Well this will be a long one so buckle up.
This past week had so many things going on that I hardly had time to sleep. For starters, it was the start of a new semester so there was chaos in the office as we tried to get books together, lesson plans figured out, and children to the right classes. Then on Tuesday Will and I planned to meet the ladies he tutors and he actually showed up this time. So we went North to Chungmuro and I met up with Sung Eun and Sung Hee, who are sisters and their boss who's name escapes me. This whole tutoring thing is pretty sweet. All they are looking for is conversational English, just talking, twice a week for one hour. They were really nice and asked me to meet them again Wednesday morning since Thursday was a holiday. I agreed and then realized later on in the week that even the people you tutor will try to monopolize your time. Here is how it went. So I met them the second day and from there they offered to take me out for lunch Christmas Day. I agreed assuming it was a nice gesture, but it turned out to be an afternoon long English session. I wasn't that concerned about it other than the fact that I had other plans to keep and they kept me to the very last minute. It was Will who later told me that people will do that for free tutoring so I was a little peeved, but I got a lunch and a decent tour of the area we were in so no biggie.
On Wednesday night after I finished work I came home and skyped with everyone at moms house because it was Christmas Eve day back home when it was Christmas Eve night here. I got to see Braunwyn and Parker open their gifts and talk to everybody on camera for the first time since I've been here. After that I got a hold of Blake, Brandon and Will because we were all going to go out for drinks so that we didn't have to sit around in our apartments on Christmas Eve.
The thing about Korea is that they don't really celebrate Christmas like we do back home. They do go out Christmas Eve but more for couple things like dinner and street walking. Then come Christmas Day nobody really cares. they enjoy the holiday from work, but their really celebration isn't until the end of January for the Chinese New Year.
Anyways, we went out for drinks in Jamesons area because there was this nasty British girl trying to get him to go home with her so he called Blake and asked for a rescue party. We swooped in, saved him and got the hell out to where we were meeting with some friends of ours who came out to keep us company. Christmas Day came and I spent a good deal of time with the people I tutor before getting together with Blake and Junk for late night Christmas beers and coming home to spend hours on the computer calling everybody back home. Friday night after work I came home and did Christmas over the phone with everyone at dads house, which was good because I had no energy to go out.
So along came the weekend. Saturday morning I woke up rather early and got a hold of Will who had promised to bring me my motorcycle. He came through this time riding it down to me around noon. I proceeded to take it for a few practice runs up and down the street after he showed me how to do it. Its a tricky business all the handles and foot peddles, but I was able to make it up and down alright. However! I may or may not have run it into the side of a restaurant and I may or may not have stalled it out repeatedly on the first go 'round. But that's what happens when you have a need for speed!
After the bike fiasco, I went to Lotte World (a huge fancy shopping center close to me) because I need some dress shoes for my company's Christmas dinner and couldn't be bothered to go any further. I found a really nice/expensive pair and ended up talking the sales guy down in price but like I said, I was in a hurry.
Saturday night we (and by we I mean my school) went to The Imperial Palace, a luxury hotel here in Seoul for dinner. It was buffet style of worldwide cuisine, and quite possibly the fanciest place I've ever eaten. We got a great deal on the dinner because one of our receptionist is dating one of the head chefs. We all took gifts and did a gift draw. I ended up with hand and foot lotion which I then gave to one of the other girls I work with. We, or at least I, ate so much that I thought I was going to burst, we also drank a considerable amount of wine since it was paid for by the school. After dinner some of us foreign teachers went out for more drinks which was both a good and bad thing.
Bad because we all ended up hungover on Sunday. Some worse than others, I was in the least hungover category, and Jameson might have been the winner.
Good because since we stayed out so late I came home late and happened upon a kitten outside of my building who must have been living in the streets. She (I think) was very tiny (smaller than my shoe), dirty and crying so being the nice guy that I am I brought her inside. She is now mine I am assuming, so I have bought her some toys, food, a litter box and will be taking her to the vet as soon as I have time. She is really playful, white with a few black and orange spots, seems to be getting the hang of the litter quickly, and always sleeps on the pants I leave on the floor. I don't know what I will name her yet but I'm working on it.
