the update

First things first...Happy Belated Canada Day to all ya'll back home. I did some celebrating here, I hope you all did as well. We come from an amazing country, truly something to be proud of.

Now, to the update...

Chapter One: Soccer in this crazy country

Korea lost...the rest of the World knew it would happen, but Korea was oblivious to this fact

Hell, I'm not saying don't cheer for your team. Go for it, get into the spirit. I bought a red shirt, I had the Red Devil horns, my face was covered in tattoos, I sang out "DAE HAN MIN GUK" (Republic of Korea) loud and proud. I didn't go quite into the masses in the above picture. I went to a neighbourhood a few kms away. Still a gongshow, still awesome time in the madness. A few of my co-workers braved the throngs though. One thing is definetly a fact: Koreans know how to cheer in unison!!

I know in a previous post I said I wanted Korea to lose...but that was during an anti-Korea period (they happen, trust me). If Korea had won I would have been just as ecstatic as the next person. It's hard not to catch the fever. So, I caught the fever, as did the vast majority of the country.

Before I get into it I'll say that Koreans are by far the best fans ever. They definetly do go all-out.

Ok, back to topic...Cheer for your team, hope and pray for the best, but let's also be realistic. Korea is good enough to do good in the World Cup. They are NOT good enough to win it. It's a fact. Possibly one day they will be good enough. They're not yet. It's the truth. Be one with the truth.

I don't want to rant about it. I do my fair share of ranting on here. Let's just say this about it:

PLEASE be realistic. There were no Canadians remotely surprised that we didn't even make it to the World Cup. We are realistic about our soccer standings. We suck, we're ok with it. Whereas in Korea they were SO pissed about the Swiss/Korea game that when the rumour spread that if over 1 million people emailed FIFA requesting a re-match, it would happen. Koreans believed the rumour and flooded FIFA with furious emails. FIFA blocked any access to their website from South Korea servers. Not that I was on it daily, but some foreigners were...we can no longer access it.

ummm, FIFA won't re-play a game because the country that lost requests it. They wouldn't re-play a game for any reason is my understanding. Is it just me, or does that seem logical?

Chapter Two: Canada Day

It was Canada Day...as I'm sure you're all aware. My weekend started on the Friday night after school. I headed into Seoul to my friend Adrienne's house to get ready for another friend, Bruce's, birthday party in Itaewon. It was good times, I hadn't seen Bruce for 7 months since he left Gumi. He's now living in Seoul. I know Adrienne from Gumi too...we all keep migrating to the big city lights it seems. We did some partying, and headed back to Adrienne's around 6.

At Bruce's Birthday there were balloons...and glasses...and roses. We had had some drinks. Whatever, I like the picture.

We woke up and headed back to Itaewon for the Canada Day Festivities.

We met up with Katie, did some shopping then headed over to the Rocky Mountain Tavern for some beers. I had planned on a somewhat early night...definetly including sleeping in my own bed in the equation. That didn't happen. I ended up crashing at Adrienne's again and dragging my ass back to Anyang around 12 on Sunday. It was worth it.

Katie and Krista at RMT

Katie and Adrienne - we bought hats and liked them damnit

RMT was packed. We'd randomly sing "Oh Canada," Celtic music was blasting and the dancing that accompaines that was abundant. One of the highlights had to be when we were playing "go up to some random person and find out a random fact...report back only when you have a fact." I asked this military guy for a fact and he told me something to the effect of, "we just beat you in the Stanley Cup Finals" (smart asses like they are). To which I replied "ya, with a Canadian Captain...he's from my home town...the Stanley Cup's in Canada as we speak, but please, more about how you're better than us..."

...in reality the situation played out funnier than it sounds, and ended with him shutting up and me going off to someone else to get a fact.

Did you know that we eat more Kraft Dinner than any other nation on Earth? That's kinda gross.

and now for a joke:

On the sixth day God turned to Archangel Gabriel and said: "Today I am going to create a land called Canada, it will be a land of outstanding natural beauty. It shall have tall majestic mountains full of mountain goats and eagles, beautiful sparkling lakes bountiful with bass and trout, forests full of elk and moose, high cliffs over-looking sandy beaches with an abundance of sea life, and rivers stocked with salmon." God continued, "I shall make the land rich in oil so as to make the inhabitants prosper, I shall call these inhabitants Canadians, and they shall be known as the most friendly people on the earth." "But Lord," asked Gabriel, "don't you think you are being too generous to these Canadians?" "Not really," replied God, "just wait and see the neighbours I am going to give them."

PROUD TO BE CANADIAN!!

Chapter Three: School Crap

I do like my school. It's way better than last year and one of the best schools education wise. I do see the kids learning. We do get treated well, this is just a rant, please take it with a grain of salt...

