The Smoking Loon...

Superbowl Sunday

2011-02-09T13:07:00.003+09:00

Sunday, being the day before work, is never the best for a party. Luckily I have a lot of friends who don't support this idea and had a great time at Jayme Lee's. She went all Martha Stewart on her place and made half-time cookies, a football field table top, and pulled pork that had to be topped with her homemade coleslaw (I did it wrong and got yelled at). The best thing she did was to get everyone to gamble on the game, it basically was the only thing that made us all watch. It was a great day and being home by nine left me with lots of time to feel great the next day.

Nicest Neighbour Ever?

2011-02-03T14:35:00.004+09:00

Again sorry. Again will try again to post again. Life here is all good. The job is going great and seeing the students now starting to dribble in is what I need to know that it is possible my job will actually work out.

I've had some great neighbours. Trish Mueller will forever be my back door neighbour that I love the most having grown up together in the suburbs. When you move out of these places you hear horror stories about how city life is cold. To make matters worse, Vancouver has a horrible reputation for being an unfriendly city. After moving here, I belived this and have seen this when you go out on weekends but slowly after living here longer and seeing the same people every day in the elevator I have changed my opinion.

We live on the top floor of our apartment building and are amazingly lucky to have a huge roof top patio. At the beginning of last month the neighbour who had the other corner of the building started to move out. He had been living in his place the past fifteen years and has collected a huge beautiful garden. We ran into each often and over time had more and more to say to each other. He was friendly, neighbourly and has helped me see that if you want to be nice it's possible.

His place is being renovated so that prices can go up (we were offered hardwood floors when I looked at this apartment but it would be a $200 dollar increase...I...being underemployed at the time said the rugs were fine)so he has taken his time moving.

Each and every time I see him now, he has stuff to offer. Its started with a couple of big plants, moved onto a table and patio chairs and finally ended with a heater and an amazing BBQ. Tonight while outside to see how things were he overnight placed a larger table top for the table and some outdoor art piece. Can't wait for the rain to stop to enjoy all we have gained.

***Update: Just went outside to check on the noisy party happening down bellow at the posh restaurant next door -the cheapest cars being valet parked are BMWs- and have since found a table umbrella. going to have to turn off the raido so I can catch Patrick to thank him.

Welcome to East Vancouver

2010-12-01T14:17:00.003+09:00

I got an East Vancouver welcome on the weekend. Even though it was a punch (almost too light to even be writing on it) to the face for not having any cigarettes available for the homeless man, I will definitely be back. I had a great time on Jamye Lee's birthday.

I didn't sign up for this

2010-11-26T13:41:00.005+09:00

I didn't sign up for an Arctic freeze nor for a job without Lara around. Seriously Vancouver, you were so nice last year with little rain and no snow, why do you have to give us such extreme and uncalled for weather like this? Sure Korea softened me to harsh winters but a damp minus ten is seriously cold, especially when your workplace isn't built for heat. I used to make fun of Korean building that weren't insulated or heated and yet I find myself in one. I also seem to have found myself in a Korean like run business where managers do odd things.

Everything took an unexpected turn at work when I got a text message from Lara (the amazing lady who brought me over to CET) saying the director fired her. Just like that he let her go. He gave no reason, no explanation and no chance to right whatever she did wrong, which from what I can see was nothing. It was so random and out of the blue that the rest of the staff and I have no idea what is going on.

As for the director he said little to me about what happened and I told him I am there to teach and that's what I'll do. He asked me to do some extra curriculum development and while I could do what he is asking I'm nowhere near qualified like Lara is to do it, besides it's just too strange for me to commit just now. I want to know that the school will be around for me to put in the effort. I also want to go wherever Lara finally ends up. Until then I'm stuck in a freezing building topped off with the figuratively cold work environment and on Monday we had a three hour fire alarm continuously ring.

The television warned of freezing pipes and in a rare moment of truth they were right. The sprinkler system in our building froze and tripped off the fire alarm into a three hour ringing session on Monday. It was the start of one long, bland week that has sucked in more ways than one. I can't wait for tomorrow to be finished.

On a more important note, summed up so well by Leoni earlier this week,
"Dear Kim Jong Il,Fuck off please.Ok bye"

Hello?

2010-11-19T15:59:00.003+09:00

I'm almost 100 percent sure nobody comes here anymore but will try to get back to posting. I know I have said that before just like I have said I'd jog again. But in my defense, it's been two weeks straight of jogging so why not some posts? Life here in Vancouver is all good. I have a great job, great friends and have an even greater time watching the local news panick about the weather. (Yes this is a weather post but don't judge me...I'll never post pictures of cats.)
For the last week, the big news has been about an up coming snow storm. As I type, the rain is coming down as "snow" but seriously it's not snow. Watching the Seattle news they are "warning" people to buy big sized beer cozies for their exposed pipes to avoid freezing yet all that is expected is minus three weather. Yes that freezes but come on, it's nowhere near the minus 20 something weather mom and dad were talking about earlier. I'm acting all tough but five minutes ago I did put on my winter jacket to see if it was good to go, turns out it isn't as there's a big stain on the front of it. I guess I'll go with layers tomorrow.

Oops I did it again...

2010-07-07T14:41:00.003+09:00

The writers for Miss Britney Spears obviously knew a lot about blogging. It's been a while and I blame nobody but myself. Things here are all good, still teaching ESL students and have a great story told to me by one of my favorite students. I teach Woori (aka Ann) after my regular gig and she cracks me up. The first time I met her she said she hated Canada because she is so much more funny in Korea. I don't believe it.

She told me a story about how she went to Victoria a few weeks ago and noticed a sign in the hotel bathroom that said "watch your step". She is Korean so she wears sandals into the bathroom. Her sandals had some dirt on them and when you add that to the drops of water on the floor you get marks. In her mind "watch your step" translated into clean up after yourself and so she did. The whole weekend long. It wasn't until she came back to Vancouver and boarded a bus that had the same sign on the stairs that she figured out exactly what "watch your step" meant. Cheers to anybody who takes on English as a second language it can be confusing.

Eat Vancouver

2010-06-01T13:22:00.003+09:00

Two free tickets to Eat Vancouver fell into our laps so we headed out to the new Convention Centre (thank you Olympics) on Sunday for lunch. The restaurants there had samples of their goods that you had to buy coupons for to test. The average cost per sample was about $2.50 - luckily Saejin though 5 coupons was five dollars so he ignored his hunger because the sample were tiny compared to the imaginary 5 dollars he thought they cost. Another problem was that the lines were insane in this section but with clever line cutting and ignorance we survived. The best had to be the blue cheese macaroni and meat balls from some restaurant (did I mention the lines were insane so I missed getting the restaurants name - not good for them or me because I'll never find it here in Vancouver.)

We ended up coming home with four litres of soup stock and the way too many samples of packaged goods helped replenish the cupboards. For free it was definitely worth checking out. We also got to see the soup Nazi from Seinfeld fame who is now making a living working food conventions and living off of fictional soup that he makes as a demonstration.

Speaking of food, the one thing I am really struggling with being back here is that chicken breasts have morphed into giant double DDs since I remember last seeing them. In Korea chicken breasts are half the size and cheaper than any other part of the chicken. I liked them that way and I have yet to buy any chicken breasts here because I think that
A...they are pumped way too big with water.
B...how many steroids were these caged creatures pumped with and why don't their legs match their breast...they are barbie chickens.
And c...I can't find (or afford) free range chicken. Besides I don't really miss chicken that much when steroid fed, penned in beef is so cheap and plentiful.

2010-05-29T00:38:00.002+09:00

Every Thursday I get Rex Murphy's opinion pieces from itunes. I can't agree more with his latest one.

Chinese Food

2010-05-27T08:31:00.002+09:00

Had a job interview today which went great. It's at a school that pays a lot more money but the only trouble being I'd have to go on a sub list for the time being and next month (as in July) I would probably slip into a full time position. Not exactly sure what I will do but the lady doing the interview was great (she actually had questions I had to think about - she liked my answers and said she'd never hear a few of my answers before but said they'd work out great in a class) and she told me to contact her after next week when I finish my contract with the other school.

Tonight I'm off for some real Chinese food. My TESOL practicum partner teacher is finishing up her classes with the new immigrants I taught a few weeks ago and they are heading out for dinner. The class wanted her to invite me along. Not sure what kinds of Chinese food I'll be having but seeing as they are all new immigrants here I'm sure it will be amazing real Chinese food. Another one of the benefits of living in a city where almost 50 percent of the population has ties to China - great, cheap Chinese food. Pictures to follow if we end up eating anything mysterious.

Burrard Bridge

2010-05-26T03:19:00.004+09:00

I'm on an ill timed holiday this week. (I'll explain more about this later) All day today I'll be sticking around home doing all the laundry I have ignored for the past week. Yesterday it was nice and sunny (you can't tell by the pictures but this is sunny in Vancouver) so we went for a walk across Burrard bridge. Since arriving in September this bridge (and Granville bridge) sit jut outside the apartment in clear view from the balcony and the only times we've crossed them have been at night coming back from friend's houses.

The bridge here with an upper truss so big boats can make it into False Creek. FYI...False Creek news from the past few weeks...a whale was spotted and chased out of here a few weeks ago. It was searching for some food on it's trek back to Alaska after fasting in Mexico for the winter. Scientists were worried it had become lost and would die if it stayed put around town. Another sighting was of Zach Effron of High School musical fame who sadly wasn't also chased out of town for starving people ofdecent movies.

(An older picture to show how high we were.)

View of the False creek Ferry stop at the Aqua centre to head over to Granville Island or Vanier Park.

Final shot before the camera died. English bay with the Westend in the background. Vancouver definitely deserves its reputation as a beautiful city. I'm very lucky to be living here.

Lynn Canyon Picnic

2010-05-18T14:16:00.003+09:00

Late Saturday afternoon Shane came by to pick us up and we finally made it over to North Vancouver. Destination, Lynn Canyon for a lupper picnic. Seeing as none of us had ever been there it was a little strange walking from the car to the Canyon with lots of groceries but luckily there were more than just serious hikers and lots empty tables to eat at.

The view from the suspension bridge.

We made it to the other side. A feat when you consider we all had our own personal handicaps. Mine were my tread less sandals, Shanes was the bag of left over food, Youn Jung (Shane's wife) hiked in high heels and Saejin couldn't handle the suspension bridge bouncing.

Saejin with some Canadian wildlife.

Chllin on a stump to show saejin that camping could be an option this summer. He said he would go if he could stay in a hotel while the rest of us slummed it up in tents.

The view of the bridge.

More posing with nature.

Korean Hiking gear.

Lion's Gate bridge and Stanley Park from North Vancouver where we stopped of for some more views of Vancouver after we drove up some of the Sea to sky highway.

