course, no food on hand... but there was a whole lotta booze left, so I did the only thing I could think of to make myself feel better -- breakfast beer! Hair of the dog, breakfast of champions, whatever you wanna call it, I'm just sayin... it works. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so: 3 other guys made the fridge and the beer their first stop in the morning upon waking up. So, an hour and a half or so later we were ready to bounce, and I was 4 beers into a promising day!

Breakfast: sadly, Koreans have no concept of breakfast as we know it. Breakfast, to them, is just a meal eaten in the morning. But, it pretty much contains the same foods as lunch and dinner. So, "breakfast" was some kind of seafood soup: little shellfish critters (maybe a centimeter long) were boiled with seaweed and served to us in their broth. For breakfast. Actually tasted pretty good, except sometimes you'd get one that was a little more attached to his shell or something (at least, I hope that's what it was) and they were pretty crunchy. Some of the men sat at a separate table from all of us, and I noticed some soju bottles at their table. For breakfast. I was feeling pretty loose though and abstained. Anyway... then we were off to the river.

We arrived about an hour early for our little river cruise, so we ended up snacking on ice cream and corn on the cob (which absolutely, positively blows here, might I add -- they have no idea what they're missing), along with iced coffee. We played another Korean card game (no gambling this time), and after watching one game, I jumped in and I dominated. The strategy was really simple -- not sure what they were missing, but anyway...

The cruise -- meh. It was nice, I suppose. Just a little sight-seeing jaunt up the river and back. It was pretty hot up on the top deck but the lack of wind below made the heat worse there. I got sunburned, but not terribly bad. I'm just a little pink around the edges, is all. After the cruise one of the school maintenance workers ordered a jug of makeolli (different kind of Korean liquor) from the snack shop... no one wanted to sit down with him, and I felt bad for the poor guy. He's always really nice to me, and very chatty, so I went over and joined him to drink a bowl of makeolli. He had also ordered a Korean pancake (which is like a really light batter mixed with lots of veggies and hot peppers, then lightly fried), which turned out to be freakin awesome, especially when dipped in the sesame soy sauce they provided. Soon though, we were back on the bus, and off for lunch. Lunch was two things: Some of us ordered spicy chicken stew, which I've had before actually, remember? Mi Jin's was way better, it turns out, but this was still yummy. The rest had catfish boiled in a spicy soup. Whole catfish. Yeah, I tried it... and no, it wasn't great. I mean, catfish doesn't have a whole lot of flavor anyway, and this was really overpowered by the soup it was used in. But, on the plus side, I did get to pluck meat out of a catfish head -- can't say I've ever done that before. Whoo-ee!

Finally, back on the bus and headed home. I got in late yesterday afternoon, and I've done approximately nothing since. Relaxed, went to bed early, and today has been the epitome of monsoon season -- nothing but rain, wind, thunder, rain, wind, more rain... I did make it out to the store for some cereal, milk, and tomato sauce earlier, so my needs are met. English camp starts tomorrow, so I think it's time to hit the sack and rest up for my exciting first week of camp. Peace ya'll.

Weekend Retreat

2009-07-10T08:53:00.002+09:00

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, dogs and cats, Catholics and Protestants, superheroes and supervillains... this weekend I'm going away with the teachers from my school. I've been given (as is their wont) very little information about said retreat, but I was told to bring a swimsuit, pajamas, a toothbrush... and that's it, actually. I mean, I added some things to the list on my own, but I think it's just going to be a relaxing couple of days in the sun. Well, no. It's monsoon season here in Korea, which means there's very little sun to be had these days. Just a lot of rain, a lot of wind, and clouds as far as the eye can see.

I had my first bout with monsoons last week, and I won! It was pretty nice out in the morning, a fresh breeze blowing in through my open windows, a little cloudy, but with patches of beautiful blue sky here and there. Anyway, I thought I'd leave the windows open while I was gone for the day, get some fresh air in the apartment, you know. Well, come about 10:00 in the morning, just after class started, I happened to glance out the window outside my classroom. And saw... well, actually, I saw very very little. This was due, I realized, to the torrential downpour of rain and that weird grey-green darkness you get during a summer storm sometimes. My heart sinking, I started plotting ways to get back to my house and rectify this situation, preferably with no one noticing I was gone. Could I steal one of the other teachers' cars? The women usually leave their keys in the office downstairs. Hmm... if I left at precisely the right time, and ran to my house and back, I could maybe make it on the bus. Finally, my co-teacher Bo Il noticed that I was distraught, and I filled him in on the depressing details. After a couple minutes of thinking, he offered to go to my house and shut them for me. Yep -- he'd deal with this hurricane. And he did. He's like the Wolf, from Pulp Fiction. He fixes things. By the time he made it back to class, it was barely raining at all, which was nice... and when I nervously asked how bad it was, he told me that my apartment was completely dry! I couldn't believe it, because it looked like destruction was flowing in all directions from where I sat, but I guess the wind was mostly blowing the other way, and not into my windows. Anyway, crisis averted, and for the next few weeks at least, the windows stay closed when I'm not home. Stupid monsoon season.

English camp starts on Monday -- 2 weeks, but only in the afternoons, which is nice. That gives me the mornings to get prepared and whatnot. Last winter I had, I think, 18 kids in camp. For this summer, that's gone up to 28. Which is roughly half the school. But I've got a pretty good schedule lined up, I think... should have some fun activities for the kids. I dunno -- my first camp was kind of a blur, I was nervous... I'm not even sure what all we did during that time. I at least had enough activities in my head this time to fill up all 40 hours of class time, so that makes me feel pretty confident. Is it just the overconfidence that often follows from ignorance? That is a distinct possibility. I'll keep you posted.

Korean Culture as I see it, Volume I

2009-07-08T20:13:00.003+09:00

Wow -- long time between posts. Dropping the ball, here... sorry bout that, ya'll.

Good news first. Classes are over for the semester. I've got 2 weeks of English camp starting next week, and then off till September. Unless (at the last minute, as always here) some school wants to participate in a summer program at the Global Center, in which case I'll have to rush back from wherever I am to work, or something. Doesn't sound like a very restful vacation, but I'm sure it'll work out. Also, I'm going with the other teachers to a resort this weekend. I think it'll be pretty low-key, but we're leaving Friday after school, relaxing in the sun, maybe some swimming, then a barbecue (with soju, of course) and then something on Saturday. Not sure why, but I keep getting flashes of the Beach Games episode of the Office in my head. Where, by the end, Michael was trying to get people to walk across a bed of coals for his job? Yeah, I'm getting that kind of vibe. Hopefully I'm wrong though. If I burned my feet and went to the hospital, I'm 99% certain that part of the treatment would be an injection in the ass. And a whole boatload of happy pills. Worth it? Hmm... maybe so, maybe so. OK, I'm down for the coal walk. Thanks for talking me through that.

On the "No news is bad news" front, there's been no progress on the girl situation. We had a great time on Friday -- went out with Mi Jin, had spicy octopus, went to a bar, drank so-mek (soju+maekju... soju beer bombs, basically), then finished up at the noraebang. Tomorrow night we're hanging out again, going out for dinner. And I guess we'll be spending the weekend together (well, not together-together, but you know) at this resort too. When I write it all down like that, it sounds great, huh?! Well, unfortunately, we're hanging out a lot but it feels awfully platonic. Still, not giving up.

Ok -- 1st post promised long long ago about some Korean cultural oddities, rarities, what-have-you. Let's see, where to begin. I'm not gonna go all deep into why these things are the way they are. For one, I'm not much of an expert on Korean culture and pyschology, so I'd probably just be wrong, and two, it's funnier this way. OK, here we go.

You can't pick up your chopsticks for dinner until the oldest person at the table does first. You can't pour your own drink -- you must wait for someone to pour for you. This sounds like it might be a pain, but they're very observant: by the time you finish the drink, but before you put the glass down, they're ready to hit you up with a refill. When the drink is pouring, you should hold the bottle/glass with both hands, to be respectful. When you drink after an older person poured for you, you should turn away to drink. It's customary during a meal for younger people to take their empty glass and soju and kneel down and offer the glass to an elder. Then you pour them a drink, and they shoot it. Then you take the glass back and they pour you one, which you throw down, while turning your head away, of course.

You always take your shoes off when entering a home, school, church, or any traditional-type restaurant. Some kim-bap places and fast food joints you can just walk in and sit down, as well as stores, but any place where people generally spend a lot of time or go to relax, shoes off at the door. It's important to wear clean matching socks, for this reason. I suck at this. I realized soon after I moved here that a good percentage of my socks had holes in the toe or heel or both, because hell -- who sees your dress socks in the states?

It's rude to smoke in front of your elders. It's rude to fail to acknowledge the eldest person first when making your introductory bows. So, people in Korea, upon first meeting, will almost always ask your age either right before or right after your name. Soon after will be your job title. This is because your age determines what verb endings to use when conversing, and your job title (and not your name) determines what they will call you. Koreans rarely use names with strangers or people they've just met. Or with their superiors. Or colleagues. Or elders. Or family members. Or anyone, really, except people you've known and been friends with since you were in the same grade in elementary school. Yes, the same grade. That's important.

I'm a teacher: in Korean, it's 선생님 (sun-sang-nim). This is also a general title of respect for strangers or people whose position you're not certain of yet. Teacher is a very respected profession here, by the way -- as it should be. So when teachers talk to each other, they just call each other sunsangnim. Or, if there are many teachers present and they're addressing a particular one, they'll use their full name + sunsangnim. So, Hwang Bo Il Sunsangnim! Yes, it does take a lot longer to say than "Hey Sean!" in case you were wondering. Now, with text language and those crazy kids changing the language all around (sounds familiar), it's ok to shorten sunsangnim to just 쌤 (ssam). Or, Hwang-ssam! The kids use this a lot but I hear it even more from the younger teachers when they talk to each other, actually.

Now -- this aversion to using names goes much further. In families -- you don't call your siblings by their names. Like, if I had an older sister -- she'd be 누나 "nu-na." An older brother -- 형 "hyung." But if a girl has an older sister -- she calls her 언니 "un-ni" and her older brother 오빠 "ohp-pa." There are different words for younger siblings too, actually... which means a boy who has an older brother, a younger sister and a younger brother could actually be "a nam-dong-sang," "oppa," and "hyung" all at the same time. Weird, right? But get this -- people in school who are even a year above you... well, they're called the same things. So like, in my after school class, the 2nd grade boys call the 3rd grade girls "Nuna!" (mostly because I can't for the life of me get them to remember each other's English names...) Which technically means older sister, but it applies to the more general Korean family as well. When you go out to a restaurant, and you want to get the waitress's attention, and if she's around your age (because she gets a bump in respect for working there and taking care of you) you can call her Nuna or Unni (if you're a girl) as well. Or you can just yell out "Yogi-yo!" Which sounds rude when translated into English ("Over here, please!") but is perfectly acceptable. If she's older, she's "Ajuma" -- literally, woman who's already raised children. Always makes me think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, quoted here in its entirety for your enjoyment:

King Arthur: Old woman!
Dennis: Man.
King Arthur: Man, sorry. What knight lives in that castle over there?
Dennis: I'm 37.
King Arthur: What?
Dennis: I'm 37. I'm not old.
King Arthur: Well I can't just call you "man."
Dennis: Well you could say "Dennis."
King Arthur: I didn't know you were called Dennis.
Dennis: Well you didn't bother to find out did you?
King Arthur: I did say sorry about the "old woman," but from behind you looked...
Dennis: What I object to is you automatically treat me like an inferior.
King Arthur: Well, I am king.
Dennis: Oh, king eh? Very nice. And how'd you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers. By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society.

Note that in Korea, ajuma is a title of considerable respect, for it's said that women must be something akin to superheroes to successfully raise children. So if Dennis were Korean, he might not have minded so much about the "old woman" thing.

One more interesting factoid: Lots of Korean girls call their boyfriends Oppa. Sounds funny, at first, but no worse than Hispanic guys calling their girls "Mamacita," right? Ha, anyway... I guess the guys like it cause it makes them feel like they're in charge and the protector and all that. Coming up next time (or at least, the next time I feel like writing about this): Why the guys are definitely not in charge...

I'm back, baby! It's the summer of Sean!

And I'm going to make a concerted effort to update more regularly, promise.

You take the bad, you take the good...

2009-06-27T22:15:00.002+09:00

And today was really good. As I may (or may not) have mentioned, I'm not giving up that easy. We went out for lunch today, caught the new Terminator at the theater, and then had a couple drinks at the bar before coming back from Icheon. It was... nice. Maybe persistence will pay off? Remains to be seen, I think, but there were good signs today. Either that, or she's just heartless and is toying with my emotions. But I didn't get that vibe today.

Terminator was pretty good, actually. Perhaps because I had literally zero expectations going in, but it was entertaining. Not at all terrible. I was pleasantly surprised. Lunch was amazing though -- she took me to 초이 수제비 -- Cho-i Soojebi. We had 비빔밥(bi-bim-bap) , 졸면(jol-myun), and 수제비(soojebi) -- mixed rice (with egg, vegetables and hot sauce), spicy cold noodles with bean sprouts, and dumpling soup (which tastes almost exactly like the chicken and dumplings at Pioneer's Cabin near Carterville, minus the chicken). And it was a whole lot of food. And it cost about 7 dollars. Maybe less. And no, not each -- total. I love this country.

The movie was good. We held hands, even (dare I say) cuddled a bit. Fun times. Then we went to WaBar for drinks and tried to talk in Korean. I can say some things, I promise. But with my extremely limited vocabulary the conversation pretty quickly devolves into a lot of one-word sentences (on my part) followed by what? or why? (from her) followed by my old standby, I don't know. Less than spirited conversation, to put it mildly. There was a really cute baby hanging out at the bar though, which always amuses me. I mean, he wasn't just chilling alone trying to pick up older women or anything. He was there with some girls already. But seriously -- who brings a baby to a bar?!

Other observations: the bugs (mosquitoes, especially) are getting bad. And they have no trouble getting into my apartment, even with the doors and windows shut, it seems. It's hot in the summer. Not Houston hot, or even Marion hot, but it's uncomfortable nonetheless. The new cheap awesome pizza place is killing me, but no worse than I expected. It's just... right... there. Sucks. Mud Festival is coming up -- I'll do a post about that soon, but I'm definitely going. Still don't have a firm plan for summer vacation. That's starting to freak me out a bit. Federer's rolling through Wimbledon, no surprise there. The Cardinals' offense blows, slightly bigger surprise. But their pitching has been fantastic, even bigger surprise. Brett Favre is un-retiring, so, um... negative infinity surprise on that one. My electricity bill is gonna suck -- I keep forgetting to turn the A/C off when I leave the house. Oopsie.

And actually, that's all I've got to say about that.

What a Terrible Day

2009-06-24T22:13:00.002+09:00

It started out good -- didn't have to work today. Got a call at 9:30 last night from my coteacher letting me know I didn't have to come in. Texted the girl, let her know I had the day off too, asked her to meet me for lunch. She said yes. Good start to a good day, right?

Well, lunch was good. Then we bought ice creams and went to the park. And talked. And it came out that even though we have fun together... her family wouldn't approve, and we live in a small town and work in a small school, and i'm white. (the horror!) and she likes me as a friend, but doesn't think we can date.

And this was on the one month-iversary of our first date. Just a shitty day, all around. I haven't given up yet. But damn, did that suck. I've never been discriminated against because I was white before. To any minorities reading this, I'm sorry. Discrimination is a bitch, affirmative action or no. Anyway, I did what any good minority-type person would do. I shanked a bitch, smoked some crack, did some advanced mathematics and then went to prison, where I refused to eat beef and pork and then called home and talked to 19 different people before I found someone in my family because they were all out mowing lawns when I called. Actually, haha... no. I did what any Korean would do and drank some soju and then got online and enjoyed my ultra-fast broadband connection. But still, have some sympathy, yeah?

I'm not giving up, though. Presents. Sweet-talking. And if that don't work, well then blackmail's never let me down before.

Weekend Update (like SNL, but not funny. Oh, wait, it's just like that)

2009-06-21T19:07:00.005+09:00

Friday night -- traditional Russian dancing in Icheon. No, I wasn't the one dancing, as much as I hate to ruin the mental image for ya. But we went to watch a performance troupe at the Arts Hall in Icheon. It was cool... lots of hopping around, and costume changes, and girls shrieking. Yeah, that's right. Shrieking... like, during the singing and dancing. It's weird.

Afterwards we went to WABar for beers. Met up with Tom and Travis and headed over to meet a big group of foreign teachers at "Sports Bar." Actually, the name is something else, something I don't recall. But they call it sports bar because they have darts and you can play Wii sports there. Which, sadly, I didn't do. Boo. Also, instead of normal pitchers for the beer, it comes in these like meter-long tubes with smaller ice-filled tubes inside them. And you get your own tap and everything. Good stuff.

I did play a Korean drinking game too, which was kinda awesome. It's called Titanic. You put an empty shot glass into a mostly full mug of beer. It floats... then you take turns pouring tiny amounts of soju into the glass. Whoever makes it sink has to chug it. I did fine... you know. I'm all good when it comes to drinking games. Practice makes perfect, all that... haha. But Mi Sun -- yeesh. She was driving and so she enlisted me as her drinking surrogate. I think she was screwing me over on purpose! Anyway, I got pretty toasty, but I also got a ride home. You know, 6 of one, right?

Saturday. Rain, rain, all day. But still warm, and sticky, and just gross. Today was sunny and hot and nice, but I didn't really have anything exciting to do.

Tomorrow we have an open class. This means that the principals and some parents and others get to come watch our 4th grade class. Now, my coteacher Mrs. Yun is also a music teacher, so she's combining her discliplines and we're doing a music class, but in English. So, that should be fun. I get to wear a tie, and play the recorder. Yee-haw! On the plus side, though, we don't have any groups coming to the Global Center this week! So, apart from Monday, and Tues/Fri after school classes, I got nothing to do! Awesome... gives me time to study Korean, and maybe practice English with the girls at work. I'm also trying to talk Mi Sun into playing tennis with me sometime. She's got these weird double-jointed elbows that allow her to twist her forearms around like 50% more than a normal person. I think she might be good at tennis, although her athletic skills are uh... less than developed overall. And she's kinda lazy. Actually, I don't have high hopes for this at all, apart from good exercise and the inevitable humor factor. Which is totally worth it.

Speaking of tennis -- Wimbledon starts tomorrow! Hell yes. And the Cardinals are back to their winning ways, leading the division, half a game ahead of Milwaukee! And uh... yeah. That's it. That's my life.

Oh, one more thing. Turns out China's kind of a pain in the ass for American citizens. Visas are expensive, and you can't just go to the consulate to get them. You have to use a Chinese gov't-approved travel agent. You also have to prove that you have transportation out of the country and hotels already booked. It just doesn't sound like it's well-suited to my current situation. I have no idea where I might want to go, or when exactly I'd be leaving. I was just planning on hitting Beijing for a while and then hopping a train south. And coming back eventually, to take the boat back to Korea. Anyway, I'm now entertaining other options. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Summer Squash

2009-06-17T20:58:00.005+09:00

I had an awesome workout today. I was feeling kinda tired after class, so I drank some coffee before leaving the office. And yeah, it was crappy Korean insta-coffee, but it must have had some kind of magic pixie dust in there because I felt great at the gym. It was one of those days where each set left me feeling like I had more energy, not less. So I lifted for over an hour and then went downstairs to hit the squash court. My squash-buddy (whose name I can't recall, oopsie! she works in the office at my school though) wasn't there today, so I just started hitting by myself. Now, I wish that I could've had a facility like this for tennis back in the day, but I guess squash is a much easier sport to play by yourself. Since, you know, you're in a room and all... the ball pretty much always comes back to you no matter what you do.

Well, a squash ball doesn't actually bounce very well. It's hollow, soft rubber. And no, not like a bouncy-ball rubber... squishy... dare I say, even squashy? Ha... But anywho, you really have to whale on this thing to get it to come back all the way to where you're standing. Or hit it really high, I guess, but that ain't nearly as much fun. Naturally, when you do haul off on it, it comes back pretty damn quickly. I'd say, without a partner, it works out to like a shot every two seconds or so. Maybe once every three -- I wasn't actually counting. Although I will, now that I've thought about it. But yeah, that gets tiring quick, yo. I was trying to work on my backhand, which is definitely my weaker side. And it's even harder with the squash ball than in tennis, because the low-bouncing ball means you're always having to lunge and bend your knees and hit from about mid-shin level. It's quite a workout. I ended up hitting for almost an hour, until my forearms basically threw down their goggles, took their ball and went home.

And no -- squash players don't wear goggles, but I really think they should.

That's it for me tonight. I'm chillin like a villain at home, and I'll probably be going to bed soon.

Weeds is back! I watched the first episode of season 5 and it reminded me how much I loved the earlier ones, so I'm working through season 1 again now. I'm also checking out True Blood... mostly because Anna Paquin gets nakie. We'll see if it's any good. You know, the show. I'm sure that other thing is just peachy.

I really didn't have anything to say about vegetables, gourds or otherwise. Sorry for the misleading title.

Baseball!!! Cheeseburgers!!! Yay, America!

2009-06-16T19:46:00.003+09:00

Yep -- went to the ballpark on Sunday. It was awesome! The home team won, which is always fun. Final score was (I believe) LG Twins 5, SK Wyverns 3. Something like that, anyway. There were a couple homeruns, the crowd going wild, all that. Here are some fun things that are pretty different from ballgames in the states:

Cheerleaders. Oh my, yes... good ones too.
Every batter for the home team has a personalized song or cheer when they come up to the plate. All the fans sing along. There's also like an MC (with a stage and everything right behind us) who hops around and yells and leads all the songs. My favorite -- this Venezuelan player whose song was the Macarena... hey, Petagine!
Beer is cheap -- a tall boy (or Korean equivalent) costs 3000 won -- less than $2.50 a pop. Win.
Dried squid is awesome with beer, it turns out.
You can buy KFC and Burger King inside the stadium. I didn't, but the couple we met there brought some chicken in with them, so I did eat fried chicken. Oh yeah -- I saw people carrying in whole pizzas too. Strange food for a ballgame, in my humble opinion, but I like it.

I got some pictures, and so did Mi Sun... I'll be posting them later this week, so look for a link soon.

In school, the class sandwich project was a big hit! All the kids had a ham sandwich (well, half of one, actually) and some chips. I let them all taste the yellow mustard -- I think only a couple of them had ever had it before. It was about half and half, love and hate. Some of them loved it and so I showed them that they could put it on the potato chips also. Used to be one of my favorite snacks, ruffles with mustard. Yum. The other half got this awful kitty-killing look on their face and sputtered around saying something about how godawful it was and wondering what the hell they were thinking. I mean, I guess. It was in Korean, after all. People rarely sputter in their second language, it turns out.

Then I made a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which was entirely new for them. I cut them into quarters and let them have at it. Most of them liked it... poor Flounder really hated the jelly, and a couple of them absolutely weren't into the peanut butter... but I was proud that they all wanted to try it. I was just picturing getting American 5th graders to eat the school lunches that we get every day -- now that would be some funny shit. Oh, and the best -- Mi Jin, one of the teachers at the Global Center, made herself a ham, cheese, pickle, mustard and grape jelly sandwich. And ate it. All. I tried it... it was exactly as delicious as it sounds... mot-upseoyo.

And friday night I made cheeseburgers for Mi Sun and Mi Jin. They turned out absolutely amazing. I mean, burgers are easy, I know, but I was (inordinately) proud of myself nonetheless. I finely chopped some onions and mixed them with garlic, salt, pepper, and just a bit of American spicy barbecue sauce I'd gotten from the Army base into the meat and threw them on the skillet. I also fried potatoes (cut the long way, so they resembled french fries) and tossed some salt on there and served them with a ketchup/tabasco mix I threw together. On the burgers -- cheese of course, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, mustard and ketchup (and mayo, for Mi Sun. I tried to talk her out of it, to no avail). They were fan-flippin-tastic. Oh, and I bought some Budweiser from the corner store to complete the American-ness of the meal. I rocked the shit, I must say.

You wanna hear something evil? Of course you do! A new pizza place opened up in town not too long ago. Carry-out only, which blows. But a large pepperoni pizza is only 5oooWon. Which is like, less than $4. And lest you think this is some hot cardboardy garbage-circle pizza, a la Little Caesars... I mean, damn... these things are good. 100% real mozzarella, the best pepperoni I've had in Korea, and this kinda thin, firm yet chewy almost New York style crust... wowzers. And the hot chicken pizza... spicy barbecuey goodness, in a box. So anyway, that's evil. And it's about 100 feet from the bus stop, on my way home, to boot. Bastards. So, long story short, I've been kicking it up a notch at the gym to account for what will soon be a ludicrous level of pizza consumption. I'm now lifting for an hour a day and then playing squash (yeah, I didn't really know what it was either -- here ya go) with this girl who works in the school office after. I'm pretty much hoping to break even, what with the afore-mentioned pizza fiasco.

And now I'm going to study some Korean. I'm still sexy ya'll!

Toe-yo-il pah-may

2009-06-11T19:52:00.003+09:00

I was walking to the gym today after work when all of a sudden, out jumped a leprechaun!

Actually, no. What really happened was that my toe started to hurt. Kinda badly, in fact. It only happens at one point in my stride, when my left foot is pushing off so the toes are kinda bent backward a bit. It's the big toe. It makes it really uncomfortable to walk. At first it was kinda sporadic, so I tried walking it off, but that only made it worse. So, resolved to the situation, I turned around and came home. Well, first I went to the grocery store, because...

Tomorrow we're making sandwiches in my after-school class! Whoo-ee. We're finishing up a little unit I created on Green Eggs and Ham, and of course one of the themes of the book is trying a new food. So I'm bringing in some western-style sandwichy stuff they probably haven't tried before. Like, peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese with yellow mustard, normal stuff like that. I'm interested to see how they like it. When I asked them what sorts of foods they would need to make a sandwich, I got some really ... uh, thought-provoking answers: butter, cucumber, cabbage, eggs... I think there were a couple other pretty good ones too. But the point is, I'm not sure my idea and their idea of a sandwich are at all the same, so it might be pretty funny tomorrow. I'm also planning to have them read the story to me, which may also be entertaining. Fun day tomorrow, fun day.

After school, I'm hosting our multi-cultural dinner group, round 4! I'm making cheeseburgers (no grill of course, but they'll have to settle for the skillet) with homemade french fries. Actually, I ain't deep-frying them, so maybe "home fries" is a better word for them. But I've got tomatoes, onion, pickles, lettuce, mustard and ketchup... everything, in fact, but the buns. Which are apparently nigh-impossible to find here. I know I've seen them in restaurants, but I sure don't know where I might find some for purchase. Anyway, I'm excited about tomorrow! Lots of food-related things going on, which you all probably know I'm a sucker for.

