And away we go!!!

Nov 2 - 11 (A long post because of my pending departure)
Well this week was rather wild, trying to get the new employee trained and my own life sorted out as far as packing and the up coming trip. June my replacement took to the office really well and was happy to watch classes and soak up all the info we could give her and hear about all that Korea has in store for her. The better part of my classes this week went by just fine and the kids both enjoyed and were saddened by my up coming departure.
The week went by and I can't think of any things taht I did that stood out from the ordinary. I was still at teh elementary school, being asked who my replacement was; to which I answered "I don't know because its not my job to know". When Friday came around some of the Korean teachers wanted to go out for some dinner and drinks after work, so we went to a sam-gyup-sal place to eat and drink soju. Jameson and Brian joined us, and I proceeded to party and drink soju. By the time we finished dinner and had made it to another bar to have some drinks I was half drunk, and proceeded to get blackout drunk. I don't remember a thing, but there are photos out there that show what an abomination I turned into. C'est la vie, or so I thought.
On Saturday I woke up late and met my tutor 30 minutes late but stayed extra long to make up for it. After that I went home and slept all afternoon to gather my strength for the going away party we had planned for Saturday night at Gold Bar. We started at the Wine Buffet at 7 and then moved to Gold Bar at 9:30. After we got there, our friends started showing up, and the list is too long to put down. We proceeded again to drink copious amounts of whiskey until yet again I was blackout drunk and had to be shipped home.
When I woke up Sunday afternoon, I felt unlike myself and like my very being had been beaten with a spiked bat. I rested up during the day and then met with Dave, Kate, Brian, and Jameson for all you could eat steak in Apgujong. It was delicious and we ate more than our share. After that we all returned home to get some semblance of our lives.
Monday was back to the grind, with June teaching and me watching, to give feedback. She did well and it gave me time to sort through and mark things while on break instead of preparing for classes. After work on Monday, Margaret came over to help me pack, because apparently I am useless when I come to packing anything other than a truck with tools. We managed to get all my odds and ends packed up in one case, and all but some clothes I had drying packed into another, which took a huge load off my mind. Tuesday was spent looking for the pension office and getting Goah her shots before I left so that she can come back to Canada with me then I went to work and spent several hours marking essays.
A sleepless night later, it was Wednesday, which happened to be Pepero Day in Korea. Pepero Day falls on Nov 11 (11/11) because there are these chocolate covered bread sticks called pepero that look like ones. So, on the day, you have to give them to your friends or the person you like. On a side note, before work I had to take Goah to Blake's, where she will be staying until I return. I bought a ton for my kids and received a ton from them. As well as pepero, I received several good-bye notes and such from the kids, which was really sweet and heart breaking. AND THEN, it was time to go home and my time was officially up at Avalon. We had some cake and I gave a little speech and then took off to take my bike to Arthur's and meet some people in Sincheon for a last drink because several of them will have gone back to the U.S. by the time I get back.
After another sleepless night of last minute cleaning and organizing Jameson and I were officially off this morning at 7 am for our adventure. This means I will be off the map fora while but can't wait to see you all and tell you about my trip. Take care, lots of love, and see you soon.

Happy Halloween and Welcome Newbie

Oct 26 - Nov 1
Well here we go again.
This week was as crazy a week as I have had yet I think. Between running back and forth to the elementary school, trying to get through my grading, thinking about what I'm going to do with all my stuff, and getting a new arrival at our school; I was stretched a little thin.
This week was put me at less than 15 teaching days left and left me feeling kind of weird, because as much as I am looking forward to my upcoming vacation, I am going to miss my kids and some parts of my job. Either way, it is an inevitability and with that comes my replacement. She, named June, a Korean-American from California, showed up on Wednesday a full two weeks before I leave. This is incredibly unusual, because replacement teachers usually show up under one week before they have to start teaching. In June's case, it is because of the H1N1 policy that was lifted before she came here, which meant she didn't have to spend time in quarantine. Her appearance threw us off because we were not ready for here and had not prepared all the things we had wanted to before she got here. None the less we took her in as we were took in, maybe even better, and started slowly introducing her to the job and the company. I think she will be just fine.
The rest of the week was not that happening, we waited for Friday and payday before doing much with ourselves. Once Friday came around, Margaret and I went to a costume shop to grab something to wear for Halloween at school. Though none of the kids dressed up because it isn't a big deal around here, they loved seeing us dressed up and with candy in hand. At the elementary school I got the kids to power though the work and then we made Halloween masks out of paper plates and other craft materials for fun. They absolutely loved it but had a hard time understanding the relationship between glue needing to try and being able to pick our mask up. Repeatedly they would place the stuff on the paper plate and pick it up to show me, only to have it fall off. We all laughed and had a great time.
After work on Friday, I took it easy and hung out with a few people from the elementary school at Zenia's. Though I didn't drink much, I stayed up late and was tired Saturday when I had to tutor. After tutoring I came home and relaxed for the afternoon before gong out.
Saturday night, even though it was Halloween, we went to Apgujong to have a going away party for Gina, Junk's girlfriend, who is going to study in Australia for the next year. We hopped across a couple of our favorite places and had a great time, but eventually Jameson and I split off and went to Monkey Beach to see some people in costumes and hear some loud music. We left Apgujong around 4 am and I got to bed some time after 6.
Getting to sleep so late meant that I woke up late for the brunch plans I had. I was suppose to go to a Korean coworkers house with Margaret for 12, but never woke up until 11:30. Luckily when I called Margaret she was just getting up too, so we were both late. We showed up for lunch an hour late, which worked out great because Katie and her new husband Yong-Hyawg were running late too. We had some pasta and pizza, and drank some super strong liqueur from their honeymoon to Italy, after which we went and walked around a park for a bit.
After the park, I went to meet Jameson, Kate, and Dave for dinner and trivia. Unfortunately is was cancelled and we were 'forced' to sit around and drink instead. Eventually we had enough talking and headed out on the subway so that we could all get home to rest up for the coming week.

Oct 19 - 25
Well thanks to the partying last weekend I was a bit sick this week. I guess the lack of sleep for a weekend can make it hard to stay away from the head colds that come with the off and on weather. Either way, this week was a pretty long and drawn out week. At school, I decided to crack down on the kids for not doing their homework and make them write essays in class instead of starting them in class and finishing for homework. It seemed like a good plan at the start until I realized I would have to mark 50 essays every week instead of the 8 - 10 that I would get from the kids who do their homework.
That aside, the week went by and by the end I was feeling alright. I stayed in on Friday night because I didn't want to aggravate situations and so I could rest up for Saturday. Then on Saturday I got up and tutored in Olympic Park before heading to Namhansanseong to go for a hike with Dave and Kate, Blake, Jameson, Brian, and Danielle. It was a great day for it and a fairly easy hike, that took just over a couple hours to go round trip, including a stop at the top for Soju. After the hike we went out for galbi and drinks, then headed home to shower up before going out to Kondae.
We all reconvened in Kondae around 9 and sat around playing games and drinking until around 3 am before calling it a night and heading home. Once back in my neighbourhood I grabbed another beer and then called it a night. Sunday afternoon after I got up and ready, I headed to the park to mark some essays and sit outside in the beautiful weather. This trip was different though. This time I took Goah. I put a leash on her, put her in her carrying case and took her to the park thinking she might want to play outside a bit. However, the scaredy cat that she is, she wouldn't come out of her case for a second. She just layed at the back of it while I marked essays and enjoyed the weather. As the sun started going down, we came home to eat and get ready for the coming week.
Another big thing I haven't mentioned yet, was that I got my bike restarted and running finally and took it for a spin. This was a chore in itself because I had to walk it about 15 blocks to the nearest bike shop to get it fixed and then had to remember how to ride it and get it back to my apartment. I am working on learning how to ride and am looking forward to riding it more in the future.
Well after this week, I am down to 2.5 more weeks before heading on vacation and then coming home. So, I will see you all soon.

It's a Monkeyrific Birthday

Oct 12 - 18
Well I'm just going to get right down to it. The week was pretty good, and I was at the elementary school getting settled with the new kids. I didn't get up to too much during the week before or after work aside from doing some hanging out in the park and going over list of things that I need to do before I head out on my vacation in a few weeks. One of those things just so happened to be getting a travel visa from the Cambodian embassy. So since both Jameson and I need one and we both had some questions about getting them, I went on Monday to find it and ask our questions. It turned out, the apprehensions I was having about my passport's expiration date won't be a problem, and the date of issue and entry are valid for 3 months instead of just 20 days like Vietnam. Those questions answered, we went on Wednesday to drop off our papers, photos and passports to get the ball rolling.
The week finished up and on Friday Blake, Jameson, Margaret and I hung out at my place making t-shirts that we have been designing for the last few weeks. It was lots of fun, just sitting around having some beers and talking instead of going out like we usually do. Plus it allowed us to rest up for Saturday's big party.
On Saturday I got up and tutored then came home and rested for the nights festivities. We had a double birthday party planned for Jameson and Blake since both of their birthdays are in October within a couple weeks of each other. We started the night at 830 in Gangnam at Havana Monkey with some drinks and food, then took it to Apgujong around midnight for some dancing and bucket drinks at Monkey Beach. It was super busy and our party of 25 people didn't help the situation. We all had a great time, dancing and partying until around 430 in the morning at which point Jameson and I left and took a taxi to McDonald's near our houses to get breakfast. We ate and then walked opposite directions home around 5 am. Then to my surprise I got a call from Emily and Danielle who were locked out of Danielle's apartment and needed a place to crash, so I stayed up and waited for them to get a cab to my place and we all passed out after raiding my neighbours house for blankets to put on the floor.
Around noon we woke up and the girls headed out and left me to clean up my apartment. Then in the later afternoon I met Margaret and Hayley in Olympic Park to hangout and and read for a bit.
Well I am officially down to my last few weeks and it feels really weird, but I know I'm coming back so it's OK. Hope you are all doing well back home and enjoying the onset of fall; I know I am enjoying the dropping temperature here.

