Unemployment, bitterness and the Japanese language

I get antsy really quick. I have about a 17 minute sit in quiet silence capacity. Any amount of time greater than that and I start fidgeting and devising ways to annoy those around me.

If I'm working this isn't a problem since I'm usually talking, explaining something or trying to coax a small Korean child out of the cupboard they just crawled into. But this unemployment thing blows. Sarah's apartment lacks both internet access and television which means the entire apartment is eerily quiet once she leaves to go to work. So I'm left with my boredom.

I've been reading tons and I started studying Japanese and I've been going to the gym regularly. Still, these thing kill only so much time. Japanese, especially is frustrating and I can only take 2o minute bouts at it before I want to throw my book in the trash (three alphabets?! WHY?!?).

I have been getting a lot of errands done. I got my tickets home (November 20th can't come soon enough). I've been getting my pension and banking stuff squared away. I've been looking at Japan jobs online and getting references and applications in. But again, I'd rather be working.

Having this much free time in a country that I'm slowly starting to hate is not a good thing. Though I settled everything with my boss and got most of what I was owed, I am still really bitter over the whole thing and it has stained Korea for me. I am frustrated by little things that I used to laugh at or chalk up to cultural difference. It's harder to let things go and I am literally counting the days til I'm home. I've never done that while I've been abroad before.

But things aren't all that bleak here. I have a few weddings to attend in the next 4 weeks and there are still things that I want to see in Korea. Plus, I have a good chance of getting a part time, two week gig, next week which would help immensely.

We'll see how the next few weeks pan out.

OH MY GOD!!!

I just heard a story from Adam regarding what else has been going on in my school. Our new head teacher, Una, apparently was teaching one of the kindergarten classes. During the class she got so upset that she shoved a desk. The desk hit a student, Anna, who started bawling. Una then MADE THE CLASS PROMISE NOT TO TELL ANYONE WHAT HAPPENED!

The next day, Anna's grandfather shows up at the school demanding to know what the fuck had happened and why his granddaughter came home with A BROKEN FOOT!!!! Mrs Lee, in all her wisdom, starts yelling at the headroom teacher who had no idea what had happened. Finally she asked the rest of the kindergarten class and they told her that Una made them promise not to tell anyone.

And her punishment? Her punishment for breaking a students foot in anger and making the class that witnessed it keep quiet about it??

A warning.

I take a day off and I'm fired.

I hate this country and can't wait to get home.

New issues

Long story short, my director promised to pay backpay and 30 days severance. I went to collect and before that she asked for the utilities money (which I agreed to pay) and a refund for what she has paid into my pension fund. I was confused by this since she has not ever mentioned our school having a pension plan. Basically you pay 4.5% of your salary each month and your director matches this. At the end of your contract you go to the office, turn in your documents and they transfer the money (around $2000 by the end of an average contract) into your bank account back home.

So my director is asking for $325 that she has paid since August. I was really confused by this and I called the Pension office. They looked up my account and told me a.) there was zero dollars in the fund and that b.) I was only registered in August (I've been here since January). I told my director this and she called them. She said that they said that there is a computer problem and it will be fixed by Monday. And she insisted that the $325 in the account is rightfully hers. I told her the pension is for the workers and that it should go to me. She says that since I haven't been paying money into the account than the money belongs to her. I told her that I had never heard of the account before, how could I pay into it?!?!

Then she says that we were asked by our old supervisor months ago to join the plan but we declined (why would we decline free money?). I tell her that is completely untrue. Then she says that since the pension isn't mentioned in your contract she doesn't have to pay it. I tell her Korean law says everyone must be in the pension plan (I've called the office twice to confirm this). THEN she says well it was my responsibility to sign up for the plan and I was supposed to talk to my recruiter about it (my recruiter who has absolutely no affiliation with the Pension office).

She is clearly lying and the Pension office assured me that she has broken the law (again) by not registering me or paying into the account. I go Monday to the Pension office to figure this out and hopefully I can make her make the pension payments retroactively. Either way, I'm demanding my money and so are my coworkers. We are going to fucking destroy this school.

Vietnam and Cambodia

The first week of October was Chuseok an important Korean holiday that I'm told is kinda like Thanksgiving but with more ancestral worship than pilgrims and indians.

Tuesday, Thursday and Friday were days off and my school was closed the Wednesday between which left only a Monday of work to ruin a possible 11 days of vacation. I wanted this day off and asked my director and was denied. I took the day off anyway which eventually ended up costing me my job (see above).

My coworkers Adam and Michelle and Sarah and I left on Saturday for Seoul. We flew out that night and arrived early Sunday morning in Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh, if you dig the communist name). We checked into the hotel and found that even at 2am shops, bars and restaurants were still open. Tourism is a huge industry there and it showed. We had dinner and a few delicious Vietnamese beers and then headed for bed.

The next day I resisted the urge to yell "Good Morning Vietnam!" every five minutes and we went on a private tour of the Mekong Delta. The Saigon river has a bunch of little islands that make up the delta and we spent the afternoon touring around on a boat and hopping from island to island. We had a strange/delicious lunch and Michelle fed watermelon to a waterbuffalo. We rowed boats down small jungle tributaries and to a small shop where they make coconut candies and traditional Vietnamese alcohol. One bottle of alcohol had a cobra inside with a scorpion in it's mouth. It was crazy. And the alcohol itself was disgusting. We eventually made our way back to our hotel and ate and drank till bed.

The next day we left for Siem Reap, a city in Cambodia and the site of Ankor Wat, the largest religious structure in the world (take that pyramids!). We got in that night and met a great taxi driver who ended up being our guide and driver the whole time we were there. The hotel we found was made up of small bungalows along the river and it was beautiful. We went out for a buffet/dinner show that featured traditional Cambodian dancing, which, as far as I can tell is comprised of a beautiful cambodian woman making complicated hand gestures while a man dances around her pretending to be a monkey. The show was cool and the food (like it was the entire trip) was amazing.

The next day we drove to Ankor Wat and spent the entire day touring 4 different temples, including the gigantic temple of Ankor Wat itself. They were indescribable. Each were surrounded by jungle and every surface of the temples hand intricate hand carved pictures telling the stories and myths of the Hindu and Buddhist religions. Each temple was different regarding how they were laid out or where they were. There are dozens of temples in the area and we saw the biggest four, including one in the middle of the jungle that was used for filming the movie Tomb Raider. That temple was actually my favorite since it had enormous trees that were rooted and grew through much of the temple. It was beautiful. The large temple of Ankor Wat was also very impressive if only for how huge it was. We climbed to the top of the main tower in the temple and had a pretty impressive view of the entire valley.

After the temple we drove to another temple and found a dozen or so monkeys sitting by the side of the road. We spent half an hour feeding them bananas and watching them chase each other around. We left and rode elephants (!) to the top of a nearby mountain and climbed the temple on top just before sunset. It was amazing.

We spent the next day shopping and Adam (despite problems country wide concerning Visa cards) bought a diamond ring and proposed to Michelle. His choice of doing this in the dusty Cambodian bazaar was perhaps strange, but Michelle accepted and spent the rest of the trip staring at her finger. That night we flew back to Saigon.

Once back in Vietnam, we had three more days which we spent touring the city, visiting temples and parks, eating lots of food and shopping. We bought so much stuff that we had to buy two more bags to get everything home. I bought a bunch of cheap DVDs and had a suit made for $90. We visited the war remnants museum and museum of the tunnels used by guerrillas during the war which was cool but claustrophobic. The last night we went to the main park for the moon festival which was in full swing. We wandered around with a thousands of people in the park blowing noisemakers and playing with the kids.