Baseball game on Sunday -- LG Twins vs. ... well, somebody. I'm not sure it really matters who, actually. Mi Jin roots for LG, plus they're close -- just a few subway stops from the nearest bus station in Seoul. And the games are cheap here! I'm used to going to Wrigley with my cousin and seeing 80-90 bucks a seat... hell, even the bleachers are like $40 these days. Well, we're not entirely close, but we're on the 1st base side, in foul territory somewhere in the outfield. And we paid the equivalent of about $6.50 per ticket. That, is awesome. So, a little summer-time baseball, beer, and according to Emily, dried squid and roasted potatoes with sugar. Mm-mm-mmm, the taste of summer, right there. Haha...

I got something like 12 hours of sleep last night. It was so bizarre, but around 7pm I just got really overwhelmingly sleepy all of a sudden, and crashed out. I woke up at like 10:30, moved my laptop off the bed, turned out the light and went right back to sleep. Maybe 2am or so, I woke up again, and this time I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep... you know, already having gotten a full night's rest and all. So, I fired up the internet, ate some ice cream, and within 20 minutes I was done again. Crashed once again, only to wake up feeling absolutely fantastic at 7am. Which was early enough for me to do some dishes and start cleaning the place up a bit for the afore-mentioned dinner shenanigans I'm hosting tomorrow. Such a strange night, but today I felt great, so... whatever works, huh?

Also, another girl today told me that I look like Homer Simpson. I gotta say in my own defense, I don't see it. I mean, sure I'm a little chubby, but come on; Homer Simpson fat? I don't think so. Plus, I've got hair. I mean, seriously. Maybe it's my (relatively) large round eyes and my five o'clock shadow? I dunno. She did apologize later and told me that I had a very nice face (yes, in those exact words), but I can't say that made up for the hurt feelings from the Homer comment.

Korean kids are strange about that, by the way. Almost everyday, I have at least one student tell me I'm "handsome." And about half the time, it's a boy. I'm not sure where that comes from, but I'll take it, ya know? Don't look a compliment-horse in the mouth, all that...

Oh, in case you were wondering... the title of this post is the name of a K-Pop song that is real popular right now. It might not be the name, actually, but it is the only line that I know: To-yo-il pa-mae... which means, Sa-tur-day night. But you see what I did there, with the "toe" bit, cause of my ... ok. You get it. I gotta go now. For reasons unrelated to the diminishing quality of my blogging. I promise. Peace.

Quiet week, great weekend!

2009-06-06T11:22:00.003+09:00

So very very sorry about the lack of regular posting. It may get better. Or it may not. Like the Cardinals "offense." No one can say for sure.

The early part of the week was real quiet... nothing doing on Sunday. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday...

Actually, that's kind of a lie. Thursday I went out for drinks with Mi Sun, which was really fun. We went to a place called I Love Hoolala -- it's got cheap bear and expensive but tasty chicken. On our way from car to bar, we actually met another foreign teacher who had been to our center sometime in March, this Aussie guy named John. He was out shooting pool with a Korean teacher at his school, so they joined us for a couple of pitchers.

Yesterday I had a fan-freaking-tastic day at work, believe it or not! We had a new school after three days of the worst-behaved kids I've had the pleasure of meeting. I actually threatened one group of kids who wouldn't shut up. Not physically, mind you. I just told them if they wouldn't listen and participate that they'd have to sit there and copy the dialogues instead of roleplaying them and having fun with the metal detector, the airplane food and the taxi. Anyway, Friday's group was much better! Quiet, friendly, pretty solid English skills for the most part. And the best thing -- we've got more classes from this same school coming all next week. Should make for a much more enjoyable work week than the last one. And, my extra classes on Friday went really well. I've been struggling to find something that interests my fifth-graders enough to actually get them to try and learn something new. Well, I think Dr. Seuss is it. We've been doing "Green Eggs and Ham" for the last two classes. We've learned about rhyming words (which is sort of a foreign concept in Korean, I gather), and also interrogative vs. declarative sentences: "Do you like... ?" vs. "I like..." and "No, I don't like..." This is actually a big step forward for this group. Happy times. I think next week I'm going to have them read the story, and then on Friday... well, not sure yet. Maybe I'll bring in some foods and we'll move from I like to I want or I have. I dunno, but the outlook is good, let's leave it at that.

Last night, Mi Sun and I went out again -- this time for kalbi, then beer for dessert, then a walk down by the river which wasn't as pleasant as I'd expected due to the bugs (boo), and then ice cream for 2nd dessert. Good night. Super bonus best part: She invited me to join her, her sister and sister's family at Everland today! So, yeah -- Korean amusement park day! Whoo-ee! =) I'm not really sure what all they have there, but I'll definitely report back on the wonder that is Everland. I know it's like roller coasters and stuff, and apparently they do fireworks after dark, so it sounds like it should be pretty cool. More to come on that, for sure.

Also -- great day in sports yesterday. Cardinals won, which it seems is becoming increasingly rare. The Lakers won also, which I don't really care about. I just don't much like Orlando. For no reason, actually. It's like how I feel about Portuguese people. Then, there were two absolutely amazing matches at the French Open. Robin Soderling, the man who "did the impossible" (in his own words) by beating Rafa Nadal, is into the final after beating Gonzo in 5 sets. Then, Federer battled through 3.5 hours of mediocre tennis interspersed with brilliance (i.e. the 4th set, a couple games in the 5th) to finally beat Del Potro and get into the finals. This is his best chance to not only tie Pete Sampras for most Grand Slams ever, but to also complete his Career Slam -- winning all four majors, something Sampras never did. Regardless of whether or not he got off easy by missing Nadal this year, if he wins tomorrow I think he has to be called, officially, the greatest ever. And he deserves it. Good for him.

OK -- time to hop in the shower and get ready for the magic and mystery and fairy dust and insanely long lines of Korean Disneyworld. Hope ya'll have a great weekend! Peace.

In Brief

2009-05-31T23:16:00.002+09:00

What my blog would have said recently if I had twitter. Which I don't. And won't. Just saying...

I just got finished watching "Lars and the Real Girl." It's a damn funny movie.

I've stepped up the workouts -- feelin pretty good.

I think I'm going to splurge and buy some real ground beef (even though it's absurdly expensive) so that I can make myself a hamburger.

I'm almost finished with Unit 3 on my Korean thing. Only 1 more to go and then on to Level 2! Whoo-ee!

Things I can say in Korean now: I came over to visit my friends. I'm wearing a red winter hat. This milk smells bad.

Going to a Korean baseball game in June -- LG Twins vs. Samsung Lions! Summer's here, with the crack of the bat, smack of the mitt, beer and peanuts and hot dogs!

I can't believe the Cavs lost to Orlando. Bron-bron ain't arrived yet, is all I gotta say...

The post from last Monday, about Yeoju and all... yeah -- that was a date! And it was really good. And we're going out again this week. And I'm really excited! And I'm giggling like a schoolgirl...

I mostly just didn't want to finish the month with single-digit posts... so this is my half-assed effort to avoid that. It's finished now, don't worry.

I will, however, be posting soon about some fun Korean culture facts. I promise. I'm just doing a bit of research, which I'm a bit out of practice on, not to mention lazy... so yeah. Till next time. =)

Our Day in Yeoju

2009-05-25T20:26:00.003+09:00

Well, first I wanna apologize if my life and subsequent blogging have been less than amusing. It's not that I'm not happy... on the contrary, things are going really well in general. It's just a quiet kind of happiness, is all.

Sunday, Mi Sun and I went to Yeoju. We had a lot of fun, and learned some stuff about Korean history while we were at it. Yes, I did say "we"... she'd never been to these places either, it turned out. First, we went and visited the birthplace of Korea's last empress, Empress Myeongseong. There's a little museum and a park there, and a bunch of buildings. Although, as it turns out, only one of the buildings is original -- the rest are reconstructions in the style of the period etc... But still, kinda cool. It's a pretty big compound, with lots of different houses for different generations, servants, separate ones for men and women even. And, even better, most of the captions and explanations are in both Korean and English. And this Korean family came up to ask us to get a picture of them... and, for some reason, they asked me. In English. And Mi Sun kinda looked at me, like... really?! Awesome. Maybe I just look friendlier. =)

Next we went to the tomb of King Sejong the Great. He's famous here; he invented their alphabet. Which is one of the UNESCO Heritage Great Accomplishments of the History of Mankind or some such -- anyway, suffice to say that Koreans are very proud and patriotic when it comes to this guy. Again, park, museums, and a garden with replicas of some of his other inventions. For example: a scientifically accurate rain-gauge, several different kinds of sundials, and some astronomical-type doohickies that allow you to measure the movements of the sun and moon and planets. Very cool, I gotta say. I think the coolest one was a sundial that sits in a shallow pool of water and uses magnets to align itself. You know, a sundial won't really work unless you turn it to the absolutely correct angle, which is probably a pain in the ass to figure out if you're travelling and want to say... watch reruns of the Drew Carey Show at 4:00 on TBS. Well, setting aside your obvious lack of taste, you could absolutely do that with Sejong's watery sundial. You just set it up somewhere flat and the magnets turn the whole thing to the right angle for you, and there you go! Bam -- instant comedy. Unintentional, sometimes, but whatever. We did walk through the park, past a lake, up a hill and up a few flights of stairs to see his actual tomb. Well, it's just a huge burial mound set way up high overlooking his hometown, but pretty neat. It reminded me of Cahokia Mounds; if you grew up in Marion you probably took a field trip there at some point. So, yeah, it's like that. But, you know... Korean.

Oh, another cool thing -- the first book written in Hangeul was there... well, no. These are copies, but still -- it's pretty awesome to see the birth of a new alphabet taking over an established language. There was an early dictionary too, with the new Hangeul letters and then explanations of their pronunciation and usage in Hanja (Chinese characters). It struck me kinda funny to think of Koreans having to explain how to write and say their letters using way more complicated and difficult letters to do it, but I guess they got their point across.

Next, we went to the Riverside Carnival. It actually is called that, but in Korean, you know. But yeah -- they had an archery range, bumper cars, cotton candy, little spinny and swingy and bumpy rides for the kids, and a Viking Ship -- you know, the giant ship that hangs from a center bar, and rotates back and forth, and so you go up and then freefall back down and around the other side, then fall backwards, rinse repeat. That was like, the worst explanation ever. Good thing it's the same in the States as it is here. So we did that, got some ice cream, and sat in a little park and watched the kids running around and playing badminton and whatnot. We walked down by the river, I tried to show her how to skip stones but it wasn't working too well (for either of us, actually) so we bailed and drove over to Silleuksa Temple. I guess she figured our funtime intermission was over, and back to the history lesson. Now, unfortunately, the World Ceramic Exposition is still going on, in both Yeoju and Icheon. You may remember that this is the most boring festival ever. Well, crap. And of course this is happening right next to the Temple she wanted to show me. We actually found a really close parking spot, I think because it was getting late and a lot of people were leaving. So we walked for a ways, down the street, through some trees and gardens, past a lake (yes, for the second time -- there are lots of little lakes around here, apparently), and we come to the gate of the temple. Now, at this point, Mi Sun says, "Oh! We have to pay to get in!" (Like, all surprised! I guess she didn't expect that.) "But there's really nothing to see in there... let's just leave." So... um, yeah. We left. Haha... it was probably for the best though, cause we were both pretty hungry by that time. We stopped at Mr. Pizza and ate some tacos and chimichangas, then headed back to Janghowon. I read for a while and went to bed early, cause I had to teach today.

For those of you who are wondering if that's a typo or some kind of Freudian slip up there... well, I's just seein if ya'll are payin attention. Of course we had pizza at Mr. Pizza. Duh...

And for those of you who just glossed over it without going "Wha-wha-what?!?" while your eyes bugged out a la Looney Tunes, well... haha! Gotcha! =Þ

Coming up next time, by request, some cultural phenomena and oddities and such. Come on back now, ya hear?

Korean (Food, Movies, Language)

2009-05-23T19:05:00.004+09:00

Last night was round 3 in our little cooking triangle we've got going. If you remember, a while back, I cooked spaghetti for Mi Sun and Mi Jin. Then, a few weeks later, we did it again: this time, Mi Sun made bulgogi -- Korean marinated beef. Well, last night was Mi Jin's turn. And I gotta say, in all fairness to the last two meals, which both turned out really well, that this was probably the best of the bunch.

We went to the store, where Mi Jin bought some carrots, sweet potatoes, green onions, and a whole pre-sectioned chicken. Like, not in the normal pieces, but with the breasts and thighs cut into maybe 1.5-2" squares. Then we came back to my place, and I started looking for a movie for us to watch after dinner, so I didn't see all the preparations take place. The one thing I did notice was when she busted out a little tupperware container of chili-paste mixed with some other things, that she had made at home the night before, just for us! =) It was a pretty quick meal to put together, that's for sure. And we ended up with this really amazingly delicious spicy chicken stew. Yeah, that's what we'll call it. I mean, it even had most of the traditional stew ingredients, with a couple exceptions. We had carrots and onions; sweet potato instead of regular; chicken instead of beef (although my buddy Stuart does make a mean chicken stew, so that's even kinda familiar); and spicy instead of savory. Of course, we ate it over rice, but you shouldn't let that distract you. I'm not sure you can have a meal in Korea without it... unless you substitute noodles. Anyway, it was freakin good. Thanks Mi Jin! =)

Then we had cherry ice cream for dessert and watched the movie: Chugyeogja, it's called... or in English, "The Chaser." It's pretty violent, and depressing... but a pretty good flick none the less. It's about a detective who became a pimp, and his hookers keep disappearing on him. He tracks down the john who seems to be associated with each girl before she goes missing, and then, naturally, there's a good bit of chasing involved. Punctuated with punching and kicking. Then more chasing. Yeah, it's not a bad movie at all, but the girls kept getting scared at the gory parts and hiding behind my throw pillows. So, you know, I liked it. If you're a chick and uh... dainty, then maybe don't watch it by yourself.

Today has been another lazy Saturday. It rained off and on most of the day although it seems to have cleared up in the past hour or two. Tomorrow's supposed to be beautiful though, so I think Mi Sun and I are going to Yeoju to do some touristing. The tomb of King Sejong the Great is there, and also the birthplace of the last empress of Korea, and some other cool temples and historical sites... so we're gonna go have a history lesson, I guess. It's good for me, right?

Other things I'm interested in at the moment: my Korean is coming along pretty well. One of the teachers who came to the Global Center this past week was impressed. Also, the Cardinals have won 4 straight, including a really timely sweep of the Cubbies this week. (Whooooooooo-EE!) The NBA conference finals have had 4 straight nailbiters, and no team has won by more than 3 points while both series are tied at 1-1. So that's shaping up nicely. The French Open starts this week -- yes, I'm a tennis fan. I know, we're pretty few and far between, but at least my mom understands, right momma? =) Also, Ryan, the foreign teacher (the term used here for people like me) whose school came to the Global Center this week is a really good golfer apparently, so I think we're going to try to go to the driving range and hit some balls soon. Apparently, he's a scratch golfer, and is a member of the PGA and everything. Not the PGA Tour, mind you, but he is a golf pro -- like, he could work at a country club and give lessons and stuff. So, that should be cool. And, I found out I can go ahead and extend my gym membership for 3 months, and put it on pause when I leave for summer vacation. Finally, I just finished Steven King's "Desperation," which was awesome, and now I'm moving on to "Genghis: Lords of the Bow," the sequel to that other Genghis novel I liked so much.

And that's all, folks!

Market Food

2009-05-20T23:30:00.003+09:00

Well -- I just wanted to add a quick food update.

Last night, at the market I bought some potatoes and some beautiful multi-cultural bell peppers. So, tonight, I found out that my gym membership is expired. And I could just renew it, of course, but there are complications. 3 months is cheaper than 1 month, but I'm going to be out of town for a while within the next 3 months, so I need to find out if I register for the 3-month membership, if there's any way of putting that subscription on hold during the time I'll be away. Anwyay, I didn't go to the gym today, is the point.

So, I came home instead, took a good long look at the veggies I'd recently purchased and decided to go to my old friend the internet for some advice on what to do next. Upon browsing the results of a handy-dandy google search for "easiest fried potatoes ever," I hit upon a plan. I'd make the easiest fried potatoes ever! But with a twist! So, I diced a potato, threw it into a pan with some oil, and let 'er go. About halfway done, I hit it with some sliced onion. And then, a couple minutes later, a beautiful orange bell pepper I picked up from this wandering minstrel. It may have had magical powers, I'm not sure. Anyway, I fried all of that up, and then as I was draining it onto a paper towel, I tossed an over-easy egg into the leftover oil! And there ya go, folks, a beautiful breakfast-for-dinner hash! And god, was it good! I left the yolk all runny, and let it drip over the potato and onion and pepper... mm-mm-hmm! And that's my post for th'evenin'.

Until next time, remember... The only thing worse than death is that you keep using that word, but I do not think it means what you think it means. Peace!

And that's it for today. I've still got plenty of potatoes. See what I cook up tomorrow!

2 tickets to Uijeongbu, please

2009-05-18T20:14:00.003+09:00

What a weekend! Here it is, for your vicarious-living pleasure. =Þ

Thursday, went out for dinner with the teachers to have an early Teachers' Day celebration. We hit up this tofu restaurant over the river in Gamgok. This place, obviously, specializes in tofu! I realize that sounds... shall we say, less than exciting, but it actually was quite satisfying. We got 3 different kinds of jjigae, or... tofu/bean paste soup. Also appearing were tofu in other various guises, grilled pork and duck, several kinds of kimchi, braised cabbage (I'm really guessing on that one, but that's what it tasted like) and lots of soy sauce and chili paste. Naturally, this being Korea and all, two other things that almost always happen, well... happened. We ate the meat and toppings on individual lettuce leaves, all wrapped up like a mini lettuce burrito; and we also drank quite a bit. Soju, beer, and homemade makeorri out of a little ceramic pot, but drunk from little (obviously homemade, as they all varied in shape) ceramic mugs. I'm not a huge fan of the makeorri, or dongdongju as it's also called, but I had a bit just to be sociable. Good times.

Friday, after school we played games against some of the students' parents. The women played kickball! I totally wanted to play, but I guess that wasn't in the cards... oh, and the teachers got their asses handed to them by the moms. I mean, it was ridiculous. I think there's some kind of underground maternity kickball league going on or something, because those little Korean ladies could kick the shit out of the ball. It was awesome. Then the male teachers played choh-gu against the dads. We lost too, but it was close. We played best 2-out-of-3, each game to 15. It was a back-and-forth struggle, but in the end we lost the 3rd game 15-11. I started out in the back, receiving serves and trying to set up the people in the front. Turns out, I'm no good at that. So, during the 2nd game I moved up to the front row and things went much better from there. Not good enough, I guess, because we still lost... but fun was had by me. Yeah, I just used a ridiculous passive voice, and I ain't changing it.

After the games were over, we had a huge samgyeopsal cookout, with lots of candy, watermelon, and Korean treats... but the highlight was the (I'm just guessing here, but still) 25~ pounds of meat they threw down. I mean, just... awe-inspiring. Again, soju and beer played a big role, and it was fun getting to meet the parents and ... well, not so much chat really, but at least shake their hands and smile. I imagine it's fun for them to get to see their kids speaking English with me. I hope so, anwyay. After that, Mi Jin and I went out to HooLaLa for drinks. Now, she was a little nervous about this (we were waiting for Mi Sun, who usually helps to facilitate/translate our conversations) but we actually spent about an hour chatting pretty easily. It was way cooler than I thought she thought it would be. And nope, I ain't changing that sentence either. That's exactly what I wanted to say. Anyway, I'm sure the booze helped: it always seemed to make my Spanish conversations flow a little more smoothly... you know, when that inhibitive part of your brain shuts down and stops reminding you that you can't speak the language, wondrous things will happen.

Well, Mi Sun finally arrived and we had a really fun time at the bar. Left there and went across the street to the noraebang. I know I've said it before on here, but Mi Jin has an absolutely amazing voice. It's jaw-dropping. Literally... at one point both Mi Sun and I were just staring at her in disbelief. She could totally be on American Idol (ha! really, sean? not korean idol, maybe? anyway) if she wanted to. Really. It's that good. So, after a good hour and a half of singing, we parted ways, and I made fun of Mi Sun because it was now approaching 2am and she had to work the next morning. Unfortunately, I guess the joke was on me because I woke up for no discernible reason around 8 the next morning. Boo.

Actually, it turned out to be a good thing that I did, because I had really screwed up the alarm-setting attempt the night before. I was supposed to meet Moy in Icheon at 10. It's an hour-long busride on the (cheaper) city bus. And yet, for some reason, I set my alarm for 9:40. Not too sure what my thought process was (like, I wouldn't even have had time to make the 10:00 bus at that rate...) but I know there had to be one. It was late. Whatever.

Saturday, went to Icheon, then on to Seoul. Bought some new books: the sequel to that Genghis Khan novel I liked so much (Genghis: Lords of the Bow, by Conn Iggulden) and also Red Dragon -- the original Hannibal Lector story. Had lunch at Gecko's in Itaewon: an honest-to-god all beef cheeseburger. Dripping with grease. Crinkle cut fries. Real ketchup, lots of salt, and a dash of Tabasco. Dear lord in heaven, was I happy. But not as happy as I'd be later.

We eventually made our way up to Uijeongbu and Moy dropped off her computer for repairs. We went back to the Veterans' club, had a beer, and met up with Elena, our ticket onto the Army Base. She signed us on post and we went to a restaurant called Mitchell's. I had a ribeye. Medium rare. With corn and a baked potato. Butter, and sour cream. And a big ole salad, with ranch dressing. I realize these things don't have the same effect on most of my readers that they do on me, but when you haven't seen a steak in over 6 months, well... anyway, it was glorious. I had to make a conscious effort not to just pick that thing up and gnaw on it like a caveman, and I succeeded. But barely.

Later, more drinks... met up with Elena's friends Maria and Chris, and went to a massive succession of different bars and clubs. Vegas Bar: lots of "juicy girls." Attired in miniskirts, fishnets, spiky heels and not much else, they try to flirt with you and get you to buy them "drinks": $15-20 glasses of juice. Hence the name, right? Am I right? Ha... ok. No, no juicy girls for me. I can't even say I was tempted. I mean, come on, looking's free, right? After that... hell, I'm not even sure. We walked around barhopping (in the rain, might I add) for hours. Ended up, after hitting probably 6 or 7 other places, at a Korean bar called Tom's. It's worth mentioning that Tom's was the first place we went to that didn't play the song "Beautiful" by Akon. It thus became my favorite. We ordered some anju: dried squid jerky, served with mayonnaise, peanuts, and what I can only describe as Korean M&M's. And yes, I did try the dried squid. It's not terrible, but uh, how did I phrase it at the time? I don't hate it, I'm just choosing not to put it in my mouth ever again. Something like that. Once you chew on it a bit, it sort of rehydrates itself into this extremely fishy-tasting mush with the texture of a wet napkin. Although, everyone else at the table liked it, so maybe I'm the odd one out.

I'm not sure what time I actually went to sleep, but I'm positive the sun was coming out by the time I got back to my hotel. A brief nap, a hot shower, then back out to greet the day. Sunday was more relaxing. A cup of coffee, a spot of shopping, a bite of lunch, another cup of coffee, a stop by the library on base, yet another cup of coffee, a bus ride, a brief walk through town, a tuna salad sandwich, an hour of reading Steven King's "Desperation," an episode or two of "Party Down" (one of a handful of new TV shows I'm trying out, and pretty damn funny actually), and a whole lot of sleep. And that, my friends, is what we call a weekend.

If we left it up to chance...

2009-05-14T10:48:00.003+09:00

I didn't have breakfast this morning. And I don't have any classes to distract me from the gnawing hunger and unseemly growling noises in my belly. On the plus side, Mi Sun is sitting next to me and her tummy is growling way louder than mine. So that's funny. On the other hand, it's still an hour and a half till lunch. Boo.

I'm bored. I'm taking the day off from studying the Korean to kinda let the knowledge gel in my brain... I think if I keep adding new stuff it'll just push out all the old stuff that hasn't yet taken root. So, instead, I'm watching the Nuggets/Mavs game online... I really wish I could care about this game, but I just don't. I'm not a fan of Dirk "Stop calling me a Nazi" Nowitzki, or Jason "I only beat my wife when she deserves it" Kidd, or anybody else on that team really. As for the Nuggets and Carmelo "So what if I smoked a little pot" Anthony and Kenyon "Stay away from my mom" Martin... meh. I am a Chauncey Billups fan, in a small mostly-meaningless way. Really, the most interesting thing about this game is that whenever I watch Billups play, it always makes me think of one of my favorite fictional characters, Chauncey Gardiner.

First of all, if you've never seen the movie "Being There" starring Peter Sellers in his penultimate performance, stop whatever useless thing it is you're doing right now (get it? 'cause what could be more useless than reading this nonsense?!) and go scrounge up a copy. They might have it at the video store... I'm sure you can find it online if you look hard enough. Anyway, the story goes that after Jerzy Kosinski published his novel of the same name, he received a telegram from the main character, Chance the gardener. Probably after freaking out for a while and questioning his sanity, he opened to find a message from his (completely fictional) leading man, saying that he was "available, in my garden or out of it." When Kosinski called the number on the telegram, Peter Sellers answered the phone. Now, I've always loved Peter Sellers; his Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies is brilliant comedy. Do I sound British enough for ya? Anyway, he felt that Chance was the role he was put on earth to play.

The premise is simple: Chance the gardener is a man who has spent his entire life isolated. From everything. He's lived, always, in the same house, working in the same garden. With no knowledge of the outside world apart from the TV he loves so much, he is basically a blank slate. He is enchanted by the constantly moving images of the television, and he seems equally captivated no matter what is going on around him. He is a perfect representation of Martin Heidegger's concept of the Dasein, a complex and more-or-less incomprehensible philosophical notion. But the gist of it can be understood simply by the name itself, or (ha!) at least by its translation into English: being there. Heidegger went on from there into all sorts of mental gymnastics about Being-in-Time vs. Being-in-the-World, most of which I have almost no understanding of whatsoever, but Kosinski's main character Chance the gardener (later to be known as Chauncey Gardiner) is a wonderfully understated and beautiful portrait of the power and novelty of simply existing in the here-and-now, of letting all the phenomena of appearance and existence wash over you.

