one day...

HOW cool would this be??

awesome weekend - round 2

my weekend consisted of as follows:

Friday night:
dok galbi, beer and friends followed by a hof and nori-bang

english translation:

spicy chicken, beer and friends, followed by a pub (more beer - and popcorn!) and a karakoe room

Saturday:
wake up - kinda hung over
go out for sushi
bring tons of marking and report cards to a jimjilbang (public bath). spend 2 hours soaking in the baths and saunas, spend 2 hours marking stuff in the co-ed portion of the spa...go back for 2 more hours of relaxation and cleanliness - all for $5

get back at 11:15. watch the end of a World Cup soccer match. fall asleep for a bit, get woken up to watch a bit of the soccer match at 1am...however you don't care so you go back to sleep...

Sunday morning.
Wake up late because of stupid soccer matches last night...
head into Seoul to watch game 6 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs (much more interesting than soccer)
Watch Edmonton kick Carolina's ASS 4-0 with a bunch of Canadians.
Drink a lot of beer (we're canadian)
Get video to prove it...



Video of the 4th goal

Which...by the way, pretty much sent the deal on its way...the deal had been sealed by goals 2 and 3. Signed sealed and delivered baby. That's a game 7!

By the way dad...that means your "team" hasn't won yet.

far too cute

I saw this on another site and decided to steal it because it's so cute. THIS is why I wish I taught more munchkins!!

an interesting revelation

you know how you don't really know your own opinion on things sometimes until you're forced to express them? I wasn't fully aware of how much Korea bugs me sometimes until I would have given ANYTHING to see Togo CRUSH Korea in their World Cup match. The only reason I'd want Togo (where is that country again?) to win is so that I could go to class tomorrow and look at all the disappointed faces.

mean, sick and twisted am I?

not really, based on the fact that I am not alone in my opinion on this matter...other teachers will agree

It's not that I hate Korea. It's definitely not that I hate my kids. It's just that sometimes Korea is SO unrealistic when it comes to where they stand as a World power. Or even a World player for that matter. Korea suffers from classic "little man syndrome." They've been stepped on innumerable times, ground into the dirt even, and have managed to survive. I'll give 'em that. Go Korea...you can get your ass kicked and still keep fighting. However, do not translate "surviving," into "we kick ass." They aren't the same.

I WILL give it to Korea that they are progressing very well from an economical sense. Now, let's focus on our society shall we? How about bringing it up to speed about 50 years. I don't know much about politics, I've never claimed to either (I took 3 cracks at Poli Sci 101 before bringing home a C). I will however state this: In my opinion, humble as it is, for a country to be respected world-wide it would have to succeed economically and culturally. A lot of people could give a f. if Sudan all of a sudden tried to become an economic power. Great. You did it. You still treat your people like crap and we don't want to work with you.

(and YES I am aware that at no point currently has Sudan tried to, or will it be anytime soon, be an economic power - it was just an example)

Anyways. Korea has a long way to go. Good country. Love living here. Just pisses me off how they (and I mean from grandparents down to their brainwashed offspring) seem to think they are already there somehow.

Togo winning would have served very well in bringing them down a notch or two. Next game will have to suffice I guess. Word on the street is there's no way Korea will survive against the Swiss or the French. One of whom they will have to play next.

In general though it's nothing huge, just little things that bug me. Nothing to send me packing, nothing even to get me overly riled about. However, I did find it interesting how strongly I reacted when Korea beat Togo. Can dislike really be that underlying?

Something to think about.

What a great weekend should look like...

I had a great weekend. I didn't do anything extraordinary, but at no point was I disappointed or bored. It was pleasant, I was truly contented.

On Saturday a former co-worker of mine, Erin, was due to leave Korea for a few months. She stopped working the previous week and had just returned to Seoul from a short jaunt to Hong Kong. She was staying in Seoul so after work a few of us cabbed it up and met her at a Jazz Club for some chatting and drinks. It was a pretty cool place. The jazz and atmosphere were relaxing. I got home around 2, early by Korean standards. It was good to see Erin before she left.

