Well I am late by a whole week but here goes. This was what was going on in my life from April 13-19.
This week was pretty slow and laid back. We were all excited about the great weather that has been going on and were spending a lot more time outside both before and after work. Then it happened. The funniest thing that I've heard in a long time. Margaret, a teacher, from our IVY program told me that one of her students asked if she could dance. Margret answered 'no' to which the student replied 'well teacher Mark can', so intrigued Margaret asked the girl to show her how I dance and the girl did the shopping cart. So it was when Margaret asked me 'Did you teach your kids the shopping cart last term?' that I laughed so hard because yes I did show them and I couldn't believe they remembered.
The rest of the week went by at a decent pace. We were informed that we would be getting a couple days holidays the next week but that the foreign teachers had to come in for a work shop because the director was unhappy with some of us. Mostly the douche bag Korean-American/Canadian foreign teachers that keep getting complaints. Also, Amanda and Margaret had come up with a great plan to get away on the weekend to the town of Boseoung to see the green tea plantations and hangout near the beach. We all thought it was a great idea so we got bus tickets and waited for Saturday morning to come.
Unfortunately when Saturday morning came around I had a global electronics failure in my house. My alarm clock shut off, and my cellphone turned itself off so I woke up late and missed all the calls that had been coming in. It was OK though I was up late but still had 20 minutes to get to the bus station. So, I called everyone as I ran out the door to let them know what had happened and jumped in a cab. It was a heart pounding 15 minute drive to the bus station, off and on the phone with Blake the whole time with updates on if they were loading the bus and how far I was from the station. In the end I made it with literally seconds to spare and we set off on the five hour ride south. When we got to Boseoung we had to then get on a city bus to get to the tea fields. A bus we had to share with about 30 high school students who were all super nervous to practice their English with us. Eventually we got to the tea fields put our bags away behind a storage shed and headed to take a look.
It turned out to be quite beautiful and peaceful. Even though there were lots of people there just being out of the city commotion and dirty air made it seem like you were in a place all alone. We walked around, took lots of pictures, and some of us even got our hair felt up by some older ladies who thought dreads were the coolest thing they ever saw. After we were finished with the tea fields we got back on the city bus and headed a little further south the the beach village of Yolpoe to find a place to stay. Since it isn't quite tourist season yet many of the rentable places, called Min Baks (like a hostel but at a persons house), were still closed, but we managed to find one at an elderly ladies house who spoke no English and insisted on talking in Korean very quickly to us. It took about 20 minutes to get it figured out and in the end we just handed her money and put our bags down. She got the hint.
Then we hit the town. All 3 square kilometers of it. We went up and got some beers from the convenience store then went and drank on the beach for a bit, after that we went for some appetizers and beers at a local western style pub. There we met up with another foreign couple and we invited them to join us for the night, which worked out well because they were really cool. After that we got some dinner and a Galbi place and headed for Noraebang to do some singing. We had a hilarious night and drank lots to the singing room before heading back to the beach for a few more beers.
In the morning we all felt a little under the weather, especially Brian, but we managed to get up and get completely confused about how to get home. It turned out that there were no buses from the place we got dropped off back to Seoul. Instead we had to take a bus from Boseoung to a larger town called Kwang-Ju then transfer to get back to Seoul. Not particularly pleasing but hey when can you do. So we spent the better part of Sunday on buses getting back home. Not exactly how we would have preferred it but what can you do. Once we got home we all retired to our houses to get some rest before the week started.
Stay tuned, there's lost more coming.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Spring has sprung. Or did we go right to summer?
Hey everyone. Hope you are all doing well and enjoying some warmer weather like we are over here. This week we seemed to make the leap from low double digits right to low twenties making us all wonder if we are going to skip spring and go right to early summer. It was great to have the weather warm up and we all felt much better around work and about life in general, even after I had to change my tutoring day to Wednesday one of my busier days.
On Thursday I took Go-Ah back to the vets to get her stitches out and the second half of her meds. She was not a huge fan of taking another ride in her carrying case but the vet commented on how behaved she is when being worked on. She couldn't have cared less that he was taking her stitches out and barely squirmed when he cut her claws.
The rest of the week was pretty good and by Friday we were all ready to get out and enjoy the weather. After work on Friday we had a beer outside the store by my house before going to Gangnam to meet up with Margaret and Hannah for a few drinks. Unfortunately, Hannah got a little drunk and 16 year old ish and we all decided it was time to get away from her. I came home around 2 or 230 and got some sleep before Saturday.
Brian, Margaret, and I got together early Saturday afternoon and went to do some shopping. We were looking for some summer clothes, like shorts, since we all brought mostly winter clothes. We checked out one of the larger markets but found nothing of real interest so we then went to Myongdong a popular shopping district with lots of foreign stores. I ended up finding a pair of shorts a a Dickies outlet for a good price.