When Chance's (for lack of a better word) caretaker dies, he is forced to leave the house that was his whole world. His first experiences in the outside world are filled with a kind of sublime horrible cluelessness, as the audience realizes his precarious grasp on the situation while he remains blissfully unaware. He eventually ingratiates himself into the inner circles of political power in Washington, as time and again his passive acceptance and reflection of the personalities of the people he talks to leads them to misintepret the interaction. Every person he meets projects their own values and ideals onto him, and he never does anything to disabuse them of their own entrenched notions. Rather, he simply agrees with everything he hears. A better way to say it may be that acts as a mirror, letting everyone see and hear exactly what they want to, and what they want to hear of course is that they're right, they're smart, they're worthwhile. Chance (or Chauncey, as he comes to be known in the political circuit) eventually becomes so well-respected that he receives offers for a book deal, television appearances (I think -- I haven't seen it in a while) and a chance to become an advisor to the president. His views on economic turmoil especially struck me. If I remember correctly, it ran something like this (I'm paraphrasing, so bear with me): "In the spring we have many beautiful flowers, and in the fall we have delicious fruit. But we know that in the winter, there will be no flowers and no fruit. We just have faith that spring will come again with beautiful flowers, and later we'll have delicious fruit." Naturally, the economic thinkers are won over by his simple yet profound assertion of confidence in the economic system for which they're responsible, and Chauncey becomes known as a brilliant yet easy-to-understand authority on the economic climate. And so it goes...

Now, please understand that I've neither read nor seen this work since probably 2003, so I'm a little rusty on the details, and it's entirely possible that nothing I've said above is even remotely true. I may, in fact, have made the whole thing up. But the simple fact is that my imagination's just not that good, so you can come away from this with reasonable confidence that many of the things noted above are actually contained in either the book or the movie. Maybe both. Who knows?

Oh, and by the way, the Nuggets are up 8 in the 3rd quarter right now, and I almost care. Slightly less than an hour till lunch. A watched clock never ticks, or something.

You try making a title that sums up what I just wrote!

2009-05-12T19:52:00.003+09:00

Last Friday at school, we had sports day for the students. This Friday it's the teachers' turn. I have volunteered to play soccer and volleyball, I think. I'm not entirely sure who we're playing against, seeing as how there's only like 10 of us. I heard that maybe some of the kids' parents will be there and we can play them. We'll see, I guess. I'm a little scared about that... I mean, I used to have some kinda mad (or maybe... agitated? contrary? sarcastic? anyway...) tennis skills. And even though I hadn't played in years, I still at least knew what I was doing. But I was never that great at soccer, although I did play intramurals in college (and took a 1 credit hour soccer class junior year). And volleyball... well, that should be fun. Ha... Oh! And naturally, afterwards all the teachers are going to get their feast and drink on, so that should be actually fun. Yay!

I finally found a Korean language pack for that software I like so much! So, for the past 48 hours I've been non-stop studying my Korean. I really, truly, madly, deeply wish I had been able to find this about 6 months ago. I think by now I would be speaking Korean. Certainly not fluent or anything, you know, but I'd be competent, I guess. Well, there's only one way to find out, right? Grab my trusty time machine out from under the bed, dust it off, and fire that bad boy up! November 2008, here we come! ... That's not what you were thinking, huh? Whatever... that's how I roll. But seriously, I've got 6 months left here -- I'd like to be able to carry on a conversation, even a simple one, by the time I leave. And yeah... what good's it gonna do me once I leave, right? It'll make me feel like more of a man. That a good enough reason for ya? Jeez, get off my ass... I'm trying to better myself here just for the sake of it, and you're all hurling these practical rational glass-half-empty invectives at me... Screw it!!!

Wow... getting some demons out there Sean? Jesus... Oh, I'm laughing out loud now. Teehee...

So yeah, I'm uh, practicing Korean. Ha... that was the main thesis of the essay there.

So anyway, that's my week -- no class, sports day, study Korean. Weekend -- sports day drinking party, and then I'm hoping to go back to Uijeongbu and hang out at that bar with the cool Americans again. In case you've forgotten, we were hanging out at the "veterans" bar, so it's mostly older Army guys and some civilians, contractors and the like. Way more mellow and cool than all the rowdiness of the enlisted guys in Itaewon. So, maybe doing that Saturday! And that's the plan, stan. I'ma get on the bus, gus, so get out the way, ray.

Why do these so often dissolve into random tourette's-like rhyming nonsense? I do think that's my cue to wrap up the writing for the evening though. And like they always say, if you're using more than 3 pieces of tape to wrap it, your mother's a hamster. Or something...

Market Day!

2009-05-09T14:40:00.003+09:00

Well, it's Saturday, and it's beautiful outside. I've just been doing my chores around the house, but now it's time to hit the gym and then the market on the way back. Need to pick up some fresh veggies, eggs, anything else I can find that looks interesting.

So, I guess there are a lot of pine trees in the surrounding area here. Like, all the little mountains, which pretty much crisscross all over Korea (and completely encircle our little farming valley) are covered in them. And I figure I've never really been around enough of them to notice how absolutely pervasive and annoying their pollen (is that what you call it? ha, botany. right...) is. I vacuumed our classroom out on Wednesday, right? Then, it was so nice out, we opened up the windows on Thursday during class, and after a couple hours the floor was coated in this thin dusting of yellow pine-tree mess. So, apparently opening up the windows in springtime isn't such a good idea?

Well, naturally i'd forgotten all about this by this morning when I went to hang up a load of laundry out on my terrace... window's open, sun's shining in, clothes are hanging up -- sounds like a happy and effective set of circumstances right? Well, that would be true, and gloriously so, if it weren't for the stupid pine-smegma floating all over the place, so now my freshly-cleaned clothes all have weird little patterns of yellow-stripes where they were hanging or pelted by wind gusts or whatever. Oops. I mean, it's not a huge deal. I'll just wait for them to dry and ya know, brush them off... it's just kind of a pain in the ass.

Brief nightlife recap: Wednesday night I went out with Brigitte, who found me via (google => this blog! awesome) the internet in janghowon. We met up after she got done at the hogwon, or private school, and had a few beers. It was fun yo -- let's do it again soon! Thursday night my coteacher took me out for a traditional Korean meal. I'm blanking on the name (it was pretty long), but roughly translated it comes out to "spicy little octopus grilled on a flat metal tray." With veggies of course -- onions, spinach (or more probably some sort of seaweed), garlic, and the leaves from some sort of daisy which get tossed on after everything else is mostly cooked and add a nice fresh herby bitterness to all the spice. It was really yummy actually, the grilled octopus has that chewy consistency but tastes amazing. I'd definitely go back. Oh, and of course we had soju with the meal and went out for a couple beers afterwards! Ended up talking about a lot of linguistics and educational theories and whatnot, but that was cool because I'm a huge nerd who likes that kinda shit. Shocking, right? Ha...

Last night I stayed in and finished reading Ken Follett's sequel to "Pillars of the Earth" (which is one of my very few favorite books... top 3, at least), "World Without End." I'd always felt a little sceptical about wanting to read a sequel. Well, it's complicated -- the first was so amazing that even though I've managed to lose myself in that world several times, I kinda just thought there'd be no way he could create something worthy of that book. It seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of epic creation. I'm happy (or thrilled... no -- ecstatic) to say I was wrong. Freaking awesome. Stop-what-you're-doing-and-go-buy-it-right-now kind of awesome. Anyway, that was me last night. And I've already told you about today, so I guess we're caught up.

Now, in future news, we don't have any classes coming to the Global Center for the next couple of weeks! Which means I'll have lots of time to ... um, knit, or something. I mean, no, certainly not that, but I should find something more productive to do than screw around online all day. We'll see. Monday I still have classes at the elementary school, and Tuesday I have the after school classes. But Wed-Thur nothing, and Friday is sports day (Again?! Didn't we just do that? Anyway) and apparently I'm playing soccer and volleyball with the teachers. Or something. I'll have to check and get back to ya.

Finally, in more distant future news, the Cubs make the playoffs again but somehow manage to get swept out of the best-of-5 opening round series in only 2 games, setting a new standard in playoff ineptitude and all-around chokiness.

Wow, cheap shot to end it? Really Sean?

Ceramics rock my world? Ha... no

2009-05-04T20:27:00.003+09:00

To begin with, I wanted to respond to a couple of recent comments. Brigitte, if you see this, thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the blog. Also, email me at seanmfrye@gmail.com -- I'd like to chat or hang out sometime... you know, there being a dearth of English-speakers around here. Plus, one of my best friends here left last week and another is leaving on Friday, so that kinda sucks. Anyway, let's chat sometime. Thanks. =)

Also, Emily, who claims that it sounds like "I'm being repressed" by real life... that's not exactly how she put it, but the Monty Python scene jumped into my head right then for some reason: "Help! Help! I'm bein repressed!" Anyway, yeah, I guess I am settling into a routine. Real life blows. =Þ

So today I went to the World Ceramics Festival in Icheon. At first, I was absolutely blown away by the number of cars and people there. I was with Mi Sun, and we drove around Seolbong Park looking for a parking spot for like 20 minutes! Finally, we find one near a shuttle bus pickup. And then, right after she parks, we look up to see a line of well... several hundred maybe? A whole helluva lot of people anyway, waiting for this bus to arrive to take them into the festival. So she made a call and I made a call, both of us looking for someone who lived close who maybe had a parking spot available at their apartment complex. My friend Laura did, it turned out, but since we were in a moving car and the traffic was awful, I wasn't really able to direct us to her apartment with any degree of success. On the way there (or, at least, on the way somewhere) we did find a free spot and relatively close to the entrance, so that worked out ok.

We walked into the festival, which was free by the way. I think that's part of the problem. Maybe if they charged a hefty entrance fee they wouldn't be so overcrowded... haha. Um, so we walked in and immediately saw Laura and her friend Ryan, and then soon after were joined by a couple other people, Travis and Scarlet. So, we started to walk around, walking into some of the ceramic stalls which were grouped together under giant pavilion tents and whatnot. Now, even though Mi Sun grew up just a few miles down the road, this was her first time actually going to the festival, so she didn't know what to expect either. After about 15 minutes, we came to the conclusion that is absolutely positively the most boring festival in the history of festivals. I mean... it's just people selling ceramics. Lots of different people, lots of different ceramics. But... the overriding concern for me here is: who freakin cares?! I mean... they're ceramics. A festival -- really? I always thought festivals had lots of live bands, or different foods from all over the world, or maybe a bunch of drugs. Who knows? But ceramics... that ain't a festival, sorry guys.

We did get some food, and it was ok. They did have a place for kids to practice spinning (or throwing? is that the right word?) pottery on the wheels, and painting things I think. But for an adult with no kids (or alcohol or drugs) it was really quite lame. So we walked around for a bit, mostly just people watching and chatting. There were lots of groups of absolutely adorable children, all wearing little polo shirts and carrying matching backpacks, and holding hands with their field trip buddies. Some of these kids must have been 4 or 5 years old, and they were really, absurdly cute. And uh... yeah. That was pretty much the highlight of the festival for me, believe it or not.

So, we bailed out and Mi Sun and I went to E-Mart to pick up her watch that she sent away for repairs back in December, and then I helped her shop for a present for her nephew for Children's Day tomorrow. We ended up getting him this kick ass Lego crazy sword-wielding robot/alien halfbreed that I would have loved to play with, so I imagine her 6-year-old nephew will probably like it. Then we attempted to go see a movie but there was nothing good on, so instead she dropped me off at the bus terminal near her sister's house and I came on home. I made myself a ham and cheese sandwich with (let's see if you can guess... haha) mustard, tomato I picked up at the market on the way home, mayo, Doritos, and dill pickles. And yes, those last two things started out separate and eventually ended up right there on the sandwich with everything else. It's just more fun that way, what can I say? Also, a big frosty glass of delicious calcium-enriched chocolate milk. I effin' love chocolate milk, and I don't care who knows it. What?

And that was my Monday. Off again tomorrow, so check back soon to read up on my latest adventures. Real life, schmeal life.

Weekend update

2009-05-03T18:36:00.004+09:00

As usual, I don't have anything really riveting or mind-blowing to report. Last week we had class on Wednesday and Thursday and only after-school classes on Friday. It was all just fine; as good as can be expected I guess.

No class on Monday or Tuesday of this coming week though, which rocks. It's "Children's Day" on Tuesday, which apparently merits a 4-day (or even 5, in some cases) long weekend. Hell, I ain't complainin.

I went to Uijeongbu on Friday night with this lady Moy that I met at the teacher training. I'm purposely using the word "lady" here, because she's probably in her... 50's? Maybe older, I dunno. Anywho, she's pretty cool, and apparently she used to live up there near an American Army base, and she was going to go out drinking with some of her friends and thought maybe I'd like to hang out with some Americans. So, I figured, yeah... why not, right? We missed the bus that goes directly to Uijeongbu and ended up going to Seoul (which took a while: traffic was bad) and then a train up north and finally a cab to the bar. It was mostly older people when we arrived... which, I suppose, was to be expected at a bar called "Veterans." Ha... anyway, they had Budweiser, Jaeger (and yeah, I did go down that road, a coupla times... yeesh), and an actual honest-to-god pool table. I drank a few beers, chatted with some folks, shot some pool. Good times were had by all. Moy ended up getting kinda really drunk, and disappeared at some point... so I just hopped in a cab and found a little motel, and crashed out.

Yesterday, I slept in. A lot. I think I finally got up around 11:30, met up with Moy and we got on the train to Itaewon. I'm not sure why ... something about a bookstore I think. Yeah, that's the ticket... also, the foreign food grocery store! I bought authentic "nacho cheese" doritos! I rock... Also, dill pickles, yellow mustard, hot salsa... and something else. Oh! Nesquick chocolate syrup! All the milk here just tastes a bit funny. It's not terrible, just not ideal. Anyway, now I can make it chocolatey.

Also, in Itaewon, we decided to eat lunch. I chose Mexican food. Damn right. Now, the place we went to looked about right, well, minus the prices. And the chips and salsa were pretty spot-on, but the burrito was a bit of a disappointment. I mean, let me put that in context. It totally hit the spot, especially being the first Mexican-resembling meal I've had since probably October, but it just wasn't quite right. The burrito was drenched, both inside and out, by some kind of veggie-dominant chili. Like, actual Chili. Kinda tasted like Wendy's chili, in fact, just without the meat. It wasn't an ideal combination, by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm certainly not complaining. It did wonders for the hangover too, I must admit.

Today it's been beautiful, but lazy. I got up this morning and watched the Bulls-Celtics game... that was a bad way to start day. Talked to my mom on the phone; parents are back safely from Vegas and it sounds like they had a really nice time, all things considered. Took a walk, enjoyed the sun and warmth a bit. Now I'm contemplating what to cook for dinner. I just want to go buy some lunchmeat and bread and make sandwiches with real yellow mustard and then mash real doritos in the middle and eat like 5 of them. With dill pickles on the side. And a big tall frosty glass of chocolate milk. In fact, I just talked myself into it. That's it... the glass is going in the freezer right now and I'm off to the store. Sorry for the boring-ness of today's post, but I'm just not feelin the groove this evening. I'll try again soon, though, don't worry.

Ceramics... thrilling

2009-04-28T19:51:00.003+09:00

I promised to update ya'll on the recent cultural seminar I had to attend. It turns out there's not much to tell. If you read my prior blog you'll know basically what went down. Actually, this one was a bit less useful, as it was only a few hours long and we didn't get to make kimchi. We did, however, get to watch videos about Korean culture and make (more) ceramic pottery.

The really cool part of this (and yes, the only cool part) was that apparently, the practice of the first time paid off! Because not only did I pound flat into a base, roll out into evenly-shaped sides, and smooth down into something resembling clay able to be spun properly on a wheel, but when I took it to the guy doing the spinning, he said "oh, very nice!" And I giggled like a schoolgirl. Actually, I didn't, but I thought about it. Whatever. So, I'm guessing that in another couple of months I'll have another little vessel to bring home and show off to the grandkids. The first one, in case you've forgotten, turned out really well, and is currently home to a bamboo plant that I got from Jill.

Shifting gears for a bit, let me just throw this out there. Go Cards! 2nd best record in the majors... El Hombre, Thudwick, and Franklin (6 saves in as many chances) all kickin ass... hell yes! And the Bullies -- playing a freaking epic series against Boston right now in the NBA playoffs... sure the C's are without their best player (and leader, and best defender) but still, the baby Bulls are growin up before our eyes. I like it. Also, congrats to the Blackhawks, winning a playoff series for the first time in more than a decade.

And that's all I've got to say about that. Just a little light reading for ya'll today... but come back real soon, ya hear?

I'm a Seoul Man!

2009-04-27T20:55:00.003+09:00

On Saturday, I had to work for a couple hours in the morning. I'm not sure why exactly, but we had a group of about 60 3rd-graders come to the Global Center, just to check it out. Now, normally we have the 5th and 6th graders read through different dialogues in small groups, but clearly that wouldn't work, since (most of, anyway) the younger kids couldn't read. So, basically, I just kind of explained the airport thing, my co-teacher Mrs. Yun translated, and we let them play with the metal detector. We had them doing some (very) basic dialogues, helping them to read and talk and stuff, but yeah. It was actually pretty fun, I gotta say.

In the afternoon, I met up with Laura in Icheon and after a quick bite of lunch, we went to Seoul to hang out with a couple other foreign teachers. The plan was to go with this guy Francois to a South African cultural thingamajig, but our bus was running late with the traffic and he was coming from somewhere else in Seoul... By the time we all met up, we decided to bail on the cultural thing and just walk around for a bit. Laura wanted to do some shopping, so we went to Myeongdong, which is a pretty rockin little neighborhood. She did end up buying some shoes, eventually, but the real highlights were elsewhere. First, we watched these two Koreans making ... aw hell, I don't know the name. They take strands of something white, and roll them and twist them out, breaking and doubling them over each time. The whole time they kept up this running count (2, 4, 8, 16, 32...) and in between they had this really hilarious little dialogue that did. It was punctuated several times by "Englishy, oh my god!" and was a really fun performance. Well, after they got up to 16,384, they cut the strands into small sections and put spoonfuls of almonds, walnuts, and peanuts in there. We decided after all that work, we'd buy a little tray of them. I wasn't really expecting much in the way of flavor, cause they looked pretty plain and bland. Imagine my surprise when I took a bite and found I had just purchased a homemade Korean Butterfinger. I mean, no effin joke, this thing, despite having neither peanuts nor chocolate, tasted identical (even had the same texture) to a Butterfinger bar. Score one for impulsive buys and kick-ass marketing, I guess.

Second highlight was the western buffet we ate at. I say "buffet," although it was actually billed as a salad bar. But this salad bar had all kinds of stuff on it, including pasta, pizza, tandoori chicken, curried vegetables... plus greek, caesar, chicken, pasta, sweet potato and probably a few other kinds of salads I can't remember right now. It was flippin expensive, but damn was it good.

Then Travis bailed to head home and Laura and I went over to Hongdae to party it up. First we hit the vodka-in-a-bag lady for some tequila sunrises (and vodka cran, a few minutes later, for me) and then walked around for a bit. We walked into a jazz bar, at least according to the name. Even though it was like 11:00 on a Saturday night by this time, there was no one in there, but we had a drink because it was a really nice little place. Now, the reason we went to Seoul in the first place was for "Kimchibilly" night at this little club. Yeah, that's right: Korean rockabilly. And it was great! Actually, when we first got there it was this Korean heavy metal group playing, but they finished up a few minutes later and we settled in for some, well, rockabilly. I danced my white little ass off through 3 different bands, while Laura drooled over the Korean guys in leather with Elvis-hair playing upright bass. Yes, all 3 of the guys playing upright bass were dressed in leather and had cool slicked-back hair. So, you know, fun for her. I was feeling a little left out until the 3rd band busted out this totally smoking hot little Korean punk girl singing lead. So, good times were had by all.

After the gig Laura took me to this really chill lounge, where you have to take your shoes off before you enter and it's like walking through this giant cave, except everything's painted white. There's no seats; you sit on cushions on the floor with pieces of tree stumps for tables, and everything is real secluded with drapes and whatnot, and you end up tucked away under a curving white rocky-looking ceiling that's only 4 feet high and you have to crawl around and it's just weird. Also, the path has a little trench running along beside it that looked like it ought to have water in it but didn't; there were a couple of bridges and stuff too... not sure if that was just for the night or if they had some kind of problem with it or what. I mean, you can't really have a lot of drunk people climbing around and using bridges (with no rails) if you've got running water, I guess. I mean, maybe in Korea you can... who knows?

Finally, around 4am, jimjilbang, sleep, wake up, steam room, ice room, mineral baths, shower, and back to Janghowon. Relaxation.

It was a nice send-off for Laura, who's leaving next week to go back to her family and boyfriend and her nice little town in the English countryside. Actually, I don't have the foggiest idea where her town is (I mean, it is in England, just don't know where) but I like the thought of it being a quiet little hamlet nestled among some rolling hills. Perhaps with a meadow, and a little brook running alongside it. Although I guess the odds of her town existing in the 13th century are pretty minimal. Anyway, bye Laura! We'll miss you!

Coming up next time: return of the "Icheon Cultural Experience," featuring "Ceramics: Round 2! This time it's personal!"

My eyebrow hurts

2009-04-24T19:44:00.002+09:00

Yeah. You read that right. It's really bizarre, and I have absolutely no idea what's going on. It's not like, a sharp pain, but the skin there is just overly sensitive, all of a sudden. It's just the left one, I mean... I dunno, and like, even touching my eyebrow hair kinda hurts. Anyone ever have this sudden stinging eyebrow pain? Got any suggestions? Should I pluck it or shave it? Rub some kind of salve or balm on it? Not that I have those things here in my apartment, ye ken... Well, as always, your thoughts are welcome.

In high school, I accidentally hit my girlfriend in the face with a can of "A Taste of Thai" coconut milk, and it made this fairly large and impressive bleeding gash right smack in the middle of her eyebrow. I felt terrible, but it turned out ok in the end. The coconut milk ended up being a birthday present, many times over, and went on to have lots and lots of wonderful adventures. These were chronicled in pictures (of him playing tennis, going to church, having a picnic, driving a car, you get the idea) and tales of lost love, bitterness, desperation and redemption. Yes, the story was written, and illustrated, and bound. It even had Cliff's Notes. Also, I believe the coconut milk acquired (or possibly produced on his own through some kind of substantive-ideation power like in Michael Crichton's "Sphere") a set of instructions for getting the most enjoyment out of him... note that the instructions specifically requested that you not consume him in any way. I often wonder what ever happened to that violent yet lovable little guy. I think he was gifted to an out of town friend and went west to seek his fortune.

No, I am absolutely not making any of this up. I had some interesting friends in high school, yo. Every single statement in that last paragraph is factually accurate, set my watch and warrant on it.

Well, maybe the eyebrow tingling is the coconut milk's way of telling me through his as-yet-undetected tele-psycho-kinesis, that he misses me too. And he's thinking about me. And that, even though we've parted ways and each had our trials and tribulations, our successes and failures, our loves and losses, that we've never really lost each other. True friendship, he says, transcends borders, mountains, and oceans. It bridges time. It takes the best parts of each of you and holds them connected in the ether, recognizing no limits or physical laws of distance or separation. You know, like the internet.

And the winner is...

2009-04-22T23:01:00.003+09:00

Not me. Boo...

Just got home not too long ago from the tennis tournament -- I played doubles with Mr. Bae, who is really freaking good. We got 2nd place! =) And before you get too excited for me, let me assure you that we got 2nd place in spite of my contribution, not because of it. We ended up playing 4 sets against different doubles teams... and that's about twice the number of sets I've played in the last... let's say, 7 years combined. So yeah... I'm pretty beat. The serve quit on me at some point in the 3rd match, and with the foot blisters, the thumb blister, and general out-of-shapeness, I was fairly useless in the championship. I did have fun though.

After the awards ceremony (I got a wristband, 2 pairs of sport socks, and some tape to go on the grip of my [non-existent] racket), most of us went out for sam gyeop sal... and this restaurant was really good too.... So we ate, and had soju and beer of course, for a couple of hours. And now I'm home, and I'm tired.

But congrats to the Ihwang school team! 2nd Place! Yea! =)

It was cold today, too. And windy. If I had a tub, I'd soak in it. Oh well... life is full of small disappointments. Right then... I'm off to bed.

A whole lotta nothin...

2009-04-21T22:27:00.003+09:00

Well, not much to report, actually. I feel like I always open up this page thinking that and then type a freakin novel, but really this time.

Let's see -- Jill's gone. She hopped a plane to Bali this morning. I haven't heard of any horrific fiery (or watery) plane crashes, so I'm assuming she made it alright. She gave me a bunch of stuff before she left. Here's a list. I like lists.

I got 4kgs of rice, minus 2 cups which we ate at her house this weekend. Also, some tea, glasses, coffee mugs, bowls, a mixing bowl, an awesome bamboo cutting board, a little pot (ha... not that kind), some black pepper, vanilla, flour, spaghetti, 2 bamboo plants, dish soap, hand soap, laundry soap, and some chewing gum. I feel like I'm missing some things, even... safe to say she's awesome.

Also, we went to Seolbeong park on Saturday afternoon to hang out with Laura, who's also leaving in a couple of weeks. Laura doesn't drink, unless a) it's a special occasion and b) she's outdoors. So she suggested we get some soju and go sit in the park and drink. So, we did! And it was good... beautiful day, good booze. We even had a group of Korean kids come up and hang out with us for a while. The conversation was a little slow, but they were trying with the English, and we were using our very limited Korean, so it was fun. Oh, and Laura gave me her wireless router! That's good. The router setup page is in Korean. That's bad.

It's been raining for most of the last two days here. Well, to be specific, it started raining about 3 minutes after I left the house (sans umbrella) on Monday, and then continued this weird sort of persistent drizzle all day and night and most of the morning. Since then it's just been kinda grey and cloudy. I'm not sure what's the status of the tennis tournament tomorrow, what with the playing on clay and all and it probably being more of a muddy quagmire than a tennis court right now, but I guess I'll bring my tennis apparel just in case. For the record, my tennis apparel includes some 8-year-old adidas casual shoes I bought in Spain, a Seabrook Middle School tennis t-shirt I got from Shan with the sleeves cut off, and some green pants where the pant legs zip off into shorts. And I'm mostly using those because they have pockets. Yeah, I'm prepared, alright.

Light week this week at the Global Center. I had regular school classes yesterday, only my after-school classes today (I mean, you know, nothing until after 2pm), normal days tomorrow and Thursday, and then nothing on Friday. No school, no Global Center, no after school classes. Mi Sun mentioned that we might not have to come in at all on Friday, which would rock.

Randomness: Every time I go to type the words "Global Center," I always type a capital B first, for some reason, then have to delete it and very deliberately hit the G key. This has happened to me before, where I get a mental block about typing some word and almost always screw it up. If I remember correctly, it happened when I was writing my thesis. On some word that was fairly crucial and I used a lot. I'll try to think about what that was... hm. A pain in the ass, is what it was. Anyway. I also took this typing test online today, and found out that I can type 76 words per minute with 95% accuracy. I didn't have to type "Global Center" at all, so that helped.