We left Friday night and got to Seoul early Saturday and headed back to Busan. We had all day Sunday to decompress after our trip. And Monday morning, I got fired.

Was it worth it? I'd do it again in a second.

Um...Fired?

It's been almost two months since I've posted last. Lots happened but I just couldn't be bothered to write any of it down. This week though gave me lots to write about, and the extra time in which to do it.

Monday was pretty shitty. The Padres lost the division series, North Korea started blowing shit up and I got fired. I had just gotten back from my week long vacation in Vietnam and Cambodia (See blog below) and I went to work on Monday and was promptly told that I was fired. Yeah. Six weeks ago I told my boss I was not going to be here the Monday of Chusok (think Korean Thanksgiving, where tues-fri are days off). Having taken no days off in 8 months of working here and giving written notice 6 weeks before the day off I figured that I would be shown some consideration. I got none and was given back the notice without even being spoken to by Mrs Lee. Having already made flight and hotel reservations I was not about to miss our trip so I left, fully knowing that Mrs Lee would be pissed and that I may get fired. But weighed against a whole week of vacation with my girlfriend and friends I didn't care. I have hated the ever increasing schedule, watching other teachers come and go and being constantly ignored by my director when I come to address problems.

So I went on vacation and had a wonderful time. Monday morning I was asked to meet with our new head teacher Una (who's been here all of two weeks) and it was her, and not Mrs. Lee, that told me that I was being fired and that I was expected to be out of my apartment by the end of the day. She berated me for missing a single day of work calling me irresponsible and childish for my handling of the situation. She was also dismissive when I claimed (rightly, I've been researching all day) that it is illegal to dismiss me without 30 days notice. She said that I should just do as the director says and leave immediately. I told her that I was finished talking to her about it and would talk to Mrs Lee in person.

I did and explained that I was happy to be fired and no longer wished to work for LCI. I asked for one week to move out (I'm going to be living at Sarah's apartment) and asked for a formal letter of release that proves that I was fired without notice. I got both and I took the letter to the labor office to make a formal complaint. They called my director and told her flat out that she was breaking the law and that she owed me 30 days pay. The next day I went to speak to Mrs. Lee and I explained that if I am given my back pay and the 30 days wages I'll withdraw my complaint and quietly walk away. She asked for 24 hours to consider it and it seemed like she was willing to pay. We'll see.

Meanwhile, the other four teachers at my school are scared shitless that this will happen to them, and two of them who just started say they are going to quit since the director seems deceitful/batshit-crazy. Adam and Michelle are two months from completing their contract and if they are not given their return airfare home by the end of the week they'll walk too. So firing me could cost the school it's entire foreign staff.

So that's how my tenure in Korea ends. Sarah is here till November 20th and I will be staying here with her until then. There are still a few things I want to see in Korea and I have two weddings to go to in the next month so I'll be busy (though I won't be teaching 9 classes a day anymore). I'll try to be better about posting. Talk to you later.

From the Onion

Words of Wisdom

"And what am I supposed to do with this class, the first in my whole teaching career...pelting each other with chalk, erasers, bolgna sandwiches? When I walk in and place my books on the teacher's desk they'll surely stop throwing things. But they don't. They ignore me and I don't know what to do till the words come out of my mouth, the first words I ever utter as a teacher, Stop throwing sandwiches. They look at me as if to say, Who's this guy?"

--From 'Tis, by Frank McCourt

Well we finally made it rafting...

...and like most things in Korea, it was kinda lame. We all had a good time but it's not something I'd recommend doing nor would I ever do it again.

We had been out till 3:30 on Friday night eating Turkish food and drinking to celebrate Michelle's birthday. So when my alarm rang at 6 am, Sarah and I slept right through it. My coworkers knocked at 6:30 and we jumped out of bed to get ready. Adam opened the door to find me in my underwear groggily trying to wake myself up.

"You ready to go?" he asked.

Pause. "Umm. I'm gonna need a minute."

We threw some things in a bag and hopped on the subway to Busan Station, picking up friends along the way. There were 17 of us, Korean's and foreigners alike. We got on a bus and what we were told was a 90 minute ride turned into a three hour ride due to traffic. This was made worse by the hangover and the old Korean woman who would yell "NO" and hit my seat everytime I tried to recline it.

After a few stops and a break for lunch (Why did you put corn on my hotdog? Why?) we arrived at the river, ready to raft. But is it really a river if you can safely walk across it? At it's deepest points it was maybe 10 feet deep and no portions of the entire stretch could be described as rapid. It was beautiful though if you could look past the parts where the river that wound under a huge concrete overpass... We sat through a safety demonstration where we learned how to put on a lifevest and a helmet both of which were unnecessary considering the river we were about to conquer. We broke off into two teams and carried our raft down to the water. Which turned out to be lukewarm due to the heatwave we've been experiencing. We were given an explanation of how to paddle which was translated by one of my coworkers and we set off down the river.

Again, at no point during the 90 minute ride did we encounter any actual rapids or feel in the least bit frightened. It was rather peaceful, floating along trying to splash other rafters (there were probably 2o rafts on the river at a time). But peaceful was not what we were expecting. Apparently it was much better the year before, the level of the river being so much higher. We had a good time, laughing and enjoying the sun but 6 hours on a bus for two hours at the river was hardly worth it. Oh well.

Sinpyeong

It's been 7 months and I haven't put a picture of home up yet. Sarah took these pictures a few weeks ago during a rooftop BBQ with my coworkers.

Note the smoke stacks and poluted river in the background.

In Prague lots of people lived in panalaks, big, goverment subsidized aparment buildings that were made completely of concrete and each was indistiguishable from one another. Here is the Korean version.

These are warehouses, of which there are many in my neighborhood. They are surrounded by small shacks and shanties thus giving my neighborhood an air of industrial revolution era quaintness.

While you would be hardpressed to call Sinpyeong beautiful (fucking ugly more easily springs to mind) it's my home and it's kinda grown on me. Once you look past the litter and get over the pervasive fishy smell it's really not that bad...

What?!? Why?!?

So I live about twenty minutes from Dadaepo beach, a nondescript swath of sand which would be beautiful if it wasn't fed into by the slightly polluted Nakdonggang river. It's a really strange beach too. It's probably 200 yards from the seawall to the surf; a long, flat stretch the entire way. The water, brown and cloudy, extends into a long bay and into the South Sea beyond. It remains flat the entire way out which means you can walk a good 60 feet out into the water and only be submerged up to your chest. And probably due to the flatness, not a bit of current or undertow can be detected.

It is a nice enough place to swim, or would be if not for the evil lifeguards. At 6 o'clock the lifeguards blow their whistles and call everyone out of the water. Swimming is done for the day and no one can go in the water. The first time we had been to the beach we had only been there for half and hour before they shut everything down. We were perplexed. How can they close a beach? We searched for signs of sharks or giant, man-eating squid but found nothing to explain the closure.

This comes, however, from a culture where beaches are only "open" from July till September 1st. The beaches are crammed with Koreans during this "swimming season" and are abandoned as soon as the 1st of September rolls around, regardless of the weather or outside temperature.

The second time we visited the beach, we got there early but were again called back by lifeguards when we started swimming. We were waved at and whistled at until we were only 7 feet from the shore, where the water was up to our ankles. Whenever we tried to sneak back out we only made it to knee-deep water before being called in again. "What?!? Why?!?!" we asked, but only received vigorous head shaking and more whistle blowing in response.

We couldn't understand it at all and were forced to stand in the surf watching as children frolicked around us blissfully unaware that you could actually swim if you went in another 30 feet.