After shopping I headed to Hyaywa to meet Sung Eun, my tutee, to attend another dance performance. This one unlike the last one I went to was understandable and artistic instead of absurd. It was called "Korean Screens - 4 Solo Dances", and was a collaboration between Korean dancers and Belgian directors. There were four separate solo performances each telling a different story through a mix of modern and interpretive dancing. The first one was about the 7 weeks a soul spends in limbo between death and rebirth. The second one was about the transition from animalism to humanism and it involved a woman dressed in a bear suit (weird) and slowly shedding it until she was a "naked human". It was the one that I liked the most because it was both funny and artistic together. The third one was my second favorite and was about the "many faces of society", and how we view others based on what they are doing and how we view and adapt ourselves based on what others see in us. The last one was the most about dance and the fusion of hip-hop and contemporary styles, but I didn't really get it I guess.
After the performance we went out for a few beers and talked for a bit until she had to head home and I headed off for the regular Saturday night fiasco. I met up with Blake, Brian, Jameson and Junk in Sillim to finish off a bottle of whiskey the Blake had capped at a bar from before. We quickly became to only people in the bar so the manager and another waitress came over to drink with us and hangout. We were having such a great time that after we finished the first bottle we ordered a second and kept partying. After that was gone somebody got into the beer and before we knew it we were looking at 2 empty bottles of whiskey and about 20 empty beers......and it was 630 am! We figured it was time to leave so we all went outside and across the street under direction of the manager for Sam Gip Sal (fried pork) and Soju. None of us were too incredibly drunk and the meal helped to soak up some of the night. After breakfast we all took the subway home and i was in bed by 8 am.
We were a little upset at how late our night got because we wanted to be up at a decent time to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival on Sunday. The festival was at Yaweedoe Park in Seoul and is held every year when the cherry blossom trees flower which signifies the coming of spring. It was on all weekend, up until 10pm Sunday. After some rest we all got together around 530 at the park, instead of the 230 we hoped for, and started walking down the riverside street bordered by the Cherry Blossom trees. It was quite beautiful and there were several street performances and artists that would draw your portrait. We stayed until after the sun went down and then got some traditional Pizza Hut before calling it a night and a weekend.
Thanks for checking in. I'll talk to you again soon.
On Thursday I took Go-Ah back to the vets to get her stitches out and the second half of her meds. She was not a huge fan of taking another ride in her carrying case but the vet commented on how behaved she is when being worked on. She couldn't have cared less that he was taking her stitches out and barely squirmed when he cut her claws.
The rest of the week was pretty good and by Friday we were all ready to get out and enjoy the weather. After work on Friday we had a beer outside the store by my house before going to Gangnam to meet up with Margaret and Hannah for a few drinks. Unfortunately, Hannah got a little drunk and 16 year old ish and we all decided it was time to get away from her. I came home around 2 or 230 and got some sleep before Saturday.
Brian, Margaret, and I got together early Saturday afternoon and went to do some shopping. We were looking for some summer clothes, like shorts, since we all brought mostly winter clothes. We checked out one of the larger markets but found nothing of real interest so we then went to Myongdong a popular shopping district with lots of foreign stores. I ended up finding a pair of shorts a a Dickies outlet for a good price.
After shopping I headed to Hyaywa to meet Sung Eun, my tutee, to attend another dance performance. This one unlike the last one I went to was understandable and artistic instead of absurd. It was called "Korean Screens - 4 Solo Dances", and was a collaboration between Korean dancers and Belgian directors. There were four separate solo performances each telling a different story through a mix of modern and interpretive dancing. The first one was about the 7 weeks a soul spends in limbo between death and rebirth. The second one was about the transition from animalism to humanism and it involved a woman dressed in a bear suit (weird) and slowly shedding it until she was a "naked human". It was the one that I liked the most because it was both funny and artistic together. The third one was my second favorite and was about the "many faces of society", and how we view others based on what they are doing and how we view and adapt ourselves based on what others see in us. The last one was the most about dance and the fusion of hip-hop and contemporary styles, but I didn't really get it I guess.
After the performance we went out for a few beers and talked for a bit until she had to head home and I headed off for the regular Saturday night fiasco. I met up with Blake, Brian, Jameson and Junk in Sillim to finish off a bottle of whiskey the Blake had capped at a bar from before. We quickly became to only people in the bar so the manager and another waitress came over to drink with us and hangout. We were having such a great time that after we finished the first bottle we ordered a second and kept partying. After that was gone somebody got into the beer and before we knew it we were looking at 2 empty bottles of whiskey and about 20 empty beers......and it was 630 am! We figured it was time to leave so we all went outside and across the street under direction of the manager for Sam Gip Sal (fried pork) and Soju. None of us were too incredibly drunk and the meal helped to soak up some of the night. After breakfast we all took the subway home and i was in bed by 8 am.
