Stories about my life in South Korea...
OK so all stories must have a hook right? Well too bad I can't remember my hook... It all started at 5am on Saterday July 30th 2011, the day of my Bon Voyage Party at my house where I invited 60 of my closest friends and family and sat day (and night) drinking until I woke up the next morning in my living room struggling to grab the remote control so I could link myself in someway back to civilization.
After a glass of milk and a buttered roll, I proceeded to watch Batman Forever and the Last Samurai... and Saving Private Ryan all on network TV so that brought my to a total of 17 hours without lifting my head off my pillow in the living room. No cell phone in reach or computer to use, I continued my mental journey into the abyss that was the previous night. I was actually fairly sober riding up to the hours of ten at night when my fellow cookhousers came and then things started to go dark... I mean really dark... apparently I rearranged my mothers garden by flopping through it like a teradactl who can't fly, then I biffed it on a stump which explains the three large gashes in my shin and scrapes on my arms. My bed was stripped and was reminded so promptly by my mother that I had puked all over myself early that morning and needed the nurse (Jessie) to shove me in the shower... I'm pretty sure that kielbasa which was delicious by the way and tasted a lot better going down then coming back up. currently it is Monday August 1st at one thirty in the afternoon and I finally have put my phone back on charge and I couldn't be happier.
Pros of the Party: People had a great time playing yard games and ping pong (and beer pong), I received a healthy dose of cash from a number of people which will be used to pick up the tab during my first night out with my co-teacher, no body got seriously hurt, I got a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black which will be cracked open once I hit Korean Soil. I saw some people I hadn't seen in a while annnnnd above all my mother seemed to be in a good mood for most of the day which made me happy. Dad got out of the hospital that morning so he was content sitting in the shade with a nice non alcoholic beverage and even made the attempt to take me down in Ping Pong... (save the joke guys).
Cons of the Party: Puking and kicking out underage girls for thinking they were too good for everyone by showing up unannounced. But hey, it comes with the territory and anytime the pros outweigh the cons I consider it a success... "VICTORY!!!" - Johnny Drama
After a glass of milk and a buttered roll, I proceeded to watch Batman Forever and the Last Samurai... and Saving Private Ryan all on network TV so that brought my to a total of 17 hours without lifting my head off my pillow in the living room. No cell phone in reach or computer to use, I continued my mental journey into the abyss that was the previous night. I was actually fairly sober riding up to the hours of ten at night when my fellow cookhousers came and then things started to go dark... I mean really dark... apparently I rearranged my mothers garden by flopping through it like a teradactl who can't fly, then I biffed it on a stump which explains the three large gashes in my shin and scrapes on my arms. My bed was stripped and was reminded so promptly by my mother that I had puked all over myself early that morning and needed the nurse (Jessie) to shove me in the shower... I'm pretty sure that kielbasa which was delicious by the way and tasted a lot better going down then coming back up. currently it is Monday August 1st at one thirty in the afternoon and I finally have put my phone back on charge and I couldn't be happier.
Pros of the Party: People had a great time playing yard games and ping pong (and beer pong), I received a healthy dose of cash from a number of people which will be used to pick up the tab during my first night out with my co-teacher, no body got seriously hurt, I got a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black which will be cracked open once I hit Korean Soil. I saw some people I hadn't seen in a while annnnnd above all my mother seemed to be in a good mood for most of the day which made me happy. Dad got out of the hospital that morning so he was content sitting in the shade with a nice non alcoholic beverage and even made the attempt to take me down in Ping Pong... (save the joke guys).
Cons of the Party: Puking and kicking out underage girls for thinking they were too good for everyone by showing up unannounced. But hey, it comes with the territory and anytime the pros outweigh the cons I consider it a success... "VICTORY!!!" - Johnny Drama
8/20: First couple days in SOKO... flight arrived at 3:50am local time at Incheon Airport on the 18th, lost about 14 hours somewhere; I think I am the first time traveler in the Van Wattum family and eventually must go "BACK to the future." Anyways, Incheon airport is the central business hub of SOKO however when I got there I was the only one there, literally... There was one customs agent, an immigration officer and somebody looking over baggage claim, that was it. Caught the first bus to Jeonju University (4 hour bus ride) which is equivalent to out Arizona State, bunch of kids looking to get drunk and party. I had my first experience with 'Kimchi' which was delicious, little spicy but a staple food for all three meals in the day.
My roomate is the man, his name is Paolo and is Phillipino but from LA; needless to say we both love music, south park and fantasy football. Once we got settled in we went to the 7/11 and bought a couple bottles of soju, think vodka with a little less alcohol content, but it does sneak up on you... the funny thing is, I bought 3 bottles and it was equivalent to costing 4 dollars USD... The Starbucks Iced coffee I bought the following day costed more. I never got so drunk by spending so less.
One thing I noticed here so far is that there are stray dogs everywhere picking through garbage and just wandering around.
My room is in decent shape, not too messy (Mom would still have a fit) but I'm handling things on my own, the food is absolutely amazing, Last night (8/19) I had smoked duck, raw octopus and of course kimchi (I had to bypass the american style dishes like hot dogs and french fries and fried chicken). I've met some really cool people and we ended up hitting this bar this past Friday. There were 17 of us and the bill at the end of the night came to 70 dollars USD, AND you don't tip... I'm astonished. As I am writing this it is 8:30am local time on Saturday and I'm looking forward to taking Taekwondo this morning after a night of drinking and a morning of SPAM and kimchi to eat. Wish me luck... As the day goes on I'll think of other things to post, I know you guys don't wanna hear the boring orientation stuff but we saw some performances yesterday which included dance and Taekwondo which was amazing... I never heard the song "SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS" integrated in an education setting, it was mind boggling. Time to go, I'll catch up with everyone later...
My roomate is the man, his name is Paolo and is Phillipino but from LA; needless to say we both love music, south park and fantasy football. Once we got settled in we went to the 7/11 and bought a couple bottles of soju, think vodka with a little less alcohol content, but it does sneak up on you... the funny thing is, I bought 3 bottles and it was equivalent to costing 4 dollars USD... The Starbucks Iced coffee I bought the following day costed more. I never got so drunk by spending so less.
One thing I noticed here so far is that there are stray dogs everywhere picking through garbage and just wandering around.
My room is in decent shape, not too messy (Mom would still have a fit) but I'm handling things on my own, the food is absolutely amazing, Last night (8/19) I had smoked duck, raw octopus and of course kimchi (I had to bypass the american style dishes like hot dogs and french fries and fried chicken). I've met some really cool people and we ended up hitting this bar this past Friday. There were 17 of us and the bill at the end of the night came to 70 dollars USD, AND you don't tip... I'm astonished. As I am writing this it is 8:30am local time on Saturday and I'm looking forward to taking Taekwondo this morning after a night of drinking and a morning of SPAM and kimchi to eat. Wish me luck... As the day goes on I'll think of other things to post, I know you guys don't wanna hear the boring orientation stuff but we saw some performances yesterday which included dance and Taekwondo which was amazing... I never heard the song "SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS" integrated in an education setting, it was mind boggling. Time to go, I'll catch up with everyone later...
OK, still 8/20: After a long, long, long, did I mention long day of orientation, I was so so tired. Orientation ran from 9am until 8:30 at night, so on my way back to the dorm where I was gonna call it a slow night I ran into my buddy from the UK Tom. You see Tom was meeting two of his buddies to find a place in the city of Jeonju to watch the Arsenal v. Liverpool soccer game... After a couple seconds of hesitation I told him I was in so we found a cab and proceeded to the inner city filled with neon lights and college kids out on a Saturday night. Needless to say we broke the language barrier with a local club which I could compare to Club Blu in Danbury to turn on the game. One flaw, their TV provider didn't carry the channel we needed... No fear though, the manager kindly asked us to sit down as he bought the TV Package on ESPN.com so we could watch the game over the internet. Talk about hospitality... My four buddies and I (one of which I still don't know the name of) had a great time tonight exploring this city and I even managed to grab some "Fish Balls" from a street vendor. I'll let you know if they are good tomorrow haha. but now I'm back in the dormitory, sneaking in soju mixed with some korean lemonade and about to watch random episodes of South Park. Good Night World!
8/21: Back to Jeonju city for a little nightlife, hit up a club, got drunk, skyped mom and dad and went to bed. Oh, did I mention this club was SICK! on the 7th floor of an apartment building AND all the boys were choreographing (spelling?) dance moves as if they were part of 98*. Same dance moves to every song whether it was DMX's "Yall gonna make me loose my mind" or to "Just Can't get Enough." Incredible. The people here are awesome, one of the bars even had this english guy as the bartender, I think he was running from the law. Anyways, enough for now, I'll tell you guys about the Temple trip we took later.
8/27: Ok, this one may or may not take a while… Today is Saturday August 27, 2011 and at 8:00am I here (just to let you know I just re-read this to make sure there were no mistakes, and I’m going to be a goddamn Engerish teacher) my stupid alarm going off that I forgot to turn off the night before. Good thing I fell asleep by 10:30pm after a long day of traveling and meeting my co-teacher. Yesterday we had a 3 hour bus trip that left at 8am, mind you it was our last night out so we were all on the verge of puking (sorry mom). Anyways, our bus didn’t leave until about 9am and we hit the road towards Gomi. At this time I thought I was heading to Chimcheon and was pretty excited about being in a semi rural town where I could be a local celebrity. Anyways, three hours pass and we get to a quasi amusement park/shopping center with a bunch of Shik-Dang Duell (restaurants). Here we ate bimibap which translates into a bunch of veggies mixed in with rice and sauce. No chairs which means I was that much closer to the ground to where my impending puke was about to land. From there, we were given an hour and a half to look around the plaza, the scenery was beautiful, I will post up pictures asap. We boarded the bus for a quick 5 minute drive to what I can only describe as an abandoned parking lot similar to Southbury Plaza if there were no cars EVER. From there we were to be picked up by our co-teachers. Here is where things get a little ironic… my African American partner from my lesson demonstration proceeds to analogize the situation as EPIK sending us off into slavery, needless to say I turn to my white friend without missing a beat and say “150 years in the making and he still can’t let go.” We both straight up lost it (sorry black friends, I love you guys; it’s just my stupid sense of humor). At this very moment, with tears in my eyes from laughing so hard I hear my name and have to hold back the bursts of laughter while shaking hands with my 4’9” female co-teacher. Ms. Gwak is such a nice lady, she brought me a drink and food to eat if I were hungry. Even though I wasn’t, I drank some sort of organic grape drank. At this moment she told me my agenda for the rest of the afternoon. At this point it is 2:00pm and I have been popping pain meds since Jeonju University. All I want to do is sleep. She tells me we are going to Daegu to the immigration office to register for my ARC (Alien Registration Card). I need the ARC to get a cell phone, open a bank account etc… I obviously concurred although we had to backtrack an hour and a half from the way I JUST came. I held my sober face for the next 5 hours. WAIT! Didn’t I tell you it was only an hour and a half back? That’s only a 3 hour trip by my calculations. After we get the ARC straightened out which only took 10 minutes in the office my co-teacher asks me if I want to meet the principal… game on. I say “yes of course I would love to meet him.” As I’m saying this I am struggling to remember what the Korean phrase for “how are you principal?” oh yeah “ann yang hasseyo gyo jang son sang nim.” We arrive at my new High School where I will teach 10th and 11th grade English. First thing we do is meet the principal, and I’m pretty sure I butchered, the phrase because the principal doesn’t speak a lick of English and he just looked at me blankly. Apparently he is very conservative and studies Confucianism (I think I may hang myself at this point). We leave the principal’s office and proceed to the teacher’s office where I have my own desk and computer, not to mention a classroom that looks much more like a college lecture hall. No whiteboard but a HD tv, workstations and lecture style seats, looks about 3X better (and bigger) than the standard classroom, lucky me. FINALLY we get to go to my apartment which is 4 rooms: kitchen, bathroom, laundry, and living/bedroom. After finishing unpacking, I took a little walk around the block so I could see what I was into, As far as I can tell you, there is a bunch of Korean restaurants, a pool hall, 3 drycleaners (obviously), and a cross between a tj maxx and food store. After walking around a bit, I got back to my apartment and proceeded to try to learn a little Korean. I fell asleep in a puddle of sweat because it is so humid here and that’s what brings us to this morning…. Hahahaha, just laughing to myself because if I wanted to, I could take about twice as long to write about today… maybe I will, we’ll see. First of all, still no internet and as I mentioned earlier my stupid alarm clock went off, so I hopped out of bed and just stared at myself in the mirror for minutes on end. God I need to loose weight, but I feel a little lighter, that kimchi is like power food. I chugged some OJ I bought the night before and got in the shower and put on some nice clothes and walked to school. Kids here go to school for self study every other Saturday from 9am to 1pm. I figured I’d make a good first impression by showing up, there are only a couple teachers there, ms. Gwak being one of them. She was very happy to see me and I told here I was there to create a welcoming powerpoint for the students to introduce myself. I found out my schedule also, only 15 classes per week, not too shabby, but it means I have a lot of “desk warming” time, AND I’m contracted to stay 8hrs a day which means days might get boring quick. ANYWAYS, I got to talk to a few EPIK people on facebook, let the parents and Jessie know I’m ok and facebook chat with Becky Nota for a bit (I know, put a bullet in my head). I finished my powerpoint presentation by about 10:30am and started chatting it up with the Korean studies teacher Mr. Seo (think our English teacher). Mr. Seo is if I would have to guess in his early 60’s but I can tell he loves to learn. He SPEAKS very little English but can READ English VERY well. I immediately find myself spelling words to him left and right. He offers me some coffee and milk (separate) and I accept, we stand looking out the third story window of the four story high school for a while, while he tries to explain to me the city of Geongju which we can see off in the distance; drinking coffee and trying to break the language barrier, he says something in Korean to Ms. Gwak and what is translated from Ms. Gwak is something very generous and unexpected, she says, “Mr. Seo would like to show you around Gyeongju but he has an appointment at 3pm”, at this time it is about 1pm. I said “That would be great.” (Spoiler Alert, I got home at 9pm so if you guys have something better to do then you can close out, c’mon, you can do it it’s that little red “x” in the upper right hand corner… oh your gonna read on? Oh I’ll feed you baby birds…). I thank both of them and Mr. Seo and I leave the building at 1pm with the rest of the students (hak-sang duell). He tells me he needs to drop his car off to get it repaired and we will eat lunch at his favorite bimibap shik-dang, (are you scrolling back up yet to find out what the hell I’m saying, I’d be). No chairs again, I’m used to that, I politely pour his cup of water first using two hands, the Korean custom and I find out quite quickly that I am better at using chopsticks than he is! We finish the communal lunch and I thank him as we walk back to get his car from the repair shop, 40 minutes and his car is finished (probably just an oil change or just the Korean rigamaroo). From here, he calls his wife and she comes with her car to get repaired; we exchange greetings in korean with no additional conversation and we are back off in Mr. Seo’s car (his wife stayed with hers at the same garage, the mechanic was a graduate of our High School). From this point I think the day is over and I am on my way home, it is 2:10pm and doesn’t Mr. Seo have an appointment at 3? Well he does and I get to make it with him, he tells me he needs a haircut. He bought me lunch, I can’t really say “no, bring me home.” SOOOOO I go with him to the barber shop where I sit in silence in the middle of 3 ladies whom I find out with about 5 minutes left that 2 of the 3 speak very good English (I was there for close to an hour sitting up straight trying not to move because it’s impolite to fidget). Those last 5 minutes were nice, one lady has a son in D.C. right now in an exchange program. Time to go right? Nope… Mr. Seo invites me to his favorite coffee shop; “Yan’s Music Café.” And yes you guessed it, Yan is the owner, really good English speaker too. Mr. Seo buys me coffee and we sit and talk to the owner for close to an hour (actually just Mr. Seo and Yan, I understood about 5 of the 5000 words they exchanged). I learn that Mr. Seo is very big into coffee and here is where I start to turn my feelings around for the day. We both had two cups, one from Costa Rica and one from Japan. And we both hate Starbucks; here is where I start to realize that Mr. Seo is very genuine. I would have been content if Mr. Seo dropped me off at my apartment after the haircut but I soon realized that the day was not even half over, and at this point, I dropped my inhibitions and rolled with whatever Mr. Seo had planned for the day… Earlier that day I showed Mr. Seo a map of Gyeongju and asked where the school was in relation to the map, he politely circled it for me and proceeded to tell me about all the historic sites of Gyeongju, also I told him I love to golf and asked where the nearest golf course was. I could only understand half of it but his face said a lot, he described Sam-Nam (South Mountain, home to the Silla((pronounced Shilla)) dynasty), and the tombs of its leaders.