Anyways, that's enough for now. I hope you are all getting ready for a good New years celebration. I will talk to you later.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Happy Holidays
HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!
Well its Sunday again and once again I got up to not too much this week. The cold weather seems to be a hindrance to the being outside thing. Though I don't mind the cold much (and am jealous of all the snow others are getting), most other people seem to dislike it around here so we find ourselves sitting around at a lot of coffee shops or bars. So while I would like to do something more than waste time, it has yet to materialize. But, there are good hopes for the future because in all the subway riding and city areas I have been in, I've noticed many places that I would like to go back and photograph some time.
Anyhow. This week was pretty much the same as the last few except instead of sleeping away the day on Thursday I got up to go meet the people Will tutors. Unfortunately, Will did not get up and we never ended up going but rescheduled for Friday which would have worked except he didn't show again and I was up early for the second day in a row. Kinda makes a man angry but hey what can you do I guess. At least I was up early for a change and had a chance to get some groceries, finish my Christmas cards, and check out a gym that I will probably join once I get paid.
Work is getting better every week, and I find new ways to punish the children and amuse myself. For instance, I have begun taking their cellphones when I see them in class. Then after class I take my picture with them so that when they look through their phone......BAM it's their jerk-ass teacher......its funny. This was the last week of the semester which was odd because the new semester you would think should start in the new year but no it starts tomorrow (3 days before Christmas). But once again, they aren't the most organized or sensible bunch around here.
For the weekend I was hoping to get out and see some sights, but instead Blake and I met up with a new friend of ours Cindy (a Korean girl we met last week whos Korean name is Mi Ryeong) for lunch on Saturday then went out for some of his friends birthday Saturday night. We went to a night club that had some hip-hop artist show and it was pretty good. Seeing different cultures perform North American hip-hop is really funny. They were pretty good, the ones that could rap, even though I didn't understand them, but most of them were saying things like "where are all my niggers at" or "show me some of those dead presidents" and other various known Black hip-hop slogans that tehy clearly didn't understand. But hey monkey see monkey do right. It was a good time and we stayed out late which then made Sunday a write off, do nothing day. This week is Christmas however, so I am sure we will be getting up to a lot more on account of we don't want to be sitting around doing nothing and getting depressed about it. We have a couple dinners in hte works for all our foreign teacher friends and some small get togethers with those Koreans that we have gotten to know also.
I hope everyone is ready for Christmas and is plannig on spending it with all the special people in thier lives. I will miss you all very much this year, but will hopefully get a chance to talk to you all at some point during hte holidays through the magic of my computer.
Have a safe and happy holiday this year.
Love Mark
Well its Sunday again and once again I got up to not too much this week. The cold weather seems to be a hindrance to the being outside thing. Though I don't mind the cold much (and am jealous of all the snow others are getting), most other people seem to dislike it around here so we find ourselves sitting around at a lot of coffee shops or bars. So while I would like to do something more than waste time, it has yet to materialize. But, there are good hopes for the future because in all the subway riding and city areas I have been in, I've noticed many places that I would like to go back and photograph some time.
Anyhow. This week was pretty much the same as the last few except instead of sleeping away the day on Thursday I got up to go meet the people Will tutors. Unfortunately, Will did not get up and we never ended up going but rescheduled for Friday which would have worked except he didn't show again and I was up early for the second day in a row. Kinda makes a man angry but hey what can you do I guess. At least I was up early for a change and had a chance to get some groceries, finish my Christmas cards, and check out a gym that I will probably join once I get paid.
