Adventures with Mark

The Day We Were Waiting For

2011-06-29T08:41:00.000-04:00

June 6-12, 2011

Monday the 6th was Memorial Day, which meant it was also a day off of work. So keeping in true lazy fashion, Lauren and I took our time getting up and motivated on the day, despite an early call from John to go and see the new X-Men Origins movie. It worked out in my favour in the long run, because just after 2 I got a call from Frank about a posting on the Facebook support group for Wesley about him being awake. i quickly got up and tried to make some phone calls to see how real the news was, but they went unanswered, so Lauren and I got ready to head to the hospital and check it out. We were starving however, so stopped for some Subway with John, then went to the hospital for 530. When we got there, Wes' room was full of other friends who had come to be with him, and we unfortunately missed Monitta by a few minutes. I got filled in on the story, and it seemed that he had been declared "awake" by the doctors after showing improved signs of cognitive awareness and compliance to directions. He was still however, in a vegetative state, as is to be expected after being in a coma for 80 days, but everything takes baby steps and just having him wake up is a major step. After the hospital, as I was before, I continued to make phone calls to friends and supporters from hockey to let them know the good news, while I headed to Itaewon to let Dwayne from Stompers know the good news. Lauren came, and we had a drink while giving the details, then before it got too late headed out to get home and get some sleep. Lauren went back to her friend Azeem's place, and I went home and did some laundry and made the phone call home I had missed the night before. After that it was straight to sleep for some sleep before school the next afternoon.
Tuesday, it was back to the grind, so I got up early and cooked some food for work, then headed to the office to see what the damage would be like. It turned out better than I thought, and I only had to teach 3 very spread out classes, leaving me lots of time to do a bit of blogging, and story telling about our weekend. After work, I went to the gym and got in a good workout before meeting Lauren and going to drink some Korean wine called bokbunja in the park. It is something I haven't drank often since it is usually beer on the menu with all my friends, so it was nice for a change. When we were all finished, we went back to my place and threw on a movie to finish the night.
Wednesday I got up determined to make it to the hospital and see Wes and Monitta as I usually do, and secretly hoped that between Monday and then a miracle had occurred, and that he would be up and running laps around the hospital. It wasn't a realistic, but one can always dream. It was a good visit, and Wes had made some improvement in his ability to move his fingers in response to counting, as well as in his general expressions when he was being talked to. After the hospital I went off to work for my exciting day of no classes, which I filled with blogging galore in a futile attempt to get caught up on the weeks of notes I had drafted up. After work, I went to Gangnam to meet with (Spencer) Rocchi for a couple beers as well, because he was leaving at the end of the week, but I was all booked up with other meetings. He was there with Wes Koch from back home, and Dan Galdamez from hockey, and we had a few 7/11 beers, but called it an early night on account of it being a school night and Wes and I took the last subway home at 1245. The last subway however, only goes as far as Seoul University, so I got out and walked the 15 minutes home, grabbing some water along the way.
Thursday morning, I got up feeling pretty good since I had come home at a reasonable time and only had a couple of beers. I got up and went to the gym to get in a workout, because I knew I was not going to make it after work due to it being Alex and Louise's last night, and we planned on having a few drinks at Gold Bar. John and I got through our day at work, then hoped on the subway for Sincheon. We had talked about it being an early night all afternoon, and when we got there, it seemed like an achievable goal. But then, the party happened. Just after midnight, before the last subway would have been passing, Alex Beanland came in for his last round at Gold Bar as well, and though he said he was going to be there at 11 so that I wouldn't have to stay so late, it was a must that I have a drink with him. While we were having our drinks and saying our goodbyes, trays of tequila shots started coming around, and they had DOOM written all of them. I thought a couple shots wouldn't be a big deal, but when Louise wasn't doing hers, but instead feeding them to me, as was her coworker, I quickly reached my capacity for drunkenness, and stumbled into autopilot. Eventually, it was 4am and we called it a night and John and I shared a cab back to Bongcheon, where I dragged my smokey self home to crawl into bed. The worst thing about it all was that earlier in the night when John and I had planned on making it home at a good hour, Lauren had agreed to come and hangout at my place, and in my drunk dickery I had left her there alone. Though she was about it, and had told me to hangout as long as I needed, I still felt like a total dick, having left her alone at home. I slid into bed, unaware of how bad I smelt, and quickly passed out.
I woke up feeling less than up to par on Friday, and was quickly informed that I smelt like a brewery by Lauren. I wasn't ready to get out of bed yet, but to the hint and jumped through the shower to get the smoke and alcohol off me. Clean, I crawled back into bed and told Lauren all about how the night had gone, and about how John had returned the watch with no problems to ChaeChul. Eventually, it was time to go to work, so we got up and got a move on. Work was a bit of a struggle until I started feeling better in the evening, but there was still nothing I wanted to do more than just go to the gym after work and have a good sweat. That din't happen though. Instead, John convinced me to go to Itaewon for Adam and Fiona's goodbye/birthday party at Roofers. We were even ale to convince our coworker Jennifer to come with us, since she had only been back in Korea for several months and was unfamiliar and nervous about the entire Itaewon experience. Once there, Jennifer was blown away by it, and couldn't take it all in no matter how big her eyes could open. We went to Roofers, and after a couple beers I felt better, but still not like partying. Eventually the party moved from the roof to the bar, and by 230 it was high time for me to take off. Jennifer was ready to go as well, so we went out and got a couple kebabs, then walked up and down the street eating them, while I pointed out some of the different things/places she could do/go. When we finished eating, we got in a cab and came back to Seoul University, where she got out and I continued on to Bongcheon. I was home and in bed by 330, which was a step up from what could have happened with the group we were with.
Saturday morning came a bit earlier than I had expected it to, but I was feeling alright, and after a shower and some food, I was ready to go see Wes in the hospital. I made it there by lunch time, and was joined by Dallas who had also come in to see how Wes was progressing. His progress was only slightly further than that of Wednesday, but definitely in a positive direction making everyone happy and hopeful. I was a little aggravated about how Dallas and Monitta were trying to over stimulate Wes, and asking him to do more things than he could process, but I kept my mouth shut, because everyone is just trying to help. Eventually I left the hospital to meet John at Boramae Park, for what was supposed to be a relaxing sit in the park, because we both had playoff hockey the next day. When I got there though, he was drinking with some friends he had made, so when I sat down and they offered me a drink, I accepted and became the second one to break our no drinking pact. After the new friends left, we went to Sillim to get some fries at a place in the PODO Mall we always go to. It took a lot of convincing for John to get me to go there, but I caved and was glad that I did. Once we sat down, John we to the "bathroom", and came back with a new pair of running shoes I had been talking about getting for hockey since my other ones were pretty warn out. He confessed that it was a whole day set up to get me there, and it was really touching at how much thought he puts into his friendships, and how much he values the little things that I do for him during the week, like bringing him pasta salad at work. After our fries we headed home so we could get some good sleep before our games the next morning, John's at 10am, and mine at 1230. Once I was home, Lauren popped a little intoxicated from a party she had been at, and to give Azeem some space in case his date turned from just dinner into breakfast too.
Waking up Sunday morning, Lauren felt a lot like I did on Friday. I got ready and left for hockey at 11 so I cold get there and watch some of John's games, and left Lauren to get some more sleep. I got to the rink at 1130, just in time to watch John's last game, which they unfortunately lost to the Tea Baggers, putting them out of the past playoffs. My tam was up next, and for the first time in weeks we were back to full strength. We warmed up and got ready to play The Red Army, who had really put on a show in the last half of the season. We were sure we could beat them, but thought the best of three series would most likely go to three games. Our dreams of championship gold quickly began to fade in the fist game, as our team struggled to make the solid plays on the ball and to backcheck, leaving a lot of odd man rushes and scoring chances for a team with the best player in the league. It didn't take long until The Red Army scored, and from there, our goalie seemed to be out of practice and let in a few more easy goals. We lost the first game 5-3, but took it all in stride and tried to regroup for the second game. We came out stronger in the second game, and even Lauren, in her hung over state, came out to see what all the fuss was about. We took an early lead, and were playing hard, but again our fundamentals started to slip and the little mistakes were leading to goals against us. I had a few good hard moves on the ball, one that left me with a scoring chance and the ball just missing the net, and the other with me wiping out and losing my stick only to get up and charge the ball like a soccer player. It looked like we were going to be able to hold on to a win until a few stupid penalties, and some lucky bounces for the other team, crushed our lead, and gave them the go ahead goal. It was a crushing blow to be the second place team all year, then slip to third in the final weeks, only to get beaten out by the sixth place team, but they deserved it more than we did. After our games, we were all exhausted, but wanted to see how the rest of the games turned out; so I talked with Lauren for a few minutes, until she decided it was time for her to go get some more sleep, then grabbed a few beers and spent the rest of the day watching the other games and upsets. After the games we went to the baseball stadiums convenient store for a few more beers, before getting out of there. I had been texting with Lauren, and decided to go meet her at Azeem's place for a movie, so I took the subway over to Daebang and went with her to Azeem's. We were watching really weird movie, that was broken into 3 parts, then between parts 1 and 2 Lauren told me I had to go have a shower because I smelled bad. She just ins't used to hanging out with jocks, that's all. Having been smelly all day since hockey, and around other smelly guys, I guess I had forgotten how bad I must have smelled. I apologized for being the smelly kid at the party, and went to wash up before watching the second part of the movie. By the time part 2 finished it was nearly 330 and we were all looking tired, so I excused myself and wandered the foreign neighbourhood until I found a taxi home. Again, home to late to call home, I crawled into bed, and went to sleep.

A Good-Bye in Busan

2011-06-29T05:48:00.000-04:00

May 30 - June 5, 2011

After having left my bike down the hill Sunday night and walking home with Lauren to hangout and watch a movie, I stayed in bed late because I really didn't want to go to work. Eventually, getting up was a must, and I got ready for work, and headed off, again leaving my bike at the bottom of the hill because some Ajuma (older lady) had set up her food stand in front of it. Work was a breeze since it was the kids last days, and all we did was watch movies and have snack parties. After work I went home and made some food to get me through the next couple of days, then called it a night and went to bed.
Tuesday morning, I felt good enough to get up and go to the gym before work, which I really needed to do so I could stretch out my muscles from Sunday. At work after the gym, I cruised again with more movies and snack parties, and on my breaks I finished up the online essays that had come in late over the weekend. After work it was back to the gym for another workout, then I met Lauren and we went to hangout at my place and watch a movie, while I regaled her with how unorganized my school was for the new semester that started the very next day.
Wednesday morning I skipped my visit to the hospital, and instead opted to enjoy Lauren's company a little longer before I had to get to work and see what senselessness the school would be up to. And disappointed I was not. Mine and John's schedules were not yet ready, along with the students classroom assignments, so when the kids showed up it was utter chaos, not to mention that we had Korean teachers all over us about when we would be coming into give them break. I laughed when I got my schedule and discovered I had zero classes on Wednesday, and then spent the est of the day making point form notes for the weeks of blogs I needed to do. While I was on break from blogging, I ordered bus tickets for a bunch of us to go to Busan on the coming Friday for Alex and Louise's last weekend in Korea extravaganza. It was a bit of a muddle trying to buy tickets online, because there were conflicting messages with my Korean bank card, and in the end I ended up pre-purchasing half the bus and needed a Korea to help me cancel half the tickets and finalize the purchase of those that we needed. After work, it was back to the gym, then home to get some rest from my oh so busy day.
Thursday morning, I got up and packed up some food before heading to the gym to get in a good run and some weights. Two hours later it was off to work, where my schedule was much more robust than that of Wednesday, but still open enough to allow me plenty of time to check out pages of rage comics. After work, I went back to the gym and rode the bike before showering and meeting up with Lauren to hangout while I got my things sorted for going to Busan, and for hockey when I came back.
Friday morning I got up and went with Lauren down to the subway station so that she could head home, or possibly to the police station to deal with her old schools shenanigans, then headed off to the hospital myself to see Wesley. Wes was doing much better than the last time I saw him a couple weeks ago, and had been on a new brain stimulus medication since earlier in the week, and it was paying off. He was more attentive and responsive when I walked in the room, and he was beginning to respond to commands involving moving his fingers and hands. His mom and I talked about how exciting it was, and how much hope it gives to him waking up very soon. After my visit, I went off to work to get the day under way, and over with, so we could get off to Busan at 11. Work was good, and since I have been teaching the same kids and books for almost a year now, it was easy to get right down to work without having to prime the kids for what was going on. My classes finished by 9, as did John's, so we both quickly went home to grab our bags for Busan, before coming back to sign out for the night at 10. We went straight to the subway station and caught the train to Express Bus Terminal to meet Alex adn Louise, and Lindsey for our 11pm bus to Busan. Like typical foreigners, we thought we would grab a few bottles of soju and mix for the ride, but not too much because there is usually a stop along the way where we assumed we could buy some more. On the bus, our seats were not together, but after some no shows and some friendly asking, people moved and we were able to sit together. Once the bus hit the highway, we broke out the soju and got into talking, only to be quickly told to keep it down by a Korean man, because it was a night bus and people were sleeping. Disappointed, we cut our volume and drank quietly until the rest stop. Then disaster struck! The rest stop had no alcoholic beverages! This was a real shocker, given the fact that at every other place in this country, alcohol is readily available and abused. We solemnly got back on the bus and rode the rest of the way to Busan with nothing but each other for companionship.

After arriving at 4am Saturday morning on the bus, we took a taxi to Haeundae Beach to find a place to stay and get a few beers. None of us were tired, so we drank until the sun came up, then went to sleep for a few hours to recharge for the rest of the day. Some of us slept earlier than others, like Alex, Louise, and I, while John went to wander the beach and take pictures, and then when he came back Lindsey went. We slept until 1130 before getting up and getting ready for the beach. By then, Frank called and came to join us from his jim-jil-bang he stayed in the night before. Once together we set out to find Lindsey on the beach then get some breakfast. John had his heart set on Mexican and margaritas, but the restaurant was packed and none of us wanted to wait. Instead, we grabbed a bucket of KFC and and bag of beers, then hit the beach. The beach was a little chilly with some pre-afternoon wind, but once you were seated it was alright.
We enjoyed the beach from 1230-6pm, meeting up with Thomas and Jeanne a couple hours after we had sat down, and strolling around the sand sculptures that had been created for the festival going on. As it began to cool down, we went back to our room to take showers and chill out inside for a bit, then hit the streets to find a place for dinner. We had a hard time finding a BBQ place at first, and all became a little annoyed with Frank's determination to lead the party to suitable place, taking us on quite the back street adventure. In the end a little side street sam-gyup-sal and dwaegi-galbi palce was found, and we feasted like a bunch of hungry beasts. We finished eating around 1030 and headed to the strip to see what the bar scene would be like, and to meet with Brett and MiSeon, who had come in on the late bus after work. Since it was a long weekend, and so many foreigners had made the trip to Busan, the bars were packed, and no worth venturing into. Instead we sat around outside drinking soju and convenient store beers, and sharing laughs until around 3am. THEN it was fireworks time. We grabbed a handful of fireworks from the store, and a few more beers, and hit the beach to set them off and conclude the celebration of Alex and Louise's last weekend in Korea. Since fireworks are always fun, I don't need to tell you we enjoyed it, but when they were all gone at 4am, it was definitely time to pack it in. We all headed back to the pension/motel we had payed for, and everyone went to bed except John and I who hung out in the hall finishing our beers and texting people back in Seoul until almost 5. By the time we crawled into bed, everyone was out cold, and we were not looking forward to the impending morning alarm.
A mere 90 minutes later, my alarm went off and John and I had to get up to leave for Seoul. I guess it's not that we had to, as much as we both wanted to make it back for our hockey games, and not let our teams down. We grabbed our things and jumped in a taxi for the train station, hoping there would be spots on the 7 or 730 KTX back to Seoul. We missed the 7 am train, but were able to get on the 730, and with some water and snack bars, settled in for the 2.5 hour ride. Once we were on the move, I noticed some empty seats, and took full advantage of the situation, laying out over two free seats and pulling my hood over my head thus completing the cocoon effect. I was able to get in a solid 90 minute nap before we got back to Seoul at 1015. We caught the subway back to Bongcheon, where I rushed home and switched bags, then headed out to my hockey game for 12. I was going to be a few minutes late, but when I made it there, the games hadn't started yet on account of none of the refs showing up. It gave all the teams a few extra minutes to warm up, and by 1230 we started playing with a single ref. We played against a depleted but competitive Rig Rock Black Ambers team, but with our goalie on vacation, we still lost the first game 8-6. The second game was a close one as well, but we were able to pull it together for a 3-2 victory. After the games, as tired as I was, I stuck around to watch the rest of the games until John's games at 6. After all the games were over, and things were cleaned up, a group of us went over to Gangnam for a last dinner with Tony Heikkila. We packed into a dak-galbi place, and even Lauren came to eat and witness what was a CBHK gathering. The service was a little frustrating, and after having to ask for multiple things, multiple times, we were all frustrated and ready to get out of there as soon as we finished. Luckily, we made it out of there without going crazy, and were able to make it home on the last subway. It was a little late to call home, so after a refreshing shower, and some tidying up, it was off to bed, and lights out on another week.

The group has slowly been slimming for months now, and with Alex and Louise getting ready to go, the reality of this lifestyle is sorely realized.

Dear Colleagues: Why You Gotta Make Life So Stressful

2011-06-22T07:32:00.001-04:00

May 23-29, 2011

After having played my legs off the day before, I slept extra hard and late on Monday. I woke up with barely enough time to make some food for work, and had to trust that my apartment wouldn't burn down while I had a shower with the stove on, then got off to work with but a few minutes to spare. After I signed in, I had to run back to the movie theatre and pick up a few more tickets for my kids, because I had run out by Friday and still had a couple classes to give to. Luckily, the students wrote their DT Tests, the tests that determine if they get to go to the next level, the previous week, so in most of my classes we just played vocabulary games to help them study for their Korean vocabulary tests they still had to do. Then, in other classes we just watched movies and relaxed for a change of. After work, I took myself straight home to watch some TV and get some more food made up since I had been so late in the morning, and have a conversation with Lauren on Skype about getting together since she had recently come back to Korea. Before I knew it, it was 2am and time to go to bed.
Tuesday morning, the second day after hockey, for the first time in a long time, hurt worse than on Monday. I seemed to be more stiff and sore than usual. So, after a quick bite to eat I headed off to the gym to get in a run and some weights, and hopefully work out the lactic acid and tightness. After the gym, I went to work and got to work on the students' second draft essays, which were just as horrible as usual. Work whizzed by, because I was playing games or watching movies again, and when it was all over I went to meet Lauren to watch a movie. We agreed on Pirates of the Caribbean, though I had already seen it on the Friday, but I kept that to myself and thoroughly enjoyed it for a second time. Since the movie didn't end until after 1am, instead of going back to her friend Azeem's house, where she is staying, and waking him up, she came back to crash at my house. It was nice to see again, and catch up on how she had been the last little while.
Having Lauren over for the night, and not wanting to be rude and take off on her in the morning, I skipped my usual visit to the hospital and caught up some more with her. Eventually it was time for me to get to work, so we headed down to the subway station for her to head to Azeem's, and me to work. Wednesday marked the official last week of the semester, and just about every class was have snack parties and watching movies. This gave me some extra time to finish up some online essays, and do some point form notes for my blog that I have gotten behind on yet again. After work it was off to the gym again to try and stay on top of my training, but the weight gain euphoria I had felt the week before faded as my weight has begun to drop again due to the heat and my lack of appetite/sweating like crazy all the time. When I was finished at the gym I headed home to have some food and watch a movie before calling it a night.
Thursday morning, I got up and went to the gym in the morning to see my friend who works there, SeongWon, and of course to get in a good run to start the day. After the gym it was off to work for another walk in the park day of movies and snack parties, though there were a few more essays that trickled in over night that had to be marked. Then, though I had known since Wednesday, at the end of the day Jean pulled John into his class for a chat about some "stuff" the Korean teachers had brought up about him in their weekly meeting. It was no surprise to me when Jean told me he had to talk to John, and even the things he had to talk to him about were things that had come up in the past. The Korean teachers we upset about how John acts and talks around them, and they even went as far to say it felt like they were being sexually harassed at times. I can see where they are coming from, because he isn't the quietest or most candid about what he thinks, and has even made me question what the hell he was doing from time to time. Other complaints included him frequently leaving his classroom for non-class related reason, or interrupting the Korean teachers classes for non-class related reason. I know how they feel on this aspect, because he does it more often than I care for to me, even though he has been told not to. He simply has a problem focusing, and doesn't see being reprimanded as a problem in his mind. There were a few other things, but they were mostly due to a lack of understanding between cultural jokes and references. Needless to say, the end of the day was an awkward one when John realized I had known he was going to get talked to and didn't tell him, and was upset. I explained to him that it was because, Jean had to talk to him when he had time, and if I had of told John, then he would have bugged Jean to no end. From there it went as I thought it would, and John started making rounds to ask/interrogate all the teachers about what had been said and who said it. I warned him not to, and that it wouldn't help his case, but it's just how he works. After work, I went back to the gym, and stayed as far away from the tension at work as possible. I even had the pleasure of meeting Lauren after the gym, and hanging out watching a movie at my place while I told her about the fiasco at work.
Even with Lauren at my apartment Friday morning, I got up to get to mine and John's prearranged man date to watch Kung Fu Panda 2. Though I thought I had made it clear she could come, Lauren didn't want to intrude on our date, and I dropped her off at the subway station on my way to the Egg Yellow building to meet John for the 1030 showing in 3D. The movie was fantastic, just like the first one. It was hilarious and action packed, yet had moments that were very touching. All together it gets two thumbs up from me. After the movie, John and I took a few minutes to try yet again at winning a stuffed Hulk hand out of a claw game that we had so desperately tried to win earlier in the week. Only this time, our wasted dollars were not in vain, and after several attempts, we pulled it into the chute and were the happiest kinds in the theatre. Feeling impressed with ourselves we continued down to the street to have a couple beers with Eric before he left the next week, and people watch. Eventually it was time to go to work, and when my bike wouldn't start, John and I had to double to work on his scooter, making a quick stop at his house so he could change his clothes. Again work went by quickly, with more movies and snack parties, until the end of the day when I got a series of texts from Brady about the new watch John had acquired the week before. It turned out that the Friday before when he had gone to Gold Bar to meet the group without me, he had gotten super drunk and stolen a $800 watch that was sitting on the bar. In his drunken stupor he didn't remember taking it, but it turned out to be ChaeChul the bartender/bouncer's watch, that he had taken off while breaking up a dispute between a couple of people. The bar had narrowed it down to somebody from our group since they were the last ones in there, and even further to John because he spends most of his time by the bar. I relayed the fact that they knew it was him to John and told him that he had to give it back. He put up a bit of resistance at first, saying if they didn't know it was him for sure why should he, though he actually felt about having done that to someone who is a good friend of mine at a bar I really like. I let Brady know that John would bring the watch back as soon as he could, though with working two jobs it would be hard to get there for a few days. ChaeChul was cool with that, and happy that he had located it and would be getting it back. Stressed out yet again by the actions of John, I went to the gym to sweat it out. My workout was short however, because dealing with the watch took up so much of my time after work, and I had promised to meet Lauren again, so didn't want to stay too long at the gym. When I finished working out, I had a text from John about grabbing a beer at our spot while I waited for Lauren to show up, so went to meet him and calm things over. Luckily, everything was cool and we just chatted about tings at work and the watch without any conflicts of opinion, and when Lauren showed up we went our separate ways. I took the walk home and some time at home to rant about it to Lauren, then we threw on a movie and chilled out to calm my nerves.
After a stressful couple of days, and a late night, I stayed in bed late Saturday missing my visit to Wesley again, but it would have only been a short visit, as I had plans in the late afternoon. When Lauren and I finally got, I made us some eggs and ham, then got ready to go to Scott Brady's wedding. It was a very last minute choice for me to attend, since I had told him I would go but had gotten no directions to the time or place. Luckily Rob Gibson hooked me up, and told me it was at the War Museum at 5pm. That gave me just enough time to have a shower and get dressed before running out the door hoping to catch a taxi and not get into too much traffic. It wasn't meant to be though, and I ended up stuck in traffic on my way to Samgakgi, and was 10 minutes late for the wedding. It was an outdoor, very traditional wedding, that only lasted about an hour. After the ceremony there were some pictures, and then a buffet dinner where all the hockey players sat together and made sure Scott's money for the all you can drink option wasn't wasted. After the buffet, we all headed over to Scrooges in Itaewon, where they had the second floor booked out for a more reception like get together. There was food and free beer from 830 until 1230, and when they closed up at 2 Rob Gibson drove me over to Gangnam on his bike so I could meet up with Alex and Louise, Frank, Brady and SoHyun, and a couple others whose names escape me. I hung out with them and had a couple more drinks at Voodoo, then called it a night as we all headed out to get cabs around 430. As I usually do when trying to get a cab from that area, picked up some water and walked down to Kyodae where it is easier to get a taxi. It gives me time to sober up and get some fresh air before I get home and sleep. I was home and sleeping by 530, which was way better than I thought the night was going to go.
Sunday morning I woke up feeling much better than I had anticipated around 11, but took the chance to lay around in bed until 1, when I got up to get ready for my hockey adventure for the week. Our games started at 4 against The Teabaggers, and though we had our guys back from Hong Kong, we were still missing a couple good forwards to vacation and tests, and now our goalie was gone for a wedding so Gibson would have to take net for us. Things didn't look good for us from the beginning, as we came out flat and lost the first game 4-1, but as we regrouped, the second game looked to be ours until a few collapsing moments occurred and we lost again in the final moments 5-4. Disappointed again with a double loss day, I sat around drinking a few beers and talking with other players until the end of the night, then cleaned up and headed back to Seouldae to pick up my bike. Things just kept going down hill from their. When I got to the station, I had to maneuver my bike out around a bunch of pedal bikes in order to kick start it and ride it to Bongcheon. In doing so, I managed to scrape the top of my foot on the kick stand and ended up bleeding all over my sandal. Regardless of the blood, I rode it back to the grocery store, then went in to get my weekly supply and walked home, leaving my bike on the street. After putting away my groceries and having a shower I went down to meet Lauren at the subway station so we could hangout. When I tried to get my bike to start so we could ride it home in stead of walking up the hill, it wouldn't start, so I had to leave it there for the night. Once home for good, I called home to catch everyone up on the details of my life, and vice versa, then it was time for a movie and a good sleep ; )

Movie Tickets!! Ouch My Wallet :(

2011-06-15T08:35:00.000-04:00

May 16-22, 2011

Having collected money after Emily had left on Saturday, I got up Monday morning earlier than usual so that I could do my normal cooking and such and still have enough time to stop at the bank before work to put the money into Monitta's Korean account. On top of putting the rest of the money in, I transferred some money of my own home, and got a new bank card. After that I went to work to sign in, but left immediately to go pick up the movie tickets that I give to my best students at the end of each semester. It is an expensive prize, $220 for 30 tickets, but since I do not give them anything during the 3 months I teach them, I figure a big prize at the end helps keep them motivated. I made it back to work just in time to start at 240, and throughout the day gave out the coveted movie tickets to my best student(s) in each class. Luckily, since the kids had already written their final test, to see whether or not they move to the next level, the week before, I was able to play some vocabulary games with them, making my day go by much faster than usual. When work was over, I went home and chilled out with Goah and some TV until it was bed time.
Rejuvenated Tuesday morning, I got up and went to the gym before work, and had a good run and weights session to get the blood flowing. It was a good thing I did as well, because at work it was that time of the online cycle when John and I had to mark first draft essays again. As per usual, they were overall poorly done, but the silver lining was that it was the end of semester, so many students had given up on doing them. It's not the best attitude to have towards it, but after trying for months to get the information across to them, only to have them write in every way you told them not to, you begin to care less and less. After work, I went back to the gym to ride the bike, and sweat out the frustration of the students essays, then it was home for some eggs and a shake, before throwing on the TV and going to bed.

Wednesday morning, I got up a little later than I had wanted, and headed off to the hospital. When I got there, Wes' caregiver told me I had missed Casey and Monitta by only a few minutes, so I didn't get to have as in depth update as usual. Mrs. Oh his caregiver did tell me that he had been doing good, and that the doctors had started giving him steroid injections into his legs to keep the muscles strong. I stayed for a short visit, then had to leave so I could get to work on time, and get back to marking the students awful essays. After a flurry of essays, the day was done and it was time to go to the gym. After another good bike ride and some weights, I went home for some food, TV and sleep.

Thursday morning I got up and prepared some more food for work, then packed it up and headed off to the gym, trying to get back on track after missing so many workouts the week before. Feeling good after the gym, I went to work to hand out some more movie tickets and watch some movies or play games with my classes, then marked essays during my breaks. By the end of the day, John and I had done all but a few first draft essays, as well as a few second draft early entries. Once again it was off to the gym after work, but this time it was to make up for the fact that John and I had another man date planned for the next morning.

John called me early Friday morning to make sure I was still down for our movie date, which I was, so we planned to meet at the Podo Mall Lotte Cinema for the 940 showing of Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides 3D, the fourth movie in the series. I rode my bike there hoping the impending rain would hold off, and made it just in time to get our tickets and catch the opening of the movie. The movie was very well done, and we both liked it more than the previous two, which were too wrapped up in love stories and not about as much pirating. This one did have a love story, but it was down played so that the real adventure could stand out. After the movie, we went outside to see that it had begun raining, and that the skies promised more to come. John had to go pick up some more medicine, and I wanted to get home and make some food and take a shower before work, so we went our separate ways, and both got wet riding in the rain. At home, I made up some food and had a shower, then walked to work instead of riding. Luckily, the rain stopped during the day, and by the time work finished I was able to walk to the gym without getting wet. I had a pretty good workout to finish off the day, then went home and ate before watching a movie and going to bed.