We were a little upset at how late our night got because we wanted to be up at a decent time to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival on Sunday. The festival was at Yaweedoe Park in Seoul and is held every year when the cherry blossom trees flower which signifies the coming of spring. It was on all weekend, up until 10pm Sunday. After some rest we all got together around 530 at the park, instead of the 230 we hoped for, and started walking down the riverside street bordered by the Cherry Blossom trees. It was quite beautiful and there were several street performances and artists that would draw your portrait. We stayed until after the sun went down and then got some traditional Pizza Hut before calling it a night and a weekend.
Thanks for checking in. I'll talk to you again soon.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Fasten your belts and keep all hands inside the car.
Well for the first time in a while I have quite a bit to say.
This past week was one of the best weeks I've had since being in Korea, both in the classroom and in my spare time. To start the weather this past week was pretty good, staying in the low teens for most of the week and only raining a couple times in short bursts, and according to the long term forecast will be in the high teens to low twenties for the coming week.
At school this week the kids were pretty restless because they have been preparing for midterms and the weather is changing and they would rather be anywhere else than Avalon. Luckily in my upper level classes, which I teach a few times each week, we had some interesting topics about boys and girls; should they go to separate schools; how do their attitudes differ. These are much easier for the kids to talk about compared to the usual over their head topics like pseudoscience, politics, or how should a given person deal with an adult problem. We were able to have some good laughs as they described to me what they thought about the opposite sex and i did my best to decipher it and write it on the board in a sex neutral way. Also, I may have done a little acting out of certain situations they were talking about, which lead them all to screaming hysterics. Still, come Friday we were all ready to get away from the school.
Friday night we went to Gangnam to meet up with a bunch of the teachers from the elementary school but stopped first for some fried chicken. It was delicious at the time but within a few hours it was not agreeing with me and I had to go home early (130) Friday night, which was just fine because I needed the rest anyways.
Before I finish up with the weekend let me say a little something about my roommate, and newly spayed cat, Go-Ah. She is the first female animal I have ever owned that I have needed to get fixed, and was a little unsure of how that was all going o go down. So on Thursday I took her to the vets around the corner from me to get spayed. It took less than an hour do do the surgery but I was unaware that they had to cut her belly open. So, when I showed up to take her home I was shocked to see the stitching on her belly. There was no time for questions though because I had to get to work. I brought her home in the new carrying case I bought still under the anesthetic and with one of those funny "don't lick your wounds" cones on her head, but by the time I got home from work she had forced it off and tore off her bandages too. She was sore, groggy and very standoffish. This lasted for a few days and I felt quite bad about it but did my best to take care of her, by taking the legs off my bed so she could get into it, and making my blankets available for her tenting/hiding needs. It took a few days but by Sunday afternoon she was up and moving around and eating again, so all should be fine in a few more days.
Enough of the gloom, back to the weekend. Saturday I got up at a decent hour and cleaned up my apartment, dishes, vacuumed etc. After that I met up with Brian to go buy tickets to a University basketball game. Unfortunately the game was cancelled. We weren't clear on whether one team forfeited or if one of the teams had just won the series before we could get to the weekend game. So instead we called our friend Margaret and went to see the Baekje Tombs (Ancient Stone Tombs) at Seokchon, which is only a few subway stops from my area. We did the touristy thing for a bit, got some photos and then went to Gangnam, again, for dinner. After dinner Margaret, Brian, and Jameson went to meet some friends in Kondae while I came home for a bit to check on Go-Ah and give her her medicine. Eventually I went to Kondae too and had a few drinks before coming home early because I had a big Sunday planned.
Now the climax of my week! A friend of Blake's had 50% off tickets for an amusement park, or should I say The Amusement Park", of inner Seoul called Lotte World. It is only a few blocks from my house and is be all means a super small version of Canada's Wonderland. There are only a handful of rides, all of which aren't that big anyways. Nonetheless, Blake, and I went with his friend Yu Jin and her friend Young Hwan on Sunday to have some fun. Blake and I are not ride fanatics but found ourselves riding all the coasters, loops and all. It was the first time I have ever manned up and gone on a looping coaster and loved every bit of it. There were many "best parts" of the day but some of the ones that stand out are Blake and I telling them that we were not ride fans and them taking us on the biggest coaster there to start, the fabulously tacky decor of the place, and the best of all height measuring stick. Now we all know that you have to be over a certain height to ride most things, but here in Korea apparently you also have to be under a certain height. So when we got in line fora ride called Atlantis Adventure a worker came up and put a stick with a 6'2" marker on it behind me, we all had a good laugh before realizing that I may find myself without a head after I get on the ride. HAHAHA we all laughed awkwardly. But since I am writing this it is obvious that I made it out well and good but not without having an awesome time.