Shane saw some kids tossing rocks into the ocean and he decided to join them. Little did he know that big rocks weigh a lot.

Hello? back into blogging baby

2010-05-14T09:25:00.005+09:00

Testing, testing...anyone remember me? It looks like things are slowly falling into place for me and life back here in Canada. Not sure where to start with the updates but the most important one is I'm finally finished my TESOL and can legally teach in real language schools here. To get the TESOL, I was doing night classes three times a week for three months and then had to do a practicum but now it' all done with. (The practicum ended last week during my first week at my new job. Those days sucked as I was going from 8 am all the way until 9:30 at night. Sucky times for sure but now its good. My practicum supervisor was amazing and helped me out a lot and possibly we will wok together in the future.)

The school I'm at is alright but it's just for a one month contract which they may or may not extend (depending on how I do and if student numbers remain high...no pig flu please Mexico). I am still looking for something more secure and should be able to get at least two interviews (I have connections now) for some possible jobs. Anyway I have nights off for a change so I can start jogging again and loving life in Vancouver even more. Will post more soon. (This time I mean it.)

Happy Holidays

2009-12-23T14:52:00.002+09:00

I can't remember how many times this week I have had conversations with students telling them to avoid shopping on the 23rd or 24th of December. Yet I have managed to leave all my shopping to the last minute. Tomorrow will be a busy day of classes first thing in the morning, a couple of hours off from lunch until I have to pick up Angela's nephews from their school for our class together. This leaves shopping for the last couple of hours before malls close and then a trip to Safeway to load up on food for Xmas Eve, Christmas day and Boxing day. Hopefully the years of fighting old ajumas on the Seoul subway will make the last minute shopping rush feel like a walk in the park (albeit a crowded Korean park.)

Where to start?

2009-12-18T12:19:00.004+09:00

Things are almost all settled in here. Been away for some time moving apartments and waiting for the internet. (Who knew it took only 10 days to get a connection?) During this time we had to run down to the nearest coffee shop (it's Vancouver, we walked a block) to use the internet. But now the internet is up and with the TV playing the Flames game things are all good.

Here are some pictures from September (I'm way behind) and our first meeting with Rachel Lynn's patio and amazing home.

Rachel Lynn smiles.

Saejin relaxes.

Ross calculates the makeup of the chemical compounds in my camera.

Back in side for games. Here Saejin is before he learns the rules for the new game.

Here he is during the game wondering how having people yelling things at you can be considered a fun thing to do after drinking. It is.

Going to Rachel Lynn's house is great because we always have a chance to play some sort of game. This one has each person given a handful of papers where you write down any noun (really any...Rachel Lynn's dad plays and he gets dirty). We then are divided into two teams. Teams alternate going and one person has a minute to describe the noun they picked from the hat. When you guess it you get the point. After all the words have been played they go back in the hat and you then have to act them out. This is the hard part but it's good fun.

Friends in Town

2009-11-21T04:21:00.003+09:00

This weekend is shaping up to be a busy one. My best friend Graham is flying in from Calgary for the weekend and he always has a list of things to do while in Vancouver. I've just finished my best rain dance so that we don't have to go to the pitch and putt in Stanley Park. Tomorrow Sam and Barclay arrive for their two week tour of the Vancouver area but their list of things to do will prove to be a lot harder to complete. They are stopping by on their way home to England and have visions of Moose steaks, ice hockey (not sure what that is) and a sampling of all the micro brew beers the area offers. Good times to follow I'm sure.

Gone to the Movies

2009-11-17T15:02:00.003+09:00

This past week I've been to the movies a couple of times. The first go round was to get a horror movie fix with Paranormal Activity but sadly it didn't live up to the hype and it never once made me a)jump b)scream c)throw off my glasses in fear or d)all of the above even once. The second movie was Saejin's choice so that meant seeing the latest big budget movie pretending it has a convincing story line, so we went to see 2012. It too was crap.

The fun part for me was remembering how different theatres are here compared to my old stomping grounds on the ROK. They mostly surround pricing. Here the tickets are almost five dollars more for the same movie, released mostly on the same day and housed in the same quality of movie theatre but here you have to go a whole lot earlier to get a seat. In Korea your ticket gives you a seat number that you can choose when you buy it. I'd love this system to catch on here but it won't because the crazy people who camp out for tickets would then disappear. If they aren't there then the news cameras aren't there and the big studios are no longer getting free publicity so then people wouldn't know what crappy movie they should be wasting their money on.

Saejin had a few good laughs at the theatre. He ordered a small coke and found out it was bigger than the largest coke in Korea. When he pointed this out to the cashier she pointed back that this is why we're so fat here. What bothered Saejin even more was that he couldn't believe the price of a small popcorn, "$6.21 for popcorn? That's more than the price of a beer!" In a world of monthly budgets. he knows where his loyalties lie and declined the popcorn.

Tim Horton's

2009-11-11T12:56:00.002+09:00

It's embarrassing to admit because it is way to Canadiana but I have been visiting Tim Horton's a bit too much lately. There is one a block from my school and it's not for the cheap price of coffees or their selection of donuts and timbits that I visit. Sadly, I've become addicted to their new French Onion soup. (Their advertisement has clearly worked on me.) The soup lacks the perfect amount of cheese and bread to soup ratio you'd expect in a good French onion soup but it's amazing none the less and like everything else there, it's cheap.

As for work, I'm scheduled to teach the conversation classes now which is better than just doing one on one classes because there are more students who talk. The school seems quite good and the people running it are organized and super nice. The only bad part about it, is that I never know my daily schedule until the night before work and my hours (while increasing) are also just over part time for now. They have Friday night parties which I will probably check out this Friday so that the staff and students know I want to be part of the team but hearing the stories of last Friday's tomfoolery, I need to be careful. Turns out Koreans drink the same way as they do back home and that means a lot. To quote another teacher from the school, "there were tears,a fight and destruction of property" not sure if that means a good party or something I think I'm too old for.

Homeless Signs

2009-11-07T12:35:00.004+09:00

The homeless in Vancouver are among the best marketers I have come across in a long time. Here is a collection of cardboard signs I have seen held up asking for help this week:

Too lazy to work, too ugly for prostitution. An approach that makes people look at their faces and sees they aren't ugly so they'd better give money so the person doesn't get caught in the sex trade.
Battle of the sexes, who gives more? He then had two boxes set up and gave a running today of who was in the lead. When I walked past I was surprised to learn the men were up by $1.45.
If you feel like giving, make a second lunch to pass along. This one plays off knowing you have too much food and it wouldn't cost too much to put together a second meal.
Smile if you masturbate. Gets people's attention.
Spare change for weed and beer. Weed and beer are a Vancouver staple that locals wouldn't want anyone to be without.

Work

2009-11-04T11:50:00.003+09:00

I started to work today after a very long, long vacation. It's not exactly what I want to be doing but it is money with a lot of flexibility in the future. I'm teaching conversation classes at a small school downtown with...surprise surprise mostly Korean students. I can't escape Korea.

TV Bye Bye

2009-10-28T14:05:00.004+09:00

Once upon a time an old Korean ajuma went into my friend Heidi's place when her son (the ajumas son, not Heidi's) was moving out and knowing no English the ajuma said, "TV Bye Bye*." For me being back in Canada I wouldn't miss the TV one bit if it were gone. Back in Korea, it was a different story. I downloaded all the big hit TV shows from the US and the UK to watch back on the computer and felt I needed to watch. Here it's a different story. I don't even know what shows are on what night and really other than Sunday nights (aka Amazing race and Brothers and Sisters night) I hardly watch it. The only thing I will admit to watching more of is hockey and that's just because it's on when I'm at home whereas in Korea it was on while I was teaching morning classes. This being said, V is premiering tonight and I plan to watch just to say it's not as good as the original series.

* The ajuma knew very little English and meant to say, "He is my son and he will never marry you. You don't even know how to clean out the left over rice in the rice cooker."

English Bay and Stanley Park

2009-10-22T10:59:00.005+09:00

Time to get some Vancouver sights on here. The apartment is a three minute walk from False Creek.

Posing on the beach one morning after we arrived in September.

SJ being a both a good and bad Vancouverite. He is proudly drinking coffee on the beach but he didn't bring his own reusable cup. The tree hugging hippies will not like him.

Kimchi!

Taking a break in Stanley Park. I was so happy to see a garbage can again that I had to get my picture taken next to it. (Korea is a garbage can free zone and if there is one it will definitely be overflowing with garbage.)

SJ acting as if he is used to being surrounded by nature. He did a good job of not jumping each time he heard trees playing in the wind but did panic when a nursery of raccoon met us on the trail.

The Lost Lagoon

More wildlife not to be eaten.

All in all Vancouver is a great place to live. The only thing that would make it amazing is if the city can somehow convince Calgary to swap hockey organizations.

Canadian Thanksgiving

2009-10-14T14:01:00.005+09:00

Thanksgiving kind of snuck up on me without much warning. Living in Korea you remember when Korean thanksgiving is (nobody forgets to notice at least three days off in a row) and the American thanksgiving is celebrated at lots of the pubs in Itaewon (nobody forgets the places that serve turkey.) It wasn't until I looked at the Safeway flyer and noticed a special thanksgiving section that I knew Monday was a holiday. I'm still not brave enough to cook turkey and unlike Korea nobody gave me any holiday Spam gift sets to eat, so Saejin and I bought monster sized steaks. We made sure we plated at least two vegetables and by drinking the meal with wine it was a holiday meal.

For the day off on Monday(aren't all days off when you're unemployed?) Rachel Lynn woke me up with a text message saying her boyfriend Ross was about to roast up some ham. She invited us over for an early dinner and it was amazing. She made up a salad that was so good I didn't even notice I was eating beets. So I'm not so out of the loop on holidays I think I'd better fill in my day planner with the Canadian ones. I think Halloween might be coming up sometime soon.

I'm Australian

2009-10-12T14:27:00.003+09:00

Turns out that no matter how long I worked in Korea as a Canadian they think I'm Australian. I was supposed to get my pension from Korea mid September (and after working there for so long it's a big chunk of change) but it didn't arrive until a couple of days ago. After calling Korea a few weeks ago to find out what the problem was it turned out that the records between the pension office and immigration didn't match up. Immigration had me down as an Australian. The lady working in the pension office had been working there for three years and she said this was the first time she had ever seen this kind of problem. She was glad I'd called and she explained it was just a shuffling of paper work that was delaying the money being sent. When I passed the phone onto Saejin she was even more apologetic and said she would personally send the money from the local office's account and speed things up. She also mentioned to Saejin that my school has yet to make the last payment and once (and if) that happens (it won't) I'll get another hundred and thirty bucks in my account. I'm not holding my breath but with the job search still on going it gives me a lot more time to find exactly what I'm looking for. Happy Thanksgiving.