Enter point of no return: Mr. Seo bypassed the road leading back to the High School and therefore my apartment and told me that we were going to go to Bomun Ho (pronounced with a “P” not “B”). This was a TOURIST resort (other Korean tourists and 5 white people). He told me “this is where to golp.” (no typo, that’s how he said it, he meant golf.) I was astounded that he understood me earlier and had the generosity to go out of his was about 15 miles to show me where I could enjoy my favorite pastime. Bomun Resort was not only a golf course but had an amusement park, countless restaurants, a museum and even a beach with a bunch of boats that looked like “Pech To Duell” (White Swans)… all these activities surrounded a lake similar size to Lake Waramaug. We got out of his Hyundai Terraconta (I think that’s what it was, some sort of SUV I didn’t recognize from the states) and proceeded to take a walk exchanging how to speak each other’s languages mainly by using hand gestures and speaking very slowly. We walked the path along the lake for about an hour then sat on a bench… apparently his knees were not in the best of shape due to an injury from badminton. On this park bench was the first time I felt like that scene in “Dances With Wolves” where Kevin Costner tries to communicate with the Indians. We spent close to another hour sitting on this bench exchanging how to say phrases in both Korean and English. I wait for him to get up first because he is my elder. At this point it is approaching 6:00pm and I am content with the day and I think that my Saturday has been great, however from 6:00-8:00pm I experience the greatest sense of tranquility (which I eventually teach Mr. Seo ((the word tranquil))). On our way back to Gyeongju, I spot a bunch of hills that look deliberate, so I asked Mr. Seo what they were (Ja-Gat-Sam-Muat-Shim-Ni-Ka(((what is that?)))). The next thing I know, Mr. Seo is paying a parking and entrance fee and we are entering the park where these tiny hills were located. Apparently, the hills were tombs from the Silla Dynasty, the main one being the first king of the Silla Dynasty “Minchu” who was guarded by the Cheon Ma Chong or “Flying Horse.” Mr. Seo and I walk around the park mostly in silence, only exchanging words when we want to learn something in each other’s language. It was the most peaceful thing I may have ever done and the only regret I have is that I didn’t have my camera for any of this, which may be for the better, might have ruined the moment. At this time it is getting the time of dusk; so we head towards the exit and I thank Mr. Seo again for a great day, however the day is not over. He wants to go to a bookstore in downtown Gyeongju to find out how to speak English and he wants me to pick it out haha. I obliged and we traveled downtown, meandering in and out of people we finally find a parking spot and walk about ten blocks to the nearest bookstore (yes people, there were about a dozen dry cleaners along the way). We finally get to the bookstore he was thinking of and I proceeded to look through the books to find one which might suit him. I had such a great day, I did not want to disappoint him with a book that he couldn’t learn from. He had no trouble identifying words just saying them, so I picked out a book that phonetically spelled out thousands of words for him. He asked “This book for me, and tried to take it to the register?” and I responded “Yes and I am paying for it, thank you for today.” He was baffled, the look on his face said it all, he was very impressed. I paid, we left the bookstore and as we walked down the street he said “dinner time, no?” I told him that I was hungry but I will make something when I get home (I guess the “I’ll make something when I get home” was lost in translation). The next thing I know I am led towards a Chinese restaurant nothing like Panda Empire and he orders two dishes of the same… I have no idea what he ordered, the waiter was one of his students, and they spoke straight Korean. ANNNND before you knew it, there was a long bowl of a combination of rice, veggies, hot sauce, shrimp and did I mention tiny little octopussies? (was the spelling right on that? Octopi? Yeah that’s it, no squiggly red line under that one). And your goddamn right I at every single last bite. Mr. Seo paid again and we proceeded back to his car where he said, “I drop you off now?” I said “Ok.” He ran the show today, not me, if it were up to me I would have been back at my apartment by 2:30 taking an afternoon nap and eventually regretting EVERYTHING that happened today. Pretty much holding back a tear, I shook Mr. Seo’s hand with both of mine and told him what a great time I had with him today. I can’t wait to see him Monday. It is exactly 11:40pm on Saturday August, 27th, I started writing a little over two hours ago and have gone through two bottles of Soju (don’t worry mom its only a little stronger than beer). And I’m not screwing my typing up THAT much, plus I don’t have internet yet so this is my only source of entertainment, once I get connected, posts will be a lot shorter, I PROMISE.
Current mood: Enlightened
Song that Just Came on: Where’d you go by Fort Minor
Current State: Drunk haha I mean tired
Love you guys…
8/28: Ok so silly me, I wanted to look for a couple DVD’s for my computer today because I still don’t have internet. Its currently Sunday August 28, 2011 at 4:30 in the afternoon and I am sitting in my living room/bedroom in my Grant Hill Magic’s jersey in front of the fan because I can’t get my stupid AC to work, I actually turned on the heat, its humid as shit and probably somewhere close to 28* Celsius, whatever the hell that means. Anyways, back to the whole DVD thingamabob… first of all, if you use the word “thingamabob” there is no squiggly red line, it’s an actual word. Take that Harvard Grads! My apartment is in a suburb of Gyeongju city and last night I saw a sign that said DVD’s on Main Street when I went out with Mr. Seo so I get the bright idea today to go hunt down some DVD’s for tonight so I don’t have to sit here and do this for my only source of entertainment. Oh by the way, I’ve started to learn to read Korean out loud although I have no idea what the hell I’m saying. The alphabet is only 23 characters and its just a mixture of syllables, so when you find out what sound each character makes, you can speak Korean! Oh wait back up back up, My day started out like any other, I woke up at 7am this time instead of 8 on my own and decided to go for a run to sweat out the Soju from last night. Good idea; I was soaked by the time I got back to my room, there is a really nice park across the street from my school about 10 mins walking distance so I ran there (I mean walked to the park then ran in the park hahaha). Lots of old ladies doing their morning ritual and there are these machines everywhere to help you build muscle and stretch, I’ll get a picture for you guys one of these days. I found a trail in the park that led to the top of a hill that overlooked Gyeonju City, nice place, I’ll go there again. From then on I came back to the apartment when it was just before 9am so I decided to fall back asleep, thankfully I did and I woke back up around 11, now that’s my style. I was itching for the internet so I decided to find a “PC Bang” or internet room. I threw on some shorts and a shirt and headed out, laptop in hand. I did find one, the owner didn’t speak any English so I just walked past him and sat down at one of the many computers that were provided. At this time I am soaked in sweat because it’s a 10 block journey AND I am a little heavy compared to most Koreans haha. I couldn’t get my laptop or the computer to work so I mumbled some cuss words and walked out of the place, only positive thing is was that I didn’t have to pay anything because I couldn’t get shit to work. This brought me to about 10:15 (a.m. still guys), and that’s when I started to realize how slow time is going so far without being connected to the world, hopefully it goes by faster tomorrow, first day of school for me, fo sho! So I got back to my room, took a quick shower, threw on my lightest outfit which was my Netherlands soccer jersey that I found 4 days prior to leaving, thank god, and headed out to find a DVD store. Mr. Seo told me yesterday it was a half hour walk to the center of the city. I thought to myself, half hour there and back is worth it for me to not be stuck looking at a blank Microsoft Word document figuring out what to write for my next blog. So I left my apartment at 12:20, not knowing exactly where to go but had a good general direction. Here is where things get a little interesting… You know that part in movies where the streets suddenly get deserted and you can feel eyes watching you? Yeah well that’s the feeling that washed over me when I entered a neighborhood going in the direction that I thought was Gyeonju City Center (by the way, I forgot to mention, everytime Mr. Seo says “City” he says, “Shitty” I almost lost it about a dozen times… thanks south park). Apparently I was just making general assumptions on where to go but I just so happened to step in the wrong barrio hombre (I think I’m fluent in three languages now). There were stray cats roaming the streets and old ladies on the sidewalks collecting trash, giving me dirty looks (probably because I was a Dutch soccer fan), and one guy was picking his butt and I think he smelt his fingers after…(family guy reference anyone? Anyone? But true nonetheless). So I finally reach civilization again and realize I am right where Mr. Seo got his car fixed yesterday. Finally some sort of relief, at this point I’m winded so I head towards a 7/11 and down a Gatorade. Still no sign of a DVD store. Found one strictly for anime but I’d rather do what I’m currently doing than watch Ash Ketchum and Pikachu try to save Mt. Fiji from some half sailor-moon tranny freak (haha Microsoft word wants me to correct “tranny” and not Ash Ketchum OR Pikachu). Sooooo I keep walking, and walking, and walking, and walking. At this time its about 12:30 (kidding, I’ve been walking for close to an hour and a half by now). And there it is, “Bob’s DVD’s,” I felt like Carlton Banks in that episode where Will gives him the “Chicksionary” and that stupid glow engulfs him. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I felt really good at this point, the day wouldn’t be a waste. So I went in, nice place, clean, friendly and a bunch of English movies to choose from. I bypassed “Mona Lisa Smile” and looked for something a little more gruesome. Then I saw it, “Hostel” in English staring me in the face (mind you, all these movies are at least 4-6 years old). I grabbed that and Old School just to make myself more well rounded and headed to the lady behind the desk. What she did, after I wanted to check out, felt as if she had stabbed me in the heart… I had to watch the movies AT Bob’s DVD’s, it was a “DVD Bang” just like the “PC Bang” you can’t take the internet OR the movies with you, just the memories… not happening, especially by myself. So I politely declined and walked out. Feeling very down and discouraged, I made the walk of shame back to my apartment which took me another 40 minutes. Not knowing how I could brighten my own day up with no internet, no movies, nobody to talk to, I figured I could hit my last vice… FOOD! I was tired of bimibap and didn’t want octopus at 3:30 in the afternoon (yes the whole trip only took three hours, but mostly all walking except for that ten minute clip at Bob’s but it felt like I was walking forever). On my way to the Top Mart, I said a few words to myself out loud in english just to make sure I hadn’t gone mute and proceeded to get about 30 bucks worth of food staples. My treat for this late afternoon lunch/dinner was a nice piece of meat, one egg, some toast and tuna fish with hotsauce and a little mayo… blue collar surf and turf. Oh yeah and of course a 40oz of Hite, as I mentioned, the Coors light of SoKo. Annnnnnnd that brings us to present time where it is 5:07 pm locally and I am about ready to go back outside because the sun has shown its face and I’m gonna try to get a couple of nice pictures.
Current feeling: full
Current state: buzzed
Current mood: optimistic
6:30, same day: Battery died just as I was heading towards the spot where I wanted to show you guys. On the plus side, I started talking to two late 20 year olds who used to attend gyerim high school and we bullshitted for about ten minutes, Jing and Wingchon, (I thought of Winston Churchill immediately). They live in the same neighborhood as me and hopefully I’ll run into them again in the near future. I did however also get some pretty good pics of the surrounding pagodas and monuments. ALSO, this is big, I want to start a tally on how many different MLB baseball caps I see, so far I’ve seen the Giants, Orioles, Indians, Yanks, Red Sox, White Sox, Padres, Marlins and I think that’s it; more to come… Now I have to write a little cheat sheet for tomorrow when I introduce myself to the entire faculty at the faculty meeting.
Current mood: nervous/pissed (that my batteries ran out)
Current state: Tranquil
And sweaty as usual.
Current feeling: full
Current state: buzzed
Current mood: optimistic
6:30, same day: Battery died just as I was heading towards the spot where I wanted to show you guys. On the plus side, I started talking to two late 20 year olds who used to attend gyerim high school and we bullshitted for about ten minutes, Jing and Wingchon, (I thought of Winston Churchill immediately). They live in the same neighborhood as me and hopefully I’ll run into them again in the near future. I did however also get some pretty good pics of the surrounding pagodas and monuments. ALSO, this is big, I want to start a tally on how many different MLB baseball caps I see, so far I’ve seen the Giants, Orioles, Indians, Yanks, Red Sox, White Sox, Padres, Marlins and I think that’s it; more to come… Now I have to write a little cheat sheet for tomorrow when I introduce myself to the entire faculty at the faculty meeting.
Current mood: nervous/pissed (that my batteries ran out)
Current state: Tranquil
And sweaty as usual.
8/30: So have I ever admitted to you guys that I get a little stubborn sometimes? Well we are all human and today just so happened to be one of those days where I wasn’t going to let the follies from yesterday get the better of me. So after my first day at school where I taught one lesson then sat at my desk for 7 hours, I decided I needed to stretch my legs. So what better way then to go hunting for a store that sells DVD’s? My foolish pride was not going to steer me away from finding some source of entertainment for tonight, and as you may have already figured out, since I am blogging again, I came home empty handed with my tail between my legs. BUT I was SO close this time… I actually came across a store that had DVD’s as a sign out front so I stepped inside and low and behold, it wasn’t a DVD Bang where I had to stay and watch the movie inside the store. I made it perfectly clear when I walked in that I was there to buy a movie… or so I thought. Apparently, SoKo didn’t get the memo that DVD rental stores are outdated and they should just get redboxes. So there I was at the checkout counter with “I am number 4” and that stupid witch movie with Nicholas Cage waiting to check out with my credit card. When the lady finally said address and pointed to the sales slip, I got frustrated and walked out. I don’t know my stupid address (probably something I should learn though, its 2 hawadong shingamadingdoodaddle or something like that). So F me again I am sitting in my underwear in front of the fan because it is hot outside again. I will practice my Korean letters a little then go to bed. Lucky me though, on the bright side, I get the internet between 3-4pm local time on Wednesday, so from then on its Facebook and pirated movies for the rest of my leg here. Till then everyone, goodnight, goodfight.
oh man, get ready for this one (8/31)
So last night was a welcoming dinner for me where I was put on the spot to give a small speech which I didn't prepare, luckily I'm a great bullshitter so I calmly stood up, raised by glass and did the good ships wood ships toast...(kidding, they wouldnt understand that). I just told them how welcomed I felt and how look forward to progress the students this year. They clapped, we drank some beer and had pulgoggi which is beef that you yourself cook kinda like fondu. Annnnd again, here is where things get interesting. There was a teacher at the end of my table doing shots of soju so I obliged, poured him a shot, he did the same for me and I soon realized what an obnoxious prick he is (good thing i have such a good po po po po po po po po po poker face). I kept a smile on the whole night even though this guy was acting like a prick. He was taking the whole heirarchy thing so seriously and even made me cheers him each time with my glass lower than his. He wasn't even anyone in power just a lonely old math teacher. But i added a couple of "cheers asshole" under my breath, and even if he heard it, he had no idea what I was talking about. Welp, it was time to leave the shik dang (restaurant) and head over to the norabang (karaoke bar). And as you all know after a couple shots of whatever, I have a voice like an angel. We get in there and all of a sudden the prick I've been raving about orders two girls for all of us guys... oh yeah back up back up. This night was also to celebrate a promotion of one of the teachers to vice principal. Needless to say he took a liking to me and held my hand (10 minute walk) the entire time to the norabang. ALSO only guys were invited so my co teacher was not there to translate and there was only one other teacher that spoke broken engerish and he was drunk, so that was fun. So back inside the room... immediately my new friend, the a-hole sends one of the girls over to me and she pours some beer in a glass and basically forces me to drink it. And again, you all know me how reluctant I am to drink beer at a party. So i get a few more brews with some co teachers and decide, screw it give me the karaoke book and the first song I pick to do by myself bear in mind is "Bohemian Rhapsody." in hindsight I probably should have warmed up with something a little easier. So I'm up there during this rediculous 7 minute song and my a-hole friend is just steaming that I am stealing his spotlight; soooooooooo he grabs the mic from me and cuts me off during "Mama Mia Mama Mia" (yeah i know, the best part, douche). And he proceeds to put on his own song. so about an hour goes by and I am just shootin the shit with the new VP (holding hands guy), and he starts to rub my leg... I don't know... nothing happend so whatever, I didn't want to insult his culture so I took it like andy duframe. All of a sudden another teacher grabs me and wants to do a duet, I'm all in now so I was like "ok sign me up!" little did I know we are singing "my heart will go on" by Celine Dion. Needless to say I nailed it, received a standing ovation and cheers from the crowd (maybe thats just the way I saw it at that point). So we leave and Mr. Lee, the half broken engerish teacher comes with me in the cab and we go back to my apartment, he asks me if I have any soju in my room (of course I do) so we have a nightcap but instead of soju, I introduce him to JW Black. He tries to use my resistance bands, almost falls over, we talk for a bit then he fades into the darkness. That was my night.