Even after getting a good nights sleep, I woke up Saturday feeling down and kind of mopy. It didn't help that it was a gloomy and rainy day. Feeling as I did, I skipped going to the hospital to stay in bed and watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and instead just called Casey to see how Wes was doing. Later in the afternoon, the rain cleared up and I decided I would go to the Haebongcheon (HBC) Music Fest to see Trevor's band play. I didn't plan on being there for very long, and ran into some other hockey guys while I was there, who were at varying degrees of party mode. Eventually I ran into Thomas and Jeanne, who were there to watch some bands before going to meet our other group of friends in Itaewon for dinner. I hadn't planned on staying after 9pm, but when I heard about dinner, I couldn't refuse seeing everyone. So, instead of going home at 9, I went over to Itaewon to meet with everyone for dinner at an Indian restaurant behind the Hamilton Hotel. Dinner was good, and John even came around from the wedding party he had been at, and with him he brought his "new" watch that he had somehow ended up with after going to Gold Bar the night before with Alex and Louise. When dinner was over, I made for the subway, as I was trying to have an early night before playing hockey Sunday with a depleted team, but John convinced me to go with him for one more beer at the wedding party he was at on the condition he would split a cab with me at 1am. I'm not sure why I went for it, knowing full well in the back of my mind that I would end up going home alone, but went for it anyways. Sure enough, after a couple beers, John had disappeared and left me talking with a couple guys he knew from snowboarding. Knowing it would come to it, I balked at myself as I took a taxi home by myself at 130. As silly as I was to have stayed, I had a good time, and had stayed relatively sober, so going to bed I didn't feel too bad.
Since I got home at a decent time, and had drank a fair amount of water, Sunday morning I felt great, and got up just after 11 to get ready to go play hockey. I knew it was going to be a long day because half of our team were not going to be at the game. Our best forward and two defencemen were in a tournament in Hong Kong, another good forward was busy writing a mock exam, and another good forward would only be playing the first game because he had to pick up his family from the airport for his coming wedding. This left us with our normal goalie, a couple good forwards, a handful of mid-range forwards, and a defence made up of one good player, myself who isn't that bad, and a guy who has no idea. I got there at 1 for our 2 O'clock game against the Red Army, who were equipped with almost their whole team, including the best player in the league. We tried our best to stay positive, but knew that it was gong to be a long day, and I was glad that I had done some extra sprints on the bike throughout the week, because I was going to need to play long shifts. Little did I know that by long shifts, I would end up playing almost the entire time, because the other defencemen were in great need of breaks than I was. Our first game, we came out strong, and played as well as we could, but the Red Army got the upper hand, and even though I was playing their top player as well as I could, the number of other players on their team that can finish started to take its toll on us. The eventual result was a mercy of 7-0 in 30 minutes of play. Exhausted, our team took a short break to talk some strategy before the next game started, and like all our matches, we came out stronger in the second game. We played a more conservative game, trying not to always race to the puck, and to dump it when we were collapsing. It worked out at first, and we took a 2-0 lead, but once again fatigue set in and we watched our lead fade away. We were able to hang on and play the entire 45 minutes in the second game, it still ended in an 8-3 defeat, and I had played all but 5 minutes of both leaving my entire body sore and depleted. We were very disappointed in how the day went, but I took solace in being told that I had played well against the top player. Our hole team was a little upset, but we still stuck around for a few beers to heal the wounds of the day. One beer led to another, and some long conversations later, it was the end of the 6 O'clock game and time to clean up, then go home. I could barely move by the time I made it back to Bongcheon, but made it to get groceries before going home for a long hot shower, and a phone call home.

Expats Coming Through Again :)

2011-06-15T04:00:00.000-04:00

May 9-15, 2011

After such a long day on Sunday, I once again took the opportunity to sleep in on Monday morning while contemplating the idea about having another benefit for Wesley. Eventually I had to get out of bed and make some food to take to work, then shower and get out the door for my long day of classes. While at work, Trevor contacted me about having found a venue at Stompers in Itaewon, and thus meeting with the owner Dwayne after work. I couldn't say no, even though I wanted to, so we arranged to meet there around 1030 to talk it out and share ideas. I didn't end up getting htere until nearly 11, but that was OK, because there was a poker game going on, so Dwayne was a little busy with that. We talked about the door prizes we would raffle off, and how much to charge at the door. Dwayne donated a bottle of Jack Daniels and Jagermeister, and Trevor and his wife had secured a gift certificate from Zelen, a Bulgarian restaurant. We also decided that we would charge a minimum cover of $1 at the door, and that I would canvas the area later in the week for more donations, and to put up posters that had been donated by another friend of Trevor's. We finished up just after 12, and Trevor offered to drive me home, since he lives out in Incheon and it is somewhat on his way. I took him up on the offer and by 1230 I was home to get some sleep, because instead of having Tuesday off like most of the country for Buddha's birthday, we had to be in at 930am for a special open house fun day for the kids.

Tuesday, was the tenth, which was Buddha's birthday, but instead of being out to enjoy the festivities and parade, we had to come to work for a school promotional day. It was similar in set up to the last ones we had, but the students couldn't bring their friends this time. Instead they would be using their online student miles, similar to air miles, for doing their homework, to purchase prizes and food. They also had the chance to play games with the Korean teachers to win more points, so they could buy more prizes. The day, though not a holiday, was a great way to get up early, and not waste a day off. Fortunately, it was a rainy day, so it is highly likely that I would have spent the day inside being a bed worm. The kids really enjoyed it as well, which makes it all the more worth it. When it was all finished at 430, John and I helped clean up the class rooms and market room where we had worked, then headed across to the 7/11 to have a couple beers and sit out front of the store. Jean finished up a couple things and joined us, but eventually it got too chilly, so we went over to our chicken place to get some food and a few more beers. By 830 we had our fill of chicken and beer, and all decided to head home and try to get some things done before the next day. I however, got home and immediately fell asleep for 2 hours instead of doing anything productive. When I woke up it was 10pm and I was wide awake, so I took to doing all the things I had planned on doing earlier. I did some laundry, washed the floor, washed my dishes, and then cooked up a storm until nearly 3am before the grips of sleep grabbed me again. So it was off to bed again, but this time with far more accomplished.

Wednesday morning I got up, excited to get to the hospital to tell Monitta and Casey the news about the concert we had arranged for the weekend. They were thrilled at how supportive the community had been, and continues to be, and as we took turns filling each other in respectively, on the details of Wes and the benefit. After my visit, it was off to work, where once again, Trevor and I talked throughout the day about the bands, door prizes, and getting posters printed and up around the area. After work, I went to the gym to get in a light workout, but didn't stay to long so I could get home and get some sleep in order to get an early start on Thursday.
As early as I could muster, a mere 10am, I got up and out of the house, so I could get to Itaewon and canvas for donations. I started with picking up the gift certificate from Zelen, then proceeded to walk down the entire street of restaurants behind the Hamilton Hotel, asking at every restaurant if they would be willing to donate to our cause. Unfortunately, I had to leave messages at all of them, because apparently managers/owners do not work before 5pm, and nobody else is allowed to make executive decisions. So, I left a bunch of messages, with high hopes that some of them would get back to me. Then just when all hope was lost, the Italian restaurant casAntonio, that said they would donate a $50 gift certificate once I brought some documentation of our event. From there, I went to Ali Baba, a Middle Eastern restaurant, and they agreed to donate 50 free appetizers to give away at the door, but under the same circumstances that I bring them some documentation of our event. With lifted spirits, I headed to work and called Trevor to see how his poster guy was doing, and to tell him about the promised donations. Trevor had assumed I had gotten the emailed finished copy of the poster from his friend, but when he found out I didn't, made a phone call to find out when they would be done. It turned out that Colin, the poster guy, had been tied up, but promised to get it finished and to me by the next morning. At work the rest of the day, I spent some time making information posters, with the complete story and pictures of Wes' condition on them to give to the restaurants, as well as a rough event poster of my own, in case Colin didn't come through. After work, I went to the gym to get a good work out in, and get rid of some of the stress that organizing things so last minute can create, then went home to get some sleep.
Low and behold, Friday morning I got up and and had no event poster in my inbox. I sent Colin a text, and he said he was just finishing it, and that he would have it to me by noon. Feeling that would still leave me enough time to get some printed and make it to work, I went with John to COEX Mall to see about getting his iPod fixed. Unfortunately, John was more worried about having beers, and every time I lost sight of him, it was because he was off buying more beers, and before long we were were late for work, and just getting to the Apple Store. On top of now being late for work, I still hadn't received the finished posters, and John couldn't get his iPod fixed. Full of disappointment, we went to work. Just as we got into the office I received a text saying Colin had emailed me the finished posters, so I had no choice but to print them out at work, then go to Itaewon to hand them out. I quickly went to the places that had promised donations, then set about putting up posters around the area for passer byes to see. I did get a little flack for putting them up in some places, but I was in a hurry and really didn't care about what people were saying. When I was done, I rushed back to work, which was a fatal error, because I took the subway the wrong direction, and ended up 4 stops out of my way. I made it back in time to start my classes at 6, but was not in the mood to teach by that point, making the last four hours of the day stretch out forever. Having started the day with beer, when work was over it only seemed fit to go have a couple more, so we went to our favourite chicken restaurant with Eric, had some food and a couple pitchers, then called it a night and went home. I was able to get into bed by 2am, which was good, because I knew the next day would be a long one.
Saturday morning, I was up around 10am and out the door to go see Wes. Casey and Monitta were at the hospital, and had been since the caregiver had left Friday afternoon. Casey was getting ready to head home for some rest before going to the benefit, but Monitta was going to stay for the day, and said she probably wouldn't make it out. We talked about how much better he had been doing with his therapy, and how strong he had gotten, then about when they might take him off of his current medication and start him on the brain stimulus medication they had mentioned. I stayed at the hospital until just after 4, then headed home to get ready for the fundraiser. I had a shower and got all the things together that I needed to bring, and headed out of the house just before 7, so I could meet with Alex and Louise, and Trevor and EunJu for some dinner in Itaewon before going to set up at Stompers. We had some Thai food, then made a quick stop at Ali Baba to pick up the appetizer coupons, and made it to Stompers by 9 to get set up. Before the bands even started there was a lot of people there to support the cause, and by the time the bands started at 1030, the place was nearly full. The bands were great, donations generous, and everyone had a great time. John and a large number of hockey guys even showed up after biking the Han River all afternoon, as did Frank, Brady, SoHyun, Emily, Dallas, Angelo, Whitney, and Casey. John even took the chance to apologize to Frank for the incident at Gold Bar, which was really big of him. Between the second and third band we raffled off the alcohol and restaurant gift cards, then let the last band finish the night in style. Everything was wrapped up by 130, at which point the place cleared out rather quickly. I stuck around and talked with some of the band members, and helped clean up until Dwayne returned from own show at another bar, then we had a couple beers together and chilled out for a bit. I had sent the money home with Emily, who left after we stopped officially collecting money, but was still getting the odd donation, and after talking to her and including what I had been given, we raised 1million Won again for Wesley and his family. Hearing such a high number made everyones' night, and made it all worth it. Around 330 I decided it was time for me to head home, so I said my goodbyes, and headed down to the main street (via the stairs as to avoid walking down Hooker Hill) to catch a cab.

Waking up Sunday was a bit of a pin, but since I didn't play until 6pm, I took my sweet time getting motivated, and packing up for hockey. I got out of the house and to hockey in time to watch some of the 2 O'clock game and the 4 O'clock game, before my game against Shank's Dublin Dynamo team. It was a hard fought battle at first, with the Dynamo taking the first game 3-2, but we came back strong in the second game to win it 4-0. Then again, I stuck around to clean up before getting on the subway to go home, stopping on my way to get some groceries and a pizza. Once home, I devoured the pizza, then called home, before getting cleaned up and going to bed.

It's Children's Day, Better Act Like It

2011-06-14T08:22:00.001-04:00

May 2-8, 2011

After such an upsetting show against John's team, I slept in Monday before getting up to make some food and get my week under way. I made up a big batch of tuna pasta salad and some stir fry, then showered and headed into school. Even though Monday is my long day, I start with a great bunch of kids, and the rest of the day falls into place with some not bad classes as well. After work, I went home and prepped some food for the next day before throwing on the T.V. and calling it a night.
Tuesday morning, feeling spry and ready to go, I got up and had some breakfast, then went to the gym before work. It felt good to get a good run in after a day of rest, and when I was finished, it was off to work for the afternoon. Then again when work was finished, I went back to the gym to get some time in on the bike and with the weights. After the gym I went home for some food, and then it was off to bed.
Keeping in stride with my regular appearances at the hospital, I got up Wednesday morning and headed over to see Wesley and his mom. Wesley's improvements were minimal, but things like his physiotherapy were taking less and less of a toll on him, and he was beginning to show signs of improved strength. It was a good visit, and when I left I headed straight to work, arriving a little earlier than usual. Work went by quickly, and seeing as Thursday was Children's Day, a national holiday, John and I headed over to Gold Bar after work to celebrate his friend Lindsey's birthday. Alex and Louise also came with a couple of Louise's friends, and we had a great time, shooting the toy bubble gun John had bought, and dancing. At one point in the night, some drunk and slutty girl made Louise angry, and there were some angry words said, most of which I missed out on, so when I tried to help I was completely lost in the situation. Things calmed down as fast as they had started, and before we knew it, it was 5am and time to go home. John, who was much drunker than I was, and I got in a cab for Bongcheon, and when we got back to our neighbourhood, we got off closer to his house so he could get home easier. Myself, I went over to the subway station where we left our bikes, and rode mine the 5 blocks home so that I wouldn't have to go back for it in the morning. Not the smartest choice, but whatever. By 6 I was crawling into bed, and looking forward to a good long sleep.
The long sleep I was looking for, fell a few hours short when John called me at 11 to ask how he had gotten home, and if I wanted to go get a beer. I told him I needed to sleep for another hour before I even considered leaving the house, but after I got off the phone with him, I only laid in bed drinking water and watching T.V. Eventually he called me back after some more sleep himself, and put the rush on me to met him at the station with my bike so we could ride over to meet a bunch of hockey guys, and Alex and Louise at the baseball game, and make the most of our day off. I quickly hopped through the shower and threw on some clothes, then went to meet him. We rode over to the baseball stadium, through traffic and over sidewalks at times, but made it in time to get some tickets from a scalper, then enjoy a few Family Mart beers while we waited for the rest of the gang to assemble. The game was the LG Twins vs. Dusan Bears, and was a great game to watch, once we got in there after the third inning. We enjoyed a few more beers during the game, then a few more after while we waited for the crowds to die down. Eventually, once the traffic cleared, people started taking off on the subway, and John and I decided to ride our bikes over to Gangnam for a burger near his old school. It was delicious and really filled the gap all the beer had created. When we were finished eating, we got back on our bikes and finished the ride home. The fresh air felt great, and helped sober us up a little. We got home just after midnight, and it wasn't long before I crawled into bed, exhausted.
After two days of substantial drinking, I woke up feeling crappy on Friday. I thought it might go away as I got ready for work, but then at work it settled in for the day. It didn't help that I didn't teach until 6, so I had to sit at work thinking about it for 4 straight hours. Nonetheless, when work was finished I was feeling a little better, and went home to make some apple crisp for Melanie and WonJong's house warming party in Suwon. Having burnt out my large stove burner earlier in the week, I had to do it all from the little burner, meaning I had to do it all in 1/3 the normal portion sizes and combine it all after. This method made for quite the long evening, and I didn't finish cleaning up until 230 in the morning. After that I was pretty awake, so I watched some T.V. until around 330, then drifted off to sleep.
Saturday morning, I tried to get up nice and early so I could get to the hospital at a good time in order to help Monitta out with anything she needed before I would have to leave for Suwon. I stayed with her, and talked about how he had been doing until around 230, then headed home to pick up the apple crisp, and head for the bus to Suwon from Sadang Station. Unfortunately, I had forgotten it was the day before parents day, which meant a great number of Koreans would be trying to get back to where their parent live to have a visit. When I got to the bus stop outside of Sadang Station, the line for the Suwon bus was almost a block long. The buses were running with extra numbers due to the overwhelming amount of passengers, and in the end I only had to wait for 3 buses before it was my turn to board. I had a short nap on the 45 minute ride to Suwon, then called Melanie when I was close so WonJong could come meet me at the bus stop. Once we found each other, we waited for another 15 minutes until Brett and MiSeon showed up, then went over to their house, where Louise and Alex, Brady and SoHyun, and Mel were all hanging out getting dinner ready. While Alex and WonJong ran the barbecue, the rest of us sat around taking and getting things ready inside. To eat, we had hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken shish kebabs, with potato salad and regular salad as sides. After the main meal, we all sat back and watched Mel and WonJong's wedding video, which had a cameo by Louise and Alex, then turned our attention to the apple crisp and ice cream cake myself and Brady and SoHyun had brought. As a combination they were fantastic, thought there was a slight mishap when Brady stabbed his hand trying to cut the very solid ice cream cake. It was nearly a fatal injury, but he pulled through and we moved onto dessert time, which coincided with board game time, having vetoed the idea of noraebang. We played Trivial Pursuit as 3 teams of 3, and boy did we ever feel like a bunch of schmucks. We all consider ourselves to be of average intelligence, but the questions in the edition we were playing were out of control. We were having the hardest time getting correct answers, but in the end, the team that I was on with Brady and SoHyun collected all the pie pieces and won the game. However, by that point it was already well into the night, and neither the subway nor buses would be running for a couple more hours. We decided that was the perfect time to dig into Alex and Louise's ceviche, which was a delicious finale to the evening. After that we stayed up and drank a few more beers until the buses started running again at 530. Once they were up and running, we walked over to the station, and I got on the bus back to Sadang by 6am. The ride went much faster this time, as time seems to fly by when you are passed out, and when we arrived at Sadang I transfered to the subway to make it home by 7 and crawl into my bed.

A mere three hours after crawling into bed, it was time to get back up and get ready to go play hockey at 12. We were playing Leahey's team, The Black Shaft Revelations, who have been our top rivals all season. We played two hard fought battles and came out with a 3-4 loss and 4-3 win, which was the really the best we could hope for against such a strong team. It would have been nice to squeeze out both wins, but you have to take what you can get. Sejin, Blake's old friend, showed up after my game, and we watched John's games at 2 and drank a couple beers, and laughed at John as he played. While we were watching John's game, Trevor Clements, and player from The Black Shafts approached me about having another fundraiser for Wesley. It just so happens that he plays in a couple different bands that were looking to have a gig, and thought it would be a great opportunity to make some money for Wesley and his family. Trevor had already set up a venue and bands, all I had to do was get the man power and some door prizes. It was a great opportunity, so I jumped on it and said we would love to be a part of it. After that we stuck around watching a couple more games until 7, when it got a little chilly and we got hungry. John had left to go to the first session for his tattoo so Sejin and I went to Gangnam to get a bite at a Mexican place near Big Rock, and then went to an outdoor bar to have a couple beers. Eventually, when John finished his tattoo session, he came and met us for a beer, and then Sejin took her bus home,and we took the subway home. I missed my trip to the grocery store, but luckily I hadn't used up all my food stores from the week before, so I would be alright for the short week ahead. Then after my weekly phone call home, I had a shower and called it a week.

Thank You for the Reminder

2011-06-14T08:22:00.000-04:00

April 25 - May 1, 2011

After an incredibly long weekend of hockey and fundraising, my sleep went uninterrupted until around 12 Monday, when I got up and made some food before heading to work for my long day. My legs were still pretty whipped, so I spent most of the day trying to stay seated. After work, the night consisted of a little bit of cooking, and a little bit of reading before my eyelids couldn't take it anymore, and I went to bed.
Tuesday morning, I was still feeling a little lazy, but i tried my best to get to the gym for a bit of a workout. I got in a quick run, and a few weight exercises before it was time to shower up and get to work. The little that I did made me feel much better, and I felt much better at work having gone. After work, I went back to the gym to get in a good bike ride and some weights, and to ultimately have a good shower since my shower had been giving me problems. After the gym, I went home and had a feast of processed cheese, ham, and crackers, and a protein shake before throwing on a movie to fall asleep to.
Wednesday I got up and went to see Wes in the hospital, and check how he had been since the weekend and meet his cousin Dylan, who had flown in for a visit. His progress was still moving forward, albeit slow, but forward nonetheless. His left eye was showing great signs of responsiveness, and to certain audio cues he would turn his head and stare. I stayed at the hospital for a couple hours, and then left so I could get to work on time. Work was filled with a flurry of second draft essays to be checked and graded, which made the day go by quicker, but more frustrating. The only reprieve during the second draft essay check week, is that I have no trouble failing the kids who did not make sufficient changes, which lessens the work load. At the end of the day I went to the gym to ride the bike and lift some weights. Then as I finished and weighed myself, I was delighted to find that I had hit an all time high of 77kg. Looks like the trouble is paying off. After the gym, it was home for some food, and to get some sleep.
Thursday morning I got up happy about the night before's weigh in, and got myself ready for the day with a good breakfast, then headed out to the gym. After a good run, I did some light weights, then hit the shower so I could get to work and get back on essay marking. Between John and myself, we were able to get almost all the essays finished by the end of the day, making home time extra exciting because we knew we would be living it up on Easy Street the next day. Then again at the end of the day, with the affirmation that my work was paying off, it was back to the gym for some biking and lifting. That and I knew I would not make it the next morning, because John and I had scheduled another man date. After that it was off to home, and to bed.
Friday morning I got up extra early to meet John and Eric at the Lotte Theatre to watch Thor in 3D. The movie started at 940, so I naturally left my house at 940. Luckily it was nice out, so I rode my bike over to the theatre, and was able to make it there and meet them just 10 minutes late. So really, I helped us miss the previews. Thor was a pretty good movie, though I was a little disappointed that it was more of a love story/life lesson movie, but a good movie nonetheless. When the movie was over we hung out for a few minutes, but the skies were turning grey, so I rode my bike home to make some food and get ready for work. Work was good, and I used the first 4 hours of not having classes to check the few essays that had trickled in over night, and then it was of to my classes. My day was going as smooth as any Friday goes when all you want to do is get out of work, and then in my very last class I had a kid make my day. When I walked into, my kids had been having a juice and snack party with their Korean teacher, and immediately half of them started pleading to go to the washroom. I quickly squashed their dreams by say "No", but then added "You can only go to the bathroom if you are going to pee your pants". Then to my surprise and dismay, one of my boys replied, "I'm Peter Pan!". Bewildered at how he thought I said Peter Pan, and in turn came up with his response, I just stood there for a moment and laughed. That comment alone was enough to get me through the rest of the day, and when work was over I went to the gym to make up for my missed workout in the morning. Then it was home for some food and a good nights sleep.
Saturday morning was a bright and early one so I could get up to the hospital to see Wes and help Monitta out after her long night alone with him. I got there just after 1030, and stayed until just after 7pm so I could get to Itaewon for SoHyun's birthday party at Ho Lee Chow, the American Chinese restaurant in the Hamilton Hotel. I was a little late for dinner, but was able to get my order in and eat without being that guy everyone was waiting on. Over dinner I had the chance to tell Melanie and WonJong, Alex and Louise, Brady and SoHyun, Thomas and Jeanne, and Frank about how well Wes was doing, and about the medications he was on to prevent any seizures and infections, and how well he was responding to them. After our dinner, we all headed over to Bungalow for a few drinks. It was a great, but expensive time, and when we decided to leave Brady had to call it a night on account of his back acting up, which meant SoHyun and Frank also left. The rest of us continued the party over to Club Zion, the reggae bar, where we continued to have a few more drinks and dance a little. Eventually things got weird when some dude came up behind me and started stroking my dreads and asking me to dance. I RSVPed "No thanks", but he was having none of it and pulled me out of my chair and started dancing. For every step towards me he took, I took two back, and soon enough he got the picture and left me alone. When we were all finished laughing at my expense, it was time to go out into the light of the rising sun and get some McDonald's before sticking a fork in the night. After some food, it was onto the subway for the trip home. I was in bed by 7, which was not exactly what I had in mind, but that seems to be the story of my life.
After sleeping for only 5 hours, I was awoken by a call from John about when I was planning on heading to the hockey rink. Since we played each other in the 4 O'clock, I told him I wouldn't be going until closer to 2, so I could watch some of the games before us and get warmed up for our game. We met at the subway station just after 2, and rode to the Sports Complex together while talking about the night before, and our games to come. The Bush Pilots, lead by Peter Mosca, played well, and our first game ended in a 2-2 tie. But, the X-Men pulled it together and came out strong in the second came to win it 4-2. After our games, we stuck around to watch the 6 O'clock game and have a couple beers. When the games were over, and we had finished cleaning up, we hit the subway to head back to Bongcheon, where I went to get groceries and a pizza before heading home. Then, while at the grocery store, the super sweet teller who always helps me saw that I had a cut on my hand and blood all over my shirt, and flew into mother mode, got out all the ointment and bandages I would need to fix a bullet wound, and fixed me right up. At the end of a long day, it is acts like that, that make the difference, and remind me of how caring Koreans outside the collective really are. With my bandaged hand, groceries, and pizza I headed home to call home and have a shower, before calling it a week and curling up with Goah for a good nights sleep.

Expats Stick Together, No Matter What

2011-05-21T04:14:00.000-04:00

April 18-24, 2011

Having been out in the sun most of Sunday, both John and I were very burnt out on Monday. I didn't know John was feeling as bad as i did until I got to work, but I had my suspicions when I slept extra late and struggled to get myself to work on time. During the day, we both agonized over how draining the sun is after the long winter without. I mustard enough energy to teach my classes, and at the end of the day was so relieved to just go home and crawl into bed.
Tuesday was a much better day, and after a good nights sleep, I was up and ready to go before my alarm even went off. I started off the day cooking my lunch for work while I ate some cereal, and then went to the gym to work out the stiffness from hockey. After the gym, it was off to work, where I got to work marking the students second round of first draft essays, which made me question why I even bother teaching them, because hardly any of them used the information I had given them. It was only Tuesday, and with so many more essays to go, I was certain I would lose my marbles before the end of the week, but tried my best not to take it out on the kids. After work I went back to the gym to try and stay on top of my workout schedule, and then went home to get some sleep.
Wednesday morning I was woke by a call from John at 8am, the contents of which I can't remember, and in jumping out of bed to grab my phone, my big toe nail that has been dead for a while finally fell off. At first I didn't notice, but when I laid back down and the blanket touched the top of my exposed toe, I realized what had happened and got up to take a closer look. The nail was under my blankets, so before the cat could get at it, I thew it in the trash. Since I was up, I got my things ready for work, and then went to see Wesley and Monitta. Since having his skull put back in, his condition had taken a couple of steps back, but that is to be expected after any operation. He was running a bit of a fever, and had stopped his regular yawning and movement, but the doctor was positive that it would only last a couple of days. After the hospital Monitta and I grabbed some pizza for lunch and talked about life, and our families until it was time for me to go to work. At work, I edited more of the students first draft essays, and when Jean had time, got him to order the kegs for the weekends fundraiser. I decided to go with 12 kegs since any that you do not open you can send back and will not have to pay for. After a flurry of essays and a couple of classes, the day was over, and I went off to the gym to get a workout in before going home to get some rest.
Thursday morning, I got up and went to the gym for a run and workout to get my day started while I ran through the fundraiser plans in my head. After the gym, I went to work to pound out a few more essays and finalize all the plans for the fundraiser with Emily, who was going to have to pick up the food from Costco since I didn't have a membership. After work I went back to the gym for workout number two, hten went home to have some food and get some sleep.
Friday I got up and went to the gym again, then went to work to finish out the week. Work was relatively painless, with only a few essay to do, and a few classes to teach. After work I went and had a couple corner store beers with John and talked about the tournament/fundraiser that we had the next day. We didn't stay out long since we both had to be up and on the subway by 7am, so we could get to the rink by 730 to set up for the fundraiser and get ready for the first game at 8. Once I was home however, I couldn't sleep. All I could think about was the fundraiser, and how much work we had done to get it set up, and wondered how well we would do. Eventually I fell asleep around 4, which didn't leave me much time to rest.
6am came early Saturday, and reluctantly I got up and got ready to make a day of it. I met John at the subway station at 7, and we grabbed a beer and some snacks to start the day. The ride was a good wake up, and when we got to the sports complex we met Emily who had all the food and set up our tables before all the players started showing up. Everyone was really geared up, and games started just after 8. By the time the kegs showed up, we had gone through all the canned beers, so the timing couldn't have been better. The players were more than generous all day, and together we played and drank all day, raising a lot of money for Wes. The team I played on was the worst in the tournament, and we lost all four games, but had a great time doing so. By mid day most of us had a pretty good buzz on, and were no longer concerned with playing hockey, and had turned our attentions towards the kegs. The games and tournament finished by 430, with a team of superstars from the league winning the Kimchi Cup, and by that point most of our goods were sold. We packed up what was left, and cleaned up while the rest of the players headed off to the tournament dinner at Big Rock. I had to leave before everything was all cleaned up so I could get to the dinner myself, and finish with our 50/50 draw. After some funny awards, and some more ticket selling, I drew the wining 50/50 ticket, and as luck would have it, Rob Gibson who helped us set up the fundraiser won to $100. Then, in another act of extreme kindness, he donated it all back to our cause. After a couple more beers I headed out to catch the last subway at 1145, and made a call to Emily to see how we made out. In the end, after everyone was repaid for the money they put into the day, we made 1.4 million Won, which is approximately $1200. Feeling good about how it had gone, and exhausted from the days events, I went to bed following a shower as soon as I got home.
After a long day of sports and drinking, there weren't enough hours in the day for me to sleep away. Unfortunately, I had to be at hockey again for 1130, because I had to play the 12 o'clock game for our regular league. I didn't feel too bad, and after a quick warm up and stretch, I was good to go. We were playing Doyles team, The Travelers, who were strong but beatable, especially since they were missing the number one goalie in the league. Off to a slow start, we narrowly beat them 4-3 in our first game, and then ate them up 4-1 in the second, when our team really came alive with our play. During our second game, I took a nasty tumble backwards and had banged up my glute muscle pretty bad. I played the rest of the game with it, but after, it began to stiffen up while I was goal judging for the games between mine and John's at 6pm. While I stuck around, there were several people who approached me about my play and how much I had improved since the start of the season, and about how I had stepped in a a rookie to do so much for the league. It's was nice to be noticed and appreciated, my only wish is that I had of known about the league before. After a few beers, and watching John's games, I headed home to get some groceries, and a pizza to fill the hunger gap. Before I went to bed I made my weekly call home, and then tucked myself in for a much needed sleep.