Are you Japanese?

Oct 5 - 11
Well this week was a twist from the usual. At the Nokchiwon we were back to full students who were all educationally tired out from their exams, then on top of that I started teaching classes at the elementary school as well. They just had 2 teachers finish and leave but only replaced one of them, for reasons that take too long and are too frustrating to explain. Either way I started teaching first period Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays until I am finished here. It was pretty good thought because the younger children bring a whole new aspect to the classroom for me, and I can't wait to see how the rest of the year teaching both age groups turns out.
The week went by rather well. I had to force some kids to do their work and even had my first experience with a disgruntled student. He is new to the Nokchiwon and by all my accounts shouldn't have moved up from the lower middle school levels. He has severe anxiety issues and whenever you ask him to speak or give him work to do he panics like his head is going to explode, looks at his work over and over and just huffs. Well this week I was in no mood for it so when he began his huffing I told him he would have to work or leave class. When he proceeded to do nothing I asked him to leave then when he wouldn't I threw his stuff out in the hall, no so calm on my part, which prompted him to flip his desk over on his way out. A part of me wanted to break his jaw, but then I figured my job and this kid weren't worth it. In the end he knew it was his fault and talked to the Korean teachers about it. We will see how it plays out in the coming weeks.
The weekend came and I was planning a low key weekend. So, on Friday after work I went and had a couple beers with some friends from the elementary school near Bangi station and then came home around 1. On Saturday I woke up early and went to Olympic Park to do my weekly tutoring. After that I came home and waited until just after noon before going to meet Margaret to do some shopping in Myeongdong for some new clothes to wear to our co-workers wedding on Sunday. We were both pretty excited to be going to our first Korean wedding, and wanted some new clothes for the occasion. Once in Myeongdong we made a few stops at hat booths looking for some souvenir hats. This was when the title of this post comes in. While looking at hats, one of the booth operators came up and was really pushing his product on us. His English was OK but he didn't understand that we were looking for certain hats that he didn't have. So, to try and help his cause he turned to me and asked "Are you Japanese?", to which I replied no and then couldn't help but laugh and walk away confused. I eventually found a blue shirt and tie combo, but had to wait over 20 minutes for them to find a non-sample tie for me in the backroom. Unfortunately Margaret didn't have as much luck as me and decided to wear one of the dresses she had bought earlier this year to the wedding.
After shopping I came home to take a rest before going to meet with Danielle, Kate, and Dave for dinner and drinks in Gangnam. It was nice to see Kate and Dave again since they just got back from their vacation in Canada. We aught up over dinner and then went to Rainbow bar for some drinks and to see some other friends. Eventually I headed out at 1:30 so that I could get some sleep before Sunday.
I got up early on Sunday to get ready for the wedding. I started by tightening up some of my dreads then showered and put on my new clothes. I met Margaret around 11 and we headed to the wedding. We got their early enough to get a couple pictures with our coworker and then get a spot to watch the ceremony. Korean weddings are a lot different than North American weddings. There is no after party with dinner and speeches; it is simply a 25-30 ceremony announcing their joining as husband and wife and then a 30 minute lunch, after which you leave. We were in and out in less than two hours, which gave me time to get to Dongdaemun to do some souvenir shopping before coming home to relax before meeting with Blake, Emily and Danielle for our "Thanksgiving pizza dinner". It wasn't turkey but it did the job.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. See you soon.

Happy Cheusok

Sept 30 - Oct 4
Coming at you late again. This is all about the short week and long weekend I had after my rainy trip to Ulleungdo Island.
This week went really fast since I was only at work for 2 days and then off again for the long weekend while the Koreans celebrated Cheusok, or Korean Thanksgiving. Most of the kids were back from exams, but we still did a lot of creative writing and essay writing steps instead of the usual essay writing that I teach.
Before we knew it, it was Thursday night and we were done for the week and we were off to have some drinks in Gangnam to kick off the long weekend. It was a good night that got way to late, as usual, but was nice to see some of the people from the elementary school that I hadn't seen for a while. I woke up late on Friday and hung out at Seoul Forest for the better part of the afternoon with Blake, Alex, Zack and Lindsay, before getting ready for the Friday night party we had planned at Jamesons.
The plan was to go to his apartment and have some drinks and make t-shirts with iron on patches we made. However, everybody was running a lot later than we had planned and Margaret wasn't feeling very well so it never turned into the get together we had planned. Either way, Brian, Blake, and I showed up and had a few drinks and chatted for a couple hours before heading out to Hongdae, a party area we rarely frequent since it is on the other side of town. Emily and Danielle met us there and we bar hopped for a while until settling on a club for the last couple hours of the night. After some dancing and drinking we grabbed some street food and headed home around 4.
On Saturday I woke up again late but still just in time to get ready and go to the Seoul Center for Performing Arts, to see a French photography exhibit (not very impressive) and then an outdoor performance for the Cheusok celebration. The performance was OK but something I could have done without, since the two hosts spent too much time talking and some of the acts were a little lame. Either way it was something cultural for my weekend. After that I went down to the River to meet Blake, Brian and Jameson for a few beers but just as I got there it started to rain. So we quickly got out of there and went to the new Gold Bar 3 in Sinchon and had our drinks there, which turned into me waling 30 minutes home at 4 in the morning because I was too impatient to wait for the rest of the guys to share a cab with me.
Sunday was a rest and recover day, I cleaned my house and did some laundry before meeting Blake for dinner and eventually calling it a night. I think the strangest thing about the whole weekend was the lack of Koreans and traffic in this city. Just like Thanksgiving back home, many people go back to the cities they are from to have dinner and celebrate, so the city was down to I figure 20% of its regular population and traffic. I was kind of nice to be in a quiet city again.
Be home soon, and can't wait to see everyone.

A Rainy, Rocky Weekend

Sept 21-29
Well once again I am behind on the posts, but for good reason this time. I was on a bit of a vacation and following that we were into a long weekend.

The week in question started out as another holding week, with little to no kids attending school because they were out preparing for exams. So, instead of doing regular work we worked on creative writing in class and preparing for next term the rest of the time. After work most days, I just came home and hung out. On Wednesday, after we finished we went to Sincheon fora few drinks with Blake since we wouldn't be around on the weekend. From there we got into one of out typical debates. This one being about how we should only make sarcastic comparisons that are possible. It lasted about 20 minutes and never really came to a decision.
Thursday night I came home from work and packed for the weekend vacation that Jameson, Brian, and I were taking since we all had both Monday and Tuesday off thanks to holding and the fact that there would be no kids at school. After work on Friday I headed to the bus station with Brian and Jameson to catch the late bus to the port city on the east coast to catch the Saturday ferry to Ulleungdo Island for a few days before returning to Gyeongju for another day.
We got up early on Saturday and went to the ferry terminal to get on the 3 hour ferry ride to the island. Just as we were leaving it started to rain, but fortunately the boat ride was pretty smooth. After we got to the island and found a place to stay we decided to take a boat around the island, which turned out to be a weak decision. Half way around the island it began to storm and the water got very rough. It rained and tossed the boat around for the better part of the last hour we were on it.
After we got back, the rain continued so we just grabbed some dinner and hit a bar to pass some time. Once we woke up Sunday, be it after an early morning knock from the owner answered by me handing her money for another night and going back to bed, we just walked around the small city we were in until the rain came back and proceeded to linger all day and night. We were kept up in our room for the better part of the day but it ave us a time to get some rest for our early Monday bus tour.
We signed up fora bus tour around the island that left at 8:30 in the morning. We dragged ourselves there by 8:20 and got on what turned out to be an very shaky and bumpy ride. We zigged and zagged our way up and around the island, stopping here and there to get out and take some photos or sample some of the local dried squid. The tour took just under four hours, leaving us with just under four hours to kill once we got back to the city. We spent that time eating lunch and then waiting at the ferry terminal for the boat to leave at 3:30 for Gyeongju. Oh and did I mention it rained the whole time, and the boat ride back was quite rocky.
After another 3 hours on a boat and 1 hour bus ride, we arrived in Gyeongju in time to get a spot at a hostel and grab some dinner before it started raining again and we had to turn in for the night. When we got up Tuesday morning it had cleared up and the sun was making an attempt at drying things up. We decided the best way to see the city was on a bus tour, but since it was out of the major seasons the buses had been cancelled. What to do we thought. Then we decided to get some exercise and rented pedal bikes for the day. This turned out to be a great idea and a good way to spend some time riding between sights.
Eventually we saw all we wanted and took our bikes back before grabbing some pizza dinner and getting on another bus to come back to Seoul. We got home around 10:30 which gave us all lots of time to get home on the subway and get our stuff together for the pending 2 day work week.

You see a bridge. I see a platform for excitement.