On Saturday I lazed around. I had big plans of going shopping, getting some pictures enlarged and printed so I could decorate my place a bit more and completing a few more general errands. Monsoon season, it seems, decided to begin on Saturday though, changing my plans. I instead stayed inside listening to the pounding rain and watching the entire sky illuminate every so often. I love storms. Being curled up in a cozy room where you're safe, have good company and are most certainly dry make it all the better.

My friend Katie, whom I know from back home, was having a bbq with some of her friends about an hour away from where I live. The bbq was cancelled due to rain, but a gathering was still occurring. I headed out around 8. Thankfully the rain had subsided. It took a little over an hour to reach Katie's city of Yongin. It's one subway and a bus, it's really easy and I'll be visiting her a lot more and her I. Got there, met her friends at a pub and proceeded to drink beer and watch the England / Paraguay World Cup match. After the game finished we switched to a different pub that had the tallest beer mugs ever with fun freezing holes in the table in which to put them. This kept your beer cold. Ingenious really.

We drank more. The sun started to come up.

We went out for galbi.

We went to sleep...I think it was around 7.

Katie and I woke up around 12 and got ready. There's a pub in Itaewan (the foreigners district of Seoul) called th Rocky Mountain Tavern. It's Canadian. It's fun. Today it was playing (not live) game 3 of the Stanley Cup. The Stanley Cup is FAR more important than the World Cup in my opinion. There are plenty others who would argue otherwise. I don't care. I'm Canadian. Like we care about soccer. Seriously.

Anyways, those who are reading this have probably also seen the game. I will say one thing. I'm no hockey connoisseur. I've never claimed to be. I did, however, notice that Edmonton needs to get off it's ass and DO SOMETHING during their power plays. They had SIX power plays, one of which was a 2-man advantage and they did diddily f-in squat with them. That said, great game. The Tavern was packed full. Mostly Canadians, everyone intently watching. It's impossibly not to get caught up in it. Games 4 and 5 are during the week so there's no way I can get out there in time to watch them. The final game, however, is on a weekend. I'll be there, bells jingling.

So, we went to the tavern, watched hockey. It had been downloaded from a BC station. The commercials were Canadian (BC even - yay for Kokanee commercials). Also: Dad - there's a NEW zamboni commercial!!! I'm sure you've seen it, but this was my first time. I'm sure it's possibly to download them all. I'm going to have to, I've missed a chunk of 'em. We watched Coach's Corner. Don Cherry's coat was ugly even for him. I ate a kickass breakfast....mmm bacon. and we played Trivial Pursuit - Canadian Edition.

Around 7 I started to get pretty sleepy. So I got on the subway and was home by 8. I'm now going to finish my book and go to bed early. Aww, who am I kidding. bed early here means 2am...

k, recap of what a great weekend should look like...

1. relaxing friday evening with friends, possibly calming jazz playing in the background
2. lazy Saturday morning justified due to monsoon storm
3. Saturday evening spent socializing with friends/new friends till wee hours
4. Sunday morning/afternoon waking up happy (and surprisingly not overly hungover), crossing the street to get Dunkin' Donuts, eating a bagel and coffee, and meeting previous nights peoples for an outing
5. watching hockey in the presence of many canadians (only a canadian would understand the importance of this)
6. playing canadian edition trivial pursuit and actually knowing the answers
7. going home with enough time to chill, clean up the place a bit, and see some friends from your own city before going to bed

random outburst

i got my cell phone yesterday, I can now communicate with people outside of Anyang, we had tuesday off of work, i get paid FINALLY tomorrow and all week the kids have been GOOD, even the one's that piss me off. Plans are getting set for the weekend and for weekends after that.
I really don't know what blow life is sugaring me up to hand to me, but bring it on baby.

my Monday night

Shamar and Keith looking intently at something

We rang in 6/6/06 by drinking in a graveyard...

Cal being a monkey

Finding my new shelving unit and bringing it home

Stainton and me

I don't care if SOME PEOPLE think this picture looks cheesy...I'm all about the cheese

actual writing

I've been convincing myself that since I've been posting on here that I'm not really that behind in catching everyone up. However, posting videos and snipits of kids' work doesn't really qualify as a real "blog entry." If my kids submitted this effort to me I'd give 'em a pretty crappy mark. So, here we go.