The Streak Comes to an End

2011-05-06T03:49:00.000-04:00

April 11-17, 2011

Being worn out from hockey and not sleeping much from Saturday to Sunday, I slept in again Monday before getting up to make some food and heading to work for my weekly long day kick off. Work went by as painlessly as it could, and when it was all over it was straight home for me to do some laundry, make some food, then get to bed.
With an abundance of food already made, Tuesday morning was a very relaxing one. I got up with nothing pressing to do but get ready for work, then hit the gym. My workout was great, and really helped me kick off the day, before heading to my second busiest day of the week. Work went by just fine, and at the end of the day with some time to kill, I did some blogging and looked up protein supplements with Jean and John. After work, I went back to the gym for another work out before heading home to get some reading done, and get some sleep.
Wednesday morning came around and as usual I got up and got ready to go see Wes in the hospital. His aunt and uncle had flown in for the week, so we got to meet, and talk about how he has been improving and about his upcoming surgery to get his piece of skull back in. After the hospital, I headed to the closest Costco to Bongcheon to check out prices for the fundraiser for Wes I had proposed to the league. Everyone in the league was behind the idea 100%, so I had let Emily, Alex, and Louise in on the idea, but we were waiting to get it all finalized before we let Wes' family in on the plan. Costco was just what I needed to remind me of all the things I missed eating from back home, and wonder why I never got a membership. After Costco I was running late, so went straight to work, picking up some food on the way. I was an hour late, but luckily nobody really monitors what we do, so it was no big deal. I slid in and quickly ate my food before my first class at 4. When work was over, I headed to the gym to get my workout in, and check my progress with the scales. I was holding at 74kg, but have high hopes of it jumping as my body gets used to the extra trips to the gym. After the gym, I went home to eat and watch some TV before going to bed around 2am.
Thursday morning I got up and made some food before gong to the gym to get my first workout of the day underway. While at the gym, I talked with SeonWon about finally going to have some food at his family's cafe in Isu on Saturday when I was done visiting Wes, but told him I would text him to let him know for sure. After the gym I went to work, and typed up some things to give Wes' friends an idea about the fundraiser that was in the works. When work was finished, it was back to the gym. No rest for the wicked, they say. And after that, home to bed.
Friday was a lot like Thursday, except after working out, I went to meet John at Podo Mall for the beer and large fries set, and shoot the breeze before work. After our fries, we rode our bikes to school, but I made a quick stop at the bike shop to get then to look at an oil leak on my bike. It had been leaking ever since Gavin owned it, but had gotten to the point where something needed to be done. Turns out it was an easy fix, and all the mechanic had to do was put in a new washer where the old one had warn out, and *poof* good as new. Happy with the success of the day, I went to work to finish up the week with a smile. After work, it was off to the gym again for one last workout before the tragedy that is the weekend came, and brought with it a bucket of anti-motivation. After the gym, I went home and watch some TV before falling asleep early enough so I could get up to go see Wes in the morning.
Saturday morning I got up around 9am and got ready to head to the hospital to see Wes, and to tell his family about the fundraiser. Luckily Emily also showed up, so I was able to talk to her as well, before we let everyone know. His family was thrilled that we had decided to do it for them, and thanked us for being so supportive. After the hospital, I went to Isu to have lunch at SeonWon's family cafe, where I met his older sister and one of his friends, and had some great pizza and conversation. After lunch, I went to Yeouido to meet with Frank and his friend, Brady and SoHyun, and eventually Jen and Casey to check out the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was super busy, and I was a couple hours later than we had originally thought about meeting, but it seemed like everybody was trickling in so we just came together as people showed up. After walking through the crowds for a couple hours, we stopped at a 7/11 to get a drink and wait out the crowds trying to get out of there at the end of the day. For dinner we decided to take the bus over to Yeongdeungpo and eat at a lamb place in Jen's neighbourhood. It was a good meal, but not as good as Aladdin's Lamb in Sincheon, and coupled with the terrible bus ride and how hungry we were, it was definitely no knock out but well needed. After the lamb, we headed to a small bar for a couple beers, and then we all took the subway home around 11. I thought I would go straight home, but just before I got to Bongcheon, John called me and asked me if I wanted to have a beer and some chicken with him. We met at the station, then went to a chicken place near his house, and put in our order. While we were eating there were two couples sitting on the far side of the restaurant, and one of the guys was becoming drunk and irate. After a while, everyone in the restaurant was aware of him, and when he finally picked up and threw a chair, John ran over to grab him and drag him outside. I opened the door for them to go out, then went outside to make sure the drunkard didn't do anything to make things worse. His friend, who was also drunk, came out angry at John for interfering, but the owner and another Korean were able to calm him down, and eventually he apologized for his friends behaviour. John and I went back inside to finish our chicken and beer, and when we were finished and about to leave, the owner showed us his tae-kwon-do card that said he was a 6th Dan black belt. We laughed knowing that he probably could have handled things himself, and then went home to get some sleep.

Luckily I didn't have to play until 4 on Sunday, so I had some time to get up and work the cobwebs out. I talked to Ash on Facebook for a bit, then got my things together and went to watch some of John's hockey game. I got to the rink around 1, so I missed his first game, but caught the second. After that I hung out doing some goal judging, and soaking up the sun before my games. Unfortunately, our teams 6 game winning streak came to an end, due to our entire team playing poorly, with a loss in our first game against the Big Rock Black Ambers 3-1, but we redeemed ourselves in the second game with a 4-1 victory. After our games, I stuck around with Alex and Louise for a bit, but the day had turned cold, and by 7 I was ready to get out of the cold and wind. I helped do a quick clean up, and then left to get back to Bongcheon to get some groceries and go home. I finished the night off with my weekly call home, then went to bed, putting an end to another week.

It's a Date! A Man Date.

2011-05-03T07:22:00.000-04:00

April 4-10, 2011

Having played the late game the night before, I slept in Monday morning before getting up and cooking some food to keep me going through the day. Since I have been going to the gym, I have gotten back into making tuna pasta salad, and I was making enough for the whole week. After I finished cooking I went to work to get my long day over with, and when it was all over went straight home to lay about with Goah.
Tuesday morning, I felt rejuvenated and decided I better get myself into the gym if I want to bulk up before the summer heat comes, and my appetite fades. The gym is always so much quieter in the mornings, because there is only a handful of older ladies in there using the treadmills versus the hordes of guys in there at night trying to out-flex each other. However, the price I pay for quietness and emptiness, is having to listen to endless Korean love ballads played over the stereo for the old ladies. Totally worth it I guess. Plus, I usually listen to my mp3 player while I run or bike. After I finished up at the gym, it was off to work for yet another day of what is becoming repetitive nonsense. Luckily, the classes are only 40 minutes long on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so they are over before you know it, and in the blink of an eye the days was over and i was of the the gym again. The double workout is a great way to wake yourself up in the morning, and then burn off the excess energy before bed, and if I keep it up who knows what chiseled form I may take in the coming months. When I finished at the gym I went home and did some reading, before crawling under the covers for the night.
Wednesday morning, I got up and headed off to the hospital to see how Wes was doing, and as I got there, they were moving him out of his private room and into a 5 person room. His family was not very thrilled with the idea of having 1/3 the space as they did before, but the room was needed for another patient. I helped carry his things from old room to new room, and once things were ready, helped lift him out of his wheelchair into his new bed, which I might add was a tad bit short for him. After getting him all settled in, and having a visit with his grandmother, and mother, I excused myself so that I could head off to work. Work was pretty slow, so I used the extra time I had to work on my blog, and by the end of the day, I just didn't have it in me to go to the gym, so I went home and watched some T.V. until I was tired enough to fall asleep.
The next morning I got up and made sure I got myself to the gym, so that I wouldn't miss too many workouts before the weekend came, and my general laziness kicked in. Again the gym was nice, and I had lots of time to workout, as well as talk with SeonWon the trainer. After the gym, I went to work, and once again took care of my blog in my time between classes. Then while John and I were both on break, John asked if I wanted to go on, what would be our official first 'man date' the next morning to see the movie Sucker Punch, which we had both been eagerly waiting to see. Since Friday is the only day he doesn't work his morning kindergarten job making before work on Friday the only time we could see it, I told him it was a date. He had checked out the show times already, and the morning matinée started at 940, so we planned to meet at the Podo Mall theater for 930. After work, I hit the gym again, but only for a short workout, because I didn't want to be late for the movie in the morning.
9am Friday morning came a lot quicker than I had hoped, but once I was up and moving, I rode my bike over to meet John and see the movie created solely for guys. We had been watching trailers for weeks, and it had everything guys like us look for in movies. Cute girls, a sinister bad guy, a quest, secret items, ninja fighting, explosions, guns, robots, and the list goes on as my mouth waters just thinking about it. Since it was the Friday before payday, we summoned what change we could to get ourselves tickets, then buckled up for the ride. After the movie, we talked about how awesome it was as we rode down ten floors of escalators, and then both rode our bikes back to Bongcheon, to our apartments. Before the movie, I thought I might be able to get to the gym between the movie and work, but used the time instead to cook some food, then have a 30 minute nap with my best friend Goah, who is always down for a snuggle. When I got up from my nap, my food had cooled, so I packed my bag and went to work, hoping all the while that the days past quickly. After work, I went to the gym to make up for missing it in the morning, and so that I could get a good sleep to start the weekend.
Keeping with my visiting schedule, I got up Saturday morning and got ready to go see Wes in the hospital. Alex and Louise made it there before I did, and when I came in with juice and cookies for everyone, they were on the phone trying to get Wesley's caretaker situation sorted out. The private nurse who had been looking after him for the past two weeks, was due to switch off, so a new nurse needed to be found post haste. After several minutes on the phone, and some lengthy explanations, a new nurse, who could start on Monday, was found. That meant Monitta would have to spend the weekend at the hospital taking care of Wes. On a side note, it is awfully strange how it is not the hospital, but the family, that is in charge of providing nursing care for their loved ones while in the hospital. This is a striking contrast to the provided nurse care in the hospitals of North America that I am used to. It also raises the question......What on Earth are all the nurses in this country actually doing while at work?
With the care giver problem sorted out, the four of us went over to Dos Tacos to get some lunch before Monitta had to start her long weekend with Wes. After lunch I headed back to Bongcheon and got my usual two bags of groceries, and then continued home to kill off the day with movies. After a couple movies and a good nap, I was awoke to a call from John asking if I wanted to go get some chicken and beers with him and his friend Eric. I thought that was a splendid plan, and we agreed to meet at the chicken place around 730. We had our chicken and beer, but the night was still young, so we grabbed a couple more pitchers and took them back to John's place so we could shoot the breeze some more. While at John's, he came up with the brilliant idea to approach the league about having a kegger fundraiser for Wes at our upcoming tournament, where there wold be an abundance of people looking to drink and abundance of beer. I took his idea and ran with it, quickly posting the idea on our league website to see how everyone felt about it. By the time we finished the beer it was 1am, so Eric and I left to go home, though I was starting to get my second wind. After waling up the ridiculous hill by my house, and with the good buzz that I had, I decided to make up some food for Monitta, since she was going to be at the hospital most of the weekend by herself. I set to work steaming some peppers, making potatoes, and frying up some chicken, and before I knew it, it was 4am and I had a whole feast packed up for her. Feeling my eyes getting heavy, I called it a night and went to bed.
Having the 2 O'clock game Sunday meant I had to get up and take the food I had prepared to Monitta early enough, that I could still get to the rink by 130 to warm up. I was a little tired, but had gotten plenty of sleep to keep me energized for our games. Monitta was very happy to see some home cooked food, and was talking with Daisey, and Liam when I got there. I didn't stay too long, but talked with everyone for a few minutes before taking off to get back on the subway. Our two games against the Tea Baggers went as well as we had hoped, with our team pulling out a 4-0 victory and a 4-2 victory, which solidified our spot in second places above them. After our games, I stuck around to talk with some of the board members about the fundraising idea, as well as to watch the rest of the games and enjoy the weather. When everything was finished at 8, I helped clean up before heading home to get off my feet and have a shower. Before I went to bed I called home to see what the story of the week was, then packed it in for the night.

Spring has given us an early look at how much we missed the warn weather over the winter, and we are hoping it continues from here on out.

Seriously John?

2011-04-19T10:25:00.002-04:00

March 28 - April 3, 2011

After a long day at the rink on Sunday, I slept late on Monday in order to recharge for my long day at work. Though less achy than in past weeks, my body is still trying to realign itself with the athlete within. Some work at the gym in the past couple of weeks has shown to be helping as well. Work was long mentally, but quick time wise, because before I knew it, it was time to go home. Once I got home, I wasted no time getting into some comfy clothes and then laying around with Goah watching T.V. until bed time.
Tuesday morning I got up and made some food for work, while Goah wandered the halls of my building since I had my door open to create a cross breeze. She isn't the brightest cat, and got rather distraught when she couldn't find her way back from the first floor to the second, and I had to go get her before she annoyed the whole building with her crying. After that I kept my door closed while I finished getting ready for work, and then packed my bag and left. Work was just as busy as it had been on Monday, except where I had classes Monday I now had second draft essays to mark. Though not nearly as bad as doing the first drafts, the second drafts create an entirely different kind of anger. The anger of having wasted so much of your time making corrections and comments, only to have the kids either copy your corrections and disregard the comments or simply disregard both. Luckily it was still the start of the week and John and I were able to get those from the weekend finished before the flood of the end of the week. After work I hit the gym to work out some of the remaining stiffness from hockey, and continue my climb towards the body of an Adonis. After the gym I went home and ate while watching some T.V., then went to bed.
Keeping schedule with the past few weeks, on Wednesday I got up and went to see Wes in the hospital, where he had been recently been moved from the NCU to a private room. Unfortunately I missed his mom, dad Brent, and grandmother Carolyn by 10 minutes, as the nurse had come to clean Wes up. I waited for a few minutes until she was finished, then went in to see how he was doing and talk to him. I didn't stay too long, because I had to get back for work, but left a pair of portable speakers and wall charger for his iPod so his family could put some music on for him/themselves while they were in the private room. Once I got to work, I set right to marking more online essays, because I did not want them to pile up and create a havoc at the end of the week. Once again John and I were able to get through a good number of them by the end of the day, and were fairly sure that the rest of the week would be a breeze. After work I went to the gym again to get my pump on, and with some instructional help from the Hulk I had a great workout. After the gym it was home to eat and read, and then right to bed.
Thursday morning I got up and made some food for work right away so that I could get to the gym before work and really up the ante on my conditioning. I had a good run and weight session, before calling it quits and going to work. Work was the same as the two previous days, and I spent most of my time between classes marking the kids second draft essays, though with a lot less urgency since we had taken care of so many earlier. After work I went back to the gym to repeat, but found myself making more conversation with the trainers than in the past few days. Still, my workout was good, and afterwards some mandoo (fried dumplings) really hit the spot before bed.
Friday was a repeat of Thursday, with the exception of being able to say that all the essays were marked by the end of the day, and any that came over the weekend would be late, and therefore done at my leisure. Both before and after work, I worked out, meaning I stayed in and kept myself out of trouble for a third Friday in a row. After the gym I went home to have some food and watch a movie before going to bed.
Saturday morning I got up to make my, what has become regular, trip to the hospital to see Wes and his family. I was supposed to meet Frank, and Alex and Louise there at 1130, but Alex and Louise were running late so just Frank and I went to see him. He was in about the same condition as he had been in the middle of the week, except his temperature and pneumonia were pretty much gone to the point where they were talking about getting his missing piece of skull put back in. Something I thought they had already done before moving him out of the ICU. Frank and I spent some time talking with his grandmother, as his mom was taking advantage of having someone else around to watch over him as a mother would, and was getting some much needed rest. When we finished at the hospital we went over to the hockey rink for a fundraiser that the league was putting on for a player who tore up his knee pretty badly a couple weeks back. There was open rink time from 3 until 5, and kegs of beer and pizza for a really good price - 4 000W a slice, and 25 000W all you can drink. It was a good thing that Frank and I were there early, because the beer showed up and we had to carry it up a few flights of stairs to the rink from the parking lot before we could enjoy it. Alex and Louise showed up eventually, as did Rocchi to get in on the outdoor beer action. We had a good time and raised a good amount of money, ending the day with an auction of miscellaneous things people had brought to get rid of.
After the fundraiser Alex and Louise, Frank, John, and I all went over to Sincheon to get some lamb for dinner, before going to Gold Bar for some drinks. Unfortunately the night did not turn out as I had anticipated. From the time John and Frank met at the fundraiser, Frank rubbed John the wrong way, and it continued through dinner, and on into Gold Bar. It didn't seem serious, but when John gave me a sneak attack kidney shot and I spilled my drink on my camera and Franks shirt things went downhill. I got angry at John, who was being a bit of a dick himself, but I had good reason and he felt somewhat bad about it. Frank however was angry about being spilled on, and John, instead of saying sorry, slapped him and told him not to be a bitch. Immediately I told John it was not alright to be slapping my friends, and when he slapped my I punched him in the temple. Frank, knowing that John was super drunk stayed cool about it, and simply asked that we keep John away from him. When John went outside to make a phone call, Frank left to avoid the trouble, and I went outside to talk to John, who in his frame of mind felt he hadn't done anything wrong and decided to go home himself. After the two of them had left, we went back to having a good time, until around 4am when we left to get some McDonald's, and head home. I was out of the cab and home chugging war by 430, and in bed by 5, dreading what the morning would bring.
Sure enough, I woke up at 1030 feeling terrible, to a text from John who was feeling 10x worse than I was, not only from the excessive amount of alcohol he drank, but for being so confrontational with one of my friends. He barely remembered most of the night, so together we pieced it together, while I tried to tell him that things happen sometimes and to not worry too much about it. After talking to John, who could barely get out of bed to make his hockey game, I sat around drinking water and watching T.V. until 4 in the afternoon when I got up to get ready for my hockey game at 6pm. After a long and dizzying subway ride to the rink, I sat around feeling less than hot until we played at 6. Our games went well, and despite how I felt, I played rather well, and helped my team to win both our games, beating the Beer O'clock Red Army 5-1 and 4-2. After the games I stuck around to help clean up a bit before getting on the subway to head back to Bongcheon. Once back int the neighbourhood, I got my weekly sacks of groceries, before heading home to eat some pizza and make my weekly call home, then wait for bed time.

They Melt Your Heart, and Split Your Sides

2011-04-09T03:32:00.001-04:00

March 21-27, 2011

A chilly start to the week was a quick reminder that we are not yet out of the reach of old man winter, but the weather forecast promises to improve in the coming weeks.
Monday morning, after a set of hard games the day before, I slept in until just after 11. After I got up, I set about making some food to take to work, as well as doing some laundry before I completely ran out of clothes. Mondays being my long days, I started right away at 240 my class of first graders at the DSC-4 level. They are a smart bunch, who speak well for their age, and for homework they were supposed to write a story to share with the class about a trip they had taken to the beach. After the first couple of students shared their story, one of the girls named Ella crept up to my desk and asked me to lean over so she could tell me something. I did as she asked, and received the following non whisper in my ear, "I'm a wimp." I was a little confused at what she said and when i asked her to repeat herself, "I'm a wimp Teacher. I can't read my project.", is what she told me. My heart instantly melted, and as I reassured her that she was a great student, I couldn't help but give her a pass until the next week so she could practice it at home. After my long day to start the week, I went straight home to watch some T.V. and get some sleep.
Tuesday I got up at 10 feeling well rested, and set about making some food and folding the laundry I had washed the day before. I had planned on going to see Wes but my time management was not working in my favour and by the time I would have gotten there, I would have missed the visiting window. Instead I went to the gym to get in a jog to shake out the aches of hockey, and before long it was time to go to work, which was a cold and windy walk this week. Work went by quickly, but every free moment I had was filled by marking the kids' in the LSC/D program essays. It is frustrating to be responsible for marking essays that the children are given zero instruction on, outside of what little work I have began working into my days with them. When it was all over, I hit the gym to work out the left over stiffness of hockey, and do a bit of lifting. After the gym, I rekindled my association with the Spam and egg combo meal, then read a little before going to bed.
As I did on the Wednesday of last week, I got up and went to the hospital to see how Wes and his family were doing. His cousin Nicole had flown in for a couple weeks, and was outside the NCU when I arrived and filled me in on the latest news. Wes had been running a fever since Saturday due to a flare up in his pneumonia, and as a result, all of the progress in spontaneous movement had stopped. The doctors were optimistic that antibiotics would have him fixed up in a few days, and that within the next couple weeks they would be able to move him out of the NCU. I had a chance to get back and see him with Casey, and aside from the pneumonia, his swelling was almost entirely gone and his colour back to normal. After seeing him, then talking with his family, I headed to work so that I could send Casey some information on things they could do between visiting hours. Work was full of essay grading again, because my class load is quite light on Wednesdays, but even with all the time available, getting the essays done seemed like a never ending struggle through a sea of horrendous grammar and loosely put together ideas. After work I went to the gym and got my workout in, and then went home to read again before bed.
Thursday morning I got up and made my food for the day before going to the gym. The gym was good, and I had a chance to get a good run in, before talking with one of the trainers for a while about what I had been up to as of late. After the gym I went straight to work and started editing my way through the pile of online essays that kept coming in. John and I put a healthy dent in them over the course of the day, but there were still about a dozen left at the end of the day. While teaching one of the few classes I have on Thursdays, I had another student come up with some great lines while doing his project. We were talking about a favourite meal we have had, and he described his trip to a hamburger place called Smokey Saloon. I know of of and recognized the burger he was talking about immediately. He described his experience with the Ambulance Burger, to which he attested that "They call it that because after you eat one, you have o go to the hospital." You can't make this stuff up. Background on the burger is that it is topped with lots of bacon, cheese, and a fried egg. After work went back to the gym for a ride and some light lifting, then it was off to my apartment for some T.V.and sleep.
Friday morning I made sure to get up when my alarm went off, because I wanted to call home and talk to my father, which I hadn't done since coming back from Shanghai. My first tempt was a fail, but after a bowl of cereal, I tried again and he answered. We chatted and caught up on news from both sides for just over 2 hours before it was his bedtime, and my time to go to work. In the first 4 hours of work, I was able to get the last of the essays edited, thus being through with the horrible first draft blues for another 3 weeks. After work I went to the gym again so that I could keep myself out of trouble, and be home a decent time to call Ash on her birthday. The gym was relatively empty, which made working out much nicer, and I was able to get in and out by 1130. Once I got home, I jumped on Skype and called Ash. I was lucky to catch her before she went out for lunch with one of her friends, and we talked for a solid hour about work and some parties they had been to recently. After talking with her I watched some T.V., then dozed off for the night.
Saturday morning came earlier than I had wanted, but I got up and got ready to meet Frank, Alex, and Louise so we could go and visit Wes. We met at the subway station just a few minutes before 11 and then walked over together to the hospital. Since Wednesday Wes had been moved out of his private room in the NCU, to the open floor, all of which was located behind the doors of the intensive care section of the NCU. When we got there Nicole and Monita were back with him, so we gave them a few minutes to be with him before we started taking turns going back to see him. His fever had lifted, and the pneumonia medication seemed to be doing its job, and there was even talk of reinserting the piece of skull they had removed to decrease the cranial pressure of his swollen brain. After our visit, and a talk with his family, we went down the street to Dos Tacos again for lunch. After lunch we all headed in our separate direction, which for me was home to get my grocery shopping and house cleaning done, because I had to play the early game Sunday and knew I wouldn't have the time then. Once that was all taken care of, I watched some T.V. for a couple of hours before getting ready to meet up with Angelica in Itaewon for some dinner and drinks. We met at the subway station at 8, and from there went for some pizza at Crow's Nest, where I had been the previous weekend for beers only. The pizza there was great, and really fairly priced. After dinner we went over to Sam Ryan's Pub, where we bumped into John and a few other friends, and had a couple of drinks. Eventually some of here friends called her and wanted us to stop by RMT, so we did, but it was dying out so we went over to Wolfhound to see what was going on. It was equally as dead there, but I had to use the washroom so I excused myself from the group and went upstairs. When I came out, I ran into a few hockey guys and started talking to them for a few minutes. Before I knew it, ten minutes had gone by, and when I went downstairs, the group had left. I finished my beer while I waited to hear from them, but after 10 minutes, I gave up and went to get some food. Even while I ate I thought I might hear from them, and when I didn't, I jumped in a cab for home. I got home just after 3am and got ready for bed, and it was just as I was crawling into bed that I got a text saying they had gone to some club. I was already in bed, so I said good night, and passed out.
The dreaded early game of the ball hockey league I play in belonged to us this week, so I had to be up and out of the house by 11. Luckily I had gotten my stuff ready the day before, so all I had to do was have some cereal and I was set. I got to the rink 20 minutes before we had to play, and warmed up with my team while getting pointers from the veteran defensive hockey players on my team. We ( the X-Men) played Shanks team (The Dublin Dynamo), who have a lot of talent up front, but lack in the defensive zone, resulting in a two game victory for us. After losing as bad as we did the week before, we came out playing hard and determined, and were really fast on the ball, so our victories were not just by a margin of single goals, but by handfuls of them. It felt good to be back on the winning side of the game. After my game, I stuck around to have a few beers and talk with a bunch of the guys until John played at 4. John's team splits their games, both of which could have gone either way in the final minutes. After John's game, we stuck around to do stats, and keep time for the 6pm game, and of course have a few more beers. When the games were all finished, we helped clean up and then jumped on the subway back to Bongcheon. Once home, I showered, then called home before putting on a movie and going to bed.

From hockey to the gym, it feels nice to be getting back in touch with my athletic side that I had let die for a while. Here's to the coming spring, and outdoor activities.

A Terrible Accident For A Great Man

2011-04-04T11:02:00.003-04:00

March 14-20, 2011

This week started out with a gloomy shadow right from the get go. When I woke up Monday, I checked Facebook to find a message from Blake about our friend, and his former coworker Wes having had an accident over the weekend, and subsequently being in a coma at the hospital near his house. The story was that he had gotten out of a cab, but a second cab didn't see him, and came around to let another person out, bumping Wes enough to make him fall and hit his head. Since he was so close to the hospital, he was rushed in for surgery right away, to get the pressure off his brain. Then he was placed in the NCU, while they contacted his family, and until he recovers. Hearing news of this nature about anyone is never good, but knowing that it could have been any of us really made our group of friends stop and think.
After contacting a friend of his who knew more about it on Facebook so that I could find out how and when to come and see him, I got ready for work. Since the night before at hockey, the big toe on my left foot had swollen to nearly twice its regular size, and under the nail had turned a dark purple. In fact, it was so swollen that once I got to work, after a long limpy walk there, I had to work the entire day in my socks because wearing shoes hurt too much. While at work, I was showing the toe to my classes, who all thought it was the craziest thing; as well as the teachers, who were concerned I might die. After work, John and I tried to locate a pin that would be strong enough to heat up and push through my nail in order to release the pressure. The pins we found were not up to the task, and I settled for puncturing the back of my nail to let out what fluid I could. The walk home was equally as painful as the walk to school, and once in my apartment, I pt my feet up to try and get the blood away from my toe.
Tuesday morning came, and my toe was in much less pain than the day before, as well as only half as swollen. I was able to walk without too much discomfort, but only if I took it slow. I made some food for the day, and then made my way to work. Work went by without incident, and after work I went home to get my feet up again while I typed up some of my back logged blogs.
Wednesday morning I got up early and so that I could get to the hospital in time to see Wes and his family. Since he is in the NCU, the visiting hours are very restricted. Visitors are only allowed to see him twice a day. Once from 11-1120am, and again from 7-720pm. It made me feel bad to some extent that I would be using up what time there was to see him, but in situations like this it is important to be there to support those in need and offering my help to his family was well received. Wes' mother Monita, brother Casey, and step-father Jim were there, and filled me in on the details of the accident, as well as what the doctors had said so far about his condition. It turns out that Wes was getting out of a taxi near his house when another taxi tried to pull around to let off their fare. The taxi driver didn't see Wes, and vice verse, which resulted in Wes being hit and knocked forward onto his right temple. They performed emergency surgery to remove a large piece of his skull to relieve the pressure, while the taxi driver and some friends waited. There was an official police report, but it seems as though both sides were partially i the wrong, and Wes' family is holding no hard feelings. Especially since the taxi driver comes to see Wes every day, while he is taking a break from praying at church. After the hospital, I caught the subway home to get my lunch, and then went to work where I spent some time sending out some messages to let our friends know of Wes' condition. After work I decided to go to the gym and ride the bike since I couldn't run. It was the first time I had been there at night and there seemed to be a new trainer/user at the facility, who somewhat resembled The Hulk. At first it was a little motivating to see such a huge guy working so hard, but then he thought it would be a good idea to workout with his shirt off, which, don't get me wrong I love "shirts off", is a little inappropriate while there are females using the facility. I ignored it since it was only for a short time, and finished my workout, then went home and ate some food and read before calling it a night.
Thursday morning I woke up feeling well worked over from the gym, so I put off going and made some food to take with me to work. Work went by painlessly since I only teach three classes on Thursdays this semester. After work, I hit the gym again, trying to keep up with my resolution to get in shape before I leave Korea. Again, I rode the bike to warm up, and the went to get my pump on with the weights. The Hulk was there again along with a few cronies, and not surprisingly was shirtless. Being the kind of guy that I am, when they saw me I asked if it was a shirts off party, then motioned as if I was going to take my shirt off as well. They all got the idea, and the Hulk put his shirt back on, looking a little embarrassed. Since I had now broken the ice, we got to talking and it turns out that he is not only a new trainer at the gym, but also a bodybuilder training for a contest in May. His English is slightly better than my nothingness of Korean, but we agreed that he was huge, and that I am going to use him as motivation and for exercise tips. After a brief chat, I got to my workout, and then went home to read and fuel up before bed.
Friday morning I got up and made myself go to the gym so that I wouldn't keep finding excuses to not go. It felt good to get in and work out the stiffness from the night before, and the longer I can keep it up, the easier it should be. After the gym I went to work to get the last day of the week over with. After work, I didn't want to go out since I had made plans to go for the morning visitation to see Wes with Alex and Louise, and instead went back to the gym to get some cardio and a light workout in before the weekend.
Saturday morning I got up just before 10am and got ready to meet Alex and Louise at the Express Bus Terminal for 1050 so we could walk over to the hospital. Once we met, we walked over and went up to see Wes and his family. Casey and Monita were back with him, but the three of us started rotating in to see him and talk with his family. He was looking much better, and they had given him a tracheotomy in order to get the moisture out of his lungs, because he was struggling with pneumonia. After our visit, we all all went down the street for some Dos Tacos, and then on the walk back to Wes' apartment I showed them where the airport bus stop was, and where a gym was in case they wanted to get some energy out. After seeing Wes and having lunch I went home, and had a little nap.
When I woke up I had a shower and got ready to head to Itaewon for dinner with Alex and Louise, Brett and MiSeon, Melanie and WonJong at an Indian place. I got there a bit early so I could meet Frank ad Brady, who had run into Jen and Cherie, for a beer at Crow's Nest Pizzeria. However, as I was coming out of the station I saw a couple trying to carry a rather large package down to the subway, and decided to be a good citizen and help out. After carrying it down three flights of stairs with the husband, I felt i eared my beer, and went to meet everyone. Before long it was time to get to the dinner party I had gone to Itaewon for in the first place, so I left and went to meet with the other group. The dinner was great, but ever since working out the night before, my stomach had been bothering me, so the food didn't sit very well with me. After dinner we went over to Dillingers for some St. Patty's Day to meet Frank, Brady, Jen, and Cherie, but it was real busy so I was the only one who stayed. My stay didn't last very long as my stomach grew increasingly angry at me. I stayed just long enough to have a drink and talk with them, and Angelica before getting on the 1130 subway to go home before I got sick. I made it home fine, and drank some water and Pepto before putting on a movie and getting some sleep.
After having such an early night, I got up Sunday feeling good and ready to play some hockey. I got up at 11 and got ready to meet SeJin for lunch in Kondae. It had been a while since we had hung out, and we were going to get some lunch, so I took some medication to make sure my stomach stayed in line. We met at 2pm and went for some galbi, but couldn't hang out for too long after we ate because I had to get to my 4pm hockey game. It had been raining most of the night and I wasn't even sure if we would be able to play, and when I got to the rink there were lots of guys disputing whether or not we should play for safety reasons. My captain and some other senior executive members were leading the con party, while Leahey was leading the pro argument. In the end we decided to play, and it was as dangerous as we had all predicted. There were lots of spills due to the slippery surface, and in the end we played terrible enough to lose both games rather handedly. After the I stayed to watch John's team play, and lose both games as well. After the games we rode the subway home together, then I got groceries before going home to shower and make my weekly call home.