Work is getting better every week, and I find new ways to punish the children and amuse myself. For instance, I have begun taking their cellphones when I see them in class. Then after class I take my picture with them so that when they look through their phone......BAM it's their jerk-ass teacher......its funny. This was the last week of the semester which was odd because the new semester you would think should start in the new year but no it starts tomorrow (3 days before Christmas). But once again, they aren't the most organized or sensible bunch around here.
For the weekend I was hoping to get out and see some sights, but instead Blake and I met up with a new friend of ours Cindy (a Korean girl we met last week whos Korean name is Mi Ryeong) for lunch on Saturday then went out for some of his friends birthday Saturday night. We went to a night club that had some hip-hop artist show and it was pretty good. Seeing different cultures perform North American hip-hop is really funny. They were pretty good, the ones that could rap, even though I didn't understand them, but most of them were saying things like "where are all my niggers at" or "show me some of those dead presidents" and other various known Black hip-hop slogans that tehy clearly didn't understand. But hey monkey see monkey do right. It was a good time and we stayed out late which then made Sunday a write off, do nothing day. This week is Christmas however, so I am sure we will be getting up to a lot more on account of we don't want to be sitting around doing nothing and getting depressed about it. We have a couple dinners in hte works for all our foreign teacher friends and some small get togethers with those Koreans that we have gotten to know also.
I hope everyone is ready for Christmas and is plannig on spending it with all the special people in thier lives. I will miss you all very much this year, but will hopefully get a chance to talk to you all at some point during hte holidays through the magic of my computer.
Have a safe and happy holiday this year.
Love Mark
Monday, December 15, 2008
Foreigner Trash
Well a little late but better than never. Though I don't really have any reason for being late, I was just being lazy last night.
Well this week was a pretty good week. Holding was over so our class sizes were on the rise which was nice because it was getting tiresome teaching only two or three kids at a time. I did however have to bring the hammer down on some of my kids on Friday. In my bottom level class (I am the only teacher who teaches the basic level kids), there are some girls who talk and do not do their work and pretty much hate on me all class. So Friday I made them write lines and told them they could not go home until they were done. They did not believe me until i made them stay after class and come within minutes of missing their bus, which made them write faster and neater than I have seen and kids write so far. I put this one in the victory column because hopefully they have learned I do not fool around. And if not, they will be missing their bus for sure next time.
But enough about school. On Wednesday Blake, Jameson, and I all went out for Junks birthday. We went to a bar called Ice in Gangnam (a semi-party district), where we stayed until nearly 3 am. When we were ready to call it a night Junk tried to get us to party more or go to a club, but we had to tell him no. He is an animal and his partying came into play again on Saturday. The rest of the week went by uneventful. We took the new guy at our school out for a few beers on Friday but then called it an early night so that Saturday wasn't a write off.
I slept in on Saturday until 11:45 which was bad because I was supposed to meet Jameson at the subway for 12. So I had to get ready fast and head out so that we could go meet Junk and Blake for 1 in Hong-dae for another "group blind date". We showed up a few minutes late but so did everyone else so it was OK. We went out for lunch at a Kalbi place (at which point the Korean we were with decided it was time to pick the "cutest" person, which is a very Korean thing to do because it doesn't really mean much, even though in Canada it would hurt peoples feelings. But yours truly was picked as the cutest, which was funny yet awkward at the same time) and then out for some coffee. We didn't think we would be spending the whole day there, with the girls but once again Junk brought the party. After we had coffee he suggested that we go to a So-Ju bar (So-Ju is Korean moonshine that tastes like vodka, but they drink like water), which turned out to be a really cool and laid back place. A few more people joined us and we drank almost 10 bottles of So-Ju which but everybody in the mood to party, so naturally it was club time. We took the party to a nearby club at like 10 which was way too early because we were the only people there, but Jink the party animal got a bottle of vodka and some juice and we kept drinking. This is where I realized most Koreans have bubkiss for rhythm. They are some of the worst and most awkward dancers you will ever see (though I do think it's an Asian thing in general). Junk started the dance party by flailing about like he was having a seizure and running and skipping in circles. Though he was the most flamboyant in the place I did realize soon that most of the other Koreans had a hard time dancing to the beat of the music. But it was all fun and everyone had a good time. We called it a night before 3 for a change and everyone went their own ways..........
