Test Time

Agree, disagree or sit on the fence. Take this tiny test of 10 statements and see where you land.

"Special day" = Eating Out

This morning while I was teaching I noticed a lot of new faces peering into the class or passing by. This isn't out of the ordinary as parents loved to stare in but these people were all dressed up in their finest work clothes. It was first impression day so all the new staff were in their Sunday's best and very smiley faced. I met the new vice principal and he seemed to have a nice demeanor which is good because at lunch time we eat together. There are two new teachers and I am happy they both speak some English.


Because it was a special day (these last two weeks have been full of "special days") we all went out for lunch. Today we went to the funnest looking building around our school called Tofu Village. The principal started out the meal by torturing us with each new staff members resume. It took some time and I did nod off until he ended his performance in uttering three magical words, "Waitress, alcohol please." This brought the soju to the tables and rounds of cheers for the new year. The president of the PTA was the one fueling the good wishes by circling the table and making us all drink out of the same cup. Remember, this is all at lunch. Luckily I'm back onto half days so I was able to come home and crash. The others had to pretend to work while sobering up.

Oscar predictions

The Oscars are long, mostly boring and full of people who take themselves far too seriously but it's the only award show that I watch, so here are my predictions:

Best Movie: Little Miss Sunshine (I liked Babel more but don't think others will vote for it).
Actor in a Leading Role: Forest Whitaker (not sure why The Last King of Scotland, didn't make it into the best movie catagory).
Actress in a Leading Role: Helen Mirren (made me temperaroly feel sorry for the Queen).
Actor in a Supporting Role:Alan Arkin (old people always win).
Actress in a Supporting Role: Jennifer Hudson (too many foriegners in this catagory, Amercians will choose their own).
Directing: Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel won't win but this director better win for directing in four different languages).
Best Documentary: Jesus Camp (I only saw three of the five films but loved this one).

Mr. Pizza for the Ladies

Last Monday was a holiday and so most stores were closed. The only pizza joint open was Mr. Pizza. I don't normally eat pizza from there because they have a sick obsession for tossing corn onto all their pizzas. When it's the only pizza available it is edible. After the man delivered it though I noticed that I may be eating the wrong pizza. In the top hand corner I saw that it was, "made for women".

Going Away Party

Last night our school had a going away party for the vice-principal, head teacher, special ed. teacher and the second grade teacher. It's a huge turnover for such a tiny school and the principal admitted to being stress out at the dinner and the room acknowledges his stress with silent nods. Each of the departing teachers then gave a speech and they were a million miles away from the speeches I've heard at other going away parties. When foreigners leave they tend to want to leave ASAP and acknowledge it with a classy, "Fuck you all, let's get drunk" sort of speech.

We went to a sea food restaurant for dinner and the little old lady who owned the place was annoyingly cute. She welcomed our group by standing at the door and aggressively ordering her workers to hurry up and feed us. She then came in and sat among us and asked what the party was for and then spotted me the sole whitey sitting on the floor. She learnt my hatred for sea food and assumed it was because it was spicy. Off she went and brought back with her the same raw fish and mixed vegetables (which I don't hate, I like raw fish) that was on all the other tables.

Mine was different in that my sesame leaves didn't have any of the hot bean paste on them (another food I don't hate). It was nice of her to included a fork to help my clumsy hands get the food onto the leaves. The ajuma then went ahead and prepared my first sesame wrap for me and popped it into my mouth without my knowing it.

All eyes were on me as I chomped away and I desperately tried not to flinch as the tiny fish eggs popped their vile juices into my mouth. Throughout the rest of the night my permed haired friend complimented my eating habits by calling them "cute". I'm not sure what to think about that but she was a great host and I can understand why this place is a popular destination for Koreans.

New Money

Each time I visit Canada I pause and inspect the colourful new dollar bills I get. Because of my Canadian Studies minor I find something interesting in the symbols that are picked for the bills. In a sad way, it's exciting watching how the new designs evolve.

This feeling hasn't hit me with the new Korean won. These new bills are similar in design but are now a fraction smaller. My friend Jess, will understand immediately how annoying this is. We both compulsively arrange our wallets with similar denominations together and then we make sure the heads stare up at you when you open the wallet. I'm working on a way to set up this new mass of confusion into order but already know it won't work out. I've been swapping the new bills for old ones with my friends but the ATM's are being uncooperative and keep spiting out only the new ones.

Big Rock in Seoul

There are constant rumours of a Tim Hortons invasion of Seoul. They start in the legitimate way of "I heard it from my friend of a friend whose cousin's friend's Korean friend who lived in Vancouver found a Tim Hortons in Apujeong" sort of way. They never pan out and they never die among the Canadian ex-pats. A few months ago I heard a similar tease of a rumour about Big Rock Brewery opening a pub in Kangnam.