It's on fire

2009-10-07T10:33:00.002+09:00

Saejin is convinced that the bathroom is constantly about to burst into flames. No matter how many times I explain it's just a heated light that warms the bathroom he gets worried. Back in Korea he had no problem with the shower shooting water inches from the electrical socket or the fact the light bulb was unexposed and also within reach of the arcs of water. Cultural differences are fun.

UBC Museum of Anthropology

2009-10-07T10:01:00.006+09:00

Old post here from the first week in Vancouver. Rachel-Lynn's mother works at the museum and they were having (in Vancouver like hippie ways) a dance performance at the museum. With nothing better to do and the first chance to see RL we agreed to head over to UBC.

RL and her boyfriend Ross grooving to the music.

Saejin adopting Mrs. Baird as his Vancouver mom.

RL and Saejin touching one of the "touchable" pieces of art.

Posing for a picture after being led through the museum by a troupe of dancers who stopped every so often to hippie dance.

Everyone hippie dancing. The thunderclap is now a new favorite dance move. Can't wait to show it off to my Korean friends.

2009-09-24T10:24:00.002+09:00

Quick upload of some fun we had on Santosa Island in Singapore. I'll try to get around to uploading the rest of the trip soon but reume work and looking for a job is taking most of my time lately. Any job hints or resume tips passed on would be appreciated. As for tonight, it's 15 cent wing night, I can't wait to pig out.

First Impressions...one week in

2009-09-21T15:01:00.002+09:00

While I am missing Korea I am so happy to be back. Here are some reasons:

Milk comes in four litre bottles.
Sandwiches are for sale everywhere.
Hockey highlights are shown even for preseason games.
Fruit is cheap, plentiful and fresh.
Dog the Bounty Hunter is on TV every four hours.
Fresh air.
I get asked for ID going into bars.
When ordering food or drinks you never ever need to order anything larger than the small size.
15 cent wing nights.
Draft beer.
Salads come with the dressing on the side and not swimming in dressing.

The only thing I have noticed that I'm not happy with is eveything is SOOOOOOOOOOOO salty. It's disgusting. Other than that things are good.

In Vancouver

2009-09-16T10:36:00.002+09:00

Finally settled in Vancouver which was difficult after two weeks of swimming, a lot of sun and a final wild goodbye night in Seoul. I will post a lot of updates later this week.

Updates coming

2009-08-25T11:11:00.002+09:00

There has been so much going on the past two weeks (mostly drinking and meeting friends) that I haven't had anytime to post. Two more weeks of holidays and then there will be lots to see and read about.

Day Trip with Ted

2009-08-11T00:01:00.005+09:00

Open wide

2009-08-06T09:45:00.003+09:00

I'm loving Korean dentists at the moment. I had scaling (deep cleaning) done and had two cavities filled all for 30 dollars. It does help the dentist is a friend of a friend but what helps more is that I didn't go to the poorly named S&M Dental clinic just down the street.

Kangaroos

2009-08-03T18:26:00.005+09:00

Had a great little dinner at Nic and Rob's place on Saturday night. They basically live in a mansion with the best patio to take in the views of the city. I should have brought out my camera out but didn't want to appear as if I hadn't been in a nice house before so I acted cool. We ate a lot and chilled the whole night outside on the patio. Nic was not shy about refilling drinks and never once let my sparkling wine dip below half a glass.

At one point near the end of the night the topic moved from Rob's nurse stories (always disgustingly fun) onto Leonie's fostering of kangaroos as a child. Saejin and I refused to believe this story thinking the majority of Australians present were taking the piss out of us. When you start a story out about a baby kangaroo jumping on your head and you are Australian it's like a Canadian saying they have lived in an igloo. After five minutes of refusing to believe the details about these kangaroo stories started to sound real and I will now say they are true although I am waiting for the pictures as solid proof.

Yummy

2009-07-29T19:07:00.002+09:00

Living with Joone has been going alright. I'm slowly getting used to a new sleep schedual but when I only work half days I shouldn't complain if I get to bed later than I want. The worst thing in this place is Joone's ashtray. I know what he's getting for his next birthday.

Dinner and drinks

2009-07-27T18:18:00.011+09:00

A couple of weeks ago my former student's family asked me to go out for dinner. We had agreed to sushi a few weeks before but I was thinking sushi meant the Japanese variety with salmon and tuna as my options. Instead we went to a Korean restaurant where the first floors holds the fish for you to pick and upstairs we eat it. Luckily they had 도미 in Korean which my phone tells me is a sea bream. Neither word means anything to me but it is tasty when paired with soju.

SeChan giving his normal look when asked to do anything.

The family finding out the weight and price of dinner.

After dinner we went to the pub for more drinks and fun.

Around the time the soju and beer started to kick in so did the sugar from Sechan's multiple coke's and ice cream. Being a good Korean kid he started showing off the latest dance craze every Korean knows.

SaeBin took a break from hanging off my neck to pose for her picture.

Good times.

Tony's Birthday

2009-07-23T14:06:00.002+09:00

Hard to believe this man is an actual professor travelling the world going to conferences and earning a living molding the minds of MBA students. No wonder businesses the world over are all failing.

Tony had his birthday a couple of Friday's ago. We went to a Thai fusion restaurant with the obvious name of Berlin, where Tony treated us to a set menu he had specially made for the group (the starter was a Korean dumpling but it was wrapped in rice paper, a chicken salad was next, followed by the best sliced steak and some chicken dish, we then had some fries and a green curry served with noodles). The food was amazing and I will definitely have to make it back there before leaving Seoul.

It was the usual gang and things started off quietly.

The late comers.

Raidar was also there for his last night in Seoul before he headed back to Norway early the next morning.

Things got a little louder after this when we all started in on the helium balloons that Chan Young brought along. Not wanting to be banned from the restaurant we headed off to Bliss where we could be louder and later in the night up to Soho. Here things turned dramatic when a pick pocket stole Tony's wallet from his bag but the bar staff saw it all and they caught the guy. Other than the wallet fiasco it was a great night out.

Homeless

2009-07-23T13:29:00.002+09:00

When you get news you have to be moved out in one week's time and your house is full of crap it leaves you with no time to post. We had the option of not taking the offer on the house but in Korea when you rent you deposit key money and you get it back when the next people take over your place. We had 10 million won tied up in the place and didn't want to risk having the place sit empty and then trying to get the money back while in Canada so we it took it. We also took being homeless for the last month we are here but thankfully Joone offered up a place in his house to keep us sheltered. He lives in Pucheon (the city between Seoul and Incheon) so it takes just over an hour to commute to Seoul but for my work it is relatively close and is about the same commute time I was doing before. Thankfully I'm on holiday for two of the last four weeks here so it isn't too bad.

The move itself was simple but the sorting of stuff the week before sucked. I threw out ten, twenty litre bags of garbage. Gave away another five boxes of stuff and then chucked the "maybe will keep stuff" into boxes we stored in Saejin's office that I have to sort through. The rest of the stuff all belonged to my school and we hired a moving crew to come pack it up and take away. (If you are looking for a job where you can smoke and ash on apartment floors, be rude and you like carrying sofas on your back the mover gig is worth checking out.)

Just in Time

2009-07-10T20:39:00.003+09:00

When I got to Korea my first job was working for a shady, shady man who used to pay me in little white envelopes full of 10 000 won ($10) bills. It took two of them to pay me (envelopes not bills) and then I would rush back to my apartment and make tiny hidden piles of money in case I got robbed. Just a few weeks ago the newest, biggest bill came out, a 50 000 won. They have been talking about it for some time and had hardcore debates over who should be on it and then once decided they had a usual Korea argument over the size of Shin Saimdang's head (thanks Don). Anyway yesterday a student showed me the first real one I have seen. They are still in limited circulation.

Wet Feet

2009-07-09T15:48:00.002+09:00

My socks have been wet all day long. My pants from mid thigh down have been soaked and dried four times today. My shirt on the side I wear my purse (I don't need to label it a man bag, it's a purse) has been rung out only twice. Since seven this morning until three in the afternoon it has been pouring rain with winds to make an umbrella a useless accessory. It wouldn't have been too bad but today I went down to the Canadian Embassy before work to get a new passport made. So I was drenched walking to the subway, drenched again walking to the embassy, drenched a third time coming to work and to add insult to pickled skin just walking twenty meters to lunch today ended up with me and all the kids drenched again. It's just drizzling now and I can't wait to get home to change my clothes.

On the Market

2009-07-08T09:51:00.003+09:00

Seeing as we are moving out in just over a month our apartment is on the market for new renters. We had to get an extra key made and dropped it off with a real estate agent. They can now show the place whenever a client drops by looking for a place fitting the size and budget they want. Yesterday a young couple came by to see the place and because the agent is an ajuma she didn't even bother knocking on the door to see if we were home. Instead she jammed the key into the lock then started trying to open the door with all here might. Luckily, we had the security lock on because had they wanted to see the bathroom they would have gotten a sight of Saejin lathering up. I often forget to lock the door (a huge annoyance to Saejin) but will now have to remember to not only lock the door but to set the tiny security bolt.

Ajumi

2009-07-03T10:13:00.003+09:00

Ajumi is the plural for an ajuma. An Ajuma is Korean for a married woman but it's in your best interest to avoid being hit to not to use this term for anyone younger than forty. Ajumi can be the nicest or evilest of people you will meet in Korea and tend to have many similar characteristics.

The look of an ajuma is easy to spot. They tend to have tight curly perms and their uniform is a floral shirt matched with a pair of comfortable pants. They are easy to spot because they travel in packs and will never stand behind you in line. If you are waiting for the next subway they have the sharpest elbows in the world and will sneak past you no matter how hard you try to keep them at bay. They also have impeccable aim and will throw their purses to lay claim to any empty seat available in the rare case they are behind you when entering a train or bus.

Once seated they will then quickly get a sense of the environment by staring (and I mean full on staring) at everyone around them. If there happens to be a drunk, or a crazy person, near them who is disrupting the atmosphere on the train they have magic powers that puts that person in check. It's an awesome sight to see.

If there is a toddler nearby, ajumi will volunteer to hold the kid and if the kid is unwilling out comes candy from their all important purse. (I've also been given candy from ajumi multiple times.) Because they have given everyone around a once over any flaw they see they will go about fixing the problem. On two separate occasions yesterday I saw ajumi pick stray hairs off the backs of unsuspecting strangers without their knowledge.

The scary side of the ajumi comes out when they go shopping. Give them a shopping cart and you will be run down if you are unlucky enough to be in the way of a sale. If no sale exists they will bargain to get the cheapest deal available. They are also scary when they are out drinking for the night. This usually only happens on rare occasions and they make the best of it. They love to eat, sing and dance.