Moustache Madness, and Hockey Fever

2011-03-28T12:17:00.001-04:00

March 7-13, 2011

As this week began, the warm weather held, and it was close to t-shirt weather for most of the week.
Monday morning, after a weekend of hockey, my feet were absolutely killing me. The arch on my right foot was so knotted up, and the big toe on my left swollen and bruised that all I could do was hobble around. I had made some food the night before, so all I had to do was put it together before it was off to work for the day. At work, I hobbled around for the most part, and being my longest day of the week, by the end of it I was eager to get home and off my feet. Once I got home, I put my feet up to try and get the weight off,and the blood out of my toe.
Tuesday, after a good nights sleep with my feet up, the swelling in my toes was down and the rest of the feet hurt less as well. They were still quite sore, but manageable. I steered clear of the gym and went straight to work to get it over with. After work, I came straight home and just chilled again with my feet up.
Wednesday morning I was feeling much better and decided it was time to try and get in a workout, and make use of my gym membership. At the gym, instead of running on the treadmill I decided to ride the bike instead. I kept the riding to a minimum, and when I was warmed up I tried to work some of the knots out of my arches on the knobbed massage drum they have for your leg muscles. It worked amazingly well, and took away a great deal the tightness I was still having. I got in a light weight workout as well, but didn't want to push y luck being on my feet while I lifted. After the gym it went home to grab my lunch, and then it was off to work to see what I could get done for the day. After work I went straight home and watched some TV before an early bed time.
Thursday morning was a repeat of Wednesday. Again I went to the gym and tried to work the bottoms of my feet over on the massaging drum, and then lifted some weights before returning home to get my lunch and heading to work. Work went by quickly since it was one of my days with few classes, so I had some free time to chat with some of the other teachers while they were on breaks. After work I went home again to watch some TV and read before bed.
Friday morning, John called me before I had a chance to get motivated enough for the gym, and asked me if I wanted to have a couple beers before work. Now since we don't have to work until 2, there really isn't much harm in it from our perspective. Though from a professionals perspective, it probably wasn't the most grown up decision. Either way, we had our beers and talked about what had been going on at work the last several days, and then went in to get the day done. Work for me on Fridays doesn't really start until 6, so my first few hours were quite boring and seemed like they would never pass. Once I started teaching, the last 4 hours flew by, and before we knew it, it was time to clock out.
After work, the plan was to head to Itaewon for one of John's best friends, Chris Lostracco aka Griz, birthday. I had met him before, and he was also a member of the ball hockey league, so I knew there would be lots of hockey guys there for me to get to know. And, as the title of this blog eludes, it was a moustache party, meaning all the guys had to grow moustaches for the party. I had been working on mine for 3 weeks, and felt like, not to mention looked like, a complete dirt bag. We got to the party by 11pm and had a few beers while we chatted and played pool. Luckily the party stayed well in control, and after only 2 hours everyone started heading home. The few of us that were left decided to get some Moroccan sandwiches to fill hunger gap before bed, and have one more street beer while doing so. Then while we were ordering our sandwiches, some guy tried to cut in line. It was John's turn to get hot headed, and he proceeded to tell the guy to get to the back of the line. When the guy didn't want to, he lightly pushed John, who in return shoved him down to the ground. Another friend of John's, Dave, quickly stepped in and made sure nothing escalated. Once we had our sandwiches, John and I hopped on the the last subway just long enough to make it to the bus stop at Samgakgi, and catch the last bus to Sillim. We walked home from Sillim, and I was home and in bed by 230am
Having gone to bed as late as I did, I was not expecting to get up and do too much of anything during the day. Then, to my surprise, John called me and asked if I wanted to have a few corner store beers since the weather was consistently getting warmer and there was no telling how long it would last. It was only 130 and I had really wanted to just lump around the house for a couple more hours, but told him that I would meet him around 230. When I met him, we had a couple beers outside the mini-stop before walking down to Sillim to buy some new shoes. I had completely forgot about the Podo Mall at Sillim station until John reminded me and told me how great of a mall it was. We both needed new shoes so we made an afternoon of it, checking out some shoes, and finally settling on some Nikes (John), and Asics (myself). After we had our shoes, we grabbed some fries and a couple more beers, before walking back to Bongcheon and going our separate ways as the sun was beginning to go down. I had plans to go out to Gangnam for Matei's going away party, but needed to have a nap before going out for the night. After a one hour nap, I got up and got ready to head to Rig Rock in Gangnam, where the party had started. I arrived around 11 to all of the regular friends, but instead of getting back on the sauce, I had a few glasses of water. After I was done with the water, I started on some cocktails instead of having anymore beer. We didn't stay at Big Rock too long, before heading over to Voodoo for some more drinks. We weren't there long before Matei and Jen along with some others took off to Hongdae. Myself, Alex and Louise, Brady and Sohyn, Thomas, and Frank all stayed for another drink and then called it a night ourselves at 330. It was a lot later than I had planned on staying out, but the water and slow drinking pace had me in good mind set still. I was home and in bed, after some water, by 4am.
Sunday morning came early, as I had to meet John and go to hockey for the first set of league games. Since the draft, John had complained about not being on the team his good friend was captain of, and was finally the day before official games started. This trade however, meant that was were set to face each other for the first game of the season. We had to play at 2pm, but wanted to get there early enough to get warmed up. I was worried about how my feet were going to hold up, but the new shoes, which everyone thought were too neon yellow for my own good, felt fantastic. During the games I an incredible amount of grip, and my play was much better than during the try outs, and given what skill I had, I was put on defence which is usually for the better players. The games are played in a two hour period, and are 45 minutes long with a 5-10 minute break in between. We ended up splitting the games, one win each, so there was no trash talking after. Instead we bought some beers for the pool table replacement fund, and some pizza for the league fund, then watched the rest of the games. Alex and Louise even showed up, but were too late to see any of our games, but had some beers with us as well. While we were watching the other games my feet began to ache, though not as much as the week before, which was alright. Upon further inspection, the nail on my big toe was turning a deeper purple, and beginning to swell at an alarming rate. At 8pm, once all the games were finished, we helped clean up then headed home to get some rest. I grabbed some groceries before making my way home, then made my weekly call home, and went to bed wondering how my feet would feel in the morning.

Getting back into organized sports, and working out is giving me a new agenda for my time left here in Korea, and that it to get back into really great shape before returning home. I hope the coming spring is having a renewing affect on everyone back home as well.

Another New Semester, Same Old Confussion

2011-03-21T11:13:00.000-04:00

Feb 28 - Mar 6, 2011

Another cold start to the week and still reeling from my head cold, Monday was the last day of our winter semester, and after getting my food ready before work, I headed in for what would be a day of movies and games. About half way through the day we were informed that Tuesday was a holiday, and that we wouldn't have to show up to work. This was good news, but since it was in the middle of the week and on such short notice, I didn't plan on doing too much. After work I went with all the teachers that were leaving, as well those that are taking their place to a restaurant near the school for a fair well dinner. Most of the leaving teachers did not want to be there, and only stayed long enough to have a quick bite and a beer, and say one last good bye, before taking off in a great hurry. I stayed a little bit longer talking with May, until she joined the table of administrators and the group of new teachers decided to go. I got up and left with them, and as we were leaving the restaurant I got a call from Jean about catching the end of the dinner. I told him it was over and that everyone was going home, so instead, I met him near our places for some chicken and beer. By 1am we had finished both, and were on our way home to call it a night.
Tuesday morning I got up about mid-morning, and with little to do for the day I got right to work on my blog. I had big plans to get it all caught up, and possibly to even get some photos up on Facebook. After a few hours of typing, I got a call from John asking if I wanted some company for a few beers. I was due for a break and told him to come by whenever. Before he showed up, I jumped through the shower just in case we decided to go out anywhere, and then got dressed as he was knocking at the door. We split a pitcher of beer while he told me about the date he had just come from, and I harassed him for shaving off his moustache for looks sake. Eventually we were out of beer, so I went over to the store and picked up another pitcher and some chips. The conversation piece over the next pitch was the dinner he missed from the night before, and some of the drama that it seemed to hold about quitting excuses, and peoples general attitudes. After a third pitcher, we realized it was 11pm and that we had just killed almost 8 hours, but had thoroughly enjoyed the company and conversation. Once John left, I cleaned up some of my dishes from Monday and what John and I had used, then went to bed while I watched the end of a Dane Cook comedy special.
Having gone to bed early the night before, I woke up again around mid-morning feeling not to bad, but still not well enough to go to the gym, so I made some food and then headed to work. Wednesday marked the start of our spring semester, and it was utter chaos at the school. The lack of organization and job proficiency in our office really showed, as schedules were not prepared, and teachers were running around trying to get the things they needed prepared for the classes that they were unsure they would be teaching. Approximately 10 minutes before the classes were due to start, John and I were given our class schedules and left to decipher the muddle that was given to us; all the while having Korean teachers trying to figure when we would be in their classes. Luckily my new schedule for Wednesdays is pretty light, so I had lots of time to get things figured out, and start making a readable schedule. At the end of the day, everyone was exhausted and pissy, so it was straight home for me to watch some T.V. and get some rest.
A week since I started going to the gym again, Thursday morning I got up feeling better than I had been and made it to the gym for a light workout. It was quiet as usual in the gym, and I had my pick of treadmills to run on, then was able to get in some brief weight lifting before calling it a day. After the gym I went home to get some food together, and then it was off to work to see what menagerie the day would bring. At work, again not until classes almost stared were John and I given our Tuesday/Thursday schedule. Quickly we figured out who we would be teaching with and tried to let them know when we would be in, but in the end it was still a hectic day, with Korean teachers thinking we were going to their class when we were actually in another. Since the kids leave at 9pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we had an extra hour at the end of the day to hash out our schedules and settle any changes that the Korean teachers wanted to make, like changing days or start times. After work I went straight home and did so reading before heading to bed.
Friday I got up feeling very motivated about going to the gym, and getting back on track with a workout routine. After the gym I went home to get ready for work, then went to meet John so we could transfer money to the ball hockey league he payed in for the past couple of years. I was surprised when he told me about the league, and was frustrated with myself as well as my group of friends for being so lazy and dragging each other down over the past couple years. I jumped on the chance to get back into team sports, and having met some of the players already, can tell it is going to be a great time. After our stop at the bank, we went to work to get the last day of the week underway. When we got there, there was some more schedule confusion over classes that had been looked over when the schedules had been made, and both mine and John's schedules grew by a class or two. The day went by as any other, and at the end of the day most of the teachers were quick to leave, excusing themselves from an invitation to get some chicken and beer. The only one who agreed to go was Jennifer, a new Korean teacher from New Zealand. We went to the TwoTwo Chicken place near school, and stayed long enough for a couple of pitchers and a plate of starved chicken. We said our good nights around 1am, and I went home, put on a movie, and passed out.
Saturday morning I got up and get ready to meet John so we could head to the Jamsil Sports Complex for the first of two rookie try outs. I was supposed to be there for 12, for the 12-2 rookies only game, but ended up waiting for John and didn't get there until closer to 1230. The games were set up so the captains, who are all veterans of the league could see what we had to offer and make teams. The weather was a warm 14C, and was perfect for some outdoor sports. I joined a team as quick as I could and started taking shifts at forward, and trying m best not to look like a fool. Even though I have been an athlete all my life, I found myself way more out of shape than I thought I would be. Before long I was pretty gassed, but never once stopped playing hard, mostly because I didn't need John giving me the gears about it later. When the rookie game was all over, the veterans played to get the rust off, and the rookies took a turn to drink some beers and watch the competition. Once hockey was over I stuck around with John and talked with some of the veterans that I have already met through him, and some that I hadn't. I think it was a good idea to stay, because it will help me assimilate into the group easier, and it is always good to make the effort when you are joining a group. Eventually we all headed out, and I came home to have a shower and see what plans were circling for the evening. It turned out that most people were staying in for the night, except for Brady and Frank who were going to be in Itaewon, and some hockey people that were also going to be there. I had a short nap and then headed up to meet John and a few people from hockey, and when they left around midnight I slid over to Bungalow to meet Frank and Brady. I had the misfortune/pleasure of taking Marley, one of the girls in the league who was completely wasted and on the war path, and her friend Angelica who was fairly sober with me. Marley quickly disappeared to drink with some other randoms, while Angelica and i joined the guys. We only stayed at Bungalow for a couple drinks, before heading over to Seoul Pub to finish the night. I only had one more drink, and then left to make it home before it was too late so I could get some rest for the next days try outs.
Sunday brought with it a great deal of stiffness, and sore feet having worn my crappy old runners. My right foot felt like the arch was going to explode with cramps, while my big toe on the left was swollen and blue under the nail having been rolled over on on Saturday. Once again I met with John to go to hockey. This time however, we were on time and I had tie to warm up before jumping right into it. I ended up on the same rookie team with some of the guys I played with the day before, and we had a great couple hours of play. When it was all over there were more beers to be drank, and while the veterans played, the captains went to one of the sponsoring bars to have the draft. After the veterans played, we all went to the bar to find out what team everyone was going to be on. Since the bar is a more expensive place to drink, a large group of us sat around drinking at the 711 until the draft was going to be announced, and then we went in to hear it out. It turned out that I will be on a team lead by Brett Roberts, and sponsored by X-Fitness in Itaewon, so we will be called the X-Men. Also, in a hilarious turn of events, Marley will be on my team. She's a good player, but a wicked drunk. Also slightly funny was the fact that I went higher in the draft than John did, granted he does have an injured wing at he moment. Apparently my speed and commitment was impressive. After we finished our beers, most of us called it a night so we could get home and rest up our bodies. Once I was back in Bongcheon, I stopped to get some groceries before getting home to cook some food for the week and make my call home.

The weather here is has been warm, and coupled with the new reason to be outdoors, it's looking like a good Spring is on its way.

Defining the V Rekindled

2011-03-21T09:56:00.001-04:00

Feb 21-27, 2011

After a couple of warm weeks, this week started out similar, with temperatures in the high single digits and sunny skies, but by the end had turned cold again.
Monday morning I got up after having a productive weekend, and got right to work cooking up a storm before work. I killed the remainder of my time watching some internet videos, and reading before leaving around 140. Work was similar to last week, with little to do, but play games and watch videos. After work I went home and watched some T.V. while typing some more blog, then went to bed.
Tuesday morning I woke up feeling a little congested, but went about business as usual. At work things were the same as Monday, except for a text I received letting me know that the gym I had been absent from was having a promotional 20% discount for the end of the month. I had been planning to get back in and get in shape and this price break was a signal that I needed to get on it. After work I headed home again, and relaxed with some tea, hoping to kill my congestion before it got out of hand.
To no avail, I woke up Wednesday morning even more stuffed up after a scary brush with what may have been sleep apnea. I remember waking up but not being able to move, or breathe through my nose or mouth for a solid 10 seconds, but quickly recovered with a gasp and some nose blowing. I laid around for a while hating on my congestion before getting up and starting my day. Once I was on the go it seemed to clear up a bit, but on my way to work I picked up some decongestants at the pharmacy. Also on my way to work, I stopped at the gym to renew my membership. However, I was told that the promotional deal was only for people paying by cash, so I told them I would come back later with the cash, then went to the bank and pulled out enough for the gym and the external hard drive I wanted to buy. At work it was getting increasingly hectic as the Korean teachers were trying to finish up all their phone calls and report cards before the semester finished and they all left. June however, was all finished and it was her last day with us, so when work was finished we all went out for some chicken and beer. Living the life of alcoholics, John and I partied with her, while the rest of the teachers kept it casual, and after several bottles of soju and pitchers of beer the three of us were pretty drunk. June left with some of the teachers, while John and I stayed to finish off the beers and pay the bill. I made it home by 2am, tried to drink some water before falling asleep, but ultimately failed.
Keeping to his word from the night before, John called me at 830 Thursday morning, because I wanted to make it to the gym and TechnoMart before work, but have had problems sleeping in as of late. I must have still been drunk, because I got up and apart from my apartment being a sauna and my congestion, I was feeling pretty good. Before I got ready to go anywhere I decided to answer some emails, and drink some water to rehydrate. I opened the window and door to let some of the heat out, since the shared floor heating had been turned up to around 34 degrees, then got to business. It wasn't long however before the sinking feeling of a hangover was looming in my future. Knowing that I probably wouldn't survive a workout, I laid back down for an hour or so, which was the downfall of my day. When I woke from my nap I felt horrendous, both hungover and super congested, but did not want to disappoint John after he had taken time to call me. So, I got up and got ready for work, but did not make any food. I left my apartment and went to TechnoMart to see about buying the 1TB drive I had priced out. I did some more price checking, feeling better with the fresh air, and eventually settled on buying one from a guy who dropped his price from 158 000W to 140 000W (approx. $120) since I was paying in cash. Feeling good about my purchase I headed back to Bongcheon to pay the gym and go to work. On the way back I only made it half way before the heat and movement of the train took its tool on me, and I started to sweat and get light headed like I was going to black out. I quickly got off at Sindaebang station and found a bench to sit down on and cool off. I got on the next train through and made it back in time to get home for another shower before going to pay the gym, and then to work. At work, I sat around feeling terrible, but was joined by John who also wasn't feeling 100%. The only comfort that we had in our misery, was that June was feeling way worse than the both of us combined. I struggled through work, and when it was all over, headed straight home to crawl into bed.
After sleeping it off, Friday morning was a welcome reprieve from how I felt Thursday. I was still stuffed up, and had developed a bit of a cough, but all in all I was feeling good. I skipped out on the gym, to conserve my energy to fight the virus, and spent the morning watching T.V. and cooking. Work went by much better as well, and aside from teaching the last lesson to a few of my classes, I just watched videos and played some games. I didn't want to over do it after work, so I just went home and got some rest before the weekend.
Saturday morning I got up before 11 as I thought John and I were going to meet at Chrissy's apartment to help relieve her of some items she wouldn't be taking with her when she leaves. I called her only to ind out that she wasn't going to be home until around dinner, because she was out meeting with some friends before she leaves. I took the the rest of the day to do some more blogging, and got within a couple weeks of being caught up. Eventually Chrissy was back in the neighbourhood, so I swung over to pick up a couple boxes of things, and to drop off my hard drive so she could put her pictures from Shanghai and the DMZ on it. She said she would put them on it and return it to me the following Wednesday when she would be around again to pick up her diploma I was to get from the school. After walking home with a butt load of goods, I started getting plans together for the rest of the night. It was James' and Steve's last night out, and he wanted to go to Hongdae after having dinner in my old neighbourhood, but since I live so far away from there now, I decided to just meet them in Hongdae at some point. In the end it worked out that Alex and Loiuse were not going to have dinner with the group, and we made plans to eat at a Peruvian restaurant in Hapjeong, just one stop away from Hongdae. After diner we took a cab over to meet them at a hipster bar called Over Sound, where we split a couple bottles of vodka for an incredibly good price, and sat around chatting for a few hours. After Over Sound, we headed to another bar, the name of which I don't remember. It was an underground place, that was full of drunk foreigners looking for last call pick-ups. We put our things in a booth and just hung out around it until a group of drunks thought they might like to sit there. We didn't have a problem with them sitting there, but when we offered to move our coats, mostly so that they wouldn't steal them, the girls of the group insisted that they owned them and caused a commotion. I stayed surprisingly level headed, and explained to the one guy in the group that they were our coats and that everything would be cool as long as we just moved them. Louise however, was getting nothing but a hard time with the drunkest girl of the group, and it escalated quickly when Alex jumped in and made it known that he wasn't going to risk his jacket going missing. A few bouncers came over to calm the situation down, and once cooler heads prevailed, we got our jackets and moved to another table. After that we all had one more drink before calling it a night. We left the bar just before 530, and got some food on the street in order to kill the last few minutes before the subway started running again. I took the first subway home, and was safely in bed by 630am.
I slept in until he early afternoon on Sunday, and then spent the rest of the day hanging out. I got out of the house only long enough to get some groceries, but then it was back to movie watching and slugging about. Before bed I made the weekly call home and hoped for clear sinuses in the morning.

sun - slept late hung out got groceries cleaned

Look at me! I'm in North Korea :)

2011-03-02T10:10:00.001-05:00

Feb 14-20, 2011

Having worked on reviewing this semesters work with the kids last week, I knew starting this week that work would be a breeze. For those classes that had not yet taken their level test, we would be doing more review, and for those that had, we would be playing games that still focused on the work we had covered.
I got up and cook some food Monday morning before getting ready and going to work. While at work I played review games with all of my classes, which made the kids happy since I very rarely play games of any sort. After work I headed home to take advantage of the newly discovered T.V. channels that I had. As it turned out, the cable package that comes with my apartment has two sets of channels. One with very few channels, the other with the full compliment of Korean channels. Since I usually use my computer to watch movies or shows after work, this new discovery will allow me to watch something in the background while I use my computer for other things, such as catching up on my blog and posting pic on Facebook. It was good news, and I watched some T.V. for the first time in a while, while eating some dinner.
Tuesday started out the same as usual. I got up and made my food for the day then headed off to work. The office was becoming increasingly chaotic, with teachers having finished their level tests and having to put in marks and call all the parents. This time of every semester is a highly stressful time, and with so many teachers leaving and so many starting, it was extra hectic as they had to communicate the changes to the parents. I found myself without a desk at times so the Korean teachers could make calls and input marks. At the end of the day, the true unorganized and ignorant style of Korean business showed up yet again when our "Vice Director" called Chrissy into her office. I used the quotes around vice director since she was never given the title, but instead, assumed the roll herself and made everyone's life miserable in the process. She sat Chrissy down and started asking her about her parent calls, which has been well established that she can't make since she doesn't speak Korean, and forcefully asked Chrissy to make Friday her last day. Chrissy had planned on making what calls she could the following week, which was her last week, after all her tests were graded. MJ was in the mood to start trouble, so she pushed the issue of Chrissy not doing her work, and in the end Chrissy told her that she had nothing more to say and wanted to hear less than nothing from MJ ever again and walked out of the office. John and I had been waiting for her, and we a little surprised when we saw her come out of the office in the way she did. Either way, we walked home as usual, getting the gist of the story from Chrissy. Once home, I took some time to type a little bit of the blogs I had fallen behind on, before getting to bed.
Not knowing what Wednesday would bring at work, I got up and headed in hoping for the best. When I got there it turned out that some more things had been said, and the usual staff meeting did not go over very well, and Chrissy was more than upset and packing up to go home. I wasn't sure how it happened, but she was in her room in tears, and all the other teachers were looking at management to blame. Now to works credit, Chrissy is a west coast princess, who has never had a real job, outside of the club scene, and she could really use some growing up. But as a business, there is a certain level of professionalism that our JLS branch just doesn't contain, or care to work towards. Eventually the director went into Chrissy's room to talk with her, and I heard after, that the message from the vice director was correct but delivered in a way that it was not meant to be. Either way Chrissy said she had had enough, and was leaving the school as the kids were arriving. For me this meant, that my break was spent with those kids since they were one of the classes I shared with Chrissy, and I had to explain to them what was going on without implicating the school in anything. I took them to a separate room and we talked and watched some internet videos until the vice director in all her wisdom brought me the books she thought I needed. It was evident that indeed she has no idea what she is doing, because the books were for the wrong level, and when I told her, she argued with me about it until I raised my voice indicating that they were my kids and that I knew what level they were in. She returned several minutes later with the right books, but didn't say a word. Possibly because all the kids were looking at her like she was an idiot. The rest of the day went by with whispers in all the rooms about what had happened, and a general disdain for administration by the teachers. After work Jean and I went to meet with Chrissy for some chicken and beer, and to talk about what had happened. In the end it was a laughable situation, because we all understood how bad things are looking for the school at this point, and there was no point in stressing over it. After a couple beers we all went home for the night.
Thursday morning I got up and went about my day as usual. At work things were a bit quiet, as most of the teachers that were leaving had heard about what had happened, and were now in total hate mode towards the school. All week John had been going on about how he wanted everyone to come out for his birthday on Thursday, and was still trying to convince some of the Korean teachers by the end of the day. It didn't work, and after work it was just him and I on our way to Sillim to meet up with a bunch of his other friends for some birthday beers. We went to a place called C Bar, and as he wondered around talking with his friends, I mostly hung out with a few other guys that were new to the group. Eventually the bar was pretty full with people John knew, and more and more acquaintances were made. By 2am people started filtering out, and by 330 there was only 3 of us left, and that was our signal to call it a night. I walked home to get some fresh air, and work some of the beers out, that way I wasn't hungover in the morning even though I only had 5 drinks.
Having walked home the night before, Friday morning wasn't half bad. I got up late in the morning, but felt good about not feeling bad. I quickly made some food to take to work, and then got myself out the door. Work went by pretty fast, and at the end of the day I had no plans but to go home and get some rest for mine and Chrissy's trip to the DMZ the next morning. I had been invited to Brady's place to place some board games, but since I had to be up at 6am, I declined for the sake of my health. Once home, I did a bit of blogging before settling in to watch some T.V. before falling asleep sometime after 130.
Saturday morning came far earlier than I had hoped. Having to get up at 6am so that I could meet Chrissy and leave Bongcheon by 630 was terrible. But, since we had to be at the USO office in Samgakgi by 7am, it was a must. We made it with plenty of time to spare, checked in, and then got on the bus to await our 730 departure. Luckily I had remembered to bring my book with me, so the wait and then 1 hour drive went by relatively quick. Once we reached the DMZ, a member of the U.S. Military entered the bus to check our passports, and then accompanied us as our guide for the rest of the trip. We headed to the Joint Security Area (JAS) after a quick briefing by the soldiers about how to properly conduct ourselves, and a short history lesson about the area. It is the only area along the boarder that is not separated by the 4km wide DMZ, and has building that lie 50% in the north and 50% in the south, used for holding meetings. It was in one of these buildings that you get to cross the line into North Korea, though only by 3m. After the JSA, we went to a lookout point, where you could somewhat see the propaganda city the north had built, as well as the Bridge of No Return, which was the last opening between the north and south at the end of the war allowing people to return to the side of their choice. After that we went to an observation deck that had coin operated binoculars for us to use so we could get a better look across the DMZ, and at the propaganda city. Following the observation deck, we had a chance to walk down into one of the tunnels they found that allegedly were built by the north before, during, and after the war to infiltrate the south. I'm not 100% convinced that that story is true, but without being able to collect both sides of the story, one may never know. When we were all done with the touring, we stopped at a restaurant for a cheap, but large lunch and then it was back on the bus for our last stop at the train station which was built for when the two Koreas unite, to ferry people through the DMZ and to their families on either side. There is very little hope of it ever being operational outside of the twice daily runs to and from Seoul, but one can hope. Once all the sight had been seen, and all the walking done, it was back on the bus for the ride home. Instead of reading on the way back, I caught a few winks, and by 330 we were back at the USO office, and on our way home via subway.
The original plan for after I got home on Saturday was to stay home and have a break, but mid week I got a message about it being Brady's birthday on Saturday, so plans changed. After I got home, I lounged around for a couple of hours, working on my blog and watching T.V., until eventually I was tired enough to have a nap. I slept from 6-9 and then got up to get ready for the evening. I had skipped out on dinner with everyone since I knew I would be tired after getting up so early, and told them I would meet them when they were finished eating. It turned out they had chosen to get some drinks at Craftworks after dinner, so with a birthday cake in hand, I headed that way for 1130 and met with Alex and Louise, Brady and SoHyun, Brett and MiSeon, Garrett, James, and Frank. We drank there until 3am before heading over to Dillinger's in Itaewon for a few more to end the night. We were luck enough to find a table as soon as we got there, and quickly laid claim to it so we could sit down, or at least put our coats somewhere. Up to this point I hadn't been drinking too much, so I decided to have a birthday Weliot with Brady, James, and Frank. They all thought it was atrocious, and we all shrivelled out faces in disgust. After that we just hung out sipping our drinks until 4am, when Brady and SoHyun, and Frank all left. They weren't gone for more than 30 minutes when Frank called me to see if I was still there. Luckily I was, because he had left his debit card with the bar and needed me to cash out his tab and take his card. I did, and after that Alex and Louise, and James all headed out. By then it was 445, and knowing the subway would open in another hour, Garrett and I decided to get one last drink at Seoul Pub to pass the time, and save a few chun on the cab ride. We sipped away until 530 before hitting the street for a kebab, and then it was into the subway station to catch the train home.
Getting home at 630 Sunday morning, made for a late rise in the afternoon. The good thing though was that I didn't feel bad for a second week in a row. Though still tired from being out all night, I was able to get some work done on my blog, as well as clean my apartment, get groceries, and do some cooking before I made my weekly phone call home. Eventually I had enough with the computer, and went to bed satisfied with what I had got accomplished over the weekend.

