See you in Two Weeks

At 12:20 today I kicked the kids out of class and made my way to the Principal's office to bend the truth. My first flight to Malaysia was for 5:00 pm tomorrow but I bumped it up to 11:00 in the morning so that I'd arrive when the sun was still out playing. As I'm supposed to work the morning tomorrow, I blamed my travel agent for this "surprising" mix up. I then begged the principal to have the Korean teacher on staff tomorrow go upstairs to start the movies we watch on Friday's. He gave me a clear wave of the hand and settled the issue mid sentence. For this I gave my best Korea bow, promised a nice gift and backed out of his office in the way polite Koreans do.

I am officially on holiday and to ease some running around I treated myself to a nice Chicken Cesar Salad, an even nicer (and always better) afternoon beer before setting off. My pre-vacation shopping spree started by buying three short story books to appease my holiday induced short attention span, loaded up on mini sized everything bathroom supplies, got a haircut and took out a wad of cash. I may sound organized but if you ask me any plans I have for my trip I haven't a clue.

I have an erasable sketch of what I plan to do but no specifics at all (I don't even have a hotel for tomorrow night!?!). I know many people would be completely stressed out travelling this way but I haven't a clue about Malaysia and the Lonely Planet does help but I'd rather just ask people I meet along the way. As for my (horribly vague) plan it's Kuala Lampur for the first night, heading South for five days, back to K.L. to meet a friend from England who I haven't met in five years before climbing up North to the Cameron Highlands for a night and then off to a Northern Island or two for the rest of the trip. It will be a great trip and I can't wait for tomorrow to come along. See you all in over two weeks.

More Snow...Less Teaching

Monday morning a lot of wet fluffy snow was falling as I headed out the door. Desperate for a game to end the class on I didn't hesitate in the least when one of the sixth grade boys asked to go outside for a snowball fight. In Canada, a snowball thrown at school gets you into a whole lot of trouble and a five minute lecture on rocks in snowballs and the urban legend of the now blind kid who was rushed to the emergency room last year. To make my kids fear blinding one another I put it in video game terms they all understood, "No Head Shots!"


Ju Soo can be slow. This snowball is definitely aimed at my head.


Chul Ung had a new way of fighting. He stole one of the girl's umbrellas, flipped it inside out and loaded it up with snow. What this picture didn't capture was the weight of the snow collapsing the stretchers back and him with a bad case of dandruff.

The agony of missing the teacher.

Like most of the girls they mimicked disinterested cat conserving their energy until someone let their guard down and ventured too close.

Don't let the smiles fool you these girls chased me for a good five minutes before I conceded defeat.

The younger kids gave chase for a bit but because most moms sent them to school minus gloves it was more fun to practice Taekwondo kicks on the snowballs meant for snowmen.

For the Record

I'm NO fashion guru. My "style" is firmly set in polo T-shirts and boring shoes. I can't see this changing anytime soon especially when you consider the latest trend that has finally (and sadly) arrived in Korea. For the record, I absolutely hate tight jeans and white high tops with huge tongues wagging. Unless you're a rock star (and only a good one at that) it's impossible to pull off without looking like a .....(enter your favorite insult here). As I know it's only a style that will pass (until the next abomination) I use every ounce of energy not to give these people dirty looks but it's very, very hard.

Shelly's Birthday!

Saturday Night we went out for Shelly's 32nd birthday. We started off the night at On the Border, an American chain restaurant, where the waiting staff mispronounced a lot of poorly translated Mexican and served up salty (but sorely missed) food. Like any American joint, the portions were huge but I didn't hear one single complaint when it came to the extra large drinks. The highlight of the meal came when the waiting staff brought out the sombreros for us and and dove right into the franchises' Birthday song. I am especially proud of the finger Shelly gives me when the song comes to an end. That's how birthdays should be celebrated.



After dinner Shelly brought us to a bar that has gotten a lot of press lately. Oi, was opened by an artist who took over the whole third floor of a building and made it into an enormous white cave. You remove your shoes just outside the elevator and snake your way through a tiny entrance before the room opens up into various levels that ring a dance floor. There were assorted hats and masks laid out all round the bar that magically appeared at our table to make us all look ridiculous. It was a great time and I will definitely be back to the bar.