When they head out to eat they make sure to hand feed anyone else looking hungry. They sing oldies but goodies and have a special dance where their thumbs, bums and heads to most of the work. Don't worry about them getting drunk though. They will drink anyone under the table and are often seen carrying their husbands home on their backs while yelling at them.

Sadly, I believe they are a dying breed. The next generation of ajumi are very conscious of their appearances and with plastic surgery being more of a right of passage than a trend new ajumi will stay young forever. Long live the ajumi.

Test Day

2009-07-03T10:00:00.002+09:00

Normally test days fall on a Wednesday a few weeks before the end of the term. According to the yearly schedual it was supposed to be next Wednesday but when I showed up to work today the kids were all last minute cramming with worried little looks on their faces.

Had I known it was today I would have asked for the morning off to run down to the Embassy to apply for my new passport. Instead I brought in nothing extra do to to kill time. I guess it's a day of YouTubeing (is it a verb yet? Do you drop the e? Add a b?) and reading for me. I may need a drink tonight to kill this boredom.

Air Con Time

2009-06-30T13:04:00.002+09:00

Yesterday morning it suddenly started raining so hard and heavy that it woke me up. It stopped minutes before I left the house but then the temperatures started to climb making the afternoon a muggy mess. Luckily we finally got an instant message on our computers saying we could now use the air conditioners (air con in Korean) in our classrooms. It was a welcomed relief seeing as I have been using the air con at home now for the last couple of weeks. Saturday it came in particularly handy.

After a late night out on Friday I didn't want my Saturday to be a complete waste of a day so I planned on making a trip down to Yongsan to load up on DVDs. From my place to the subway station is a quick ten minute walk but on Saturday afternoon it was enough of a jaunt to get me sweating like crazy. If dripping in sweat wasn't bad enough I was sure my drippings were pure booze from the night before and having experienced sweating Korean businessmen on morning commutes I decided I wouldn't torture anyone else this way. So I re climbed the stairs back out into the furnace. I was never so relieved to get back home where I sat beneath the air con for the next two hours while drinking loads of water.

Carbon Copy Weekends.

2009-06-23T14:02:00.006+09:00

The past two Saturdays have been almost carbon copies of one another. Both Joon and Ted have aged like Kimchi over the year and we all met up to celebrate. To sum up the two parties: they both started with meat and drinks, more drinks followed, then cakes made an appearance but were never eaten. The usual tom foolery happened and it was all good.

First up Joone's birthday:

We went to a great little restaurant near Tony's place and had three different kinds of meat for dinner to match the three different kinds of alcohol Joon picked out.

Thinly sliced pork that you then soak it a sweet sauce.

Disgusting seafood.

Raw beef mixed with a raw egg and tiny bits of Korean pears in it. My favourite Korean dish by far.

Teddy's Birthday:

Ted had us all in to his bar where he had the BBQ going for Hamburgers and chicken wings goodness. I got wrangled into prepping the salad and veggies where only after slicing up five or six onions and crying I learnt that to avoid tears you should chew gum.

Leoni and Don posing.

Joel and Wells chilaxing.

Ted with Jes and his new best friend Anthony.

"Dinner"

2009-06-19T13:55:00.003+09:00

You would think by now that I would know that when you have "dinner" with a middle aged Korean father the "dinner" is actually a code word for drinks. Last week I agreed to dinner with my student's family and it ended up being fueled by soju.

It was a little weird drinking in front of my student but he didn't seem to mind and his four year old sister didn't either, spending the night either climbing all over me or running up to me every couple of minutes wanting to know the English word for whatever object she was thinking of.

Through broken English and Korean Se Chan's father told me that with each and every shot his daily work stress was floating away. He works as an engineer at one of the city's water treatment plants. When I asked if the tap water in Seoul is safe to drink he said by the health standards it is completely fine but his wife's opinion carries more weight and she believes it to be unsafe so he doesn't drink it.

It was a good "dinner" but near the end of it Se Chan's mom asked Se Chan to recite his English speech. SeChan isn't shy but being in public he was reluctant until he came up with a plan that I buy his some Lego if he does it. I agreed but my word wasn't good enough for him. I think he knew that the soju has influencing my agreement so he came over to my chair and had me record exactly what he would get out of it into his hand phone. Smart kid. They are a very nice family and it was a fun "dinner". I have a slight hangover to prove it.

Drag Me To Hell

2009-06-17T09:40:00.003+09:00

Sunday and Monday night I had horrible sleeps. I was waking up every thirty minutes, shifting positions, punching my pillows and working out that my body temperature was both too hot and too cold at the same time. Generally I was hating life. Last night I thought a mid week movie would help change up the regular week routine and and then I had a brighter idea of choosing to see a horror movie. Drag me to Hell was awesome and just what I needed. It wasn't scary but it had more sudden jumpy parts than any other horror movie I have seen. There was also a lot of dark comedic parts and the usual gore fest but this time done for awkward laughs. The use of scary sounds was done perfectly and this movie is the best movie I have seen this summer.

English Camp

2009-06-16T14:43:00.004+09:00

In typical Korean fashion I walked into school the other day to be told we were heading off to camp. I've done the camp almost ten times so it wasn't too much trouble putting some stuff together but it would have been nice to have known something the rest of the school knew about weeks earlier. Anyway it was a good day and they have pumped some extra money into the place and it looks great.

The obstacle course is the highlight of the day but the kids come back all sweaty and stinky. Thankfully I could go home when the day was up but I would not want to be sleeping there.

The newest feature that I loved was the blue screen where the kids practiced restaurant dialogues. It was a hit and the kids did a great job but when half the kids were wearing blue shirts they came off looking like floating talking heads.

The final event before cooking dinner was having teams build the tallest towers. There was a lot of stress as the buildings grew and lots of cheering when the opposing teams towers collapsed.

Two months today

2009-06-15T12:00:00.002+09:00

I just handed over my plane ticket to be reimbursed and it's starting to feel like things are coming to an end. I made up my list of things to do (it's long) and another list of things the school needs to do. I'm done on August 15th and have been busy making plans for a small vacation later in the month. We will hit Thailand with friends from here then travelling by train down to Singapore to see Don before then taking a flight to Cambodia to stay with another friend there. The flight home then passes through Taipei for a day to eat as much Chinese food as is possible. It should be good fun but I do need to get my passport renewed before then because it expires in February and some countries won't let you in if there are less than six months left on it.

Pour Some Sugar On Me

2009-06-10T14:45:00.003+09:00

There was a time that Onshin was a big school. Downstairs there are pictures of the graduating classes and before I joined the graduating (single) class had at least 35 students in it. Now it's a different story, the student population sits at 93. If you can't field a full soccer squad let alone a competent volleyball team you have to enter single sport events. From what I can tell about this trophy is from when they entered a niche event and won. Onshin is the proud winner of the Rick Allen award for the best impersonation of the drummer from Def Leppard. Rock on.

Tree Hugger's Toothpaste

2009-06-03T09:24:00.002+09:00

With just over two months left it's time to go through all the crap I have collected over the years. In the tacky green plastic medicine cabinet I have about five tubes of the vilest toothpaste. Ever since I came to Korea I have been bringing toothpaste with me from Canada or buying black market stuff at a huge markup because Korean toothpaste is either way too sweet or (like the ones in my place) they are flavoured to taste like pine needles. I'm all for the environment and am a tree hugger in spirit (I don't like getting too dirty) but brushing my teeth with this stuff is too much. It's not the best start to the day but I also can't be wasteful and simply throw them out. This morning the bad taste left in my mouth wasn't too bad because I got to school and my co-teacher has the day off. I will also go home at lunch to do some running around and to meet Don for lunch before he heads off to his new Job at Visa Headquarters in Singapore. It's a good hump day.

Mr. Fatty

2009-05-29T14:40:00.003+09:00

Yesterday was hot. Yesterday I was hot. Yesterday I wanted nothing to do with the stuffy subway on my way home from work. I opted for a taxi and the best place to catch one to my place is right in front of a Dunkin' Donuts. There were no taxi's waiting so I went into the air conditioned shop for some relief and to appease my sudden cravings. Lately I have been doing great at getting out jogging at least three times a week while doing other forms of exercise on the other days. I have lost weight and shirts that used to be tight are options for me now. Two donuts to quell a sudden impulse wouldn't be sending me to summer fat camp so I did it. I then went outside, hailed a cab and with my little bag of donuts I started to sit down when the back of my pants split open. Nice.

Dress Rehearsal

2009-05-29T14:06:00.004+09:00

Last Friday night started out quiet with me stretched out on bed reading my book when just before ten o'clock I got a call from Joel. We chatted for a bit and then the question about having a beer naturally came up. After more chatting and humming and hawing we chose to meet. I hopped into a taxi, took a the same old route and was soon walking the outdoor stairs to get down to Bliss. I came around the blind corner and noticed right away something was off.

The bar was as busy as normal, Ted and Lucky were hard at work (if you call standing and drinking behind the bar work) and the hulking size of Nick was hunkered down at the corner of the bar with an over sized woman in polyester as his drinking partner. A few more steps into the bar I realised it was the one and only Patti O Doors.

For those not in the know Patti o Doors is Rob in drag and will be the host of Bingo night at Bliss. This has been much talked about for a long time and last Friday was the dress rehearsal. While Bingo sounds (and can be) boring we had good fun playing a couple of rounds with free drinks as the prize. I was lucky enough to come out as a winner despite not being able to understand the way thirty is pronounced in Aussie English. Joel made the right call on heading out that night.

Miss Doors.

The winning ticket. (To win, make sure the cards have a seven on them.)

Miss Doors mingling with friends after the games were done.

Heidi and Min's Wedding

2009-05-21T15:37:00.003+09:00

Heidi (one of my closest friends I've met here) finally had her wedding with Min today. It was to be in a luxurious resort in Mexico with each couple having their own separate bungalow with hot tubs on the patio but with the Swine Flu scare they cancelled at the last minute. They are now in lesser resort in Jamaica but after getting a twenty digit number pop up on my phone today, I can say they aren't bothered where they are. They were having a dance off and through the music, laughing and drunken hellos I so wish I could have made it. Unfortunately my holiday (unemployement?) isn't for another few months. Nicole kept telling me that I was there in spirit and that I have made my way into some of the pictures. Not exactly sure what that means but when there is booze involved I'm sure they came up with some sort of plan. I'm thinking some random dirty Rastafarian wig cropped up on someones' hand.

Weekend BBQ

2009-05-21T14:05:00.002+09:00

Saturday night's BBQ at Bliss was great. I was one of the first to show and was put in charge of lighting the thing. Ever since childhood when I made the family BBQ jump when I tried lighting it I quickly passed this duty off on William. I took a supervisory role and stood well back from any glass and outside of the range I predicted the tank would blow to. Trying not to feel completely useless I volunteered to scrub off the remains of the last BBQ and nine month old grease is not a pretty sight.