Another week of warmer weather is bringing hopes of Spring. Hopefully everyone out their is staying warm as well.

Back to the Grind

2011-03-01T01:59:00.002-05:00

Feb 7-13, 2011

Monday was back to the grind this week. With the weather warming slightly, it wasn't so bad to be back in Seoul. Given the time difference between Korean and home, Monday morning was in fact Sunday night, which was Superbowl Sunday. I am pretty passionate about my football, and made sure to get up earl enough to make it to Itaewon so that I could watch the game. I could have watched it from my home on my computer, but I like being around other people for big games like that, and I convinced John to go with me to Sam Ryan's pub. The pub was offering hamburgers and sausages at a reasonable price, so with a couple of those and a couple Bloody Marries in me, I started the day/week out pretty good. After the game I went home to change my clothes, but since I had failed to get groceries on the weekend, I didn't cook for myself and just bought some food on the way to work. When I got to work Chrissy had already told some of our coworkers about our "Trip of 1000 Fails", as we called it, but I shared some more stories and had some laughs with them while we all talked about how the holiday had been. Also, during the month of January 6 of the 10 Korean teachers in our Chess program had given notice that they were quitting, which is a story too long to be told in my simple blog. Nevertheless, while I had been home for Nan's funeral, some new teachers had been hired and they began to show up here and there at the school, when they weren't at training. We met a couple of them Monday, but it was brief, and uneventful. After work, I came home and did some laundry while I watched a movie, and then fell asleep.
Tuesday and Wednesday were simple days. I got up and without food to cook, killed time in the mornings before going to work, and then came straight home after work and did some exercising to try and stay in shape until I could renew my gym membership at the end of the month. While at work on Tuesday I took a few minutes to book a trip with the USO to teh DMZ on Feb. 19. Though I have been to the DMZ with Adventure Korea, the trip withthe USO takes you inside the "no-mans" land to the shared military border with the north; and Chrissy had asked if I would go with her so that she wouldn't have to go alone. Wednesday was also a bit different I guess. I called my dad to wish him a happy birthday since it was would still be his birthday back home. Then at work I received the good news that one of the most troublesome student in the Ace program had been removed from the school, so my classes with that group of students could go beyond me punishing him the whole time.
Thursday was again, just as plain as the couple before it, save but one instance at work. While teaching my last class of the day, my conversation class with my 8th grade students, one of the boys came up with a response that was one of the more humorous things I had heard a student say. It was almost as good as the Spider-Man story Alice from my 5th grade LSD class had written. We were talking about aliens and UFOs, and space travel in general. The students were giving relatively small and basic answers, but they were more engaged than when we were talking about going to high school, or family life. Then when I asked the question, "What would you need before you could survive on the moon?", one boy simply answered "Girls", with a look of pure charisma on his face. The class went silent, and we all looked at him. I think I was the first to laugh, and the rest weren't far behind. It was a great way to end the day, and reawakened me to the fact that, these kids, though schooled to the max and slow to develop socially, are no different than I was when I was a child. After the class, I shared the story with the other teachers, and then headed home to get lay down and let my stomach that had been churning all day settle.
Likely due to the double meat sub I ate the day before from Subway, I woke up Friday still feeling sick. I went to work hoping it would go away, but it didn't and by the end of the day I kind of just wanted to go home and sleep it off. But I didn't. Instead, I went to meet meet Rocchi in Haebongchon at a pub called Craftworks for some beers. I knew I wouldn't drink much, and even planned on coming home at a respectable hour, but Rocchi and his friend were over an hour late getting there, so I stayed longer than I had planned. After it was last call, we finished our beers and they convinced me to head to Hongdae with them. It had been Rocchi's plan the whole night to go there to meet a friend of his around 3am, but when we got there she was MIA and we settled for one more drink at a Ho Bar before getting some food and heading home. Even though I hadn't drank much, my stomach was still upset, so when I got home at 430 I chugged some water, then went straight to bed.
Saturday I woke up around 11 feeling pretty bad. Apparently the the kebab I had before coming home fuelled the fires of my indigestion , and I spent the better part of the day laying in bed or in the washroom chugging Pepto Bismol. In the late afternoon I got up the nerve to head over to Sindorim, to pick up some things at the E-Mart, and to price out a new external hard drive at TechnoMart. I was looking to price out a 1TB portable drive, so that I could transport files between work and home or friends without having to carry a large desktop external. The prices were standard it seemed across all the sellers at around 158 000W, so with that in mind I went back home to try and rest up for Louise's birthday party.
After a short nap and a quick shower, I got ready to head to Shincheon to have dinner at Aladdin's Lamb with all our friends, before going to Gold Bar for some drinks. I was feeling a bit better, but didn't eat too much at dinner, and saved the drinking for Gold Bar. It was the first time we had all been together since the last time and the fight at Gold Bar, so we shared the story and had some laughs about it, then went over to see if we could have a less eventful evening. It was a great evening, with no trouble, and lots of good times. We took our time drinking so nobody got sick, and having felt pretty bad all day I took it real slow up until about 4am. After that, I had a few more drinks at an accelerated pace, and then headed home on the subway at 6am. One back in my apartment I drank some water to save myself from dehydration, and then went to bed at 730.
Sunday was a brighter day. I was feeling a bit better, and having not drank too much the night before ,I was up in the early afternoon and ready to go. I hung out watching some movies, got groceries, and called home before calling it a night and heading to bed shortly after 1am.

Winter is losing its grip on Seoul. Hopefully the rest of you are experiencing a break from the cold as well.

새해 복 많이 받으세요! I'm Off to Shanghai!

2011-02-27T07:59:00.000-05:00

Jan 31- Feb 6, 2011

Having slept away most of the weekend, I was well rested to start the week. I got up Monday around 9am and took care of some laundry and cooking up the last of the food I had so that my fridge would be empty while I was away. Now that intensives were over, I had a lot more time before work to wake up and get ready for the day. Once I was ready, it was out the door, with high hopes that the last two days before our vacation would round out smoothly. The day went by just fine, except for the black eye I was sporting that was was evident every time I blinked. Some of the teachers caught it right away, while others had to take a couple glances. I tried not to call too much attention to it, but once the story was out it was hard to stop it from spreading. As for the kids, they picked up on it immediately. With the majority of them I was able to pass it off as an accident, and told them that I fell out of my bed and hit my eye on Goah's carrying case. Those that didn't buy that I told either a story about the Korean teacher hitting me, or the truth. Before I knew it, it was 10pm and I was on my way home. I through on a playoff game while I folded my laundry and cleaned my apartment, then called it a night around 1am.
Tuesday was similar in nature, except I didn't have anything to cook for myself, so on the way to work I picked up some food instead. At work I talked with Chrissy about how we were going to get to the airport, and about how I told Frank that we would meet him at the hotel since he was flying in earlier than us. I also, printed off a few maps and lists of things to do, but like a stooge forgot to print off directions to them. I had arranged with John to stop by and feed Goah, so I gave him my apartment code at the end of the day, and let him know that she would most likely hide under the bed while he was there. Before we left ,Mr. Kim the owner gave us all a New Years gift set of cooking oils and tuna. It's always nice to get gifts, but I am only one man, cooking for one person, so I'm not sure what I will do with so much cooking oil. After that I went home to pack, even though I had been invited out for some drinks in Itaewon (because Alex N lost his job). I thought it would be best to not be hungover on the flight the next afternoon. After my things we packed, and I was ready to go, I threw on one more game before falling asleep around 2am.
Wednesday morning I got up just before 9 and made sure I had everything I would need, then I ate some breakfast before heading out to meet Chrissy for 1030. Our flight wasn't until 230, and I suggested taking the subway to the airport since it was the first day of the long holiday, and I really didn't want to get stuck in traffic. Before I met Chrissy I stopped by the pet shop to pick Goah up some more litter, then took it home to refill her box before I left. Chrissy and I met at the station and got on the train to start our trip. We got to the airport by 12, checked in and then went to wait for our flight at the gate. We grabbed a bite to eat while we waited, which killed quite a bit of time before our flight left. Eventually we boarded our plane and were off to Shanghai. The flight was good, and we touched down at 330 local time, grabbed our bags, and headed for the subway, which was the easiest way to get into town. I had spent some time looking at how we would get to our hotel, and was pretty confident in my ability to navigate the distance between the closest subway station and our hotel. Then the beginning of a trip full of funny/disappointing failures started. While on the subway, we reached what we would eventually find out was an end of the line station for the trains coming and going between the airport and the city. Even though it was all the same subway line, the trip form the airport to about 6 stops out was run by one train, and the rest of the inner city circuit was run by a separate train. Now, since we didn't know this, and the process of a train switching directions was different from that in Korea, Chrissy and I stayed on the train and ended up going one stop back towards the airport. We realized the mistake we had made, and quickly got off the train, went back the other way, and then made the transfer as we were intended. Frank was meeting us at our hotel for 430, but having messed up with the trains, we didn't show up until closer to 5. Frank had already checked into the room, but they had given him a single room instead of the double room that we had booked. The hotel quickly changed our rooms, and then we were off to explore the city.
We started out by trying to get a cab driver to take us to the famous Nanjing Road, more importantly, the east end of the road. We showed him the map, and thought we had it figured out, but after only a short ride he pulled over and told us we were there. I had my suspicions, but we got out anyways. As it turned out, we were at the wrong end, and after taking some quick photos of a temple and along the strip, we got in another cab to go to the far end of the street like we wanted. Once we got out of the second taxi, we took a walk along Nanjing road taking pictures and trying to find a place where we could get some food. Things weren't much different in Shanghai than they were in Korea. A good portion of the people were also away visiting family, so naturally most of the restaurants and shops were closed as well. Eventually we found a place to eat down a side street, and for $15 we all ate our fill and had a couple beers. After we finished our dinner, we headed toward the famous river front view known as The Bund. We came out of Nanjing Road right at the point where a large statue of former Chairman Mao Zedong stood overlooking the river. We continued up onto the promenade and walked north, stopping frequently to take pictures of the incredible buildings, and the lighting surrounding them; and the many scattered firework shows that were going on around the river. The temperature, which was above zero while the sun was up was beginning to drop drastically, and we were sure that we wouldn't last outdoors until midnight. Once we reached a lit bridge over a tributary river to the Bund, we turned and went south towards where we had started. We passed Nanjing Road and went south as far as the marina before we we all pictured out, and cold enough to call it a night. It was only 10pm, but having been up all day, we were all in need of a rest. We hopped in a taxi, and headed back to our hotel.Frank and I grabbed a beer from the store and we all went up to our room. Throughout the day and into the night, we had heard and seen a plethora of fireworks, and now that we were back in our hotel we had a clear view of the entire cityscape and the true magnitude of the fireworks being set off around the city. We watched the city light up in a nonstop show until midnight when it was officially the new year, and at which point the city went insane with their fireworks. Though there was no centralized show, every corner, and in front of every building seemed to light off more fireworks than most cities do for the 4th of July. It was incredible, and lasted longer than than 45 minutes. It was officially The Year of the Rabbit, and time for us to go to sleep.
Thursday morning, we got up at 830 and got ready to get the day started. We had breakfast at the hotel, which was pretty mediocre, but at least we had something in our stomachs before we hit the town.Our first mission was to get to Yuyuan Garden, which was also the location of the famous Old Street, an architectural old area that has become a market these days. We made it there, and found ourselves in a veritable sea of people. We walked around for a few hours, taking pictures, and having our pictures taken by locals. For lunch we decided to get away from the crowd, and walked down some dies streets until we found a small dinner to eat at. The food was good and quite cheap. Once we finished eating we walked to Peoples Square via Nanjing Road. The road that had been so dead the night before was now teeming with people. It was a long walk through all the people, but eventually we made it out of the crowd and to the square. We walked around for a bit and then headed back to the hotel around 6pm to get off our feet for a while. After a few hours we got hungry again and headed out to see what would be open in our area for us to eat. Surprisingly, most things were closed even though it was only 9pm. Even more surprising was the fact that several places let us check their menus for prices,and when we decided to eat there, told us they were closed. Why wold you let us check your menus, if you are closed? Before long we found a hotpot restaurant, where they cooked tofu noodles and meat joints in a pot with some vegetables and other unidentifiable bits. Frank and I thought it was a pretty good meal, most likely due to the caveman in brought out in us; Chrissy however was not as enthused about it, and only ate a little. After dinner we headed back to the hotel around 11pm, grabbed a bottled Jack and Coke, and settled in for the night. I offered to switch out sleeping on the floor with Frank since we only had two beds, but he said he was quite comfortable with it, and we went to bed some time after 12.
Friday morning we got up early again and went to the bakery next to our hotel for breakfast before heading over to the Indoor Stadium to locate one of the tour bus stations. We had planned on going to an old water city, but when we got to the train station, the last train leaving at 1130 was already full. Not being able to go Friday, we booked tickets for the Saturday 1030 bus, and headed to the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Chrissy had wanted to go, and hearing science and technology got Frank and I interested. It turned out however to be the underground shopping centre that she was interested, not the museum. So, with our interests going in different directions, Frank and I went out to walk around the museum grounds, while Chrissy did her shopping. In the end I don't think she made out any better than she would have back in Korea, but to each their own. By 230 Chrissy was done shopping, and Frank and I were done walking around the museum grounds, we all headed to the hotel to drop off what Chrissy had bought then went to the Jade Buddha Temple. We were lucky that it was close to our hotel, because it was getting late and the temple closed at 430. The temple was full of people, both local and tourist alike, some there simply for photos others to pay their respects to and pray to their gods. The air was thick with the smoke and smell of incense, and the temple itself was endearing in it's inner city setting. After leaving the temple Frank and I were lucky enough to find some firecrackers for sale at one of the street vendors. Throughout our entire stay we had heard a constant barrage of of firecracker strands being lit off around the city, and they were no ordinary fire crackers. It seems that the inventors of the firework pack the biggest punches in those products they keep for themselves, because a single firecracker that usually pops off with a blast that makes you blink and laugh a little were going off with a blast that made you flinch and want to cover your ears. Naturally Frank and I bought a strand, and then we all headed back to the hotel to have a drink and rest before dinner.
For dinner we had plans to meet up with a friends of Chrissy's and his wife who have been living in Shanghai for several years. While we were waiting we started to get a little sleepy, so Frank and I took the strand we bought to some back alley to light it off. We weren't sure if we would get in trouble since everyone else was doing it, but being a foreigner generally brings different rules. A little nervous, as well as excited, we laid out the strand and lit them up. Instantly the air was filled with smoke and the deafening sounds of the firecrackers. Frank made a quick retreat, while I was seemingly paralyzed in place watching the explosion. Within a minute they had all popped, and we laughed our heads off while making a beeline for the store to get one more drink, then it was back to the room to wait. Fully awake, we laughed about it for a good half hour before Chrissy's friend showed up to get us, and we went down the street from our hotel for dinner. It was a very nice place, well out of the range we had been dinning at, and the quality of the food showed. Still being China, it was not overly expensive compared to any comparable meal in other countries, and when the bill came Chrissy's friend picked it up. I usually don't like people paying for me, but it was their city and they wanted to show us a good time, so I offered some money in good faith knowing full well that he wouldn't take it. After diner we hopped in cabs to head to a swanky bar district. We found a spot in a jazz bar with a live band, where the beers were going for 95Yuan a piece, that's nearly $15. I didn't mind paying the price since we were getting a live band, and a foreign atmosphere. By 1am we were all pretty tired, so we said our farewells and headed home for the night.
Saturday morning we all got up early, got ready, and headed back to the bus station to get on the bus to go and see the ancient water city we had read about. Stopping quickly at the bakery to grab a bite, we hit the subway to make our way to the bus station. After several stops we realized that we may not make it on the subway, so we hopped off and got in a cab to make the rest of the journey. It was amazing that we made it on time, because our taxi driver dropped us off on the opposite side of the stadium that we had to be at, and in the end we were a little unhappy that we did make the bus. Getting on with mere seconds to spare, we left the city for the hour long ride out of town. When we arrived at the ancient water town, we were more than disappointed to see that it was no longer a town, but instead a tourist trap of shops and not much more. Aside from a couple of canals that ran through a rather small city, there was not much to it. The crowds were also huge, and it wasn't until we got off the bus that we were told we would have to spend 5 hours there before we could get back on the bus, because that was just how the system worked. Once we were in the city we walked along with the crowd past lots of shops and over some bridges. It was bound to happen, and after the first fork in the road, Chrissy got separated from us. We tried to look for her, but in a sea of thousands of Asian it is hard to pick out one girl. Frank and I went on ourselves, knowing that eventually we would run into her. We wondered the streets and around the shops for a couple of hours before stopping at a coffee shop to have a drink and rest our legs, and then went to see if we could find Chrissy by the entrance. It didn't take long before we found her sitting on a bench near the canal. We laughed about getting separated, and about how shitty the water city turned out to be, then lamented the facts that we still had 2 hours to kill. Feeling that there was nothing left in the city for us, we went out to wait for the bus. Frank and I walked around the outer streets surrounding the city, but in the end it was just a sit and wait thing. Eventually the bus showed up to get us, and we were on our way back into town. Once back in town we took a taxi back over to the Yuyuan garden and Old Street market to pick up some tea for gifts, and then went back to our hotel to back for our flights the next morning. We ate dinner at the hotel, and then grabbed a couple beers to kill the night since we all had to be up and on the go early.
I set the alarm for 6am so that Frank could get up and make his 830 flight. He was flying from the airport closer to our hotel, where as Chrissy and I had flown into the international airport on the outskirts of town. He packed up the last of his things, then head out. I rest the alarm just in case I fell back asleep, and it's a good thing I did. The alarm went off again at 7 and Chrissy and I got up, grabbed our things, then headed to the airport. We thought we had given ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport, and we even made sure to make the proper transfer this time. We didn't account for Chrissy having to use the bathroom however. We had to get off not far from the airport for her to use the washroom, since we had left the hotel in such a hurry and neither of us had used it then. Thinking nothing of it, we got off the subway, found a bathroom then continued our trip. It had however, cost us about 15 minutes, and coupled with train ride that was taking much longer than it had on the way in to town a few days before, we ended up getting to the airport only 30 minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave. We ran to our check-in counter and asked to be let through, but they said we were too late and that we would have to wait for the next plane, and pay an extra $100 for a guaranteed seat. We were having none of that knowing that there are always open seats. After being given the run around for about 20 minutes, we were put on stand by and told to wait until 1130 to see if there would be room on the 1230 flight. We sat down and waited,and when it came time, there was, as we expected, seats on the plane. They gave us boarding passes, and we headed over to get through security. Ironically, we made it through security and to our gate in less than 20 minutes, to find that all planes had been delayed for about 30 minutes due to the volumes of air traffic. This meant that we more than likely could have made our first plane, but instead had to wait even longer to get on the later. Once aboard we sat waiting for another 45 minutes before we even taxied out to the runway. Eventually we were in the air, and back in Seoul by 330. We took the bus back from the airport this time, and were never more relieved to be back in Bongchon. I came home to a whiny cat once again, made my phone call home, then called it a night.

Holiday over, it was nice to be back in Seoul. Though colder than Shanghai, it is more familiar and comforting. Hopefully, everyone else had a good week, and enjoyed whatever adventure they got up to.

Ow, My Eyeball!

2011-02-22T10:44:00.000-05:00

Jan 24-30, 2011

Due to the flight time, and the time difference between Canada and Korea, I didn't land in Seoul until 530pm Monday. I quickly grabbed my bag from the luggage claim section and headed for the subway. Having missed another day of work, I text my coworkers to let them know I was home, then enjoyed the long ride back to Bongcheon. I got into my apartment by 730, to see my bedding all piled on the floor, and Goah hiding under the bed. She was quite reluctant to come out and see me, but I can't really blame her. I set my bag down and laid on my blankets on the floor until she stopped being such a sissy and came to see me. I pet her for a while, all the time with her whining at me like I had left her for dead. Eventually she crept back under the bed, and I fell asleep on the floor for a couple hours. Around 10 she came back out and started driving me crazy with her incessant meowing but unwillingness to come near me, until I finally yelled at her and scared her back under the bed. After that I picked the blankets up off the floor, remade my bed, set the alarm, and called it a night.
Suffering from jet lag for the the second time in a week, I was up at 6am to start my day. I spent a bit of time waking up and getting some laundry done, before leaving early so I could make it to the travel agent to restart the process to get my Chinese Visa. I was able to get that done and make it to work by 10am, where everyone was very excited to see me. It always feels good to be missed, and knowing that the teachers and students were happy to have me back put a bright spin on the day. Work went by with relative ease, though trying to figure out who had covered which classes, and what they had done took some time. The day went by quickly, and when the day ended at 730, I headed straight home where I sat with Goah and watched one of the many back logged football games I didn't watch the week before. Before too long however, the heavy call of sleep hit me, and I had to call it a night before it was even midnight.
Having gone to bed so early, I woke up again at 6am, and having not much else to do with the time, I threw on another football game while I cooked myself some food to take to work. I was able to get to work a little bit early in order to get some more paperwork in order, and see what the damage was on the online essay situation. John had really stepped it up in my absence, and marked all the kids online essays himself, despite my insistence on him sending me the login codes I had left on my desk. He didn't want me to worry about anything while I was home, but I really could have used something to occupy some of my time while I was there. Seeing that there were quite a few, I worked during the day to check as many as I could, and put a considerable dent in the list. When the day was over, once again I went home and put on another game while I struggled to keep my eyelids open. In the end, I lost the battle, and sleep took over before it was even 11pm.
Thursday was much the same as Wednesday. I got up again at 6am and cooked my lunch for the day, and then get ready for work, While at work John and I worked on more of the online essays, trying to get them all marked and back to the kids before the end of the week. Thursday being one of the day of the week we get to leave early, I left work and was home by 730, where I enjoyed another half of football before I passed out at 9 o'clock.
Having slept more than my fair share over the past few days, I woke up at 530 Friday morning rearing to go. I put on the football game that I had started watching the night before while I ate some cereal, then cooked my meals for work, and eventually headed to school for our last day of winter intensives. After my first class, I left the school to go pick up mine and Chrissy's passports from the travel agency I had left them with in order to get our Chinese Visas. It was a quick trip to Myeongdong and back, and it wrapped up the last detail for our trip to Shanghai. Once back at work I got a text from both Alex and Louise about meeting in Sincheon for some dinner at Aladdin's Lamb, before going over to Gold Bar for a few drinks. I agreed to meet them, and when I got of at 9 I quickly took my bag home, and got on the subway to go meet them. The dinner was good, and then Rocchi and Garrett showed up for the trip to Gold Bar. Things were going fine, until all of a sudden, in the middle of a conversation.......I had to use the washroom. And when I I say had to, I mean HAD TO. In mid conversation, though to be honest I don't remember much of, my stomach began to turn and I decided I needed to get through to the washroom. Now, instead of trying to get by nicely, in my haste I pushed a guy out of my way , who in turn punched me in the jaw. Having little concern about the punch to the face I continued to the bathroom, avoiding pooping my pants. On my way out the bathroom things in the bar were still pretty heated, I walked right into the crowd and a few more fists. Things were all happening in a blur, but I know I threw a few good punches before I was being swarmed, and having my arms pulled in two different directions. That's when I was suckered from behind. I can't blame the guy who hit me, but he was not involved, only drunk and angry like the rest of us, and decided he wanted to get in some punches. He swung at me from behind and connected pretty good just above my right eye. Being as high on adrenaline as I was, it barely fazed me, but I took a second to turn around and see Rocchi choke slam him on the floor, and then ChaeChul drag him out of the bar. Since I am a regular at the bar, and a good friend to the bar staff, after things calmed down a little, they asked me to stay inside and not go out looking for trouble. I agreed to that, and we all got back to drinking, while I took some time to apologize all the staff for creating a problem. I don't remember much after that, but in the end we stayed until 630 in the morning, and then I took the subway home. According to John, I phoned him when I got off the subway at 8am, but I don't remember that.
Having drank myself stupid the night before, I woke up just after noon feeling far more dehydrated than sore. I quickly started putting together the nights events as my face started to remember the punches it had taken some hours before. I quickly put on some clothes, and then went to the store beside my apartment to get some water and Gatorade so that I could get some liquids in me to try and get rid of my hangover. After that I came back to my apartment, crawled back into bed, and started making some phone calls to my friends who were there to help me to make sure they were all OK. Alex was in worse shape than I was, and was being sick, but everyone else was doing alright, and I was the only one with a sore face, which was good news. The rest of the day I spent in bed, rehydrating, and watching movies. When it is all said and done, I take blame for what happened Friday night. There are always two parties involved, though it is not in my nature to start trouble, to get excessively angry and not walk away is, so the blame is on me. This was a first I started a fight, but I'm sure it won't be the last time I get involved in one.
Sunday was much of the same story. I got up still feeling the effects of the hangover, and sore in the facial region. My jaw on both sides was sore, and above my right eye in the crease of my eyelid was showing signs of bruising. I kept watching movies, and then made my weekly call home before trying to get to sleep before the start of the week.

One week after my family's loss, the process of going through Nan's things has begun, and the women of the family are working hard to sort it all out. I hope everyone is staying strong, and finding the joy in the life Nan lived, instead of dwelling on the sorrow her passing.

She Lived With a Warm Heart, and a Strong Fist

2011-02-21T10:55:00.002-05:00

Jan 17 - 23, 2011

Monday morning I woke up early and went with my mom to the funeral home to see Nan one last time. The funeral home was kind enough to hold her body over until I made it home to see her, before she was sent out to be cremated as she wanted. It was nice to have a chance to see her, and even in death she lost none of the character we all loved her for: kind and loving yet stern. Aunt Deb summed it up well when she did pass by telling the pastor that she was a woman who "lived with a warm heart, and a strong fist".
After the quick visitation, mom and I went to the bakery and picked up a cookie and dessert bar latter to take to the nurses in the ward where Nan spent her final days. My family was overwhelmed with how great and supportive the entire staff had been throughout the whole process. After the hospital it was back to the house, where I spent the rest of the day sleeping, still feeling the effects of the jet lag. I slept until dinner, and then after eating sat around with mom and Ed until they went to bed and I headed to my room to watch some more T.V. before calling it a night as well.
Tuesday was a new day, and when I got up at 930 the house was empty. My mom and Ed had gone out to do some running around. I had a bite to eat and called Ash to set up a time to go out to visit our other grandparents. She eventually came by to pick me up in the early afternoon, and we went out to have a visit. it was nice to have a few hours to sit around and talk with them and one of their friends, and around 5 my dad stopped by after work, as he usually does. Ash and I were on our way out, but took a few minutes to let him know about the service arrangements for the end of the week. Dad said he was thinking of taking the next day off work as long as the weather was good, and asked if I would want to go ice fishing. being a guy who enjoys the cold, and not having been ice fishing since last year, I agree and told him to give me a call when he knew for sure. Ash took and dropped me off at home, and after a bit of supper I once again spent most of the night napping. It seems as though, with the time change, the late afternoon and early evening is when it catches up with you the most.
I woke up Wednesday just after 9 and got my things together for when dad called to go fishing. It wasn't until almost 11 when he called from my uncle Ken's house and said they would come to get me as soon as my cousin got back from her doctors appointment and my uncle could stop babysitting. They finally came to pick me up around lunch time, and we drove down to St. Williams, where we always do our fishing. As we were getting our warm clothes on, we were visited by one of the Ministry of Natural Resources staff, who wanted to know how we had been doing, but since we hadn't been out yet she let us be. That was a good thing, because both my father and I didn't have our licenses with us, which can result in a hefty fine. We hit the ice, but it wasn't until the sun started going down that any of us had any luck. Dad was the only lucky one, having walked a few dozen yards from where we were, he took advantage of some holes left by others and pulled out several good sized perch. After the sun was set, we headed off the ice in the dark, and were on our way home by 6pm. Ice fishing is always a good way to get out and enjoy some peace and quiet. It gives one time to think and reflect on anything they wish, add that to the conversations you can have with your company and it makes for a great time.
Once back in town they dropped me off at home so that I could get cleaned up before going over to Ash's house for dinner with her and her boyfriend Lance. She came to pick me up at 8, and we went to her house and had shepherds pie and garlic bread, which was absolutely delicious. After we finished dinner, we sat around talking until Gavin showed up, having just gotten home from a 3 day work trip up north to do some work on a friend of his family's cottage. From Ash's, we went out to a bar to have a few drinks. We had some laughs and a couple drinks, then Gavin drove me home around 1am. I had forgone the jet lag nap, so was very tired when I got home, and went right to bed.