September 12-20
Well this week couldn't go by quick enough at times, while at others it seemed as though I was begging for time to slow down so that I could rethink my weekend plans. See last week Margaret, Jameson, Brian, and I signed up for a weekend long trip with a company called Adventure Korea to the DMZ and a change to go BUNGEE JUMPING!!!!!!!
As the week went on I kept studying my Korean with Alex and teaching what students we had, since holding was setting in again and students were beginning to fade out. We had a pretty good week at school with the kids, because with less kids we were free to stray from the material more and could give the kids more personal attention when we were doing school work. I played scrabble with one of my students, had a chance to talk about proper essay outlines with others, and even stepped in on Margaret's class to play some pictionary.
Then before we knew it, it was Friday and I was heading home from work to pack my bag for the weekend. Jameson, Brian and I planned to stay at Blakes place since he lives right next to Express Bus Terminal and we had to be there by 830 am. So after I packed my bags I went to meet the guys and Danielle in Gangnam fora few drinks. We eventually got back to Blakes and passed out around 430 am. We got up in the morning at 730 and slowly made our way to the bus station to wait for Margaret, who was running late and almost didn't make it, to show up. then we were off.
It was a quick couple hour bus ride northeast to the Cherwon, Gangwon-do Province to see the DMZ. We started the day at a military museum rest area; where we had lunch and got to see some old war machines. After that we headed to the 2nd tunnel, which had been dug by the North Koreans as infiltration tunnels, that the South Koreans found. It was neat but nothing to make a huge deal of. We were only able to walk in about 500 m or so because after that you get into no-mans land territory that is off limits. Along with the tunnel was a small museum of artifacts found in the tunnel when the North Koreans had abandoned it including shovels, guns, cooking supplies, alcohol, and clothing.
After the tunnel we headed to the Unification Observatory to have a look at Battle area called the Iron Triangle, which was the headquarters and front line of the North Korean forces and witnesses the highest number of casualties during the war. We were able to see North Korea through some binoculars and take pictures of the DMZ. Unfortunately it was all just grassy fields and hills/mountains hat didn't look all that different from the areas I have see elsewhere in Korea. Following the observatory we headed to the sight of Wolcheongri Station, which was the last train station at the border between the north and south until it was bombed and now sits right on the edge of the demarcation line. It has been sitting and rusting for 40 years and was a real glimpse into the damage done during the intensive bombing of the war. Following that was drove past the Labor Party Building, which was used as a prison and torture site. We didn't get a chance to stop due to construction.
Now for the fun stuff.
We were scheduled to do a bungee jump on the Sunday, but for fear of bad traffic the tour guide decided to move it to Saturday. We headed to a local bridge with a platform 51 m above a shallow river. Those who cared to jump signed up and climbed the tower to get suited up. We had a choice of jumping with a body harness or ankle harness. All of us except Margaret chose the ankle harness way so that you go down head first. Since there were so many of us it took a long time to get through us all. But, as each person got to the edge you could see the tension build and the thought of not doing it cross their minds. In the end everyone jumped, and only a couple had to be "escorted" of by the jump supervisor.
I have wanted to bungee for a long time but have never had the chance so when I got up there I was super pumped. It wasn't until I got right to the edge and looked down that I realized how crazy it was. Needless to say I jumped anyways and watched as the river bellow came screaming at my face before getting snapped back into the air. It felt fantastic once it was all over and we had a chance to look back at what we had just done. After the jump we were all starving so we headed back to the area we would be staying and had a BBQ, bonfire, and had some drinks.
The after party was a great time. We had a chance to talk to some people on the trip who were pretty cool, and some who were really annoying; but in the end it was a good time. The humor in it all was that between the 4 of us we only had $13 for the night since Jameson and Margaret had forgotten to bring money and Brian and I had payed for their jumps, and there were no ATM's in the town. So we drank straight soju instead of beer because it is cheaper and eventually, and this sounds really scummy, after almost everyone had called it a night and we were bored we cleaned up around the fire and found tons of unopened booze and took the liberty of drinking some of it. Now normally I would not do that because if it's not mine I shouldn't touch it. But I know that the people who did own it were in no need of it and that it would have all been cleaned up and thrown out the next morning before woke up. We partied with a few awesome Britt's until the early morning before getting some sleep.
After only a couple hours of rest we got back up and had some breakfast before going to see a war memorial dedicated to the Battle of White Horse Hill, which was one of the most gruesome battle sites of the war. From there we went to have a chance to harvest rice using sickles like they did back in the day.
And wouldn't you know it shit hit the fan.
I, along with several others, had taken some pictures of a guard post that we walked past. Thinking nothing of it, because it really makes no difference what I am taking pictures of, everything looks the same, we kept walking. Well a few minutes later some troops approached our group asking for the person who took pictures of the guard post. Nobody was going to say anything so i stepped up to take the blame so that if my pictures were sacrificed then all the others could keep theirs. My plan of attack was to show them my pictures while everyone else put their cameras away, since I had only taken a couple and they all had dozens. It was made easier when the guards wanted to take my camera out of my hands and I told them no, that they can watch me delete my photos without touching my things. After a few minutes of awkwardness I had deleted the pictures I assumed were the problem. Boy was I wrong, they asked me to see the rest and as I showed them a few more they asked me to delete some really obscure mountain photos. This aided my plan because I got rather upset telling them that the pictures I took could be taken from miles away and that anyone could get them. i deleted them anyways and it was enough for them to want to get away from the yelling foreigner and not check anyone elses photos. I didn't lose much and we headed out after that. the bus ride home was not that long since there was no traffic and we got back earlier than we had planned, which gave us a chance to get some well needed rest.
Sorry this is such a long one,but it was been a pretty eventful weekend.

September 7-13
Well what did I get up to this week? I was working some more on my Korean with Alex across the hall and eventually Margaret started up again. We are getting the hang of it but there is so much vocabulary to remember that it takes a lot more time than we thought. Aside from that, I have started planning my trip for after my contract is up. I spent my spare time at work this week typing up things from the Southeast Asia Lonely Planet for both Vietnam and Cambodia so that it would be easier to go over with Jameson than trying to flip through the book all the time. I did Vietnam during the week and Cambodia on the weekend, so hopefully we can get a game plan going.
The one thing we did this week was a return trip to the Renoir exhibit to see the things we missed the last time since we were in a rush. So Margaret, Blake, Alex and I went there on Wednesday. Other than that the week was OK. As usual the kids are busy with regular school and have put academy on the back burner, not that I can blame them, which means many of them aren't handing in their work; giving me an easier marking load. I do this semester have a few kids who are going to give my patience a run for its money though. As the academy system work, children get pushed up so that they will return without having to repeat levels. Unfortunately this mean we got a dozen new students this term who shouldn't be at our level and even a few who shouldn't be in academy at all. I am doing my best to work with it but it makes me pretty angry when they sit around not trying.
Enough about school. The week went by without any major problems and then it was the ever popular weekend. On Friday night we headed to Gold Bar for a few drinks, but nothing crazy since I wanted to be productive the next day. I was home at a decent hour and got up Saturday to type up some stuff on Cambodia.
Saturday night Blake, Danielle and I went to Emily's new area for her birthday party. It was pretty cool to go out in a different area for once and meet some new people. We ended up in the little foreigner bar in her area and then a small dance club before going to Noraebang. It became a late night and we took a cab back to Blake's around 5 am. I slept over at Blake's and got up in the morning to get to Olympic Park to tutor.
After tutoring I just hung out at my place, cleaned up a little and then got a hold of Dave and Kate. We decided not to do trivia again and they came up to meet Jameson and I for samgyup-sal and a few beers. It is always nice to see them because they are super nice and easy to chat with. Eventually it was time for them to get on the subway to head home. So we all dispersed for the night.
Hope you are all enjoying the changing weather. Talk to you soon.

Second week on the up an up

August 31-September 6
Well this week was much better than last week. I was feeling better and classes were going faster. Maybe it was because i had shaken the sickness I had been supporting for the past while, or maybe it was because I was set up and rolling on the new semester.
This week went by like most others, wake up, go to school, come home, go to bed, repeat. I did get back to studying my Korean with Alex and eventually Margaret restarted with us. The week went by as usual until Friday, when I finally decided to get up early enough to head to the Canadian Embassy to ask about bringing my cat home for a visit in between contracts here in Korea, and to look into a new passport. My passport is due to expire in the next seven months; and while that seems like a lot of time, I am planing on doing some traveling when I am done here and most countries like people to have 6 months on their passport while traveling.
To make a long story short, I did not like the system of getting a new passport while outside of MY OWN country and had a bit of a freak out in the embassy resulting in me cursing out the system and leaving the embassy. My next step is to go to the individual country embassies to see if they will give me advanced Visas so that I can just wait until I get home to get a new passport.
After that I went to work and the day couldn't go by fast enough. At the end of the day it was time to get out of work and head out for a couple drinks. I met up with Blake and Danielle in Kondae for a few beers and then came home before it got too late. On Saturday I got up early and went tutoring at Olympic Park for a couple hours and then just killed time in my apartment until it was time to go out for the night.
For a change of pace we, Blake, Brian, Jameson, Margaret, Dustin and I, decided to go to a wine and cocktail buffet at the Intercontinental Hotel. Held from 6-9pm it gave us the chance to dress up a little and drink some wine instead of beer for a chance. We did this until the time ran out and then headed to Gangnam for a couple drinks and the joining of Danielle. After a couple drinks we went to Itaewon, where Emily came to meet us and then finished the night off around 3am.
On Sunday I got up and took Emily sight seeing around the older northern part of the city, including Gyeongbuk Palace and Insadong. After that I tried to get home for some rest before trivia.
It didn't work out, I never got any rest, but it was OK because trivia was cancelled. Even thought it was cancelled Jameson and I still went down to meet with Dave and Kate. We went to a jazz bar and then back to their area for some beers and eventually Noraebang, against all we knew to be right. It quickly turned into a 430am morning and a sleep over at their place.