Mom -- I hope your foot's doing ok! Actually, it's like almost 9am there, so I think I'm going to call you right now. Hi!

Emily -- Thanks for the postcard sweetie! That's awesome, and I'm glad you had such a good time in Austin. I promise, one day, I will send you a postcard from somewhere. Believe me? ;)

Shan -- Keep your head up, honey! Only a few more weeks and then you'll be relaxin in the Caymans, not worrying about statistics!

Jill -- Hope you had a safe trip, yo. Email me when you get a chance, yeah? Have fun in Indonesia!

Adam -- What's up, ho? Hope things are good with Felicia, the family, school, everything... Let's chat this weekend.

And as it turns out, I did forget at least one thing in the mad haul from Jill's -- Persimmon ice wine! Or, as it reads on the internet, eiswein! Haven't opened her up yet, but I'm excited. I did a search for this online, as you may have guessed. There's not a lot of persimmon ice wine to be found, apparently. Seems as though it's a local delicacy... so I'll probably try to save it for a special occasion and let ya'll know how it goes.

Ha... I knew it. "Not much to report," my ass... but I think I'm done now. You stay classy, planet Earth.

Linguisticalism... and the NBA playoffs

2009-04-17T22:09:00.002+09:00

So, Mi Sun and I were talking today about the ridiculousness of spoken, idiomatic, actually-used English phrases. Why, she demands, do we have 25 different phrases for "I agree"!? Or "Let's leave"? I mean, really, what is the point of that?

Why should she have to learn to recognize bounce, roll, head, jet, hit it, bail, skedaddle, get, scoot, run, skip, and the list goes on? And even worse... damn straight, right on, for sure, fuckin' a, totally, you bet, for real, i know, that's what i'm sayin, preach on brotha, absolutely, giddy up, book it, i gotcha, no doubt, i hear that, i feel you, yeah yeah, uh-huh, got that right... I could go on, but you get the picture. Ya feel me?

I suggested that part of the reason for this proliferation of American slang might be due to our culture's value on individuality. Sure, we're saying the same thing that everyone else says most of the time, but if we can find a new way to say it, something that's not "played out" or stale, then we score those all-important "originality" or "uniqueness" points. And so, large numbers of phrases all carrying roughly the same meaning find their way into mainstream usage. Naturally, this helps keep our language fresh and flexible (or destroys its time-honored heritage, depending on whom you talk to) but it also makes it a nightmare for anyone studying English to have any hope of going out to a random bar in America and actually being able to follow the conversations taking place around them. Another factor might be our cultural xenophobia, our tendency to exclude anyone different: rapidly changing diction/idioms are a way to determine who's "in" our crowd, and who's an outsider. Related to this, of course, is that we also have a ready means of declaring our inclusion and position in a social group... i.e. we can talk the talk. And yeah, I realize how ridiculous it is that we require being seen as both "unique, beautiful snowflakes" and as part of the blizzard, but hey! the American heart wants what it wants, am I right? Damn skippy.

I compare this to the Korean language that I hear most of the day at work, and anytime I go out. Agreement takes one of 2 forms: Neh/Deh/Yea (yes -- all the same word, really, just with slight differences in pronunciation), and keu-re-o (that's right/is that right?) Also, when Koreans ask for confirmation of what was just said, again, you hear 2 questions: Chincha? (really?) and keu-re-o? (is that right?) They just don't seem to have the proliferation of slang/informal uses that we do, and it makes conversations a whole helluva lot easier to follow. I mean, come on... one more list of English nonsense, then I'm done: for real? no shit? seriously? no way! straight up? is that right? you don't say! come again? really?

Ok, that's enough of that bs. I have a really strange week coming up.

Jill's leaving. =( Going to Bali for a few weeks to visit her dad, then heading back to the states. She's like, my best friend here, so that sucks. But Jill, if you're reading this, I know you'll be happier once you get out of here, so I wish you well! =) Thanks for the dinnerware and soap.
I have 1 day of school classes, 2 days of Global Center classes, 2 days of after-school classes, and 1 day of special class. And they all fall on different days. So yeah, I do have to work six days next week. Boo. But, it's only 3 full days of work and 3 days of ~2 hours, plus I do get paid overtime for the Saturday hours and the after-school program, so Yea! =)
I get to play in that tennis tourney next Wednesday! It's after school, so uh, no missing class. But... whoo-ee! Wish me luck -- I'll probably need it.

I guess that's it, as far as weirdness goes.

Also, my Cards beat the Cubbies yesterday at Wrigley, spoiling the Cubs' home opener. That feels good, I gotta say. On the other hand, the Blues lost their first playoff game and the Bullies somehow lost to the Toronto freaking Raptors, at home, on the last day of the season. Combine that with the Cav's somehow failing to set the all-time home wins record (while losing to the 6ers) and now, all of a sudden, we're playing the Celtics in the 1st round instead of the struggling Magic. Boo. Although KG is hurt, I don't think that'll help much in the grand scheme of things. They've still got the Truth and Ray-Ray, not to mention Rondo, Powe, Big Baby, and that solid bench. I'm not feeling nearly as good about this. Seriously, Bulls, you lost at home to Toronto. You deserve what you get from here on out. Go Cards! Blow Cubs blow!

Sporting News

2009-04-14T19:55:00.003+09:00

I played tennis yesterday! I think that's probably the first time in say... a year? Maybe not quite; I know Erik and I played some in Chicago last summer, but anyway, a long time. I'm actually pretty sore today, which is weird because tennis isn't really a sport that requires using a whole lot of muscle. I guess I was actually hitting the ball pretty well after I got warmed up a bit. I played with the 6th grade teacher, who's not bad. At first we just hit the ball around for a while, so I could get the feel for it again. The major issues are twain: I don't have my racket here, so that makes it rough. I haven't hit with any other since I bought that one, sometime in the 90's, I think. Each racket has its own feel that you have to find... sweet spot, tension, length, weight, handle thickness, everything. Which all affects how hard you can swing, how much spin you can put on the ball, how the ball flies coming off the strings. But anyway... the 2nd issue is the court. They play on clay here! Which is cool, don't get me wrong. I love watching the pros slide around Roland Garros at the French Open. But damn is it tough to play on. It's basically just heavy, manicured dirt... which makes it um, dirty to play on (obvious enough for ya? ha...). But more importantly, it requires completely different footwork. Which I've never learned.

When you play on hardcourts, which is probably 99.5% of the time in the US (I've seen a clay court, but I don't remember where), it's really easy to stop and start, push off, change directions, all that stuff. The courts have a bit of texture that give you a lot of grip... so it's a pretty simple matter to get around the court. On clay, however, the key component of good footwork is the slide. Instead of running through the shot, hitting it, and then stopping and getting back into position, you take away that last step before impact and turn it into a slide. You use that momentum (instead of the step) to hit the shot, and then finish the slide before pushing off to go the other direction. Well, that's the theory anyway, but it's not an easy thing to pull off, especially when you're so used to taking that final step before the swing. And thinking about where you want to hit the shot. And where your opponent is, and where he's going, and what direction the wind is blowing, and everything else. So yeah... we'll see how it goes.

The first set I think I double-faulted probably 15 times... maybe more. Serve just wasn't working, and I lost 6-2. Although I did have one game with 3 aces... I just kept alternating between ace and double fault, which doesn't add up to success. The second set I won 6-4, and I was finally finding my groove a bit, on the second serve at least. I was really just trying to "spin it in," as they say, but even that's rough when you keep hitting the ball with everything but the middle of the racket. I did manage to catch one clean on the top of the frame -- hit it directly up in the air, probably a good 40 feet, and it landed about 8 inches from my right foot. Uh, yeah. Fault.

The reason this all matters is that I apparently volunteered to help represent our school in a tennis tournament in Icheon next Wednesday. I get to leave school early and go to some high school to play against other elementary school teachers. When they initially asked me if I wanted to play, it sounded like a friendly little match between the teachers at our school. So sure! Count me in. Only yesterday did I found out that it's sort of a big deal. Hm... well, wish me luck! I've got time to get a few more practice sessions in, I think, but I'm a little worried about the thumb blister that both developed and ripped open on the same shot last night. So now I've got a pretty substantial piece of thumb-skin missing... but whatcha gonna do? I've had worse, that's for sure. It was funny at lunch today -- my forearm muscles were so tender I could barely hold the chopsticks to eat. I kept dropping food everywhere. Well, not everywhere -- I mean, not on the floor or other people or anything. Just mostly back onto the tray/other food. But yeah, it was still fairly amusing. Just picture the first primates trying to use tools, and you'll have an idea of how well lunch went.

And that's my story for the day. My extra classes were... meh. So-so. Could've been worse. I finally got the textbooks that I ordered. The ones for the younger kids are fine, but I severely overestimated my "advanced" class's level of advanced-ness. So now I've gotta backtrack and fill in a bunch of gaps just to get them to the point where we can actually use the books. Oopsie. On the plus side, at least I have an idea what they need to be learning, so I have some direction for my classes from now on.

I need to fold laundry and I'm not in the mood. I think it's gonna stay hanging up on the "terrace" for another day. Why do it now when there's always tomorrow, right? Also, my ethernet cord is broken -- not the cord, but the little latch that keeps it in the computer. I've got it rigged up now with the lanyard I use for my thumb drives, but it keeps slipping out. My friend Laura is leaving in a couple weeks to go back home, and I think she's gonna give me her wireless router, so hopefully I can just plug that in and not have to worry about it anymore. And finally -- what a great week for my sports teams! Cardinals off to a 6-2 start, Pujols knocking the cover off the ball, Carpenter and Lohse pitching lights out! Blues went on a tear the last 2 months to move into the 6th seed in the playoffs! And the Bulls, coincidentally, went on a tear the last month or so behind Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose to move into (for now at least) the 6th seed in the playoffs! One more win, hope Boston and/or Cleveland TCOB against the 6ers and we've got a shot at an injury-ridden Orlando team and maybe making it out of the first round! Whoo-ee! Oh, and the Cubs suck. =)

OK -- that ended up being a much longer entry than I had originally planned, so I'm cutting it off here. Hasta luego!

Easter Sunday failure

2009-04-12T12:33:00.002+09:00

I mean, not like the Romans' failure or anything... we're not talking that grand a scale, but still. I was going to get up and go to church this morning. It would've been my first church visit here, and I was actually looking forward to it. I went to bed pretty early. Good start. I woke up around 8:15, so we were still on target. I heated up the water for coffee and turned on the streaming program so I could catch the first half or so of the Bulls game. Laid back down and waited for the kettle to shut off.

Next thing I know, I wake up and there's 5 minutes left to go in the game. The Bulls are neck-and-neck with a team they should be beating, and my water's cold again. =( Of course, this isn't the worst part: I didn't make it anywhere near a church this morning... boo. So... I mean, sorry Mom! I'll try to go next weekend (even though it probably won't be as cool ) so I can at least tell you what it's like at a Korean Presbyterian Church... which apparently does exist and is relatively close to here.

On a more positive note, the Cardinals and Bulls both won today, so that makes me happy.

On a more negative note, now I need to put my ear to the grindstone and knock out 16 weeks worth of lesson plans today. Should've worked on this yesterday, but it was really nice outside so instead I went for a walk, had a cheeseburger, got my hair cut and went to the gym. But uh, not in that order. I know, I know, that's not really like a full day of activities, but I've become totally engrossed in the Douglas Adams books again. I read them all in high school, but haven't picked them up since. Well, I also finished Hitchhiker, read the whole 2nd one ("Restaurant at the End of the Universe") and am halfway through "Life, the Universe, and Everything." So at least I'm not being totally mindless and useless... or maybe I am. I dunno... who can say, really?

I also found a decent website for studying Korean, so I've been doing a bit more practicing on that as well. I learned the simple past tense yesterday... so that's cool. Now I can say things like "I went to the gym, then I ate a cheeseburger, and it was delicious." Haha... slowly but surely, ya'll, that's the way this is gonna work. Check this site out if you're interested. It's fun, I promise.

Other than apologizing for dropping the ball today, I don't really have much to say. Same ole, same ole, I guess... I mean, as much as you can call living in Korea "the same..." It really is starting to feel that way though, at least a little bit. Things don't seem so strange to me anymore, in general. The strangest thing recently was today: not going to church with my Mom on Easter. It's the holidays that really carry a sense of tradition and comfort, ya know? The rest of the time, I guess, work's work, food's food, sleep's sleep. Not being with my family on Thansgiving and Christmas was definitely harder than today, though. I dunno, either I'm settling in a bit more (which is true, by the way) or Easter doesn't have as strong a family feeling for me as the winter holidays (which is also true, by the way). Wow. That last sentence shouldn't have been an either/or proposition at all, huh? I just lol'ed. Not sure why it started that way in my head, but whatever. The human mind works in mysterious ways sometimes.

OK, enough stalling, time to get down to brass tacks here. So (because I have no desire to start doing lesson plans), I just looked up the etymology of that phrase, realizing that I had just about zero idea what it actually meant. And wikipedia, though interesting, isn't entirely helpful. It did lead me on to this discussion of Cockney rhyming slang, however, which is pretty entertaining. Ok, can you tell that I'm really just stalling now? It's getting out of hand. I gotta wrap this up, and get to work. Until next time then.

What a Good Friday! (um... yeah. get it?)

2009-04-10T20:06:00.003+09:00

Did I have a great day today, or what?! YES!!! Yes I did... You wanna hear about it? Alright!

First of all, I woke up early so's I could plan my lessons for the extra classes this afternoon. Well, the getting up early part was nice -- I had a chance to cook breakfast, take a nice long shower, shave, all that good stuff. Aaaaand, read randomness on the internet. So I didn't get anything really "planned," per se, and I almost missed the bus to school. Now I know what you're thinking: this is not the start of a great day. And in general, you're probably right. But this story is the penguin that shivers, the thirsty camel, the Asian kid who can't do math. You know, the exception that proves the rule, or something.

So I made the bus, even though I had to jog to the bus station this morning. That kinda sucked, but when you see the bus pulling up and you're still 100 yards or so away but then you see 20 people lining up to get on and you know you can make it on time... yeah, that's a good feeling.

I got to school and (this is always the case on Tue-Fri, but still...) I had about an hour of free time before I have to actually do anything. This is usually when I catch up on my sports scores, blogs I like, grab a cup of coffee, and relax before I just jump right into the day. Now, today of course, I'd already done all that, so I actually got some work done. Flashcards arranged, bingo cards printed, worksheets copied, a battle plan drawn up. I decided to go with the basic premise I laid out earlier, regarding reward and punishment. And let me tell you somethin. I'm a goddamn genius.

***Side note: I took an online IQ test the other day... it seemed fairly genuine... took about an hour and had the same types of questions I remember from when I took an actual one for a high school Psych class... and uh, it went well. I scored higher than I ever had before, in fact. If you wanna know the score you'll have to ask. I'd hate to sound like I'm bragging. HA! Anyone who knows me knows that's not true, but still. I ain't putting it up on here. Side note over. We know return you to your regularly scheduled blogging***

So yeah... I put the fear of god into these little kids. We've got this free-standing AirCon unit in the classroom... wait. Sorry. Did I just say AirCon? Ha... been in Korea too long. A/C unit, is what I meant. Anyway, I did the whole writing their names on the board thing, gave them each two stars, and told them that for every activity they participated in and actually tried, I'd give them another one. For every time they pissed me off (although not in those specific words) I'd take one away. If they got down to zero, they were getting stuck in the corner behind the A/C, and I'd tell their homeroom teacher what had happened, and we'd make up extra homework together for them. Worked like a freakin charm. This one 2nd-grader, Tommy, got up and started wandering around aimlessly (which he does fairly often, usually) about 10 minutes into class. As soon as I erased one of his stars though, his ass was back in that chair like it was magnetized. Awesome. Turns out, he was the only one in my first class who didn't earn a sticker today, which puts him behind the 8ball in the running for the end-of-month prize. (I still don't know exactly what these prizes will be yet. Any suggestions? Nothin too expensive -- I've gotta do something like this all year, but yeah, thanks.)

Anyway, bottom line is, both classes went great today. Kids were engaged, we were having fun, and it was just a really nice afternoon. My advanced class -- 8 kids, 8 stars. No screwing around. Good stuff.

I also got a contract from the school today regarding the extra classes. It turns out, these bad boys are gonna net me an extra $400 a month, which totally comes in handy.

Then, after work I hit up the gym, had a good workout, and popped by the kimbap place on my way home and picked up some chamchi kimbap -- like a tuna salad maki roll with rice and carrot and some other things all mixed in there together. Now, clearly, I'm home blogging. I think I'm gonna read the rest of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and get some sleep.

One more recommendation request, and then I'm done, I promise! I finished "The Wire" and now I need some new TV to watch. I'm not usually into like, network dramas... but comedies, HBO/Showtime type stuff (though I've seen most of that already), anything off-the-wall or relatively obscure, feel free to shoot it my way. Thanks! Happy Anniversary-of-Jesus'-Crucifixion!

Movin up in the world...

2009-04-08T13:21:00.002+09:00

I've been added to the Korean Blog List. Thanks, guys. If you're anxious to read more about this magical place, go check it out sometime. They've asked me to link back to their page, since they're now linking to mine, so it's over there ==> on the right side somewhere. It's mostly just other foreign teachers living here and writing about life, as far as I can tell. Some of their lives are much more interesting than mine though. If you're here trying to live vicariously through someone else, you could probably do better than me... I'm just sayin.

I think there's also a section for foreign language exchanges, if anyone would like to start learning Korean. You know, from a hot Korean girl. Or guy, I guess. Whichever... I ain't here to judge.

It's another beautiful day here -- sunny, probably around 70 degrees! Perfect for some outdoor shopping in downtown Icheon... so I gotta go get ready. Mi Sun will be here any minute now. Peace out, homies.

Spontaneous Holiday?

2009-04-07T19:41:00.003+09:00

I just found out today that we don't have class tomorrow! I'm not sure why, but I think it's a state-wide holiday, and not national. Gyeonggi-Do something or other Honor and Celebration for Make Glory the Beautiful... wait, what was I talking about?

So, I'm going to try to make the most of the day and go shopping in Icheon. I'm not really sure what there is to buy there, but Mi Sun suggested it, and I guess she's going to show me around, since, well, she works with me and thus has tomorrow off too. 2 things I'm definitely looking for: maple syrup and oatmeal. I really like eating breakfast, it turns out -- not least because I have to leave my apartment around 8am and I don't get lunch till after 12. 5 hours of getting ready and dealing with ankle-biters is hungry work, ya'll. Believe that.

I don't really think I'll be able to buy much else, like, American-y. I've heard that for decently priced meat and cheeses and normal stuff like Dinty Moore Beef Stew and Hormel Chili that you have to go to a) the Army Base or b) Costco. That Canadian guy Dave has a car and offered to take me to Costco some weekend but I just haven't taken him up on it yet. Although, I'd really like to buy some steaks. I mean, this is costco, so I'll probably end up with 12 pounds of steaks, but that's why I have a ginormous freezer, right? And no, I don't think I'll buy either beef stew or canned chili, in case you were wondering.

So my extra classes didn't go so well today. I was kind of disappointed, bein as how I just got back from job training and all, but hey! things never go the way you expect them to. I realized that I need some sort of coherent reward/punishment system. I'm thinking each day I'll start with their names on the side of the board and 2 stars next to each one. Participating in an activity and being good will earn you a mark. Talking when I'm talking, being disruptive, or not participating will get them taken away. If you get to zero, then there'll be some sort of consequence, based on your behavior. A time out or what have you... I don't have the details all worked out yet, but I feel like I'm losing them. Part of the problem is that my class doesn't matter -- there's no grade, no reason to try unless they just like English. Which some of them do, and they're awesome. But the ones that don't make it very difficult to spend any amount of quality time with the ones that do. Anyway, I need to find a way to make them accountable for their perfomance and behavior in my class. I think I'll talk to my coteacher and see if we can set up some kind of reporting system that will go back to their homeroom teachers, so they'll know if their kids are being little hellians. I gotta ask about that... so we'll see. Oh, and obviously, the reward part of the system: each student who finishes class with 5 stars (out of a possible 6 or 7: 2 to start plus ~4 activities) gets a sticker for the day. And the 2 with the most stickers at the end of the month get a little prize. Candy or maybe some American treat, or a pencil case. They like pencil cases here.

What do you think? Got any suggestions for me? I'm all ears on this one.

I kicked my own ass at the gym yesterday. I think it was taking several days off for that teacher training that did me in. My arms don't wanna work today. Good stuff.

Oh! Get this! I (finally) successfully ordered pizza. In Korean. For delivery. To my house. I'm the man with the master plan... no school tomorrow and potato pizza coming my way. What a great night! And on that note, I need to put on some pants.

Please don't cry...

2009-04-04T23:11:00.003+09:00

One of my "advanced" students yesterday was kind of a brat. I said "was," but the truth is that she IS kind of a brat. She's difficult to deal with, speaks very little English, and has a real penchant for the dramatic. One little thing sets her off, and then she shuts down, becomes impossible to deal with. She cries, pouts, and becomes unresponsive to everything.

Yesterday during class, I was trying to play this game... it involved passing an eraser. My "hot potato," actually. We were practicing "what's your name?" and "how are you?" When it was her turn to take it, she refused. Ignored the person next to her. Defiance written all over her. I tapped the eraser on her shoulder to get her attention, and oopsie! dry erase marker junk leaves a spot on her shoulder. I could see the emotions on her face: first disbelief, then anger, then the beginnings of a plot as she started to plan how she could get her revenge against me for getting her sweatshirt dirty. I didn't mean to mess up her shirt, I was just trying to get her involved in the classroom activity. Anyway, I'd seen this before, and I didn't really want to get started down this road.

Then it hit me -- what does this girl need to happen in order to feel better? Well, like I said, she's a bit vindictive. I pointed at her shoulder and then apologized, miming that I didn't know that would happen. She couldn't care less. Then I took the marker and tapped it on my own shoulder, rubbing it into my shirt for good measure. Again I made that "Sorry, who knew?" face at her, and she giggled. I went over and tried to brush off the spot on her shirt -- it wasn't gonna work. Then I looked at her and did the same to mine, shrugged, and smiled at her. She laughed. She played the game. Problem solved, I guess.

Kids are somethin else, I tell ya. Anyway, I feel a bit better knowing that I figured out how to deal with this girl. I'm fairly certain she'll present more problems (unlike Flounder), but at least now I have a starting point for dealing with her shit when it happens during class. I really believe that no one learns more than a teacher. Whether it involves how to handle unruly 10-year-olds or directing towards some form of utility the disparate thoughts of a PhD-level economics class, no one has to deal with more different personalities and opinions and figure out how to use them for the good of a group quicker than a teacher. It's amazing what you learn at this job, both about the students' mentalities and your own.

Bedtime Stories, B-Boys, Bulgogi

2009-04-03T22:48:00.005+09:00

OK, picking up from last time...

Wednesday morning's presentation went really well! Our little "How Many Cows?" thing went off without a hitch. I thought there were a couple in our group that were better, but apparently I'm no good at judging teaching talent. I'll never be a major league educator scout, is what I'm saying... because my demo lesson was one of 3 chosen to be presented on Thursday morning to the whole conference! I was actually pretty proud of myself... =) The details of the thing aren't that mind-blowing or anything, but we did successfully create a lesson for 8 year-olds that had an attention-getting hook:

Teacher: Raise your hand! (demonstrating)... Now, raise your other hand! (demonstrating again)... Now, put them down! Now, raise your hands! Hello everyone! (cause they're hands are up already, so now we're waving hello! Plus, it ties into that whole using the -s for more than one of something. Good stuff, right?)

Then we made a poster with cows on it to present the material. "How many cows?" / "1 cow." / "How many cows?" / "2 cow." / "Close, but listen again. How many cowzzzzz?" / "2 cowzzzzzzz." haha...

Then we played a counting game where different groups of people had to pretend to be different zoo animals and we practiced counting them. Then we wrapped it up with this little gem: "Hold up 1 thumb. (demonstrating, of course)... Now hold up 2 thumbs. Did you enjoy the lesson?" Get it, cause they've got their thumbs up already... nothin like a captive audience.

Unfortunately, there was some kind of insanity that happened in Sarah's room Wednesday night. Not sure, exactly, but I guess her roommate kinda snapped, flipped out, broke down, whatever you wanna call it. I'm told she was like, literally walking into walls, muttering nonsense and shaking like a fiend. Then she told Sarah that she ate a whole bottle of xanax. So Sarah had to find the coordinators and get her in an ambulance and so she asked if she could cancel the presentation Thursday morning. It would have been kinda fun to do it for everyone, but it was nice just to be selected. No worries.

Wednesday night, after dinner (jajang bap -- chinese black bean sauce over rice!) we had what was listed on the schedule as a "B Boy Performance" from 7 - 9. So we thought, cool... sounds like fun. Let's hit that up. Turned out, however, that the word "performance" was a little misleading, and "demonstration" would have been more accurate. That's right ya'll... for the first time ever, I got to breakdance. I actually did pick up a few steps pretty quickly. I'm not sure what I looked like doing them, although I'd venture a guess that "cool" and "smooth" and "badass" are not words used to describe me. I did have fun though. I can now sidestep, backstep, 8-step, and 6-step... well, you know, in theory. I mean, I know how to do them, let's just leave it at that. I also learned that it's freakin hard... I was sweating like a sonofabitch after like 20 minutes of this shit... craziness, man...

After that, a few of the boys and I headed back to the bar. It was N Korea v. S Korea in soccer, and no way we were passing up a chance to catch that one on the big screen at a bar. With real live Koreans to cheer with. We ended up winning 1-0 on a late goal that I didn't see coming... it looked like a nil-nil tie for sure, but damn did that place raise up. I ended up chatting and drinking with these 2 Korean guys for a while before we headed back to the noraebang. No cop threats, no angry owner this time... just some good clean karaoke fun. And bonus: when I got back to the place (learning center, they call it... doesn't really work for me), I went downstairs to find 2 guys just sitting there in the little lounge, with 2 giant unopened bottles of beer on the table. I said hey, and they asked if I wanted them, seeing as how their boy just left them there and they didn't want any more. So I said, hellz yeah. At this point like 3 more of the guys I had been out with walked in, so we picked up round 3 right there and rolled with it. Went to bed soon after and got up ready to rock out on my presentation. Then got the call at breakfast that it was off. So, I just hope that girl's alright. It sounded serious.