The usual gang showed (minus one who was too busy reading a book) and we got into our drink and talking. The second best part of the night came when a very, very drunk girl who sometimes pops into the bar came. I have spoken to her before but she is loud and not really the kind of person I click with. Having her in the bar was entertaining as she worked her way along the bar bumping into conversations. We were definitely being nice to her and trying to make small talk but when you ask, "Where were you earlier today?" and get told, "I'm a translator" and then told the names of objects on the bar in basic Korean you lose interest. It became a sort of sport to then pass her off on each other whenever we could before excusing ourselves. She finally got placed in a bar chair and eventually figured out she was too drunk to be out and she quietly left.

The best part of the night was to finally meet Tony's friend JS. Tony talks about him often but we have never been able to meet him as he's in the military and rarely gets time off base. He had the past week out and he came by for some drink. He is a younger Korean and unfortunately he got cornered by Joon and Saejin who went into doing shots and downing beer like water. Poor JS played the role of younger Korean and super politely drank when told to. Whenever any of us Westerners came up to tell Joon and Saejin to let the non-drinker drink slowly they gave us an excuse that it's "Korean military culture" to drink this way. Basically telling us we don't understand the unique culture and he would be fine. He did his best by eventually hiding in a corner but not until Joon ran up a huge tab at the bar and seeing as he's older he had to pay. All in all it was a fun party and under my new drinking rules I wasn't hung over the next day.

Summer of '84

2009-05-14T11:39:00.004+09:00

I found out about this list of summer movies released in 1984 and was amazed by how many of these movies are still well known. There are many out there saying 1984 was the best summer for movies. Now the summer movies are all big budgeted, full of explosions, bad stories and brands that expect people will go to them no matter how shitty they are. I think the reason so many of these movies are still popular is that they were some of the first ones on video (in both Betamax and VHS), movie channels and replayed every holiday.

These are my top three picks from that summer and I would still sit though them now.

These are my next three picks and The NeverEnding Story is the only one on this list I actually saw at the theatre.

Comedies and Sci-Fi movies end my top ten from that summer.

Honorable mention to this next group and I remember seeing all of them but I imagine they are as bad as their movie posters sell them as being. I would give the Muppet Take Manhattan another go because I remember having ordered the picture book for the movie at school from the monthly book sale. They used to send home fliers full of books you could choose to order with a cheque and five weeks later it showed up, do schools still do these sales?

I have never actually seen these last four but imagine now they would be the ones I would watch. There were a bunch of other movies also released that summer (May to August) but I didn't know any of them. Anyway yesterday was test day and as you can tell I had a lot of free time on my hands. Can't wait until this weekend and the planned BBQ for Saturday.

Korean Porridge

2009-05-13T12:49:00.002+09:00

This past Saturday my friend Hyun Jung invited Saejin, Chanyeong and I over for some boiled chicken and Korean porridge made from the leftover chicken stock. I know it sounds plain and boring but it is Korean comfort food and it was delicious. Since that meal I have been craving chicken porridge (it's made from rice) all week. When Saejin came home exhausted from working out I asked Saejin about getting some. He is always prone to getting excited about food but this time his reasoning for it was classic, "Porridge is good because I'm too tired to chew."

Parent's Day

2009-05-08T13:29:00.003+09:00

Just outside a car service station near the school is a jeep with all it's windows smashed out. The front windshield has been taken to town and the two side windows no longer exist. The back window clearly shows the shape of a bat being used to inflict all these damages. There are several reasons why this may be.

The work of a short tempered gangsters looking for a return on a loan.

The work of a short tempered jealous lover, probably a female.

The work of a short tempered parent not getting a bouquet of carnations from their kids on parents day.

Today is Parent's Day and the past couple of days the kids have been busy at work doing origami and making carnations for their parents. For those not in school outside every subway station there are tiny baskets of real carnations for sale. Almost every shop wants in on this action and street food stalls, convenience stores and even cosmetic stores all have cheap flowers for sale. With the number of baskets for sale if I were a parent I too would be worked up if a son or daughter forgot to get me something. There are litterally thousands of baskets for sale but shops don't have to worry too much about excess stock.

Next week is teachers day and by changing a printed ribbon the flowers have one more chance of being bought up. This is when we get them (public school teachers miss out on the good gifts) and two days later they die and have to chuck them out.

Swine Flu

2009-05-04T14:26:00.003+09:00

Koreans aren't the only ones falling for the media scare about the swine flu but they are the ones I get to see daily. Here are a couple of comments passed onto me this weekend:

Number 1: Don't eat Samgyupsal. Doesn't matter that the media is saying pork is alright there are people out there scared of the stuff. More fatty bacon for me then.

Number 2: Avoid Itaewon. There are too many foreigners that hang out there and they are obviously the ones who would be sick. Nice to see prejudices in play.

It's stupid how people can be made to panic but like last year's American beef scare it's fun to see how quickly Koreans can be made to overreact.

TGIW

2009-04-29T15:32:00.004+09:00

An hour away from a six day weekend. Tomorrow is the school's birthday, Friday is May day, then comes the weekend where a picnic is is the plans (weather permitting) and Monday's classes got forfeited for an extra day off before Children's Day is celebrated on Tuesday. This is a holiday I desperately need before the final three months on my contract.

Field Trip to the Space Museum

2009-04-29T14:43:00.004+09:00

Last Thursday we had a field trip to a Space museum out on the main island off of Incheon (the name escapes me now). It took just over an hour and a half to get there and we stopped off at a fortress to have a potty break for the kids which they used by buying more snacks and toys from the convenient store.

The space museum is privately owned and they did a great job.

There were three floors of rides and information all about space. The older kids were a tad bored but the young ones seemed to love it.

Luckily it was a one of the few sunny days of the month and we were able to eat outside.

First graders taking a break from rolling down a grassy hill.

Fifth grade girls before security yelled at them for climbing on stuff.

Sixth grade boys trying to convince me that the prawns they were eating were actually chicken.

More first graders.

Water fights helping in the digestion process.

Kindergartners doing their thing and looking cute.

After lunch we wandered around the outside gardens. Here is Robot land.

A couple of the moving dinosaurs in Dino Ville.

Ending the day with tube rides down the hill. Good fun and much better than teaching.

How to Fail a Breathalyzer Test

2009-04-26T18:41:00.002+09:00

I download the Best of YouTube podcast to my iPod each week and loved last week's clip. Somebody should have been policing Saejin when he decided to spend some money at Soho and ordered a bottle of Vodka at nearly 3am.

Ten Reasons

2009-04-21T18:53:00.003+09:00

My co-teacher has been grinding on my nerves for the past couple of months and today after her incompetence in class yet again I finally called her on it and we had a blow out. Here are the top ten reasons I hate working with her:

1. She doesn't listen. If I ask her something I get a blank expression from her. If students call out flashcards many times they are saying the wrong answers and she doesn't catch the mistakes.

2. She runs everywhere in a panic.

3. She runs everywhere in a panic in high heeled slippers.

4. She sees the younger kids as cute and talks to them in a fake baby voice instead of as a teacher talking to students.

5. She walks around while the students are doing worksheets or working in pairs and instead of helping them she asks them important distracting questions about their pencils cases or what they like to eat.

6. She reapplies make-up for lunch.

7. She told me once that boys are more important than girls in Korea so we should help them more with English.

8. She teaches to the same high leveled students everyday instead of forcing the poor ones to be involved in class.

9. She doesn't listen. I've asked her to teach the flashcards a certain way so that they will be prepared for a later test (making them translate Korean into English) and she refuses because she thinks the class should be all in English. I also agree it should be all in English but the test is set up for them to translate and I can't help them here. Without practice the kids fail the test as we learnt last year.

10. She is useless. I want Betty teacher back.

Playoff Time

2009-04-16T09:34:00.002+09:00

The playoffs are currently going strong on the computer this morning. I know things look bad for the Flames but I want to believe they will beat Chicago. (They won't but I will still watch.) My predictions are Boston, Washington, Carolina and Philly out of the East in the first round. Anaheim, Detroit, St.Louis and Chicago in the West. I will also pick the final right now as Carolina vs Detroit with Detroit repeating as the Champions.

In the Rain

2009-04-15T19:59:00.002+09:00

Some day's work is hard (I'll post a top ten reasons why I hate working with my co-teacher soon) but usually it's a breeze and today was a great Chinook of a day. Ten minutes down the highway from our school is another teeny tiny school like ours and so when things get planned for extra curricular activities our schools join forces to cover the costs. Today was a sports day. Today was also the first rainy day of the season. I have to admit I hoped the whole thing would of been put off until next week but I wasn't so lucky. Come three o'clock we were told to head downstairs for a barbecue. It worked out because they popped open the tents, set up tables and the best part was that there was home made makoli along with a box of soju to go round. With the rain pouring down it looked like the volleyball game was off.

As the first floor filled with the smoke from the fried pork and drinks were consumed the rain slowed to a drizzle. The planned game was suddenly back on. The winning school would have a dinner paid for out of the other school's funds so the pressure was on. It didn't look good for us when the other school brought along their four army workers along to play. (These guys work in public school's instead of going to the army for several different reasons including well connected parents.) We had three teachers play, the head of the PTA joined us and our head teacher (the only woman brave enough to take on the acid rain). It was five vs eight. It was also muddy, fun and we came out on top.

My favorite part was when the two principals joined their respective teams and then all rules left the game. They both were like children playing a board game against a parent and when they touched the ball no matter what happened the respective Principal's team got points. I was definitely confused but when all the others agreed with the call I just went along.

Locked In

2009-04-15T09:28:00.003+09:00

With spring there is nothing better than airing out the house with every possible window wide open and creating a breeze. The one problem with this is the screens in Korea don't always shut as tightly as they should, inviting the mosquitoes in for their nightly meal. Last night I killed my first hungry mosquito at 3:00 am. No more airing out the house after dark and time to reload on the mosquito pads that are sold here.

It's Spring...

2009-04-14T19:47:00.005+09:00

It's spring so that means I start actually jogging instead of talking about it and it also means it's time to post pictures of the flowers. Here goes:

Around School:

Around the neighbourhood:

Boramae Park:

Rocketing in the ROK

2009-04-11T16:07:00.006+09:00

In defense of the North Koreans testing out their missiles last week, Friday was rocket day at school. Kids build and launch their own rockets to protect the ROK (Republic of Korea for those not in the know). We do this every year and it's a day the kids get all excited for and as an innocent bystander I love to watch it. It's basically an afternoon where the kids build rockets out of old pop bottles. The bottom half is half full (half empty?) of water and you then connect the rocket to the air pump where it's pressurized and once ready you release the rocket by the hand held bicycle brake. Winners in each grade then get to compete city wide of the title of best rocket. Here, Jung Hui and Tae Hoon wager money on the winning rocket. The fourth grade class missed our after school English class for this. (I'm not complaining.) My favorite class in the school are the sixth graders and their teacher had me take a million pictures of them. They have a special yearbook made up at the end of the year and need pictures of everything they did in them. Third grade students looking cute but minutes earlier they held my phone and camera hostage after I passed it on to them while I beat up a kid who tried to "dongshim" (stick his fingers up my bum) me. The only way to get it back was to promise to take their photo. They are on the right path to becoming Korean women who never pass the opportunity to have their picture taken.