Friday I got up again about mid morning and hung out with mom and Ed for a bit. Then in the afternoon I went back out to my other grandparents house, this time armed with my laptop so I could dhow them some of the pictures of my adventures from the past couple years. Technology is not something they care much about, in fact they still have an old school rotary phone, and they were thrilled that I was able to bring and show them my photos so easily. We spent a couple hours on the couch going through numerous albums, and the stories that go with them. Looking back on it as I write this, and with the passing of my Nan, I realize how important those moments are and am going to make a better effort in the future to spend time doing such things. I was however on a time line, because Russ and Michele and the kids were coming down around dinner time. They had not told the kids that I would be home, because then it would have been a week long "When are we going to see Uncle Mark?" bonanza. In the end my mom had to call me and ask how much longer I would because they had arrived, but I was already putting on my coat so i would be just behind them. I said my good-byes and headed home, and as soon as I walked in I was swarmed by the two of them, Braunwyn and Parker. It was great to see them, and I was amazed at how much change can happen in 9 months. We played for a bit until dinner was ready, then played some more after dinner until it was time for the rug-rats to go to bed. Once they were in bed, Russ and Michele, and I headed over to Gavin's to have a visit with Mike and Jill, and their new puppy Noodles. We got there just after 10, and sat around talking and playing with the dog until Ash and Lance showed up, and then we headed out for some drinks at The Moose. We stayed until last call, which was something I hadn't heard in some time living in Korea and all. The three of us headed back to moms place, and I gave up my room to Russ and Michele, and went and crashed on the floor in Parker's room.

We all got up early Saturday morning, partly because of the kids, and partly to get ready for Nan's service. After sleeping on the floor over night I felt like a million bucks. The mattress on my bed is a little too soft, so after a few days my back was getting sore, and the night on the floor put it all back in order. After some breakfast, Ash came over to hang out with the kids while the rest of us got ready. My mom had to iron the good clothes I had taken home, because I just shoved everything in when I was packing. As we were getting ready, Parker took the chance while his shirt was off to invite me to the gun show, thus prompting and gun show photo, which was hilarious. He is so funny, and quick witted. I try to deny it when the family says it, but he is very much like his Uncle Mark. We all headed over to the funeral home at 1230, and visitations started at 1. It was nice to see the whole family, and talk with them for a bit before it got too hectic. The rest of the afternoon I kept people entertained, telling stories and showing them a funny story one of my students had written. Over time a great number of people came that I hadn't seen in many years. Names were retold, relations brought up, and stories shared. At the end of the day, when it was just family left, my aunt Deb pulled me aside and gave me, my grandfather, Gump's Korean War ring. Nan had been holding onto it, and decided that she would like me to have it since I have spent the last few years of my life living there. We cleaned up after everything was taken care of, and headed home at 530. We were all so tired that we just laid around until the early evening. Around 9 Adam Welsh called me, he had stopped by the funeral home because him and Lisa were in town for dinner at her parents, and invited me over to Lisa's for some drinks. I got ready and drove over and stayed for a couple hours just talking with the two of them, her sister Deanna and her boyfriend. Lisa's grandfather had recently passed away as well, so we talked about that, and just enjoyed catching up. Knowing that I had to get up early Sunday for the flight back to Korea, I left Lisa's house just after midnight so that I could get home and pack. On my way home I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some spices that are hard to find in Korea, as well as a few toiletries that I was getting low on. After that I went home and packed until 330.
I only slept for an hour before the alarm went off, for me to get up and get ready for dad to come and take me to the airport. I got up and took my bag and laptop to the door, then woke up mom and Ed so I could say good-bye. My dad showed up just after 5 and then together we went to pick up my Uncle Ken, who was going for the ride to keep my dad company on the ride back. We were at the airport by 7, which left me lots of time to check in before my 830 flight. So while I waited I picked up some forms from the Air Canada desk so that I could file them in hopes of getting a partial refund on my flight cost under the bereavement policy. After I checked in I went through security, and as per usual was looked at with suspicion, and inevitably had my laptop bag searched. To the credit of the airport security crew, it was because I had my dread hook in the bag and on the x-ray screen it does look like an ice pick; but when I am asking what the problem is and offering to help they should pay attention and make the process go much faster. After a few minute hang up, I was through and on my way to the plane, which was loading. I wasn't looking forward to the long flight again, but having not slept very much the night before I knew that I could pass out for a good portion of the flight. The first half of the trip to Vancouver went quick, and when we landed in Vancouver, I had only to get off the plane and wait while they refuelled before getting back on and taking off for the 13 hour flight back to Korea.

For the end of this post I would like to thank all those, both friends and family, who gave their condolences and support to my family during our loss. We appreciate all the calls, visitors, open hearts, and open ears that were there for us. Nan you will be forever missed, and always loved.

The News Gets Worse, and I Head Home

2011-02-21T10:05:00.001-05:00

Jan 10-16, 2011

After some bad news last week, which turned a little brighter over the weekend, on Monday I decided to go ahead and book a trip for the Lunar New Year (a.k.a. Chinese New Year, Solar New Year, and in Korea 설날) since we had 5 days off at the start of February. I had been holding off since getting word of Nan's problems, but hearing that she was in the hospital getting good care, and seemed to be getting better, I took the plunge and booked a trip to Shanghai. It wasn't my first choice, but since time was short, and I had waited too long to get in on any of the good deals to places like Hong Kong, Indonesia, or the Philippines, Shanghai it was. I planned to go with my coworker Chrissy, and possibly Frank, who I had talked to about it over the weekend. Chrissy was able to find a pretty good deal using her American Express membership. For a round trip ticket and decent hotel, it would cost only $470. We signed up and hoped for the best, not booking cancellation insurance, which would be a bit of a stresser as the week unfolded. After work I headed home to watch some football playoff action before calling it a night just after 1.
Tuesday morning it was up early again and off to work for 930. Work went by as usual, nothing overly exciting happened, but the day was good and quick. After work I headed to Itaewon with John to hit up Sam Ryan's, a foreigner pub, for their cheap rib and beer night. It was nice to be able to take advantage of activities going on at night that would usually be out of the question given my regular schedule. We stayed for a few hours, and enjoyed some beers with a few of John's friends, and with Wes who showed up a little after we did. Eventually we were among the last people in the bar, at about 1230am, and John bought one more round for us to chug before going home. John and i were able to catch the last bus out of Samgakgi, then walked home from Sillim where it dropped us off. I was able to get home and into bed before 2am, and felt good about not being out too late.
That feeling of not too bad quickly turned to feeling like crap when I woke up at 830 with a hangover. It didn't help that the jerks I share the floor of my apartment building with had the heat turned up to over 30 degrees, which made my apartment a small oven, furthering the dehydrating process I started with alcohol the night before. I forced myself to get out of bed and shower, and then got off to work. Once at work, I revealed in the fact that I wasn't the only one who felt terrible. John also came in feeling crappy, and we both spent a good part of the day with our heads down on our desks whenever we were not engaged in our jobs as roll models. After work, still feeling pretty bad, I went straight home, put on a football game and laid down for the night.
Waking up Thursday, I felt much better, and had no trouble getting ready and off to work with plenty of time to spare. After my first couple classes, I took some time to head to the bank and take care of some transferring, as well as taking out some money to give to Chrissy for the trip we had booked to Shanghai on her credit card. At the end of the day I took some time to try and fix the projection screen in Peters classroom that had come unravelled several weeks ago. I took it all apart with Johns help and then tried rewinding the screen around the spindle and putting it back together. It seemed to go back together alright, but then as I stared coiling and uncoiling it to create tension on the internal spring it became apparent that the pin in place that keeps it from uncoiling after tension has been created had broken, so it could not be pulled too far out before the spring inside it would let go, releasing all the tension it needs to retract when you are done using it. That being the case I took it apart again and rehung just the screen on the wall so Peter could still use his projector. After the failed attempt I headed home to watch some more playoff football and have a bite to eat.
Friday started out as a promising day. I got up and got all the documents Chrissy and I needed for our Chinese visas in order and then headed over to work. After my first class, I hit the subway to make the trip to the travel agent in Myeongdong to get the visa process started. I was there just after 11 which meant the office was closed but the travel agent would be able to get our passports in on Monday. On the way back to work I received a message from Frank saying that he had booked a ticket and would be coming with us to Shanghai. This was good news. Not that I didn't want to spend the whole time alone with Chrissy, but it is always nice to have more people around to talk with and share in the fun. Once back at work I went about the rest of the day as per usual. Just before the end of the day, I called the wine buffet to increase our reservation to 30 people, and then finished out the day so I could go home and take it easy before the big party Saturday. Things seemed to be going well, and then, as I was relaxing and watching a game, I got an urgent message from Ash to tell me Nan had taken a turn for the worse over night, and that it didn't look good. Getting calls like that is never a favourable thing, but when you are on the other side of the world it is, strangely enough, easier to deal with. I quickly called home and talked with Ash and Mom at the hospital to see what was going on. It turned out that Nan had caught pneumonia and pretty much had a complete system crash. We were all very shocked at this turn in condition since she had recently showed such promising signs. The family, along with the doctors decided to discontinue all support systems and simply place her in an induced coma state so that she could live out her last hours in comfort. It was hard to hear the family in such pain over the phone, and not be able to be there, but they did have each other and that mad me feel better. I spent the rest of the night MSN messaging Ash, as well as talking to Gavin and his brothers, and my other grandmother, who in turn called my dad at work to let him know he should head up to the hospital. By the time I could no longer keep my eyes open, it was 530 in the morning, and I went to sleep knowing that the worse call was yet to come.
It was as if I had only shut my eyes for a few moments when my computer buzzed letting me know I had a message. I got up, knowing all to well what it was going to be. It was Ash letting me know that Nan had passed away. It was 530pm Friday January 14th. I sent a message back saying that I would call in a few minutes after everyone had a minute to calm down, and to give myself a minute to breathe about the situation. After about 10 minutes I called Ash and talked to the whole family on speaker phone, before talking to just my mom and then Ash. I let them know that I would be coming home as soon as I could, but it might not be until Sunday. Though I could have threw some things in a bag and been at the airport within a couple hours, being a very work oriented person i felt it was necessary to go to work and make sure things were in place for the teachers that would have to cover my classes while I was gone. That, and in a truly cosmic joke, my passport was at the travel agency I had gone to the day before. I got to work trying to hold it together, which was hit and miss, and explained the situation to my bosses. They were very understanding, and even helped me make the call to the travel agent to get my passport back. the travel agent at first didn't understand the gravity of the situation, and said that I could get it back on Monday because he was in the middle of climbing a mountain. I asked my boss to let him know that one way or another I was getting my passport back Saturday, even if I had to throw a brick through his window and get it myself. I'm sure that's not what she told him, but in the end he agreed to cut his hike short and meet me at his office. I spent a couple hours typing up my lesson plans for the next week before gong to meet him, and then went back to the school and finished what I felt I had to do. After I was done at the school I was exhausted, as well as too late to make it on any flights for the night so i went home to have a nap. I woke up after only sleeping for a couple hours, and decided that it would be best for me to get out of the house and be with those people here that are the closest thing to family you could ask for. Since I had planned the wine buffet thing, I got ready and headed to the mall to meet up with everyone. It wasn't long before the news got around about what had happened, and everyone was really great about keeping me positive for the night. Eventually the buffet was over and people started heading either home or to Gangnam for some more drinks. I thought it would be best to head home, and having held it together pretty well all night and thinking everyone was gone, I had a bit of a breakdown in the hotel lobby. Little did I know, Alex and Louise were still there and weren't about to leave me be. They convinced me to not go home, and to come out for a few more drinks. We went to a bar called Voodoo with a bunch of other friends, where we drank, and I talked with Matei for a while, until 4am. Once I got home I quickly packed a bag to take home for the week and cleaned up, before passing out for a few hours.
I woke up Sunday morning at 9am, said good-bye to Goah and headed to the airport. On the way, I spoke with Wes to see if he could find any deals on tickets while I was on my way to the airport. The prices he found were similar to what I was eventually quoted at the airport, and in the end I bought a ticket on the 630pm flight out. That meant that I had 6 hours to kill before the plane left, so I took out my laptop and phoned home to let them know my flight details, and then sat around killing zombies until my battery was to low to start another game. After that I simply went to the check in counter, laid down on the floor and slept until they started checking people in for my flight, then I went through security and had another nap while waiting to to board. I was so into my nap that I almost missed my flight, but luckily was woken up by another passenger on his way to the plane. During the flight to Vancouver I sat next to a lady on her way home from doing volunteer work in Cambodia, and after a few hour chat I settled in and watched some movies. The flight went by fairly fast, that is until we hit Vancouver and got stuck in the ridiculously long customs line. There was only 6 customs workers trying to process over 1500 passengers. It was so backed up that they forewent he separation of Canadians from foreigners, and put us all in one long snaking line. It took just shy of 100 minutes to get through, and by the time I did, it looked as if I would miss my connecting flight through to Toronto. I was not very happy about this, and along with a dozen other passengers, ran through to the connecting flight check in counter; where we had to wait in another line. Eventually they called for the final boarding of our flight, at which point one of the check in attendants radioed up to see if there were any passengers in line, because there were still seats on the plane. They asked us and then skipped us past the line and told us to run to get on the plane. We did, and after a bit of panic, I was on the last leg of the flight home.
My plane touched down at 930pm, amazingly enough still Sunday night, and bags in hand I went out to find my father and sister who had come to pick me up. I had to walk between the international and domestic arrivals areas a couple of times before I found them, and we could head home in the -25C weather. We got into town just after 11, and Gav came over to visit until around 230. After he left I went to bed, to sleep off some of the impending jet lag.

It is always sad when a family member is lost, but with love and support even the toughest times can be overcome.

Some Bad News From Home

2011-02-15T05:53:00.002-05:00

Jan 3-9, 2011

Well this week we were in full swing winter intensives, 930-9, most days of the week. I got up early Monday and headed to work with high hopes of getting some things done after work since we would be getting off an hour earlier than usual. Off work by 9pm and with my gym member ship expired, I immediately went home and started making another batch of chicken soup, then left ti to simmer overnight while I watched a football game, then passed out. I woke up around 430 in the morning to sounds of my soup boiling over, and quickly got up to turn it off so that I didn't burn my apartment down.
I only slept for a few more hours before it was time to get up and head back to work. But instead of taking my soup, I took some pasta that I had made over the weekend, because I wanted to make a second pot so that I would have enough to share with all the teachers. Work went by quickly, and by 730 classes were over and we were allowed to leave. I took advantage and headed home to make my second pot of soup, watch another game, and clean my apartment. It was nice to have a clean place that smelled of delicious soup, instead of the usual dusty place that smelled dank. Off to bed early, I set my alarm to wake up at 3am to turn off the slow cooker so that I wouldn't have the same fright as the night before.
With all the soup made, I added it to the large container I had, then took it to work with me to share with my coworkers. It was a big hit with everyone who had a chance to try some, and seemed to make everyone feel better about being at work for such a long time, generally without having a chance to eat a proper meal. While in class during the afternoon, I had a truly hilarious scenario unfold before my own eyes. As I walked into my Grade 4-5 class of students in our second highest studying level, one boy named Eric told me he needed to call the police. I wasn't sure what to say, so I asked him why, to which he replied "because Sarah won't stop hitting me". I told Sarah that she should not hit him, and then explained to the class how, at their age, girls and boys often hit each other when they like each other. They all recoiled in fear at this, and then another girl named Candy tried to whisper to Sarah, "Sarah next time just kick him", an motioned to the crotch area. Having heard and seen what Candy said, Eric loudly exclaimed, "What! You want to break my horn?" I had no idea what to do, so I simply put down my books and walked out so that they didn't see me laugh at what was going on. While in the hall I looked next door into the teachers office and asked their Korean teacher just what she had been teaching them, and told her the story. Then the whole office was laughing and i went back to try and get a lesson done. Though I couldn't look those students in the face the rest of the class. After work I headed home and once again whipped up some food while I watched a football game. I used some taco mix that Lauren had left for me, and made a type of chili with peppers and steak strips. It smelled and tasted pretty delicious, and I was looking forward to having it for lunch the next day.
Still looking forward to the chili/taco mix creation I had made the night before, on my way to work I picked up a few french loafs so that we, John and I, could make sandwiched out of them. Or at least cut them up to dip in the sauce. i had made an extra large amount because John is still having some money issues and I want to make sure he is still eating regularly. Very big brother of me :) Once at work however, the day took an unexpected drop in morale. Immediately after logging onto my computer I checked Facebook to see what the news of the day was, and too my surprise there was a message from my aunt to call home immediately. Right away I got pretty worried, especially with Nan's health being so poor as of late. I quickly downloaded Skype and called home to talk to my mom. As it turned out, Nan had not responded well to her latest chemotherapy treatment, and had been hospitalized that afternoon, so my morning, and they weren't sure what the future held. The news of Nan's hospitalization put me in a rather down mood for the rest of the day, and since I wasn't very hungry I decided to share my lunch with all the teachers instead of just John. Though when looking back, I don't know if I shared it as much as they attacked it like a bunch of vultures who hadn't eaten since their soup lunch the day before. It made me feel better to know that they were enjoying it, but the rest of the day still dragged on pretty slow and shitty. After work, trying to kill some time so that I wouldn't have to go home and sit in my apartment alone, i headed for the COEX Mall to make some reservations for the following Saturday's wine buffet. We had talked about it over Christmas and New years, and had decided to do it on the following Saturday since it was James', Dino's, and Hayley's birthdays all at the same time. I made reservations for 20 with the probability of raising it to 30 after we got the final attending count. I was back home by 9pm, and then back on the computer, calling dad to let him know what was going on, as well as to some other friends and family. I ended up being up on the computer until 530 in the morning, before I was all talked out, and too tired to think anymore.
Waking up again at 830 Friday, I called home to get the latest news about Nan, and the news was good. They said she was looking better and that her blood cell counts had come under control, and that her colour was coming back. She was still not very responsive, but there was hope that she would pull through. While at work, even with the good news, I let the administration, as well my students know about the situation in case I had to make the tragic trip home, and started getting paperwork in order just in case. After work I headed over to Sincheon to meet Alex and Louise for dinner at Aladdin's Lamb, and then slid over to Gold Bar for some drinks. It was good to be out with friends, and we stayed out until 530 before heading over to McDonald's to get some breakfast, and then I caught the subway home at 7, and was in bed by 8am.
Sleeping in until the early afternoon, I got up and spoke with Ash over MSN to see what the latest news was. Nan was doing better than the day before, was more coherent, and had been started on several drugs to help her get better. On top of that, a doctor specialising in thrush was on hand to help with her condition so that she could breathe more comfortably. It made me feel better to know that she was showing signs of improvement, and I spent the rest of the day lazing about watching movies, and talking to friends like the Davies clan and Lauren online. Eventually I was all movied out and called it a night some time around 230.
Sunday I slept in again until 130 and then talked to Ash some more before getting motivated enough to leave my apartment. i started with a walk over the hill behind my house to Sillim, where it was a fair bit colder and windier than it was on the Bongcheon side of the hill. After reaching Sillim, I walked back towards home on the main street, and then stopped at the grocery store to get my supplies for the next week. Then I picked up a pizza for dinner and walked home. By the time I got home it was just after 7, and John swung by for a few minutes on his way to get some groceries as well. He didn't stay long, and after he left i finished my pizza and watched some more movies while I cleaned up and did laundry before calling home to talk with mom.

Well I have fallen behind with my blogs, but will be getting caught up in the days to come.

Office Insanity Under Control....No Wait, I Lied

2011-01-05T00:49:00.016-05:00

Dec 27, 2010 - Jan 2, 2011 HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well this week started off pretty good. After getting up and making some food before going to work, I went outside to find the weather quite warm for this time of year, somewhere in the -2 range. Once at work we were all wondering if John would be in, and eventually he did show up feeling relieved to be out of the hospital, but still in a heap of pain and on a bucket of meds. I did the best I could to catch him up on what went on with his classes last week, but given his condition, he had very little in the way of attention span which seemed to span the week. In fact throughout the week he was more concerned with getting his texts off than his job, which made me want to choke him and him so unorganized it was unbearable. After work Monday, I hit the gym for the last time, as my membership ran out on the 27th. That being the case I tried to workout extra hard, because I knew I wouldn't be renewing until after my first pay of the new year. After the gym I went home and put on a football game while I made some food before bed.
Tuesday morning I woke up late in the morning and did nothing but get ready and head off to work in hopes that the day would go by and that the coming winter intensive schedule that everybody has been talking about would be explained to us before it was too late. That never happened and later in the week the proverbial shit hit the fan. After work it was straight home to watch another football game and try to get to bed at a decent hour, which also didn't happen.

Wednesday, since I didn't have a gym membership, I didn't go to the gym. Instead I made some food and headed to work, and walked right into confusion central. It's funny you know, every year winter comes at the same time, which means winter vacation for the students which in turn means winter intensives for most hagwons (academies). Even as a non-Korean I know this, yet the school couldn't wrap it's head around the idea of getting things organized before it was the day before. That being said, and keeping in mind Koreans inability to plan ahead, or to organize things in a sensible fashion, it was a veritable madhouse at work with teachers and administration running around trying to finalize schedules, and all the other things that should have been done weeks ago. So while all the craziness was going on, I thought I might ask about what was going to happen with us foreign teachers, and was met with the surprise that I didn't already know. That put me into a pretty bitter place, and I quickly made it known that it isn't the Korean facultys' responsibility to inform us, but that of the administration, especially since Jean our usual liaison was away on family business. Then on top of that, though there had been hints of us having to start grading the online essays of the upper level students, it wasn't until half way through Wednesday that we were given any sort of clue as to what we were supposed to do, and even then things were so busy that we couldn't get online to have a look. At approximately the end of the day, we were told that we would have to be back at work for the new winter schedule at 930 the next morning, and that broke me. I voiced my opinion on how poor the communication and organization at this school is, and how it is really hurting the way things get done, or not done to be more precise. After work John and I went back to my place for a few beers and to snip some photos off his hospital disk so he could put them up on Facebook. Eventually John went home to get some sleep, and I threw on a football game before heading to bed.

Having only gone to bed at 3am, I had to get up at 8 in order to make some food and make it to work for 930. Once at work the confusion continued as teachers were coming in late and scrambling to get ready for classes. Typically during intensive schedules, the number of hours is increased by a few, but the day is shifted forward so that the kids come in the morning and afternoon, but everyone gets to go home early and have a life. My school seems to be different, and the owner believes that the kids will come no matter what time as long as we offer classes. That being said we run classes from 10am until 9pm MWF, and 10am until 630pm TTH. So our night classes were shifted forward to the morning and a couple extra classes added between when they finish and the regular afternoon students arrive, giving us a one hour lunch break. While at work John and I tried to get a handle on the new online essay marking program, not that it's that difficult, but with any new program there is a learning curve. While doing so, we were getting pressure from administration to get all the essays finished in on afternoon, not understanding that in a typical week we would have 3 or even 4 days to work through the essays that average 10-12 minutes a piece to mark. There just wasn't enough time and we were unable to get to them, and by 630 the kids were gone, and I only stuck around until 730 to wait for the Korean teachers to be done before I gave it up and went home myself. Once home I put on another football game while I cooked some food for the next day before heading to bed around 230.

Another early morning on Friday marked the start of a stressful day. After I got up and made it to work the pressure was on again about the essays John and I 'desperately' needed to finish. That being said, our vice principal, who likes to make everyones job difficult by creating more of a business atmosphere than academic one at work, then started asking other Korean teachers to help us, which made them freak out thinking they had to do a bunch of extra work that they were unfamiliar with. Eventually, the vice principal came into the teachers office to have a word with me, but found herself getting a word from me. Before she even started, I told her that if she was coming into the office to create more confusion and chaos, then she could walk herself right back out because John and I had it under control, and nobody needed her running around creating chaos. She wasn't sure what to say to that and tried to explain herself, but since I'm a dick and was in no mood to listen I let her know that what she does at our school makes no sense, because it always results in panic and hard feelings. She didn't know what to say, so I continued to explain to her how on a regular week John and I could do the essays with little worry, but only having one day was a bit ridiculous. After that she left the office, and to be honest I felt a bit worried I might be called into the directors office, but I had the same message for her and less than an iota of care in me. That never happened though, and as much as I would hope a lesson will be learned, I know it won't so whatever. After work, which by the way didn't finish until 9pm on Friday according to a new schedule we got in the middle of the day, I went straight home to bundle up for our New Years Eve outing. Since I have still not received my winter clothes from home, I doubled up on sweaters, put on long-johns, and grabbed some gloves, then headed to Jonggak to meet Alex and Louise, James, Garrett, Brett and MiSeon, and Thomas and Jeanne for the street ceremony. I met James, Louise and Alex at an Indian restaurant first for a bit before going outside to meet with Brett and Miseon, and Garrett, then fill my backpack with beers to drink while we waited. Thomas and Jeanne were already lost in the crowd, which was slowly becoming a massive pile of idiotic Koreans all trying to cram into the centre of the square not understanding that there was no space left. We tried to stay on the outskirts since there really wasn't anything pressing to see near the centre but eventually our circle started getting crushed as more and more people tried to cram towards the centre. It was at that point we started bracing ourselves to preserve our circle, and I may or may not have thrown a few elbows at the people pushing the crowd. I know it is a result of the pushing going on behind them, but I am confident that had a crowd wide panic/fight broken out I would have been just fine. Eventually the crowd stopped pushing and settled down to wait for the countdown about 30 seconds before the end of the year. Ten, nine, eight, we all counted down, three, two, one......HAPPY NEW YEAR the people erupted and cheered, and then the bell began to toll twelve times as is the tradition at the square. Immediately following the ringing of the bell, guess what happened. If you said mass exodus of the same people who crammed in just minutes before, then you are correct. As if being outside for more than 5 minutes after midnight would kill them, the Koreans started pushing their way back towards the subway station, giving zero regard to the thousands of people in front of them, because apparently the self is the most important thing in Korea. Luckily we were far enough to the side and still holding to our circle that the crowd flowed around us like water around a rock, and eventually brought upon us Thomas and Jeanne who joined the circle as we waited out the crowd. After the street was cleared to a manageable couple thousand, we bought some fireworks and finished celebrating with those who were not deathly afraid of the -14C weather. Eventually even we got cold and decided to catch the last subway to Sincheon at 130, for Gold Bar's New Years Eve party. There we met Brady and SoHyun, Frank, and a few other friends for some more drinks. By 4am James had had enough and I was elected to take him home. It was a good thing he lived close because I had to take the taxi to his house with him, then carry him in, and then go back to the bar to pick up my coat and bag. I got back to the bar by 430, and Alex and Louise left shortly there after. Thomas and Jeanne, and I figured since it was already almost 5am, we might as well get some McDonald's breakfast and take the subway home. And that is exactly what we did, then I was off to ride the subway and was home by 8amto call it a night, and a year.

Saturday afternoon I got up around 130 feeling pretty good considering how late I was up. Good thing I hadn't drank that much. I sat around watching a movie until about 4 before getting motivated to have a shower and head over to Alex and Louise's for ceviche, which is a seafood dish from Latin America that Alex makes now and again. He invited a bunch of us while we were out Friday night, and Brett, MiSeon, and I all showed up to try it. And I have to say, what a great dish. When I got there we sat around talking and snacking on nachos and beer until about 9 and then dug in on the ceviche. After some food, Brett and MiSeon left so Alex and I got some more beer, and sat around drinking with Louise until Garrett showed up a bit later. Four strong, we worked our way through the beer and the last of the ceviche, while sitting around shooting the breeze and having some laughs. Before long it was passing 430 and Louise had gone to lay down while the rest of us finished up the last of the beer, and waited for the subway to open up at 530 so that Garrett and I wouldn't have to take an expensive cab ride back to our places. Once again I was heading home on the subway after six in the morning, but was far more tired this time than the night before and couldn't wait to get home and to bed.
Having had two late nights in a row, I didn't get up until 3pm Sunday, and even then I didn't move to far from my bed except o get groceries between movies. Eventually I made my weekly call home, made some food for the coming week, then called it a night.

And so another year comes to an end. I hope you all had a great night, and are looking forward to a fresh new year.

Merry Christmas!!!

2010-12-27T11:35:00.011-05:00

Dec 20-26, 2010

After having been at John's so late Sunday night, I woke up late for my hair appointment in Itaewon Monday morning. I was supposed to be there by 930, which meant leaving my house by 850. I however didn't wake up until 910, and had to rush out and phone to let them know that I was running late. They didn't seem to care though, since they always seem to have room for people. After my appointment I slid over to the foreign food store to pick up some oatmeal for this weekends Christmas dinner, as well as some cheese for myself for Christmas. I made it home in time to make some lunch before heading out to work a bit early so that I could figure out what impact John's broken arm would have on our work week since he was going to be laid up in the hospital all week for his surgery. It seemed however that I wasn't the only one on top of the matter, as June the director was also working on how we could meld our schedules and make it work. In the end I got a new schedule that had my days filled from beginning to end with both our classes, and those that I could not cover were to be covered by Patrick, one of our Ace teachers who has a very lax schedule at the moment. Quickly I made my rounds to inform the teachers of what was going to happen for the week, and being met with blank uncomprehensive stares from most of them I returned to my desk to catch Patrick up to speed on what he would be doing. I laid out all the books and step by step instructions for each class, as well as wrote down all the homework and assignments, which made Patrick feel very at ease. Work went by whirlwind fast, and after work I went to the gym to get my pump on, and my stress out. After the gym I went home and watched a football game before calling it a night.