Did you know...

shoplifting is a side effect of PMS. According to Saejin, Korean girls suffer bouts of kleptomania while their little friend is in town. Their emotions get way out of whack which makes it hard to not stuff their purses full of goods. Because shoplifting forces prices up, this may be one reason the Korean government allows women to take a day off when it's "that time of the month." Saejin then went on with his PMS lecture to inform Shelly and I that a Korean girls version of PMS is something like 87 percent worse than a Western girls. Not sure how he as a man has become the authority on PMS but it may have something to do with his sister. On normal days she is doe eyed, placid and yet cheerful. The way she speaks is educated, respectful and unless her hair is on fire she refuses to use any curse words. But when it's her gloomy day look out, every fourth word is a four letter word of abuse. I think it's scarred Saejin for life.

A Suncheon Night

A couple of weeks ago Saejin and I headed down to Yeosu for the last of our friends weddings. Lucky for me Yeosu is the next town over from Suncheon where I used to work many a moon ago. So while Saejin carried on on our four hour trek to Yeosu I got off to meet up with my old Korean friends still living there. Dong Soo was my closest Korean friend there and is the King of Idioms, King of Over Dressing, King of Obscenely Early Morning Text Messages, King of Ridiculous Pictures and in short the King of Dorks. He is great fun and we started off the night by heading to a new restaurant that was amazing.

Dong Soo is a married man but always has a mysterious cast of women around him. This time it was his equally nice co-worker Trista who joined us and helped us work our way through food and booze. Minutes after meeting I was confused when she kept referring to another Cam. I soon learned that Dong Soo has stolen my name and now uses it as his English name with his students. I quickly demanded royalties and we went off to the second round where Dong Soo (aka Cam) was footing the bill.

He of course picked the shabbiest of places and brought us to a row of tents that serve cheap food and drink. Take a look below and you will see the humbleness of the place. There was no music, it was heated by a wood stove, the floor was the earth below, the servers were old and drunk and you peed outside into the field below being careful of the swirlling January winds. Basically, it was an amazing time that Seoul tries to offer but the Pojang Matchas never quite match.



All smiles.



After we ate all the live octopus and downed the last drops of battery acid known as soju we headed back into town and hit up Elvis Bar. It was great seeing Elvis and Christal again and in a complete shocker was given a free beer by Elvis.

Sooill, my old boss, also made an appearance before I had to snag a cab all the way to Yeosu where I found Saejin and his friends way too drunk to make the noon wedding a pleasant experience.

Winter's Back

Two days ago I left work to the sun owning a huge piece of the sky. It made the day feel a lot like a young spring day just learning how to tease people into shedding layers of clothing. This morning, I left the house to a good half inch of virgin snow carpeting the stairs of my villa.

When I got off the subway to catch my bus to work there was a nasty traffic jam lining the street. When I saw the number of people waiting for buses and my bus no where in sight I doubled back to an earlier stop so that I'd get a seat on the bus. I caught the bus at 8:20 and we inched our way to my school. What normally takes 20 minutes today took just under two hours to get to school.

Koreans have a hard time obeying traffic laws at the best of times but with snow falling, it was a complete free for all. Intersections and lights were completely ignored by all including the police who were three cars in front of us. At one point with the bus owning the intersection and the light asking cars in the other direction to proceed one man exploded out of his car, slammed on the bus door and laid into our bus driver with a string of insults.

I was an hour late and had missed my first class but nobody said a thing to me because I was the first teacher there. I did feel bad because my sixth and fifth grade students all waited for me and instead of going home at 10 they wanted the class to start and stayed an hour later. Being Friday today's lesson was to finish watching Home Alone so I gave one boy five bucks to go to the market to get the class some snacks to make up for mother nature's rage. Most kids choose to stay warm at home so I combined my second and third classes together and again we watched the movie. There is nothing better than watching Home Alone with a group of kids who'd never seen it before their laughter was infectious and made for a great day.