Anyway, the uber-controlling lifeguards, moderate level of pollution and not uncommon sightings of people wearing jeans and long-sleeved shirts to the beach have put me off for a bit. I'll just do what all the other foreigners do: wait till the beaches are deserted in September. It'll still be hot then and I'll be able to swim wherever I damn well please.

Summer Break

The trip to Seoul and the Incheon concert went really well, despite the high travel costs, torrential rain and (later) blistering heat.

Sarah and I left Busan Wednesday night and arrived in Seoul a bit before midnight which left us just enough time to check into a hotel and have a few drinks with Katie before we both crashed for the night. Thursday we had planned on going to the DMZ but we opted out of that saying that it was too far away and too expensive ($60). Also, Katie made an excellent point: "It's just a line that you can't cross with people staring at you on the other side. I'll stare at you for free and you don't have to go anywhere..." So we braved the rain and went shopping instead, ultimately spending $120 on used books. We may have gone a bit overboard but books in English are gold here. We spent at the evening at Carne Station, which is quite possibly the best restaurant in Seoul. It's all you can eat, all you can drink (liquor, wine and beer) for only $22. We were the last people out of the restaurant and afterwards found a nori-bong where we sung till 2.

Friday Sarah and I left for Incheon a suburb outside of Seoul for the concert. It was an hour or so by subway and we managed to find the venue without too much trouble. It started raining as soon as we got in and we set up our tent and arrived just in time to miss the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, which was a big disappointment. At this point it started pouring down rain, and this, when mixed with the dirt field the concert was being held in created a bog of mud that we wallowed in for the next three days. We headed back to the campsite to find our tent in a puddle and spent an hour finding a new spot and moving our things. That night though we saw Snow Patrol, Jason Mraz and The Strokes (who I had confused in my mind with The Stills). Snow Patrol and Jason Mraz were great and The Strokes were OK, though I would have rather they had been The Stills.... After the main shows we went to the DJ stage and I danced my ass off while Sarah looked on with what I'm sure was a mix of confusion and pity for my hapless dancing. Whatever. I had fun.

We returned to our tent to find that water had seeped through the floor (and ground mat) and soaked my sleeping bag. Despite the uncomfortable conditions, Sarah was asleep instantly leaving me awake to plan an early morning escape.

I was up at 7:30, packed and ready to move. One night sleeping in a damp tent was enough for me. I woke up Sarah and we were in a hotel before 9. A love hotel actually, which are quite popular here and where you have to pay in 12 hour increments. The rooms themselves are nice and have complimentary condoms and free porn to go along with the circular bed. (Side note: Korean pornography is horribly non-explicit and in only remotely arousing). We spent the next two nights there and it was great not to sleep in a puddle.

Saturday evening we returned to the mud and saw The Black Eyed Peas which was entertaining but not really our thing. Also, they spent so much time mentioning Korea in their set that it eventually became annoying. After BEP's was Placebo who I had listened to before I left and thought was just OK. They KICKED ASS LIVE and after a second listen I'm sold. Do yourself a favor and download Meds, their new album.

Sunday was the day we were both looking forward to the most and the weather that day changed from cold, wet and muddy to fucking hot. Franz Ferdinand was the headliner and we were twenty feet from the stage when they went on. And they were awesome! Definitely the best show we saw and worth the two hours of waiting near the front holding a spot near the stage. We spent most of the time there continuing a game we had been playing all weekend: counting the number of foolish Korean wearing high heeled shoes. IN ANKLE DEEP MUD. We counted 28 women on Sunday alone.

We headed back to Seoul on Monday, exhausted and near broke. We stuck around in the city long enough to check out DVD Burger, an awesome restaurant that rents DVDs and sells hamburgers the size of pizzas. Despite these luxuries, the heat in the city was too much so we called it and headed back to Busan two days early. We spent the last two days of vacation drinking and playing cards with our friends, BBQing, watching 24 and going to the beach. The whole week was great and exactly the break I needed.

Rafting...

...didn't happen. Since it rained for three weeks straight (including the typhoon) the rafting company canceled all trips for the weekend citing unsafe conditions. This was extra disapointing since the weather was beautiful the whole time. Not that we didn't have a fun weekend:

We spent Saturday afternoon at a temple an hour outside of the city. It was a pretty average temple but it did have a beautiful river running alongside.

A statue inside of the temple's main gate.

We stopped for lunch and dong-dong-ju, traditional Korean rice wine.

That night, we went for drinks and wandered to a nori bong where we sang till 2 am. This is Michelle and I singing Piano Man.

Jake and company dancing along to Locomotion.

Adam and I embarass ourselves while trying to dance.

Sunday was spent helping Sarah move into her new apartment, drinking, and playing cards. Tonight we are all getting dressed up and heading to a casino in the city center. Our week long Summer break starts on Wednesday and we are trying to pack in as much fun stuff as we can before our friends Jake and Maren leave for home next week. I'll keep you updated.

Third Strike

1. I live right up the hill from Sinpyeong subway station which is pretty convenient if I need to tell a cab driver how to find my apartment. Trouble is I suck with Korean and I had the Korean word for subway station confused. The word is jiachol but I had it confused with jigalchi which is actually the name of another subway stop. So I'd get into a cab and tell the driver sinpyeong jigalchi which is like getting into a cab in New York and saying Brooklyn Manhattan. Every driver I said it to would give me this really confused look as if to say "Well, which one?" and I would get really mad that no one understood me. It was 6 weeks before someone corrected me. I felt like an ass.

2. I got a coffee maker for Valentines day and was really excited to try it out. I went down to the supermarket but had some trouble finding ground coffee. With all the labels in Korean I had to squeeze every bag to see if it felt right. I found one and brought it home to brew a pot. It was good too, much better than the shitty instant coffee that I had been drinking for months. I went to empty the used coffee grounds from the machine and was surprised to find no grounds at all. After discounting the possiblity of having a magic coffee maker I realized that I had just brewed a pot of instant coffee. I felt like a moron.

3. After coming back from the mud fest Sarah and I both had bags full of damp clothes to wash. Sarah started a load of laundry and called to me inside.

"Where's your detergent?" she asked.

Exasperated, I replied "Right next to the machine, dear."

"You mean this?" she asked, showing me a container of liquid soap.

"Yeah," I said.

"This is fabric softener."

Turns out I had been washing my clothes for 6 months using fabric softener instead of soap. It explains why my clothes have been so soft but stains have been a real bitch to get out. I felt like and idiot.

Mud Fest

Yeah. The mud fest sucked. It sounded like so much fun. What with the mud and the beach and the fireworks and everything. It was cold, though, and it rained on and off the whole time.

In the first place, it took Sarah and I 6 hours to get to the fucking beach. Two different trains, a couple of cabs and a bus that was standing room only. Katie called me, drunk, while we were jammed into the aisle of the bus. "What is this, fucking 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'?!" she asked. We got to Boryeong around 5 pm after promising Katie that we would be there around 1 and we checked into our shitty room that we were paying 3 times more than it should have been. Katie and her friends were already drunk and we quickly tried to catch up.

A drunk Korean guy kept talking to us while we were eating ramen and drinking on the shore. He kept ofering us more alcohol and disgusting pastries. He was smashed though and spent the majority of the time looking down Katie's shirt. We eventually moved on down the beach and found more alcohol. It gets a bit hazy after that but highlights included: me accidentally knocking Katie to the ground while trying to push her into the surf, jumproping, unsuccesfully trying to give everyone airplane rides and having beer thrown at me by Sandy. We found a few other friends and drank more on the boardwalk and watched the firework show, which was pretty good. Around 2 we headed back to the hotel and fell asleep. The entire first day was mud-less.