They took our pencil crayons :( we had to take everything off our walls, and I had to work yesterday...and it was a Saturday. But really...schools a lot better than it was last year. It's just the random dealing with Korean crap that gets to me. Like seriously, you're going to take away all of our pencil crayons? I get it, we're supposed to teach English, more writing, less pictures. Peachy keen, I'm all over it. However, when dealing with children who are under 10, it is customary to allow them some time to be creative. I'm all for them writing a huge story about a frog then allowing them 5 minutes to draw a picture of said frog. Give their little minds a rest!! These are children who get up at 6, go to school until 9, then do their homework!!

The Great Pencil Crayon Confiscation of 2006 ties in quite well to the head-boss request that we take down all student work from our walls in order to make our rooms look less "like kindergarten classes." Ok, you want me to take everything down. Sure, great. You want me to teach in an asylum, I'm all over it. However, my true opinion is this:

WHAT??

Let us all reflect back to our years in Elementary School shall we? Close your eyes...picture your classroom, picture the walls. Now, picture all of your work all over the walls...because THAT IS WHERE IT WAS!! It's a terrific motivational tool. "Hey, there's that project that Susy did. Wow, that's pretty cool, she did really good on that...I want to do something like that too." I remember back to Penfield Days. There was a board beside the Gym, right when you walked through the front doors. The best work out of ALL of the classes was posted there. It was a coveted position to have your work. What a fabulous motivator. I remember my work was there one time. I forget what I did, but remember I was proud. HOW is that bad?? I really don't get it.

It also brightens up the class! Even in High School there were things all over the walls. It wasn't generally our work, sometimes a few poster projects, but at least there were things to look at!

We're allowed putting up pictures from home...I'm gonna have to make a trip to Kodak with my memory card.

Also, umm, we teach phonics. Teaching phonics involves teaching the colors and other basics. Teaching the colors tends to involve coloring. What are we supposed to do.

"Ok, you all have your clown face right??" "OK, now write RED across the NOSE!!" "GOOD!!" "Ok, now write, GREEN across the HAIR!!"....

somehow that doesn't seem as fun to me...

Chapter Four: Random...

I'm going to Japan again!! Our summer holidays are from August 22-29. My friend from Uni, Niqie, just moved to Aomori City in Japan. I havn't booked my ticket yet, but get paid tomorrow and'll book the day after that. The plan is to fly into Aomori, chill with Niqie for a few days then on the weekend we'll both head down to Tokyo to check that out, then fly home on the Monday. Should be an awesome time.

Another friend from Uni, Jenn, is coming back to Korea. She was here when I first came last year, living down in Masan. I just got an email saying that she'll be back in 2 weeks and living in Hwaseong, a city 20 minutes away from me.

It's getting nasty hot now. Well, not really hot, but muggy. Thank God for AirCon.

Muggy = mosquitoes. mosquitoes = bites. bites = bad. I havn't seen them yet, but the trucks that drive around spraying DDT are reportedly out in Gumi and North Seoul. DDT comes out as a smoke and apparently kills off the mosquitoes. Heavens knows what it also does to our lungs. They really need a warning bell on the trucks so that people can get out of the way. Nothing like a fresh blast of DDT in the morning.

Speaking of warning bells, let's talk about safety measures around construction. In Canada there's a thing called tape. We use it to cordon off areas below where people are working to avoid things falling on people below, possibly injuring them. I was walking through a major shopping street in my neighbourhood. I saw some men on the 3rd floor installing a window (they were hanging outside of the window on strappy things...another story). I noticed that I was about to walk right underneath them, and being Canadian and therefore logical, I changed my course. No sooner had I done so than the brilliant workers dropped the plate of glass, narrowly missing a woman.

These are what Koreans use to move their furniture out of their apartments. The little platforms have no sides. They load them up with as much heavy crap as they can, then race the little platform up and down. Logic would dictate sides of some sort...or some sort of straps to secure the items being moved to the platform. Logic would also dictate TAPE to cordon off the area underneath the platform of death.

Hey...let's play Devil's Advocate. Maybe Koreans are MORE logical than us. Maybe they don't need tape to tell them that they shouldn't walk underneath something. Maybe we're the idiots...maybe

Next weekends the Boryeong Mud Festival. Most everyone has a 3 day weekend, but my school has a 4 day. I don't really know why we get an extra day. However I think it's because we just worked this past Saturday. Personally, i'd have prefered the Saturday off, but hey, who am I to choose my days off. I just work there.

Mud Festival should be good times as it was last year. Look for a post about that...later.

Take care all! For those of you going to Merritt...I hate you. But really, have a great time and drink some beer in the river for me!!