Election Day

2009-04-09T11:46:00.001+09:00

Yesterday there was an election in my province so school was cancelled. To celebrate I put on shorts and a T-shirt and showed off my pasty white skin to all lucky enough to see me walking about the neighbourhood.

Jjimjilbang

2009-04-06T19:35:00.003+09:00

The idea of getting nekkid with a bunch of strangers, showering before sweating in hot tubs then putting on provided gym shorts and T-shirts to head to a second floor (where Koreans sit around eating hard boiled eggs while watching bad Korean television) in between bouts of sweating in dry saunas isn't exactly how I would choose to spend a Sunday but it is what I did. It was super relaxing.

Near our place is a great jjimjilbang. The upstairs dry sauna's are amazing. The first room we went into is a salt room where you lie down on hot dry salt stones and drain yourself of water. To replenish we then bought huge crafts of ice tea and stuck our feet in bags to tackle the foot massage machine. After ten minutes of torture we sat on the massage chairs that work over your whole body for just one dollar. Saejin wanted more chair time so I went back to have my feet worked over. We ended the day heading to an outside section where there is a clay oven you crawl into to cook yourself in. It was my favorite. There are about three other rooms (including an ice room) but we skipped them.

That night I had the best sleep I have had in ages. I may have to go back again this weekend.

Where the Wild Things Are

2009-04-05T11:50:00.002+09:00

It's been a long time since I have been excited about a movie to come out. This is one of my all time favorite books and from the trailer it looks like it should be a great flick.

Bookmobile

2009-04-02T14:11:00.004+09:00

Growing up whenever we saw the bookmobile in the local strip mall's parking lot was always an excuse to stop the car. It was a converted RV that brought the library to your area and I loved when we got to enter to borrow books for the week. I usually had to be rushed into making my final pick as I could have spent hours searching the bookcases. Starting out young and having parents who read made it easy for me to pick up the hobby that I still continue to do.

Today I saw my first Korean version of this pull up into the school's playground. The kids seemed excited to see it and when I went out to check it out the kindergarten class was busily searching for the right book. I love the fact that Korean kids read so much. Each day the first twenty minutes before class the kids have to go into the library, take out a book before returning to class to read it. The principal made this rule a year and a half ago after the school did poorly on a standardised test. He said his son was an avid reader and he is now a dentist so he wants our students to fall in love with literature so they too will tackle plague and gingivitis. Not sure how well it worked but Tuesday the kids took another nationwide test so we will see if his theory worked its magic when results come back to school later.

Happy Birthday Saejin

2009-04-01T19:46:00.002+09:00

Saejin had a crappy birthday yesterday but this weekend will be an all out effort to make up for it. It's been awhile since I did a midweek countdown for the weekend and I can't wait for Saturday. My co-teacher is officially a bitch but I think we have moved onto the stage of agreeing to disagree on everything.

The Rocket

2009-04-01T14:53:00.003+09:00

I have been slowly weening myself off of TV. I spend way too much time downloading crap and watching crap. I have given up on Prison Break which used to be a favorite of mine because this year and last turned out to be ridiculous. I stopped watching almost all reality TV (except the Amazing Race) when I found myself distracted by how dumb people are and how poorly they speak English seeing as it's their first language. Now I wish I used my extra time on useful stuff but I have just finally made the effort to catch up on the movies I buy but never get around to watching.

Cheap DVDs are everywhere in Seoul and if you find a good reliable source you can catch almost any major movie released. Of course they are illegal but they are so popular here that major American studios after years of trying to get the market cleaned up finally gave up and closed down their DVD departments and left. The guy I go to once a month has recently been carrying a few Canadian movies.

I just watched The Rocket: The Maurice Richard Story, and loved seeing the legend he is come to life. You can see why all of Quebec loved this giant of a player. He never backed down and helped change the way the French were treated by the NHL. Other movies I want to recommend:
Slumdog Millionaire, just because anything about India is good in my mind.
Doubt, I didn't want to see this at all and then I started to hear great things about it. I put it in one night predicting to fall asleep in front of but the story and acting are amazing.
The Visitor, if you are alive you will definitely feel something watching this one.
The Wrestler, see above comment and it applies to this movie too. I still think it is the best movie from last year by far and I hate Wrestling.

Sick

2009-03-27T19:01:00.007+09:00

Last week I made a 8:00 am call into work saying I was sick. Technically I wasn't 100 percent sick but I also wasn't 100 percent. Skip ahead a few days and I did fall ill. I got a huge fever and then chills three minutes later. Seeing as I had already skipped a day of work (a huge no-no in Korea where kids come to school hardly able to walk and the work force are contractually obliged to infect the office) I didn't want to push the special foreigner card too far asking for another day off. This meant I'd come home each night and collapse on the heated floor to just rest. This also meant the dishes continued to pile up in the sink. I do live with Saejin and he could of at anytime done the dishes but he is the oldest Korean son in his family.

For those lucky enough to be born into this role, housework is done between the time you leave the the house and before you return. Rumours have it that it may be your mom but Moms cook, bring you glasses of juice and tuck you in, how could they find time to wash dishes, do landry and/or sweep? This is what I live with. If I take ill the house is overrun with clutter. Credit to Saejin he does cook when I eat at home but all the rest of the housework is left to me. This weekend will mostly be used to tidy up. I'm already looking forward to next weekend so I can get out and enjoy the spring weather.

Pigeon Food

2009-03-25T10:44:00.002+09:00

Last night must of been a wild one for a few ajoshis out for business dinner and drinks. My walk to work had me dodging multiple puddles of puke. Luckily the walk home won't be as disgusting as each kimchi tainted pile was serving up a buffet of food for the pigeons out on their morning flights.

The New VP

2009-03-18T21:16:00.002+09:00

I trust my first impressions of people 90 percent of the time. Even when I have heard stories (ok gossip) about new people I always try to give them a fair evaluation. I even put the people that fail that first impression a chance to prove my "feelings" wrong. The new school year has started and we have a new vice principal in the school.

He is an older man and a big man with an even bigger head (I don't mean that he's high on himself, I mean this in the Korean way, he has a ginormous head.) When it comes to public schools the VPs are the ones who make all the rules. They deal with the day to day stuff while the Principal just signs the papers put in front of him (ours does it while outside gardening.) In short when I have a problem I see my supervisor who then sees the VP to get things resolved.

When I first met the man he was imposing. He distanced himself from the teachers and seemed like a huge prick. This being my last year I was worried he could change up stuff. Luckily I think I'm starting to like the guy. Everyday I go into the staff room after lunch to do my photocopies for the next day and I have yet to see the guy not openly napping at his desk. Today when I went in the TV was on and he was busy watching Korea playing live in the World Baseball Classic. It was the eighth inning and as I was getting ready to laminate flashcards he told me to stop and sit to watch the rest of the game. I'm liking this guy a lot now. FYI...Korea beat Japan 4-1 and is now in the semi finals.

Dusty

2009-03-16T16:03:00.005+09:00

A huge Yellow dust storm is currently drifting it's way over from China. So far this spring we have been lucky and not had it too bad but the news was selling the next couple of days last night as being especially bad. The traditional way of protecting yourself from the microscopic sand and pollution is to wear a simple cloth mask. Newspapers have been reporting about a better product on the way. These tiny nose plugs get jammed up your nostrils and they do a better job filtering out the nasty bits in the air. Not sure I'd risk that slim line of plastic not breaking though. I'll suffer and so my plan of getting back into jogging is yet again pushed back until sometime next week.

The New Bar Bliss

2009-03-15T20:55:00.003+09:00

Old Post from February. Since this summer Teddy has been talking about his bold plans for a complete makeover of our local watering hole, Bar Bliss. Finally shortly after the new year and after his trip to Cambodia he started the process. Here are some pictures of the new Bar Bliss. Gone is the outdoor patio and instead it's a glassed in place that on nice days will have all the doors completely open. It will be great once we get to test out this new feature but it will also lead to a few run ins. Summer's here are muggy but what was great about the old Bliss was that if you wanted to drink on the patio you could and if you needed a cool down you could slip inside for the air conditioner. Soon enough we will see which team of drinkers will win.

Ted brought back some stone art he bought in Cambodia and on his relaunch night he unveiled it.

The gang posing for a picture.

The new art.

Old art that was too big to be in a prominent position in the old smaller place.

The new stage for dancing and to host Sunday afternoon Bingo (not sure how successful that venture will be for Ted but I will try it at least once.)

The new seating area at the front of the bar. He still needs to get and install long oriental lights to go over the tables. The tables and chairs also need to be updated but with a maxed out credit card Teddy needs Shelly to help boost his sales.

Lazy at Work

2009-03-15T20:19:00.004+09:00

Being back to work has been alright (working on trying to get along with my new co-teacher as she is a tad annoying). I love routines and this new school year the times of classes changed so I'm learning what the best non-work things I can do on my breaks. I will try this week to use one of the breaks to blog.

Last Ski trip of the year?

2009-02-21T11:38:00.003+09:00

Last weekend a few of us headed out for what could be the last ski trip of the year. I was not looking forward to the trip at all. On Friday the temperatures rose high enough that it was raining all day zoom that rain over a mountain and you end up skiing on pure ice with puddles of water scattering the flatter parts of the hill. Here's the view from the elevator in our hotel.

I didn't join everyone until Saturday afternoon and just went skiing with a night lift ticket. This was Saejin's first time skiing and his afternoon ski consisted of a single run down before throwing his skis and walking down the hill. I was given the role of trying to teach him. It wasn't pretty but kind of funny seeing him build up sped, by ignoring everything I told him and crashing out of panic. Our first run took nearly an hour to get down the hill. Eventually somewhere along the way he started to get better and if we'd had more time he probably would make it down without falling.

We woke up to see it snowing. This is the view from our room.

Saejin wanting his picture taken in the snow.

Our last stop at a restaurant for lunch before heading home.

Graduation tomorrow

2009-02-12T16:10:00.002+09:00

Tomorrow is Graduation day (aka the one day of the year I wear a suit) so there were many cancelled classes this week. Luckily I came across, mysoju.com so I can now watch what Koreans are watching. The big drama right now is Boys before Flowers and kids have pictures of the main actors that they trade. Wanting to know what it was about I watched the first couple of sub tittled shows and while childish and cheesy I may let myself become hooked. I also started watching 1st Shop of Coffee Prince (last year's big drama) and will watch more. It's a cool little website that also has a bunch of Korean movies that I'll try to get around to watching.