We woke up late the next day and wandered around in the rain. We did find the mud though. It wasn't the mud filled beach we had expected. They bring in large garbage cans full of mud and you have to scoop out handfulls to put on yourself. Lame. The mud slides and wrestling looked cool but the lines were rediculously long. Despite all that we did get a bit muddy and swam around in the surf with the couple hundred other people on the beach. We left around 4 and made our way back to Busan, getting in at 11. It was a long trip for a really mediocre weekend.

Rafting this weekend has to be better. Right?

Stuff

Hey everyone. It's been awhile so I thought I'd get a post down.

• It's been raining off and on for a week now, despite July 9th being the official end of the rainy season (and beginning of the Sweat-your-balls-off season). Everyone is saying that we're experiencing a typhoon, but if this is a typhoon, then typhoons are lame. It's just really rainy and windy. It did manage to cancel a half day of classes on Monday so I guess I should be more appreciative.
• Took the bullet train an hour north last weekend to the Costco in Daegu. There is only one store in the whole country and Daegu's got it (though I have no idea why, Daegu's small). Anyway, Sarah and I both went and bought as much food as we could carry back. Highlights included: Spinach ravioli, tomato soup, guacamole and two large boxes of honey nut cheerios. We're planning on going back in a month.
• My school is lame and everyone is starting to get really stressed. With everyone working overtime, open classes, birthday party preparation, unrealistic kindergarten expectations and our kinder director leaving in a month it's normal to be stressed. We start a new Summer intensive in August so we'll be working different and hopefully shorter hours and the new teacher (another Canadian) gets here in a few days.
• I've discovered www.torrentspy.com. It's great and I've been downloading like it's my job. The shitty weather is a perfect excuse for me to laze around my apartment watching entire seasons of 24, which kicks ass, by the way.
• I moved. There's been an apartment open down the hall since June when Joey and Suzy left. I finally took it and it's great. More room, a bigger bed and an air conditioner that doesn't drip all over my floor. They did, however, put my bathroom door on backwards and now water leaks under the jamb and onto my kitchen floor. And the light in the kitchen doesn't work. I've complained to the director and they should be fixed by the time I'm returning home.
• Sarah got a job teaching adults in a cool-sounding business scholarship program. She starts in August and will be moving into a new apartment in a closer part of the city.
• Mud festival, rafting, and Seoul concert are all still a go. We're trying to figure out how much we can fit into our vacation but it looks like we will be hitting the DMZ and some coastal islands as well. We bought an awesome tent that is self assembling (?) and all you have to do is remove it from the case and throw it and it pops up, ready to go. We had to try it in the mall and it worked, though we spent 10 minutes trying to fold it back up into the case.

That's the latest. Keep checking in. I'll have mud festival pictures up after the weekend...

Jeju-do (June 2-6)

Sarah and I spent a long weekend in the beginning of June on Jeju-do, a large Korean island 11 hours (by boat) from Busan. Check out the pictures here.

It was kind of a last minute trip and so we put little planning into the whole thing. We booked the overnight ferry the day we left and surprisingly, there were no private rooms available. We were left with a "sleeping hold" that held 32 people. Having no alternative we took it hoping for the best.

We left around 8 on Friday and the ferry turned out to be pretty memorable. Our room was just that: a big empty room (probably 12 X 25 feet) with only small cushions available to use as pillows. Everyone came in and claimed a spot on the floor. Sarah and I got a corner and held it fiercely against encroachments by our roommates. We had 18 people in our room and we couldn't imagine 32 people crammed inside. While walking to the bathroom I found that one of the rooms had a karaoke machine and inside about twenty people were singing and dancing their hearts out. They saw me watching them and invited me in. I ran back and grabbed Sarah and we joined them. It was mostly old women in the room and they offered us beer and made us dance. It only lasted three songs because a ship employee came around and told them that they had to keep it down. It was cool though and while leaving I was given a shot of soju (Korean rice wine) and a piece of dried squid as a chaser. Honestly, I'm not sure which was worse.

We returned to our rooms and managed to fall asleep around 12 despite the lights being still on and a group of old men drinking, talking and gambling in the opposite corner. The floor was as uncomfortable as you would imagine and the drunk Korean woman passed out next to Sarah kept inching closer until they woke up nose to nose. Getting to Jeju was fun despite the lack of privacy and one of those things that is really funny afterwards.

We arrived around 6 am and after searching around for a bit, checked into a super nice room at the Raddison which was given to us at half price for some reason. After a much needed nap we took an hour long bus ride to the southern part of the island and walked around near the beach and checked out not only a gorgeous waterfall but also a pool that was home to some eel that was named as a Korean Tourist attraction. Everything in Korea is numbered and labeled as some sort of wonder of Korea. Including the eel, which we actually saw and deemed to be unimpressive. We discovered how nice Jeju-do was pretty early. It's sub-tropical so there were palm trees everywhere which was a nice reminder of home.

The next day we attempted to rent scooters so we could drive around the island. When I told the rental guy that I didn't have an international drivers license I had to quickly lie when he asked if I've ever driven a scooter before. "Of course" I said. He told me to drive a scooter around the block to see if I could drive. I could and I did, though rather slowly, but I guess I didn't meet the owners expectations since he said he couldn't rent to me. He wouldn't budge despite showing him my expired California drivers license. We tried renting one scooter with Sarah's license (she drives a motorcycle) but after only a block of riding on the back of a scooter I said it wouldn't work; it freaked me out not to be in control of the bike. So we returned the bike and took a cab to our next destination.

Which was Korean tourist attraction #98: a 8 km long lava tube. A lava tube is a big cave created by, well, lava boring through the earth and it was impressive for the first ten minutes of the 60 minute walk to the end and back. It had a rock inside that was supposed to look like a turtle and (this was written on the advertisement) show "the magnificence of God." It fell short on both counts. We had more fun making fun of the cave than the cave itself provided. Leaving involved a missed bus, what would have been a two hour wait and another cab ride.

We then left to see THE MYSTERIOUS ROAD!!!! which was a tourist trap where things would roll up hill. The "hill" was more like an slight upward tilt, but things did roll against gravity. Amazing? Not really. We would have called the mysterious road a waste of time if not for the Love Park.

The Love Park was a normal park with grass, trees and a nice lake in the middle. And about 2 dozen pornographic statues, suggestive signs and a huge thirty foot penis in the center. It was an erotic park that catered to the many honeymooners who visit Jeju-do. About twenty other people were in the park, wandering around gawking at the statues. Definitely a highlight of the trip that more than made up for the two mile walk we had to make afterwards cause we couldn't find a cab back to the main road.

The next day we traveled back down to the southern coast and hung out on the beach. We found a group of the famous Jeju-do lady divers. It is a family tradition to be a diver on Jeju-do and harvest fish and seaweed to sell at the market. They dive in groups just off the shore and supposedly can stay underwater for up to 2 minutes. One approached us and gave us a sea urchin. Unsure what the hell we were supposed to do with it, we put it back in the ocean after she left.

In the afternoon we went on a harbor cruise. We couldn't understand the tour operator since everything was in Korean so we were left to assume that he was pointing out rocks that were supposed to look like stuff. We did see a bunch of sea caves, an impressive view of the coast and a flying fish. It was fun. Afterwards we went to a nearby temple, which was amazing. Usually you aren't allowed to take pictures inside but we could in this one. It was huge, 4 stories tall and it had three large golden Buddha statues and dragons curling around the central columns. And the hallways and stairwells were decorated with paintings depicting the history of Buddhism. Really cool.