(Oh and P.S. I'm pretty sure our sloppy drunk, obnoxious friend tried to look at my weiner in the bathroom, and I'm 98% sure its probably bigger than his hahaha... try sleeping on that one mom) later guys
Oh and I just got back from lunch (12:45pm local time) - that little bastard cut me in line right when I was getting my tray... I feel like im in prison haha
(Oh and P.S. I'm pretty sure our sloppy drunk, obnoxious friend tried to look at my weiner in the bathroom, and I'm 98% sure its probably bigger than his hahaha... try sleeping on that one mom) later guys
Oh and I just got back from lunch (12:45pm local time) - that little bastard cut me in line right when I was getting my tray... I feel like im in prison haha
9/2
Ok guys so I understand that these blogs aren't always gonna be bells and whistles like the gems you are used to hearing. Just a few things to update. One my internet is hooked up at my place (Hallelujeah*!) I also made friends with a nice owner at a family restaurant about three blocks from me. They are a little expensive but treat me like gold, you have to push this little button on the table when you want service, they wont come over unless you do (on a side note, this got me thinking, when you call someone over i.e. a student, you have to call them over with an underhand motion like you are a humingbird, if you go with the overhand motion its like calling them an animal. And they want us to use a stupid button to demand service? Kinda contradicting if you ask me). Ok so nothing real exciting has happend since my party with the co-teachers, got my next two weeks lessons done in one fell swoop of 45 minutes and which is currently why I am updating my blog at my desk at 2:24 in the afternoon on this fine Friday. Actually, its not fine, its raining outside and I didn't bring my umbrella ella ella. Got a chance to finally skype Jessie and the rents so that was good. Uhhh I ordered a sweet new chair for my room through the school so no skin off my back, and found out that golf is only 20,000 won. I am begginning to read korean ok but have no idea what it means and I watched Limitless last night so that was fun... Good movie, didn't like the ending. Anyways, this brings me to 2:26 and I'm going to look at funny videos for the next two hours, I will update the blog after I get back from Daegu this weekend. Its the 4th largest city in SoKo so that should be fun. Can't wait to take a nap... later guys...
9/5
So its currently 1:24 local time and its time to catch everyone up on what went down this weekend. I went to visit Daegu City, about an hour train ride from my city of Gyeongju. My day started out not so good. My original plan was to wake up at 7 for my fantasy draft, go back to sleep, wake up at 11:30 then head to Daegu for an afternoon of exploring and a nighttime of bar hopping. Draft went well, got both MJD and Run DMC on my team and I went against all that is holy and drafted Eli as my starting QB, now I have him in both leagues I am in so I'm forced to hope that best case scenario the G-Men loose in a shootout every single game. But anyways, I could not fall back asleep so around 11 I showered up, put together an overnight bag and headed to where I thought the nearest train station was. Couldn't find it. So I flagged down a taxi and asked him to take me to the train station. He ended up taking me for a 17,000 won trip to the KTX station outside of Gyeongju. I got out, thanked him and went inside. My luck, there were only trains going out to Seoul and Busan on Saturdays. Great, back in another taxi, told him just take me to Gyeongju Station in the middle of my city. 15,000 won and a little cranky/moody I finally get a ticket for the 12:48 train to Daegu. Success!!!! or was it? I had about 20 mins to kill so I went next door to the family mart to get a drink for the train, little soju and gatorade will do the trick I thought. So I reach in my pocket, pay in cash and head back to the station. On my way back there I put my hand in my pocket and low and behold, the credit card I had in there before, was not there... Damnit, now I'm starting to get aggitated, I went back to the train station and looked around, and right where the ticket counter is, was my credit card on the floor. Oh by the way this one guy wanted me to buy him a ticket, I don't know, probably thought I was some naive tourist (which I kinda am) so I had a few choice words for him. He was humbled quickly and went about his way. Back to finding my credit card... much success. I boarded the right train thank god and was in Daegu in no time. I called up my buddy Seong and asked what he was up to. He, Paolo and a couple of our friends were heading to a resort called Herb Hillz for ziplining and amusements. I had no idea how to get there but offered a cab driver 20 bucks and he drove me (I think I made out on the deal, I was in the cab for almost 40 minutes). The place was nice, I got there after they started the course (I told them I would just catch up with them later, and hang around Daegu for 4 hours, but had second thoughts about seconds I got off the phone). I found some other Americans and a South African to hang out with, we had a few beers on the patio waiting for these guys to finish their turn on the course. Afterwards we walked the park, petting zoo, arcades, museums, interesting combinations. Now it was time to go back to our friend's apartment and get cleaned up for a night out on the town. We had some Pulgogi, which was the dish I had with my colleagues earlier that week and the bill came to 90 bucks american for 8 of us, remember no tip and we ordered seconds and had drinks. Not too shabby. From there we went to a traditional korean pub and had what I kept pronouncing by that time as "Mackavelli (sounded like tupac's last album, and no idea how to spell it)." It was honey rice wine, and they served it in tea pots... the bill came to 6 dollars each, and we all drank A LOT. We left and headed towards the Norabang where I immediatly put on some Hootie and sang "Let Her Cry" like I didn't need the rest of the Blowfish. After the Norabang the girls went in one taxi (sleeping in one apartment) while the guys walked to our apartment. Found the Red Light District, that was cool, just imagine a row of petshops with neon lights... yeah... nothing happend don't worry, they looked too depressed haha. We all wake up the next morning, watch the running marathon that is happening outside our apartment and start mindless "USA USA chants whenever we saw an american runner. After this we meet up with the rest of the crew and go out for "Hangover Soup" and yes there is a street that is dedicated to people who have hangovers where they go to eat a soup which consists of kimchi, pigs neck and spinach, it was delicious. Time to make the hour trip back to Gyeongju, I bid my friends farewell and head towards the train station. Now here I sit on Monday, one class to teach all day and 7 hours of sitting at my desk, the one lesson went very well though and I am happy with the students. Also my end table came in so I have something to put together tonight AND I received movie tickets and 70000 won gift certificate to homeplus for signing up for a year with KT internet. Gonna do a little online shopping now, catch you on the flip side...
(currently 1:50, another 2:40 to go till the end of the day, I have no idea what they are paying me for).
(currently 1:50, another 2:40 to go till the end of the day, I have no idea what they are paying me for).
9/14: yeah, yeah, yeah, blah blah blah, Vinnie hasn't updated his website in 10 days, he must have gotten caught sneaking over the border... ten days have gone since my last update and I apologize for that. The internet has been running smoothly at my apartment and I've been keeping busy. First off, there have been a few things that have happend since my last update; one, I received my first packages from the states so pretty pumped about that, two, I have gotten into the routine of downloading movie series such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter, and third, I realized that there are three other teachers in Gyeongju from EPIK, was pretty relieved at that. This past weekend I visited Daegu again and things went a lot more smoothly than last time, minus the fact that it took our group one and a half hours to find eachother in the subway system. The weekend was full of fun, drinks, darts and even a little shopping where I figured out that I am a XXL in Korea (and here I thought I was LOOSING weight, god these people are tiny). First night we went to two clubs which were awesome, I accidentally walked into the woman's bathroom (Not my fault) and had a danceoff with this korean fellow, in which I'm pretty sure he won. Second night we wanted to take it easy and have a couple of drinks at this restaurant in the shape of a sailboat which was within walking distance of the place we were staying... soooo we head out and of course it is closed (I forgot to tell you that I had a long weekend because of Chonsuk, the Korean Thanksgiving). So we continue to walk down the road and find a small underground bar where you could tell business men would go there to get prostitutes (no mom, remember I didn't have enough cash?). So we all had a drink there and wanted to find a spot a little more lively. Here is where things start to get a little obscure. We walk down the main drag of Daegu and spot a place that says "NIGHT CLUB" so we obviously oblige and walk in... No cover charge, check, we get escorted into this HUGE room with a stage at the front and low and behold a five man band is playing, all of whom are dressed in shiny silk and singing korean pop songs. This place is huge, probably with about 400 booths each with there own server. so we get some beers and this fruit dish we were talked into which was ok, its pretty common for koreans to eat fruit while they drink. So after a little beer we are on the dance floor doing the whole traditional korean boy band routine and then all of a sudden the lights go dark. ANNNNND then the DJ starts stripping off all his clothes... not just some but all of them... I definitly wasn't the only guy in the room but I think we accidentally stepped into a gay bar. this peep show from the DJ only lasted about five minutes and it only happend once, which kinda took me off guard, then things just went back to normal like nothing happend. We left when we had no more money and walked back to the apartment. HOWEVER, we got lost and wound up in the complete opposite direction. So we took a taxi and everything was good. Next day was a recovery day, just chilled and I took a train back to Gyeongju. Yesterday I met up with my boy John and we had some korean BBQ, watched the social network while drinking soju and both of us fell asleep on my floor, I think it was just from the food coma. So this brings us back to today where I sit at my desk waiting for the next 2:40 to go by so I can go home. No more classes for the day, only had 2 to teach so I get to stare at my computer screen now for what will seem like forever. Until next time, I'll try to keep you guys posted a little more often...
Later Gators.
Later Gators.
Monday 9/20
Hello again everyone, I am finally settled into my routine of school, running, downloading movies and drinking so I figured I would dedicate this blog post to a few things that I've taken notice here in Korea so far...
1: The driving here is THE WORST DRIVING I HAVE EVER SEEN! Example 1: there is a fourway intersection, two cars are behind eachother at each stop, there is no stop sign, which is the first sign of a problem (no pun intended)... Driver A crosses the intersection as do drivers B,C, and D all at the same time, then they slam on their brakes and stare at eachother for about 8 seconds and all of them back up at the same time... but the cars that were behind them don't stop either so they need to back up too.. so they honk at eachother and proceed to go double wide twice through the intersection as a little guy on a moped tries to weave his way in and out of the 8 cars which he always manages to do while carrying god knows what in his basket (probably eggplants) and with a tiny korean girl holding on to his hips with a hello kitty helmet. Example 2: Taxi cab drivers here probably kill more people than lightning strikes, hurricanes, earthquakes and Charlie Sheen combined... they have no regard for anything in their path and will travel about 100km/hr down a 30 km/hr road, but most of them are nice.
2: I HATE RUNNING: its not that I don't enjoy it... (little contradictory I know), it relieves stress, gets me into shape (kind of) and lets me check out the area and say hello to my neighbors. What I hate about running is the people that I come into contact with, the other walkers/runners. Example: I am running in a straight line and there is another walker/runner 30 yards in front of me walking/running in a straight line. We are in two different lanes and if we passed eachother now there would be no collision... but just like the driving style, it seems collision is inevitable. with about 20 yards in the closing gap every person I run by tries to run in my lane and I end up side-stepping people as the last second which I guess improves my agility so whatever, its just annoying that this is common practice. Maybe they just do it because I'm Waygook (foreigner). At least winter will be here soon so I'll have an excuse not to run.
3: When you ask ANY student in the halls how they are, they respond with "I am fine" there is no other answer.
4: Every void in a conversation is filled with "ney" by the other person which means "yes." Example: Person A: I am going out to dinner tonight (Pause). Person B: Ney Person A: I am going to have bulgogi (korean dish) Person B: Ney Person A: I am going to shoot you in the face: Person B: Ney... and it goes on and on and on like this.
5: Soccer is played rain or shine, and in any season here at my school every. single. day. they have no gym.
6: Soup, rice, kimchi are served at every school lunch, not a bad thing, I kinda like it.
7: It smells like shit
8: I have all the time in the world at school to do whatever I want as long as it involves staying at my desk, which kinda sucks.
9: I hate missing football season, I can't watch any games because of A: The time difference and B: no channel access. But I'm doing fantasy football anyways.
10: I'm a fantastic cook (you boil potatoes right?)
11: Koreans are very clever in some aspects but totally dumb in others Example A: they have little grooves for your spoon or chopsticks on the bowl to hold them which I think is clever, on the contrary, the police don't carry guns and ask you for your passport if you need directions.
12: Those aren't Swastikas I see everywhere, they are some buddhist symbol
13: There is a never ending use of the phrase "Annyanghaseyo" and "Kamsahamnida" until somebody leaves
That's my baker's dozen list of things I've noticed so far here in SoKo... hopefully there will be more to come.
(Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, in Homeplus, which is a store similar to Costco, whenever this certain nursery rhyme comes over the loudspeaker, all the employees drop what they're doing and do this stupid ass dance... I'll take my camera next time I go).
1: The driving here is THE WORST DRIVING I HAVE EVER SEEN! Example 1: there is a fourway intersection, two cars are behind eachother at each stop, there is no stop sign, which is the first sign of a problem (no pun intended)... Driver A crosses the intersection as do drivers B,C, and D all at the same time, then they slam on their brakes and stare at eachother for about 8 seconds and all of them back up at the same time... but the cars that were behind them don't stop either so they need to back up too.. so they honk at eachother and proceed to go double wide twice through the intersection as a little guy on a moped tries to weave his way in and out of the 8 cars which he always manages to do while carrying god knows what in his basket (probably eggplants) and with a tiny korean girl holding on to his hips with a hello kitty helmet. Example 2: Taxi cab drivers here probably kill more people than lightning strikes, hurricanes, earthquakes and Charlie Sheen combined... they have no regard for anything in their path and will travel about 100km/hr down a 30 km/hr road, but most of them are nice.
2: I HATE RUNNING: its not that I don't enjoy it... (little contradictory I know), it relieves stress, gets me into shape (kind of) and lets me check out the area and say hello to my neighbors. What I hate about running is the people that I come into contact with, the other walkers/runners. Example: I am running in a straight line and there is another walker/runner 30 yards in front of me walking/running in a straight line. We are in two different lanes and if we passed eachother now there would be no collision... but just like the driving style, it seems collision is inevitable. with about 20 yards in the closing gap every person I run by tries to run in my lane and I end up side-stepping people as the last second which I guess improves my agility so whatever, its just annoying that this is common practice. Maybe they just do it because I'm Waygook (foreigner). At least winter will be here soon so I'll have an excuse not to run.
3: When you ask ANY student in the halls how they are, they respond with "I am fine" there is no other answer.
4: Every void in a conversation is filled with "ney" by the other person which means "yes." Example: Person A: I am going out to dinner tonight (Pause). Person B: Ney Person A: I am going to have bulgogi (korean dish) Person B: Ney Person A: I am going to shoot you in the face: Person B: Ney... and it goes on and on and on like this.
5: Soccer is played rain or shine, and in any season here at my school every. single. day. they have no gym.
6: Soup, rice, kimchi are served at every school lunch, not a bad thing, I kinda like it.
7: It smells like shit
8: I have all the time in the world at school to do whatever I want as long as it involves staying at my desk, which kinda sucks.
9: I hate missing football season, I can't watch any games because of A: The time difference and B: no channel access. But I'm doing fantasy football anyways.
10: I'm a fantastic cook (you boil potatoes right?)
11: Koreans are very clever in some aspects but totally dumb in others Example A: they have little grooves for your spoon or chopsticks on the bowl to hold them which I think is clever, on the contrary, the police don't carry guns and ask you for your passport if you need directions.
12: Those aren't Swastikas I see everywhere, they are some buddhist symbol
13: There is a never ending use of the phrase "Annyanghaseyo" and "Kamsahamnida" until somebody leaves
That's my baker's dozen list of things I've noticed so far here in SoKo... hopefully there will be more to come.
(Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, in Homeplus, which is a store similar to Costco, whenever this certain nursery rhyme comes over the loudspeaker, all the employees drop what they're doing and do this stupid ass dance... I'll take my camera next time I go).