Conversations with Kids

2009-02-11T20:06:00.003+09:00

Over the last two weeks I have been calling out the kids who didn't make it to at least a couple days of our five day long English Winter Camp. The kids who didn't make it do tend to be the bad ones at English and mostly respond in Korean. Some had legitimate reasons as they were out of town. But some were just lame, "I don't know" answers you'd expect from bad students.

Two replies really made impressions on me. The first was from a kid who knew zero English a couple of years ago but has really started to improve (he can almost read now and his speaking and listening are normal for his class). He was the last one to get me standing over his desk faking anger about missing camp. While I was asking him why he missed out on a free camp and he played it cool. He stood up and broke out into the "Busy, Busy, Busy" song and dance we learnt this year. I gave him a high five for learning and using English properly.

The other conversation with a suprising answer turned out to be an extremely reasonable reason. It came from a 5th grader. (Remember 5th graders are about 11/12 years old.) His camp was the first to happen and I saw him around the school during the third week of camps. His father is the PTA president and normally this boy is always involved in camp. When I quizzed him on his whereabouts. He told me he was in the hospital. I asked him if he was feeling better and he told me he wasn't sick. I asked if someone in his family was sick and again he told me nobody was sick. He then pointed at my crotch and did a snipping motion with his hand while speaking Korean I didn't know. The poor kid had to be circumcised (Koreans get circumcised when they are older) and this is a very valid reason for not being present.

Full Moon

2009-02-09T11:32:00.003+09:00

This weekend is the first full moon of the new year according to the lunar Korean calendar. There are a bunch of traditions that Koreans do for this in hopes that the year is set on the right path. Saejin asked me to join him at his parents house to celebrate but once I heard the ultra healthy vegetarian menu being served I stayed home and gorged myself on a greasy zinger burger from KFC.

Bloated, I headed into work this morning where my co teacher asked me if I had eaten any peanuts. This isn't the normal reply to my "How are you today?" question so I knew there had to be a story here. Sally then told me that for the first full moon, Koreans are supposed to crack open a peanut in their mouth while making a wish for the new year. She then handed me a full bag of peanuts to wish on. I have since finished and my desk is now littered in shells, peanut skins and odd peanuts that looked off. Hopefully I preformed the ritual right and I'm given the right numbers to choose for this weekend's lottery. Fingers crossed.

The Yearly Wasted Week of Work

2009-02-06T14:08:00.003+09:00

Back to the grind this week for a couple of days and next week is the year's last full week with Graduation scheduled for Friday. These 7 days of "work" (most classes are canceled) confuse me every year. Final grades are in, students have taken all their books home and every time I walk past a class they are simply hanging out passing the time. So while checking out useless facts about the world and you come across the one detailing school days per country per year put a huge asterisk by the Korean entry because little happens for a bunch of these days.

This weekend will be a busy one. Saturday is both Chan Yeong's birthday and the reopening of Bliss after all it's renovations. For Chan Yeong we will meet up around 5ish for (it's predictable) some bowling madness. We will then all head out for dinner at Ho Lee Chow and later drinks in his bar. We have then been asked to make it down to Bliss for 10ish to help Teddy relaunch the new and improved Bliss. It will be a busy day that I have made more hectic by agreeing to help Ted clean the bar in preparation for his big night. After two days of "work" I can't wait for the fun times Saturday should bring.

Gone

2009-02-02T16:33:00.002+09:00

Saturday night was Raymond's going away party. We had (I'll use a phrase from Raymond here) a gorgeous meal at the Bulgarian restaurant before heading into the Bliss which is in the midst of being remodeled.

Here Christine is giving Raymond a goodbye speech.

Eve (aka the wedding planner) was the one to get Raymond up onto the new stage in Bliss to help Christine get through Raymond's speech.

Joel taking his normal chair at the end of the bar.

A preview of the bar. The wall has been knocked down and the outdoor patio has been glassed off. There will be a stand bar where Leoni is standing and more lighting will be added over the tables to make the place comfy again.

Chatting.

Laughing.

Making scary faces.

A rare picture of Tony with his eyes open and smiling normally.

My goodbye hug with Raymond. I had to bail early on them to sort out a argument between Chan Young and Saejin.

A few more days

2009-02-02T16:12:00.003+09:00

This morning came early and I was back into the work routine. Up at 6:40 to shower, shave, dress, eat and wax the hair into place before heading for the daily subway into work. A crowded 20 minute subway ride and a ten minute bus ride later I was welcomed to a barren school yard, empty parking lot and a cold building missing staff and students. One quick phone call later to my supervisor and I am back on holiday until Thursday. I really need to learn to listen closer when I am being told my work schedual.

Going, going...

2009-01-31T14:42:00.004+09:00

Another good friend is off for worldly travels. Tonight is Raymond's going away dinner and "Blissful Goodbye" party. He has set some deal with the Bulgarian restaurant in Itaewon for a smorgasbord of food to be available for about 14 people. Lately whenever we have met up for dinner with Raymond it has been in this place where the food and ambiance are amazing.

From there we are off to the new Bliss (the makeovers are almost finished) for some drinks. It should be a fun night and I wish Raymond the best of luck on his travels. When I first met Raymond I had heard a lot about him through the grapevine and seeing as he was sold to me a fashionable, snobby New Yorker who was raised in Ireland I wasn't sure if we would get along. We are very different but while he can rub some the wrong way I love him for being the way he is and the stories he has.

The guy knows how to use his weekends to their fullest and when he isn't out traveling all around Korea and Asia he will meet up for drinks or random concerts. He is off to travel by train from Singapore up into Thailand, across Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam before hitting China, Mongolia and the whole of Russia. Eventually he will make it to his grandparents in Ireland and then back to the US. From there his plans are open and I hope he makes it back to somewhere in Asia soon.

Seollal, Lunar New Years

2009-01-29T14:35:00.006+09:00

While the kids were cleaning up from the lemonade party and settling into the last twenty minutes of Kung Fun Panda I was busy packing my bag, tidying up my desk at getting ready to bolt. Friday night was the beginning of my ten day long holiday and I was ready to lounge about. To help the holiday off a group of us booked ourselves into the Hyatt for the night. It was Seollal (Lunar New Year)here and so car, bus, train and airplane loads of Seoulites abandon the big city for their hometowns. This means there are amazing deals to be had at the big Hotels.

View of Namsan tower from our room.

View of the residents below Namsan Mountain.

Heading down for dinner and drinks. For a hundred dollars a night each we got the room, unlimited finger food and drinks from 5:30 to 7:30 -we pushed it to 8:15 thanks to Joon-, access to the skating rink, swimming pool, sauna and a free breakfast buffet.

Tony trying to smile at dinner. Being from just back from New Zealand he was definitely worried about the news we were off to skate in -10 weather.

The skating rink below. Thankfully it was free because there was no way I would pay 17 dollars to skate on it.

Saejin skating (read walking) on ice.

Joon just after he beat up a little kid for use of the skating aide.

Proof of how cold minus 10 really is. (I don't care if it was -40 at my parents house, minus 10 is bitterly cold.)

Tony had a hard tumble on the ice. The next day his shoulder left him out of any bowling that we did.

The crew just after the rink closed and just before we went crazy in the Karaoke room. All in all it was a nice start to a long weekend.

View from breakfast.

Making Lemonade

2009-01-22T23:27:00.003+09:00

These last three weeks I have been doing my best to work. Half days. It's at these moments that I love my job. It's winter camp time and kids can come to study if they want (read parents force them). This year they changed it up a bit and put two age groups together (6th/5th grades, 4th/3rd, 2nd/1st) for one week intensive studying of a hard 3 hours straight. I do like it better this way. We have a lot more time together do to a lot of stuff. Skip this part if you don't want to know what we do. The first hour is phonics/reading time, followed by the lesson and finishing off with a fun activity/singing and the all important 15 minutes of a movie.

On Fridays we spend the last hour making fresh lemonade and having a party. It has been a great success. The kids pretend to like it and I don't have to teach. Win, win.

I give them the ingredients and then take them through it step by step.

The good groups pay attention.

I then go around sampling the (sour!!!) product.

And choose the one that asks for more sugar.

Two minutes after I got this groups picture they spilt their lemon juice all over the top of the computer and all over the floor. Tomorrow is the last time we try this but even if they also dump their work all over the floor I know that I have a week off work for Solal(?) aka Chinese New Year.

Seoul City Hall Ice Skating Rink

2009-01-22T22:52:00.005+09:00

Working half days the past three weeks has led to many, many social afternoons. One can only bowl (it's no longer a hobby, it's a sad sad hobby) so much. Chan Young came up with the idea of meeting up for some ice skating. Now, I am not great at it but when your Canadian father takes it upon himself to build a rink each winter in the back yard there is a childhood love for the sport.

In front of Seoul City Hall (now under renovation) they always place a rink. For a mere dollar you can rent skates and go to town for an hour doing laps on the dullest blades ever. This is the best view from the rink of of Seoul Plaza Hotel.

Chan Young and I waiting for our hour on ice.

Chan Young resting after (seriously here) 3 laps. This was only his second time on skates but he did a great job. (My second time on skates had me being encouraged to push a baby wooden chair around our rink.)

Look at me now.

Chul Gyu and Chan Young doing their best couple skate.

Chul Gyu and I "racing". I won but would like to thank the competition for coming out.

Kim Yu Na (Korea's top figure skater- a top five skater now out there), has triple Sal chowed (I think only boys do this) or toe loop jumped (don't ask how I know these terms, I'm Canadian) her way to international fame on the figure skating circuit. Chan Young will never be famous for skating but his impersonation of figure skating is uncanny. 9.7 from the Canadian judge.

Seoul International Photography Festival

2009-01-22T22:08:00.003+09:00

When I first came to Korea, I had to land at Gimpo airport. The place was small, dark and going from the international to the domestic building I was sardined on a bus not 100 percent sure where I was off to. I was doubting my reasons for coming here. I was also starving and couldn't read the menus and besides hearing about Kimchi I knew nothing of Korean food. The "hamburgers" they were selling all looked like 7-11 versions of a burger and I just prayed when I made my connecting flight I would find a better Korea. Luckily I did and since then have come to love the place (even Gimpo know that it has been updated.)

Seoul Station used to be housed in a gorgeous old building (it's now housed in a gorgeous modern one) and about four(ish) years ago they closed it down. The place has since sat empty and gone to ruins inside. When I heard that an International Photography festival was being housed there I was super excited to check out the art but more importantly to me the station itself. A couple of weeks ago I convinced Saejin it would be fun to check out. The art was great but seeing the place was even better.