The other new thing I tried this week for the first time (other than break dancing, natch) was this weird hybrid sport they play here. It's called choh-gu (or something like that) and it's like a mix between volley tennis and soccer. I don't know if anybody else even knows what the hell volleytennis is, but we used to play it in junior high. Well, long story short, choh-gu is played on a court about the size of a volleyball court. The net is about as high as a tennis net. You play with a soccer ball. No hands, arms, you know, just like soccer. Other than that, the rules are the same as volleytennis. It bounces once; person A can hit it up in the air, or over the net. It bounces again, person B can hit it up in the air, or over the net; It bounces again, person A or a new person has to hit it over the net. Rinse, repeat. I've seen Koreans playing it before but this was my first time... and it's harder than it looks. But these Koreans will set it, up by the net. Just like in volleyball. Then... well, you kinda have to see it, but they do this taekwondo crazy spinning flying kicks to spike the damn ball. Also just like volleyball, but way freakin cooler. I didn't really try to get into all that noise, since half the point for us was trying not to hurt ourselves, but I'll keep practicing, you know... in case there's some horrible genetic disease here and I have to end up representing Korea at the Asia Games in volleysoccertennis ball.

And, finally -- went back to work today. Had 2 pretty good lessons, after school trying to put into practice the things I learned at orientation. I know, that whole sentence had the potential for sarcasm, I'm noticing. But that's totally not the case -- I really did learn shit, and then use it.

After work, Mi Sun and Mi Jin and I went shopping for the 2nd course of our dinner extravaganza. This time it was Mi Sun's turn, and she opted for the one thing she knows how to cook, apparently: bulgogi! Pronounced bool-go-ghee (rhymes with key, ya see?). It's thinly sliced Korean beef, cooked with a certain type of mushroom, and onion and bulgogi sauce, simmered and served with rice, or you can wrap it in lettuce leaves, which are naturally the two main ways to eat most meats here. Anyway, it was freakin good... we had kimchi with it (of course), and then after we had eaten quite a bit of bulgogi on lettuce, added the rest of the rice to the pan and mixed it all together, giving us this nice saucy rice-y beefy desert. Koreans aren't big on desert foods (sweet ones, I mean) but if you let them throw rice or noodles onto a skillet of meat you've got yourself a solid end to a Korean meal. Plus we bought some traditional Korean drink to go with it -- Makeorri, I think, is the name. It's different... I'm not even sure how to go about explaining the different tastes involved with this thing. A little sweet, a little tangy, a little starchy, I wanna say... and it makes you feel kinda warm and fuzzy. Strange, but not bad. I'll give it a C+. Now, Mi Sun's cooking, on the other hand... she gets an A! Cause A is for Awesome. Next time it's Mi Jin's turn, and I'm excited already!

And that's where the other shoe drops. Off my foot. And then the bed. And then, in an ideal world, it jumps up, runs over and hits the light switch so I don't have to move before I can crash. That's telekinesis, Kyle...

Teacher training, day 2

2009-03-31T23:19:00.003+09:00

It's Tuesday night, and I'm in a dorm room, chatting with 1 of my 2 roommates. He's also named Sean. He runs a lot. And eats.

The conference is going fairly well. It's about half as boring as I thought it would be... well, now that I think of it, that's an incredibly pessimistic statement. What I had meant to say was... it's twice as exciting as I thought it would be! =) Yeah, that's the ticket.

You know, I hear that zero times two is still zero. Since when? That's what I want to know...

Let's see -- we've had talks on teaching philosophy, classroom management, team teaching, contract issues... wow. Ha, it sounds boring when I just type those words in that order. Let's rethink this thing, huh?

Tonight we got placed into groups of three, and we practiced doing our teaching demonstrations. In a nutshell, we chose from a list of topics (we got "How Many Cows?" from the 3rd grade textbook) and we have to prepare a simulated lesson. Well, part of one: we've got 10 minutes and we have to incorporate certain elements from this checklist. So we need an attention-grabbing hook, a brief synopsis of the elements to be covered (in this case, plurals vs. singular), a quick demonstration of the material (Sarah, the most artistically-inclined of the three of us, drew cows on a paper -- 1 cow, 2 cows, 3 cows... whoo-ee!), and then an interactive group activity, followed by a quick evaluative activity to make sure they got it. In 10 minutes, mind you. So we each have a role -- Sarah is playing the foreign teacher, I'm the native Korean teacher (yeah, that's right... annyeong haseyo, bitches) and Eulla (who is actually Korean, by the way) is our average 3rd grade Korean student who speaks very little English. We've decided to break them up into groups, assign each group an animal... well, technically the students will pick their favorite animals, but Eulla is going to speak in Korean and I'm going to "translate" for Sarah to make sure we get fun ones. Anyway, then I'll assign each group an animal. Also, (ha... this story sucks -- sorry for all the backtracking and shit but I didn't plan it out very well) our "students" are actually 30 other foreign teachers. We're going to have them stand up one group at a time and pretend to be the animals we've assigned. We're gonna have monkeys, elephants, tigers, and alligators. And then when the monkeys are standing up pretending to be monkeys, they'll ask the rest of the class "How many monkeys are there?" and the first group to get the right answer (in full sentence form -- "There are 7 monkeyS." gets a point. Yeah... good times, I tells ya.

Anyway, this is really my first attempt at lesson planning. It's rough. I kinda suck at it, to be honest, but probably with a wee bit of practice it'll get better, and easier.

Fun story of the conference so far. They told us that we're not allowed to drink alcohol on the premises. They also suggested that we not leave. Now, this wasn't really an issue for me, but several people (who aren't me -- I swear) had a huge problem with this, and made an earnest effort to find the closest bar last night and stick it to the man. So, I ain't tryin to be all anti-social and shit, so I tagged along. Wait, what? I was one of the first people out the door, you say? Pshaw... you don't know. You weren't there... =Þ But anyway, we had to walk for about 20 minutes, but sure enough... paydirt. Tok's. Bar. Beer. Yes. Unfortunately, they didn't see all of us crazy waegookin coming, and they failed to stock the necessary provisions. So about two hours later, we came to a sobering (ha! get it?) realization. We had floated the entire bar. No more draft beer, no more bottles. They did still have liquor, but we weren't about to go down that road... so we rolled out and decided to hit up the noraebang down the street. Emily was right: that is a whole different ballgame with drunk Westerners, compared with drunk Koreans. I guess we were a little too rowdy (and also brought in a little too much smuggled booze from the corner store) because after about an hour of singing the owner came in and told us to leave or he was calling the cops. So, uh... haha. Yeah, ballgame over. The visiting team forfeits. Please clear the aisles and have a safe drive, folks. We hopped on a bus and back here we came. The funny thing is, we got back before midnight and didn't even really have the chance to drink that much... but a fun night, nonetheless. Tomorrow I gotta be on my game with this presentation so I decided to stay in and keep it chill tonight. Tomorrow night though, it's on like Donkey Kong.

Alright -- it's just now turning midnight so I've got to get to sleep before I turn into a glass slipper or whatever. Annyeong-hi gaseyo!

Four Days

2009-03-27T20:20:00.003+09:00

My washing machine plays this song when it's finished. It's a strange little quirk; you know, not like the buzz and/or beep I'm used to. I mean, I guess it's a nice touch. It's overly happy though, like "Woo-hoo! Your laundry's done! Let's partay!!!" And it's actually ridiculously long, especially considering that it's a washing machine. I think the song has a couple verses, and maybe even a chorus. And the best part is that I always forget about it until I hear it. And I'm always like, what the hell is that? Where's this cheerful melody coming from?! And then it hits me. Duh, your appliances are serenading you with the dulcet tones of... well, something. I'm not sure why the joy though... I mean, I don't really like hanging up all that shit when it's done. Folding -- meh, no biggie. But the hanging up all the wet socks and sweatshirts and undershirts and whatnot... blech. Remember, no driers here; only washers. We use the air to dry things. It doesn't work that well.

Alright -- here's a quick Busan recap. Friday night, we got in around 10:30~, and couldn't get ahold of Latifah, the woman we were supposed to meet there. So we asked some younger folk at the subway station where we should go, and they told us Seolmyeon. So we went there. Talked to a really obnoxious Canadian guy who was absolutely in love with his own voice the whole damn time, so that subway ride lasted about 2 and a half hours, give or take. When we got off the subway, walked upstairs, we wandered for a bit before asking some more younger folk what would be a good bar to hit up. They pointed across the street and in we went. It was a definite Korean "bar," i.e. no bar to speak of. Only tables, so no intermingling of groups really. Long Life, I think it was called. The glasses were cool though -- more like vases really, and the tables all had little vase-shaped and -sized metal cupholders that were chilled from underneath, and had little glowing lights in them that changed colors constantly, like those fiber-optic Christmas trees. Anyway, cool effect with the beer foam glowing red and green and blue all night. We had to buy some anju (side dishes to go with the bar; mandatory in some Korean bars) so we had some ... actually, I've forgotten. I think there were potato wedges involved. Anyway, we ended up drinking till like 4:30 and then hit the jimjilbang.

Saturday was kind of a wash -- ate a boatload of food at Latifah's house and walked around some college-y neighborhood. Saturday night we went out in ... I'm blanking on the name ... maybe Kyeongseong? I might have just made that up. Em, wanna help me out here? Bars we went to that I remember the name of: Thursday Party. That's it. Sorry... it was another long night and I was just along for the ride, so yeah... we also happened upon a bar with live blues (all white guys, but pretty good), a bar with pool and darts (I played well, but lost to somebody else who played a bit better), a bar with a fire show (twirling flaming bottles, breathing fire, that sort of thing), a dance club, and a bar with a miniature movie theater in it. Well, a room with a big flatscreen, surround sound, and couches anyway. Now that I think of it, there are some pretty awesome bars there! Huh, how bout that! =) I wonder what my odds are of ever finding any of those places again... Oh! Fun Busan fact -- Jill hurled at the end of the night... ha ha.

So the DMZ thing isn't happening this weekend. I failed to pay/book my trip in time and they filled up. So that's on hold for now, but I'm definitely doing it at some point.

Also, on Monday I have to go to Yongin for a 4-GD-day teachers orientation. If some of you are saying "Orientation?! But you've been there over four months already!" I completely and wholeheartedly agree with you. 4 days. Of listening to Koreans talk about teaching English. If I had any hope of them providing useful, practical information that could help me be a better teacher, I'd be all about it. Unfortunately, that's not really their MO. Or maybe it is, and it'll be great.

Catch the sarcasm there, right in that last bit? Yeah, you caught it.

So, I'm taking my laptop with me; the wireless internet here really is a wonder of the world. I should be able to provide up-to-the-minute late-breaking coverage of this whole fiasco. I know you're all on tenterhooks to hear exactly what happens when it happens at a 4-day Korean foreign teachers orientation. Did I mention I have to be there for 4 days? Not sure if I did. 4 days.

I got to thinking today...

2009-03-25T15:52:00.003+09:00

about one of the things I miss most about America. You know, besides my family, friends, puppy, and all that other important stuff.

Buffets. I'm told they have them here, but I just can't see them being nearly as good as they are back home. I mean, come on, you can't top a solid all-you-can-eat Chinese food buffet, am I right? And when I was living in Marion before I came over here, I rediscovered the glory that is Western Sizzlin. This isn't the famed Sizzler, mind you, and I don't think I've ever even been to (or seen) an actual "Sizzler," but this has gotta be about the same thing. So here's a list (surprise, surprise) of my favorite buffets in the States.

Western Sizzlin -- when you can pay 12 bucks for a steak with steak fries and a roll, and add on a whole other all-you-can-eat extravaganza for like 3 bucks, that's good livin. Fried chickin, dumplings, meat loaf, spaghetti, salad and desert on top of a full dinner = America. Love it.

Walt's -- nuff said, frankly. If you haven't been there, you don't know what you're missing. If you have, I'm preaching to the choir. I'd give my left pinky for Walt's. Right now, especially, but this is more a general truth.

Cici's -- what is it up to now? Like, 5 bucks? Plus, you can ask them to make any pizza you want and they'll bring it right to your table, instead of throwing it on the bar. Brilliant. Quality not so good, but you can't beat the price.

Pancho's? -- I think that's what it's called. It's in Houston, so you know it's at least decent Tex-Mex, but you get to raise the little flag on the table when you're ready for more, and they'll come around to find out what you want more of. Plus, their sopapillas kick ass.

Nong Chen -- I have vivid memories of going here during marching camp in high school. For some reason, we always thought it was a good idea to pour 3 pounds of greasy Chinese food into the middle of a day spent marching outside in 100+ degree heat. We were always wrong. But that never stopped us.

Reza's -- I tried to take as many of you here as possible in Chicago. It was about 100 yards from my place in Chicago, and their food is simply amazing. Persian food = win. But I'm not sure if any us made it to their Sunday brunch buffet. It cost like 20 bucks, but you could stay there all day, sitting on a couch, watching football on the big screen by the bar, drinking and eating to your heart's content. And with chicken, lamb, beef, seafood... plus all the veggie dishes and couscous, just wow!

This one, although not technically a buffet, merits honorable mention nonetheless: Lambert's in Sikeston Missouri. The Home of Throwed Rolls. Like I said, not a buffet, but it's still all-you-can-eat, so I don't see how that matters. What you lose in choice, you make up for (and more) in sheer home-cookin deliciousness. My personal favorite was the chicken-fried steak, but when you factor in the mashed potatoes, corn, fried okra, macaroni-and-tomatoes... I could go on, but I'm driving myself crazy. Super bonus points: they really do wheel the rolls hot out of the kitchen on a cart and throw them to you from across the dining room. Then they bring around real molasses and drizzle it onto the roll for you. Adam and I used to make it a point to go there on each and every trip between Marion and Houston. I remember once making a conscious and rational decision to "eat until I die," the food's so damn good.

2nd honorable mention: Primo's Pizza, formerly known as Panterra's. My grandpa owned this, so it's got a special place in my heart. Used to do awesome desert pizzas, if I remember correctly. They closed up shop when I was about 12 or 13, so I'm a little hazy, but I've got many a fond memory of the place. Especially the game room. =)

Hmmm.... here's 10 things I will always do at a buffet, given the opportunity.

Eat a piece of veggie pizza. Because I can. And because you gotta break up all that grease somehow.
Get chocolate pudding. I freakin love chocolate pudding, and where else you gonna find this anymore? Snack packs? Please... the buffet pudding (for some reason, maybe it's the soup/salad bowl you have to eat it from) always reminds of me of Gran's house, when she used to make it herself. So much better!
Try one of everything. This always leads to a lot of foods (especially at the Chinese places, where you end up with 4 different "brown" sauces covering a big greasy pile of random fried rice and fried meats) tasting like each other. Of course, since they all started out tasting like "good" then it's no biggie.
Make my own bowl of ice cream with every topping they have. Chocolate, strawberry, and caramel sauces? Check. Gummy Bears? Oreos? Chopped walnuts? Check, check, and checkmate. Chocolate chips, sprinkles, M&M's? Bring it on. I've got nothing to lose... except my waistline. But God knows your dignity is long gone by the time you start contemplating dessert at a buffet.
Forgo the soup. Useless, in general. All that liquid is too filling, and doesn't carry nearly the flavor:volume ratio as everything else.
Put hard-boiled eggs on a salad. I just will. Salad doesn't take up any space anyway, right?
Eat croutons, crackers (but not just any crackers. I like the buttery rectangular ones whose name I'm blanking on at the moment), and a roll. Because if I'm at a buffet, I obviously am carbo-loading for that marathon I'm running in a couple days. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Run the flag up, or flip over the coaster to green, or whatever you have to do to get them to come by... at least once just for the hell of it. Maybe I'll ask for more water. Maybe not. I'm crazy, bitches.
Point at the jello and giggle. Come on, pudding rocks no matter how old you are, but what's the point of the jello? Seriously.
Eat not to the point of fullness, but to the point of uncomfortable dread. You know, when you finish eating, and yeah, you're really full. You're full enough that you start thinking even as you push your chair back and contemplate loosening your belt right there at the table, you start thinking damn. This is gonna suck later.

Yeah, safe to say I miss buffets. Oh well... only 7.5 more months! Then Walt's/Sizzlin/Cici's/Pancho's/random Chinese place -- here I come. Get ready.

May I have your attention please?

2009-03-24T20:13:00.000+09:00

It is snowing.

That is all.

Lazy weekend

2009-03-22T14:01:00.003+09:00

I'm right smack dab in the middle of one. Actually, technically speaking, I guess I'm coming to the end of it, but it was awesome. Friday I cooked dinner for Mi Sun and Mi Jin, the two girls I work with who are around my age -- I figured, maybe they get tired of eating Korean food all the time, so I'd cook them a hometown favorite, Mom's spaghetti. It turned out pretty good... we had a nice little lettuce salad with cherry tomatoes, onions, and vinegar and oil dressing. They were really confused by the vinegar, apparently Koreans don't really use it for anything except pickling. Then, spaghetti with meat sauce and three-color pasta from Italy, "espinaca e tomate" I think it's called, red wine... yum. And strawberries for desert. The strawberries here are freakin fantastic. Big and juicy and not too sweet... mm-mm-mmmm... So we hung out and listened to music for a while and just had a chill evening.

Yesterday Jill came over and we cooked again... I had leftover ground meat from before and a bit of sauce and noodles left, so we made more spaghetti. And more salad, and more strawberries. And it was good. Then we watched some episodes of The Office and called it a night. Today, I slept in, made myself an omelet with the veggies I had leftover (red pepper, onion, mushroom, zucchini, and broccoli) and I've done exactly nothing since then. Watched the Korea-Venezuela game from the World Baseball Classic (Korea won -- heading to the finals! America plays Japan tomorrow... well, Sunday night in the States). And uh... yeah. That's it. Now I'm blogging. =)

I did learn a useful Korean word this weekend: kwen-chan-ah-yo. It means... lots of things, actually. "That's ok," "that's alright," "don't worry about it," etc. Also, "Are you ok?" "Is something wrong?" "Are you hurt?" "I'm fine," and more things, I think, that I can't remember now. It's a good one.

Also -- did a bit of cleaning/organizing/rearranging recently. It occured to me that I've always had a nightstand, bedside table, what have you... until now. I had kinda wondered why that pile of crap next to my bed would never really get cleaned... books, shoulder bag, cell phone, charger, papers, keys, coins, all that junk that gets taken out of your pocket or your bag when you lay down. And then, after 3 months mind you, I finally realized: Huh... something's missing here. So, I look around a bit, you know, take stock of my surroundings, and realize that my desk came with a filing cabinet that has to this point gone completely unused. So I found (after a ridiculously long search considering the size of my apartment) the key that would unlock the drawers, filled it with all kinds of miscellany, and carried/dragged it over next to my bed. Then, naturally, I realized it has 2 wheels in the back, and feet only on the front. Would have made things much easier, as would dragging it first then filling it with stuff, but sometimes I ain't got a lot of common sense. Whatcha gonna do, right?

Ooh! I wore shorts and flipflops yesterday going to the market. That's always a freakin happy day, I gotta say! The first shorts/sandals day of spring, when you can walk outside without socks for the first time in months -- I guess, since Thailand for me, but the first time I've done it in Korea period. Naturally, it rained last night and now it's back down in the low 50's, but definitely a promising sign of things to come. Can't wait for warm weather! =)

Hmmm... oh yeah -- this Wednesday is payday! Nothing more really needs to be said about this, just "Awesome!" It's nice to watch the ole balance grow... like letting the big dog eat, ya know?

Going to Seoul and the DMZ next weekend, so look for pictures and stories next week. There are unfortunately no pictures from Busan last weekend. I didn't realize until we got there that my camera batteries were dead, and of course the charger was sitting purposefully on top of my fridge. I mean, that is his home and all, just not the most helpful place for him to be when I was several hours away and needing to take pictures. I could have used the cell phone, it was suggested to me. And while that's technically true, I don't have a way to get pictures from the phone onto a computer or any other easily viewable platform, so it would have been largely useless anyway. Next time, ya'll, next time...

So, teaching. It's a lesson in patience, and I think I was starting to fail that lesson by the end of it. But after a couple of months off, I now have 6 classes on Monday at school, followed by 5 sessions at the Global Center on Tuesday-Friday, along with 2 hourlong extra classes on Tuesday and again on Friday. Then I'm trying to go to the gym every day after work, and you're looking at 11 or 12 hour days. Plus my body still hasn't caught on that this is its reality now, so I'm still having trouble getting to sleep before about 12:30 or 1am... so yeah. All that combined, I was a little on edge come Friday afternoon. Don't worry -- I didn't beat any small children or anything. Just thought about it. A lot. As long as we stay in the preliminary planning stage though, I think we're good.

And that's my life. Thanks for sharing.

Veni, vidi, bibi

2009-03-19T23:08:00.002+09:00

So I guess I forgot what I was writing about before... and then just picked a bad time to take a little blog-break. Sorry if anyone was worried! (Thanks for your concern Amanda! Hope you're doin well!)

OK -- it's late and I'm tired... but I had a few things to say.

Momma -- Happy Birthday! I love you! =)

Emily -- Busan was nuts. I got really drunk. Hence the title of the post. It's a whole different world down there, yo. All kindsa white folks. Not sure I could handle living there though... but I definitely need to go back and try to actually do stuff, y'know, besides drink.

Shan -- congrats on your midterms! I'm proud of you! =)

Who else reads this thing anyway? Not sure, but I'm gonna take a few shots in the dark, here.

Adam -- how's Felicia doin man? Hope the uh, bun is cooking along just fine. Also, let me know how school's going and shit.

Stephanie -- Where you been, yo? I haven't heard from you in months! Hope you're doing ok...

Stu and Amanda -- diggin your blog as well. Keep it up... and give JJ a fist-bump for me. Right upside the head -- ha!

Julia -- Hi! I miss talkin to you -- find me on facebook sometime, yeah?

Everyone else -- Wazzzzuuuuppp?!

OK, that's it. I feel better. Pain is gone. I'm back to working out everyday, classes started for real this week, and uh... I'm exhausted. Good night!

One more fun update

2009-03-11T19:32:00.002+09:00

On my extra classes. You know, the ones that were on, then off, then on again, then my prospective co-teacher (the new librarian) quit, then I was going to have a guy from the military base come over to co-teach with me, now may be cancelled due to lack of interest. Like Scrubs. Ha!

Anyway, ever since skiing on Sunday I've been having this weird throbbing shooting sensation in the back of my head. It's on the left side, about an inch behind the top of my ear. I hesitate to call it a "pain," even, because it's about a 1 on the pain scale. It's just really strange, and sometimes it seems to connect down my neck to this point on top of my shoulder. It's been happening fairly frequently, especially when I'm just sitting still. Like now. Maybe every 10 minutes or so, I just get this weird little throb. Also, the skin on that side of my head and neck seems to be way too sensitive. Like, the collar of my dress shirt was driving my nuts today! So bizarre... I hope it's just like, a pinched nerve or something that's causing all the surrounding nerve endings to go crazy. I dunno, but no likey...

So, I got invited to go to on the DMZ tour in a couple weeks. That's De-Militarized Zone, for all you out-of-the-know types. It sits on the 38 parallel, which is the border that was formed between North and South Korea during the Korean War. I'm not really sure what the point of it is, but everyone seems to think it's a mandatory thing to do while I'm here, so gosh darnit, I'm doing it. Dammit! There's that pain again... I've been trying to stretch and relax those muscles up there, but I think this typing position is causing problems. I might have to cut this short.

OK, well, this isn't gonna work. I'm just going to have dinner and lie down I think... maybe not even in that order. What's for dinner, you ask? Spicy tuna with rice and veggies: I picked up some broccoli, zucchini, onions, green peppers and mushrooms at the market today, so I'm gonna have me a nice healthy green meal... and I'm awful excited about this. I'll be back as soon as I'm feeling up to it. Don't go away for good now! =)

Planning a wee trip this weekend

2009-03-09T22:40:00.002+09:00

So, skiing was fun yesterday. Except I'm really sore today. We went to Konjiam Resort, instead of Jisan, where I went the past couple of times. It's pretty nice, and I believe I already mentioned it was free yesterday... hence the change in scenery. But the slopes are much longer and more difficult. I fell a few times, but nothing terrible. It was pretty steep and powdery, especially towards the top. Down near the bottom it got awful slushy -- it was flatter there, not to mention it was probably pushing 55 degrees. Or as they call it here, the teens. Stupid Celsius. But anyway, I was taking it pretty slow, so the falls were fairly gentle. But the longer slopes really give the ole legs a workout... and we skied for like 6 hours... so I, uh... forgot where this is going. I'm sore. Bottom line.

Funny (not funny-haha, but like, facepalm-funny) story: I got a different kind of boots this time: 4 buckles, 2 along the top leg-part, and 2 on the bottom foot-part. Great descriptions, right? Whatever. Anyway, I (apparently incorrectly) assumed that I needed to fasten all those buckles, you know, to keep them on my feet. Dumbass. So, about 30 seconds into my first run, I realize that I'm having an inordinately difficult time turning. I couldn't seem to get my feet to work properly, and my skis kept getting crossed and tangled up. I'm not describing this very well, but if you've skied you'll know what I'm talking about -- it happens to most every beginning skier, I'd imagine. So... I stopped and plopped my ass down in the snow and tried loosening the boot buckles a couple notches... this seemed to help and things got a little easier for me... until after a couple minutes of skiing I notice that I can't feel anything at all from about mid-calf on down. Now, keep in mind that skiing requires a good bit of feel in your lower body; you kinda need to make adjustments based on what you feel in your feet. Type of snow, slush, ruts from previous skiers, little bumps that can throw you off balance and send you cartwheeling head-over-heels sideways down a hill. But I couldn't feel a damn thing... well, I made it safely down the hill, but it took a long time. I get down there and tell (my co-teacher at the Global Center) Bo-Il that I can't feel my feet, and he says (all nonchalant-like, I might add) "Oh, you don't need to buckle them!" I was like, eh? Why do they have all these fancy-lookin doodads on them if I don't need to use them? Anyway, my feet were gone to the point that I was afraid I might lose them if I didn't do something, so (right before I got on the ski lift, mind you) I unbuckled everything and let those puppies breathe. Ahhhhhh... sweet relief. It was amazing how quickly feeling returned. Of course, the more astute among you may have already seen the problem with this. Anyone? Ha...

Yeah. I got into the real good part of that whole burning agonizing pins-and-needles-stabbing-the-holy-bejeezus-out-of-every-available-nerve-ending-with-tiny-knives-made-of-white-hot-fire sensation right about the time I needed to dismount the ski lift and ya know, rest all my weight on my feet. That was pleasant, lemme tell ya. But, after spending a couple minutes standing in a funny position waiting for full use of my legs to return, the skiing went much better. So I guess it's true -- you really don't need those buckles. Of course, the greatest unsolved mystery of our time then becomes, what the hell are they there for? Perhaps no one knows. Perhaps we'll never know...