Monday 9/27
So I have to get this weekend out on paper before I forget what happend. If you have been looking at my picturs on facebook you can catch a glimpse of me here and there and have an idea of what the atmosphere is like here in Korea, ESPECIALLY when you put about 20 of the coolest people in the far eastern hemisphere together... Well here we go; this past week was nothing special, I cooked my buddy John dinner on Wednesday and we watched the Roast of Charlie Sheen. That Roast was in my opinion the best one yet, I though almost all the jokes were on point and nobody was worse than "The Situation" from the last one. Amy Schurer's joke about Ryan Dunn may have little a little hard but only because Steve-O was there, nobody complained about the Amy Winehouse one at the start so I don't think people should be getting bent out of shape all that much, celebrities die to ya know and the way Louis CK puts it, "We are all just dead people that haven't died yet, we spend most of the time dead." OK back on topic its currently 1:28 here in the afternoon and I'm sitting at my desk listening to Kicks 105.5 (country music station for those not from CT) and I'm looking outside at the beautiful day that has been brought forth today. I already taught my one and only class today and hid in my english lab watching Trailer Park Boys. OK, time to travel back in time. Time: Friday 7pm Location: My apartment Company: John, Marlene, Richele Drink of choice: Soju (of course). We play some drinking games and then head out to dinner. We meet up with Richele's co-teach and head out on the town, beer here, soju there, makali (rice wine) here, whiskey there and more beer here... at nights end I find out that there is a local poker game that happens every wednesday and the buy in is only 10000 (won guys)... and had to get to bed because John and I were going to Daegu to meet up with some people on Saturday. 1030 am comes quicker than expected so I skype the parents and go back to bed for another hour. John is at my door at noon and we head to the train station. we get to Daegu around 3 and we are both beat so we try to find a motel... terrible idea, well the idea was good just the way we ended up there and the cost was a little higher than expected. After an hour of walking around aimlessly in Daegu we decide to give up and hail a taxi to take us to the nearest motel. I think the taxi driver thought we were "together, together," the driver takes us to a love motel. Both of us are so tired at this point, we just want a power nap so we can have a good night. So we take a short glance and hold a little smurk at eachother and we head into the motel, but not after I give John a little smack in the butt for the taxi driver to see as we exit the cab (just for shits and giggles). This place is posh, real posh. we get a room for 75 bucks and head up to the room. There was a small stage, flat screen tv, bathrobes, queen size bed, internet and two showers, it was like a penthouse... OH! and neon lights... definitely a love motel. We nap up, shower up, clean up and hit the town. We hit travelers which is a foreigners bar, have some burgers which were delicious and a couple beers (I had to get a makers on the rocks of course), then we head to a cocktail lounge to chill for a bit... others order some more food and then off to the club (where most of the pictures are from)... good times. The not so good time was that at 3am when it was time to go back to our love shack, John and I had no idea where to go, so we travled for 2 hours looking for this place and rolled up just before 5am. Woke up at noon, checked out, took some pillows and towels for my place and peaced out of Daegu... by my count that's 3 great times out of 3 visits, lets keep it goin guys. Until next time, im starting to miss my friends and fam back in the states, everything is good here and I'll be back soon. Its 1:50 and I just heard a advertisement for the Cookhouse... FML.
Tuesday 10/4
Looks like from here on out guys there will be about one update a week... couple things happend this past week that were pretty sweet. One I got to play soccer with one of my classes on Wednesday which I may make an every week occurance from here on out. As a warmup the students do pull ups and long jumps, neither of which I can do very well... I struggle out a couple of pull ups and on to the long jump where I feel like a kid with cerebral palsy (Just a joke guys, I sometimes cross my own line of decency, this was I know I still have one). Anyways the soccer game was great, I tried to put it all on the line and actually ended up scoring the first goal (even though I may have been offsides, but regardless it was a dirty goal, cross from the right side and one timer to the back of the net). Enough about my outstanding athleticism, within minutes I am drenched in sweat and am counting the minutes till the whistle blows to go back inside. Schools done and I find myself at a local bar around 9:30 for a poker tournament! Played well finished 5th out of 13 but top 4 got paid so that sucks. Anyways Thursday I went out to dinner with Richele and John, was introduced to Korean Ice Cream sandwiches which are delicious... instead of chocolate its like an angel food cake. Friday we went to the culture expo in Gyeongju which was awesome, it was kinda like our Big E back home... saw a 3-D movie for the first time, that was cool, went to a restaurant with the co-teachers off campus from the event and had some shots of Chinese moonshine, that was good. For lunch we had some spicy soup and General Tsos chicken (closest comparison I could make). Little exploring around the expo, we saw some breakdance perf0rmance, history exhibits and traditional and contemporary dances. It was a good day, got out an hour early and took a nap. Nightlife was as usual on Friday, went out for a bit to the regular waygook (foreigner) hangout spots and had a couple (dozen) beers. Saturday we went to Jinju for a lantern festival which was awesome minus the fact that getting there and back was an adventure in itself. First of all, we had Monday off so decided to go there on Saturday and come back on Sunday so we could have Monday here in Gyeongju for our own festival... needless to stay we end up staying two nights in Jinju because it takes us close to 7 hours to get there by train taxi and bus; not fun. SOOOOO we miss the first night of the festival, decide to go out on the town instead and stay the night on Sunday. The motel we stayed at had no locks and was shady as all hell, had to carry anything you didn't want gone through or stolen with you at all times. No hot water, so cold showers were there to wake us up. On Sunday we went to the lantern festival which was really cool and hung out there for the afternoon and the night, I have some pictures in the pictures section, don't worry. We were all tired so we decided to go out for a beer and call it an early night... yeah that didn't happen, next thing you know we are at another nightclub and again, the same things happen as before in addition to this father trying to sell his daughter to me (no ring on my finger guys don't worry). Anyways, what was supposed to be an early night turns into a 3am cab ride home, whatever. Monday we leave Jinju at noon and get back to Gyeongju at 430 after taking a bus then a train from Dongdaegu (Daegu's train station). So now I sit at my desk as usual, it is 1:04 local time, had smoked duck for lunch which was delicious and now I wait till 3:10 when I have my second (and last) class of the day. Until next time guys.
Oh yeah, and I think I am loosing weight, my finger doesn't go as deep into my belly button anymore...
Oh yeah, and I think I am loosing weight, my finger doesn't go as deep into my belly button anymore...
Monday October something
The days are starting to blur together, my blog posts are getting to be less frequent and the stories are becoming few and far between... I will give you a glimpse of my daily schedule: Monday I have one class to teach all days (by the way shawn mullins just came on my iTunes and I always automatically think of the office when Michael Yells "I need more Mullins!") anyways, Mondays are a breeze, kinda boring but I dodge my co-teachers glances at my computer with some sort of Microsoft Word Document always minimized so I can watch rescue me all day and bring it up when anyone walks into the office. All other days besides fridays I teach two classes, friday I teach 3. The school has let me use their gym so I now leave school around 6, come home and eat an egg sandwich (tonight I made a triple decker with garlic and ham, it was awesome). I've been into watching standup comics lately so I downloaded a bunch; Chapelle, Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson, Birbiglia, Louis C.K. I usually fall asleep to them. Wednesdays are poker night, since the first night, I've been sucking but whatever, I limit myself to one rebuy then get the hell out. Poker night breaks up the week nice and gives me a chance to meet some new people. Fridays we have been going to the local foreigner bars, ALMOST got into a scuffle with some middle aged guy last weekend because he got into the bartender's face who doesn't have a bad bone in his body...words were exchanged but nothing happend (I can't be winding up in korean jail haha). Saturday, same song as Friday and sunday night I've been playing soccer with a dozen other guys at these fields about half the size of a normal field, so 6 v 6 is perfect, also gives a nice ending to the week and deters the drinking. Two things I'll leave you with this week, One: bottle of gin, less than 7 dollars U.S.D. so gin and ginger is my new kick and Two: I went grocery shopping today, bought some pringles, got home, threw them on my bed, forgot they were there, sat on them when I checked my computer and I felt a "poof" up my butt... Once you pop the fun don't stop... later guys
October 25th
So you know bank street? ( for those of you not in new milford, just imagine a one way street with cars that parallel park on both sides), bank street describes every side road in korea. With that being said, I live on a side road and tend to get almost hit 3-6 times every day when walking to school (make that 6-12, I have to walk back). Ok, before I begin this blog post, my mind is a little flustered because my computer crashed and didn’t save all that I had written before (it was comic genius of course) so now I have to try to recreate the work of art that is now lost in the abyss of cyberspace or the matrix or whatever the hell you want to call it…
OK back on topic… I have tried to keep myself entertained since the last blog post.
One: One thing I enjoy doing is messing with one of my EPIK graduates (who is to be left nameless)… let me explain… this kid has the tendency to comment on every single person’s post on the EPIK group facebook page… soooooo I’ve come up with the brilliant plan of posting questions that I know he will just inherently answer such as: “What should I do this weekend, any suggestions?” and “How should I spend my time sitting at my desk, any suggestions?” you get the pattern right? So I just sit back at my desk at school and wait until this kid answers, just to see what he will say, now mind you, I do this EVERY day, you would think he may catch on, or maybe he just thinks he’s playing a joke on me… whatever, just using my time wisely here in korea haha.
Two: I am almost done with the series “Rescue Me” on FX, and I have watched about 60% of it at my desk at school… Tommy Gavin, that ball buster.
Three: Its about time I break it to the rest of the world that I am probably taking the long way home via the trans Siberian railroad (while listening to the trans Siberian orchestra), then to Riga, Latvia, then to Amsterdam to visit family then to JFK where hopefully I will be reunited with the padres and Jessie.
Four: My ccsu shorts got holes in the crotch, now I can only wear them around the apartment.
Five: One of my co-teachers uses the phrase “I reckon.” Had to hold back the laughter first time I heard it. Oh and my main co-teacher always uses the phrase “my pleasure” when she does the most miniscule thing for me.
Six: Even the most proper adults spit wherever, whenever.
Seven: Enough with the goddamn horns already. From 11pm to 7am it is complete silence outside, but in between… people feel the need to honk their horns like its going out of style (tried to think of a better analogy, post on my facebook wall if you can think of one and I will replace it).
Eight: I feel that blogs are getting more and more scarce… not good, it means that I am experiencing less and less… this weekend I am going to Busan (formally Pusan) to witness the international fireworks festival, should be a good time, hope to take some pictures for you guys to see. I am starting to get over that “honeymoon” phase with korea even though I still love it here, but I am beginning to miss home a little more each day. The language just goes through one ear and out the other, I can read it just not speak or understand it… whatever, there are enough foreigners around for me to know that if I do need to talk to someone, they will be there. My best friend here is a kid named John, he is from Minnesota and has the same sense of humor as Chris Leary, so for that reason, although I hate it, I can’t get enough of him. He lives about a 8 minute taxi drive from me and we see each other ever weekend but usually not during the week. The weeks are starting to get lonely, but I am keeping busy, writing blogs and hanging out on my roof (no mom, I wont jump, just a quiet place to sit and think). But I want all of you to know back home that I do think about you guys and hope all is well. If you want to send anything out of the goodness of your heart; a letter, a bottle of jack, a tin of skoal (which is impossible to find by the way) you can reach me at:
Gyerim High School
897-1 Hwangseong-dong
Gyeong-ju, Gyeongsangbuk-do South Korea
780-955
Miss you guys…
OK back on topic… I have tried to keep myself entertained since the last blog post.
One: One thing I enjoy doing is messing with one of my EPIK graduates (who is to be left nameless)… let me explain… this kid has the tendency to comment on every single person’s post on the EPIK group facebook page… soooooo I’ve come up with the brilliant plan of posting questions that I know he will just inherently answer such as: “What should I do this weekend, any suggestions?” and “How should I spend my time sitting at my desk, any suggestions?” you get the pattern right? So I just sit back at my desk at school and wait until this kid answers, just to see what he will say, now mind you, I do this EVERY day, you would think he may catch on, or maybe he just thinks he’s playing a joke on me… whatever, just using my time wisely here in korea haha.
Two: I am almost done with the series “Rescue Me” on FX, and I have watched about 60% of it at my desk at school… Tommy Gavin, that ball buster.
Three: Its about time I break it to the rest of the world that I am probably taking the long way home via the trans Siberian railroad (while listening to the trans Siberian orchestra), then to Riga, Latvia, then to Amsterdam to visit family then to JFK where hopefully I will be reunited with the padres and Jessie.
Four: My ccsu shorts got holes in the crotch, now I can only wear them around the apartment.
Five: One of my co-teachers uses the phrase “I reckon.” Had to hold back the laughter first time I heard it. Oh and my main co-teacher always uses the phrase “my pleasure” when she does the most miniscule thing for me.
Six: Even the most proper adults spit wherever, whenever.
Seven: Enough with the goddamn horns already. From 11pm to 7am it is complete silence outside, but in between… people feel the need to honk their horns like its going out of style (tried to think of a better analogy, post on my facebook wall if you can think of one and I will replace it).
Eight: I feel that blogs are getting more and more scarce… not good, it means that I am experiencing less and less… this weekend I am going to Busan (formally Pusan) to witness the international fireworks festival, should be a good time, hope to take some pictures for you guys to see. I am starting to get over that “honeymoon” phase with korea even though I still love it here, but I am beginning to miss home a little more each day. The language just goes through one ear and out the other, I can read it just not speak or understand it… whatever, there are enough foreigners around for me to know that if I do need to talk to someone, they will be there. My best friend here is a kid named John, he is from Minnesota and has the same sense of humor as Chris Leary, so for that reason, although I hate it, I can’t get enough of him. He lives about a 8 minute taxi drive from me and we see each other ever weekend but usually not during the week. The weeks are starting to get lonely, but I am keeping busy, writing blogs and hanging out on my roof (no mom, I wont jump, just a quiet place to sit and think). But I want all of you to know back home that I do think about you guys and hope all is well. If you want to send anything out of the goodness of your heart; a letter, a bottle of jack, a tin of skoal (which is impossible to find by the way) you can reach me at:
Gyerim High School
897-1 Hwangseong-dong
Gyeong-ju, Gyeongsangbuk-do South Korea
780-955
Miss you guys…
Tuesday November 1st
ooook so the fireworks festival was awesome, minus the fact that my batteries ran out about an hour before the show... didn't get to bed until almost 5am but I remember swimming in the Yellow Sea... (I think thats the one right?). But i didn't really swim just went ankle deep and the one thing I remember my new South African buddy yelling at me was "Be careful, there's Sharks!!!"
OK, enough rambling... the fireworks were awesome, the morning after, not so much however I did end up spending 100000 won less then I anticipated (we found a casino and apparently I hit a wrong button on the ATM and I was playing with much less than I thought I was... so great success!). currently it is 6:37pm local time and I am chillen in my apartment eating a little dinner, I've taken to the liking of tofu mixed with tuna mixed with hot sauce with a couple of egg rolls on the side, probably the most healthy kick I've had in a while (minus the gin and juice sitting next to me). I received the birthday card from the padres in the mail yesterday and it brought me back down to earth... I do miss them and everyone back home, no matter how much of a front I put up, but as of right now im just "riding the wave" sort to speak, when am I ever going to have an experience like this again? I also heard that the NorthEast got hit with a crazy snowstorm... today it was 21* celcius (look the conversion up on google if you'd like, im too lazy) it was beautiful outside, took a little walk during my lunchbreak and tweaked my ankle somehow... its all bruised up, I hope it goes away soon, its very painful.
Anyways, I am updating my pictures section as we speak... and if you get a chance, birthdays for me are like what I just updated on my facebook page (for those of you who don't get to see this till later, scroll down my wall to november 1st 2011, then wish me a happy belated birthday, bastards).
yeah so as for the pictures section... I know Its been a while so go take a look!
current mood: enthusiastic about my website
current noise I'm hearing: the sound of laundry
current pain: My Ankle
And P.S.: How do you know when garlic has gone bad?
OK, enough rambling... the fireworks were awesome, the morning after, not so much however I did end up spending 100000 won less then I anticipated (we found a casino and apparently I hit a wrong button on the ATM and I was playing with much less than I thought I was... so great success!). currently it is 6:37pm local time and I am chillen in my apartment eating a little dinner, I've taken to the liking of tofu mixed with tuna mixed with hot sauce with a couple of egg rolls on the side, probably the most healthy kick I've had in a while (minus the gin and juice sitting next to me). I received the birthday card from the padres in the mail yesterday and it brought me back down to earth... I do miss them and everyone back home, no matter how much of a front I put up, but as of right now im just "riding the wave" sort to speak, when am I ever going to have an experience like this again? I also heard that the NorthEast got hit with a crazy snowstorm... today it was 21* celcius (look the conversion up on google if you'd like, im too lazy) it was beautiful outside, took a little walk during my lunchbreak and tweaked my ankle somehow... its all bruised up, I hope it goes away soon, its very painful.
