Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 347

First post 3am cigarette: Insomnia. Again. Witnessing this new, strange city before me; its expanse, its quiet, its lights casting eerie fluoresce against the clouds reminding me of the northern lights and home. The night is cool but I sit nude on my porch. It’s past three in the morning and anyone who can see is probably drunk and will forget by morning. And I’m too lazy to bother. I puff lazily on a cigarette hoping that any moment I’ll be seized by drowsiness so I can make off to bed. The view from my balcony is prettier at night, prettier being a strange word to use as it implies some kind of beauty. At night, or in my case in the morning, the cracked terra cotta roofs and the spider webs of electrical wire draped ... read more

Well it's time to say goodbye to the Pung Saeng boys, and move closer to the airport today (Airport Town Square) for an afternoon/evening before my early flight home. I will miss the boys and this place, despite it being quite hard initally, I think you settle into a groove here quite easily. Some sessions have been harder than others, and I absolutely admit I have had trouble keeping up at every session, but (hopefully) it will make me a stronger player back home. I do hope to return here someday to train again, catch up with some of the korean boys who will move on to University next year (in TKD teams). To give you an idea as to how effective the training has been, when I arrived at Pung Saeng, I weighed 74.5 kgs. ... read more

At times frustrating, at times maddening, hanging out with Korean kids all day has been an interesting and educational experience. I have been teaching in Daegu, Korea for 11 months and now realize that teaching is something I want to do as a career. A typical day for me starts at 1pm when I teach my preschool class, 8 crazy 6 year olds (five years old in Canada… Koreans are one year old when they are born, not zero). Attempting lessons with this class is like trying to teach a pack of monkeys with ADD not to throw poop at each other. When they are attentive they learn so quickly and when they try you can see their brains pulsating from the effort. They are creative with the English they have and always want to tell ... read more

Steve spent the day at Songnisan National Park. It is a beautiful space famous for a giant golden buddha and a 5 tiered pagoda. Steve went with two families from here and had a really great time!... read more

Training has been a little subdued since the beginning of this week. I was informed that because the TKD season is over, and that Korean ThanksGiving is in two weeks, that the school semester is winding down, therefore training is winding down. We have still been doing tough morning training (i.e. running and sprints), but the afternoon is usually filled with some sort of ball sports (soccer, basketball, some other form of soccer). I have been mitt kicking with an injured korean boy, who has been kind enough to hold for me whilst i hit them. The story behind this boy's injury is quite tragic. About 2 months ago, a visiting Italian TKD team came by and were sparring (as usual), expect this boy sustained a corked leg from one of the visitors, which was later ... read more