This one held a bit more truth to it as my friend had been there but she had no idea where it was exactly. Her directions went something like this, "go out exit 7 at Kangnam Station and then it's in the area behind there." Kangnam is another downtown of Seoul and so "the area behind there" tends to large. Luckily Saejin and I walked up one smaller road behind the Starbucks and seconds later found the place.

When we walked in there was one side where the Korean staff sat the vociferous foreigners while the other side was soaked in Koreans. There were a few unneeded Canadian flags on and around the bar for decoration. On the wall where the Koreans drank a huge Alberta Flag obnoxiously hanged in between a cardboard cutout Mountie and a cowboy riding a spastic horse. Ignoring all the western crap that keeps Alberta behind I studied the menu and found the history of my drinking life in front of my eyes, from Grade 12's Warthog to Grasshopper and University life to the post Uni. delicacy of Traditional.



They have a sampler menu where they serve up all the kinds of beer in baby training mugs.



It was a great reunion with these Calgary staples. We didn't stay all that long but will definitely be back to sample some more soon.

Lunar New Year

This weekend is the Lunar New Year holiday. Seoul will start emptying out in a couple of hours as families make their ways to their hometowns. Traffic jams leaving the city will be insane this afternoon and last as a constant crawl until tomorrow morning. I stole this picture off my friend Shelly's website. Right now the shopping malls are jammed packed with assorted gift packs to give to family and friends. I will never understand Koreans love for this "meat".

Weekend Update

It's Thursday and I know the suspense is killing many of you. As you stare at your computer screens I can hear your minds working out one important question, "Where are the photos from the weekend Cam?" Worry no more, here they come.

This weekend was a celebratory one. First off, it was my old colleague and friend Michelle's birthday, secondly there was Chang Young's going away party and then there was some smokingloon site keeper's own birthday that happened to pass. To those who remembered, thanks for the emails I love you. For those who sheepishly forgot, leave a comment now and I forgive you. If you don't, the good karma police will be visiting soon. (Can you feel the guilt stomping on your chest? Good, say happy birthday.)

The night started out at the most popular Thai restaurant in Itaewon, Buddha's Belly. You now need a reservation to eat and drink at this place and we had neither so we went early and promised to be out before the eight o'clock table came. From here we went over to "The Sand Bar" where there is literally a good six inches of white sand hugging the floor. Because Korean building's heat themselves from the floor up the white sand is warm white sand that you can dig your naked toes into.




After a couple of bottles a wine for the boys, multiple sex on the beach for Michelle and Jack Cokes for Min Joo we headed off to B-one Bar/B1 bar where there was a dance floor Michelle had been craving. Michelle is an old friend here that has a birthday two days before mine. Recently she has had her whole life turned upside down and is now slowly getting back on track. It was a great time to see her as she is looking forward to her new year with excitement. It was amazing to celebrate together and we have vowed to stay in better touch now that she is a free bird.





After Michelle got her groove on we went up to Soho where there was a Drag King show taking place. The bar was busier than I was expecting and we made it there for a few more drinks. We ended up leaving Michelle talking up guy from Australia and headed out for a three A.M BBQ. There is nothing better than Samgyupsal to soak up booze at the end of the night. Eggs, bacon and toast are great for Canada, England can have it's curries and Japan can toss off to all the ramien it wants. Thick pieces of bacon grilled over charcoal is the perfect meal to gain calories to and end the night on. This was where we said goodbye to Chan Young as he left for England on Monday sporting the same excited grin as the last picture.

Playtime Ends Today

Today was the 59th graduation day at Onsin Elementary. I sat next to the new Special Education teacher and she filled me into what was going on. And with only 21 graduating students it was a lot of, "Our school is so small so this is special." Each kid won a scholarship and a different award that in larger schools maybe two or three kids per class would end up getting.

Our school also has a rock band that played a few songs. The little girls singing are from first and second grade who had some of the cheesiest dance moves around gaining extra ahhs from all the grandmothers. Then it was the turn for the sixth graders to rock out in their hanboks. They had their moms come up to lead a song in the kids' honour. It wasn't pretty but luckily our assistant principal is a goof so he got the whole room swaying along as the fifth graders used as seat fillers are showing.


I slept through most of the ceremony inside but was told the kids bowed to their parents and several boring speeches were given. We headed outside where balloons appeared and the kids, in between posing for pictures, flocked to. The kids were angels around their parents and grandparents becoming particularily shy about using their English. This of course lead me to peppering them with questions just to embarrass them for my own selfish entertainment. I love seeing noisy clowns tamed into upstanding polite individuals.


