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Clean shavin
Probably won't happen again for a long time.A lot has changed for me, and I wrote about that in the last blog. I am now settled down into my job and new house. Money is coming in and not in partial payments, and I have friends that are feeling the same anxious warmth on our minds and hearts.
The warm weather arrived and so did Swine flu along with it. I am lucky enough not to have contracted that wonderful gift, but tempt my fate throughout the week eating health amounts of pork in forms of galbi, samgapsal, dongcass. I did happen to get a minor cold which I am in the process of battling now. It has allowed me to slow down my schedule and sit down and do some reading and writing.
Earlier in the month we had a national holiday called "children's day". Now I thought what better way to celebrate this glorious holiday than to get as far away from the booger eaters as possible. I had a plan to head to Japan for 4 days of sight seeing, sushi, saki, and mischief, but that plan was cut short by none other than my best of friends, worst of enemies...procrastination. I waited till the
Poster
Justin and Jenny really enjoying the Cherry Blossom festival last week to book my ticket, and tickets were priced at half of my paycheck. I also had an interpreted conversation with my co-workers friend who is studying in Japan at the moment. She told me that it was better that I not come at this time since it was the the presidents birthday and that shops would be closed and not to mention banks. A bit down on my self for passing up the land of the rising sun, I took the next best thing and headed to an island off the coast of Korea with a few close friends. They took it well that they were my second option and I made a point to sound like an ass and point this out to them. Neither rain nor my prickish attitude could dissuade this from being a mighty fine time. We rented huts right on the beach and brought with us a feast fit for...well...a bunch of hungry teachers in Korea. We BBQ'd shish-kabobs and steaks, cut up full watermelons and enjoyed REAL cheese sandwiches. What we were not prepared for, and what could have been a trip ending disaster, was power outage on the whole island. Now
cool idea
for planters...liked the VW patch too this might not sound so bad, and you may call me a city boy that could go without seeing some neon lights for while. Now while I agree fully with you on this, it also meant that the stores were closed and that behind those closed doors were fridges of ice cold beer (well kind of cold, remember the power is out). We had not brought any with us expecting to make the managers day by purchasing a decent amount of the brew. Instead 2 men from our party took the ferry back to the main land and loaded down with a few cases of beer. Needless to say they were welcomed back with open arms and cheers from the crowd. We didn't feel the need to tell them that the power came back on when they were on this noble quest.
Well the rest of the night followed with a bonfire, guitars being passed around, dancing and frequent trips to the ocean. We woke the next day to a bright sunny day and took advantage of it. It seemed that everyone was in high spirits, and there seemed to be even more foreigners on the beach with the same
idea as us. We played ultimate Frisbee, soccer, football, and cards. We ate well again, stuffing our faces on sandy watermelon and ended the afternoon with rides on quads down the beach.
We regaled in party mode again that night and stayed up to watch the sun rise, some of us that is. The next day we packed our gear and headed out burned from the sun, and with a layer of film on us from not showering for the two days and nights we were there.
I got back to my place around 6 that night and met everyone for dinner at a local Irish pub in Seoul. We ate and played scrabble until we could barely keep our eyes open. The next day I met Justin and Jenny in Youido park. We rented bikes and made our way down the Han river path. It was a nice ride and I wish I had Known about it earlier. When we finish it struck me that it was cinco de mayo and that we needed to find Mexican food and margaritas fast. We hit Itaewon, which is the best place in Seoul for foreign food, and downed a couple of
enchiladas. After dinner we ran into a couple of friends who told Justin, Jenny and I where we could get a decent margarita, and we were off again, with a renewed purpose for the night.
We found our Margaritas and order a shot of tequila to go with it. Turned out this was a bad idea, it made the drink taste nothing of what a flavorful margarita should taste like, but a hideous concoction made to give us grimacing faces.
We said our goodbyes after that and I went home and crashed. I did exactly that. The four day weekend had been an eventful, that was sure, but by the end my body could take no more running around. I hit the sack and didn't wake up until 11:30 the next day, luckily I work at noon and that day was test day.
The days followed, I made it through my short work week bruised and worn down, but made it to the weekend. I could relax, or do exactly the opposite.