Waking up Tuesday morning felling good, I set to work making my lunch for the day and folding up some laundry. Again I went into work early and got things sorted out for the day, though mostly for myself since I took the brunt of John's classes that day. After work I went home and relaxed, watching a football game and calling John to see how he was doing in the hospital. Wednesday morning I had to skip my usual workout, because we were having our office Christmas lunch in Sillim at T.G.I. Friday's. We had pre-ordered at work the day before and I was more than stoked for my rib and shrimp combo. Lunch was good, and once it was finished a bunch of us walked back to the school from Sillim, because the temperature was very mild and because most of them wanted to kill as much time as possible before entering the school. After work I made up for lost time at the gym, and then went home to send out my weekly email and work on the Christmas cards for my coworkers.

Thursday Jean and I figured it was high time to get over and see John in the hospital since he was finished with his surgery and due to see our ugly mugs. That and we had made him a card the day before at work and wanted to take it to him. So, around 11 Jean and I met up and headed to Sillim to go to the hospital, making a quick stop at the Lotte department store near the hospital for Jean to buy a winter Jacket. We made it to the hospital by 12 and had a good visit with a pretty sore John. He was in good spirits, and glad they planned to keep him the extra days so that he didn't have to try and take care of himself right away. After our visit we grabbed a cab back to Bongcheon to get to work on time. Work was just as busy as it had been all week, and I was glad to be out of there at the end of the day and on my way to the gym. I had a great workout and when I was finished I went out for a drink and some chicken with Jack my friend from the gym. He was a bit down because this was his last week in Seoul since his classes were finished, and he had to return to his home town of Busan for Christmas. We wrapped it up around 130, and I came home to finish up my Christmas cards, and get some sleep.
Friday morning, being the last day before Christmas, I went to E-mart at Sindorim to try and find some new toys for Goah, as well as the lemon juice, apples, and sugars I needed to make my Christmas dessert. I was a little upset when I couldn't find any toys for her at the huge store, but was able to find the ingredients I needed so it wasn't a wasted trip. Running a bit behind, I made it to school 30 minutes late and got right to work organizing my classes, and those that Patrick would teach in lieu of John. Most of the day was a breeze however, because almost all the teachers were showing movies on account of it being Christmas Eve. I gave out all my cards, which brought smiles to the office, and made my way to all my classes to say Merry Christmas, assign the next homework pages, before settling in to watch movies or finish up paperwork for when John came back. After work I came home and made a call home to Russ, Michele, and the kids to wish them a Merry Christmas and get all caught up on their shenanigans. After talking to them, I killed some time and then called my grandma's house to do the same, and as luck would have it my dad and Uncle Ken were there so I got to talk to them as well. Once my calls for the night were finished I put on National Lampoons Christmas Vacation to watch then tied some ribbon around my Christmas cheese and Goah's food before I drifted off to sleep.
I got an early start to Saturday morning, when I got up at 9am to make a call home for my Nan's annual Christmas Eve gathering which she refused to have elsewhere even though she has been dragged down from her newly started Chemotherapy. I was able to talk to her for a few minutes, but she was getting ready to have a rest and pasted me off to talk to the rest of the family. It was nice to talk to everyone, and share some of my stories with them since I haven't been to good at keeping in touch with them during my travels. After my call to Nan's I waited for a bit before calling my Uncle Rod and Aunt Kim and kids because they had been at church. I spent about an hour talking to them before they were calling it a night and I had to get to work on my apple crisp. I had been planning to make apple crisp for several weeks, ever since I found the recipe online for making it using just a stove, and since that's all I have it was perfect. Now that it was Christmas and Alex B had invited a bunch of us over to his place for a potluck style dinner, i had good cause to try it out. The recipe called for enough stuff for 3-4 people and would take about 15-20 minutes to make. I however was making for over 12, and was working in a kitchen space likely 3 times smaller than that of the person who wrote the recipe, so what might have been 90 minutes of work quickly became close to 3 hours, but well worth it as I really enjoy cooking and puttering about in the kitchen. Eventually I had it all done up and was able to shower and get out the door by 4pm, only an our later than planned, but still well withing the desired arrival time of the party. I arrived in my old neighbourhood by 445 but had to wait for Garrett until 515 since he didn't know where Alex lived. We made out way there and joined Frank, James, Marshal, Phil, Aslan, Ben, Monica, and Alex for diner and drinks; then eventually were joined by Alex and Louise, and Brady and SoHyun for some dessert, and more drinks. We sat around chatting, listening to music, and watching internet videos until midnight when those of us who didn't live in the building decided to pop over to Sincheon and see the guys at Gold Bar for a few drinks. We had some drinks and chatted with the staff and some other friends until 4am when we all decided to grab some McDonald's breakfast and head home. I got my two meals, one of which I shared with my driver, and made it home by 430 to crawl into bed.
I got up Sunday morning around 130 in the afternoon and got right to work doing nothing for a while. I sent out some Christmas messages, and talked to Gavin for a bit before deciding it was high time to get out and get something done for the day. I got off of skype and got ready to go for groceries, and when that was taken care of I took some time to clean up my apartment before watching a movie, some football, and then call home.

Another week down, another step closer to the cold hand of winter. I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and are winding down this year happy and full of hope for the new year.

A Christmas Card Bonaza

2010-12-23T11:48:00.006-05:00

Dec 13-19, 2010

Having left my Christmas cards at work over the weekend, they were of top priority to start this week. With the weather beginning to show signs of a coming winter, I really wanted to get them finished and in the mail so they would make it home on time. So first thing Monday, I got up and got ready to go to work a bit early so that I could sit down and power though some cards. I was able to finish up another good chunk of them throughout the day and was pleased with myself for finally getting off my keester. After work I was of to the gym where i got in another good workout even though the gym was super busy with all the pre-Christmas resolutioners. I waited out the crowd and eventually it was just me and a few other people doing our thing. After the gym I headed home and caught up on some blogging while watching a football game and finishing a few more cards. Before I knew it, it was 230 and I had to get to bed.

Waking up sore on Tuesday, I once again got ready and headed of to work to get some more of my cards done. I was all but a couple cards from being completely finished and was happy that I might be able to get them home before Christmas. After work I went straight home to finish the few cards I had left to do, and then get my weekly email off. Pleased with myself I watched another football game before calling it a night. To my surprise, I woke up before my alarm on Wednesday and couldn't get back to sleep, so I made the most of my time by watching stupid internet videos until it was time to head to the gym. After the gym I swung home to get my lunch and then headed off to work, on the way dropping my packages of cards off at the post office. I was surprised I didn't run into any of the same problems I did the week before, but was a bit disappointed that when the teller told me the chances of the cards making it before Christmas were slim. No biggie I thought, my family knows how schedules and I don't get along. After work Jean, Chrissy, John, and I all went to a place near John's new place (he had to move because the lease on Mike's place was up and the landlord didn't want foreigners in the building anymore) for some fried chicken and beers, before heading home in what has been the coldest, windiest day of the year so far around -12C.

Thursday morning I woke up with a sore back. Hoping it wasn't my rib problem coming back to haunt me, I took the day off and just relaxed before work. While at work I took a few Advil, which seemed to relieve the pain enough for me to carry on with my day. After work I headed home to lay down and watch a football game. Friday morning with my back feeling a bit better I opted to skip the gym again and instead ride my bike to work to get the oil changed and battery charged up before the winter comes, though even with having it running last week it was still in a kick start situation. The guys at the bike shop beside work was more than ready to help me out, and even cleaned up the engine of all the oil that has been leaking out, as well as tightened my chain. Running smoothly after work, I rode it home before going out for the night. I hope I can keep it going through the winter so that I don't have problems in the spring. I had been invited Thursday to go out with a Korean friend of ours Angie to Itaewon for a few drinks at a new bar, and so made my way there around 11. Before I went to meet her at BU2 I met Alex and Louise where they were finishing up diner, and then we went together. The bar was a little hard to find, being located past most of the places we usually go, so it took until around 12pm before we found it and met up with Angie and her friends inside. The bar was a pretty upscale place, but nice for a change. We stayed there until 230 when Angie and her friends had to go, and then split over to Wolfhound for one last beer before grabbing some kebabs and heading home for the night around 4.

Saturday I wasn't sure what I wanted to get up to, so when I woke up at noon I just sat around watching some internet videos before putting on the original Home Alone and having some laughs. About mid-afternoon I got a call from Frank about plans for the evening, and after some texting we decided to meet in Gangnam for dinner at 7 to get galbi. Garrett and Hayley also came out, but after dinner Hayley had to head home while the rest of us went across from the restaurant to Rainbow for a couple drinks and a hookah. Eventually Garrett became far to intoxicated to be in the bar, or even in public for that matter. He was trying to get up and play the live bands instruments or make announcements over the mic, so Frank and I had to intervene and get him to just sit down, and at that point he realized he was due to go home. After he left Alex and Louise came in and we all had one more drink before heading up the street to a basement bar called Voodoo. After several more drinks it was 230 and time to call it a night, so we finished up and all left to get cabs. Myself, as usual, I walked down to Kyodae from Gangnam because it is easier to catch a cab there, plus the walk gives me time to work some of the booze out. Home by 3am, I checked Facebook before going to bed and saw that my new coworker John had broken his arm snowboarding in the afternoon, but since it was so late I resolved to get to the bottom of it the next day.
Up at a reasonable time on Sunday I got a hold of John to see what the story was and if there was anything I could do to help him out. He told me how it happened and that it was actually his humerus in the upper arm instead of the usual lower arm bones. After talking to him I got ready and went back to Sindorim to pick up some Christmas cards for my coworkers, and to check out the E-Mart there. Eventually I made my way home and stopped for some groceries on my way back from the subway station then came home to clean up my domicile. I was able to get the dishes done, a load of laundry washed, and the floor swept and washed before heading over to John's for a few cheer up beers with him and his friends. I stayed longer than I had originally planned, and had to make my weekly call home from John's, which meant it was short and I'll have to make another later this week. We finished our beers by 230 and I made my way home to call it a night.

Well another week down and Christmas just around the corner. I hope everyone has their shopping done and is getting ready for all the Christmas food.

Sorry, Spain Doesn't Exist

2010-12-16T07:25:00.011-05:00

Dec 6-12, 2010

Well winter is rearing its ugly head now, and the temperature showed it this week by dipping to low single digits and even some negative degrees. I personally didn't mind it since I like the cold, but could really use my winter stuff that is on its way from home still.
Monday was a good start to the week. I got up feeling well rested and got ready for work, making lunch and getting a game plan together for getting my Christmas cards done. I assumed I could get them done during my breaks at work. Keep in mind how I have said assumed. At work I was able to get a start on my cards while it was still fresh on my mind, and finished 1/3 of them. After work it was off to the gym. A trip I was really looking forward to having missed the last two days of last week, and having a new workout routine to get started on. The new system worked out great and I felt that I had one of the better workouts I have had in a while. After the gym I came home and threw on a football game while I took another crack at making chicken soup.
Luckily, since I started it earlier than the last time, I was able to sleep with less interruptions of getting up to stir it through the night. Waking up around 11am to a house full of the smooth aroma of the soup I made, I felt good and eager to get to work so that I could eat my soup for lunch. Once I was at work I got back to work on my Christmas cards and was able to finish up several more before my classes started, and that was about it for the day because during my breaks I was kept busy with school related work. After work I came home and put on the Monday night football game while I put my weekly email together. One that was all finished I wrote up a few more cards before calling it a night.
Wednesday morning it was up and back to the gym for a second go at my new workout schedule. Again it was a pretty good workout once I got into it, and I was able to get through my sets much faster than I thought I would. After the gym I quickly went home to get my lunch and the first of the Christmas packages I was going to send, and then it was of to the post office for one of the funnier Korean experiences I have had in a while. Keeping in mind that I live in Bongcheon, which is a small neighbourhood with a very old feel to it, it does not have many of the same comforts you see in other areas of the city. Our post office for one, is quite small and I think that is the causing factor for the following incident. As I walked into the Bongcheon post office I was met with scared eyes. The mail clerk asked me where I wanted to send my package, and when I replied Spain I was immediately told NO. Confused, I asked why and was told that they just do not mail things to Spain. Assuming it was because it was such a small post office, I asked if the larger post the next neighbourhood over would mail my things to Spain, and again was told NO. Confused even more I left and went to work. Then to top it off, it had been snowing earlier while I was at the gym and had started again. It wasn't the nice kind of snow however, what it was was wet heavy snow that left me me almost as if it had rained. Once at work I put the Korean staff on it and they quickly called the larger post office to get to the bottom of it. After about a 30 seconds on the phone they came to the conclusion that the post office in my neighbourhood was out of their mind and that I would have to go to the larger one to send anything to any country smaller than Canada.
After work my Wednesday just kept getting stupider. Mostly only I was getting stupider. Since John has just moved into the area, but will only be at his apartment for this week, we decided to have a few beers there before he had to move. So Chrissy, Jean, John, and I all grabbed a couple pitchers of beer, some chicken, and a pizza then went to John's. We watched some T.V. while drinking and chatting, and then after about 4 pitchers and a couple bottles of soju, Jean and Chrissy left, but John and I decided to grab a few more pitchers since one of his friends was on her way over to hang out for a bit also. Before long there was 9 empty pitchers laying around and we were well drunk, and I decided to get on home. During the walk home, idiotically I thought it would be a good idea to check and see if my bike's battery was still alive enough to start it up. I assumed it would be near dead given the cold weather and the lack of use lately, but hoped for the best. The best didn't happen. my battery was too dead to start the bike, and I knew of only one way to start it. It is to get the compression up using the kick start or by riding it down a hill, so that the motor will turn over and the bike will start itself. Having tried the kick start several times to no avail, I decided to ride it down the long hill I happen to live on. It is not something I am proud of doing since I think drinking and driving is a terrible habit to get in to, but my better judgment was out to lunch. So I hopped on and rode it out, but again it was a no fire deal. I got all the way to the bottom of the hill and it still wouldn't start, so since there was no way I was going to push it back up the hill, I left it there and walked home, but only after I tried to push start it for 20 minutes like a maniac. Home by 430 in the morning, I sent a few Skype messages to Lauren, who happened to be on, before passing out cold cocooned in my blankets.
Thursday morning I woke up feeling like I had drank a tonne of beer the night before and pushed a bike around like an ass. I inevitably skipped the gym and get my life together before work. I left a bit early so that I could make it to the post office in Sillim and get my mail issues sorted out. Then on the way back past my street, I tried one more time to get my bike started with the kick start, but again it was a futile effort. Leaving it where it was I went to work to hate on John for encouraging my alcoholism the night before. Again after work I thought I would give it one more shot, which failed again, so I simply moved the bike out of the way and planned to push it to the bike shop beside work the next day. After that I went home to watch a football game and finish sleeping of my night before.
Feeling better Friday morning, I was off to the gym again to start my day. After the gym I went home to grabbed my lunch and then made the walk to the bottom of my hill to push my bike to work. Then to my surprise, in a last ditch effort, with the weather warmer I was able to kick start the bike and ride it to work. Once I made it to work I let it run for a while outside to give it time to charge the battery. Thinking that I had gotten lucky, I didn't take it to the bike shop, but instead went in to start my day. Throughout the week John had been working on the Korean teachers to go out Friday for some drinks. I wasn't sure how it would turn out since most of them tend to shy away from outside of work activities, but after days of pestering John was able to get them all to come out to Sillim for drinks. This was good news, as just this week many of the teachers made their final decisions about leaving the school after this semester, because they are tired of dealing with the school's crap. I rode my bike home after work before meeting everyone at Sillim station and then going to the bar from there. John took us to some place he knew, and we had a great time joking around and playing drinking games. By 230 we were finished up and the Korean teachers went home, but Jean, Chrissy, John, and I all slid over to Ho Bar for one last beer and some darts before cabbing it home. Once again intoxicated, and still worried about the fate of my bike I kick started it one more time and let the it run for another 20 minutes to try and add some more juice to the battery. I thought nothing of it until after, when I realized it was 4 in the morning and that I might have woken my neighbours. Oh well.
After such a late night, I slept in until around 12 Saturday, and then got up and filled my day with internet videos and zombie killing until around 5 when it was time to get a move on. Frank had organized a get together at his place for what we were calling Christmas Tacos. He bought up all the fixings and all we had to do was show up, refresh his funds, and dig in. It was super nice of him to do something like this, since it isn't often we are able to find a place large enough to have get togethers that isn't a bar. Myself, Thomas and Jeanne, Brady, Marshal, James, and Matei and Jen all joined in the fun, which started around 7pm. Eventually we drank all the beers and as people started to filter out, James and I decided to go to Gangnam and meet another friend for a few more beers. By the time we reached Gangnam though, my friend had gotten a last minute call from another friend and ended up ditching us for a late night hook up. And who can fault him for that? Not I, that's who. James and I shared a couple pitchers at Woodstock before calling it a night around 3am and taking taxis home, which I had to catch at Kyodae since Gangnam is such a bad place to catch a taxi late at night.
Home and in bed by 4am the night before, I got up at noon with big plans for the day. I thought I might go to the coffee shop and finish my Christmas cards that I had slacked off on the latter half of the week, but quickly realized I had forgotten them at work. After that I resolved to get some groceries before wasting the rest of the day watching movies and football games. Eventually it became night time and I called home to see how things were going, and was filled in on my Nan's new Chemo-therapy schedule, which will be start on the 14th. I hope everything goes well.

Another week complete, and other set of goals half reached. Hope everyone is getting geared up for Christmas.

Out with the old, in with the new.

2010-12-06T12:54:00.006-05:00

Nov 29 - Dec 5, 2010

The beginning of this week brought with it several changes. For starters it was Mike's final days at JLS, as well as Blake and Nathan's final days at Avalon. On top of that the weather continued to cool. Soon I will have to break out my leather jacket and put the spring coat away. So let's get on with the happenings of my week.
Monday had the same start as the past several, I got up and made food before heading to work, but when I got to work there was a new face. John, Mike's replacement was there to meet everyone and watch some classes. Unfortunately we were still on cruise control waiting for the next semester to start on Wednesday, so Mike and I talked to him about the different levels and books, as well as introduced him to the other teachers and kids. He seems like a pretty nice guy, and shares a lot more interests than Mike and I did. After work i hit the gym before coming home to watch a football game and get off my weekly email.
Tuesday was Blake's last official night so after work I hopped on the subway and took off to Gangnam to meet up with him for some dinner and drinks one last time before he left. SaeJin, Wes, June, Nate, and Blake's replacement were there for dakgalbi, and after that we popped over to 4.5 Bar for a couple beers. It was a good and calm night, though the replacement was a bit over excited and loud, but settled down after we told him he was causing a scene. We finished our beers and took off in time to catch the last subway home around 1230. I said goodbye to the guys at their stop and continued on my way home. It's weird to think that Blake, my partner in crime, won't be here from here on out, but such is life for travelling teachers.
Waking up at a good time Wednesday morning I hit the gym before heading to work to start our new semester and make sure John had his schedule in in order. Mike also finished on Tuesday, but isn't leaving until next Wednesday so we made plans to hang out on Saturday. My new schedule has me teaching some new classes with some different Korean teachers, and some of my new classes have some great/sweet kids in them. I am looking forward to this semester now that I know the kids, and am set up with all the material. After work I came home and watched another football game before calling it a night.
The game having gone into over time the night before, I slept in Thursday, missing the gym before work. While at work however, I was introduced to a new snack food that John called "ColPop", short for Cola and Pop. It was given to me by one of my new grade 2 students because the class had one extra. It is a nifty idea, a pop cup filled half way with the pop of your choice with a smaller cup that rests in the top filled with popcorn chicken. It's the perfect combo snack, it kills both thirst and hunger, while cutting down on packaging. I enjoyed it thoroughly before my classes and saved my lunch for later. After wok I wasn't in the mood to catch up on my workout schedule so I just went home and put on a football game and played with the cat.
Friday morning I skipped out on the gym once again so that I could make a long overdue call home to my dad. I had been meaning to call him for a while ever since the business with North Korea happened, but kept putting it off or plain forgetting. We talked for a couple hours, and it was nice to get all caught up on news from back home. Cutting it close I got off the phone with him and started getting ready for work only to have Gavin buzz me on Skype. I talked with him while making my lunch and getting ready to go, but in the end I was still about 15 minutes late for work. No biggie, they know I have little to do at the start of the day. John seemed to be settling in nicely and was starting to get the idea of which teachers were who, and what books he needed for each level. After work again I kept it calm. John, Chrissy, and I went out in Bongcheon for some fried chicken and beers at our regular TwoTwo Chicken place. I was home by 1130, and watched another game to pass the time before lights out.
I woke up later than hoped on Saturday, but still in good time to get some things done. I got ready, after having some cereal, and headed out to finally find some Christmas cards. I had been on the hunt for a few weeks and I was in a "no fail" situation. I wasn't going to stop looking until I found them this weekend. Luckily I only had to go to two stores to get what I was looking for. I wish I had started my search a little closer to home. As it turned out, I only had to go a few stops away to Sindorim station to find an E-Mart with a bookstore in it, teaming with Christmas cards. I dropped a few chun and was home by mid-afternoon so I could get ready for Mike's going away dinner/party in Itaewon. The plan was to meet at the station around 7 and then go to Ali Baba's for some Indian food before hitting the bar scene. The food was good, and I met a few more of Mike's friends, who were all pretty nice. After dinner we went to Bungalow for a drink, but as more people showed up we ran out of space and had to change venues. Eventually we decided on Roofers, but had to wait for a charity performance to finish before we could go in so that we didn't disturb the actors, even though they were just a bunch of foreigners in a "time killing" social club. When it was all over we went in and got some more drinks and watched the band, also made up of the previous performers, warm up and begin their show. After a while, Mike was ready to head out, but since Brady and Frank showed up, I decided to stick it out with them instead of getting caught up in Mike's whirlwind adventure. We finished a couple more drinks before leaving ourselves to go to Wolfhound, where we met Garrett on the way. Since Wolfhound was a dead atmosphere we only stayed for one drink before Frank and Brady decided to head home, it was 230 after all. Together we all had some street shwarma, and then Garrett and I continued on to Seoul Pub for what I assumed would only be one more short round. Boy was I wrong. We got in and low and behold who is there, my new coworker John. We had a quick conversation, but he was working on some girl in the corner so I didn't keep him long. Then like a magnet to South African girls, I started a random conversation with a girl, who, you guessed it, was from South Africa. I don't actually believe it has any thing to do with me, as much as it might be a conspiracy by the South Africans to take over the peninsula by sending all their gorgeous girls over to get everyones' guard down. And then BOOM! In the end I'm pretty sure the conversation came more from necessity. Her necessity to get some creepy Korean guy away from her, and Garrett's need for back up with a girl her was talking to. I originally tried to leave but Garrett bought me a beer, that I really didn't need so that I would stay. Eventually I finished my beer and had to go. Not because I was that drunk, but because 3am turned into 630am fast. Along with Garrett, I left the bar under the peeking eyes of the sun and made for the subway, where I found a train waiting to carry me home. On the way I rocked out to my mp3 player with an entire bench to myself, and a bunch of Koreans just looking and wondering. Home by 730, I walked up my hill in the dim morning light and then passed out as soon as I hit my bed.

Waking up mid-afternoon Sunday, I had some pretty bad gut rot from all the Long Island Ice Teas I had the night before. Luckily my head didn't hurt, because a double whammy would have sucked. As it was I spent most of the day watching movies before going to get groceries and making my weekly phone call home. This week I was updated on the condition of my Nan, and when her Chemo will be starting etc.

Another week down, another week closer to winter rearing its chilly head.

Is that a roach in my window sill? Oops!

2010-12-02T08:27:00.008-05:00

Nov 22-28, 2010

Well this week started off pretty good, though much colder than it has been recently. Work was a breeze since the kids were done their testing and we were free to just play games and watch movies. On Monday I got up at a reasonable hour and made some lunch for myself, as well as some tuna salad for the week. After all my cooking was done I got ready and headed off to work. Work, as I said, was a breeze and I watched movies or played games with all of my classes. After work it was off to the gym, where I ran into Jack again as well as the trainers, so we all talked for a bit while the trainer tried to get me to talk to some Korean girl who was working out. I had to tell him that I can't just walk up and start talking to a random girl due to the language barrier, and the fact that I'm a foreigner ofter scares people. He offered to do it for me but I was able to talk him out of it. After the gym I headed home and while I was watching my usual Monday night football game I put together the ingredients I had bought for some chicken noodle soup in the slow cooker Amy and Mark had given me. After it was on and cooking I sat down to write my weekly email before calling it a night and hitting the hay.

After getting up sporadically throughout the night to stir my soup, I got up for good around 1030 and got a good start to my day. I didn't have anything to put my soup in so I scooped out some for my lunch using one of my cups, and then bought a container and ladle on my way home from work. While at work, it was some more games of vocabulary bingo, and general hanging out. The news of my soup making spread through the office and everyone wanted me to bring them some to try, so much for having soup to myself for a few days. After work I went straight home to put the leftover soup in my new container before throwing on another football game and calling it a night.
I got up on Wednesday and hit the gym with a vengeance before work, which felt good. My goal of reaching 78+kg is getting closer, but is still a long way off from my current state at 74kg. After the gym I stopped by home and grabbed my lunch, as well as the rest of the soup and some bowls for my coworkers. I hadn't even been at work for more than 10 minutes before the soup was broken out and everyone was taking turns digging in. I felt bad that I only had enough bowls for 4 people to eat at a time, but luckily with their schedules there wasn't a panic for time to eat all at once. My soup got some good reviews, and nobody got sick so I might have to make it a regular thing. It felts good to cook for people instead of for just myself for a change. After work I took off to Kondae to meet Blake, Nate, and Wes for a few drinks and some chatting. Nate only stayed for a bit so that he could get home and get some packing done, but the rest of us stuck it out until around 130 before calling it a night. Funny enough, on our way out of the bar a group of Korean girls celebrating a birthday were also leaving and out of nowhere one of them looked at Blake and I and exclaimed that she knew us. Upon further questioning, it was determined that she had seen us at Gold Bar, no surprise there, so we wished her a happy birthday and went on our way.
Waking up feeling great I went to the gym Thursday morning, and then grabbed a pizza on my way to work for lunch. After work it was off to Apgujong to meet up with Blake, and a couple of our Korean friends Gina, who used to date Junk, and her friend Lily. They also brought a friend that Gina had met during her recent trip through Australia, named Leon, who would turn out to be an asshole after he got into the soju. I met them at an underground restaurant/hof, and they had already been drinking. I helped them finish off the beer and soju that was there before we left for 24/7 Event Bar. Once there we ordered a bottle of whiskey and continued to drink and have fun until eventually Leon past his point of control and started telling everyone what to do, and started with the infamous drunk demand of "Listen to me!", repeated over and over while pointing in your face. We had all seen it lurking up, but once it took it's full form I was quick to put my foot down. I tried to be nice about it, but told him that he needed to relax and stop being such a dick to everyone. He wasn't sure how to take that one since it is quite counter cultural, and when he tried a rebuttal I laid out his options. Option one was to relax and stop being so aggressive towards everyone, and at the time it was only Blake and I who he was trying to bestow his knowledge of Korean culture on; or two was to leave the bar. Blake tried to interject and smooth things out, but I made it clear that I was not happy about how he was behaving and that I wouldn't put up with it for a second longer. He seemed to understand and decided to calm down and talk quieter and less in-your-face from that point on. After that we played some darts with the bartenders then finished our bottle and left around 3am.
Friday started out with an unexpected talk with Lauren. I happened to see her online when I got up and so sent her a message which turned into a rather lengthy conversation to start the day. She was sharing her current dislike for her living situation, given that her roommates had been in a bit of a snit all week, so she had been a bit alienated. She also shared some good news about getting offered a writing job, or something of the sorts because she seems to have a way with words. After our chat I had to scramble to get ready for work, and made it just on time, not that anyone really pays attention to my comings and goings at the office. I only stayed at work long enough to take subways orders, then it was off to get some lunch since I was out of food to make at home. After work we had a company dinner for Mike since this was his last full week with JLS. However, it was a bit pathetic at how some of the Korean teachers were acting about it. It's is understandable that they are tired after having so much work to do these past couple weeks, and some of them did just want to go home, but when you have worked with someone for a year it would be nice if you didn't make a big fuss about having a farewell dinner with him. Though I did hear through the grape vine that Mike wasn't the most liked person in the office. Nonetheless, you should still make an appearance and say goodbye. We went to a Korean barbecue place close to work, and ate our fill and had some drinks, and in the end almost everyone at the office came out for at least a bit of time. Around 1215 I said good night to the group and headed to the subway to get myself over to Sincheon for Gold Bars 3rd anniversary party. I was met there by Blake, Nate, Alex and Louise, Brady and SoHyun, Frank, and a few other Korean friends. Eventually Junk even made an appearance. Since it was a party, I took the chance to break out my light-up t-shirt from Beijing, which everybody loved, and we got our party on. Slowly the crowd started to fade, and by about 4am most of the people had left. Blake and I walked Junk to his girlfriends car and came back to collect our things only to find that Nate had disappeared. Not thinking too much about it we picked up our coats and the bag of swag we had gotten, and were about to head to McDonalds when Nate called. He thought we had left without him, and a little upset, had gone to McDonalds to get some food. We quickly went to find him hunched over his seat loathfully eating fries. Once Blake and I got our food we jumped in a cab and headed home. Once home, I thought it would be a good idea to stay up for a bit and drink some water. While doing so I saw Lauren online again and threw out a message to see if she was around for a chat. To my good fortune she was and for the first time since she left we had a video chat. It's always nice to see the face of the person you are talking to, as well as being able to talk instead of type everything you are saying. Now, for those of you who know me this next part will be completely reasonable. While we were talking, I thought I heard a bug in my window sill, and since I have had a few roaches in the last couple months I assumed the worst and quickly jumped up to take a look. What I had forgotten was that I was bare naked and just wrapped in a blanket, and ended up giving Lauren a full frontal. Insert embarrassed face here. But since she didn't seem to mind, we carried on talking until about 9am when I decided I had better get to bed, and so had she.
Having stayed up so late into Saturday morning, I slept until around 530 in the afternoon before waking up feeling rather refreshed. I wasn't sure if I wanted to leave the house, but within minutes of getting up Blake called me and asked if I wanted to meet him and Saejin in for a bite and some drinks. I knew that they were going to keep it pretty calm, so I jumped through the shower and headed that way as soon as I could. I met them at a upscale looking, but regular priced bar for a few beers before moving to a place we have been before called The Table. We had a couple more beers there before cabbing it home around 1230. Once home I threw on a movie and just relaxed until I eventually fell asleep some time after 3.
Waking up just before lunch on Sunday, I took some time to laze about and watch some internet videos before getting off to the grocery store to pick up my weekly supply. After I had my food for the week, I got ready to go to Sincheon again for a bit of a going away party for Blake at Gold Bar. It wasn't meant to be anything big, so having it on a Sunday helped keep everybody under control. Plus, since it was a Sunday we were the only people there. I got there first around 650 and met Thomas and Jeanne on my way to the bar, so I guess technically I arrived at the same time as them. Blake showed up a few minutes later, which allowed me to step out and get some cheese donkas for dinner. Eventually Frank, Brady and SoHyun, Angie, JiYoung, Junk, Charles, JungHun, and Nate all showed up and we sat around chatting and having a few laughs with each other and the bar staff until it was some time after midnight but the right time to call it a night. I shared a cab home with Nate, Blake and JiYoung for the first leg, and then got off a few stops shy of my area so that JiYoung could take the cut off south to her house. I jumped in another cab and finished the ride home in time to make my weekly phone call to my mom at about 1am, during which I talked to Parker, and Braunwyn who just had her tonsils out.