The end of intensives

August 24-30
Intensives are over and we can get back to our "regular" lives again.
This week was the first week of being back to our regular afternoon schedule and as much as we thought it would be nice to be back to the later schedule, this week dragged on as if it would never end. For me it was weird because while I was at the middle school every semester meant changes in classes and books, and getting to know a large number of new faces. However, up in the Nokchiwon it is for the most part, the same kids and material as last semester. This made it a little less exciting and a little more monotonous to start the semester. Adding to the is the fact that I am teaching the same two classes all week, 5 times a piece, to a bunch of kids who just want to freak out at life for dragging them down.
We started the week giving out books and going over class stuff as usual and trying to adjust back to the afternoon schedule. At midweek Margaret and I went in the morning to see Ice Age 3 with one of our Korean coworkers. Unfortunately she had to cancel to take care of her kids, so we saw the movie just the two of us and had a good laugh even though we both could have used the sleep more than the laugh. The rest of the week went by at a snails pace and made the head cold that I had been fighting that much more annoying and hard to live with.
By the time Friday came around there was nothing short of a nuclear war that could have kept me in that building. We took off and headed to the Wa Bar in my neighbourhood to meet up with most of our friends from the elementary school to celebrate Brett's birthday. It was a good party and we hungout talking and having a few drinks until about 3am. On Saturday I woke up at a relatively decent time and went with Margaret to the Seoul Museum of Art to see a Renoir exhibit. Unfortunately we didn't have much time and only got to see half of it before leaving to make it to Myeongdong for Brian's belated birthday lunch.
For lunch we went to a restaurant called Todai, which is an all you can eat sushi style place that also includes some other styles of food. It was a bit expensive but well worth it. After that some of us stuck around to check out some stores before going our separate ways to have a rest before we got together later that night. Eventually we decided to get together in Gangnam for some drinks, which eventually turned into Hookah and drinks and a trip to noraebang (to give Emily her first experience) until 5 am. After that we all headed home and crashed.
We didn't get to sleep long though, because around 11 am one of our coworkers called Margaret to invite her to the movies; who in turn phoned to invite me. We dragged ourselves to the theatre to see the new G.I. Joe movie, which was totally awesome and then had a quick bite before I had to come home to get some rest before Sunday trivia. I never did get the rest but I had a chance to get some things tidied up before heading to trivia. While at trivia I started to feel pretty bad, as life was catching up with me and eventually ended up as more of a sideliner than a participator. Eventually it ended and we got on the subway and I came home and got some rest.
I'm hoping the coming week goes much better.
Hope you are all enjoying the end of the summer.

the end of intensives

August 17-23
You know, when there is little to tell it is much easier to forget to do this. This week was the last week of summer intensives and was a bit of a frantic week.
In the office the teachers were all trying to tie up the loose ends from this semester, while trying to get things ready for the coming semester. the only really problem it created for the foreign teachers was that we had no idea what classes we were going to be teaching or what books we would have until the end of the week. This coupled with the job of making syllabi for the classes we will be teaching in the new semester made the end of the week especially confusing.
Most of the week I struggled with a sore throat from Brady's being here the week before and the partying on the weekend. C'est la vie. We got through the confusion and on Friday night went out for a few drinks at several locations.
the first stop was a new bar around the corner from school for a couple beers with my coworkers to celebrate the end of intensives and one of the TA's birthdays. After that it was over to Zenia's to have a few beers with friends at the elementary school who were also done intensives and some of which were leaving Avalon for another school. I stayed there until about 930 and then went to Gangnam to meet Junk, Blake Nate, and Danielle fora few more beers. It was a good night and we called it a night around 130 so we could get some rest for the weekend.
On Saturday I went to a baseball game with Brian, Jameson and Arthur at 5pm, which lasted an amazing 4 hours and ended with the Twins beating the Lions in the final few innings. After that we went to Gold Bar for some drinks which turned into a late but not too drunk night. On Sunday we did trivia again but with a few more people this time. Dave and Kate, Jameson and I, Blake, Alex N, and Emily who just got here Friday all came out and we ended up tying for second.
That's it, another week down. Take care.

August 10-16.
Ahh behind again. At least there hasn't been too much gong on so there isn't a lot I need to remember.
This week at school Margaret and I split the essay class she had because there were just too many students to deal with alone. It worked out well and it gives the kids a little more one on one time if they need it. Aside from that classes were going normally, lots of essay grading and trying to get the kids to do their work.
Outside of work things were normal. Since Brady was in town staying across the hall at Alex's we ended up hanging out quite a bit. Alex is an early to bed early o rise kind of guy, so instead of going to bed early or bothering Alex while he was trying to sleep Brady would hang out at my place most nights and we would watch T.V. and have a couple beers. It was cool because I'm always up late but it made for a long week of only 4 hour sleeps every night. On Thursday I went with Margaret and Katie (our Korean co-teacher) to an American style breakfast restaurant for dinner and it was great.
At the end of the week we had another group party for Brett and Hayley, the brother and sister from Nova Scotia who had finished at Avalon, but are staying in Seoul with other schools. We all went for galbi dinner and then for drinks at one of favorite bars near school, Zenias. After that there were too many people to make any decisions and things got a little confusing. We ended up splitting up and lots of us went in different directions to get a couple more drinks before calling it a night. On Saturday instead of the usual drinking, I went with Margaret, Hayley and Jenn to a board game cafe fora while and just hung out. After that, I went to Gold Bar in Sincheon and hung out with Jamson, Brian, Blake, Frank, Danielle (Blakes coworker), and some of our Korean friends. On Sunday I did some school work and then hung out at home until dinner time. For dinner I went with Jameson to meet Kate and Dave for trivia night, where we came in 5th.
Well I'm caught up now and so are you. I'll talk to you all soon.

The relief a vacation provides

Well I have fallen behind again. This covers Aug 3-9.
Getting back from our vacation sure left me charged and ready to get back into the swing of things. This week school went by super fast, the kids seemed recharged too after a quick break. We had some good times sharing our holiday stories and moving along with our material. Most of the week went by smoothly. After work most days I just came home to escape either the rain or the heat and did not much other than that.
When the weekend came David and Brady rolled in from their vacation in Indonesia. David was only staying the night but Brady was staying for the next week to visit with his girlfriend. Since they were back all of us that usually hung out went out for dinner Saturday night after hanging out at my place a good portion of the afternoon. After our Dak-galbi dinner we headed to Sinchon for a going away party for Kim, who had quit her contract to head home and get away from the crap at the elementary school; and to take care of some other things. We went to a place called Shiva Pub, where several of us preceded to get drunker than we had originally planned. We shared a couple bottles of Jack before everyone but Jameson and I decided to switch to beer. We thought however, it would be a good idea to get a 3rd half bottle. Thats where we went wrong. We both ended up drunker than we had planned and sick the next day.
either way I got up Sunday and tutored in Olympic Park for a couple hours. After tutoring I went home for some rest then eventually met up with Blake and his coworkers for dinner. All in all a pretty uneventful week but still better than a week that wasn't preceded by a vacation.
Catch up with you all soon.

A Great Time Had By All - Jeju Part 2

Hey look a photo, I should have added some of these before.
Well it was Wednesday and Margaret and I made it to Jeju by 8 am and left he airport to explore Jeju City and wait for the rest of our friends to get there. We took a bus into town and got some breakfast before checking out a temple complex, and old fortress wall and then headed to a seaside rock formation that looks like the head of a dragon. It was pretty cool but still only took a minute to see. After that we went to the harbor to sit in the sun and wait out the last couple hours until our friends got in. At 330 we went back to the the airport and waited for them to get in. Once both groups of friends got in we went to a fantastic samgyupsal restaurant and had our first group dinner in Jeju before heading to the bus station to get a bus to the city we were staying in on the east coast called Ilchulbong, the location of Sunrise Peak.
Our group consisted of Margaret and I from the Nokchiwon; Jameson and Brian from the middle school; Brett, Hayley, James, Alex (the non Britt), Kim, Arthur, and Frank from the elementary school; and Blake the new Avalon Lancon member.
On our second day a bunch of us went to the waterfalls located on the South side of the island, one of which is said to be the only one in Asia that falls directly into the ocean called Jeongbang Falls. We could stand right in pool the waterfall fell in while the tide was out and feel the mist. After that we went to the beach to get some sun and play in the ocean. We stayed until the sun was going down then grabbed dinner and headed back to Ilchulbong.
Several of us, Kim Blake, Arthur, Brett, Jameson, Brian, and I got up on our third day and made for the volcano in the center or the island that gave birth to Jeju Island so many years ago. Called Halla Mountain it is the highest peak in South Korea rising some 2000 m above sea level. They said it would take around 4.5 hours to get to the top but since we got their late we hustled to make it to the top before the check point 2/3 of the way up closed, disallowing us to pass on to the top. It took us 3.5 grueling hours to get to the top, some of us reaching it before others strictly because of fitness levels. the view from the top was amazing, as we were above the clouds and looking out over and entire island. The climb down was much easier but still took 2.5 hours because we could afford to stop for breaks and pictures. Once we were back in Jeju City we all went to a jimjilbong (sauna) to shower up and change our sweaty clothes before getting some dinner and drinks.
Feeling incredibly sore the next day; Blake, Brian and I got up and went to the Manjanggul lava tube, which is a 1.3 km underground cave created by years of underground lava flows as the island was forming. It was pretty cool to be down there walking around so much history. After that we met up with Margaret and Jameson on the south side of the island to try and take a submarine ride around the coral reefs. Unfortunately they schedule was full for the remainder of the day so we had to leave without getting a look under the sea. Margaret and I were especially disappointed because she had really wanted to go and it was the closest thing I would get to scuba diving because that was all booked up too. Instead Margaret and I went to a nearby temple while the rest went to meet up with the rest of the party a the beach. We eventually caught up with them to get in one last dip in the ocean and beer on the beach.That night we stayed late in Seogwipo City, the city I've been referring to as the south side of the island, and have some drinks before we left the next day.
The next day, Sunday, we were all scheduled to leave at times ranging between 830 and 11 am. But, before we left Ilchulbong Brian, Blake, Frank, Arthur, Brett and I walked up Seongsan Ilchulbong, Sunrise Peak, to see the sun come up at 530. It was hard to get up that early after only going to bed at 3, but the early morning jog up the mountain helped and was well worth it to see the sun come up over the ocean before heading out. After seeing the sun come up we returned to the hotel to get our bags and clean out our room. Then we had some breakfast and took cabs back to the airport in Jeju City to wait for our flights.
Once we got back to Seoul, for the third time haha, some of us grabbed Dos Tacos then headed home to get some vacation from our vacation. It was an amazing time and just what we all needed. Unfortunately when I got home there was news of Russ's baseball accident, and Tim's arm injuries which made me wish for the first time in a while that I could be home to help when things go bad.
I hope you are all enjoying your summer. Talk to you again soon.