The next week in work I gave the test results back to the kids, there were mixed responses from them. I do like this group of kids. I
am sure that I am not going to ever teach any kid under the age of 10, but I do enjoy it when they run up to me when I am in my chair and scream in face...GOOD AFTERNOON!!! I can't but help smile and yell back them. This usually brings on a case of the giggles, then to run around the classroom like they are being chased by bees. I sit there for a minute and take it in prepare my chi and get ready to tackle the class.
I have a projector in my room that allows me to show what is on my computer. Well a while ago my co-teacher and I downloaded Madagascar 2 for them to watch for a play day. We left it on the computer and we had the brilliant idea of showing it to the kids while we were checking homework. Now about a month and half later, and seeing this movie for god knows how many times, I feel my self loathing a lion that has no need/want to eat his friends, although in the first movie he couldn't go two days without wanting a zebra steak. The kids think funny
when I walk by to check there homework and quote the movie as it's happening, especially Kent and John. This reminds me, most of you have little Asian kids named after you now. I wrote a bunch of names on the board for them to pick from, all coming from friends and family. I have an Annamarie and a Garrett, a few Randy's, a Joe, even a Sinead.
After the little Kents, and Jims leave for the day, I usually clean my classroom and get head home. I have found a group of guys that get together once a week to play basketball on wednesdays. I head over to my friends Gary and Sinead's place for ping pong, weights and dinner about once a week. I have also tried to focus on photography again, for there was a period I didn't want to take pictures, write or even read. I had no motivation to sit down and hammer some things out. I was in a bad mood and depressed a bit from the dreary winter.
Since going to Muuido island for childrens day, I have also gone to the cherry blossom festival and the Lantern Festival for Buddha's birthday. The
Co-Teacher
K.C. Kyoung Ah. cherry blossom festival was nice, with a street full of cherry trees showering us with thousands of tiny white pestles. It would have been even more special if I wasn't shoulder to shoulder with a few thousand of my closest Korean friends. It took away from the experience and left me a bit bitter. I wanted to be able to walk freely, and in parts by myself, but this was not possible. It did end at a nice park where we tossed a football and hung out on the grass.
The lantern festival was a much better fest. There were booths that you could make your own paper lanterns and do quick 5 minute meditations. The place was also covered in thousand and thousands of lanterns. The night end with a massive parade, where I was handed 3 lanterns from some of the patrons. This did nothing but anger Justin who had not been handed one all night long. I took advantage of the situation and gloated right in his face, until he was handed one and quieted my slander.
I'll give you all a little update on blond bearded friend Justin. He is teaching an after school program like
1A
The class to end all classes me, but in another part of Seoul. He lives over in Kkachisan...I know right!...What a slum. In case you don't know where that is, or don't have your local Seoul subway map handy, it is in the Northwest part of Seoul. He likes the it over there, and I think got himself a pretty slick apartment. He works roughly the same hours as myself, but we don't see each other as much as when we were living in the same part of town. If you want more info on what Justin is up to he just recently signed up on this blog website. It's http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Le-Jaguar/. We do get together for basketball and for the weekend, but other than that we are busy with our own lives over here.
That is what is most obvious and strange at the same time. I have been here in Seoul for close to eleven months now. I call this place home, and I know my way around this city like it were Portland when I was sixteen. That is to say I had a good idea where things where and I could get around well enough, but there was still so much more for
me to explore to see and to discover. I have found myself into a comfortable living here, and have become used to the smell and sounds. I have picked up a bit of the language and have met some life long friends. I was sitting down having a drink with a few friends the other night and just sat back and took it all in while a conversation was brewing. I have no idea what we were talking about, but what struck me was how easy it was. How relaxed we were together and that we came from different parts of the world. It seemed so natural for us to be talking about school, or what we did that morning. We were past the obvious differences, and down to just being friends who live in a city we all now call home.
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saam
non-member comment
looks like you are having fun there! :) im glad you got a job that is working out great... i like reading your blog posts. makes me think of when i was living abroad back in the day. and great pictures!!! looking forward to hanging with you and ben in asia next year! :)