After the temple we wandered around for a bit more and found another waterfall and some hiking trails. We spend a few hours hiking and wading in the pools at the base of the falls. We couldn't stay long, however, since we had to catch an evening flight back to Busan. We got to the airport early and despite worries that the flight would be canceled due to weather, we made it home with no problems.

It was a great trip and it once again demonstrated how well Sarah and I travel together. Both of us are able to shrug off the numerous mishaps that come with wandering around a foreign country. Hopefully, our trip up to Seoul and the islands in the north at the end of July should be just as fun.

Plans

It's raining here now and its making it very difficult for me to walk down to the grocery store. I'll post instead.

Things here have been really great lately. Work has been good, we get a new teacher in two weeks. World Cup (though now over for Korea) has been fun. I've been traveling around and doing a lot. The biggest news, though, is that my girlfriend Sarah has decided to extend her stay here in Korea so we can be together. I'm really happy that she's decided to stay and we are making tentative plans for the next 6 months.

At the end of July everyone has a week vacation and we had started making plans to go to the Philippines or to Viet Nam. When tickets turned out cost twice what was advertised online, we decided that we'd have to stay in country for this vacation. We're planning on going to a big three-day concert up in Seoul and hopefully get up to see the DMZ as well. Any extra time we have we are going to spend on an island somewhere off the coast. It's too bad we can't go abroad but it'll still be fun.

Until then, we have a month and a half of hot humid weather and work to look forward to. In early July we are going rafting with some friends of ours which is going to be a blast. And the weekend of the 15th we are going to the 9th Annual Boryeong Mud Festival. It's a weekend long party at a muddy beach. Drinking, mud wrestling, bbq and fireworks. It's going to be awesome.

That's the latest from Busan.

Dae-hamin-gu!

The game against Togo was a blast! All of us were decked out in red and Jake and I both wore viking hats colored red in support of the red devils. It went over really well and we spent the entire night cheering and screaming for Korea. Filing out of the stadium after the 2-1 victory, we were mobbed by people singing and cheering. We posed for at least a dozen photographs with complete strangers and everyone thanked us for supporting Korea. Pictures below:

Probably about 20,000 people showed up at the stadium to watch the game. Most of them in the stands. But as the stands filled up people started to run onto the field for better seats. The 100 or so police officers there could do little to stop them. When they turned off the TV's showing the game, though, everyone hopped up and ran back off the field.

Us outside of the stadium, posing for one of many pictures with random fans.

Not my best picture but it makes me laugh everytime I see it. I blinked during what I'm sure was a loud pro-Korean cheer; I wasn't drunk, I swear.

_____________________________________________

I wrote this post a week ago and I've been trying to add pictures to it since. The three above were the only ones I could get to work... In the meantime, Korea tied France in their second game making it very possible to move onto round two.

Unfortunately, France beat Togo on Saturday and Korea couldn't get anything going against Switzerland and we lost 2-0 bumping us out of the tournament. We stayed up all night Saturday morning and were with a hundred other fans in a bar watching the game and cheering on Korea. Like I said, Korea could do nothing offensively in their game and a horrible offsides call that lead to a Swiss' second goal didn't help either. So now Korea's done and with the Americans and the Czechs getting pushed out, I'm left to cheer for...someone else. Too bad Korea got knocked out, I was just mastering most of the chants.

Red Devils

Today is Korea's opening game in the World Cup. The Korean "Red Devils" are facing off against the football powerhouse of Togo. Anticipation has been building for weeks now and on the day of this storied match-up one question begs an answer: Where the hell is Togo?

It's on the Western coast of Africa apparently (and finding it on a map just now reminded me of the end of "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?". Remember that show? The giant map? I would have lost had I pulled the Africa map in the final round...). Anyway, Korea is facing off against Togo tonight. With Korea ranked #29 and Togo weighing in with a #61 seed, Korea is favored to win. Our next opponents of France (#8) and Switzerland (#35) should be much tougher opponents (rankings). But numbers shouldn't matter. This is a game of heart and passion and the Korean team has plenty of both. I'm assuming. I actually don't know the first thing about the Korean team. I know the coach is Dutch and we have one player who plays for Manchester United. Beyond that I don't know shit. I will venture a guess that 90% of our team is named either Kim, Park or Lee.

I say our team because I'm an American and don't follow soccer in the least. This, I think, allows me to support any team I damn well please. Korea is the easy choice though I will be keeping an eye on the Czech Republic, who today handed team America their ass in a 3-0 loss. I will be watching the games but more from a "I need an excuse to drink on a Wednesday night" than a "God I love this sport" kinda way. Tonight we're heading to the stadium across town to watch the game with a few thousand Korean fans. I just spent 2o minutes coloring the horns on my Viking hat red and we'll be waving flags, chanting in Korean, and cheering on team Korea. And drinking of course. We'll be drinking too.

Sorak-san (May 26-29)

A few weekends ago my friends and I took a long bus ride up Korea's Eastern coast to Sorak--san, Korea's largest and most beautiful national park.

We left Busan Friday night around 11 o'clock. It was a seven hour bus ride and we expected to all sleep on the bus and wake up around 6:30 in Sorak-san refreshed and ready to explore the park. It was a great plan. We didn't count on having a bus driver who was trying to set a land speed record. We were in a full size bus and the guy was averaging 100 km/hr (this is from one of the Canadians in the front and I don't know what the conversion is from metric...I don't want to know, it was fucking fast). And the route was along the coast so it was curvy and switchback-ridden the entire time. All of us were being jostled back and forth. No one got any restful sleep.

And our plan of arriving at 6:30 was a bit off too. We arrived at 4:45 am. We were half and hour from Sorak-san with nowhere to stay. We considered sleeping in a park and someone suggested a rice paddy (that was lack of sleep talking). We managed to find two cabs that took us to the park and a nearby hotel. It was really nice and as we found out, pretty expensive too. But with 8 people in one room, it tends to bring down the price a bit. We found our room, claimed beds and spots on the floor and tried to fall asleep.

Some of us, though, were past the sleep stage. We had been up long enough that we weren't tired anymore. Someone suggested a sunrise hike and five of us took off. We walked from the hotel and found a huge riverbed which we crossed to find some really beautiful hills and pools, discovered what may have been a North Korean landmine (more than likely a bee hive) and a troublesome fence that we all had to fight our way over. And all of this in the rain.

The rain was the theme for the weekend. We went back to the hotel a bit damp, woke everyone up and after a quick breakfast left for the park. By this point it was raining pretty steadily and everyone but me bought silly-looking rain ponchos. I was betting my rip-off North Face jacket could handle the rain, and it did successfully for the first half an hour of hiking. After that it just got too soaked and I was cold and wet the entire day. My poncho-clad friends didn't do much better, hiking in a plastic bag can get pretty hot and eventually everyone chose to be wet and cold instead of humid and sweaty.

It was awesome though. When you enter the park you are greeted by an amazing 5o foot tall Buddha statue. Continuing on through the park we passed over a few rivers and through a really beautiful forrest to the base of a mountain. We decided on the short uphill hike instead of the long flat one. The hill we started on turned to a rocky mountain and then to a really frightening cliff. We were all panting getting up to the cliff face and found we had no view because of the thick fog. You could tell though that we were high and with my fear of heights I'm glad I couldn't see out. If I had been able to, I probably wouldn't have taken the stairs to the cave.