Don't quote me but I believe the Japanese built this place and even though Korea was under occupation, I love this building.

The first floor was made to feel museum like and I hope they get enough money from the festival to fix the structure from the art up.

Half of upstairs was remodelled and looking great. This was my favorite photo in the exhibition. The apartment captured here had different things going on in each room from mundane normal life to the kinky world.

Upstairs and Saejin's favorite photo of the day. (Not the picture in the background but his own personal picture.)

A Korean photographer whose stuff I really liked.

Korea the bad, Korea the Great

2009-01-07T19:38:00.003+09:00

#1: This weekend some annoying Korean, who I have always said is a pain to be nice to, decided under a storm of drink to take my cell phone along with Saejin's which were sitting at our table. The guy was super drunk and while on his way home called the last number I had dialed which happened to be Joon who was sitting next to me. He saw it was a call from me and because we had by then discovered the phones gone he told the guy to bring the phone back. Drunk head then said he had no idea what we were talking about because this was his phone (even though it was my number dialling Joon's phone.) This is Korea the bad.

Korea the Great is that because my phone is registered under Saejin's name he went into a shop explained what happened and they gave us both loaner phones free of charge. These loaners are used phones but because this is Korea they aren't more than a year old. We can return the phones when ours show up or if they don't we can have the phones for good again for no charge. For me it's no big loss if the guy doesn't return the phone but Saejin's phone is a brand new top of the line model. The drunk who took it is a friend of Chan Young and goes to his bar often so hopefully by this weekend he will of sobered up and hand them back. Unfortunately he isn't answering his phone to admit he screwed up. We will see.

#2: I just got back from immigration and things there were as annoying as always. My Visa expires on Friday but now that I have the Vulnerable Sector Search (VSS) in hand the last piece of my paper work was done. I was told all I had to do was bring it in and I'd get my year long work Visa. I went alone because my supervisor is on holidays and in Korea that means she is busy taking some professional development class. I went there with my certified VSS, passport and ID card and many prayers they would understand what was needed. (Not many of the workers speak English.)

I sat around waiting for my number to be called praying I wouldn't get stuck with one of the older men because their English tends to be the worse. It wasn't my lucky day and I was stuck with the eldest one of the bunch, so in both pidgin Korean and English we set to work on figuring out what we both needed. He insisted I needed a contract but I told him mine was there in the computer and the VSS check was the only missing document needed to make my Visa more than a four month long temporary one. He sat back took in this information, returned to looking at the VSS and then said, "Don't need VSS. You old Criminal check ok. Law change one more time." After four months of stress and wasted money sending and purchasing documents I show up at immigration only to find out my Visa was fine all along. Korea the bad.

After asking him if he was serious and he seeing my annoyance he did the Korean apologetic smile and started printing out stuff and working to avoid a confrontation. He quickly finished up my paper work and gave me a number to wait for my Alien card with my new expiration date to be added. Korea the Great. I get to stay until the end of my contract and am glad the past four months of unknown are behind me.

Winter Camp

2009-01-05T21:29:00.002+09:00

Winter Camp started today and it's a little different from previous camps. This year the school decided to have the kids come for five days of intensive studying (three hours straight of English). It worked out alright today because it was the fifth and sixth graders but who knows how the first and second graders will take it when it's their week to come. I also got to work with my new partner teacher for the first time and she seems nice. She hung out at the back of the class and mingled while the kids worked so it should work out well. After a week off it was tough getting up this morning but because winter camp time is only half days it was all good.

The Bowling Times News

2008-12-30T20:49:00.004+09:00

Lately it seems that bowling has become an alternative to going out drinking. We have good fun doing it and between the competitive ones a bit of cash exchanges hands. My friend Teddy owns bar Bliss (our local watering hole) and he has also started to join us for some games. Unfortunately for him his game is way behind the rest of us so he wanted some pointers to help him catch up to the rest of the crew. He called me this afternoon and I met him for a couple of hours. If you continue to read below he put a little write up about our afternoon on the facebook homepage for his bar. Here is what took place (according to Ted):

Breaking News
By Bull Shitter , AP sport writer

All time top Seed bowler, Cameron Metcalf, from Canada was beaten by a rookie, Ted Park, from Republic Of Korea in Hannam bowling center this afternoon. This is the biggest upset in Korean bowling history. The winner, Ted Park, tried to be humble but he could not conceal his glee meanwhile the loser, Cameron Metcalf, tried to be cool but he could not conceal his anger and decided not to play against him anymore. He knows very well he will only lose face whatever the result is. This is saddest year for Cameron. For him the year is still too long to end.

***What Ted fails to mention is that one game I bowled a score of 201 and this obviously tired my arm out. Not to mention the fact I skied all night the previous night getting home at 7 am and waking up at 11:30 this morning. yes I am making excuses. Had this been a three game series I would of been the winner. Had this been a 5 game series I would have been a winner. Sadly I agreed to a two hour window of games and in his old age he out foxed me for the victory. Now I have to put up with his bragging for the rest of my stay here or until I stop going to his bar. In my bitter mood boycotting Bliss is a possibility (obviously starting after New Year's Eve.)

Night Skiing

2008-12-29T19:14:00.004+09:00

If I have a little drink in me I will agree to almost anything. This time on Christmas Eve I agreed to join ChanYoung for some midnight skiing. Thankfully I am on holiday because the bus leaves Sadang Station at nine o'clock, you arrive just before midnight to rent your skis and then you go crazy for a few hours of cold skiing before heading back to Seoul at 5 am. It should be a good time but my body will hate me tomorrow as I have a bunch of running around planned for the day.

Our Midnight arrival. You then go through all the credit cards you own and figure out which one gives you the biggest discount before using Saejin's who wasn't even there. What I love about Korea is that for a simple ten bucks you can rent a ski jacket and pants to use for the night which makes jean skiers even more of outcasts than the ones in Canada.

Ready to help the snowboarders tackle the baby hill.

Chan Young buckling up.

Heading up to the bigger baby hill. Vivaldi park had some tough trails but they weren't open at night. I'm crap at skiing but wanted off the beginner run so I had fun convincing beginner snowboarders they could handle the mid range slope. It was fun standing at the top and watching Chan Young fall every twenty metres before skiing down with a straight face to make sure he wasn't sporting a broken limb.

Chul Gyu picked up snowboarding quickly and next time we go I will make him try the harder runs with me.

We had a good night and I will look into doing it again during my week long vacation at the start of February.

Staff Christmas Party

2008-12-24T12:06:00.002+09:00

Last night (December 23rd) the school went out for Christmas dinner. We started the afternoon off bowling. We were split into four teams of three where Mr. Oh made a rule that the three losing teams had to each buy a round of drinks later in the night. Trouble here is that in Korea "a round" of drinks is multiple drinks in one bar, the next round means more drinks but in a new location. My team was made up of the English department and we stunk. We lost bad.

Over a dinner of stuffed roasted duck I did my best to refute each and every drink offered to me. The rest of the staff drank way more than I have ever seen any of them drink. The principal never drinks and so when he got up to leave he echoed what MR Oh had been saying that nobody was to leave until all four rounds were done. There is an unwritten law that you should all stick together so once the principal was gone and I saw the other "non drinking" teachers start tipping back soju I knew I was stuck going out.

It turned into a good night predictably ending in lots of drink for some and some good dancing fun in a singing room. Today I feel alright just a tad sleepy but luckily I made up a story while out drinking about having to make a potato salad for our Christmas Eve party so the vice principal gave me permission to leave the school right after lunch.

Visa Issues

2008-12-24T11:27:00.004+09:00

This latest contract has been a pain in the ass to get confirmed by immigration. After four months of waiting, a lot of bureaucratic door slamming, missing and wrong papers coming from the RCMP, it was the Winnipeg Police who came through with seeing my ID and printing out one simple paper from their computer. Thanks to my aunt and cousin in Winnipeg I can now almost 99.9 percent confirm I will be given my proper Visa instead of this four month long temporary one. Thankfully this is my last year here and I won't have to deal with this problem again. (This being said until I have the right stamp done I'm still leery.)

Don's Birthday

2008-12-13T14:50:00.005+09:00

The last Friday of November we all got together for Don's birthday. We started the night off with a mountain of meat from platter choice at a Greek restaurant before heading to do some Karaoke at Bliss fueled by lake of beer. We finished the night off at Soho with a river of shots to make us dance. Don had fun but we all predictably felt like crap the next day. It had been a longtime since we went wild like that and I have now turned into one of those thirty somethings who complains about not being able to drink like I used to.

The miracle of floor heating

2008-12-13T14:36:00.002+09:00

The problem with my latest apartment is that it doesn't have a dryer. I have to hang my clothes and it can take a full 24 hours for things to dry. When it comes to washing the bedding it can take longer but now that it's winter the drying times can be cut in half using the floors. As I type, almost every open inch of flooring has a wet blanket on it and hopefully by the time I head off for a friend's going away party things will be dry.

Long time no post.

2008-12-13T14:12:00.003+09:00

For the last month I have been terrible at updating. No real reason and it's not that I haven't been up to much because I have. I just kind of let things get backed up and have been lazy about signing in. On Thursday night Heidi called me from Texas around 11:30 pm and she asked if I was alive because I have forgotten to reply to her emails. This reminder put in my head I should be posting more. Anyway, it was amazing hearing from her again and we ended up chatting for nearly two and a half hours about everything, nothing and covered every detail about her up coming wedding (the donkey and sombrero being the best wedding option ever.) She also sent me a picture of her wedding dress and she will look amazing walking out on the beach.

I badly want to go to the wedding but it is in Mexico and a package deal that you can only get from Canada or the States. For me it means paying nearly double the price because I have to first get to North America before heading off to Mexico. (If anyone knows the upcoming numbers on the lottery and feels like passing them on to me I think I can come up with the money.)

The only trouble with Heidi's phone call was that
1: It was late.
2: Heidi's hello had undertones to them that invited me to get up, open the fridge and start drinking.
3: Being a two and a half hour chat this led to too many late night beer on a school night.
4: I ended up sleeping in by twenty minutes and was a tad late for school.

Cirque de Soleil

2008-11-15T17:58:00.003+09:00

This past Wednesday Saejin and I went to the Olympic Stadium in search of the big top and Cirque du Soleil performance of Alegria. I have always wanted to see a show by Cirque du Soleil and so forked out a good chunk of change to sit right up near the front. It was definitely well worth it. I enjoyed almost every performance and the singer and music that went along with the show were fantastic. I am so tempted to break into the tent to play around on the trampolines, trapezes and swinging ropes one of these nights. What I won't be doing anytime soon (or ever) is folding my body in half. It's wrong. This part of the show left me feeling very, very frightened as body parts moved into places (I assume) you only see in photos of car crashes.