Other than that, good day. Good skiing, beautiful weather, and then Jill made me some deonjeong jjigay for dinner. As far as I can tell, this is a soup made of bean paste, tofu, potatoes, onions, zucchini, some Koreany spices and a chile pepper. Served with rice. Deliciosity in a bowl, it turns out. So all's well that ends well. And no, my feet did not fall off. Chalk one up for my circulatory system. It takes a lickin and keeps on tickin.

Today I taught classes for the first time in several weeks. It was... meh. I'm working with a different co-teacher, and she wasn't nearly as well prepared as Mi Jin used to be. Maybe it was just 1st-day jitters, and she'll pick it up next week. I guess, seein as how I'm off all this week, I should probably offer to help with some lesson planning and stuff. I repeat, meh. It was nice hanging out with the kids again though. I kinda missed the little ankle-biters. Also, I think one of my 3rd graders has taken a shine to me... she told my co-teacher that she gets nervous speaking English with me, but wouldn't stop looking at me. Or smiling. And then she came up and gave me a hug after class... All together now: "AAAAWWWWWW! OMFG!!!!! That's so CUUUUUUTE!!!!111!!!1!" Yeah, I suppose teaching has its perks. =)

Also, Emily, maybe you can help me here. I'm going to Busan this weekend, but it's just a quick trip. Jill and I are going to visit her old roommate... so, if you had approximately 37 hours to spend in Busan, what would you do? I'll probably go back this summer sometime, so I don't need to pack everything in at once. Just hit me with the uh... not so summer dependent things. Yeah, that'll work! Thanks honey!

Websites I like...

2009-03-07T15:38:00.003+09:00

Why? Because I can. And I'm bored... and I like making lists of things. So there. Nyah! =Þ

Before I get into that though... let's see. What's going on here? Oh, right... nothing at all. Well, I'm going skiing again tomorrow. So that's something. It's the last day of the season before they shut down the ski slopes, and it's free. I can't pass that up. I mean, I still have to pay to rent the equipment and all, but that's on sale too... so I've got a whole day of skiing for 15000Won.

But other than that, yeah. Nothing. So here's some websites I like, put into handy categories just for you:

News:

Fark -- a useful yet hilarious news aggregator that I check at least once a day, and usually more. Basically, people submit news stories (or non-news stories) with new, more descriptive, way funnier headlines. Just check it out, you'll see what I mean. It also actually serves up a pretty thorough picture of what's going on in the realms of sports, business, politics, etc. A must-have, ++, would fark again.

Consumerist -- this site pushes consumer literacy, smart shopping, and just general fiscal well-being. It's also pretty damn funny, and a good place to figure out what scams are going on, which companies like to screw their customers over, and find tips for dealing with the realities of living through a recession. Again, I usually glance over this at least once a day.

Sports:

ESPN -- a given, although I kind of hate their new website layout... if you need quick scores and recaps of games that you can't watch because you live on the other side of oblivion, this is the 1st place to go.

UH Cougars -- I gotta follow my Coogs...

St. Louis Cardinals -- see above, but substitute "Cards" for "Coogs."

Viva El Birdos -- awesome, in-depth analysis of the Cardinals, using lots of fancy "sabermetrics" and whatnot that I don't totally understand... but if you're looking to find a few hundred bigger sports geeks than me (don't know why you'd be looking for that, but I'm not one to judge) then you'll find it here..

Basketbawful -- an amusing take on each night's basketball action, with a separate section celebrating each night's "lacktion," or guys who literally don't do shit to help their teams.

Deadspin -- This site was way better when Will Leitch was in charge (he even let me write up a piece previewing the UH basketball team last year when it looked like they might make the NCAA tourney. They ended up not going, and the piece never ran, but he seemed like a cool guy.) Still not a bad blog, though.

Miscellaneous

Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Pretty simple, really. Each day, they take a picture, usually from NASA I think, and put it on a website. Beautiful and informative. I like it.

Stuff White People Like -- Ashley turned me on to this, and it's pretty damned funny. And true. Sadly.

This Is Why You're Fat -- this is like low-budget, amateur midget inter-racial porn. But with food. And yes, sometimes I sit here on the internet and stare at pictures of American food. What?

Uni Watch -- I know, this is kinda gay... but whatever. Paul, the guy who started this site, is a really good writer, and I enjoy it. Sue me. Basically, he really delves into the mysteries and minutiae of athletics equipment and uniforms. It sounds really boring, like even to me right now as I type this, but for some reason, it's not.

Damn Interesting -- This site is damned interesting. No, I mean it. The writers (who have been taking quite a bit of time off lately to finish the publishing process of a book) do fairly in-depth essays about fascinating things that don't generally make it into the public consciousness. You can read about anterograde amnesia; Chelyabinsk-40, a Soviet nuclear program that caused way more damage than Chernobyl; a European plan to dam the Mediterranean sea and flood the Sahara; the Pepcon disaster; and lots more -- those are all on the first page. Anyway, I highly, highly recommend it.

Ok... I think that's about it for now. I mean, obviously there are other sites that I use all the time for a specific purpose, but those are the ones that I hit up just to see what they've got for me today.

Yesterday...

2009-03-05T21:29:00.003+09:00

We had a celebration dinner, welcoming the new teachers to our school. Out of 8 teachers (K-6 plus the English/music/art teacher) we replaced four of them. That's some hefty turnover, eh? Apparently, in Korea most teachers only stay at a school for 2 to 3 years before leaving and going to a different school. This seems needlessly complicated to me, but what do I know? I mean, in Marion, the elementary school teachers pretty much all stayed in those jobs until a) retirement or b) death. I thought that was the way of the world. How naive I am...

So we went out for dinner. Dinner, in this case, was duck. Delicious duck. Spicy, grilled, bite-sized duck pieces mixed with veggies and then you wrap it up in little lettuce leaves, throwed some grilled garlic and onion on it, and get down with it! Lemme hear ya say get down with it! Really, it's that good. Dinner, when you're out with Koreans, also involves lots of drinking. You have a few toasts before the meal, to kind of get the wheels in motion. You drink with the meal, get yourself up to cruising altitude. Then you pop the hatch open, strap on a 'chute and jump out the back screaming bloody murder while hurtling at terminal velocity and your mouth falls open and your cheeks start flapping in the wind. Shan, you know what I'm talkin about here... but I've lost the thread of my story. Oh, right, um, so the highlight of the dinner is after you eat and everyone is drinking. Believe it or not. But the custom is for younger people to go kneel down by an older person and offer them your shot glass. Then you pour them a shot. They drink it, then hand the glass back to you, pour you a shot, and you drink it. Keep in mind, there are about 15 older people at this dinner, with the school workers and Global Center teachers and principal and vice principal... maybe more like 20, even. Now, I didn't go through this ritual with all of them, but I did do it enough times that I'm not entirely sure how many times I did it, if that makes any sense.

After this bacchanalian extravaganza we bounced out and hit up the noraebang for awesome drunken renditions of really shitty Korean pop songs. And they somehow talked me into singing a Beatles song... the Beatles are really popular over here for some reason... I mean, I know they're popular everywhere, but like, even more so here. It's curious. See if you can guess the name of the song -- it's in this post, but not really.

So, I woke up feeling pretty craptacular this morning. I made some eggs, had some juice, brushed the kitty-litter taste out of my mouth and went to work, where I spent the day doing what I do everyday: nothing at all. At least until the 16th, when students will again begin showing up to the Global Center to learn about etiquette and English and such... oh, and it was shitty here today. Cold and rainy... no likey the spring in Korea. Although I'm told soon there will be cherry and peach blossoms everywhere and it will be glorious and there'll be angels singing and Robin's minstrels will be eaten and there will be much rejoicing. So we're lookin forward to that.

Snow, Shoes, Showers... and snowshowers. But not snowshoes.

2009-03-03T20:31:00.005+09:00

But really, I don't have much to say today, so this'll be quick. I'm just trying to start that all-important regular posting thing, so that you'll get in the habit of coming here on a daily basis and bolster my self esteem.

First, it freaking snowed here today. I realize it's still technically winter, and I live in a climate that is roughly equal to Marion, Illinois, but for some reason I didn't expect that. I think the weekend of 50 degree sunny spring-like days threw me off. Of course, it's pretty common for Americans who move to another country to abandon common sense while at the same time taking on a set of wholly unrealistic and romantic expectations, but goddamn did that suck when I walked outside. I feel like a girl saying this, but I even had the wrong shoes on. What's up with that?

Second, and yes, I did just think of this, but apparently my feet are on the very upper end of the normal (read: commercially available) range here. Yup, I wear a 280. 280 what? I have no idea... millimeters? Hertz? Joules? I mean, come on... I'm no expert, but my feet don't look like two hundred and eighty anythings to me. But Korean shoes don't come any bigger than that. I mean, I'm sure you can find bigger shoes, you just have to do some searching, and probably find a western shop near an army base or something. For a reference point, all Koreans' feet are <= an American 10.5. Just thought you'd like to know. I haven't tried to buy any Korean pants yet, but I'm guessing based on my completely non-scientific research that it would be a stretch. Ha, get it? Stretch.

Third, the gym. It's a nice gym, it's got all the machines and free weights and cardio thingamajigs you could want. The treadmills even have TV's on them. Not the bikes or ellipticals or stair machines, but the treadmills do. They've got several squash courts, even. I've never played squash, but it looks awfully similar to racquetball, except it's played by Korean people and not pretentious white guys in headbands. Anyway, the one thing this gym is sorely lacking is a non-creepy shower situation. I'm not a big fan of being naked in front of people... well, scratch that. I'm not a big fan of being naked in front of random dudes. The locker room is just a small room with a door to the outside on one end and a door to the showers on the other. With naked guys walking around. This, how do I put this, is the highlight of the experience. The shower room looks just like prison. And I'm talking Shawshank-style, Andy-Dufresne-goin-nuts-with-a-rake, spend-a-month-in-the-hole prison. No walls, no screens, no curtains, no partitions of any kind. Just a narrow room with shower heads along each wall. Maybe I'm a prude, but that shower isn't nearly urgent enough, no matter how badly I might reek, that it can't wait for 20 minutes and the privacy of my own bathroom. I'm just sayin.

This is even funnier!

2009-03-02T19:22:00.003+09:00

As an addendum to the funny extra class story from last Friday, in which I found out that I wouldn't be teaching them anymore because they had found someone that they wouldn't have to pay:

I now AM teaching extra classes again. W T F?!? I mean, come on, for the love of God. Make up your damn minds, and stop screwing with me. I almost lost it today when my coteacher told me that, all nonchalant and shit while we're eating lunch. It's ridiculous. I mean, I felt a little bad, because it's not his fault. But still... I shouldn't have to put up with this shit... right?

I even went back to the school after lunch and checked my contract, just to see if I do, in actuality, have to put up with this shit. Turns out, I'm contractually obligated to teach extra classes "at the request of Employer." Dammit.

On a lighter note, I had an awesome day skiing yesterday! This was a much smoother day than the snowboarding I had back in December. I was a little nervous, simply because I hadn't skied since like, I don't even know... 2003? Hm... Also, does that word look funny to anyone else, or is it just me? "Skied?" Really...? It looks like the past tense of "sky," like, I jumped really high yesterday. I got mad hops, yo! Anyway, it was good. I didn't even fall down... whoo-ee! And yeah, that is kind of an accomplishment for me... a whole day of skiing without doing something stupid and completely beyond my control. And I'm not sure why, but it seemed much easier than I remember it. Especially the whole turning, S-curvy down the slope thing. I don't remember being able to do that, but yesterday it was like second nature or something. It was almost a little creepy, all of a sudden having this knowledge and comfort level that I'm pretty sure wasn't there before. Maybe the snowboarding helped me to feel more balanced, and have better body control through the turns, I'm not sure. Also, it was like 50 degrees and sunny yesterday, so that made for a good time. I don't know how they keep that fake snow from melting, but whatever they're doing, kudos! I think I might go back next weekend and try to get a few more good runs in before they close up shop for the winter. Wish me luck! :)

Two of the sweetest words in the English language were heard for the first time in many moons this past week: "Play ball!" There's like this special tingly feeling in the air when you know that somewhere, no matter how many thousands of miles distant, large men getting paid millions of dollars are donning Cardinals uniforms and smacking little 5.25-ounce genuine rawhide spheres held together by 108 hand-sewn stitches of red thread into orbit. My days got a little brighter. Silly, I know, but true. I'll make sure to hit up a Korean baseball game this summer and see what, if anything, differs from the game we're all used to.

Who wants to hear a funny story?

2009-02-27T10:31:00.002+09:00

Well, it's not so much funny, as just ruefully amusing, and sadly indicative of the organization level present in the schools here. So I may have (or may not have) mentioned that I'm doing extra English classes at the elementary school this year. Basic (1st-3rd) and Advanced (4th-6th); two classes each per week. I'd done some research to find a suitable textbook to use. Dan, the teacher who was here before me, helped me pick out a good one: English Time, I think it's called. Nothing too complicated, just some fun activities and a decent phonics section, since I'd be working with disparate age groups and needed something to (try to) keep them all involved in the lesson. I emailed my coteacher about it a week ago, and I figured we'd start probably on March 10... not the first week when everyone's getting settled in, but, y'know, soon. School starts on the 2nd, by the way. Anywho, I'm just trying to give you a gauge for the amount of time and thought and whatnot I'd put into this little side project, which, keep in mind, the school specifically asked me to do. Not an immense amount, but enough that I felt prepared to get started whenever they asked me to.

Well, I'm at school right now for the start of the term teachers' meeting. Which, of course, I can't understand. I did introduce myself, and meet the new teachers... all 4 of them. In an elementary school with 8 teachers. K-6 plus one English teacher. Yay for turnover! Ha... anyway, we went through the whole dog and pony show of the meeting, me sitting there and smiling like a simpleton, which I pretty much am, since I don't understand what's going on when people talk. And after the meeting, my coteacher comes up to me and asks me how I'd like to schedule the English classes. Not the extra ones that I'd been preparing for, mind you, but the regular school classes. And I said, "mhu-huh-what-now?" Turns out, I have to keep doing those 6 classes a week with the new native English teacher, all on Mondays now. Since I have, you know, the job I was hired to do the rest of the week. Did I want to do two 5th grade classes in a row, followed by two 6th grade classes in a row? "Come again?" Um, this, my friends, is not my department. My qualifications to be setting your class schedule are spotty at best, right? Whoo-ee... what a morning. I decided that I didn't want to teach the same class for an hour and a half straight... the way I figure it, even in college I'd get bored sitting in the same room doing the same shit for that long, and these kids don't have near the attention span that your average college student possesses... I mean, I think. Right? Hell, I have no idea what I'm talking about. So now I'm doing on Mondays: 5th, 6th, 3rd, 4th, lunch, 5th, 6th. And then Tue-Fri at the Global Center. At least this will break up my routine a little bit, and (hopefully) I won't get so bored doing the same thing 5 days a week. You know, cause 4 is so much better. It's a solid foundation. Rooms have 4 sides. Bad things happen in 3's, and the pentagram is for the devil. So this is really the best solution. Besides, the tetragrammaton has 4 letters, so that's gotta count for something, right?

Oh, but this isn't even the best part. I got all caught up in that story and forgot what incited me to sit down and post this in the first place. So, the extra classes: after discussing the regular class schedule, my coteacher says, "Oh, and by the way, I think you will not have to teach the extra classes this year."

And that's the end of the story. All that work and research I put into finding a decent textbook: useless. All my worry about what I was going to teach these kids, and how I'd make it interesting, and what I'd do for 2 classes a week for an entire effing school year: needless. So, the bad news is that I wasted a lot of time and effort and stress thinking about something that I'm now not doing. The good news is that I'm now not doing it. And I can devote more time to working out, studying my own foreign languages, etc. Which rocks, when I think about it. I just can't believe that it got to this point with me in the dark, and them having no real idea what they were going to do... BOO! But whatever; every cloud has a silver lining... and this one's more like platinum. Everything works out in the end, I guess. At least, if I ever in the future need a decent textbook to teach English to small Korean children, I have one in mind. =)

Oh, and in case you were wondering why I'm not teaching the extra classes, it's because they'd have to pay me to do it. And there's a military base nearby who will provide an English teacher for free. Yay capitalism...

A Korean school year

2009-02-26T16:15:00.002+09:00

For those of you who don't know, which is probably everyone, except possibly for Emily, here's the breakdown of a Korean school schedule, as best I can figure it.

The school year starts at the beginning of March; this year, it's March 2nd. They have class from about 9-3 every day, with some recess time and a lunch period that we eat in the cafetorium. Most students then go to Hogwon after school. This is a private academy specializing in a certain area -- they have English hogwons, tae kwon do hogwons, piano howgons, math and science, and so forth and so on. Most students will therefore study from 9am till 7 or 8 in the evening most days. I think they also have half days of school on Saturdays, and some older (high school) kids have classes on Sundays too but I'm not really sure about all that, since it ain't my job to know.

Anyway, the first semester goes from March until the end of July. Then, about a month off, starting up again at the end of August. From August until Christmas is the 2nd semester. After Christmas, there's no class again until this weird little weeklong pre-graduation thing near the beginning of February. So, basically, we have January, most of February, and August off.

Now, this gets a little more complicated, because we also have to do English camps during the vacations. Some schools had their camps at the end of December; ours ran from January 5th-16th this year... two weeks, mornings only, of extra English fun. Whoo-ee. In addition to that, we had some teacher training thing for one week; we brought in teachers from area elementary schools and demonstrated what we do with our students at the Global Center, and showed them some things they could do to incorporate English into their own classrooms. I will have to do this again in the summer, although I'm not sure if it's the same amount of time, or what. I'm sure they'll give me plenty of notice, because that's how things work over here... Get it? Sarcasm is good... yeah.

So, I hope that helps.

My whole body hurts from working out. No pain, no gain, right? It's just funny when like, the muscles you worked out 4 days ago haven't stopped hurting, and then you compound the new muscles hurting... so it hurts to do everything. Stretch my legs out? Yup, that hurts. Bend my knees? Oh yeah... Pick something up off the ground? You betcha. Open the door? Close the door? Stir a pot of pasta? Sit up? Lie down? Turn my head to the left? Anyway, you get the picture. At least I can say it's that good kind of pain, that comes from having done something. As opposed to say, I dunno, bedsores.

Productivity?

2009-02-24T17:08:00.002+09:00

From me? Whoda thunkit, right? Ha... So, yeah. I'm having a productive Tuesday, so far. Let's see, I did sleep in, a bit, but I'm on vacation. It's ok. Today, I went to the gym and had a really nice workout... I dialed back a bit on the weight so I could lift for more than 20-25 minutes. Good choice, on my part. I made it through all the exercises I wanted to do, except this lower back one that I had to short a set, and my last set of bicep curls didn't really get, y'know, finished. But I tried, and I feel pretty good. It's warmer here today than it's been since, I mean, winter started. I also got my haircut, washed my dishes, cleaned out my fridge, bagged and prepared all the trash for recycling, and now I'm onto laundry. Whoo-ee! Oh, also, I got some Korean books from Jill, so I've started studying Korean, for real now. Like, grammar and stuff. So yeah, there's still a chance that I'll actually be able to converse in Korean by the time I get out of here, and it's no longer necessary! Go me...

All in all, it's been a good day so far! Tonight I got no plans... I'll probably just chill at the house, read, and rest up so I can hit the gym again tomorrow. :)

Oh, and it turns out it was a good thing that I didn't plan an extra vacation during this "time off," because my coteacher called me around 12:30 today and informed me that I have to work on Thursday! Like... really? Just like that, huh? So when you told me a while back that I'd have 2 weeks off, and then pointed to March 2nd on the calendar and said this is when you'll have to work again, you were just kiddin, huh? Guessing? Approximating? Guesstimating? Anyway, this is a fairly common meme here in Korean, and I'm not angry about it. Amused, yeah... bemused even. But whateva... no harm, no foul. I just have to work, is all... I guess I can handle that.

So, I've been trying to follow the American news as much as possible, and from what I can tell, things are bad, mmkay? But the Korean economy must be in much worse shape than ours, because the exchange rate has gotten ridiculously bad in the past week. Well, good if you want to come here and spend dollars, but bad for those of us cursed with the Korean currency. Not sure why, but I really hope this turns around soon... and especially before I have to come home with all this Korean money.

I really am going to finish the Scuba diving tale, I promise. Keep looking for it. One day, when you're ready, it will reveal itself to you.

I think I'm gonna check out the DMZ tour this weekend (thanks for reminding me, Emily!). I'm not really sure what all that entails, but I think we get to see some old military installations, walk around a bit, and from what I hear, I may even get to set foot in North Korea! :) Yeah, I know, bad idea, right? Well, that's probably true, but word is that you enter this building that straddles the border, and inside the building you can run over really quickly, wave, get your picture taken, and then jump back before they have a chance to shoot you. Or something like that, but probably not quite as death-defyingly awesome. I'll be sure to let ya'll know.

Gotta go be more productive! Peace.

Sorry about the mess in here...

2009-02-22T10:48:00.003+09:00

It's been a while since my last post, but there has been literally nothing going on. I while away my hours and days as best I can. Of course, I have this immense luxury due to the fact that the school system here isn't big on scheduling things up front, or if they are, then they're certainly not big on telling lil ole me about it. I had an extra two week vacation after approximately 4 hours of teaching spread out over 5 school days from Feb 4-11... but I didn't know that I had all this time off until like, 11am on the 11th. So yeah, not much time to plan anything. Plus I've got other obligations in the evenings, so this all adds up to a lot of time of time spent sitting around my apartment, staring at walls, watching paint dry, watching grass grow. Slowly, because it's... you know, winter.

I've cut the language learning down to 5. Korean, German, French, Italian, Portuguese. I figured the Spanish could wait, seein as how I sort of already speak it. And the others, the Russian/Chinese/Japanese/Arabic... well, I was getting all confused. It's not really a good idea to try to learn 5 alphabets at once, I've decided. I have enough trouble with the umlauts and accents and funny-sounding letters in the European languages...

It's cold here. It snowed a few days ago, after a wintry mix (I always liked that weather terminology) fell for a while during my walk home Thursday night. It was this stinging biting rain that turned to little flakes of ice falling from the sky. Not pleasant.

I joined a gym -- it's been a long time since I worked out, as my pecs and triceps can attest today. I was trying to open the suddenly-heavy sliding door that leads to my terrace/washing machine yesterday... ha. With an armload of clothes leaving only my right hand free, and the need to pull the door from right to left, I almost gave up. I struggled with that door for at least 20 seconds... it never occurred to me to drop the armload of clothes. I was going to defeat that door in a fair fight. Well, it turns out I needn't have scrupled to fight clean; the door had its own dirty tricks. My cheeks burned in shame and humiliation as the door taunted me mercilessly, saying things about my mother it would be heinous to repeat in polite company. Door: 1. Sean: 0. After I finished crying, though, I realized I had forgotten to unlock the damn thing. You don't have to be the strongest to win the fight, just the smartest. My long and arduous journey to the washer was complete. Ha...

By a random confluence of events, I ended up staying at my friend Jill's place near Icheon last night. She's out of town, so she said I could crash here since I was planning a night out in Icheon. That ended up not working out as well as I'd hoped, but at least it was a quick trip to her place afterwards. So this morning, thanks to her generosity, I've had a breakfast fit for kings! Or at least, fit for IHOP. So far, in the hour and a half I've been up, I've had coffee, gone to the store for milk and eggs, and cooked banana pancakes (with syrup -- yum!), fried eggs and sausage, and then eaten like a fat American champion! And God saw that it was good.

And that's really about it. Au revoir! Auf Wiedersehen! Arrivederci! Tchao! Annyong-hi gaseyo!

Some Totally Random Thoughts

2009-02-09T17:10:00.002+09:00

I get to go to my 6th graders' graduation ceremony on Wednesday. I'm supposed to wear a suit; regardless, it should be fun! I'll try to take some pictures for you guys.

Tiger Woods' wife Elin gave birth to a son today -- anyone wanna lay odds on this kid's chances to win the Masters within the next 30 years? I mean, hell, I'd take 10-1 on his daughter winning it...

I'm really nervous about this teaching gig I got starting in March. I will have two extra classes (Basic: 1st-3rd, and Advanced: 4th-6th) twice a week for the entire school year... anyone out there believe I'm qualified for this? Because if you do, I'd like to hear about it! For one thing the difference in skills and classroom behavior, not to mention activities that might appeal to these kids, is huge between 4th and 6th grades. And 1st to 3rd grade, come on. These first graders won't know anything -- I'll have to start with the alphabet! That's gonna be really exciting for my 3rd graders who've had a full school year of English already plus extra classes! I feel like I'm being set up to fail, and I'm not really sure what to do about it. Any suggestions?

A lot of my friends are either pregnant or have just had a kid... when will I find my baby factory? Er... I mean, you know, beloved bride?

No one's commented on this blog in quite a while. Except Emily -- thanks, honey! That's not really why I'm doing this, I guess, but it sure was nice to know that people were interested in what I had to say... Or, at least cared enough about me to give the appearance of interest! I'm not picky about which of those is true, frankly, but I'm feeling a little low on the self-confidence meter. So, ya know, step it up, bitches!

OK -- that's all for now. I'm going to try to get back to posting as regularly as possible, so keep on clicking!

My first SCUBA dive!

2009-02-08T13:57:00.004+09:00

Some observations...

The first breath is, to beat a dead cliche, something you'll never forget. It's like equal parts anticipation, fear, nerves, excitement, wonder... with a little detached amusement at the rush of other feelings coursing through your body. I'd already tested the equipment, repeatedly, at the dive shop as part of the assembly ritual I'd just completed, but.... That first breath through the hoses, that metallic, almost sweet flavor, the cold, condensed quality, even the texture of the air. It's just so freaking cool to be breathing. Underwater. Even just thinking back on it now I'm getting chills.