Anyways, I am updating my pictures section as we speak... and if you get a chance, birthdays for me are like what I just updated on my facebook page (for those of you who don't get to see this till later, scroll down my wall to november 1st 2011, then wish me a happy belated birthday, bastards).
yeah so as for the pictures section... I know Its been a while so go take a look!
current mood: enthusiastic about my website
current noise I'm hearing: the sound of laundry
current pain: My Ankle
And P.S.: How do you know when garlic has gone bad?
November 13th
My ankle is better guys, not to worry, been jogging a little and working out but balancing that out with going out until 5am and eating these interesting bagels that have an entire pizza inside of them... yeah gotta stay at equilibrium you know. I have to say that I have been slacking on the posts, not because I don't have enough to write about but only because I haven't really had time. Couple of things have happend since my last update...
1: My birthday came and went, I am 25 here in Korean years (I feel like a canine)
2: Had a terrible trip to Daegu which left a bad taste in traveling in my mouth for a while
3: I've come to realize that I will do more in my 3 week english camp than I have done all semester long
4: I almost cried after Toy Story 3
5: I put all my faith in every single taxi driver here... although Koreans are shitty drivers in general, I feel these guys know what they're doing
6: Went to the Challenger's league soccer championship here in Gyeongju (Class K3, amateur league)... was awesome; we were down 0-2 half and came back to win 3-2, saw some of my students there, I'll post pictures soon
7: Last Friday I was gonna call it a slow night but ended up bar hopping, playing pool, having a 4am soup snack then watching Ireland and Estonia live on TV at my buddies house (the game STARTED at 5am, didn't get home till 7, that was nice, I don't think I saw daylight the entire day...
8: There is always someone sick around me so I've taken to chugging orange juice every morning for a little bit of Vitamin C
9: The students are getting better at speaking english, had a speaking test and most of them did surprisingly well, even though they can't fail (which I find stupid, the lowest grade they can get is a 60 and that's if they don't do anything).
10: I wake up constantly in the middle of the night, so that sucks
11: Its still pretty warm here, during the day it hits 65* F at night its around 40 or so, I like it.
12: Becky Nota made me write this stupid update... later guys
1: My birthday came and went, I am 25 here in Korean years (I feel like a canine)
2: Had a terrible trip to Daegu which left a bad taste in traveling in my mouth for a while
3: I've come to realize that I will do more in my 3 week english camp than I have done all semester long
4: I almost cried after Toy Story 3
5: I put all my faith in every single taxi driver here... although Koreans are shitty drivers in general, I feel these guys know what they're doing
6: Went to the Challenger's league soccer championship here in Gyeongju (Class K3, amateur league)... was awesome; we were down 0-2 half and came back to win 3-2, saw some of my students there, I'll post pictures soon
7: Last Friday I was gonna call it a slow night but ended up bar hopping, playing pool, having a 4am soup snack then watching Ireland and Estonia live on TV at my buddies house (the game STARTED at 5am, didn't get home till 7, that was nice, I don't think I saw daylight the entire day...
8: There is always someone sick around me so I've taken to chugging orange juice every morning for a little bit of Vitamin C
9: The students are getting better at speaking english, had a speaking test and most of them did surprisingly well, even though they can't fail (which I find stupid, the lowest grade they can get is a 60 and that's if they don't do anything).
10: I wake up constantly in the middle of the night, so that sucks
11: Its still pretty warm here, during the day it hits 65* F at night its around 40 or so, I like it.
12: Becky Nota made me write this stupid update... later guys
November 22, 2011
As per request by Ms. Lizz Mott (soon to be Mrs. Lizz Meyer), I am writing this post to update you on what has been going on… to sum it up, not much, I have settled down and I am keeping my routine going, I stopped drinking during the week and pretty much just go out on Friday nights, stay in on Saturdays and play soccer on Sundays. My school took away my gym equipment downstairs, I have no idea why so I am forced to do pushups and situps in my apartment (hold the jokes guys). Other than that things have been pretty low key, I get paid on Friday so that should be fun, my co-teacher doesn’t want much to do with me so I’m happy with that AND I have been kicking ass in Fantasy Football, 5 game win streak baby. But there have been some things that have been annoying me lately about this place I call home for the time being and they are as follows:
1. The driving still sucks, I want to pull every motorist out of their vehicle and punch them in the face
2. There is a teacher in my office that insists on letting one rip behind a bookcase every day after lunch, I think he thinks I don’t hear him; I do buddy, I do.
3. The students are fine except for one class on Fridays, They are starting to annoy me.
4. One of my co-teachers insists on higher grades on exams than I think are fit. Some kids suck at English, that’s just fact just like I would suck at Korean if they gave me a test (although they shouldn’t suck because they’ve been studying it since Elementary School). This is going to set me off on a little bit of a tangent. You know how we all think South Koreans are all honor students and are the smartest students on the farthest east of the Mississippi? Well I think I am on to them. Let me explain, when making a rubric for grading, the teachers don’t allow ANYTHING below a 60. I had students prepare NOTHING for my speaking test and instead of a 0, they got a 60, and when I asked the teachers if I could give a 0, they just respond with “I think a 60 is good.” I don’t know, kinda pissed me off that students are getting grades that they shouldn’t be getting… call me cynical but if a student deserves a failing grade because he didn’t put forth any effort then he should get a failing grade, not one just below passing.
5. The language key on my keyboard at work is really close to the space bar (and the space bar is 1/3 the size of that at home, probably because of their tiny fingers) so halfway through every other sentence, I find myself writing in hangul (Korean).
6. To expand on #4 a little, sports players (meaning only Taekwondo and Field Hockey) are exempt from my class and get to sleep through it either in class or downstairs in the basement which makes me a little offended, I think it’s really rude to sleep through someone’s class no matter how boring it is (not that my classes are boring, c’mon now).
7. The Godfather Part II wasn’t as good as I thought it was going to be.
8. Everyone complains about how cold its getting, they come into class with puffy jackets, blankets and scarves, I have to keep it PG but they are being a bunch of bitches
9. I hate listening to that sound you make right before your about to spit, the “ACHHHH” that comes from every person from every angle at every minute of the day
10. My co teacher won’t stop coughing in my direction; she tapped me out of all my cough drops I brought from the states. This has been going on for 3 weeks now
11. I put my headphones on so nobody talks to me even though I’m not listening to anything… (come to think of it, I’m in my English Room by myself writing this and I have headphones on… not listening to anything, it’s becoming habit)
12. The nurse is on my ass about my blood pressure everyday even though its 130/77; get off my back, we can’t all be 110 pound Koreans who have lived off of fermented cabbage and seaweed soup all our lives
Thanks Lizz now I’m in a pissed off mood… just kidding, miss you guys.
Oh and one more thing, all the brooms here are made of some type of wooden quills, I feel like I’m on the little frickin’ house on the Prairie
1. The driving still sucks, I want to pull every motorist out of their vehicle and punch them in the face
2. There is a teacher in my office that insists on letting one rip behind a bookcase every day after lunch, I think he thinks I don’t hear him; I do buddy, I do.
3. The students are fine except for one class on Fridays, They are starting to annoy me.
4. One of my co-teachers insists on higher grades on exams than I think are fit. Some kids suck at English, that’s just fact just like I would suck at Korean if they gave me a test (although they shouldn’t suck because they’ve been studying it since Elementary School). This is going to set me off on a little bit of a tangent. You know how we all think South Koreans are all honor students and are the smartest students on the farthest east of the Mississippi? Well I think I am on to them. Let me explain, when making a rubric for grading, the teachers don’t allow ANYTHING below a 60. I had students prepare NOTHING for my speaking test and instead of a 0, they got a 60, and when I asked the teachers if I could give a 0, they just respond with “I think a 60 is good.” I don’t know, kinda pissed me off that students are getting grades that they shouldn’t be getting… call me cynical but if a student deserves a failing grade because he didn’t put forth any effort then he should get a failing grade, not one just below passing.
5. The language key on my keyboard at work is really close to the space bar (and the space bar is 1/3 the size of that at home, probably because of their tiny fingers) so halfway through every other sentence, I find myself writing in hangul (Korean).
6. To expand on #4 a little, sports players (meaning only Taekwondo and Field Hockey) are exempt from my class and get to sleep through it either in class or downstairs in the basement which makes me a little offended, I think it’s really rude to sleep through someone’s class no matter how boring it is (not that my classes are boring, c’mon now).
7. The Godfather Part II wasn’t as good as I thought it was going to be.
8. Everyone complains about how cold its getting, they come into class with puffy jackets, blankets and scarves, I have to keep it PG but they are being a bunch of bitches
9. I hate listening to that sound you make right before your about to spit, the “ACHHHH” that comes from every person from every angle at every minute of the day
10. My co teacher won’t stop coughing in my direction; she tapped me out of all my cough drops I brought from the states. This has been going on for 3 weeks now
11. I put my headphones on so nobody talks to me even though I’m not listening to anything… (come to think of it, I’m in my English Room by myself writing this and I have headphones on… not listening to anything, it’s becoming habit)
12. The nurse is on my ass about my blood pressure everyday even though its 130/77; get off my back, we can’t all be 110 pound Koreans who have lived off of fermented cabbage and seaweed soup all our lives
Thanks Lizz now I’m in a pissed off mood… just kidding, miss you guys.
Oh and one more thing, all the brooms here are made of some type of wooden quills, I feel like I’m on the little frickin’ house on the Prairie
December 6th, 2011
Almost 1/3 of the way done with my tour, the time is starting to fly by. Couple of things happend the last couple days that were pretty new and exciting. I'll start off by saying last weekend I didn't do much of anything... cleaned my aparment, went out for pizza, watched some pirated movies, played some basketball with some chinese kids (they account for maybe 2% of the population guys, and we all know Yao Ming and Wang Zhu Zhu were the biggest flops the NBA has ever seen), and played soccer on sunday night with the regular crew. the past 2 weeks have flown by, I'm not playing much poker anymore because since its held at a local bar, i usually end up calling random "All-ins" after a few Jim Beams in me so I blow most of my money that way so I decided to give it a rest... Instead I took up volleyball in its place which has two benefits A: Its free and B: I don't come home acting silly. The next couple weeks leading up to winter break (which is only 4 days long for the students, 10 days for me) will be entirely activity based in the classroom, full of games and lessons that are fun. My class is a joke at the high school level, they (students, faculty and parents) are so caught up on the SATs, that they don't really care about my little old english class. The most work I have to put in, is the 18 day English Camp that runs from January till the start of February. At least in these classes I will see the same students everyday which makes it easier on me to build a better relationship with the little guys (pun intended). Ok, so last weekend was nice. Went out to dinner on Friday night, had a great chicken dinner (Talk Galbi), went to a pistol range on saturday, had a nice dinner again with John and Marlene then went bowling Saturday night. On Sunday I decided to play basketball in Daegu and this entire week at school is Finals week sooooo I have all the time in the world to do whatever I want. I'm gonna go watch "How I met Your Mother" and maybe take a little nap. I'll catch up with everyone later. I hope everyone is doing fine back home and get well soon dad! Love you
December 7th, 2011
As per request by Becky Nota who is an avid follower of this blog, I would like to set the scene...
Time: 10:03 local time
current taste: coffee and garlic aftertaste (from the night before still even AFTER brushing my teeth for like 5 minutes)
what I'm currently doing: staring blankly at my computer screen trying to think of something to type...................................................................................................................................................................................................................
sorry I just got distracted by my coteacher pouring water on the tile floor on purpose because she thinks it adds moisture to the air... I don't get it.
current feelings: tired, half from waking up every night at around 3am exactly and half from not doing anything
today's current time spent in the classroom and not at my desk: 10 minutes (I'll explain in a bit)
Ok, Becky, good enough? I hope so. Now for what I was gonna tell you guys (Hope I don't forget any of it since Ms. Nota had me do this stupid introduction). I woke up today in kind of a "quirky" mood. I was still laughing from what I heard yesterday. If you didn't see my facebook status, one of the teachers in my office was brushing his teeth and speaking Korean (was almost gonna write "trying to speak korean"). I have no idea why this was so funny to me but I can't get his tone out of my head. I know the past couple of entries haven't been the most cheerful and that's because I'm usually pressured into doing blog posts at school when I'm bored and not having a few drinks before hand (I'm like Hawthorne with a keyboard after a couple drinks and grammer is my "Scarlet Letter" (get it!? because I suck at grammer and Hester Prynne sucks at keeping a secret) damn that joke was deep and hardly funny after reading it again) See? I need to write these things at my apartment when I have some creativity juice in me. Anyways back to the things that have been making me laugh lately. Everyday on my way to school I pass this little old lady that is MAYBE 4 foot 6. I don't think she's a "little person" but damn she is short, she kind of makes me laugh. Jesus Christ Becky, there was like four other things I thought of on my way to school today and I can't remember any of them.... I'm gonna fill this little void in with rules to a new drinking game I came up with two nights ago that I posted in our little group's page here in SoKo...
Ok all, I know some of us have been hitting a small wall on what to do on the weekends (especially John G. (Pinger) and myself), sooooo we have decided to start up a little game for anyone who would like to be involved. To preface it, it is a drinking game, (although if you don’t want to drink you can still participate with no actual consumption of alcohol) and all that you need is a story… Tonight, I was watching “How I Met Your Mother” and if you are familiar with the show, Marshall created a game called “Drunk or Kid.” With a little tweaking, this game can become something to entertain us on a lonely night. The rules are as follows:
1. You must post up (on our group 8 page) an interesting/embarrassing/intriguing story either from your childhood OR from when you were intoxicated.
2. ...Participants must guess whether or not the story occurred when you were either drunk or were a kid, hence “Drunk or Kid.”
3. The tricky part: since we can’t reveal an answer on our thread because that would defeat the whole purpose, participants will send a private message with the simple words of “Drunk” or “Kid.”
4. If you do post a story, please respond to anyone who answers within a timely manner.
5. If you guess wrong you must suffer a consequence (shot, chug a beer, naked lap, etc…)
This game could get interesting and pass the time of desk warming during the winter months (for those of you not getting completely hammered when we check our inboxes) and especially for myself and John Goeppinger because we spend most of our weekends downloading pirated media and trying to recite decade old comedies because we have no original sense of humor. If you would like to participate, there is a simple “Like” button at the bottom of this post and we (John and I) will be expecting a story ASAP. Both of us will be posting one by the end of the week. Thank you in advance and god help us all.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO K back to things that have been making me laugh...
I fell on the bus the other day in front of my friends and about 20 strangers, that was smooth. I'm not really used to riding buses all that much and I have terrible balance as it is, so when the bus starts to move I'm screwed. I enjoy watching the students play basketball outside. They are terrible. I mean really, really bad. Mr. Pizza (a pizza restaurant) gave me a free 2012 calendar, I have no idea why that's funny but I think it was the fact that they wrapped it up and put a bow on it for me. I enjoy walking down the street and saying "Annyong" to small children and have them respond in perfect English "Hi, How are you?" Makes me laugh. Anything Barney Stinson says on "How I Met Your Mother." Oh and the ESP that one of my co teachers thinks I have because she expects me to do something without rhyme or reason and keeps me in the dark about everything... For instance, during my 10 minutes of "work" today which included supervising students during their Finals, one of my co teachers just whispered to me the word "check" and left the room... meanwhile we are supposed to have 2 teachers in each room at all times during the SATs and she just left... luckily after 5 minutes she returned, apparently she just needed to grab something from her office so I think the word "check" really meant "Can you please watch the students while I go to my office to grab my marker I need to correct the test forms, oh yeah, and make sure the students don't cheat off of eachother." That's what the word "check meant." Now if I were you I'd be asking the question "why are Finals only 10 minutes long?" The answer is simple, they aren't 10 minutes long, they are 50 minutes long but this particular co teacher tells me after 10 minutes "You go to office now" which translates into "I have the situation under control, I don't need your stupid English ass in my room, get the hell out." Wasn't gonna fight with her because I have so much to do back in my office like check my Fantasy Football stats (1st place by the way), watch some sort of television program, "Stumble" my interests, and update this little blog I have going on. So I just laughed it off and walked back up to my office. One last thing, I'm 2 for 2 this week on going out to eat with my co teachers for lunch which kills about 2 out of the 8 hours in the day, and best part is, its on the school's tab.