Cold, slippery industrial metal stairs were anchored into the side of the cliff. They were the only thing keeping you from (at least) a hundred foot drop. With both the rain and the fog the stairs freaked all of us out, but no one was turning back after the hike up. We took the stairs up another 5o feet to a cave in the side of the cliff. The cave was no more than 20 ft deep, 15 ft tall and was used as a Buddhist shrine. Inside was a golden Buddha statue, food offerings and traditional paper prayers hanging from the ceiling. An old couple oversaw the shrine and the man would etch your name into a small medallion for a few bucks. It was pretty amazing and would have had a spectacular view if not for the fog. We spent 2o minutes there then slowly made our way back down the stairs and hiked back to the bottom of the mountain

Cold, exhausted, and soaking wet we returned to our hotel and after a stop at a small market to purchase our dinner (Pringles, cookies and beer) we stayed up late playing poker and fighting over who got to sleep where. We woke up the next day and caught the afternoon bus back to Busan. It was a much longer ride with the driver actually following the speed limit and we arrived back home late Sunday night. Besides the drunk Korean guy on the subway yelling at Jake for wearing a Viking helmet, the trip back was pretty uneventful.

Despite (or maybe because of) the long travel times, bad weather and cramped accommodations, it was an awesome trip. Check out the pictures below...

Sorak-san pics

Not finding ourselves tired, some of us left for a "sunrise hike" that we joked the entire time, was leading us into North Korea.

Our cramped hotel room.

Spectacular Buddha statue at the park's main gate.

Rocks and the river along the hiking trail.

The river.

These were the easy stairs. The ones higher up were even worse.

View (or lack of) from the cave on the side of the cliff.

This is the peak we climbed. You can see the cave and stairs along the face is you look closely. (Click to enlarge)

After a long day of hiking, Jake felt horny.

"It's their fault...

...If they didn't want us to break anything they shouldn't have given us footballs."

That was spoken by Kevin, one of three Canadians in town visiting my friends Jake and Maren. He had just accidentally thrown the promotional soccer ball that the bar was giving out into a glass pitcher of beer that tipped over and cracked on the table. This happened midway through my comment of "Oh, this isn't going to end well..."

We were told that we'd have to buy the broken pitcher and were all shocked to learn that they are $50 a piece. They were nice enough pitchers, with the name of the bar on them, a heavy silver handle and a cool freshness stopper but they certainly weren't worth fifty bucks. We talked the waiter down to $40 and a free order of nachos. We laughed about it for the rest of the night which ended around 3 after a trip to a karaoke room.

This incident doesn't top last weeks drunken bar-b-que that ended with a trip to the emergency room (A sliced foot and 8 stitches later and Casey's fine...). These are both prelude to our 8-hour bus ride today to Sorak-san, Korea's most popular national park. We're spending the weekend there and it looks like its going to rain the whole time so we'll see what exactly we get up to. Hopefully we'll return with no one injured or anything of value broken.

Kimchi!

Since I got here I have been rather unimpressed with Kimchi, a spicy, pickled cabbage and Korea's prized national dish. Like national dishes around the world, it is heralded as a cure-all. Here, it is believed that Kimchi can cure everything from aging to hangovers to SARS (yeah...). In my limited experience, it hasn't cured shit, and is actually likely to cause heartburn.

While reading the LA Times today, though, I found this story. Supposedly researchers have created a special Kimchi for Korean astronauts that will prevent them from getting constipated while in space. Also: "At the Kimchi Research Institute in Busan, hairless mice fed kimchi were reported to develop fewer wrinkles." Not only was I shocked to discover that Kimchi prevents wrinkles but that there is a Kimchi Research Institute right here in Busan! How I have lived here for 4 months and not visited this monument to science?

New day

I wanted to say thanks to my friends who wrote, concerned that the job situation here was turning sour. It's nearing the 6 month mark, which is when culture shock/boredom starts to make my eyes wander to new countries but the I'm happy to report that things have gotten a lot better in the last two weeks and I'm not planning on going anywhere.

With the "new" teacher leaving after only a day of work, we were left severely short staffed and all of us were given new schedules. I was given the schedule I asked for in the first place, 10 - 6 working with the kindergarten kids. So far I love it. Working with those kids can hardly even be called work. We sing and color and play the whole time. And it's balanced by my afternoon classes with the elementary school kids, where I do actual teaching. The best part: all but one of my high school classes were canceled or given to other teachers. I teach at least 8 classes, sometimes 9 or 10, a day and I have three classes a week that are overtime so I'm earning a bit of extra cash.

Our director has also made a few concessions. She signed a contract addendum that we wanted, clarifiying how much we pay for utilities and finalizing our end dates. It was nothing major but it was nice to be given what we asked for. Also, we've been accomodated on a few tweaks we wanted made to our schedules and classes. In the coolest move though, the director gave us June 4th off. June 5th is a national holliday so that means we get a 4 day weekend. Adam, Michelle and I are planning a trip to Thailand and I think Sarah is going to come along as well. Flights a super cheap and we think we can get away with under $500 for the entire weekend. It's nice to see that overtime money go somewhere cool.

Ok, I gotta run. It's that first beautiful day we've had all week and we're having a BBQ at our "rival" school across the street, followed by a baseball game (the Giants are on a 17 game losing streak...) and then a trip to the college area to drink some more. Talk to you later.

Kyongju (May 5 - 7)

Everyone had May 5th off for Buddah's birthday so some friends and I decided to stay in Kyongju, one of Korea's oldest cities. We stayed in an amazing hostel that had traditional Korean rooms and a huge courtyard. We spent a good deal of time hanging out there, singing songs and eating smores around the campfire. During the day we wandered around the city, toured a temple and a grotto high up in the hills surrounding the city. It was a great trip. Pics:

To celebrate the big guys b-day, the temple was covered in lanterns. Thousands of them. It was really amazing to see.

More lanterns and a big group of people listening to a concert in the courtyard.

Adam, Jake and I attempting to sing.

Betty, a teacher from the school across the street, right after she fell off her bench and nearly into the pond behind her.

Marin's t-shirt, though not true, speaks for itself.

Kids Day (May 4th)

A few weeks ago was Kids Day, a celebration just for kids here in Korea. All schools were canceled and we had a party on the roof of our building to celebrate. Pics:

This was a strange game where the kids hit piggy banks down towards us, rounded the chairs and raced back all the way back to the start. Fun if you're a kid I guess...

I didn't trust all those kids with golf clubs...

When the teachers were asked to participate, Joe decided to handicap me...

...we still won.

The kids played with bubbles

and played games.

I entertained them by acting like a jackass.

and lifting them up by their ears, of course. (Though it looks like Eddie here is is terrible pain, he's not. He's grabbing my forearms and that's how I'm lifting him

To Ailey

Don't forget: I have pictures of you drunk, making an ass out of yourself too...

Get off my back. As the last post detailed: I am fucking busy and I am going to be a hell of a lot busier the next month or two. I'm sorry that I'm making it hard for you to live vicariously through me. Why don't you quit bitching and get to Japan already so you can do your own cool Asian stuff?? I'll be in Seoul this weekend, probably touring the DMZ. And you know what? I'm not going to tell you anything about it. Ha.

How do you say "we're fucked" in Korean??

Joey and Suzy, two of the best foreign teachers this school has probably every seen, had their last day of work here at LCI Kids Club on Wednesday. Tired of broken promises from the management and daily schedules that just kept getting longer, they gave their two month notice in March. While we are all going to miss them (as they begin a whirlwind trip around Asia) we all feel a little jealous that their fight is over. They don't have to deal with the problems left here at the school, which, though perhaps small, are starting to add up.

Last week, I asked my supervisor and the director of the school to be moved from the exhausting night shift with the practically mute and disrespectful high school kids to the morning schedule with the kindergarteners. I had been given the late shift because the other four teachers were couples and the school didn't want to separate them. I understood this and accepted it. I hated being away from the other coworkers though, as I was constantly missing out on after work dinners and socializing. With Joe and Suzy leaving though, and a single teacher moving in to replace them, I thought it was a great time to ask to be moved.