The waves on the beach make things much more difficult than I'd expected. I learned later that when you're out in open water, you're really pretty stable on the surface, and much more so when you drop even a couple meters. But close to the shore, it's difficult to stay close to the instructor, the movements of the water shove your body around and make completing our required skills an exercise in frustration. We have to practice removing our weight belts and putting them back on. Now, you don't think about it much, but when you're floating in the water with just your head above, your center of gravity can be changed quite easily. Taking 5kg of weights and holding them away from your body, even just a few inches, throws you completely sideways and threatens to drag your head underwater. Just trying to hold onto the weights is hard, but trying to maneuver a belt of them around your waist while staying upright in the water is seriously complicated the first time. Then we have to leave the weight belts on while taking off our BCD's, the jackets we wear that fill with air and allow us to control our buoyance: Buoyancy Control Devices. This is actually a little easier, because once you get it off you can use it like a little life preserver and hold onto it -- it still floats, obviously. Then you flip it underneath your butt, and sit on it while getting the shoulder straps in place. Finally, you just kinda slide off it, letting it ride up your arms and settle in place on your back. No worries. =)

Finally, after proving ourselves (relatively) proficient at these tasks, which are necessary in case you become tangled or caught under the water and need to be able to remove your equipment to get free... after doing that, we got to make our first (small) descent to the shallow sandy bottom. Now, years of experience teaches you that if you want to go down into the water, you flip over, go head first and swim downwards, right? Well, it turns out that's the suckers way.... In scuba, you do just the opposite; you descend completely upright, and just relax. No swimming necessary. Instead, you deflate your BCD and slowly exhale; as the volume of air in your BCD and your lungs decreases, you become less buoyant and you start to descend. It's this sort of creepy, smooth feeling as you slowly feel the water slide over your face, your ears, and finally close over the top of your head. My first reaction was to begin breathing, immediately, quickly, almost panicky I guess. This is ... counter-productive. When you do that, your lungs fill rapidly and you just rise back to the surface... thanks for playing! please try again! So you have to make a conscious effort to take normal breaths and exhale completely, always getting rid of all the air in your lungs so that when you next inhale, you get fresh, oxygen-rich air. This is more efficient for your body and greatly reduces the amount of air you'll go through when you dive. Needless to say, this takes constant self-reminding, not to mention some practice.

When you're descending into water, as I'm sure you've all noticed, the deeper you go the more pressure you feel in your ears. This can get really painful quickly, and cause serious damage if you don't listen to your body. I was worried about this at first, because I've always had trouble even going to the bottom of the deep end of the pool; flying is often a problem for me. When you dive, you deal with the pressure changes by adding more air to your nasal/ear passages to "equalize" the external and internal pressures. Basically, you pinch your nose, close your mouth, and blow. You're supposed to do this every meter as you go down and start more or less immediately, before you feel any discomfort. It's just hard to remember to start immediately when you've got so much other shit that's pressing on your mind. So, after some starts and stops and a little discomfort, but nothing too serious, we eventually made it down to the bottom, I think about 4-5 meters deep.

The first thing I noticed was that the force of the water moving around down here was much less than the surface, but still noticeable and still making it difficult to remain in one place. At least, for Greg and me it was; Walter, our instructor, seemed to have no problem just kneeling on the bottom all calmly and shit. It's sort of like meditation, in that internal stillness has to come first and then the body sort of finds its own motionlessness. The more you move, the more you change your center of gravity and the more likely you are to have to move the other way to counter the first movement. What you need to do, I think, is find a center and trust that you'll stay there without extraneous or unnecessary small corrections. Once you believe that, and tell your body to stop doing things of its own accord, it becomes much easier to manage. This is true, not just when you're dealing with surf and currents, I found out later; even in the most peaceful still waters I'd still get urges to use my arms to move or turn, when in a more or less weightless environment any slight extra motion gets magnified and leads to a lot more motion trying to correct and overcorrect and recenter yourself. It's a real balancing act to become still in the water, but a helluva lot of fun to practice.

The second thing I noticed was that even though this was our skills training, and we were on a public beach, and not far from the shore, and yada yada yada, there were tons of amazingly beautiful tropical fish swimming all around us, over us, between our legs, everywhere! Most of them were pretty small, with vivid iridescent stripes running down their backs and sides; my favorites were bigger (but still only 6-8 inches long) and bright lime green. They reminded me of those hypercolor shirts we used to wear back in like 5th grade; I had one in lime green the exact color of these fish. Anyway, it was really beautiful down there, almost mesmerizing. It was kind of a shame we were practicing those required skills the whole time. But, as I found out the next day, it was nothing compared with the sheer knock-you-on-your-ass beauty just a few meters below the surface at the reefs around the other islands.

Then we had to do more skills -- the weight belt again, which you drape over your knee to keep you from floating away; the BCD again, which you have to hold on tight to keep it from floating away; letting your mask fill up with water and clearing it by tilting your head back and blowing through your nose. Taking your mask off and swimming around to simulate getting it knocked off underwater, then putting it back on and clearing it again. Walter said I didn't have to open my eyes underwater, because of the contacts, but he also said they wouldn't go anywhere if I did; only moving water actually causes contacts to come off underwater. So, I figured what the hell? If I actually did lose my mask underwater, I'd have to open my eyes to see it and put it back on, right? So, I gave it a whirl, and no problems! I mean, the salt water stung like the dickens the first time, but you get used to it pretty quickly. Then we practiced "low on air" and "out of air" scenarios, where you find your buddy, communicate via hand signals, and then grab his secondary air source to breathe -- easy stuff, as long as you don't panic and remain calm. We also had to practice a true out of air situation; Walter shut off our air one at a time, and made us breathe until the pressure went all the way down to zero, then look at him and make the proper hand signals while blowing a small stready stream of bubbles (you never hold your breath while scuba diving -- this is very important!) before he turned it back on. Again, no panic, no problems. We did "fin pivots." This is a fun little exercise where you lay flat, face downward, on the bottom, spread your legs wide to maintain stability, and then use your breathing to move your body up and down, pivoting on the tips of your fins. Inhale, your head begins to rise while your feet stay put, thanks to your lungs being located where they are; exhale, you begin to sink back to the bottom. It takes some practice to not hit your face on the bottom... you have to finish breathing out and begin breathing in quite a bit before you get to that point. I enjoyed this one... I was cracking myself up, thinking I was in control until I kept exhaling too long and landed (gently, of course) on the sand. Good times... then we practiced the controlled emergency assent, where you take a big breath and swim up from 6 meters, slowly, while making an "ahhhh" sound to allow the ever-expanding air to escape from your lungs and ears. This prevents, you know, air expansion injuries, ruptures and shit. Very important. It should take, I guess, about 30 seconds if you do it right, which is a long time to be looking up at the light through the water and saying "ahhh..." Finally, we did some "tired diver" tows and then packed up and headed back to the shop. Where, after lugging all that heavy (now soaking wet) stuff through town, I was indeed a tired diver. I showered, ate some curry :) and laid down to rest. But it was certainly an exciting, exhilarating, exhausting experience! Thanks for sharing it with me.

Linkies!

2009-02-04T21:25:00.002+09:00

I just realized I had forgotten to link to pictures! I mean, you're all smart people, so you probably found them anyway, but just in case, here you go!

For the day trek (elephants!), go here.

For random Chiang Mai pictures, click me.

To see my guesthouse, go to this one.

To get punched in the kidney by some truly awful pix from the fights, try this.

For a few shots of the place I stayed in Phuket, go here.

And for a sample of the island living, check this out.

There we go... I think we're caught up now. Enjoy!

Thailand -- Ko Phi Phi

2009-02-04T19:17:00.004+09:00

I've been feeling generally anti-writing lately. It's been sort of a struggle to keep up with this, hence the more sporadic posting, but it's actually kind of important to me to keep writing, so here we go. Also, I can smell my dinner cooking and it's driving me nuts -- I'm frickin starving... so I'm trying to distract myself and quell the hungry noises emanating from my tummy. Round 4. Ding.

I got sunburnt as hell on the ferry ride over to Ko Phi Phi! I guess it was pretty dumb to sit on the top deck, you know, in the sun... with a sleeveless shirt on and no sunblock. I didn't think it would be that bad... I had my towel draped over me and I wasn't really feeling too much sun, so I made the asinine assumption that it would all be ok. I guess what I forgot is that we're on the water, not to mention about 5 degrees north of the Equator... (actually, I just checked -- it's 7, not 5).

Alright... dinner's over, dishes are washed, and I'm wearing underwear. That's a pretty successful night, in my book. Now, further up and further in...

So the sunburn was pretty bad, but I've had worse... the first day I went directly to Moskito, the dive shop where I was staying, to check in and dump my bag. I took a quick walk around Phi Phi Town, which doesn't take long at all... this is a place with maybe 20 streets and no motorized vehicles of any kind, which totally adds to that whole "tropical paradise" feeling. The only thing you have to watch out for is the handcarts and bicycles that the locals use all over the place. You usually get some kind of warning, in most cases, it's a handy verbal one: "Beep beep beep beep!" That means get the hell out the way or I'll run your white ass down in Thai. No, seriously. I looked it up. It was bloody hot though, so after getting the lay of the land and seeing a couple beaches, I headed back to the dive shop for a little siesta time. It turns out that most of the divers and employees spend all their non-diving time hanging out at the dive shop and talking about diving, so I ended up hanging out with a group of Americans who'd been there for a few weeks and getting some pointers as to local hotspots. There aren't many, really... I mean, it's a small place. I had some dinner at Lemongrass, this nice little restaurant across the street from the shop. And by "across the street," I actually mean about 8 feet away, and local etiquette seems to dictate that you don't really wear shoes for such meager crossings. So, barefoot and well-fed on green curry chicken, I walked down to the little store and picked up some beer and then sat and chatted with the divers for a while. They invited me to join them to watch the video of their dive, so I went along, curious to see what I'd gotten myself into. The video was amazing! Yas, this Japanese chick, has some awesome equipment, not to mention a whole host of editing skillz... they had sharks, a seahorse, and 3 ghost pipe fish, which meant nothing to me apart from looking really cool, but the divers were in ecstacies watching... apparently they're pretty rare and Yas had gotten some exceptional shots. Next, it was off to Carlito's beach bar, for awesome cocktails (I'm just guessing really, but I think rum, coconut milk, chile, lemongrass and ... some sort of juice. I mean, wow...) All courtesy of Rob, who'd just had a nice payday and insisted on hooking me up! Thanks buddy! We drank, watched the firedancers for a while, chatted up the waitress, a hot little Swedish girl! Yowza... :) There are lots and lots of Swedes on Phi Phi -- it's a little strange, it's like their own little tropical playground. I mean, they're all nice folks, so no worries, just a bit odd. Then it was shots of some Italian liquor with the owner (Carlito? Perhaps....) and then off to Tiger Bar. More beers, people coming and going, dancing and drinking, laughing and crying... well, not so much, but you know. Finally headed out about 3, I think. After all, I had diving school at 9 the next morning -- I needed to be fresh! =)

Morning comes, I shower up and it's off to work I go! Well, not so much work, but studying, anyway. Reading a book, watching some DVD's and taking quizzes. But before I go on, a note about the shower situation in Thailand. They don't do the whole "heated" water thing there. I mean, it's not a big deal; it's really warm there, and the water is by no means uncomfortable. It's just strange to realize how much you take for granted sometimes. I didn't have a hot shower for 2 weeks... but I gotta say, there's something invigorating about that cool shower in the morning, and refreshing after a day spent in the sun and diving in the ocean. It's actually quite nice. OK, moving on. After a morning of book learning and a lunch of pad thai, we started the practical stuff in the afternoon. Walter, my dive instructor, showed us all the gear, how to put it together, how to test it all and make sure it's working, and how to take it apart. Then it was our turn. "Our," in this case, is Greg and I. Greg's an insurance broker from Brussels, and travelling with his adorable Belgian girlfriend, Emilie. She was supposed to be diving with him, but she got scared and bailed... I tihnk he was a little bitter at having to do this whole class with me instead of his girl, but who could blame him? Poor guy...

So, we got everything prepared. Not without a little difficulty -- there are several steps which after you've done it wrong and see why you have to do things in a certain order, seem like common sense. At first though, it's all a bit trial and error. Then we took everything apart. Then put it together again. And took it apart again. Then put it together again, and so on... When it was finally starting to feel fairly natural, Walter stopped us, told us to leave everything on, we were going to the beach! Time to actually dive in (or in this case, walk in) and, you know, breathe underwater! I was really excited, but anxious, nervous, and jittery would also be good adjectives to use here.

So, geared up and ready to bounce, we grabbed our masks and fins and strolled to the beach. Let me just say that a canister filled with 200 bars of compressed air, along with a BCD (buoyance control device) and wetsuit is really quite heavy, and not at all pleasant to go walking through the streets in, dodging carts and tourists and bicycles and shit along the way. But we made it, trudged down through the sand and headed out into the water. And then everything went wrong! But I'll save that for next time... a little suspense never hurt nobody.

Well, sorry, but I just can't do it. I don't want you all worrying yourselves into a frenzy, so I'll admit that I lied. Nothing went wrong. At least, nothing, you know, life-threatening... Cue the scary music! Cue it!

Thailand, Vol. III

2009-02-02T16:27:00.004+09:00

I'm feeling lazy and rather dull today, like a donkey... not clever and determined, like the noble burro. But I'm gonna sit down and write for a bit anyway, lucky for you!

Let's see, where did I leave off? I know, I know, it's a fairly simple matter to just go look at the blog, but I'm going to sit here and try futilely to remember for a bit first, so bear with me.

Meh... never mind. I know this is all happening immediately in your imagination, but there was about a 6 minute break just now where I stared blankly at the wall and drooled on myself... ok. I'll be right back.

There we go... we had just had dinner with the Thai who owns the guesthouse, and we were on the way to meet the Aussies for drinks before the Muay Thai fight. I'm using the royal "we" here, for no good reason... I'll stop. I went to John's Place (the name of a bar, not the house of a guy named John). Anyway, when I got there I sat down with Gaz and Jess and their Irish friend... we'll call him Seamus. That's not his real name, but due to the prolific amount of beer I drank and his wonky Dubliner accent, I know absolutely nothing about this guy... except that he can drink like a whale. We had about an hour and a half before the fights started, so we got down to some serious drinking, and by the time 9:00 rolled around I was already feeling pretty loose. We had plans to meet the "Aussie sluts" at the ring, so we kinda strolled around this indoor/outdoor arena, consisting of a few bars, a boxing ring, and lots of like, picnic tables surrounding the ring. The Aussie sluts are actually 3 British girls who had been out the night before and had an older English guy walking by look over at them and mutter, "Aussie sluts." Curiously, the part of this they really took exception to was the "Aussie..." not so much the other half. Yeah, so Gaz, Jess, Seamus and I found them right by the ring, sat down, and ordered 3 more rounds of drinks, to be delivered whenever we needed them. This made the paying situation easier, but didn't turn out as well for me, in the long run. I guess that's how they roll in other more alcohol-friendly parts of the world... I dunno.

The fights, what I remember of them, were pretty sweet. One weird thing: they start learning fighting when they're really young, and by the time they're 14, they're professional pummeling machines, weighing about 105 pounds of solid writhing punchy-ness. So the first couple fights were actually training matches, like 11 and 12 year old kids just beating the living shit out of each other... it was really bizarre. Then there were a couple of lady-fights, with chicks who could probably wrestle a jackal with their bare hands and live to wear his skin home as some sort of trophy. Then we got to the real professional matches. This isn't like boxing as we're used to it; these guys can kick, elbow, knee and punch to score points. The elbows and knees, if I remember correctly, score more, because they're harder to land. A good chunk of these fights (they're pretty short -- 3 or 4 rounds, usually) consist of jabs and straight kicks to find your range, then backing the opponent into the corner and repeatedly jamming your knees up into the other guy's abdomen (which he blocks with his forearms and/or knees), followed by an attempted elbow to the side of the head. It's pretty entertaining to watch actually, and I'm not much of a violent-sports kinda guy. Then came the ... halftime show, I'll call it. I didn't remember this until I saw my own pictures of it... ha. But it was this tall Thai (what I assume must have been a) ladyboy with giant fake boobs, wearing nothing but a veil and a thong strutting around lipsynching to (what I assume must have been) popular Thai music. I'm pretty hazy by this point, but that's the gist I get from the photos. Finally, the headline match... between a Spanish guy and an actual Thai professional Thai fighter. We figured the Spanish guy would be SOL, but he freakin dominated... knocking the other guy out in the first round with (as I recall) a lock against the ropes, a series of knees, and a crazy spinning kick to the head that just dropped his opponent. It was nuts...

And then we drank some more at the ring, I chatted with these two French guys in Spanish for a while, and we went back to John's Place (just around the corner) for round 2. And this is how, in a previous entry, it came about that we ended up drinking with Mr. Victorious Spanish guy... who was actually really cool. I finally took my leave around (I'm guessing) 3am, and started to head home. Now, here's the fun part. This bar was on a main street, just across from the canal. All I had to do to get home was go out of the bar, take the first right, and walk for about a half-mile until I saw my guesthouse on a corner, on the right-hand side. Somehow, I managed to fuck this up royally. Maybe an hour later, when the worst of the alcohol haze starts to fade, I'm starting to wonder how much farther I can possibly have to walk, when I realize I'm in a completely unfamiliar neighborhood. Now, don't be worried, because by this point I was fortunate enough to have no phone, no watch (both of which I had left at the guesthouse for just such an occasion), and no money (left), so the chances of getting robbed were exceptionally remote. I take stock of my surroundings, see nothing whatsoever that might be of service, so I figure I'll just pick the direction that feels right and keep on truckin. This seems to be going fine for a while, in that I wasn't bored or anything, but it certainly didn't help me find my way home. Finally, I see a policeman standing guard outside of some gate. I ask for help... but by some unhappy coincidence he doesn't speak English, and I (to my surprise) don't speak Thai. He did manage, however, to track down a cab for me and I told him the road I needed. I neglected to mention, of course, that I didn't have any money. I figured we'd cross that bridge when we came to it. And that's the way it worked out... when we got there, he named some ridiculously high price, and I, being at this point sober enough to bargain, offered him half. He said ok, and I made the international sign for cash (rubbing my thumb against my first two fingertips back and forth, and pointed upstairs. He waited while I woke up the guesthouse lady, went upstairs, found an absurdly large denomination of Thai money, and he still made change for me at the price I had requested. They're good people, these Thais, I tell ya.

The next day, I slept late, ate spicy Thai food for breakfast to kill the hangover, drank a boatload of water, got a massage, ate more Thai food from a street stall, and went to bed. My flight the next morning left at 7 am, so I figured I should leave the guesthouse by no later than 5:30 to get there on time. Had to walk for about 10 minutes to find a tuk-tuk (like a motorized tricycle with 2 little seats in the back and a small roof) to take me to the airport, but it's only about a 10-minute ride, anyway. Caught a flight to Bangkok, then another to Phuket, an island in the south of Thailand on the west coast. I had heard that Phuket was kind of shitty, and it turned out to be more or less true, but I needed to go there to get a boat to Phi Phi, so I figured I'd spend a day there and take a look around. In retrospect, I'd say this was a poor decision... nothing bad happened, it just really is a shithole. I was couchsurfing though, so at least I didn't have to pay for a room for that night. Plus the guy I stayed with had a kick-ass house and took me to his favorite restaurant for dinner, and we had amazingly spicy and good food (laab ped and som tam, I think, plus some sticky rice and a couple different kinds of sausage. The laab ped (I seriously doubt I'm spelling that right, but whatever) is duck, ground and cooked and mixed with vegetables and Thai chiles... the som tam that we had was a cold cabbage salad with raw crab legs and Thai chiles... I was later told that it was awfully dumb to eat raw seafood in Thailand, but it was actually really good. Sweet and juicy and spicy all at the same time. Then we went to a nearby bar for a beer, but he had to work the next day so we headed back to his place and crashed pretty early. Next morning I got up, had a donut, read and interneted for a while and then he took me to a nearby hotel where I could catch the minibus that would take me to the pier and the ferry to Ko Phi Phi.

Wow... that was a lot of writing... sorry to put ya'll through that. I mean, no, it's good, right? You're still with me? Yeah, you're still with me. Well, don't turn that dial, because the next installment of Sean in Thailand is coming up right after this message from our sponsors.

Fast forward to present

2009-01-30T19:46:00.002+09:00

I'm sitting at my apartment, watching the Australian Open and drinking beer. I just finished up doing my laundry from the trip, which was absolutely necessary because my clothes (and therefore my bag) smelled like an elephant spitting on a sweaty chimpnazee, mixed with alcohol and curry and just a dash of the beach (i.e. sunscreen, mosquito spray, sand and salt). So I'm sitting here typing with my beer, and I just happen to be watching the 2nd semifinal, which looks like a hyperactive Spanish guy with a mean face and a hyperactive forehand playing his own mirror image. Nadal v. Verdasco. They're both Spaniards, both fit as hell, smart, left-handed, and just the right amount of crazy, and it's amazing. I'm a little sad that it's like 4:50am in the states right now, and my mom is missing it. This is the best match I've seen in a long time; both guys are swinging for the fences, going for it like it's their last day on Earth. Scottie -- I know you don't really like watching tennis, but this is awesome.

These guys are flinging their bodies all over the court, wrenching forehands crosscourt, running as though they're being chased by a werewolf on crack, hitting crazy topspin lobs, throwing the occasional drop shot to keep the other guy honest. It's just beautiful tennis, and as much as I like Federer, I think he's gonna have a helluva time with whichever guy wins this match. They both want it so much, it's incredible.

At deuce, up 5-4 in the 2nd after losing the 1st, Nadal just hit this crazy curving forehand that must have bent at least 6 feet back into the court, at a dead sprint, and it landed well inside the sideline to set up break point. He ends up taking the 2nd set. Now it's 1 set apiece and both these guys are playing amazing... I feel for Federer, because whoever wins this match is going to be on an amazing high when they play next, while he pretty much just took care of business against Roddick. As much as I really don't like Nadal... just call it the problem of seeing a young punk who's freakishly athletic taking over a sport that I'm actually pretty good at because I'm smart and consistent and I try hard (much like Federer, and Agassi before him, and Courier and McEnroe and Connors before him)... none of those guys were amazing athletes. I mean, sure, they all became athletes because they wanted to win, but they started out with a dream and conviction and smarts and determination, and that was enough. That's what I want to see; that's whom I want to see succeed; not some freak who's ripped to shreds and has some superhuman hand-eye coordination and ability to pit spins on the ball noone's ever seen before. Call me old-fashioned, but I like watching smart, less-athletic players beat Nadal. I also like watching up-and-coming Spaniards who modeled their game after his beat him at his own game. :) Because it proves that hard work still counts for something in this world, and that freakish athletic talent will only take you so far. I know that I'm oversimplifying here, and that Nadal works really hard at what he does, but this is just my gut feeling here... so bear with me. I also know Verdasco just hit a forehand winner at 157 km/hr... which is damn near a 100 mph. Which is damn near crazy.

Allow me to opine on the challenge system for a moment. Verdasco just a lost a point in which he had the clear advantage because he stopped playing to challenge a call that he felt was wrong. Now, if he'd just kept playing, he *probably* would've won the point. But he stopped play to challenge a call, which turned out to be right. Nadal's shot, called in, did indeed catch the back of the line. Because Verdasco stopped play instead of putting away the point, he lost that point and subsequently, the game. Now Nadal's up a break in the 3rd, which is not a good place to play from for Verdasco. And then... the reason I love this kid. He comes up with amazing shots one after another to break back immediately at love, and put himself right back into the 3rd set. Let's do this thing! It's gonna be a long night here in the East. ;)

Thailand: Ziplining and other adventures

2009-01-30T19:19:00.002+09:00

This was the first time I'd ever done the ziplining thing. Fortunately, just before I left I was rewatching season 5 of The Office, where Toby reveals that he went ziplining his 3rd day in Costa Rica, broke his neck, and has spent the last 5 weeks in a god-forsaken hospital. "I never even saw the beach."

Actually, it's very safe; much safer, I'd guess, than the elephant riding and hiking I was to experience the next day. Also, much much safer than the riding standing up on the tailgate of a truck for an hour down the freeway... but we'll get to that. You're clipped on at all times. Either to the cable itself, or other cables around each tree that holds a platform. I mean, that doesn't stop you from freaking out a lil bit the first time you look down off the platform into open jungle and resolve to actually step off the platform into nothingness... but honestly, you'd be surprised how quickly it gets to feel ok, even normal. By the 3rd or 4th one, I was getting a running start, launching myself with wild abandon out over the trees and rivers beneath, trying my damndest to turn upside down and ride inverted down the cable like our guide. Whose name, by the way, is Leo Jr. As in, Leonard Dicaprio Jr. He was kinda cute, I guess... but still. The other guy was called "No-name," maybe because he wasn't fortunate enough to have a family member in the biz. Who knows? So Leo Jr. had a habit of flipping his body upside down and riding completely vertically down the zipline, legs in the air and screaming like a banshee, until the last possible moment whereupon he'd flip expertly over in the air and land gently on the platform, his body hovering over the edge for a moment until he'd shout "Oh my Buddha!" and then step effortlessly out and he'd balance teetering, on the edge until we all gasped or laughed, and then he'd start yelling at us for taking too long.

So this continued on for a coupla hours, more or less unhindered. I was with this Thai fella who owns a guesthouse; he was checking it out to see whether his house will start booking the tour for his guests. Also, a French guy named Eddie who was cool as shit; a British girl, Laura; and an Israeli couple whose names I can't remember. I do know, however, that they were on their honeymoon, and that I'd run into them again later on. That, my friends, is a story for another time. The pictures can be found here. =) Enjoy. See you tomorrow; same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

Thailand: Humble Beginnings

2009-01-30T18:27:00.003+09:00

So I've decided I'm going to try to document this trip in installments; that way, we hope, nothing gets left out and I can try to relive the adventures in relatively full and embiggening splendour. So I start, as is my wont, at the beginning.

It was a cold day, dark and windy, a light snow beginning to dust Janghowon. I had already decided not to pack my coat, since I wanted to travel light, with just a small backpack. I was seriously considering scrapping the whole idea, just so that I'd be able to bring my coat along for the 1st stage of my journey: a bus to Icheon and a 2nd bus to the airport. It was that cold. After my final day of English camp, which went really well, by the way, I had lunch with Mi Sun and Bo Il. Mi Sun was kind enough to help me out for the 2nd week of English camp while Bo Il was on vacation, but he showed up anyway to help wrap things up and send me off in style. After lunch, Mi Sun took me to the ATM so I could stock up on cash (which turned to be a lifesaver, but I'll explain later). Then she dropped me off near my house, and I was walking home I saw Dave, the Canadian who teaches at the high school here. He offered to pick me up after work and drive me to Icheon since he was going that way anyway. So that was one problem solved.

By the way, I was going to the airport on Friday night, even though my flight wasn't till Saturday morning. This is because, in Korea, the buses quit running at around 8 or 9 and don't begin again until the morning, around 7. My flight was at 8am, it's a 3-hour trip, and obviously I needed to be there ~2 hours early, it being an international flight and all. So all of these factors combined, I felt it would be smartest to just go to the airport on Friday night and sleep there -- another reason I wanted to have just the one bag. I figured I could use it as a pillow and not be robbed, you see.