But not before seeing and having to talk to a bunch of other foreigners who really lend a face to the trashy/ignorant foreigner stories. Mostly men and mostly white were starting to come out of the bars and cursing at people, and cars that got too close, loud yelling and threats of fights were being tossed around. For me personally I found myself being examined by another Canadian who assumed because I have dreads that I must be a pot smoking, Bob Marley worshiping, anti-establishment weirdo. These things do not and did not sit well with me, especially when I told him I was none of those things and he told me I "had to be" ,at which I told him he was retarded. There were only a few words between me kicking the living shit out of him and him walking away, luckily he chose to walk away because I was at the end of my stereotyped rope with the douche bag.
I guess what my point is, is that just because these people have travelled to a country outside of their norm they should not expect that the same behaviour they abide by at home will pass around here, and they should realize how stupid they make themselves and their country look.
Well enough with the ranting. I hope you are all good and getting ready for the Christmas Season. Talk to you all soon.
Well this week was a pretty good week. Holding was over so our class sizes were on the rise which was nice because it was getting tiresome teaching only two or three kids at a time. I did however have to bring the hammer down on some of my kids on Friday. In my bottom level class (I am the only teacher who teaches the basic level kids), there are some girls who talk and do not do their work and pretty much hate on me all class. So Friday I made them write lines and told them they could not go home until they were done. They did not believe me until i made them stay after class and come within minutes of missing their bus, which made them write faster and neater than I have seen and kids write so far. I put this one in the victory column because hopefully they have learned I do not fool around. And if not, they will be missing their bus for sure next time.
But enough about school. On Wednesday Blake, Jameson, and I all went out for Junks birthday. We went to a bar called Ice in Gangnam (a semi-party district), where we stayed until nearly 3 am. When we were ready to call it a night Junk tried to get us to party more or go to a club, but we had to tell him no. He is an animal and his partying came into play again on Saturday. The rest of the week went by uneventful. We took the new guy at our school out for a few beers on Friday but then called it an early night so that Saturday wasn't a write off.
I slept in on Saturday until 11:45 which was bad because I was supposed to meet Jameson at the subway for 12. So I had to get ready fast and head out so that we could go meet Junk and Blake for 1 in Hong-dae for another "group blind date". We showed up a few minutes late but so did everyone else so it was OK. We went out for lunch at a Kalbi place (at which point the Korean we were with decided it was time to pick the "cutest" person, which is a very Korean thing to do because it doesn't really mean much, even though in Canada it would hurt peoples feelings. But yours truly was picked as the cutest, which was funny yet awkward at the same time) and then out for some coffee. We didn't think we would be spending the whole day there, with the girls but once again Junk brought the party. After we had coffee he suggested that we go to a So-Ju bar (So-Ju is Korean moonshine that tastes like vodka, but they drink like water), which turned out to be a really cool and laid back place. A few more people joined us and we drank almost 10 bottles of So-Ju which but everybody in the mood to party, so naturally it was club time. We took the party to a nearby club at like 10 which was way too early because we were the only people there, but Jink the party animal got a bottle of vodka and some juice and we kept drinking. This is where I realized most Koreans have bubkiss for rhythm. They are some of the worst and most awkward dancers you will ever see (though I do think it's an Asian thing in general). Junk started the dance party by flailing about like he was having a seizure and running and skipping in circles. Though he was the most flamboyant in the place I did realize soon that most of the other Koreans had a hard time dancing to the beat of the music. But it was all fun and everyone had a good time. We called it a night before 3 for a change and everyone went their own ways..........