I'm getting kina hungry, hope the soup today is this curry and concoction we sometimes have, which reminds me, we had New England Clam Chowder the other day... very very random. So I leave you guys now, gonna go put on my headphones and hope nobody bothers me till lunch, gotta fill this hour and fifteen minute void with something.... later guys.
Time: 10:03 local time
current taste: coffee and garlic aftertaste (from the night before still even AFTER brushing my teeth for like 5 minutes)
what I'm currently doing: staring blankly at my computer screen trying to think of something to type...................................................................................................................................................................................................................
sorry I just got distracted by my coteacher pouring water on the tile floor on purpose because she thinks it adds moisture to the air... I don't get it.
current feelings: tired, half from waking up every night at around 3am exactly and half from not doing anything
today's current time spent in the classroom and not at my desk: 10 minutes (I'll explain in a bit)
Ok, Becky, good enough? I hope so. Now for what I was gonna tell you guys (Hope I don't forget any of it since Ms. Nota had me do this stupid introduction). I woke up today in kind of a "quirky" mood. I was still laughing from what I heard yesterday. If you didn't see my facebook status, one of the teachers in my office was brushing his teeth and speaking Korean (was almost gonna write "trying to speak korean"). I have no idea why this was so funny to me but I can't get his tone out of my head. I know the past couple of entries haven't been the most cheerful and that's because I'm usually pressured into doing blog posts at school when I'm bored and not having a few drinks before hand (I'm like Hawthorne with a keyboard after a couple drinks and grammer is my "Scarlet Letter" (get it!? because I suck at grammer and Hester Prynne sucks at keeping a secret) damn that joke was deep and hardly funny after reading it again) See? I need to write these things at my apartment when I have some creativity juice in me. Anyways back to the things that have been making me laugh lately. Everyday on my way to school I pass this little old lady that is MAYBE 4 foot 6. I don't think she's a "little person" but damn she is short, she kind of makes me laugh. Jesus Christ Becky, there was like four other things I thought of on my way to school today and I can't remember any of them.... I'm gonna fill this little void in with rules to a new drinking game I came up with two nights ago that I posted in our little group's page here in SoKo...
Ok all, I know some of us have been hitting a small wall on what to do on the weekends (especially John G. (Pinger) and myself), sooooo we have decided to start up a little game for anyone who would like to be involved. To preface it, it is a drinking game, (although if you don’t want to drink you can still participate with no actual consumption of alcohol) and all that you need is a story… Tonight, I was watching “How I Met Your Mother” and if you are familiar with the show, Marshall created a game called “Drunk or Kid.” With a little tweaking, this game can become something to entertain us on a lonely night. The rules are as follows:
1. You must post up (on our group 8 page) an interesting/embarrassing/intriguing story either from your childhood OR from when you were intoxicated.
2. ...Participants must guess whether or not the story occurred when you were either drunk or were a kid, hence “Drunk or Kid.”
3. The tricky part: since we can’t reveal an answer on our thread because that would defeat the whole purpose, participants will send a private message with the simple words of “Drunk” or “Kid.”
4. If you do post a story, please respond to anyone who answers within a timely manner.
5. If you guess wrong you must suffer a consequence (shot, chug a beer, naked lap, etc…)
This game could get interesting and pass the time of desk warming during the winter months (for those of you not getting completely hammered when we check our inboxes) and especially for myself and John Goeppinger because we spend most of our weekends downloading pirated media and trying to recite decade old comedies because we have no original sense of humor. If you would like to participate, there is a simple “Like” button at the bottom of this post and we (John and I) will be expecting a story ASAP. Both of us will be posting one by the end of the week. Thank you in advance and god help us all.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO K back to things that have been making me laugh...
I fell on the bus the other day in front of my friends and about 20 strangers, that was smooth. I'm not really used to riding buses all that much and I have terrible balance as it is, so when the bus starts to move I'm screwed. I enjoy watching the students play basketball outside. They are terrible. I mean really, really bad. Mr. Pizza (a pizza restaurant) gave me a free 2012 calendar, I have no idea why that's funny but I think it was the fact that they wrapped it up and put a bow on it for me. I enjoy walking down the street and saying "Annyong" to small children and have them respond in perfect English "Hi, How are you?" Makes me laugh. Anything Barney Stinson says on "How I Met Your Mother." Oh and the ESP that one of my co teachers thinks I have because she expects me to do something without rhyme or reason and keeps me in the dark about everything... For instance, during my 10 minutes of "work" today which included supervising students during their Finals, one of my co teachers just whispered to me the word "check" and left the room... meanwhile we are supposed to have 2 teachers in each room at all times during the SATs and she just left... luckily after 5 minutes she returned, apparently she just needed to grab something from her office so I think the word "check" really meant "Can you please watch the students while I go to my office to grab my marker I need to correct the test forms, oh yeah, and make sure the students don't cheat off of eachother." That's what the word "check meant." Now if I were you I'd be asking the question "why are Finals only 10 minutes long?" The answer is simple, they aren't 10 minutes long, they are 50 minutes long but this particular co teacher tells me after 10 minutes "You go to office now" which translates into "I have the situation under control, I don't need your stupid English ass in my room, get the hell out." Wasn't gonna fight with her because I have so much to do back in my office like check my Fantasy Football stats (1st place by the way), watch some sort of television program, "Stumble" my interests, and update this little blog I have going on. So I just laughed it off and walked back up to my office. One last thing, I'm 2 for 2 this week on going out to eat with my co teachers for lunch which kills about 2 out of the 8 hours in the day, and best part is, its on the school's tab.
I'm getting kina hungry, hope the soup today is this curry and concoction we sometimes have, which reminds me, we had New England Clam Chowder the other day... very very random. So I leave you guys now, gonna go put on my headphones and hope nobody bothers me till lunch, gotta fill this hour and fifteen minute void with something.... later guys.
Hello everyone, the past couple of weeks have been good… Christmas is approaching and I am heading into the wilderness of Yeongyang with 15 of my closest Foreign English Teaching friends. We are planning a weekend full of festivities, food and drinking games which should eclipse any other event on the Korean Peninsula… But wait, the breaking news of the death of Kim Jung Il just struck my computer screen and I am suddenly feeling a mixture of both joy and someone anxiousness… I have never been so close to a madman before in my life before moving to Korea (with the exception of a few Cookhouse Employees) and now one of the greatest threats to the western world has now perished, it becomes a little unsettling here. Anyways, present life has not changed in the past 72 hours since his death, I still had a little hangover on Saturday, won fantasy football for this week (I hope, Ben Rothlishotdog needs to have a stellar performance tomorrow for the team I’m playing to knock me out) AND I watched Forest Gump (hard to believe that one man could be a part of so many things in history including Elvis’s famous leg shake dance, Screwing Reagan in the Watergate Scandal, being the first person to visit China in “a million years” and helping that guy make those “Have a Nice Day” T-Shirts with the smiley face on them). But I digress… This weekend was fun, we went on a “Santarchy” pub crawl with a bunch of foreign teachers and I got to eat Tak Galbi again for the second week in a row which is delicious, spicy, but delicious. I’m feeling good lately, I ate so much this weekend though, this week will be dedicated to not drinking (too much) and running my butt off before it gets below zero. My co teacher continues to water the floor thinking that it helps the air in some way and another English teacher and I had a nice conversation the other day that lasted maybe 45 minutes about religion and the KKK (he brought up the KKK, by asking “do you still have the “triple K?”” This was after he preceded to call me a skinhead because I just got a haircut. I laughed it off obviously and we continued to discuss racial tensions, religious views and ethics. It was a good conversation and I was happy to be a part of it, this was on Friday when I didn’t have class again due to practice SATs. On a side note, I heard EPIK was doing away with Guest English Teachers for High School because they are almost a waste of money… and I agree. I have pretty much all my lessons done for my English camp (36 of them) during the winter so I will be spending all my time watching TV online and maybe working out in the Taekwondo room if I can convince the gym teacher to move back in some of the weights. This week I have no class again for the third straight week on Friday because of Winter Ceremony… I have no idea what that means because the year is not over till March (maybe it’s a very literal meaning and they will just have performances based on winter). Christmas is not that big here culturally but lunar new years are and I am thinking about going to Seoul in January for a 4 day weekend. Currently I am listening to nothing but my headphones are on, it is 2:39pm local time and I had pig’s neck soup for lunch, very good. Anyways, I’m gonna go play sporcle for an hour and maybe stumble the internet a little.
Current feelings: full, sleepy, witty
Last thing I did: stare at a can of rice soda I’ve had on my desk for the past two months…
Oh yeah two more things... one is I referred to my first distance to someone the other day in meters instead of feet, yards or miles. and two, I find it very humourus when my teacher "knocks" on my desk when I have my headphones on even though I'm not listening to anything more than half the time... it means my plan is working.
Miss you guys, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
6:49pm: ok everyone so I was on my way to get my daily meal from this street vendor, they are called "Man Doo." Basically they are large dumplings for 1000 won, they are very tasty and one of my students works there that always hooks me up with an extra one for nothing which is nice... then it hit me, Forest Gump destroyed the NIXON administration not the Raegan presidency. So much for my Social Stuides degree... hahaha please don't think any less of me, everyone makes mistakes. So right now I'm winding down after my semi daily workout of situps/pushups and a 2.5 mile run with a nice little cocktail thanks to J's mini bar she sent me for xmas and my dumplings; "Have a Nice Day :)."
Current feelings: full, sleepy, witty
Last thing I did: stare at a can of rice soda I’ve had on my desk for the past two months…
Oh yeah two more things... one is I referred to my first distance to someone the other day in meters instead of feet, yards or miles. and two, I find it very humourus when my teacher "knocks" on my desk when I have my headphones on even though I'm not listening to anything more than half the time... it means my plan is working.
Miss you guys, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
6:49pm: ok everyone so I was on my way to get my daily meal from this street vendor, they are called "Man Doo." Basically they are large dumplings for 1000 won, they are very tasty and one of my students works there that always hooks me up with an extra one for nothing which is nice... then it hit me, Forest Gump destroyed the NIXON administration not the Raegan presidency. So much for my Social Stuides degree... hahaha please don't think any less of me, everyone makes mistakes. So right now I'm winding down after my semi daily workout of situps/pushups and a 2.5 mile run with a nice little cocktail thanks to J's mini bar she sent me for xmas and my dumplings; "Have a Nice Day :)."
December 21, 2011
Ok here we go… soju check, chaser check… creative juices are starting to flow. Today I was approached by the douche that looked at my weiner in the bathroom a couple months back asking “why you no learn hangul (Korean)?” then he says “soju” with some other jibberish around it so that kinda pissed me off thinking that I wasn’t trying to learn his language, the only language he’s known since he was born. It’s kinda like Spanish for many Americans, we would be able to get by in mexico or spain or some other kind of Spanish speaking country (or Portuguese, yeah it’s the same , I’ll say it, ignorance is bliss). Anyways this entry has nothing to do with him or me learning more Korean even though I probably should since the lady at the supermarket gets mad at me every time at checkout because when she asks me “do you have a credit card?” I answer “yes” because I think she’s asking “do you want a bag?” then there is an awkward pause with half a dozen Koreans behind me in line with ramen noodles and dried fish, so that’s not good. So Christmas is coming up and my buddy john and I are going halves in preparing a dish for our party we are going to out on the countryside. We had decided to go with an appetizer platter, you know: dip, cheese, veggies, crackers, pepperoni.. so I decided to go to “Home Plus” kinda like a small Costco back home. I started gathering everything then and saw my friend stacy (a dude, he’s Canadian, crazy Canadians) and he changed my mind… but wait back up back up… I decided to walk to Home Plus which was a crazy idea because it was really far away from my apartment but what else do I have to do on a Wednesday night? So I decided to take the feat and proceed to walk in what I thought was the general direction of Home Plus. Before I left, I calculated that it should take me about 20 minutes, maybe a little longer but I wanted to chance it. After about an hour of walking I decided I was lost, but I saw an intersection that had an overpass so I decided to go up there and look around… by the way I wound up in the industrial part of Gyeongju where there was a crazy amount of noise with cars being crushed and metal factories… I was scared. So on this overpass I looked out into the distance and saw it… the neon red lights of HOME PLUS. It was a great feeling but I overshot the store by maybe half a mile. So back to when I saw my buddy, we exchanged the usual small talk, you know “Christmas shopping eh?” (I said “eh” because I wanted to relate to him because he’s from Canada). And we discussed our plans, I told him I was gonna reunite with some friends from orientation and he said the words that pulled the audible on my whole shebang “triple layer dip.” So like (I’m trying to think of a quarterback here so just substitute the starter for your team), I changed the play and decided to go with a bean, salsa, cream cheese, cheddar cheese dip instead. Oh and by the way, had to treat myself to a bottle of JW Red because it’s xmas. So I leave Home Plus and the first cab I try to flag down, blows right by me… jackass. By this time im kinda upset bcause I’ve been walking for so long and the cab driver that blew me off was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so the next cab I saw I literally walked into the middle of an intersection to stop him (He wasn’t too pleased about that, probably because on top of that, I smashed my bag into his passenger door). I reach my hood (Hwangsangdong) realizing that I could have just walked it because it was a really short cab ride, and I decide to get some of those dumplings that I like, the line was sooooooooooooooooo long but I had only 8 g’s in my pocket so I decided to wait. Got the kimchi man doo’s and headed back to my place. So for the past 90 mins I’ve been drinking soju, eating man doo, and watching swordfish (and no, not just because of Halle Barry). Ok, since Hugh Jackman just blew up the helicopter, it means the movie is almost over, so I’m gonna end this entry and cleam my room because it’s a disaster. Until next time guys… Hope everyone has a great xmas
Song I’m gonna listen to when the movie is done: “Broken” by Seether ft. Amy Lee
What I want for Christmas: For John Travolta to stop making movies (From Paris With Love was awful)
Song I’m gonna listen to when the movie is done: “Broken” by Seether ft. Amy Lee
What I want for Christmas: For John Travolta to stop making movies (From Paris With Love was awful)
January 6th 2012
It is 1pm local time, just got back from lunch and I’m finally starting to feel better… Last night for some odd reason I decided to mix soju and beer, fairly common drink here in SoKo, however I guess my body was not used to it (my body is more commonly used to Jack and Cokes or Jack and Gingerale or Jack and ice or Jack and… well you get the picture). So I know I haven’t updated the blog in a couple weeks so I decided to update it right here and now. A few things have happened since my last post… Christmas was good, came and went like the wind. We had a pot luck dinner and I made a nice 4 layer dip, t’was delicious. The house we stayed at was in the middle of nowhere which I liked and two notable things happened which I found humorous. One is that my buddy Dom and I were talking for part of the night after a couple beers and a half bottle of JW Red and we kinda made up a game… You see, everyone was sprawled across the living room in groups of two or three and we were in the corner. So we decided to try to mimic or mock or make fun of everyone’s conversations by trying to guess the most absurd thing they could be talking about. By far the funniest conversation that we came up with was our friend Dirk, who doesn’t really look like the athletic type AND he’s from South Africa so you know he doesn’t play basketball (Sorry if your reading this Dirk, I honestly think you’re the man, maybe not just on the basketball court…). You see Dirk was having a conversation with this other fellow from New Zealand and he was sitting on the floor just rolling the basketball around. Dom and I capitalized on this and thought of how funny it would be if they were talking about how Kobe Bryant got gypt out of the All Star MVP award in 2006. Just the most ridiculous things we could think of… I’m doing this from now on at parties. It’s much more fun in person than me writing this on Korean MS Word. Anyways the second thing that happened which had me dying laughing was when I was by myself waiting at the bus stop to return back to Gyeongju. I decided to kill some time by taking pictures. Oh wait back up back up… there was a Styrofoam container with fresh squid just on the ground by the door of the bus stop, this information will play a small role in just a bit. So back to me snapping some pictures… beautiful area, nice mountains, the scenary was great, until I made a 45 degree turn around a corner and witnessed an old lady just looking around in a ditch on the side of the road, which is not completely uncommon here, then she did the unspeakable, but I’m gonna say it anyways… SHE JUST DROPPED TROW AND TOOK A SHIT RIGHT THERE IN THE DITCH. I lost it, I couldn’t stop laughing, she was probably close to 70 and had absolutely no shame, she saw me, there were cars driving by but she just kept on muddying up the water. No wipe, no hand sanitizer, just gets up and starts walking towards the bus station. Now I’m thinking, there can be no way I get stuck next to her on the bus (your probably crossing your fingers at home hoping that I will, I know you guys). Well she didn’t. She did however proceed to yell at the squid that was in the Styrofoam container even though there was nobody around. I can’t imagine her being drunk, it was 11am. Great Christmas
On to New Years… nothing special, went to Daegu, met with a bunch of friends, had a “few” cocktails, went clubbin and missed the countdown.