Christmas in January

My Christmas presents from home finally made it across the Pacific. It's a few weeks late but seeing as I just sent off my Christmas cards on Monday, I can't complain. I spent the night unwrapping a stack of individual gifts. I got five books and surprisingly only one of them is one I had already bought but it's by Michael Ondaatje, my favorite author, so I can read both copies and still love it. I already know that a couple of the books are definitely ones that will travel a few more miles to suntan on the beaches of Malaysia with me.

The biggest surprise gift was a video on CD from Grandma Tveito from the Tveito family reunion back in 1988. It's pretty funny seeing all my cousins with huge hair sprayed hair and/or glasses that take up half their faces. Good times.

Dong Ook

It's winter camp time and that means working only half days. You would think I'd be better at making entries but with all that free time I'm miles away from the computer. Today after teaching my after school students I spent the afternoon with Dong Ook. His mom asked me if I had some free time and then offered Dong Ook (without his knowledge) to take me out for a late lunch. Dong Ook is seventeen and very much in the awkward stage of life. He's lanky, shy, a tad geeky but a lot of fun to free talk with. During each class he comes up with more than one weird story to the simplest of questions I ask.

One of today's oddities. Teacher: "Which kindergarten did you prefer, English Kindergarten or Korean Kindergarten?" Dong Ook: "Korean. There was a fire at our Kindergarten and we had to go outside. One man teacher went in to fight the fire and the girl teachers all went in to get our shoes. We just had fun outside until the firemen came. I liked Korean Kindergarten better."

2007 Year in Review

Not sure how long this will be uped for but it's Jib Jab's look back at the year. Here's a link for when they find it on Youtube.

Jisan Forest Resort

Our last day of work before the new year was on Boxing Day and the kids came in for an hour before being sent home for the Winter break. The teachers then piled into three cars and headed off for Jisan Forest Resort for a day of skiing.

The hill was teeny tiny and reminded me of Winter Green just outside of Calgary where kids first learn to ski before tackling the Rockies. Lucky for us it was a weekday so the hill was pretty empty but to make life more exciting you could use the fallen snowboarders as ski gates on your way down.

We rented our skis a few kilometers from the hill and the man renting them to us took the beginners and gave them a lesson on how to stay up. What I loved about the Arirang Ski shop was that you could also rent all the gear you needed for the day. I got a pair of nice new ski pants for only five bucks.

Heading up the hill. Mr Oh (the one with the biggest head) was definitely the best skier out of our group so I stuck with him most of the day.

The view from the top.

Mr. Oh coming down the best run on the hill, it was a disappointing three minutes long so we soon got bored of it and headed over to help the new skiers from our group.



What I loved about this hill was there were no T-Bars in sight. I still have nightmares of being drug up the hill on my back from failing to understand how they work. Here you just get on a long flat escalator that carries you to the top.

The required bad English sign to end a fun day and good way to get out of teaching.

Christmas Parties x One Too Many

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and because it was the Christmas Season and this is Korea and it takes very little pressure to meet up with friends we had a few too many nights at the bar. The first party to kick off the year was about a week before Christmas before those with holidays now set off for warmer climates. It was a great night with Teddy serving up a lot of free food, silly hats were the norm, Joel and Jes gave a great "Season's of Love" performance that inspired finishing the night out at a Nore Bang (Karaoke room).



Koreans use the end of the year to meet all their friends. There was an election here just before Christmas that we used to meet up with Seung Ho in Hongdae. We started out in a fusion bar and ate most of the menu before setting off for a second round where we ate even more. Then it was off to let our stomachs settle by singing in the Luxury Nore Bang down the road. After this it was off for even more food.



Christmas Eve is a romantic holiday in Korea where couples get together and make cute faces to one another over a table full of food and drink. Saejin's coworker Jeong Sun is single so she came over to our place to help us drink some wine that Chan Yeong gave us some fancy from his restaurant. We corrupted the wine by pairing it with Chicken wings and Mandoo.

After dinner we headed to Itaewon to meet up with more of Saejin's friends and Shelly and her friend Sam who was visiting from Egypt. After a couple of weeks of parties I was so glad to have the week after Christmas off.