A Narrow Escape From Death - Jeju Part 1

This week started out very exciting. Talks of vacation and packing our bags were all around the office(s). Monday went by quickly as did Tuesday, giving truth to the ever popular saying "time flies when you're having fun". In this case it was more like the time was flying in order to have some fun.
Tuesday after work Margaret and I left straight from work to get on the airport bus near Jamsil. Our plane was scheduled to leave at 715, and we made it to the airport around 6. We were happy to be there and got ourselves into vacation mode, talking about how nice it would be to be away from Seoul and all the things we were going to do once the rest of our friends got there. Little did we know our lives were about to be turned upside down, almost literally.
We grabbed a quick sandwich and waited for our plane to board. Eventually we took off around 730, a little late but not a big deal. the first half of the flight was good, we were sitting in a section with a group of cheerful Chinese travelers and tins were going smoothly. Then as we made our way closer to Jeju the turbulence began to pick up. Tossing the plane back and forth, up and down as I've never felt we became at the mercy of the storm brewing outside. things then went from bad to worse as the passengers started worrying and some even turned a little green. Not to worry though, the Chinese were still having a good time.
No wonder they ran kamikaze missions back in the day, even as the planes ride became like that of a roller coaster they were laughing and joking with each other. Soon enough that would come to an end. As some of the Chinese passengers started feeling sick and the mood got a little more serious.
The plane tossed and turned, dropped like a rock and rose again under the changing air pressures outside. Then it happened, people started vomiting; probably from a mix of being thrown around and nervousness. Even Margaret, the poor girl, fell victim to the night and I all could do was try to tell her it was going to be alright. What happened next made me doubt what I was saying and brought me the closest I had ever felt to the end of my life.
The pilot, now above Jeju airport, decided to try a landing. As the plane made its decent we hit a patch of bad air and the plane dropped like a stone. It dropped hard enough and long enough to leave me weightless in my seat for over a full second. As son as that happened the pilot then throttled up the plane harder than I have ever felt. We moved faster than I've ever felt, even during a take off in order to get back up into the clouds. People were now very quiet and solemn as I can just imagine, the thought of getting through this was on everyones minds. Once we were back in the clouds the pilot circled trying to wait out the storm, and the flight attendants did what they could in the still turbulent plane to help those who had been sick.
Finally the pilot decided to turn the plane around and make the 45 minute flight back to Seoul. Once we got into calmer air, about half way back, the mood lifted and people started relaxing. This was most noticeable among the Chinese passengers who once again started laughing and joking. they were making fun of themselves and their friends who had been sick. Even though I had no idea what they were saying i couldn't help but laugh with them. It was just too funny. After we returned to Seoul we were told that a flight had been scheduled for 640 am for those of us who would like to try again. Margaret and I assumed that a trip like that could only happen once and opted for the morning flight, that and our friends were going and we didn't want o miss out. We grabbed a hotel close to the airport for the night and then headed off again in the morning, making it without a problem the second time around.
My next post will be of a much funner nature I promise.

The intensity that is intensives

For the week of July 20 - July 26.
Well Blake is back and we are getting ready to head to Jeju next week. Until then we had another week of work to get through, half of which consisted of our new intensive schedule : 730-4. We had to work Monday and Tuesday regular hours and then switched on Wednesday. It was a real punch in the face, since I have been staying up until at least 3 am for the past few months and then sleeping until 1030 and to change midweek was rough. Either way we started and it went over just fine, and turns out that there is life after Avalon as long as you finish before the sun goes down. :)
Tuesday was Margaret's 23rd birthday so we had a surprise party at the school for her because one of the Korean teachers we work with is really into that sort of thing. We put up balloons and a birthday banner, got cake, and had all the students make cards for her. It was pretty awesome.
The rest of the week we were getting off early, so on Wednesday Margaret and I went for a couple birthday beers in Olympic Park before getting dinner and seeing the new Harry Potter movie with her friend Dianna. Then on Thursday I met up with a group of friends from the elementary school to talk about the trip and have a few beers.
On Friday we killed time around my place until Brian and Jameson got off work then headed to Kondae (Music Bar), with some friends from the elementary school, to get some drinks, where I was accosted by some Korean girl who was wasted. It started out well she coma over to our table with her buddy and we thought she could speak English. Turned out her English was worse than my Korean and all she wanted to do was yell Korean in my ear, as if that helped me understand. i humoured her for a bit until she fell out of her chair, smashing her head on the table; at which point it was time to go. We all left around 330 but James and I went back to his place and drank a few more beers and talked until around 6 am. I promptly went back to my room when I realized I had been up for 24 hours and slept until 4 Saturday afternoon.
When everybody was up and alive on Saturday we decided to go to the Cheonho bridge and have a bbq. It was great to just hangout by the river and cook some sausages. Eventually we all called it a night at 1230 and took cabs home. I got up at a good time on Sunday and headed back to Olympic Park to meet my tutee and we talked for a couple hours before I had to take off to meet up with Jameson for Dos Tacos and Myeongdong.
Well that's it for another week. Next week we head to Jeju and are all super pumped.
Take care

The Eagle Has Landed

Another late crack of the whip but it has been a mad house around here. This blog covers the week of July 13 - July 19.
Well this week started out with a real humdinger. We rolled into work on Monday to find out that the teacher I switched with did a midnight run at some point during the weekend so the middle school was back down a staff member. That meant that on more than one occasion during the week I had to go down and cover a class. But wait it only gets better. By Thursday, Dustin fell ill and ended up in the hospital with an unknown problem. This meant that the middle school was down by two teachers so Avalon puled a new teacher from our Lancon campus down the road (who just got here) to come over, but it still meant that there were classes for me to cover on Friday.
Let me take a minute to mention how awesome it was covering the class at the elementary school after Brady left, too. It was some of the most fun I have had teaching and some of the most adorable kids I have been in a class with since getting here. They were so eager to work and please the teacher. It helps when there is a prospect of stickers at the end of class too.
As it was we got the week over with and went out for some well deserved beers Friday night at Gold Bar.
It was also the night Blake returned to the country. Unfortunately, since nobody adjusts in one afternoon, he stayed in and got some rest. We did get together Saturday after I had a full platter of meetings during my day.
I got up Saturday to go meet Bo Ram and have some English practice, after that I went straight to Myeongdong to have all you can eat sea food with Brian and So Hyun. It was a delicious and over stuffing meal. After that I walked around for a bit to kill time before going to Hyaywha to meet Sung Eun and see another dance performance. This dance was choreographed by Sung Eun's favorite and world famous Korean choreographer, Sung Soo Ahn, and was called 'Jang Mi and Mating Dance'. It was one of my favorites so far. After that we went out for some dinner and then I headed to Apgujong to meet up with the regulars.
In Apgujong we were gathering to meet up with Blake and to celebrate Gina's birthday. It was a pretty good celebration and nice to see Blake again, as well as some of the others that we hadn't seen in a while. We had a great night and stayed out until a decent hour and then retired back to our places.
On Sunday Blake and I got together for a walk along the river and just to hang out. After that we grabbed some dinner and called it a week.
The weather has been changing and I hope it stays for our coming trip to Jeju.
Take care.