My closest friends here are away for a couple days, Marlene is in India and John is back in ‘Sota. So I’ve been keeping myself entertained through other mediums. One is “The Wire.” Great Show. Another is “Sporcle.com.” the kids love it. Winter camp is great, 2 classes with the same kids everyday and they got to pick English names. My favorites include “Will I Am” “Robert Pattinson” “Andy” (You would laugh if you saw Andy, he looks like an Andy) and by far my favorite “James Statham.” Not Jason Statham who I’m positive for who he was going for but James Statham. I have this ongoing joke in my head that he is either Jason Statham’s older brother who mooches off of his career kinda like Johnny Drama or he’s Jason Stathams alter ego and everything that goes wrong in the Statham household always gets blamed on James not Jason… whoa, wayyyy too long explaining that one.
Ummmmmm its starting to get pretty cold here, feels like home. I found a free gym to work out at, it’s in the University up the street, takes me about 20 minutes to walk there but its good for me. I won fantasy football so that’s good, 300 bucks in my pocket fo sho. Ummmmmmm Paris Baguette is the best place to get food I figured out, crispy chicken wraps are tasty. I don’t know, I just wanted to tell you guys about Christmas and New Years… One of my students coughed directly in my mouth yesterday, probably gonna get sick this weekend. Watched Man Vs. Food “Hartford” with the kids… they loved it. Oh and one more thing, I now know how black people feel… let me explain before you guys go all “Don Imus” on me… I noticed this for the first time maybe a month ago and never thought it would stay consistent but it has. Everytime I am walking down the street and there is another person coming the other way they will cross the street and use the other sidewalk for no apparent reason. F’n racists. On the other hand when I’m jogging, they still love to get in my way… I hate this stupid country, can’t wait for the North to Invade so I can get an evac back home.
Currently sleepy, full and pissed that my co teacher keeps watering the tile floor with a tea kettle.
On to New Years… nothing special, went to Daegu, met with a bunch of friends, had a “few” cocktails, went clubbin and missed the countdown.
My closest friends here are away for a couple days, Marlene is in India and John is back in ‘Sota. So I’ve been keeping myself entertained through other mediums. One is “The Wire.” Great Show. Another is “Sporcle.com.” the kids love it. Winter camp is great, 2 classes with the same kids everyday and they got to pick English names. My favorites include “Will I Am” “Robert Pattinson” “Andy” (You would laugh if you saw Andy, he looks like an Andy) and by far my favorite “James Statham.” Not Jason Statham who I’m positive for who he was going for but James Statham. I have this ongoing joke in my head that he is either Jason Statham’s older brother who mooches off of his career kinda like Johnny Drama or he’s Jason Stathams alter ego and everything that goes wrong in the Statham household always gets blamed on James not Jason… whoa, wayyyy too long explaining that one.
Ummmmmm its starting to get pretty cold here, feels like home. I found a free gym to work out at, it’s in the University up the street, takes me about 20 minutes to walk there but its good for me. I won fantasy football so that’s good, 300 bucks in my pocket fo sho. Ummmmmmm Paris Baguette is the best place to get food I figured out, crispy chicken wraps are tasty. I don’t know, I just wanted to tell you guys about Christmas and New Years… One of my students coughed directly in my mouth yesterday, probably gonna get sick this weekend. Watched Man Vs. Food “Hartford” with the kids… they loved it. Oh and one more thing, I now know how black people feel… let me explain before you guys go all “Don Imus” on me… I noticed this for the first time maybe a month ago and never thought it would stay consistent but it has. Everytime I am walking down the street and there is another person coming the other way they will cross the street and use the other sidewalk for no apparent reason. F’n racists. On the other hand when I’m jogging, they still love to get in my way… I hate this stupid country, can’t wait for the North to Invade so I can get an evac back home.
Currently sleepy, full and pissed that my co teacher keeps watering the tile floor with a tea kettle.
February 13th
Ok boys and girls, I’m getting back in the game… been about a month since my last update and there a few things that need to be mentioned. Although I know some of you don’t care about my life here, those of you reading this must have a little interest. Winter Camp has come and gone which was fine, the kids were great, I’m going to miss my 11th graders next semester because they don’t have English class in 12th grade. I went to Pohang one weekend, had some KFC and watched a cover band which was awesome, grabbed a taxi at 3:30am and took it all the way back to Gyeongju with my boy Pinger. Ummmm I don’t really pay attention to all of the horns anymore but I do realize that the reverse racism is prevalent because people keep crossing the street whenever I’m walking towards them. Whatever. I stream almost all of the NBA games and have been catching all the newest movies. I started P90X again and will try to stick with it this time… I’m on week 3, starting to get a little more flexible… I HATE yoga. Went to another teacher’s dinner which was fun, not as crazy as last one but typical format of soju, beer, raw fish and norebang. I just signed up for a “Whale Boat Race” with team “Beluga” that will be occurring in April and also am running a 10K marathon with my buddy/roommate from orientation Paolo. I hope I don’t die. Other than the typical Friday/Saturday nights, nothing really new and exciting. The most exciting news I think I’ve gotten is an email of a social studies position opening up in a school in Maine that I applied for but they have a sister school in Daegu (about an hour west of me) so that means if I get the position, I’ll be staying for another year. Nothing Is set in stone but I wouldn’t mind saving another 10 G’s next year. Anyways, next time I’m a little liquored up I promise the next entry will be a little more humorous. Later guys.
2/28/2012
Have you ever smelled your sock after coming back from the gym? C’mon be honest………. Sorry, was just interrupted by my landlord wanting his rent, I’ll give it to him tomorrow, didn’t have time to stop at the ATM today, too busy watching Sons of Anarchy and doin P90X. Anyways its currently 8:30pm local time, I’m having some dinner and listening to Dierks while sippin on a Sodriver (soju and OJ) promised I would have to update my blog with something a little more colorful. Hmmmmm where to beginnnnnn. Is anyone even following this anymore? I know I’ve been slacking hardcore but haven’t gotten the usual from people asking for updates so I guess not. From now on I feel that this is for my own pleasure so that one day when I have Alzheimer’s and I’m standing outside in front of a home at 5:30 in the afternoon in my bathrobe just to be out the sun for once in the day, I can go back inside and vaguely remember that I did something like this for a year… (P.S. the bathrobe will most likely be untied). Life has been rather nostalgic lately (I got the spelling of nostalgic correct on the first time by the way). I miss my friends and family back home but for some reason its balanced by the care free lifestyle that is South Korea. Might night be care free for long, just read an article today that the North is preparing for war because SoKo and the U.S. are running their periodical drills along the DMZ. However I just wanna get my thoughts to my friends and family but more specifically my parents. I understand that this trip has put you guys through a lot and I appreciate the fact from the bottom of my heart that even though it might tear you up inside, you have been supportive. 6 months in I’ve come to realize a few more things about this country and this program. Besides all the external factors that annoy me such as the constant running into other people, the honking, the terrible driving, the bass akwards way of doing some things… I really think Korea has changed me as a person and for the better. There are a few real big choice I need to make in the coming months that will effect (or affect, pretty sure its effect) me for the rest of my life. The first is the grad school program that I will enroll in. I have a SKYPE session with the advisor at QU (Quinnipiac University) tonight to talk about their teacher leadership program which would open doors to god knows what kinds of opportunities (literally, I have no idea what I’m getting myself into, I read the description and it agrees with my philosophy as an educator). OH OH OH, before I forget, another reason for writing is because I haven’t been doing much of it lately and by not trying to be that arrogant I think I’m a good writer minus my spelling, grammar and storytelling abilities (so maybe not so good) but I figured since I’m gonna be needing to write more and more as grad school approaches, why not practice here? Ok back on topic. Oh yeah, the advisor SKYPE thing, no big deal, just a meet and greet, gonna wear a shirt and tie with no pants… he can’t see below my waist. Different topic? OK you got it… other things I realized about this country is that I would never be able to maintain a relationship with someone I’ve met here… this statement isn’t meant to be looked into any deeper than just that. I’m takin wayyyyy too long to start my next sentence. Eli Young Band is on right now and its kinda distracting me. What else what else what else what else… I feel that Korea has given me the stress free lifestyle that I’ve been looking for. I am fending for myself, I’ve gotten the common cold twice so I think I’m taking decent care of myself and the hardest decision that I have each week is what hat to wear on a Friday night when we go out. I save plenty of money and will have my student loans paid off and then some by the time my tour is finished. My room is a mess from time to time mom but I do clean it (probably not to your expectations but definitely to mine, not meant as an insult just the way we both are). I love Korean ginseng, they come in 100ml bottles (small) and they’re cheap, after drinking 2 or 3, you feel great, almost high I guess (not that I’ve ever done that). I’ve started to do yoga… annnnd enough on that topic, my downward upward dogs are pristine. The other day we also had a meet and greet with the new teachers that are coming in for the new school year (their new school year starts in March). I couldn’t understand anything but the soju brought us all together. I actually just popped a couple “happy pills” and zoned out while the principal did his thing for 3 hours straight at the podium, I kinda snapped back to reality when he was talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger (how the hell is “Schwarzenegger” not an incorrect word but Van Wattum is?). Anyways, from the gist of what I got he was telling his success story about a terminator in Austria who came back from the future to save the people of California… pretty sure that was verbatim. I got two new co-teachers, one is very young and speaks great English, when he gave his introduction speech to everyone, he gave me a name drop which I appreciated, the other is a little older but seems very nice. We had a buffet at this meeting at that Bomun Ho Resort I told you about in earlier posts. 3 course Buffet, it was ballin… then the soju came out. Myself and the administration department kept pouring shots for each other until my co-teacher said it was time to go, which was ok, I’ll get to her story in a minute. The best part of the night was when one of the teachers forced me to pour a shot for the principal (the Confucius wannabe) and I got stuck talking to him for about 20 minutes… but the whole 20 minutes was him reciting the same Ernest Hemingway quote. Pretty sure those were the only words he knew in English. Anyways back to my coteach. She’s pregnant! That’s great news for the both of us because during our little 10 day “Spring Break” where the students don’t have class (they have self study) but teachers still come in, she was absent which meant I could go home… so I’ve been basically spoiled since December. Which brings me to this…. Why would I want to leave? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been applying ALL across the continental U.S. from Oregon to Maine for jobs when I get back but I get paid a great salary, life a care free life, the job is easy, and get treated great by the locals plus if I get into QU, the Master’s course is all online. The cons are the fact that I do want to come home and see everyone. I do miss a lot of people and It gets very very lonely sometimes. It is what I wanted, a time to get to find myself and I think I’m doing that. The one place I did apply to which I may have a decent advantage of getting into is the “Lee Academy” in Maine, but I would be teaching in Daegu which is an hour train ride from where I am right now. The Daegu International School is their sister school and I would actually be teaching social studies which I’ve wanted to do all along. So If you’ve gotten all the way to the bottom of this blog post, you now know that I will be staying another year if I get this job but if not, I’ll see you sometime in September. Miss you guys, love you guys and a quick message to the elder me who is staring at this in his bathrobe at 86 years old “Doesn’t matter now I guess eh? Alls you have left are memories.” I gotta go get ready for this meet and greet, I think I’ll wear a blue tie… until next time.
Current song: Church Pew or a Barstool by Jason Aldean
Current mood: Calm
Current time: 9:09pm Local
Current thought: …………..
Current song: Church Pew or a Barstool by Jason Aldean
Current mood: Calm
Current time: 9:09pm Local
Current thought: …………..
April 1st, 2012
So let me start out by saying I’m in my apartment, it’s Sunday at 10:16pm local time. Grooveshark is working terribly for me and I have a pizza next to me that I’m tempted to eat most if not all of it. I got billy currington playing followed by some dierks and tim mcgraw.
The whole purpose of writing this blog tonight was to tell you about how balanced of a week I’ve had but it turned into so much more tonight… I’ll give you the jist of things first… Monday I played basketball and only myself and one other person showed so we played one on one for a couple games then decided to go get beers at a local restaurant. He’s Korean so he taught me a few words and we drank only a couple beers. Tuesday was Ultimate Frisbee day down by the river and again, there were minimal participants so we played for a bit then went to go get some food and then makali which is rice wine. Wednesday, I stayed in and did Yoga after having a great conversation with my father from the night before… Thursday I went to Trivia night at a local bar which was fun, Friday I rolled with my buddy Troy to Daegu and partied it up with some guys from orientation. Saturday I went out to dinner with some close friends and today we played soccer against Pohang. We lost 4-1 unfortunately, but they are a much bigger city and are a bunch of pussies that call everything (sorry for the vulgarity, still a little bitter). Anyways, what really got me thinking was the conversation I had with one of my teammates on the way home and at a local pub for a night cap. I can’t mention any names and I’m sorry if you come across this brother but It needs to be shared.
The story that he shared with me was unlike anything I have ever heard… He is from Mexico but has duel citizenship in Argentina. He is teaching Taekwondo here in SoKo and actually won a silver medal in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, but what got me was the story behind him and his family. He has 8 siblings in Mexico that he has been emigrating to Canada one by one by himself. He sends home money every month when he gets paid and wants to get everyone out of the country before the drug cartels destroy his family. It was the most heart wrenching experience I have ever encountered. It brought tears to his eyes when he was talking about it and it made me feel so lucky about how I have it here and back home in the states. He is a great person that has a dark past but is trying to turn things around for himself and his family… tonight just got to me for some reason. I’m on the verge of getting mad that I’ve had it so easy in my life after hearing what my “acquaintance” (He wont even call people friends because he doesn’t want to get too close.
I realize that most of my posts are light hearted and have a bunch of jokes, but my teammate for soccer shared a story that is unmatched to anything that I’ve ever heard. Have a good night everyone and sleep soundly because you will never have it as bad as this man has had it.
The whole purpose of writing this blog tonight was to tell you about how balanced of a week I’ve had but it turned into so much more tonight… I’ll give you the jist of things first… Monday I played basketball and only myself and one other person showed so we played one on one for a couple games then decided to go get beers at a local restaurant. He’s Korean so he taught me a few words and we drank only a couple beers. Tuesday was Ultimate Frisbee day down by the river and again, there were minimal participants so we played for a bit then went to go get some food and then makali which is rice wine. Wednesday, I stayed in and did Yoga after having a great conversation with my father from the night before… Thursday I went to Trivia night at a local bar which was fun, Friday I rolled with my buddy Troy to Daegu and partied it up with some guys from orientation. Saturday I went out to dinner with some close friends and today we played soccer against Pohang. We lost 4-1 unfortunately, but they are a much bigger city and are a bunch of pussies that call everything (sorry for the vulgarity, still a little bitter). Anyways, what really got me thinking was the conversation I had with one of my teammates on the way home and at a local pub for a night cap. I can’t mention any names and I’m sorry if you come across this brother but It needs to be shared.
The story that he shared with me was unlike anything I have ever heard… He is from Mexico but has duel citizenship in Argentina. He is teaching Taekwondo here in SoKo and actually won a silver medal in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, but what got me was the story behind him and his family. He has 8 siblings in Mexico that he has been emigrating to Canada one by one by himself. He sends home money every month when he gets paid and wants to get everyone out of the country before the drug cartels destroy his family. It was the most heart wrenching experience I have ever encountered. It brought tears to his eyes when he was talking about it and it made me feel so lucky about how I have it here and back home in the states. He is a great person that has a dark past but is trying to turn things around for himself and his family… tonight just got to me for some reason. I’m on the verge of getting mad that I’ve had it so easy in my life after hearing what my “acquaintance” (He wont even call people friends because he doesn’t want to get too close.