I presented a great case. The school makes most of their money from the kindergarten and I already know most of the kids and have a good rapport with them. My older students could easily be taught by Korean teachers. And, after all, I did them a favor (at my own expense) in taking the late schedule and I felt I deserved some consideration. My director was dismissive at best. I talked to my supervisor and she attempted to explain the directors position. She wants to make sure their are existing teachers here for the kinder graduation in February and is concerned that my leaving in January (and Adam and Michelle's) would be disruptive and could cause students to leave the school. I assured them we all would do our best to make the transition as smooth as possible. My director refused.

I was pissed. I didn't want to continue my shitty schedule, isolated from my other coworkers and I was furious that no consideration was being given to me after I had done them a favor. Now, I fully realize that the director is boss and that her word is final, but this is one many examples of her unwillingness to cooperate and her refusal to have any dialog with her teachers about what is happening at this school. I was insulted and I threatened to quit. I posted my resume online immediately and three days later I've been offered 6 jobs.

After I threatened to leave, my director acquiesced and now I teach mornings Tuesdays and Thursdays. Certainly not ideal, but I lost my three worst classes in the process and my threat to leave was not wholehearted (though I made it sound like it was). Also I didn't want to cause a big stir right before the new teacher arrived.

She arrived Tuesday. Canadian, older woman and seemingly real nice. No previous teaching experience. She had one day of observation (7 classes) on Wednesday and was told she was starting a full schedule Thursday. That was today and from what I've heard it's been pretty rough. Even with a year or so of unprofessional teaching, my entire FIRST MONTH was horrible. And I had help, mostly from Joe and Suzy. The new teacher said if the first day didn't go well she was going to leave. And after just talking to her, she's decided to head home.

I don't blame her in the least. The school refused to pay for her airfare here, since she was traveling in Thailand right before she got here and she hasn't even been given a contract yet! It's another example poor management here. Our director turned down two couples who were interested in working here because of their nationalities (Aussies and Brits) and we were left with a single teacher with no previous experience. Our director has left us in the lurch and now all the current teachers are going to have to pay for it. Hopefully this will teach her a lesson about how to treat her staff better but I doubt it.

Ya-gu

"For it's root, root, root for the Giants, if they don't win it's a shame..."

Being from southern California and cheering for the Padres and Dodgers my entire life, it's tough to bring myself to root for the Giants. Here in Pusan though, rooting for the home team Lotte Giants is easy. Yesterday I spent my first day out at the ballpark and I'm going to be making a habit of it.

Baseball (ya-gu) is extremely popular here in Korea and the Korean national team had a stunning outing in the World Baseball Classic, going undeafeated for six games before dropping the semi-final to Japan. The
Korean Baseball Association has 8 teams all of which are sponsored by local businesses, Kia, Hyundae, LG, Samsung, etc. The Giants are sponsored by Lotte, a huge Asian corporation bent on world domination. The Giants, however, haven't dominated anything as of late and have been low in the KBO standings for years.

They had a good showing on Sunday against the Unicorns however. Yup, that's right. One of the KBO teams is called the Unicorns and apparently they suck. Spotty picthing all day by the Unicorns gave way to a 9-1 route. Such a lopsided game led more to drinking than to actually watching the game.

Tickets cost $5 and you can bring in as much food and drink as you can carry. We took them up on that offer and brought in a case of beer. Thoroughly drunk by the 5th, we applied ourselves to learning the Korean chants and songs that were constantly sang by the near capacity crowd. They cheer and chant for every player and every play. Yelling "No, we don't like it" when a pitcher checks the runner at first and "Give it to a kid" when a ball slices foul into the stands. I picked up quite a bit of Korean with the help of two Korean teachers that went to the game with us. My friend Todd also helped this learning experience, but not in a way I appreciated.

"Try this one," he told me. "She-bal. It means 'way to go, good job'. Try it." I did try it. Yelled it, in fact, right after the next good play. When Todd started laughing hysterically and I was hit on the shoulder by the Korean teachers we were with, I knew something was up. I hadn't yelled "good job" but rather the Korean equivalent of "son of a bitch". I spent the next five minutes punching Todd as hard as I could and calling him a son of a bitch in English.

Great times at the ballpark. The Korean fans are so much more into the game than are Americans and with a smaller stadium it feels much more personal. Like I said, I'm going to try to get out there as often as I can. I'm spending next weekend on Geoje-do, an island an hour from here. I'm going with Sarah and I think we're going to have a great time. I'll have pictures to post and a description next week. Take care.

Monkey Butts

I can't really explain this one. All I know is that I love it.

I hate being sick

I've been sick for two weeks now. Stuffy nose, coughing, mild fever. For two weeks. I'm sick of it (pardon the pun). This morning I woke up at 6:30 with a earache that felt not unlike someone pushing an icepick into my brain. I downed some aspirin and made my way down to the doctor who I was assured was great and spoke English.

Both counts turned out to be true, thankfully. She gave me a cursory inspection and told me that (tada!) I have a cold. She said my ear looked fine but would prescribe a few days worth of antibiotics just to be safe. And to top it off, she gave me a shot in the ass. In Kyrgyzstan it was really common to take injections instead of pills and I think I was told by a doctor that it really doesn't work any better or faster if you inject the medicine. Regardless, the doc here gave me a shot. It was kinda strange, I've never had a shot in the butt that I can remember. The nurse who gave it to me spoke no English so it was accomplished by awkward hand gestures. She also slapped me a few times which weirded me out. "Is this some sort of holistic thing?" I wondered. I discovered she was just distracting me from the shot since she told me I was done before I felt anything. So I got slapped on the ass by a nurse and should be better in a few days.

And all for the grand total of $20 including meds. Korea certainly has the medical system figured out. I can't imagine how much more a visit to the doctor, an injection and a filled prescription would cost back home. It's all part of the delightful, "everything is so much cheaper here" phenomena.

Take haircuts for example. I got my haircut last weekend for 5,000 won ($5). It's not a great cut (like Kerrie would give back home) but it'll do. How is it so cheap? Well, parts of it I found are do it yourself. After it was cut I was asked if I wanted a shampoo and I said yes. I was led to a back room, shown a sink, soap and some towels and then left to fend for myself. It took me a few minutes to figure out that I was supposed to wash my own hair. Not that I'm opposed to that it's just that washing your hair in a tiny sink isn't exactly easy. I made a mess of it and ended up soaking my hoodie but it was funny more than anything. It's those weird little differences that make being here so much fun.

Seoul Man

Sorry.

I spent last weekend in Seoul and thought I'd jot down my impressions of this bussling metropolis: "Ehh."

It's pretty much a bigger (much bigger) version of Busan and I didn't find anything that awesome about it. It was crowded, smoggy and neon laden just like it is here. Also, westerners tend to be much more indifferent and cold than they are down here, to the point of avoiding eye contact when you pass them by. That just doesn't happen in my city. I shouldn't judge to harshly though since I spent much more of my time drinking crappy beer and hanging out with Katie than I did exploring the cultural aspects of the city. Mind you, I don't consider my time misspent.

I went up to visit Katie and we spent most of our time reminiscing about Prague, complaining about our relationships and trying to figure out just what the hell we're doing here. We went to see a DJ from Brno, the Czech Republics second largest city, play in a really cool club in the center of the city. The club was brand new and very cool. Problem was nobody was in it. I counted 18 people on the dance floor when we walked in at midnight. Hoping it would get busier when the headliner went on we stuck around. Turns out though that they didn't sell enough tickets and the DJ refused to play. So we hung out, drank and danced till 3, much to the amusement of the small, predominantly Korean audience.