But not before seeing and having to talk to a bunch of other foreigners who really lend a face to the trashy/ignorant foreigner stories. Mostly men and mostly white were starting to come out of the bars and cursing at people, and cars that got too close, loud yelling and threats of fights were being tossed around. For me personally I found myself being examined by another Canadian who assumed because I have dreads that I must be a pot smoking, Bob Marley worshiping, anti-establishment weirdo. These things do not and did not sit well with me, especially when I told him I was none of those things and he told me I "had to be" ,at which I told him he was retarded. There were only a few words between me kicking the living shit out of him and him walking away, luckily he chose to walk away because I was at the end of my stereotyped rope with the douche bag.
I guess what my point is, is that just because these people have travelled to a country outside of their norm they should not expect that the same behaviour they abide by at home will pass around here, and they should realize how stupid they make themselves and their country look.
Well enough with the ranting. I hope you are all good and getting ready for the Christmas Season. Talk to you all soon.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Finally some snow
Well it's been an uneventful week. We are still in holding which is making things pretty boring around school but we do get to leave earlier on account of there being no kids to teach. I didn't get up to very much this week just some Korean language studying and hanging out. Thursday night we (and by we I mean Blake, Ryan, Will, and myself) were out on a quadruple blind date of sorts. See Will had met a girl at a coffee shop near one of the universities and they got to talking about how her and her friends are practicing their English for flight attendant jobs, and he suggested that he bring his friends and she bring hers and we would hangout some night. So we all met up on Thursday, had some dinner and then went for drinks. They were pretty cool girls, and they spoke English far better than we spoke Korean, and everything went well except for the drinking part. the girls all left before we had a chance to finish all the pitchers so it was the five of us (Junk had joined us) who had to stay and finish drinking them, which led to hangovers all around on Friday. But hey you only live once right. On Friday I went with a couple of my co-workers for groceries after work, where I watched handfuls of Koreans (though I'm pretty sure it's an Asian thing in general) climb all over each other like salmon going to spawn, for sale items. I know we've all scrambled for good deals before but there seems to be something with the Asian people that the word sale instantly means "loose your bloody mind". So I had to throw some out of my way so I could get some milk and then got out of the store before things got out of control.
Since everyone was feeling rough from Thursday night, we all took it easy Friday night. I just watched movies and vegged out, until Saturday night. On Saturday Blake, Jameson and I went out for a Kalbi dinner (which is barbecued pork that you do at your own table), and then out for beers. All was good until the end of the night when we spent all our money and realized none of our bankcards worked and we may not be able to get a cab home. It took some time and some street walking but we finally found a cabie who spoke decent English to bring us back to my apartment where I had money to pay for the ride. So that was an adventure that resulted in not getting home until late, so I slept most of today (Sunday). When I did get up however I saw that it was snowing which made me happy. So I cleaned up my apartment, made a late lunch and did some studying while the snow collected. After dinner and some more studying I went for a walk in Olympic Park across the street from me which was really nice. There was still only a dusting of snow since they don;t really get too much here but it's a start. I'm hoping to see some more soon and be able to get out of the city and do some snowboarding in the near future.
Well thats all for now.
Since everyone was feeling rough from Thursday night, we all took it easy Friday night. I just watched movies and vegged out, until Saturday night. On Saturday Blake, Jameson and I went out for a Kalbi dinner (which is barbecued pork that you do at your own table), and then out for beers. All was good until the end of the night when we spent all our money and realized none of our bankcards worked and we may not be able to get a cab home. It took some time and some street walking but we finally found a cabie who spoke decent English to bring us back to my apartment where I had money to pay for the ride. So that was an adventure that resulted in not getting home until late, so I slept most of today (Sunday). When I did get up however I saw that it was snowing which made me happy. So I cleaned up my apartment, made a late lunch and did some studying while the snow collected. After dinner and some more studying I went for a walk in Olympic Park across the street from me which was really nice. There was still only a dusting of snow since they don;t really get too much here but it's a start. I'm hoping to see some more soon and be able to get out of the city and do some snowboarding in the near future.
Well thats all for now.
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