Country round party tour

Well this week was wild from the get go and seemed like it would never round out. We officially entered the monsoon season and it rained almost everyday for at least half of the day and between a medium to a heavy rain.
Monday and Tuesday went by like any other days. I got to meet the rest of my students since holding had pretty much run its course and was doing my best to get them all caught up with the teacher change situation and return to the regular work schedule. Then Tuesday at the end of the night Margaret and I got the news that we would both have to go to the elementary school Wednesday to observe a class so that we could teach in the coming week after David and Brady leave. Allow me to vent for a minute but this fucking country has absolutely no idea what thinking about the future means. They never seem to be able to get teachers here before the ones they are replacing are gone, and it has gotten especially bad since the whole swine flu scare because they make all the teachers stay in the country for 1 week before they can come to the school. all in all it makes everyone ridiculously pissed off but the company won't open their eyes and it is really starting to break the system down.
Anyways, we went down and observed a class and it was awesome. the kids are so adorable and eager to show you their skills, instead of worn out and full of spite like at the middle school. We really enjoyed it and think next week when we have to teach down there it will be a great break. It does mean that we will have to run between campuses but whatever.
Thursday was a big planning day around the office for the weekend getaway "The MT" we had planned for all the Nokchiwon staff. Classes went by and I just rode it out until Friday. Friday after work we piled into a couple Avalon vans and headed to YeongPeon, a city south east of Seoul, for our overnight getaway. It started with 20 pounds of sam gip sal (thick bacon), 10 pounds of prawns, and 6 large clams for dinner, which we cooked in our hotel; followed by beer and soju drinking. After that, so around 2 am, we went to the hotels norae bang and sang for a few hours to start the fun stuff. After singing our heads off we went back to our hotel room and played a few more games including a rock paper scissors (Ki Bi Bo) contest, single room blindfolded dizzy hided and seek, and team mouth to mouth tissue tearing. (I couldn't explain in full on here it if I tried.) It was a blast, but around 7 am I decided to call it a night and found a room to pass out in. Turns out it was the same room our director was sleeping in (they are all open rooms with sleeping pads on the floor) which made everyone but me uncomfortable. When people realized where I slept after I had passed out and in the morning they were all confused as to why, especially when the director woke up and saw me passed out with out a shirt on and went to tell everyone I was sleeping half naked in the same room as her. In my defense I could have cared less who was in the room, and I was more than 5 feet from her. I'm sure I'll hear about it this coming week.
After sleeping for a mere 2 hours I got up and we all had some instant noodles for breakfast before cleaning up and getting ready to go. Instead of going back with everyone else I went to the bus station to get a bus to the other side of the country, to the town of Boryeong, for a little thing called Mudfest. The plan was to get on the 11 o'clock bus and get there by 3 or 4. Unfortunately I missed that bus and had to take the 1230 buss which meant I never arrived in Boryeong until 5.
Mudfest is a festival in the town of Boryeong that has been going on for about 10 or so years. It involves covering your body in a very mineral rich mud found in high quantities in that region. People go and play in the mud and have a party for an entire week.
Since I got there late, I never found my friends until most of the mudding was calming down and they were all heading back to get cleaned up and eat dinner. I went with them and cut my losses because I knew the party wasn't even close to being over. While they ate I got changed and walked around for a bit. Eventually I met back with them and we got some beers and went back to the party area for the opening ceremony concert and fireworks. And if I hadn't mentioned it before, it is monsoon season and it was and had been raining all day. At the stage we found an open area near some trees where we could see the fireworks from and hear the music and waited. Then it came in torrents. It rained hard and everyone partied. It was really awesome to be watching a great firework show in the pouring rain and not be getting trampled by people running away. After the show we went back to near our hotel since it was far enough from the main party that we could relax a bit. So we thought. We sat down for some late night food and some random guy came over to drink with us. As fine as that was, when we asked him to pay for his $3 beer he flipped out. Trying to keep things from escalating we tried talking him down and eventually had him convinced that things were alright, but there was a few moments when there were clenched fists and homeboy was close to having his night ruined. After that we went back to our hotel and drank on the patio with just friends.........and one random guy who could barely stand he was so drunk. He mostly just babbled while we drank.
On Sunday we all got up around 11 after sleeping for only a few hours and got into the vans the others had rented to drive down in and came back to Seoul. I was lucky that there was an extra seat for me and got back to Seoul with all my friends. After we got back everyone dispersed to shower and get some rest. Later Sunday night David, Alex and I went to a Jimjil bang (sauna) to have a soak and relax.
There we go. I'm all up to date. I hope you are all enjoying your summer. TTYS

Two Country's Celebrate in One Week

Well it seems as though I am one post behind, so here comes the post covering the week of June 29 - July 5.
This week was quiet like the two before it. We were still in holding and just organizing things for our summer intensive period. On top of that I was still dealing with organizing our trip to Jeju and getting flak from those who had not been asked to go. Bu that's a whole other story to which I would get sorted later in the week. The first few days went by well and then on Wednesday it was Canada Day. Knowing some of the teachers at the elementary school that are Canadians too, we planned on a get together after work that night to celebrate a little.
We met up around my place and preceded to have some beers. That's when I found out that some of the people at the elementary school had never heard about the plans to go to Jeju and expressed great interest in going. So after our beers we all went home and I looked up some available flights for those who wanted to go. The next day I contacted them and got final numbers for the second time and booked tickets for them to go to Jeju with us.
It wasn't 45 minutes after i booked the tickets that two of the people at the elementary school were fired and quit respectively. They were brother and sister the brother being the head teacher. It turned out that there has been a lot of anger at their school over the Swine Flu policies our school has, which are ridiculous, and break the countries labour laws. So, in trying to get things sorted out the school got angry at Brett and then fired him. Hearing that his sister Hayley quit. This meant that they called me and asked if it was too late, to which I said yes but said we would work it out.
On Friday it almost seemed as though things were going to clear themselves up because the school, knowing they had screwed themselves in a big way, asked the two of them to consider staying but without the head teacher role. This seemed like a good idea and when I heard of it Friday night I tried to make them see how it was a good idea to stay, but it wasn't until the next week that the official meeting was going to be held.
Friday night we all, elementary friends and middle school friends, went to Sincheon to have drinks at one of our favorite spots called Gold Bar. We went there because it is cheap and because David and Brady who were leaving soon wanted to go there one last time. We had drinks and hungout until pretty late before heading home to get some rest for a busy Saturday.
On Saturday I got up around noon to get ready to go meet another person I am going to tutor. She is the sister of one of the Korean teachers at the middle school, who wants to practice her conversational English with a foreigner. We met at Olympic park at 1 o'clock and talked and walked for about two hours. After that I headed over towards Cheonho because we had a July 4th barbecue by the river planned for all the Americans we work with. Unfortunatley it looked like rain so we had to cancel. Canceling actually gave me more time to get a few things done before going to Itaewon to meet some of the teachers at the Nokchiwon for a Chinese food dinner. It was a pretty good place and we all had a good time. While in Itaewon I actually had time to look around and buy a travelers back pack for our trip to Jeju and hopefully for my trip when my contract here is up.
After Itaewon I headed further away from home to meet up in Sinchon, different from Sincheon, at a hookah bar for a send off party and July 4th party. We filled a little back alley bar until around 330 am when we left to get 4 am McDonald's breakfast and come home. It was a great night and I slept good when I got home.
Sunday was a do nothing day as usual. I met up with Alex and our Korean teacher for a quick Korean lesson and just to get out of the house. After that Alex and I met up with Margaret and Hayley for some dinner then went and got groceries before calling it a night.
Next post will be coming right up.

It's like first week all over again.

Again I'm a little late. Sorry
Well this was my first week at the Nok Ji Won and it was like being here for the first time again. Even though I am comfortable with the teaching aspect, having a new set of kids, who are all much better at English than the kids downstairs, was really weird. The system itself is different than what I am used to also, so I spent a decent amount of time this week just getting to understand whats going on. I'm about half way there I figure.
The good thing is that it was the start of holding so there were very few students and classes, giving me more time to settle in and such. For most of the week I had to give mock teaching classes in front of the head teacher so that they could rate mate. It was more like me asking questions though, because I was so unfamiliar with the material. All in all it went well and it should work out fine. I do miss the guys and Korean teachers from downstairs quite a bit, and I know they are not very thrilled with the lady I traded places with, but hey life goes on.
After work on Thursday, the middle school, which I was a part of so I went with, had an office party. It was the first party outside of the Christmas party that we have had with all the staff and support workers which was really awesome. We went to a bar close to work and set up shop on the entire patio. We ate and drank for a few hours before going to Norae bang and singing our heads off. It was something else to see the Korean teachers having fun instead of ignoring us. i stayed out a bit late and drank a bit to much ..... surprise surprise, and ended up feeling a little under the weather on Friday.
By the end of the day that feeling had passed and we went over to Cheonho for some dinner and drinks. Oddly we barely drink anything but still managed to watch the sun come up while we were debating about Micheal Jackson. Jameson and I were debating that no he should not go down in history with the likes of Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Renoir, etc. While Brady was arguing that he's pretty close to on par with them, and one of the new guys Arthur was arguing his popularity (which had nothing to do with the real debate). Saturday was a do nothing day. i went for a walk and got dinner with a Korean friend of mine and her friend, and then just killed time until I went out to Gangnam that night for a few drinks with some other friends.
Sunday was another do nothing day. I stayed in most of the day doing school work for the coming summer intensive period. Then for dinner I went and met up with Margaret, Haley, and two of Margaret's friends that are visiting for a week in Cheonho for some galbi. After that it was back home where I ran into David and got the scoop on watching the FIFA championship game at his place. I agreed and around midnight a bunch of us went out for some beers and snack before going to David's place to watch the game at 330. It was the U.S. vs. Brazil, who ended up winning 3-2 after a great start by the American team. After that it was home to bed to start another week.
Hope you are all doing well. Thanks for reading.

Movin on up...