The next day I resolved to see something unique and cultural and Katie and I got lost. Seoul's 12 million residents are served by a 10 line metro system and it's easy to get confused. We spent most of the time yelling at each other instead of seeing the sights and at one point I remarked to Katie "I hate you and I hate your city". It wasn't all that bad though. We found a shopping district that had people juggling while crossing the street, some weird promotional show going on and guys dressed like cats. Also we found this little gem while on an art walk of sorts. As far as we could tell it was a rainbow colored mosaic piece of shit. Korea is weird.

I took the KTX bullet train back down to Busan Monday morning and was treated to a spectacularly unimpressive view of the Korean countryside. Maybe I'm wrong but isn't stuff supposed to look better in the Spring? Everything was brown still and very, what's the word, hideously ugly. Maybe the train just doesn't go through the nice areas. I have made plans to visit a traditional village and temple in early May and hopefully I'll be reminded what it's like to live outside of a industrial area.

Bunch of things of great and little importance

It's been a month since I've posted. I've been busy, I've been lazy. Lot's has gone on but since it's been a whole month I'm not going to put it into any coherent order. Bullet points:

• We got our new schedules, and predictably, got screwed. The promises of less hours turned out to be just that, and we were left with the same classes or more. It sucks and we're all kinda pissed. Two teachers have decided to leave in May.
• I broke up with Michelle. We had both felt different since we got here and we had been spending way too much time together. This is all for the best (I tell myself) and we're going to remain friends.
• Started working out everyday and studying Korean. After a month, I'm still working out. Where is that text book anyway?
• Taught adjectives to a class a few weeks ago and couldn't find anything in the room with which to demonstrate 'long' and 'short'. Lines on the board weren't working neither was my "shoot an imaginary arrow across the room" technique. A student pointed to her pinky finger and said "short". I applauded this and said "Yes! Short!" pointing to my own pinky. "And this is long..." I said before I knew what I was doing. I managed to stop myself but the kids all began to display their middle fingers. I got flipped off by a dozen eight year-olds. (And, yeah, they knew what they were doing.)
• Watched all of season 1 and what is available from season 2 of Lost. That show is kick ass.
• Korea has gone undefeated in the World Baseball Classic, beating Japan AND the US. This is awesome. Baseball season starts up here April 6th. Tickets are $4 and you can bring as much beer and food into the stadium as you can carry.
• My youngest brother has been accepted to UC Riverside and my middle brother turned 21. God damn I feel old.
• A student of mine brought a syringe to class yesterday. Where he got it or what he was going to do with it I have no idea. I took it away and never heard if he was punished or not.
• I've discovered that I am a mediocre poker player at best and I have lost whatever skill I once had at Tiger Woods video game golf.
• I've gone to a nori-bong (Karaoke room) five times since I've been here. Still haven't been to the famous fish market, Busan tower or any temples of note.
• I'm reading that "A Million Little Pieces" book that everybody was freaking out about. Halfway through and I'm unimpressed.
• I've developed a "Spider-sense" that alerts me to the presence of students who wish to poke their fingers into my butt. It's amazing. All the teachers here have this ability.
• I went to get my Alien Registration Card at the immigration office today. Instead of writing my name as Sean LaMar Brown, they spelled it Sean La Mad Brown. I'm going to ask to be called "La Mad" from now on.

That's all that's going on. The rest is just teaching, drinking and spending way too much money. I'll keep you posted.

First month

Besides working my schedule, I've been branching out a bit and trying to explore more of my new home city. Busan is weird and I think I'll be enjoying the weirdness for quite some time.

Last weekend, Michelle and I hiked around Busan's tallest mountain: Geumjeong. It had a gondola thing that took us to the top where we wandered around trying to find a big ass fortress that was at the top. It couldn't have been that big a fortress since we couldn't find the damn thing. It was fun to wander around at the top though. There were small monuments and statues everywhere and a bunch of strange restaurant/tents that served noodles at the top.

At the bottom we found a Buddhist temple that we explored a bit and a really strange 'fitness park' of which there are tons in Busan (There is one on the mountain behind my flat, I'll write more about it when I get pictures, you have to really see it to comprehend the weirdness).

And this weekend we went with some coworkers of mine on a boat cruise around Busan harbor. Besides being cold and foggy it was an amazing day. The beach we left from was really cool and will be great in the Summer (though we hear it's insanely crowded). We watched a man make a huge sand sculpture of Buddha on the beach which was pretty impressive and then headed up the pier to the tour boat. It was only an hour cruise and would have been nicer if it was clear but it was still fun. For half of the ride we were followed by a large flock of seagulls which would dive down and catch food that people tossed into the air. This one nearly took my finger.

After the cruise we went for to a delicious Thai restaurant which I'm sure I'll never be able to locate again. Then we went to the university area and met up with a dozen other foreigners and went out drinking. It was nice to meet new people and there were even some Americans in the group. So far it's been all Aussies, Canadians and Kiwi's. Everyone was really cool and it's always great to hear stories from people who have been here for awhile. We stayed out till 3 or so drinking and playing cards. Twister was also brought out (the bar had a bunch of strange games) but that dissolved into a Judo lesson that ended in someone seriously hurting their shoulder.

All in all, I've really enjoyed my first month here and I predict that I'll enjoy the next 11. I know that the bet based on my previous abroad ventures is that I'll only last 6 months but I think Korea is a good fit. It's common to talk to teachers who have been here 3, 4, 5 years. Some lifers too that have been here for over a decade. In Prague we were impressed to meet people who had lived there for more than a year. I need to get on my language and find a few more extra curriculars but so far it's been great.

New Schedule

Hey. It's been a little while since I've posted but I've been busy teaching, exploring and fighting the man.

And anyone who has fought the man knows that the man is tenacious, a fighter who won't back down. Strong, proud and not unlike that big fish in The Old Man and the Sea (which I read on the Metro this morning).

The man, in this case, is my director who imposed upon all of the foreign teachers at my school an unfair and rather shitty new schedule. We all knew that Winter intensive was over last week and we were promised a lighter schedule in the new semester. When, Monday morning, we were given our schedules we were surprised to discover that all of us are teaching more classes than ever. I'm teaching 9 classes a day compared to the 7 I was teaching before. I'm ok with teaching 9 classes a day as long as they are real classes. My schedule had 12 "special classes" a week which I later found out were private lessons with the director's son! This, my friends, is some bullshit. Also, I volunteered to work the 1-9 shift so I wouldn't have to teach kindergarten and would have the advanced students. I really like my classes but I work 1-9 with NO BREAKS! I was given no time during the evening to, you know, eat dinner, relax, not have erasers thrown at my head. This I complained about pretty quickly and I get a new schedule today that I've been promised will have at least one period for dinner.

I was told this is all temporary and will only last till the end of this month, when we'll be given a easier schedule. I'm not sure how this will be accomplished since two Korean teachers quit this month and one is leaving March 1st. According to the two teachers who have been here for 9 months, this is the fourth time they haven't received what was promised. There could be quite a few people leaving if promises aren't kept next month. I'll keep you posted.

I get paid for this?

I really love (most) of my classes. There are a few troublesome classes (Purple class) but mostly they are all so cute that you can't get too mad when one of 'em runs up and punches you in the nuts. Examples:

We have a big birthday party every month for those kids whose birthdays all fall in that month...

The ubiquitous nose picking

Graduation day. They reminded me of owls dressed in their graduation gowns.

Extremely portable these Korean kids.