After we were done at Lotte World we stopped for a coffee across the street and then went our separate ways.The girls had places to be and Blake and I wanted to get some dinner. Since we were in my area we went and found a barbecue restaurant, which turned out to be pretty good. After that we met up at a pub with Jameson for a couple beers before calling it a night and going home to start the week again.
Well that is more than enough for now. Talk to you again next week.
This past week was one of the best weeks I've had since being in Korea, both in the classroom and in my spare time. To start the weather this past week was pretty good, staying in the low teens for most of the week and only raining a couple times in short bursts, and according to the long term forecast will be in the high teens to low twenties for the coming week.
At school this week the kids were pretty restless because they have been preparing for midterms and the weather is changing and they would rather be anywhere else than Avalon. Luckily in my upper level classes, which I teach a few times each week, we had some interesting topics about boys and girls; should they go to separate schools; how do their attitudes differ. These are much easier for the kids to talk about compared to the usual over their head topics like pseudoscience, politics, or how should a given person deal with an adult problem. We were able to have some good laughs as they described to me what they thought about the opposite sex and i did my best to decipher it and write it on the board in a sex neutral way. Also, I may have done a little acting out of certain situations they were talking about, which lead them all to screaming hysterics. Still, come Friday we were all ready to get away from the school.
Friday night we went to Gangnam to meet up with a bunch of the teachers from the elementary school but stopped first for some fried chicken. It was delicious at the time but within a few hours it was not agreeing with me and I had to go home early (130) Friday night, which was just fine because I needed the rest anyways.
Before I finish up with the weekend let me say a little something about my roommate, and newly spayed cat, Go-Ah. She is the first female animal I have ever owned that I have needed to get fixed, and was a little unsure of how that was all going o go down. So on Thursday I took her to the vets around the corner from me to get spayed. It took less than an hour do do the surgery but I was unaware that they had to cut her belly open. So, when I showed up to take her home I was shocked to see the stitching on her belly. There was no time for questions though because I had to get to work. I brought her home in the new carrying case I bought still under the anesthetic and with one of those funny "don't lick your wounds" cones on her head, but by the time I got home from work she had forced it off and tore off her bandages too. She was sore, groggy and very standoffish. This lasted for a few days and I felt quite bad about it but did my best to take care of her, by taking the legs off my bed so she could get into it, and making my blankets available for her tenting/hiding needs. It took a few days but by Sunday afternoon she was up and moving around and eating again, so all should be fine in a few more days.
Enough of the gloom, back to the weekend. Saturday I got up at a decent hour and cleaned up my apartment, dishes, vacuumed etc. After that I met up with Brian to go buy tickets to a University basketball game. Unfortunately the game was cancelled. We weren't clear on whether one team forfeited or if one of the teams had just won the series before we could get to the weekend game. So instead we called our friend Margaret and went to see the Baekje Tombs (Ancient Stone Tombs) at Seokchon, which is only a few subway stops from my area. We did the touristy thing for a bit, got some photos and then went to Gangnam, again, for dinner. After dinner Margaret, Brian, and Jameson went to meet some friends in Kondae while I came home for a bit to check on Go-Ah and give her her medicine. Eventually I went to Kondae too and had a few drinks before coming home early because I had a big Sunday planned.
Now the climax of my week! A friend of Blake's had 50% off tickets for an amusement park, or should I say The Amusement Park", of inner Seoul called Lotte World. It is only a few blocks from my house and is be all means a super small version of Canada's Wonderland. There are only a handful of rides, all of which aren't that big anyways. Nonetheless, Blake, and I went with his friend Yu Jin and her friend Young Hwan on Sunday to have some fun. Blake and I are not ride fanatics but found ourselves riding all the coasters, loops and all. It was the first time I have ever manned up and gone on a looping coaster and loved every bit of it. There were many "best parts" of the day but some of the ones that stand out are Blake and I telling them that we were not ride fans and them taking us on the biggest coaster there to start, the fabulously tacky decor of the place, and the best of all height measuring stick. Now we all know that you have to be over a certain height to ride most things, but here in Korea apparently you also have to be under a certain height. So when we got in line fora ride called Atlantis Adventure a worker came up and put a stick with a 6'2" marker on it behind me, we all had a good laugh before realizing that I may find myself without a head after I get on the ride. HAHAHA we all laughed awkwardly. But since I am writing this it is obvious that I made it out well and good but not without having an awesome time.
After we were done at Lotte World we stopped for a coffee across the street and then went our separate ways.The girls had places to be and Blake and I wanted to get some dinner. Since we were in my area we went and found a barbecue restaurant, which turned out to be pretty good. After that we met up at a pub with Jameson for a couple beers before calling it a night and going home to start the week again.
Well that is more than enough for now. Talk to you again next week.
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