I realize that most of my posts are light hearted and have a bunch of jokes, but my teammate for soccer shared a story that is unmatched to anything that I’ve ever heard. Have a good night everyone and sleep soundly because you will never have it as bad as this man has had it.
Update on 5/16: pretty sure he was all bullshit, none of this checked out haha, just a pathological liar... maybe. Just re-read this blog and I'm crackin up just thinking about how vulnerable this kid made me; I think the thought of sending him money crossed my mind at some point. What has two thumbs and will get con'd at some point in his life? THIS GUY (pointing to myself) have a good day everyone, things are looking bright here in the future.
June 14th, 2012
Ok, its 10:14am local time June 14, 2012. Slightly hungover from playing cards last night and just finished reading sports blogs on barstoolsports.com and nothing to do but sit here for the next 5 hours until my one and only class rolls in, I thought I would make another shitty list for everyone anxiously awaiting my blog. Anyways, here are my new 10 ten reasons for LOVING Korea followed by the top 10 reasons for korea inconveniencing me (I don’t think it warrants the word “Hate”). Ok here goes:
Loving Korea (In no particular order, even though food probably is numero uno)
Food- ok, I know this goes without saying, rice, kimchi, dog, whatever… you can find anything here if you look hard enough and then some. The food here is fantastic in my opinion, and I have never had a meal that I absolutely despised. The service in restaurants is subpar at best but its just the culture. Yelling across the room just get a couple more lettuce wraps just comes with the territory. I look forward to lunch everyday, I have a couple places I go on the reg for takeout dinner and there are a few regular spots where we as foreigners can go eat together, and not on the floor which is always nice.
Health-losing weight, blood pressure is down, no stress, enough said
Pay- Pay bump after my first year plus severance pay which pays for most of my round trip ticket to come visit you guys + the benefits of housing and health insurance? C’mon why would I wanna come back to a shitty economy where I will probably never find a job in the teaching field, just some stupid sub division of it where I hate my boss and hate my salary.
Lifestyle- I go out 7 days a week, different activities, basketball Mondays, Frisbee Tuesdays, poker Wednesdays, volleyball Thursdays, out Friday, usually bowling Saturdays, soccer Sundays, tough life. Oh and also sprinkle a little fishing here and there.
Soju- can’t get drunk on $1.80 back in the states, boom done
Meeting new people- funny, energetic, and you can always find someone to do something. Downside is they are always changing.
Traveling- Train, bus, taxi, however you can, visiting different parts of korea is always exciting. Transportation here is efficient and effective for the most part.
Teaching- we all came here for this reason right? Kids are great, teachers are understanding, bosses don’t bother you
Weather- it can get hot BUT in general, sunny skies and warm weather on average, 2 months of winter compared to back at home with virtually no snow, can’t compete. Although I do miss snow a little.
Laughing- There is ALWAYS something funny that is either said by fellow foreigners, Koreans or in general, also there is ALWAYS something happening where I can find humor in.
OK now for the things that inconvenience me, again in no particular order
Language barrier- ordered cheesy rice the other day, must have got misinterpreted somewhere, lady came out with octopi.
Cleaning my room- Not as bad as you would think, but I really need to set aside a day to make it spic and span.
Bringing toilet paper IN with me to the bathroom- when you gotta go you gotta go, and in korea I recommend you use the handicapped stalls so you don’t have to squat, but bringing the toilet paper in WITH you is just an inconvenience, I don’t know how much to rip off from the master roll by the sinks, sometimes you can judge how its gonna be, sometimes it’s a crap shoot (pun totally intended). But regardless, always gotta overcompensate, just in case.
People walking in front of you- I know I’ve mentioned this prior but I witnessed a hysterical “people getting in the way of each other” event last night. 5 vs 5 at a cross walk coming from opposite directions. Now lemme set the scene, the way they are waiting for the little green man is perfect, all 5 from each side are to the right (see diagram below). See it? Get the picture?
OOOOO
OOOOO
Now the light turns green and as they start walking across the street, this is what ensues…
ㄹ너뫄머ㅗ
ㄴㅁ롸인말대ㅑ
ㄴㅇ뫄ㅓ몰
Just a clusterfuck of Koreans walking into each other, pretty sure it took so long to figure out how to get out of each other’s way that the green man turned red with anger. Ridiculous.
OK enough of me trying to draw pictures using letters and Korean characters on Microsoft word…
I changed my opinions of taxi and bus drivers from the earlier post… love them, best drivers in the world, they don’t care, drive a million miles (or kilometers) an hour and are for the most part welcoming to foreigners, what I do hate is the driving by everyone else. Saw a guy in what I can only describe as a Korean brand jeep, just take a turn into a side street much much much wider than he needed to and just scrape the shit out of this van parked on the side of the road. Also another guy blocking a driveway/parking lot to an apartment building and after numerous honks of the horn by a Korean lady, decides to back up and nail a parked car. This isn’t bumper cars at lake compounce, learn how to drive people, I don’t know if they are just hopped up off soju or what, but its not like these people are even going fast which annoys the hell out of me, they are crawling at the slowest speed possible, it’s a train wreck in slow motion but with automobiles, you can’t help but watch and shake your head.
Communication between me and co teachers- oh you’re cancelling my classes today? When did you know about this? Oh last week? Glad I put in the 7 minutes time it takes me to prepare a lesson… jeeez.
Reading Korean when it turns out to be an English word- ok now I know they have their own characters but when I have to slowly sound out a word then put it together and its an English word, I wanna blow my head off with a 12 gauge.
Me in a restaurant: CHOGEYO! (Here (how you call over a waiter)) I’ll have the 개 (K) 사 (SA) 디 (Di) 라 (RA)… Ohhhh quesadilla, jooseyo (please). In the meantime I’m thinking (sunavabitch, it’s a goddamn Mexican word (yes I know Spanish, whatever).
I’m just gonna point and grunt next time.
Listening to the same expressions over and over- some students and teachers for that matter only know a couple words in English and will say them time and time again (“Korea, number ONE!”) is my favorite, but in their defense, I probably do the same exact thing to them, two can play at this game.
Music selection- now you all know I love country but I like other types of music too. However I can only listen and watch “The Shuffle” by LMFAO so many times before I think it’s the dumbest thing in the world, let alone an overrated song with a more overrated dance. Gotta spice things up, maybe I’ll teach em how to dougie or do the Cat Daddy or something. I’ll even take the electric slide at this point.
People leaving magnet menus on my apartment door. My fridge looks like a collage I made in 3rd grade because all I thought about back then was food.
OK korea, your move, if you stumble upon this feel free to write me an email about foreigners, in particular Americans describing what you like/dislike about us to [email protected]
P.S. that killed 45 minutes, what to do for the next hour before lunch? LOST is on the playlist, later guys
Loving Korea (In no particular order, even though food probably is numero uno)
Food- ok, I know this goes without saying, rice, kimchi, dog, whatever… you can find anything here if you look hard enough and then some. The food here is fantastic in my opinion, and I have never had a meal that I absolutely despised. The service in restaurants is subpar at best but its just the culture. Yelling across the room just get a couple more lettuce wraps just comes with the territory. I look forward to lunch everyday, I have a couple places I go on the reg for takeout dinner and there are a few regular spots where we as foreigners can go eat together, and not on the floor which is always nice.
Health-losing weight, blood pressure is down, no stress, enough said
Pay- Pay bump after my first year plus severance pay which pays for most of my round trip ticket to come visit you guys + the benefits of housing and health insurance? C’mon why would I wanna come back to a shitty economy where I will probably never find a job in the teaching field, just some stupid sub division of it where I hate my boss and hate my salary.
Lifestyle- I go out 7 days a week, different activities, basketball Mondays, Frisbee Tuesdays, poker Wednesdays, volleyball Thursdays, out Friday, usually bowling Saturdays, soccer Sundays, tough life. Oh and also sprinkle a little fishing here and there.
Soju- can’t get drunk on $1.80 back in the states, boom done
Meeting new people- funny, energetic, and you can always find someone to do something. Downside is they are always changing.
Traveling- Train, bus, taxi, however you can, visiting different parts of korea is always exciting. Transportation here is efficient and effective for the most part.
Teaching- we all came here for this reason right? Kids are great, teachers are understanding, bosses don’t bother you
Weather- it can get hot BUT in general, sunny skies and warm weather on average, 2 months of winter compared to back at home with virtually no snow, can’t compete. Although I do miss snow a little.
Laughing- There is ALWAYS something funny that is either said by fellow foreigners, Koreans or in general, also there is ALWAYS something happening where I can find humor in.
OK now for the things that inconvenience me, again in no particular order
Language barrier- ordered cheesy rice the other day, must have got misinterpreted somewhere, lady came out with octopi.
Cleaning my room- Not as bad as you would think, but I really need to set aside a day to make it spic and span.
Bringing toilet paper IN with me to the bathroom- when you gotta go you gotta go, and in korea I recommend you use the handicapped stalls so you don’t have to squat, but bringing the toilet paper in WITH you is just an inconvenience, I don’t know how much to rip off from the master roll by the sinks, sometimes you can judge how its gonna be, sometimes it’s a crap shoot (pun totally intended). But regardless, always gotta overcompensate, just in case.
People walking in front of you- I know I’ve mentioned this prior but I witnessed a hysterical “people getting in the way of each other” event last night. 5 vs 5 at a cross walk coming from opposite directions. Now lemme set the scene, the way they are waiting for the little green man is perfect, all 5 from each side are to the right (see diagram below). See it? Get the picture?
OOOOO
OOOOO
Now the light turns green and as they start walking across the street, this is what ensues…
ㄹ너뫄머ㅗ
ㄴㅁ롸인말대ㅑ
ㄴㅇ뫄ㅓ몰
Just a clusterfuck of Koreans walking into each other, pretty sure it took so long to figure out how to get out of each other’s way that the green man turned red with anger. Ridiculous.
OK enough of me trying to draw pictures using letters and Korean characters on Microsoft word…
I changed my opinions of taxi and bus drivers from the earlier post… love them, best drivers in the world, they don’t care, drive a million miles (or kilometers) an hour and are for the most part welcoming to foreigners, what I do hate is the driving by everyone else. Saw a guy in what I can only describe as a Korean brand jeep, just take a turn into a side street much much much wider than he needed to and just scrape the shit out of this van parked on the side of the road. Also another guy blocking a driveway/parking lot to an apartment building and after numerous honks of the horn by a Korean lady, decides to back up and nail a parked car. This isn’t bumper cars at lake compounce, learn how to drive people, I don’t know if they are just hopped up off soju or what, but its not like these people are even going fast which annoys the hell out of me, they are crawling at the slowest speed possible, it’s a train wreck in slow motion but with automobiles, you can’t help but watch and shake your head.
Communication between me and co teachers- oh you’re cancelling my classes today? When did you know about this? Oh last week? Glad I put in the 7 minutes time it takes me to prepare a lesson… jeeez.
Reading Korean when it turns out to be an English word- ok now I know they have their own characters but when I have to slowly sound out a word then put it together and its an English word, I wanna blow my head off with a 12 gauge.
Me in a restaurant: CHOGEYO! (Here (how you call over a waiter)) I’ll have the 개 (K) 사 (SA) 디 (Di) 라 (RA)… Ohhhh quesadilla, jooseyo (please). In the meantime I’m thinking (sunavabitch, it’s a goddamn Mexican word (yes I know Spanish, whatever).
I’m just gonna point and grunt next time.
Listening to the same expressions over and over- some students and teachers for that matter only know a couple words in English and will say them time and time again (“Korea, number ONE!”) is my favorite, but in their defense, I probably do the same exact thing to them, two can play at this game.
Music selection- now you all know I love country but I like other types of music too. However I can only listen and watch “The Shuffle” by LMFAO so many times before I think it’s the dumbest thing in the world, let alone an overrated song with a more overrated dance. Gotta spice things up, maybe I’ll teach em how to dougie or do the Cat Daddy or something. I’ll even take the electric slide at this point.
People leaving magnet menus on my apartment door. My fridge looks like a collage I made in 3rd grade because all I thought about back then was food.
OK korea, your move, if you stumble upon this feel free to write me an email about foreigners, in particular Americans describing what you like/dislike about us to [email protected]
P.S. that killed 45 minutes, what to do for the next hour before lunch? LOST is on the playlist, later guys
July 4th, 2012
Happy 4th of July everyone! As everyone back home celebrates with beers, burgers, dogs, blowing shit up and wearing the American flag like a cape, I’ll be sitting here 14 hours ahead sweating my ass off in my office because the administration office is trying to save money so we can’t turn on the A/C. Anyways enough bologna (I miss bologna), the whole point of this little rant is that I am tired of being looked at like a caged animal by the locals. Is there no inconspicuous way of looking at someone? Whether it’s checking out the girl reaching for some Korean knock off cereal of frosted mini wheats or the teacher who has yet to clean the clump of rice off his chin from lunch an hour and a half ago, whatever… but I absolutely HATE being stared at with no valid reason other than I’m a foreigner. Just straight 180* turns from people when you pass them just staring at you in the eyes. I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!!! Lately there are a couple weapons I use in my arsenal to deter the staring. One is I stare right back… last night my buddies and I were killing some time before volleyball having a couple beers outside of a Family Mart (7-11 esque) and this dude stared at us so I stared back at him, he looked away, two seconds later he stared at us, as I just continuously stared at him, he looked away again, then sure enough HE TURNS AROUND ABOUT 60 FEET DOWN THE ROAD TO TURN AROUND AND LOOK AT US! At least it wasn’t a continuous stare by him but by me. Exhibit B are the kids that stare at you, we’re talkin 10 and under… these kids I love to mess with, like while wearing sunglasses I pretend I’m looking in a different direction and I notice them staring at me, I’ll quickly remove my sunglasses and try to scare them, keeps me entertained. Then there is the ever so popular “Chin-Cha?” (Really?) that I like to say to people when they stare and that usually results in a look away. The last is when I’m in a good mood I usually give them a huge smile and that makes them turn away in an instant. Point is I’m not an animal at the zoo, go to the zoo if you wanna stare at shit (or Guggenheim Museum). Ok time to get back to not working, gonna shotgun a couple Budweiser’s and grill some hotdogs in a pan on my stove for dinner in… probably with a side of Kimchi. Later guys.
Currently 10:47am local time
Favorite new song just came on: Princess of China
Also just took off my shirt and a drip of sweat just ran down my butt crack.
Currently 10:47am local time
Favorite new song just came on: Princess of China
Also just took off my shirt and a drip of sweat just ran down my butt crack.
Monday August 20th, 2012
(Mortal Kombat Voice) “Round 2… FIGHT!” Back in Korea errbody to start my second tour of teaching. It’s 9:47am local time Monday, August 20, 2012 and I am picking up right where I left off and that is sitting in front of my computer looking forward to the one and only class I have today. Just realized that my Degree “Adreneline” deodorant isn’t doing its job and now I’m drying the sweat stains from my shirt in front of a dusty old fan. Updated my status on facebook 4 or 5 times already today and I’ve been here for less than 2 hours but on the plus side I do have something to look forward to and that is the occasional work that I will have to do for my graduate classes through Quinnipiac University Online in Teacher Leadership with a specialty in Curriculum Development (Sounds fancy, I know)… To my surprise I didn’t gain any weight while being home, thought I would have packed on a couple lbs but the scale was very forgiving this morning. Glad I got to see most of my friends and family, played tons of golf, ate tons of steak and drank tons of Jack… AMERICA!! Ummm what else what else… the flight was boring as all hell especially since they cut me off of Chivas Regal only 4 hours in of my 14 hour flight, was pretty pissed about that, I just don’t think that Asians can hold their liquor like other countries can. Did… (just got cut off by a co-teacher, forgot what I was gonna say, 10:45am local time now). Just got informed I need to pay for my own physical which sucks, even though it’s under contract, there goes 140,000 won. Anyways, I’m only a little jet lagged, got back in the flow of things nicely, had some soju and fished with some friends yesterday and cleaned my apartment nicely… right now gotta catch up on some sports blogs and plan something small for a 40 minute class today… maybe we’ll look at google earth. Talk later guys.