One kid told me the balloons were for them to attach a piece a paper to. On this paper the kids had written their dreams for the future and at the sound of the gong they all released them in hopes of the future (a polluted balloon infested forest kind of future).


This last picture is of me with four of the five bad boys in the class. Week one at school before I learnt their names I gave them each a number, Bad Boy 1 through 5. They did turned out to be pretty good kids once they learnt my rules. I was bugging them today because a couple of them used some hair products for the first time this year and came to school with new hairdos. I wanted to bug them about the pink in their hanboks but somehow Koreans are able to pull this colour off just as well as Don Johnson. They all looked good today and made my grade six grad (there wasn't one) look even worse. But they do need to celebrate because life as they know it has ended. From now on until University there is no more playtime.

Dirty, Dirty Pigs

Tomorrow is graduation day at school and the teachers have been asked to dress up. Anyone who knows me, knows my dislike for ties and dressing up. My friend Chan Young wore one tie that I brought myself to enjoy although for very inappropriate reasons. Enjoy the dirty pigs.

A Web of Music

Yesterday night I flicked on the TV and saw the reunited Police starting out the Grammy awards. Immediately I noticed Stings's huge arms and lifted my arms up to the TV screen to compare while making a mental note that I'm a weakling. I also noted that I'm not interested in American Pop music so I turned the show off and went searching for some decent music. I stumbled on this amazing website where you enter a group or musician you enjoy. The site then searches out other groups that have a similar sound or influence. From there you can pick any of the bands and continue your search. I started out with Suede and my music map ended like this:



After a long time of playing around I was suprised by how acurate the whole thing was. I love most of the bands it recomended and came across some bands I've heard about but not really checked out before. Because I know you care, these are the ones I'm going to be downloading soon:
The Stone Roses
Belle and Sebastian
Joy Division
Kaiser Chiefs

A Day in December

My school computer hates me. It hates the pictures I take and simply refuses to read them from my camera's memory card. It's annoying, but I don't hate my computer. How can I when we spend so much quality time together. Today I had only one class and a lot of free time.

These are some pictures I have been meaning to upload since December when I went to Insadong to load up on Christmas presents. Insadong is one of Seoul's busiest touristy places. It's a tiny road that gets flooded with people on the weekends who want to shop, visit art galleries or settle in at one of the many tea houses. I love the feel of the area and because almost everyone walks down the street with a camera in hand.

These first pictures are from the beginning of the street where performers act out different traditional Korean customs. Today it was a wedding ceremony. (On other days it's been a court ceremony where the prisoner is sent to jail and I also seen dancers with long ribbons attached to their hats gyrating about).

There was a small tent set up for a lady to play music from while another showed off her linguistic abilities explaining what was happening in Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese.

Further down the road there is a huge new complex that has been built to house even more shops. It's a cool building that winds upwards and it is always jammed packed. There are a ton of stores in it but they always seem to be empty with a million people window shopping there way to the open roof. These pictures are of an exhibit to honour the traditional Korean artist Andy Warhol.

Spring Like...Not Me

I don't mean to gloat as Mr. Winter slams Canada yet again but the weather here has hints of Miss Spring soon coming. This week is a huge improvement on the frigid cold (-5 to 10) last week gave us. To celebrate the change in weather I've started to jog outside again. My legs ache with pain to prove it. Walking down hills they get all wobbly and I fell like I could fall at any moment. Getting back into shape after two months away from the gym isn't fun. Or pretty. I'm glad the path next to the river is under construction because like most construction sights there is nobody around.

Road Trip...Ganghwa Island

This weekend we finally made it out for our much talked about road trip. We went to Ganghwa Island just outside of Incheon and about an hour west of Seoul. We rented out a pension which is Konglish for penthouse/mansion but is more like a cottage you can rent out.

Here's about the only nice picture from the weekend. We took it shortly after arriving at the Nakcho Pension. In this picture are Rachel Lynn, Yun Jeong, Min Jung (SJ's cousin) and Ye-hi (her friend) in the front and Sung Ho, Saejin and I lining the back.

On this top floor were three other rooms that could be rented out. This weekend there was only one other group on our floor and five or six more in the surrounding buildings. During the summer it can get pretty rowdy in these places as companies book them out and the salary men and women go crazy on soju and fresh air.

The view of the farmers fields out back where a farmer was burning dead grass and beyond the smoke is the ocean.

The first of many poses.


An inside view of the living room. There was another separate bedroom and two segregated bathrooms. The woman's had the hot water and sink while the men's housed the washing machine. I'm not sure what message the owners of the place were trying to send with that set up.

RL, SJ and Sung Ho posing first.

RL, Sung Ho and I doing our best impression of Kim Jung Il.