Well this past week was a pretty chill week. There weren't a lot of outings and things around work were alright other than the usual disorganization of our management and the big decision to move me to the IVY campus one floor above us.
In the office, Jameson was on holidays for a few days while his girlfriend was still in town, and Andy came back after his two week marriage break, though we couldn't have cared less if he came back or not. My big news came first to me on Monday through Margaret, who came downstairs to tell me that the Nokchiwan, IVY campus, wanted me to switch with their new teacher because she was not happy up there. It has actually been a 3 week struggle to get a teacher up there because in the beginning a replacement was brought in for the former foreign teacher, but then he got in an argument with the director and got fired. So then they brought a girl up from another campus who had only been here for 2 weeks. She is an older lady who seems to have nothing but working at an elementary school in mind, so she did nothing but complain about being moved. Since she wanted out and I don't care where I am, I threw out the offer to switch with her which the people upstairs really liked the idea of. Apparently I am held with high regards by my students and fellow teachers, which is beyond me because there is nothing I do that is very special I don't think. Anyways, on Tuesday my director pulled me into her office and let me know that the switch was going to come into effect as of the coming Monday. While we were in her office though I got the impression that they thought I wanted to move, so I had to explain that it wasn't a want thing is was a willing thing. She understood but did let me know that if it was up to her I wouldn't be moving anywhere, which felt nice to hear.
The week after that went on as usual. I let all my kids know of the change and got things ready for the new teacher to make the switch, which I am apprehensive of since not once did she come down to see any off my classes or get any information until after work on Friday. After Tuesday we spread the news to the rest of the teachers and then waited for Friday. Its going to be a really big change between the levels and I'm going to miss all the people and kids I got to work with, but in reality they are only one floor away and I can go see them anytime.
Friday night after work I stayed late to try and get the new teacher up to speed and then to do my record input for the week. I never got out of there until almost 11, and when I got home I got a few phone calls from Jameson and Margaret asking where I was and if I wanted to meet up for a few drinks. I did, so I went over to Cheonho to meet Margaret, Haley and Diana for a couple drinks at some new bar before going to meet a bunch of the guys at another new bar that was selling 500 cc beers for a dollar. We had a couple beers there before they closed and we went to another place to finish off the night. In the end it turned into a really late night of just talking and hanging out and I ended up taking the subway home around 630 am.
I slept until around noon on Saturday before waking up to hear the rain that would end up lasting all day and ruining the rooftop bbq we were planning. So instead, I met up with the girls from last night and went to Dos Tacos in Gangnam and then had my first DVD bang experience. Its similar to the norae bangs but you just sit around in a small room and watch movies. They are meant for couples since the dating culture her almost forbids couples from going to each others houses unless they are into the serious about marriage phase. So instead they go to DVD rooms, some of which have couches, others of which have beds ; P. We watched a terrible Korean action movie and then I called it a night and came home on the bus.
On Sunday we decided to catch a baseball game since it was such a nice day out. Jameson, Brian, Frank, and I all went to the sports complex to catch the 5 o'clock game. However when we got in we realized that they were already in the 7th inning and it was only 430. We were a little confused at first until we figured it out that it was going to be a double header. After that we settled in with a few beers and enjoyed some good old fashion mediocre baseball. We sat right behind some really nice Koreans who offered us fruit and laughed every time we cheered for either team. In the end we were getting ready to leave in the 8th inning when the home team loaded the bases and then hit a grand slam. The stadium went nuts and so did we just for the sake of fitting in. After the game I went over to Bret's place, who is the head teacher from the elementary school, and watched Korean War movie with some people and then called it a week and a weekend.
From what I hear the weather is warming up back home. Hope you are all enjoying it and getting ready for the summer.

Ready...Set...Climb

Well I'm a little late again but its been a tiresome few days.
So, this week was pretty uneventful for the most part. Ash has gone home and I took the first few days of the week to just relax around the house and catch up on the sleep I missed while she was here. At work things were the same, we were still covering classes for Andy which meant longer days and more running around for everyone. There were a few nights that we did go out for drinks after work to take the edge off and to take Jameson's girlfriend, who came to visit, out to some of our favorite places. But all in all the week went by like any other, a little working out and a lot of crazy school business.
The big adventure we were waiting for was the weekend excursion to Sokcho, to hangout at the beach and climb Seoraksan, Seorak Mountain. Sokcho is a beach city located just North East of Seoul on the Sea of Japan coast. We were able to get bus tickets for the last bus of the evening leaving Seoul's East Bus terminal at 11 Friday night. This meant that Jameson, Tyler (Jameson's gf), Brian, and myself had to go from work but with plenty of time to spare. The only concern was for Margaret, since she doesn't get off work until 1030. Luckily they let her go early since she has been bending over backwards for them these past few weeks. We all got to the bus station and got on the bus in time and it felt great.
The bus ride there was only 2.5 hours with a stop along the way to get some food. Where might I add Margaret and I got ripped off for some mandu, because the lady working the food both had an inability to remember that she had already been paid and made us pay again. And by made us pay again, I mean made Margaret pay again and drag me away while I was mildly freaking out. Either way it wasn't a big loss and we did get some food in us.
We got to Sokcho and found a hotel for the night near the bus station to drop our things at before going out for a walk and a beer. On Saturday morning we got up and headed further in to the city to the other bus terminal by the beach, where we got another hotel and then caught a bus to Seoraksan from. We got to Seoraksan around 1130 and headed into Korea's third largest and highest mountain range. We chose a route that took us away form the interior of the park but promised to be a decent hike.
We climbed for nearly 3 hours, up past a couple different temples and beautiful scenery before coming to what was the wildest set of stairs I have ever seen. They guide book set there were 880, but I'm sure there were over 1000 in the end. The stairs covered the last 1/3 of the trail, which is the only way you could get to the peak without being wither a mountain goat or a rock climber (which we also saw people doing). The were metal old and unreliable looking in some spots, and even went straight up like a ladder in others. We took our time and worked our way to the peak and boy was it worth it. The view was amazing, and the sense of accomplishment was pretty nice. We were standing around 850 m above sea level and figured it out to be about a 10 -12 km hike from where we started.
The decent was much easier and only took about 2 hours. We were all pretty tired and sore after resting at the top but we made it back down and rewarded ourselves with corndogs. I got one that was dipped in chocolate and sprinkles, because there is nothing better than eating a doughnut with a hotdog in the middle. Also, while we were eating we were approached by a group of middle school girls who were working on a projects and asked us if they could film us saying "Bea-ti-ful Sok-cho", and since there was five of us it worked out perfectly.
After that we got back on the bus and headed into town, where I took a nap to work off a headache I got form not drinking enough water during the day. Saturday night we headed out to find some sea food since we were on the coast. We found a place and ended up having not exactly what we wanted, but delicious anyways, fish soup complete with heads and all. After that we went back to the area our hotel was in and hit a bar for a few beers. Eventually another group of foreigners showed up, most of which were from Southwestern Ontario, and we talked to them off and on for an hour or so before heading to the beach to light off some fireworks. Then it was on to the norae bang. Some of them eventually came to norae bang with us which was great, because the more the merrier. After that we headed to the hotel to get some sleep because we were hoping to get some beach time in on Sunday.
Unfortunately it was over cast and crappy on Sunday so instead of going to the beach we packed up and headed home to Seoul around 230. the bus ride home was excruciatingly long, and took a solid 5 hours. We were all glad to be home and each went our separate ways to rest up for the week to come.
Well that is another blog down and anther adventure had. Hope you are all dong well back home and I will see you all soon.

Another busy week that was well worth the effort.

Well this was Ashleigh's second week here in Korea and we kept up with the sight seeing and busy scheduling.
We started the week still feeling the effects of Saturdays booze fest, but were able to get to the Coex Aquarium and the temple complex beside it called Bongeunsa. The aquarium was pretty cool. They had fish from all around the world, both fresh and salt water and even some penguins to finish it up. The temple complex I had been to before but we went over for a quick look around since it is a rather large place with lots of different temple styles covering a decent amount of Korean temple styles. After that it was off to work for the first week of the new semester.
On Tuesday we went to Lotte World with Margaret and had a great time riding some roller coasters, and hating on their weird ticketing policy. It turns out that if you just buy the general admissions pass it only gets you on half the rides. The other half you have to either buy extra tickets for once you are in the park, or buy the magic pass from the start. Had we have known we would have bought the magic pass, but since we didn't we just made do with what we had.
On Wednesday both Ash and I were feeling a little worn out so instead of going to do more sightseeing I took her to our favorite Mexican place in Gangnam called Dos Tacos. They serve up some pretty hefty sized burritos and we usually make it there at least once a month. After Dos Tacos I headed to work and Ash went out to do some exploring on her own. After work however, we along with Brian went to Dondaemun (The East Gate to the original city) to see both the gate and check out the night market. Unfortunately we were unable to find the right market (the Black Market), but did get in some good shopping at the regular markets until about 3 am. Then we grabbed a bite and cabbed it home to get some rest.
Because we had such a late night on Wednesday, we decided to sleep in on Thursday and just relaxed around the apartment until I had to work. After I left though, Ash went out to check out the Children's Grand Park, and do some more shopping. That night we went back over to Cheonho to meet Jamesons girlfriend who has flown in for a couple weeks and get some drinks.
Feeling a little more rested on Friday we got up and went to the National Museum of Korea with Margaret to see both the Korean historical exhibition hall and the special Egypt exhibit they have on right now. Disappointingly there was no photography allowed in the Egyptian exhibit, even though every piece looked like crappy replicas. So I snapped off one photo and then was told by security not to. I had to try. After that we did a quick run through of the Korean side of the museum and headed home so that we could get to work.
Then came Friday night. Brain, Jameson, Tyler (his gf), Ash, and I all went to Sincheon for some more samgipsal, drinks and eventually.........Norae bang. We introduced Ash and Tyler to their first singing room experience with a bang, and it was awesome. We had a great time and still made it home by 4 am.
Saturday was Ashleigh's official last day in Korea so we went for a walk in Seoul Forest before meeting up with my friend So Hyun for some dak-galbi. Then after lunch we went for fish pedicures. That's right, pedicures done by having a really tiny kind of carp suck/nibble the skin off of your feet. It is called Dr. Fish and is done at several cafes around Seoul. All you have to do is go to the cafe, buy a drink and you can pay an extra two dollars to have the fish eat at your feet. We decided to go for it and boy was it weird. It felt like a hundred little bubbles were popping on our feet at once and when they popped they pulled a little. We laughed and squirmed the whole time, but both agreed that we would do it again in a heart beat. After Dr. Fish we came home so Ash could pack and then went out for a couple good-bye drinks with some friends.
Sunday morning came early since we had to be at the airport by 930 am. We got up and got on the bus by 730 and were actually 45 minutes early. So, we got some McDonald's breakfast before checking Ash in and heading back to our homes. I slept on the bus ride home and even after I got back I went to sleep for another 4 hours. I'm sure Ash stayed awake for a bit at the airport until she got on the plane at least.
It was a great couple of weeks, and we had so much fun.
Hope you are all doing well and that the early summer weather is kicking in back home because it is here.