Truth be told though, there's not all that much to update on. I get paid this Friday for the first time (and about bloody time if you ask me) so money's been pretty tight since I got here. No money = not doing so much. I have, however, managed to make it into Seoul to party a few times. I've been down to Gumi twice, Gumi folk have been up here twice, I've gone camping, there have been numerous nighttime trips after work to the numerous parks in the neighbourhood and quite a few random wanders around Anyang. All in all I am enjoying living up here.
Anyang's a pretty cool city. It's actually a beautiful place. I walked home from the subway stop the other day (about 20 minutes), but only walked on the street side-walk for about 5 of that. Anyang is littered with tree-lined walking trails that cut between the blocks. They have numerous little walkways over the streets, pass through playgrounds and if you're lucky you'll stumble across a random vendor or two. They're very well maintained, the trees are manicured and often roses cover the fences between the trail and the apartments. Beyond the walkways Anyang itself is a pretty well maintained place. They've been re-doing the planters outside of my school for a few weeks now, cutting the bushes and adding benches around each planter. Gumi was dirty. It wasn't overly pretty. It was a factory city, that be that. Anyang's much better presented.

So, that's the city. Now, actually life is also pretty sweet. I go to school from 2-10. I teach from 4-10. I love the little ones, they love me. Middle School kids suck, however they sometimes hate me too, so it evens out. We had today off of school...some national holiday. I did nothing. I probably should have run into Seoul or something, just to be productive. but i didn't. The funds aren't really there, and honestly, just sittin around here, hanging out with good people is a good enough day for me. Last night a group of us rounded up some soju bottles and climbed the little hill behind our place. It was good times, I came back and slept when there was light coming in the window. It was a fun night. Woke up around noonish, laid in bed and read, chilled, made food, ate it, and relished in the fact that at any particular moment on any normal Tuesday I would have been teaching, but at that moment, I was not.
I've lost my jim-jil-bang virginity. A jim-jil-bang is a public bath. I've been twice so far and am seriously questioning why I didn't do it last year. You strip down to your nothingness with your female friends (or alone if you'd like) and a ton of Korean women. You then proceed to sit your butt in different temperatured and different kinds of baths. There are saunas, massaging tubs and sinks with little stools where you can scrub yourself raw with scouring pads. There are face masks available and pretty much any sort of cleaning/pampering tool you could imagine. In short, going to a jim-jil-bang is like going to a do-it-yourself spa. The first time I went though I shelled over W15,000 to get myself scrubbed down by someone else. I have NEVER felt so clean in my LIFE. It took about 15 minutes and this woman was ripping all the old skin off me I swear. You really get to know her that's for sure. She was wearing underwear and that's it...I'm not wearing even that. You are clean...everywhere. That's the most interesting thing about it all though. We're all naked, no one cares though. For such a conservative society it's interesting to see how that doesn't matter at all. There's a guy's side too where (I've been told) men and boys play together in baths while naked. Splashing occurs and back slapping. It's all ok. Places like this, however much westerners who come to Korea think they're cool, would just not work back home.
Why is it that we're (and by we I generally mean teeny-bopper nothing wearers) pretty much ok with wearing anything on the street, yet when it comes to being naked in front of a bunch of strangers who are also naked we get squeamish? Cultures are interesting things. I've been learning a lot about different cultures this year. Places are definitely different from what you envision...that's a later blog entry.

My apartment's starting to take some shape. A girl, Erin, from across the hall, finished her contract and gave me her couch, shelf, toaster and fan. Cal gave me a lamp and last night we found a shelving wall unit on the street (it happens a lot in Korea that GOOD furniture is discarded) and took it home. The only thing I need now is pictures blown up to go in the picture frames that are hanging on my wall...yet another thing that has been waiting for this fabled pay-day to occur.
Really, I'm sorry that I sound so boring. Truth is, I've been having a lot of fun. I'm rarely home, after work there's a group of us that take the same school bus home and we tend to hang out. Before work I'm reading or getting ready. Weekends are the same. There's always something going on when you work with 28 people. It's just nothing overly earth-shattering in my mind. Trust me, I start doing some actual stuff beyond hanging out with people whom you don't know and would bore you to read about and it'll be here!
Take care all!

being productive

Glen being VERY productive in class

The rest of my productive class saying "hi" to everyone back home!