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.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
What a Terrible Day
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.
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.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Weekend Update (like SNL, but not funny. Oh, wait, it's just like that)
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Summer Squash
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Baseball!!! Cheeseburgers!!! Yay, America!
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:
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!
- 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.
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!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Toe-yo-il pah-may
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.
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.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Quiet week, great weekend!
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.
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.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
In Brief
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. =)
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. =)
Monday, May 25, 2009
Our Day in Yeoju
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?
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?
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Korean (Food, Movies, Language)
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!
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!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Market Food
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!
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!
Monday, May 18, 2009
2 tickets to Uijeongbu, please
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.
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.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
If we left it up to chance...
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
You try making a title that sums up what I just wrote!
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...
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...
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Market Day!
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?
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?
Monday, May 4, 2009
Ceramics rock my world? Ha... no
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.
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.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Weekend update
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Ceramics... thrilling
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?
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?
Monday, April 27, 2009
I'm a Seoul Man!
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!"
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!"
Friday, April 24, 2009
My eyebrow hurts
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.
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.
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