Busy can't even explain it.

I don't even know where to begin. Ash is here and we have been going non-stop this entire week.
we started Monday by going to Gyeongbokgung palace complex. We walked around for a few hours before heading back home to get ready to get to work. I took Ash to work so that she could meet all the other teachers I work with and see what I do around here for a living. the day went by rather smoothly until the end of the night. Ash had watched my classes all day and then at the end of the night we had received word that some new foreigners had been diagnosed with H1N1 (the dreaded Swine Flu). This threw one of our head teachers into a frenzy, and over the next few days all of Avalon went crazy so it seemed. Having our head teacher freaking out and practically bathing in Purel was quite hilarious until she said that Ash was not allowed to come to the school anymore because she might be infected. To this I got a little upset, but if she couldn't come to the school it was no big deal.
On Tuesday we got up early and headed to Namsan, the mountain in the center of the city, where the Seoul Tower is. We took the cable car up to the top and then went up the tower to get a great look out over the city. After the tower we walked around for a bit and saw a few other small compounds and gift shops before we had to come home so I could go to work. After work we went over to Cheonho for Ash's first taste of galbi. It was one of our favorite places and she really enjoyed it.
Wednesday was our earliest day. We had to get up extra early to go and meet the ladies I tutor. After tutoring we went to Hanok Village, which is a traditional housing complex that has houses from a variety of eras all in one spot. They were brought there so that people could see how the houses changed over the years while maintaining traditional Korean design. Wednesday night we went to Sincheon for some samgipsal and then came home to get some rest. On Thursday I took Ash to my Korean class where she was blown away by the little Korean we know and by how weird the language is. Then it was off to work again.
Friday we decided to take the day off from touring around and just got groceries and had a rest. But, after I went to work Ash went to the Amsa Prehistoric Village on her own for a couple hours and got some pizza for dinner. When I got off of work I came home and we went over to Cheonho again to have a few drinks wit some friends before they left on the weekend.
Saturday we got up and were supposed to go to the beach but everyone was feeling a little worn out and not like sitting on a train for 2 hours. So instead, Ash, Margaret and I went to the Seoul Zoo just south of the main city on the subway. It was a pretty big zoo with all kinds of animals and they even had a small amusement park. We decided to concentrate on the animals and walked around until we found saw a sign for a dolphin show. We decided to see that because it gave us a chance to sit down inside out of the sun and see some dolphin tricks. When we got home we went to a rooftop party at my place fora few hours before getting into a whole world of trouble.
Saturday night we went to meet Junk in Apgujong at our favorite bar, W.C. Crazy Bar, where things got too crazy and ended really poorly in the long run. It was just Ash, Junk, and I. It was also Crazy Bars 1 year anniversary so for every bottle of booze you bought you got a free bottle of Makers Mark whiskey. We decided on the Tequila/Makers Mark set and started sipping away. Eventually however, Junk opened the tequila and before I knew it I was about 7 shots in and was too drunk to know what was going on. Ash lost herself in a stairwell and I freaked out when we couldn't find her. Eventually we found her and came home.......not that I remember any of it. In the end there was some puking and we both felt brutal for the entirety of Sunday.
While we were feeling like death we pulled ourselves together long enough to go see a comedic martial arts performance called Jump. It was totally awesome and we laughed throughout the whole thing, but as soon as it was over we got the heck out and came home where we laid around feeling bad all day.
We still have a whole week ahead of us and have lots of plans to fill our time. See you soon.

Mark has a visitor : )

Well this week couldn't go by fast enough. We started the second last week of this semester, got the new books for the coming semester, and last but not least it was the week Ashleigh took her first ever transcontinental trip to come and see me.
The week itself was pretty boring and slow. I had to do some shopping to make sure I had all my stuff ready for when Ash got her. I had to buy some more dishes for us to eat off of and a sleeping pad so there was a place for us both to sleep. I also rearranged my room so that the two of us and all our stuff combined would fit and we could still live comfortably.
At work this week the kids had their final tests, which unfortunately meant the foreign teachers had more days of sitting around with nothing to do. Wednesday and Thursday we were only there to take attendance and teach for the first 30 minutes of the day. After that the Korea teachers came in to give them their tests and we got to sit in our offices doing nothing. I know it sounds good but you can only sit around for so long with nothing to do before your back hurts, you are bored out of your mind, and you want to kill everyone around you.
Soon enough however, Friday came. This was what I had been waiting around all week for. It was the day (night) Ash flew in to stay with me for a couple weeks. She flew in Friday night at 11 pm but since i don't get off work until 10 there was a few hours of craziness between her getting here and me getting her back to my place.. I had to leave work 10 minutes early and run about 3 km to catch one of the last buses going to the airport from near my place (which ended up giving me shin splints). It took me over 2 hours to get to the airport when it should have only taken and hour. In the end I got there and she was at her gate waiting. We got in the cab and she told me all about her first flight ever on the way back o my place. It was great to see her and see how excited she was to have taken her first airplane and to be on the other side of the world.
We got back to my place and came inside so that she could put her stuff down and clean up. We had a couple invites to got out but it was already close to 230 am and we both just wanted to get some rest. On Saturday we got up around 1130 and got ready to get to go see some of Ashleigh's new home for the next two weeks. Jameson came over after he had finished up a few things at the office and we headed to Myeongdong for some shopping and the typical Korean crowds. Ash loved it and eventually Margaret, Brian and a couple other friends showed up and we hung out until about 4. After Myeongdong we came home and had a rest before going to Cheonho to have galbi with Jameson and Margaret. It was Ash's first time seeing a meal like that and she thought it was something else (awesome). After super we went to Sinchon for one of the girls from the elementary schools birthday and had some drinks at a hookah bar. It was a great time and Ash got to meet a lot of my friends. Around 430 we came home, had some grilled cheese, and passed out.
Today we slept in until about 2 then got up, got ready and went for a walk around Olympic Park for a bit. It is right across the street and has a lot of col stuff to see so it was a good thing to do on a lazy Sunday. After that we came home made some dinner and are watching T.V. as I type. We are all set to have a very busy week and see as many things as possible.
I'll let you all know how it turns out. Have a good one.

Blake has left the building.

Well as a change of pace I'm going to work this blog in reverse.
This was Blakes last week/weekend in Korea so I spent a lot of time hanging out with him and some other friends we have made since being here. Blake took off on Sunday at 2pm, so we took the opportunity to get our last few beers in Saturday night after he got back from one of his friends wedding (a foreign man to a Korean woman). We met up in Gangnam with Junk, Jameson and Brian for some beers and chit chatting, then eventually moved to meet some people from the elementary campus. Blake left around 1 am so that he wouldn't be in to rough of shape for his plane ride, but the rest of us stayed until around 4. Before Saturday night I spent most of the day killing time in my apartment because it was raining all day.
Friday, the end of our work week was pretty cool because it was Teachers Day. We didn't get the day off or anything but Avalon did take us out for lunch at the ever popular VIPS (pronounced veeps). It is a buffet style restaurant that offers mediocre foreign foods and an above average price, but the Koreans seem to love it. After that we went into school for the day were I received a couple of presents for the day including a piece of chocolate, a soap set in the shape of baby shoes, and an incredibly nice black leather belt. I was quite surprised to tell you the truth that I got anything due to the fact that many of my students are afraid of me and I'm pretty sure they hate me because I am so "mean" as they say.
Thursday night Jameson, Brina and I went and met Blake, Eun Jong, and Mi Young in Sincheon for some drinks after work. It was a quiet night. We just had a few drinks and some cake, which the girls brought for Blake, and called it a night by 2 am. It was good to be getting some time in with Blake since he won't be back for a couple months, and it was much better than the adventure I had after getting together with him Monday night.
I've saved the best and most amazingly crazy part of my week for last today. On Monday Blake messaged me and asked if I would go to his neighbourhood after work and have some drinks with a couple friends of ours who we have only met a few times but really wanted to meet for drinks before he headed back to Canada. I agreed and headed out on the subway after work. We got together, had some dinner and drinks for a bit, then went and norae banged after that. At the end of the night I offered to walk our friend Ji Suk home since she lives in a neighbourhood next to Blakes and didn't want to take a cab by herself. Once we got to her street I found a cab and said good night and headed home myself. OH and have I mentioned it had been raining all that day also. As a result the highways were slick and when my cab driver decided to drive 120 kph. To me this seemed really dangerous, and just as I was reaching for my seat belt my thoughts came to life and we went out of control. We had hit a bend and had no traction due to the water. The cab went sideways and we went into a series of doughnuts. We went one way and then the other as the cab driver tried to steer out of the spinning. Eventually we hit the guard rail with the rear passenger corner and ended up facing the wrong way on the road. I was in the back holding on to the seat and wondering if I was OK or not. It turned out that I was fine and after giving the cab driver the thumbs up he u-turned the cab onto the proper shoulder. Luckily we were the only car on the road since it was 4 am and when we got to the shoulder we realized that the bumper was dragging and that the rear window had been blown out. I got out and got into the front. Then to my surprise the cab driver lit a cigarette, offered me one ( I declined), and then finished driving me home. Once we got back to my area we stopped and I helped him bend his bumper back up so it wouldn't drag anymore and then headed home to figure out what had just happened in my life.
In the end all is well and I was fine. Any soreness I had I could not attribute to the accident because I had been to workout that morning for the first time in a few weeks, and felt pretty rough all around anyways.
Take care, talk to you all soon.