So, Dave wanted to take his dog for a walk around Icheon, which gave me a chance to do some shoe shopping. Because, you know, I'm a chick. No, actually, it's because I knew I was gonna be hiking through the jungle and crossing rivers and shit, and I wanted to get some shoes that could handle that. I didn't find what I was looking for -- you know the trekking sandals that lots of backpackers wear, often with socks? ha -- but I did manage to find some aqua shoes that seemed pretty sturdy, so I picked those up, had dinner and got on the bus. The first stage of the journey was unremarkable. The airport sleeping thing worked out pretty well; as well as can be expected anyway. I got a decent night's sleep once I found this little lounge that was vacant and had nice padded seats. I just pushed 3 together, took off my shoes and crashed out. I think I woke up around 5am, had some breakfast at the ole airport Burger King, and went to my gate.

Flight was fine. I got to Hong Kong airport, where I realized the first (of what may be many, or only one, who knows) major shortcoming of this airport. You know how most airports have those screens that tell you flight status, departure gates and times... like, everywhere? Well, not Hong Kong. It took me a good 20 minutes to find one after wandering up and down the whole freaking concourse, repeatedly. I finally had to leave, and head out towards the food court and everything, just to find my connecting flight. But no biggie, I had lots of time and I was pretty close. Again, flight was fine. This one had the entertainment on demand thing, so I got to watch a big chunk of the 6th season of Family Guy, which rocked. And I gotta say, Cathay Pacific has some amazing food and service. They still do the whole free booze thing, even in economy. And the flight attendants are awesome. And gorgeous, but that's besides the point. Anyway... ;)

I finally arrived in Bangkok, but so many people told me what a cesspool it is and how I shouldn't waste my time there that I had decided to head straight up to Chiang Mai that night and not even bother with it. So after another brief wait, I hopped on another plane, this one a Thai Air flight, and got my ass to Chiang Mai. Um, they served this weird like, chicken pastry. It was good. Just weird. Sorry I didn't take a picture, because it looked really interesting.

Upon arrival in Chiang Mai, I promptly (way over-)paid for a cab and went to my awesome guesthouse. I think I've already detailed the problems I soon encountered, but if not, here they are again. I had booked online to do the "Flight of the Gibbon" ziplining thing the next day, along with a homestay in a village and then rock climbing the 2nd day. What I discovered when I arrived, however, was that the company I booked with would only accept cash. Now, I had an idea that my Korean ATM card wouldn't work worth a damn here, and sho' nuff, nothing. I had Korean cash, but it was like 10pm on a Saturday night, so there was no real chance of me getting more Thai money before Monday morning... boo. Luckily, the woman who ran the guesthouse called the ziplining place, cancelled my order, replaced it with just the one-day ziplining, rather than the 2-day thing, and saved me like, almost a hundred bucks. Then she hooked me up with a one-day trek on Monday that involved the Elephant riding, rafting, hiking, Akha village stop, and everything. Altogether I paid 2600Baht, or around $75-80... instead of the $175 I would have paid... she rocked! Thanks Nine! :)

Then I went to bed, exhausted! More coming soon; in part 2, we'll learn about ziplining and the glory of the Green Tulip Guesthouse! Stay tuned.

Update from Thailand!

2009-01-20T18:35:00.003+09:00

This is my 3rd day here. I love it... it's insanely cheap to stay and eat and everything. The countryside is amazing... green and lush and warm. So, today is Tuesday, and I'm having a relaxing day. On Sunday, I went ziplining through the jungle. There'll be pictures soon, I promise! Yesterday, I went on a little 1 day do-everything trek. We rode in a songthaew, I think... I'm not sure about the spelling on that one. Clearly. Well, anyway, there were 10 of us in the back... like a pickup truck bed with a frame covering it and benches down either side. So, yeah. It was a little tight. So Gaz (this kick-ass Aussie) and I opened the tailgate and rode standing up on the back. I've got pictures of that too... I know you're all dying to see them! =) Then we visited this orchid farm and butterfly little... thing. I don't know. The night ended up with me getting really drunk with an Aussie couple, 3 British chicks and a Spanish Muay Thai boxer. I think I got back to the hotel around 4am, so keep that in mind as you read. Thanks. =)

The orchid farm sucked. I mean, it was pretty and all, I just didn't care. Then we drove to an Akha hill tribe village and took a look around. It was a little strange -- walking into this little house and there's a sick child laying in bed while our guide told us about the tribe's homes and whatnot... I wasn't really into that, but whatever. Part of the voyage, I guess, right? Next, it was off to see the wizard. No -- wait, off to ride the elephants. Usually, there are 2 people per elephant and they ride on a little seat fixed to the elephant's back. I say usually, because by some happy coincidence an English girl and I got to hop on the elephants head and ride the whole way straddling the damn thing. This was awesome! But, there are some pitfalls here... I mean, an elephant's shoulders are huge, and they move a lot when they walk, so you have to find this sort of rolling gait with your body. Not unlike riding a horse, just slower and more movement. And our elephant was a hungry hungry hippo -- she stopped to eat a lot, so I got a first hand view of an elephant tearing leaves off of trees with her trunk. Also, elephants are really filthy. Every time I patted her on the head dust clouds just flew off of her. So, very soon I was completely filthy as well. That was quite alright though, because our next stop was a 30 minute hike through the jungle, and over a river, and back again, and over again, and back again... I think about 8 times total. Mostly on rocks, but once (on the way there, and again on the way back) on a fallen tree trunk about 10 feet in the air, with nothing to hold onto or anything. I'm pretty sure this sort of thing would be frowned upon in America. I guess the elephants as well, not to mention the riding standing up and hanging off the back of a truck. All of these things, I suppose, are fairly common here. =)

The waterfall was nice... I'm sure it would have been better in the wet season, but it was still pretty impressive. We had a good swim in the pool up there by the waterfall, then shared some Thai cigars that one of the guys had bought from the hill tribe. Tasty... I think wrapped in some sort of leaf. Then we had lunch... pad thai (which was also wrapped in some sort of leaf) and fresh papaya that our guide jacked from a tree as we were bouncing along on the elephants. Then we rafted down the river for about an hour... first through some rapids (that would also benefit greatly from the rainy season, I'm guessing, because they weren't very rapid) on a white water-type inflata-boat. Then we traded those in for bamboo "rafts." I use the quotes because these things, by their very nature, float about 6-12 inches below the water. Not all the time, but after 6 people jumped on it, then yeah... so you're basically floating along, sitting on this long raft, with water up over your waist... this was not how they pictured it in the brochure. If I can find another copy of it, I'll do a little compare and contrasty time for you. It's really pretty funny.

That was it... we rode back to Chiang Mai and then I showered up and went out to meet the Aussie couple and the Brits for drinks before we went to the boxing match. On my way to meet them, I saw a Thai who owns a guesthouse here, who was also on the ziplining tour. He was eating dinner with his sister and this Icelandic woman who's been staying at their guesthouse since October. So they invited me to join them, and I sat and had a spicy, cold "glass noodle" salad with chicken and vegetables -- yum. =) Then I met up with the crew, along with an Irish guy, a Dubliner. I have no idea what his name was... because it turns out that Dubliners don't speak English, really. I have no problem with South Africans, Kiwis, Aussies, Brits, even the Icelandic woman's English was perfectly understandable. But not this guy. So that was fun. =)

And it turns out I'm out of time for the internet today, and I'm tired of writing anyway. So, stay tuned. I'll be back!

One of the worst things about teaching in Korea...

2009-01-15T20:52:00.002+09:00

Is the other foreign teachers. Or at least, so I've been told by the Canadian guy who's lived here for several years now. I've done a fairly good job of avoiding most web forums and any place where I might be subjected to the bitching and moaning that inevitably happens when people are living in a foreign land and having any sort of trouble, be it personal, professional, emotional or otherwise.

Today, I was looking at something online... I'm not even sure how I got onto this line of searching, honestly. Anyway, I ended up checking out a few of the other blogs written by westerners here in Korea. And wow. They really do bitch a lot. It's ridiculous. One guy posts like 3 or 4 times a day, picking up news articles that are even remotely critical of any Western presence here in Korea. I mean, sure, there are probably xenophobes here just like any other society. Although I'd venture a guess (based on my very limited experience) that they are less numerous and less vocal than their American counterparts. I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about this, mostly because I'm sure he has a very good reason for writing what he does... but also because I don't want to dwell on an unpleasant aspect of my life here. I mean, is my life here perfect? Of course not! But is it absolutely satisfactory? Hell yeah it is... I dunno. Some people aren't content unless they're pissed about something.

And the thing is, there are (probably a lot of) Koreans who don't enjoy the presence of so many Westerners in their country. I'm sure that lots of them, especially the ones who live near American army bases and have to deal with GI's out drinking and chatting up their girlfriends and daughters... well, not to denigrate our brave servicemen, but I hung out with a bunch of them at a bar in Seoul a few weeks ago and let's just say, I can imagine there are some feelings of resentment. But the vast majority of Koreans that I've met have been exceptionally kind, generous and helpful. At least, to the extent that they can be with the language barrier... you know. And also... I mean, hello! It's an entirely different culture; different worldview; different mores. I think the close proximity to American/Western culture in a number of areas (technology, education, bureaucracy) gives us a false sense of security in our knowledge about how Koreans view us and their world, when in reality it's extremely unfair of us to make any kind of judgment at all about the way in which they comport themselves, be it in daily life, the politics, or the media. It's ridiculous for us to bitch about their culture and say they're being unfair or confrontational to Westerners, or even merely xenophobic; it's ridiculous for us to make any kind of judgment at all based on our preconceptions of how people should behave in any specific arena. That's my two cents. I said I wouldn't get into it; I just couldn't help myself. Thanks for bearing with me.

I'm leaving late tomorrow night for Thailand. I'm packing light, which means no laptop for the next couple weeks. If I get access to internet while I'm away, I'll try to drop an update or two when I can; hopefully when I get back I'll have lots of pictures to share. Just a forewarning that new posts might be hard to come by till the end of January.

You know, normally I'm a stickler for grammar. Not so much to the point of correcting people, or even using correct grammar; I just notice it constantly. The curse of being an English major, a teacher, or just a big dork, I'm not sure which. But "hopefully" is one of the words that is most consistently misused in our language, and it's the one that bothers me the least. I know I used it incorrectly up there, and I just don't care. For what it's worth: hopefully is an adverb, meaning to do something with hope. Like, for example, I walked hopefully toward the beautiful Thai girl at the end of the bar. It's interesting that of the 3 sources of definitions provided on dictionary.com, 2 of them think that my usage up there in the previous paragraph is just fine; the 3rd offers a brief commentary on why it is still unacceptable to many critics, even though its usage in this way is extremely popular and widespread. I love shit like that. English is nuts... and this is the language I've been charged with teaching... riiiight.

Well, I need to hit the hay. Long two weeks of travel and adventure starting tomorrow, and I need to be well rested. So hopefully, you'll be hearing from me soon. Until then, a good night to all, and to all a good night.

5 days till I leave for Thailand!

2009-01-12T16:21:00.002+09:00

I know it's been a while, so thank you, constant Readers, for sticking with me through the dry patches and coming back for more.

I've done 6 days of English camp now, and it's going really well. We did 3 layers of paper mache, finishing the last one today. Now I'm giving them a couple more days to dry and then it's on to painting! Also, tomorrow is no-bake cookie day, so that's pretty exciting. For me, at least. I told the kids today, and they didn't really seem all that into it, for some reason. Ah well, they have to do it. And I think once they get their grubby little hands on some chocolatey oatmealy goodness, they'll be a little happier about it. They'd better be.

We also did some hand-clapping games today. The girls really enjoyed it; the boys not so much. Pretty much as I expected... but the boys really got into the paper airplane game, so I gotta spread the joy a bit, right? I'm also looking forward to the webcam conversation we're going to have with Jill's neice. She's already done this a few times for Jill's camp, so she's more or less a pro at this point. I'm just going to have my kids ask her some questions (just basic get to know you kinda stuff) that we've been practicing during camp. And uh, yeah... we'll see how it goes!

I got pretty toasted yesterday. I was just sitting at my house with nothin to do... looking outside at the frigid barren landscape that is a small town in winter, and I decided to make a run for the convenience store down the street to pick up some beer and soju. Soju, in case you've forgotten, is a sweet Korean liquor that is sold in little glass bottles that probably totals 6-7 shots. I'm not sure what the alcohol percentage is, but I'd guess it's like 40 proof. Just a complete shot in the dark, there, but you get the idea. It's not like, vodka strong or anything, but still has that liquor-y taste. I went out to dinner with my co-workers from the Global Center last week, and they introduced me to the wonder that is, as Emily calls it, so-juice. Basically, you take a shot of soju, poor it in a glass, and add beer. It doesn't really sound that good, even now, but you have to keep in mind that "beer" in Korea is generally really lite, highly-carbonated, and has a weird kind of citrus freshness to it... so that adding soju makes this kind of gestalt alcoholic beverage which is truly greater than the sum of its parts. Like, I dunno, the GoBots. So anyway, I drank one bottle of soju and one 1.6 liter bottle of beer. Now, keep in mind that I haven't been drinking much for the past month or so... but within about 2 hours, I was pretty silly. I had a really nice conversation with Dr. Monroe -- the associate dean of the Honors College in Houston -- finished drinking around 6~, and then apparently decided to make some rice for dinner. I got as far as putting it into the rice cooker and hitting go. Then, evidently, I passed out. I woke up around midnight, thoroughly confused as to what time it was, and saw the rice cooker blinking at me from the kitchen. This perplexed me even further. I went to see why this little blinking red light had intruded on my sleep, and to my surprise, found hot steamy rice all ready to be enjoyed. I thanked my drunk self for having the foresight to prepare this delicious meal, heated up a bag of curry and vegetables, and had a wonderful late dinner. Then I drank a boatload of water (I just cracked myself up with that one -- how do you measure a boatload of water and live to report the total?) and went back to sleepy-land, where I spent the next 7 hours as happy as a clam.

I felt great this morning. Midnight curry and rice makes a great hangover prevention, I've decided.

Another perplexing thing that's going on right now: What the hell is up with the NFL playoffs? The Eagles and Cardinals? Really...? The Mannings got beat like a redheaded stepchild. A rookie quarterback playing in the AFC Championship game. After watching Tennessee, Miami, and Indy get rolled in the first two rounds, I bet the Patriots are really pissed they didn't even get a chance to play. Sorry Adam. And getting beat by the Chargers, again? Sorry Rick. Of course, who am I to talk, right? The Bears had a shot, and played themselves right out of a playoff spot, so... this season has just been weird. And college football too. There was a great article on ESPN claiming that Utah is the undisputed national champion. I can't argue. They were the only undefeated team in the country. They beat Alabama. Florida beat Alabama and they got to play in the BCS title game... Utah beat them and they got to go home and watch Florida get crowned the champions -- it makes absolutely no sense... I hope Obama signs some sort of executive order abolishing this nonsense. Would a playoff really be that hard to set up? I mean, every other college sport has one; every other division of college football has one.

Here's my idea. Let's axe about 5 bowls that nobody cares about anyway... um, International Bowl anyone? Does Toronto really care about having an American college football game played there? Yeah, I didn't think so. Let's force the Big Televen and the Pac 10 to hold a championship game to put everyone on an equal footing. The 6 major conference champs get automatic bids; the highest ranked "non-BCS" school gets an automatic bid; there is one at large chosen with the condition that any unbeaten team (if not the highest-ranked non-BCS team) is guaranteed a spot. If there are none, then the highest ranked school who didn't win their conference gets in. The 1st round pits these four teams against each other at the 4 major bowls: Fiesta, Sugar, Orange, and Rose. This allows the bowls to (largely) maintain their conference affiliations, if they so chose. Then we have a plus-3 system; the winners move on to play each other in a national semifinal the next week and those winners get a shot at the national title. The plus-3 games would rotate bowl sites much like the BCS title game does now. Or, they could choose warm-weather cities to host these games like they choose Super Bowl sites.

Now, I realize that there are objections. 1) Players, fans and alumni wouldn't travel to all 3 bowl games; or would find it difficult to travel. Um, March Madness? Trust me, they'll make it. 2)This would drag the season out even longer than it is, stretching into the spring semester and affecting the student-athletes grades and whatnot. Now, if you tell me that (most of) these athletes are doing this for the opportunity to better themselves through higher education and not for a shot at millions of dollars in the NFL, I'll laugh in your face. Besides, basketball runs for 5 months and nobody bitches about that. 3) Also, I realize that trying to axe some of the less-successful earlier bowl games and move everything up a week or so would be almost impossible. Especially for say, the Rose Bowl which probably wouldn't give up its New Years Day game for anything on the planet. This one I haven't figured out yet. Any suggestions or concerns would be welcome.

My apartment is dirty and other conundrums...

2009-01-06T20:26:00.002+09:00

Sometimes I feel like Spike in Notting Hill. Just complete despair about the cluttered state of my apartment, the dishes, and laundry, etc... When Hugh Grant or someone helpfully points out that "There never will be any clean clothes, unless you actually clean them," I just give a sheepish grin and think "Vicious circle..."

I mean, I have at least one excuse. The property manager guy stopped by a few days ago and pointed at the washing machine, said "Aniyo" and crossed his arms, which in Korean means "No." As in, I'm not supposed to use it. I'm not sure why. Clearly there's some sort of problem with it, but I have no idea what it might be. Problems with the water? Detergent shortage? Terrorism? I'm at a loss... and of course I'm incapable of asking him for how long, so I'm off washing clothes... indefinitely. I've got a couple more weeks worth of clothes, I guess. Well, not clean clothes, but clothes that don't smell too bad yet, at the very least. =)

I did paper mache for the first time today. Well, that's sort of a lie. I did it for the first time this weekend with Jill, in preparation for camp this week. We're making paper mache globes out of balloons and ... you know, paper mache. Newspaper strips and flour glue. Next week, after a few layers of flour-gummy paper have been applied, we'll paint them. Yes, this is Sean. What do you mean, what have I done with him?

When Jill and I practiced, it was really very easy. Each layer took about 15 minutes to apply, and then we used a hair dryer to speed up the drying process. So, naturally, I completely underestimated the time involved in getting 10 kids to finish the same amount of work. Also, I totally neglected to take into account the natural propensity for kids to take a blown-up balloon and uh, play with it. So during class today, I have them help me mix the flour into warm water to make glue. This goes fairly well. I then have them cut up newspapers into strips, which also goes fairly well. I'm feeling pretty cocky at this point. After all, how hard is it to control 7 and 8 year olds, anyway, right? Then I hand out balloons, and this is where the proverbial shit hits the fan. I've got kids blowing them up half-way, then letting go to watch them fly all over the room and hit other kids in the eye. Potentially. I've got kids dunking the balloons into the flour muck, for some inexplicable reason. I've got kids running into the hallway to play soccer with their balloons. I've even got two enterprising young souls that managed to find brooms to play hallway hockey! I mean, I was sorta impressed with their sudden motivation to clean. Till I found out the real purpose. Anyway...

I eventually got them all to sit down, balloons in hand, newspapers down to prevent too much mess. And before I can even begin to demonstrate the proper way to go about this project, which involves careful straining of excess water out of the paper to promote ... hell, I don't even know, but that's the way the internet told me to do it... before I can do that, I've got kids who are already about half-finished covering their balloons in soaking, dripping-flour-glue-all-over-the-floor newspaper. Chaos ensued. Finally I laid the smack down, started busting heads and screaming like a banshee. I instituted a reign of terror on that classroom that those poor kids had never dreamed of. There was an inquisition, burnings at the stake, I even beheaded a monarch and instituted a bastardized form of meritocracy in one misguided attempt at regaining control. But no, anarchy and mob rule was the order of the day, and I was merely an observer. I was Norway.

Long story short, the first step ended up turning out pretty well. I can't wait for phase 2! Whoo-ee! Tomorrow we're making paper airplanes. I've decided, as long as the inmates are running the asylum, they might as well build themselves a military presence. You know, to ward off invasion and inspire delusions of grandeur that will eventually lead to a misguided attempt to conquer Russia over land, probably just before winter.

Another fun fact: apparently, if you're a foreigner living in Korea on an E2 Visa, which is the teaching visa upon which my employment is based, there are some restrictions on leaving the country. Well, that's not entirely accurate; it's not that you can't leave. They've got no problem with that. It's just that if you decide to venture abroad, you need to purchase a "re-entry visa" prior to leaving. You can (Yes, you can) get back in without it. You just can't work anymore. Your E2 is immediately cancelled. Good thing I found out today and not say... a few weeks from now when I tried to re-enter the country, right? Whew! Crisis averted, I guess. However, this re-entry visa (I got the multiple re-entry, in case I feel like travelling again this year) costs like 50,000 Won, which if I remember correctly is about the same price as the E2 visa cost in the first place. Quite a racket they've got here, I tells ya. But that's still preferable to losing my job entirely, so... yeah. There's that.

There's that. And that, as they say, is there. ... they do say that, ya know.

Last day of 2008

2008-12-31T21:26:00.002+09:00

What a year it's been, friends... I started the year riding high on a wave of refinances and appraisals and GFE's and TIL's and LOX's, living in a condo in downtown Chicago. I had an awesome little orange car, a pool on my rooftop, a crazy Italian neighbor, a job I didn't much like... and now, I'm sitting in a 1-bedroom apartment in Janghowon, South Korea, thinking about games to play with 7 year olds and downloading flashcards of animals online. It's a crazy life, I tell ya.

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I last blogged. Sorry about the delay! Although, no one commented on the last actual post, so maybe none of you noticed. The holidays are always crazy busy anyway, so maybe I can get away with not being johnny-on-the-spot with the blogging this week. =)

Since that time, let's see. I hung out with Jill and we made no-bake oatmeal cookies. This is about the easiest cookie in history to make, and I highly recommend it! Just google no-bake oatmeal cookies and go to town. Careful with the sugar, though: ours were powerful sweet.

I watched Religulous, Bill Maher's new documentary. It's really good. He's only a little snarky. Well, no, he's only a little more snarky than he needs to be. I mean, some of the people he dishes it out to obviously can't handle it, and therefore probably don't deserve it. It's not really asking too much for Christians to be able to discuss their faith and the Bible... but sometimes, it is. Sad but true. I think he maybe crosses the line a few times, but for the most part I enjoyed it.

I got sick again. Not just your average run-of-the-mill cold this time, but Sick! With a capital "S." Body aches, fever, sinus headaches, all that fun junk. Apparently, when you get that kind of sick in Korea, you go to the hospital. So that's what I did yesterday! Boy howdy... So, you go to the hospital, which so far as I can tell here is roughly equivalent to our "clinic." You wait for a while -- I think my wait time was about 40 minutes. You read the names on the TV of all the people who are in front of you, just to amuse yourself. You comment that most of the people's last names are Choe or Kim. You go to the examination room. The doctor asks what your symptoms are (I presume, anyway) and you mime them, maybe producing a real cough or two. He takes your temperature. He makes you say "Ah..." and looks at your throat. He puts on his handy-dandy stethoscope and listens to you breathe. He says, "Injection" and smiles. You say, "Urh?" He stands up and motions to you to follow. You do. He leads you down the hall and points through a door and says "Injection Room." (Yes, they have a whole room where they do nothing but shots.) He leaves. The nurse leads you to a little table and motions pulling her pants down a little in the back. You realize you're about to get a shot in the butt in a Korean injection room thing. You panic. She grabs your shoulder and forcibly turns you around to face this little table, lifts up the back of your shirt a bit and starts rubbing some little cold pack around a spot just below your kidney. You panic a little harder. It gets numb. You hold your breath, waiting for the bite of the needle. She says, "OK" and throws the (miraculously already-empty) syringe in the trash. You button up, wipe your hands on your pants, pay the desk 3900 Won (~$3), get a prescription for something or other and go across the hall to the pharmacy. Crisis averted.

At the pharmacy, you get served a hot drink in a little glass bottle. Not sure what it was, but the word jujube springs to mind, for some reason. If anyone cares to shed a little light on this, feel free, but I'm feeling too lazy to google it right now. :) Sorry. Then you get a 3-day supply of cough medicine and 9 packets of 7 pills each. To be taken 3 times a day, with the cough medicine.

You go home, and attempt to figure out what these pills are. The internet fails you. You eat them anyway. You become woozy, light-headed, and strangely euphoric. A sense of peace settles over your muscles, your fever abates, your sinuses clear. Your life takes on meaning again. You eat, drink plenty of water, sleep. You wake up with the giddy realization that you get 3 doses of happy pills today. You watch college bowl games on the internet, cook eggs and sausage, eat pills. You watch college football on the internet. You eat leftover spaghetti, eat pills. You ... lose track of time. You realize it's 5:30 and you have to meet someone at 6. You notice that you smell, because you haven't showered all day. You also notice that since you haven't had to teach since last Wednesday, you desperately need to shave. You panic. You make it on time. You walk home at 7:30 and notice that it's friggin freezing outside. You get home, drink plenty of water, eat more leftover spaghetti, eat pills. You set an alarm to wake you at 2AM so you can watch the UH bowl game on the internet. You blog.

Please note, your experience may differ slightly from the one described above, but the main points should stay roughly the same.

So yeah -- it's almost 10pm here and I'm beat. These pills are just great. I'm going to catch a few hours sleep before waking up to watch my Coogs lay their vengeance upon the unsuspecting souls of the much-vilified Air Force Academy. I mean really, who could possibly root for the Air Force? What have they ever done for us, anyway?

And when I wake up to watch that game, it will already be 2009 here. Although the game I'll be watching live is taking place at 11AM central standard time on December 31st, 2008. I'll be watching from next year! Of course, I'll already know who wins, being in the future and all, but it'll still be fun to see how it all plays out. =Þ

And finally... my New Year's Resolution. I don't really believe in these things, it turns out, but it feels like the right thing to do. So, without further ado, I resolve to visit 5 new countries in 2009. =) I'm getting a headstart on that one, actually! Because as I had forgotten until right this second, at some point today in my medicine-induced haze I booked a flight to Thailand in January! So, in a few weeks I'll have one down and only four more to go. I further resolve to finish at least the first level of the Rosetta Stone courses I've gotten so far. These include Korean, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, and Arabic. I mean, I'm always saying (mostly to myself, but I do say it a lot) that I'm good at languages. Why screw around? I should just start trying to learn all these and see if that's really true or just something I tell myself to make me feel good. I'll keep you posted on my progress! So those are my resolutions -- see more of the world and learn to communicate better! Very noble, no? No bull!

Ha... get it? Noble? No bull? Yeah... I'm funny.

A man, a plan, and a bunch of trenchcoats sewn together

2008-12-25T23:35:00.003+09:00

Since time immemorial, man has always wanted to fly like a bird, right? Or at least, you know, fall slower than usual. Check this guy out. He was trying to prove how well his "parachute-coat" worked. He ended up proving Newton was right. Allow me to present a guy jumping off the Eiffel Tower. If you're in a rush, just skip ahead to 1:15.

I mean, yeah. I lol'ed. It's probably mean or something, but jesus that's funny.