Well there it is another week down, another week closer to Christmas and the coming winter snowboard season. hope everyone is enjoying the weather and not freezing too bad yet.

Hey! Those were my fries.

2010-11-26T06:59:00.007-05:00

Nov 15-21, 2010

Another week of fair weather totally spoiled us as news from back home says it is getting colder by the week. This week started out with a sleep in before work and then a scramble to make my lunch and make it to work on time. Luckily this week is all review so my normal schedule of doing nothing before classes started was put off a bit by having to prepare review sheets. I live a troubled life as you can see. After work it was off to the gym, where I was greeted again by the enthusiastic trainers and a very full gym. I had a momentary freak out when I went into the weight section and saw the weights strewn about, and took it upon myself to curse out all those in ear shot and throw the weights into order so that everyone wasn't falling over them while trying to navigate the workout floor. Immediately following my outburst half the people in the area left, leaving me plenty of space to work out. As I began my workout I was introduced by the trainer to another Korean who has recently returned from studying in Canada named Jack, and so, spent my time bouncing between working out and talking with the two of them. It's nice to be treated so well at the gym, but there are times when it can be distracting from the task at hand. After my workout I headed home and threw on a football game while I got some cooking out of the way, and then whipped up my weekly email to Lauren. The game went a lot longer than I had anticipated, and I didn't end up going to bed until after 3am.

Waking up mid morning on Tuesday, I sat around watching internet videos before getting ready for work, and another day of review before the ids final tests. Once work was out it was straight home to catch another football game and try to get to sleep before 2am. Wednesday and Thursday were about the same only with a trip to the gym squeaked in before work on both days, and then while at work there was less review and more break time, because the kids were writing their tests.

Friday came and the end of the week was well appreciated around the school. The Korean teachers were stressing about the tests being over and the impending report cards and phone calls about the test results. As well, but to a much lesser extent, Mike and I were trying to finish up the rest of the report card sheets that we were given so that the Korean teachers could get everything input. After work I made for Sincheon to meet Alex and Louise, and Blake and Silvia (a friend of his from Busan who came up to visit before he leaves at the end of the month) at Gold Bar. I had told Blake I would come and help him keep Silvia entertained since her English is rather terrible and he would need a break from using his Korean from time to time. It was a success and she had a great time with us, and was happy we all made an attempt to include her. Since she had to leave early the next day for Busan they left around 130, while the rest of us stuck around until some time after 430 before we left to get some McDonald's and take cabs home. As luck would have it, I ended up with a hungry taxi driver who ended up eating more of my McDonald's than I did. When I got in the cab I offered him some of my french fires, of which he took the whole container. Thinking nothing of it and that he would give them back after having a few I went ahead and started devouring my McNuggets. Then after a few minutes I realized he hadn't given them back, and when I looked into the front seat her was chowing down like it was his first meal in weeks. Now usually I would say something, but the fries seemed to have him in a good mood, and to be honest I probably didn't need them anyways. That and he seemed to be trying to get me home extra quick, a little too quick in fact because his speedy driving started making my nauseous. Once I reached my destination I realized I hadn't touched my burger, and quickly forfeited it to the driver because I knew it would be a bad choice to eat it, and he looked like he needed something to wash down my fries. Home and in bed by 6, I quickly passed.

Saturday was a day of rest. Among several invites to go out to places like Kondae, Gangnam, and Hongdae my better judgment kicked in, and I decided to take a day off and stay in watching movies. It was a bit of a waste of a nice day, but I really didn't care. I woke up feeling alright and got some cleaning and groceries out of the way throughout the day, between football games and movies. I also had a chance to chat with Gavin for a bit on Skype, which I hadn't done for some time. Near the end of the night I grabbed a pizza for dinner, thus ending a good lazy day.

Sunday was a good day. Having rested all saturday, I got up early and headed for Brett's place on the other side of town to watch the UFC fights. I had gotten the invitation late saturday night and figured why not. I was a bit late getting to his place and missed the first fight, but it had me out of the house before I had a chance to slip into sloth mode.After the fights it was mid afternoon so i headed out to try and find some Christmas cards. I started out in Dongdaemun, but having no luck after a couple hours of walking around went over Insadong to see what they might have. In the end it was a bust, but there are a few more places yet to check. I found some last year, so I still have high hopes. After my shopping failure I went to meet Blake and a friend of his named Young for dinner at On The Border in the COEX mall at 630. After dinner we had a quick coffee before going our separate ways home. I grabbed the last few things I had forgotten at the grocery store after I got to my station, then went home to get some cooking and Sunday phone calls out of the way.

Until next week.

G20 in Seoul -- Too Bad I Couldn't Make It

2010-11-16T09:51:00.007-05:00

Nov 8-14, 2010

This week started out as any other week. I got up late on Monday and made some food for the day before heading off to work. Work was the same as usual, except in my free time I took the chance to start making some review sheets for my classes, as level tests begin next week. After work it was off to the gym, where I met up with the trainers, who again were thrilled to talk to me and discuss life. I find it quite endearing at times how enthusiastic some Koreans are to help and make foreigners feel comfortable. After the gym it was off to home to get off my weekly email, and watch one of Sunday's NFL games. I ended up being up until later than I had hoped but was well worth it to catch the Browns game.

After staying up until almost 4am, I slept Tuesday until 1130 before getting up and putting together my lunch and taking off for work. After work it was straight home to relax and watch another football game. Then it was the day everybody waits for. Payday. I was waiting for this day since the pay fiasco of last month and being don to my last 4000W. I got up and got to the gym before work, and then passed the day away at work wondering if my pay would be on the level this month. As it turned out, it was, and after work I hit up a bank machine to pull out money in an attempt to allocate my finances early and avoid any broke circumstances that might arise near the end of the month. I took out enough to set aside four envelopes of weekly grocery allowance, as well as half of what I owed to my director for the pay advance last month, and enough to get me through the rest of the week and weekend. Once I got home I sorted out the cash stack, then put on a football game and called it a day.

Thursday was another typical day in the life Mark Teacher. I got up and went to the gym before heading to work to deal out the punishment these kids never seem to get from other teachers. After lasts weeks failure to finish their homework, those kids who forgot to do it this week found themselves writing lines instead of participating in class. It seems as though I am the only teacher that deals out punishment around here, which is no wonder why the kids think they can get away with anything they want. There are only so many times you can threaten to call their moms, or actually call their moms, before they realize it's an idle threat. In between my classes I kept busy filling out "report cards" for the end of the semester. I use quotations because I was told by a few teachers that what I write or the score I give doesn't really matter, and that they will probably change what I put anyways. Well why bother I thought, but I was in no mood to rock the boat, and let it be.

Friday was about the same. Gym in the morning, off to work where I handed out some more sentences and filled out bogus report cards, and made plans for some evening fun. I heard from my coworker Mike that there was a bar in Gangnam offering a special on, all you can drink, for 10 000W. I asked Blake if him and Nate wanted to go and check it out, then after work headed out to meet them in Gangnam. Unfortunately we got some poor directions from Mike about going out exit 5 and taking the first two lefts, and ended up in some alley on a parallel street to the one with the actual bar. After a couple calls and some clarification we got to the bar 30 minutes later than we could have. Once in we got seated and ordered some beers, and Blake with his awesome Korean found out that they closed at 1am. This doesn't sound important but it played a roll as the night went on. We were a couple beers in when our bill was brought around, yet we were not asked if we wanted any more beers. A few minutes later when we tried to order another round, we were denied because it was after 1230. Immediately Blake got pretty angry because he takes pride in his Korean ability, and had asked what time we had to order until, and what time the bar closed. A Korean sitting next to us who spoke English validated that what Blake had said was correct, and we felt that since it was only 1235 we should be allowed to have another beer. The server still denied, making us all pretty pissed off. Blake got up and went to find the original person he talked to. Then explaining the situation to a disinterested person, we realized that it was a battle lost unless we were willing to cause a scene. Since we weren't we just left angry, grabbed a convenience store beer and walked back to Kyodae so I could catch a cab home. All in all it was the same price for two beers as it was for all you could drink so we broke even anyways. I was home by 2am, but watched the first half of another game before calling it a night.

Saturday, feeling great when I got up since I hadn't been drinking late Friday, I got up around 11 and sat around watching internet videos and doing dishes until the early afternoon. Eventually i got ready and headed out to Namdaemun to see if I could find any arts and crafts booths carrying necklace making items so that I can make some necklaces out of my shark teeth for the kids. I was unable to find any, but did run into and have a conversation with a friend of mine from Waterloo, Wes, and will have to get out with him in the coming months. After Namdaemun, I walked over to the downtown area where there is a stream called Cheonggyecheon that was host to a lantern display during the G20 Summit that took place in Seoul this month. I never made it, due to my schedule, to the G20 Summit at COEX, but I heard it was pretty packed with protesters and the likes. I walked up and down the stream a few times, taking pictures and enjoying the lanterns as the sun went down and the lights came on. Not wanting to go all the way home just to go back out, I headed to Olympic Park to grab a hot chocolate while I waited to meet Alex and Louise, and Mike Stopp and his fiancée for a shabu-shabu dinner at Bangi station at 7pm. It had been a long time since I had had shabu-shabu and really enjoyed my diner. After dinner Alex, Louise, and I went over to Sincheon because I had told Nate that I would meet him there around 1030 for drinks at Gold Bar. We started not at a bar, but at an arcade where we played the super popular bunching bag game. I can see now why Koreans like it so much. It's a really cheap form of entertainment that everyone can play. We started with the pull down bag, which is much easier on the hands before moving to the pop-up bag game, which is a little more like punching a static medicine ball. After having our fun, we moved along to the newly opened Ho Bar for a couple of drinks before making our way to Gold Bar, where we continued to party until some time after 5am. A good contingent of friends even showed up, including Frank, Brady, Matei, and Alex B. I don't remember much after 4am until I was eating McDonald's breakfast and getting in a cab. Home some time after 6am I went to bed where I would stay for some time.
Sunday was a day of rest all around. I didn't get up until after 2pm, and even after that I just laid around watching football, and then eventually went and got some groceries before the stores closed.

Well another week of great weather gone, and hopefully another few to come. Good news from home that Nan was released from the hospital to Uncle Rod and Aunt Kim's place until further treatment.

A Beautiful Week for a Stroll

2010-11-08T02:57:00.007-05:00

Nov 1-7, 2010

This week was a beautiful fall week. the weather was cool but not so clod that you couldn't be outside uncomfortably. On Monday I skipped the gym in the morning, opting to get a bit of extra sleep and then make some food before work. After work it was off to the gym to make sure I got my workout in, and while I was there I met the two night shift trainers who were super happy to meet me, and very eager to talk with me about my workout. One's English was better than the others but it was one of the many endearing moments I've gotten to have during my time here. They even got me to hop on the health check machine, which determines body percentages like fat, muscle, etc. Turns out I was about 17% fat. After the gym I came home and put on a football game before I called it a night.
Having worked out hard the night before, I slept in on Tuesday. Luckily I woke up with enough time before work to pack up my lunch and get off. While at work everything was pretty status quo, and after work I came home and threw on another football game while I put together my weekly email to Lauren. Before the game was even over I was dozing off, but I made it to the end and then called it a night.
Wednesday morning I was back in the gym before heading of to work, and after work being the middle of the week I came home to catch another game and clean up a bit before calling it a night. Thursday morning I got up and went to the gym again, then after the gym I decided to ride my bike to work while the weather was still nice. Then, while I was at work I got a call from Blake about going to Sincheon after work to finish up the bottles he had stared on his birthday. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to, but immediately after talking to Blake about possibly doing it Friday I had two classes that pushed me into angry teacher mode for not doing their work, and when the classes were over I confirmed with Blake that I would be there. I took my bike home after work before hopping on the subway for Sincheon. I got to Gold Bar by 11, where I met Blake, Frank, and Garrett, and made quick work of the last of the bottle we had stored there. I was sure we had stored some whiskey and vodka, but the staff was only able to locate the vodka, which was probably for the best. We played some darts and pool, and had a few more drinks before calling it a night around 2am. After a stop at McDonald's, Blake and I split a cab on our way home, and I was home by 230.
After having a later night than I would have if I had just come home, I slept in and skipped my trip to the gym Friday morning. Luckily with all the water I have been drinking lately I felt great when I got up and could get ready for work with ease. While at work I had an amazing moment when one of my kids who is way out of place in his placement level, and who can barely understand what is going, finally open up and participate as a member of the class. It was great to finally see him interacting with a few of the other boys, and take joy in the memory game we were playing. I'm sure his mom will be thrilled when the Korean teacher relays the information. After work it was off to the gym to get in my workout. I had decided not to go out Friday night since I had gone out Thursday, and going to the gym was a good way to use up my time, as well as make a healthy move instead of an unhealthy one on a Friday night. The trainers were happy to see me again, and I was happy to see that my weight training was starting to pay of with a jump from 71 to 72kg. After the gym I grabbed some water at the store and came home to watch another football game and get some rest before Saturday.
I had great plans for Saturday, and even though I did get them accomplished, it was done in a much slower fashion than originally planned. I had planned to get up before 930, but slept in until 1030, and go for a hike among some of the numerous mountains around the city. I got up and watched some internet videos between making some sandwiches and eating breakfast before I got ready and left for some nature walking. I chose Bukansan, located behind the large Gyungbuk palace, but didn't get there until shortly after 1pm. Time wasn't an issue since it isn't a huge hike but it would have been nicer to be out there a bit earlier. The hike was nice and the weather was perfect, I was able to take off my sweater until I got to the top and took a break to eat my sandwiches, where it was a bit cooler since I wasn't on the move. The trees have started changing colours so the view from the mountain was very nice, and after a short break I walked back down getting only a little lost when I decided to take what turned out to be a non-trail. It all worked out in the end and by 3 I was back at the bottom, wandering the streets looking for the subway station. I eventually found one and made my way home to take a shower and relax before finding something to do for the night. Around 530 Blake called me and said him and SaeJin were going to the wine buffet and said if I wanted to come I was welcome. I quickly got ready and left for Samsung station to get to COEX Mall and the Intercontinental Hotel for the buffet by 630. At the buffet we ran into Thomas and Jeanne, and their coworkers who were all out for Jeanne's birthday, and who invited us out for some noraebang when we were all finished. We thought that was a great idea and swung over to Sincheon after the wine buffet to find a noraebang and get our sing on. We had a couple more drinks at the noraebang and had a great time singing for a couple hours before our time ran out around 130am. Blake and SaeJin had left around 1245, but I stayed since I was having a good time. After we were all finished I suggested hitting Gold Bar for one more drink and to say hi to the usual, which everyone seemed down for. We hit up the bar, but everyone but me only stayed one drink before it was time to take Thomas home. I saw them off and grabbed another drink and chatted with some of the staff and other regulars. Then out of nowhere I found myself getting involved in bar safety. It started with a Korean and foreigner getting a little pushy and the bartenders breaking it up and taking the Korean outside. While they were getting him calmed down the foreigner came over close to me and continued to provoke the fight from afar. I quickly told him not to be an asshole, to which he agreed and when things had settled down apologized to the bartenders for causing any trouble. When he decided to leave a few minutes later was when I got involved. Apparently the Korean group had not yet cleared the street and when he went up, tempers flared. One bartender went up right away to make sure things stayed cool, and when the other went to go up, about five guys cornered him and wouldn't let him up the stairs. Since they are all friends of mine at the bar, I got pretty upset, put my coat and drink down, then went over and pushed the entire entourage over, grabbing two of them by the front of the shirt and dragging them up the stairs. They were apologetic as I dragged them up the stairs, and their English was pretty good as they explained to me that they didn't want any trouble. I told them not to touch the bar staff then went back downstairs to make sure the rest of them got the hell out, which they all did with haste. I am not the fighting type, or at least not the type that goes out to start fights, but I will stick up for what is right if I have to. After that everything was cool and in appreciation hooked me up with a couple of shots that I really didn't need, but accepted on account of our friendship. While the ruckus was going on JungHun showed up, so we had a couple drinks before heading out together to split a cab. I was home by 5, and went quickly to bed to get some much needed rest.
I woke up a few hours after putting my head to my pillow to drink some water and take some Advil, then went back to sleep until 1pm when Blake called me. I still didn't feel 100% but had told him that I wanted to go to the last of the FC Seoul soccer games since I had Lauren's season pass. Blake met me at the field and we grabbed a couple of tickets and went in only to find that we were both hungry by half time, but the food stands were low on reserves so there wasn't enough food by the time we got to the front of the line. Starving we watched the rest of the game with FC Seoul winning. After the game we hit up Sillim for some kalmaegisal, and out of no where met up with Mike from work and his friend George who joined us for dinner. After dinner Blake and I headed to our respective homes, but not before I could borrow a few bucks off Blake to get some groceries for the week, since my pay problems from the start of the month left me down to about a dollar in my account and payday wasn't until Wednesday. Once home I made my weekly call home to mom and found out that the problems my Nan had been having lately were from a cancerous tumour they removed during the week and that some other results regarding lymph node cancer were still pending, but that she has already agreed to go forward with chemo therapy if needed.

Well there it is another week. I hope the best for my Nan and am looking forward to getting all the news and choices in the future go or bad so that I know the situation.

The Predator After His Movie Career

2010-10-30T05:41:00.014-04:00

Oct 25-31, 2010

After getting a start on our Halloween costumes at Nathans last night, I got up early Monday and hit the gym for the only time of the week. After the gym I went home and got my things together for work and to go back to Nate's after for some costume making. I got to his place by 1030 and we got right to work on our stuff. Nate had done quite a bit of work on his gorilla mask, and turned his attention to making my predator mask while I measured, cut, and glued together some hip and thigh armour and shin armour. Having gotten quite a bit accomplished I left around 1210 to catch the last subway home, and get off my weekly Monday email. I even managed to get in a football game since I wasn't very tired.

Having stayed up late watching the game, I slept in on Tuesday and subsequently didn't make it to the gym. I was up in time to get ready and head straight to work. After work I sped off to Nate's again to get in some work before meeting Blake for a few birthday beers on the day of his actual birth. We got some more helmet finished, and the last of the lower body armour glued up by 1130 and then took off to meet Blake and SaeJin, and Wes at a neighbourhood bar for a few beers. Finishing our beers up by 130, I jumped in a cab and slid home and into bed by 230.

Skipping the gym yet again on Wednesday, I got up around noon and talked with some friends back home before getting ready for work and heading out for the day. Once again, after work I made my way to Nate's, and upon my arrival we realized that we were out of glue. We knew it was getting close the night before but it had totally slipped my mind to grab some during the day. Putting our production to a near standstill, we wrapped what armour was finished in aluminum foil, and cut our some pieces for the shoulder/chest armour before I called it a night and headed out to make the last subway.

Feeling not so bad Thursday morning, I was up with every intention on making it to the gym, when I changed my mind and decided to make a long overdue call home to my dad and see what had been going on since before I went to China. Not having spoken in about 5 weeks we ended up being on the phone for the better part of an hour and a half, putting my trip to the gym on hold yet again, as well as unofficially diagnosing me with walking pneumonia according to the symptoms I told my dad I have been having. It was good to hear what was going on back home though, so it all works out. After getting off the phone I got ready for work and headed out, hoping the day would go by quick so I could get over to Nate's and finish my costume. In my spare time at work I looked up the symptoms of pneumonia, and to my surprise they sounded almost 100% like what I had been having and decided that if they didn't get better in another week then it would time to see a doctor. After work it was off again, with dreams of completion in mind only to be dashed by the fact that I had once again forgotten hot glue sticks. In my defence, Nathan said he would get some since I only needed a touch more glue, and even though he did it wasn't going to be enough to finish both of our costumes. Then out of nowhere Mike my coworker came through with a last minute call to swing by and make a fake hammer using the hot glue. We said it would be cool and had him grab a pack of glue sticks on his way, since everything was closed in Nate's area by 11. Soon enough Mike was there with some beer and glue, and we got to work. Blake even stopped by to see how the projects were progressing. After putting another coat of foil on my armour, Nate finished my helmet and I began wrapping it while he got to work putting fur on his gorilla head with the help of Blake and Mike. In the end I had all my leg armour finished, including elastic straps to secure it, the helmet finished, and the chest/shoulder section 50% finished. It was almost 3am though, so Mike and I took off with Predator pieces in hand so that I could finish it up and work the next day.
Friday, skipping the gym again, I got what material I needed to finish my costume at work and headed out to grab some glue sticks before going to finish my costume at work. Between classes throughout the day I worked on my shoulder armour, and when it was finished, turned my attention to the iconic Predator forearm gauntlet. I had big hopes to make both the gauntlet and the matching digital armband for the otter arm, but ran out of time and had to settle on just the gauntlet; which I might add turned out pretty good. While at work, we were given the news that, contrary to what we thought, we didn't have to be at work Saturday for our Halloween Open House until 1230. This was different from having to be at our last one in the summer at 930am, and as good as the news was, I was a little pissed that they had no intentions on telling us when we actually had to be at the school and Mike and I had planned on being there around 930 again. With the news of a later start I was able to go ahead with my plans of going to Gold Bars Halloween Party, and quickly sent out some texts to see who else was going. I cold have just gone home after work, but after putting so much work into the costume I really wanted to show it off. I left work and went home to put all the pieces together before heading to the subway and for Sincheon. Before now I thought I got stared at bad enough, being a tall white guy with dreads in this country, but being a tall white guy dressed as the Predator took it to another level. On the subway everyone was staring at me, and I'm pretty sure taking pictures of me (the mask made it hard to see), but eventually a group of Korean guys got on and were thrilled with my costume and started talking to me about it and Halloween in general. I slipped my mask off to talk to them and another older gentleman sitting on the subway bench and got some good reviews about my costume and the holiday in general. A few stops later they all got off and I noticed another foreigner staring at me from the other end of the train with a rather concerning look in his face. At first I thought nothing of it but then I over heard one of the Korean guys he was with say something about beating me up. "Jesus, am I going to get beat up on a subway train for enjoying Halloween?", I thought as the guy came over to me. Knowing in a couple stops Nathan was going to join me on the train I didn't worry too much, but got ready for the worst. The foreigner came and asked me why I was wearing a costume, and then checked his watch when I answered "Because it's Halloween.", as if to say "Not for another two days." I explained to him that I knew it wasn't for a couple more days, but that my favourite bar was having their Halloween party and that I was on my way there. Quickly he changed he demeanour, and seemed to enjoy the fact that I was dressed up all of a sudden. I asked him where he was from, and found out he was from France, here on an internship. We made small talk until Nate got on the train and then we got him to take a few pictures of us dressed up on the subway. As he was taking the pictures, I figured out where the initial hostility had come from. His Korean friends, or coworkers, came over to stand with him as we were talking and one of them blatantly told us we were disgraceful and that we shouldn't dress up because Koreans don't recognize Halloween. To that, the French man and his other friend quickly apologized and told him to relax; and Nathan was quick to point out that we aren't Korean and that not everything has to be done the Korean way. In fact I'm pretty sure he told the guy that Koreans need to lighten up and have some fun experiencing different things that way they aren't just a bunch of suit wearing robots all their lives. Reaching the next stop, the guys got off and I got Nate under control so we could continue on to Gold Bar. Once at Gold Bar, we met up with Brady and SoHyun, Alex and Louise, James, and several other new Avalon employees, all of which loved my costume and laughed as soon as they saw me. I preceded to enjoy the night and have a few drinks, but not get too out of control because of my obligation to be at work the next morning. By 3am it was time to call it a night, so I said my good-byes and went to get in a cab bound for Bongcheon. I made it home and into bed by 430, which was later than expected but still within reason.
Having only drank a little at the bar and a lot of water when I got home, I was up Saturday morning by 1030 feeling good to go for the day. I spent some time watching internet videos and eating breakfast before getting all my gear together and heading out to school at 12. Once at school I made a few minor repairs to my costume, including gluing a shoulder pad back on, and re-foiling some spots of my leg armour. All suited up I started helping put out the food for the snack market, and get the toys ready in the prize market before the kids came at 130. As the kids began to roll in we were all required to to line up in the front hall and meet them in our costumes. So we did and all had a good laugh as the kids laughed at our costumes, or stared in awe at the weirdo wrapped in aluminum foil. As the open house went on it was my job to run the prize market, which I did in bounce style, allowing so many kids in at a time and regulating how much time they had in the room so that all the kids could get a chance get prizes without the room being over crowded with kids. I felt it went much smoother this time than last time, and everyone had a chance to get a good look at the prize choices. By 515 the last of the kids were leaving and it was time to clean up. Unfortunately, like in many situations, most of the teachers took off leaving only a few of us to clean up, but it worked out in the end as I got to take home a couple leftover pizzas and some pop. I left the school and got home by 6 where I laid down for a couple hour nap to rest up for another possible night out as the Predator. Waking up around 8pm I started making some calls to see who was doing what for the Saturday night of Halloween, and as it turned out most of my friends cancelled their plans on going to Hongdae like we talked about and were opting for staying in instead. Finally I heard back from Matei and Jen who were planning on going to Hongdae still, and Hayley who was one of the Hongdae plan enthusiasts. To my displeasure, Matei told me he was going "soon", but never ended up getting to Hongdae until 11pm to confirm reservations at a place, meaning by the time he got back to me I could only make it half way there on the subway. I got stuck at Sindorim where the last train stops at 12 on Saturdays and had to take a cab ride through traffic the rest of the way, but I did get to split it with a random Korean I met on the subway which was cool. Finally arriving at Hongdae to meet up with Hayley by 1245, we quickly went to find Jen and Matei at Oi bar, and get the night started. We stayed at Oi until it was clearing out around 4am, and then since Hayley lives in Bundong and always takes the subway home due to the distance, I decided to stick around to keep her company until the subway opened at 530. We took some time walking towards the station, stopping to get some photos with Predator lovers, as well as randoms like on a motorcycle, next to a cop car, and behind the counter of a Family Mart. Eventually we made our way down to the subway and took up some seats while we waited for it to get moving. I was home by 630, and quickly jumped into bed to get some rest before Sunday.
Having another light night of drinking I was able to get up around 1230 and get some breakfast and a shower in before heading out to meet with Blake and SaeJin, and Thomas and Jeanne for an FC Seoul soccer game, and make use of a season ticket Lauren had left with me back in September. I got to the station where we were supposed to meet at 230, but since none of us know the area very well we all ended up at different exits and in the end decided to just meet out front of the entrance to the stadium. We thought we were right on time for the game, which was supposed to start at 3pm, but quickly learned that the game was half way over and when we asked why were told that it had been switched for televising purposes. Disappointed, we sat back and watch the rest of the game that had a final outcome of FC Seoul beating Busan 3-1. After the game we took a walk through World Cup Stadium Park, which I will have to pay another visit to because it's so nice. After that we all went our separate ways on the subway to get home and rest up before the new week started.

It's a Super Hero Week

2010-10-24T08:42:00.016-04:00

Oct 18-24, 2010

Mother nature must have wanted me to get as much of her glorious warm weather in this week as possible, because she had me up, thanks to one of her little creatures, at the crack of dawn to start this week. After only going to bed at 2am, I was stirred from my slumber a mere 3.5 hour later by the sound of cats crying outside my apartment window. Thinking I could ignore it, I closed my window and tried to get back to sleep. After about 30 more minutes of the crying I decided I better investigate, and possibly throw a shoe out the window. When I opened my window and leaned out I saw a mother cat and three babies wandering around at the edge of an 8 foot deep alley, crying, looking down, and then walking around confused. It was obvious that something was up, so I got out of bed and went outside to investigate. It turned out that the fourth kitten had gotten too close to the edge and had fallen down into the alley, and was incapable of getting out, which was why there was all the crying. Not being one to leave an animal stranded, I went back inside to get a towel and then jumped down into the alley to try and rescue/quiet it. After about 25 minutes of trying to get it to come to me, I decided to go to it but quickly found out that the end of the alley was too small for me to make it all the way to the cat. Turning to Plan B, I climbed out of the alley and walked along the edge until I was over top of it and using my towel, nudged it until it ran to the other end to hide under and air conditioner. I got back down and cornered it under the unit, then ever so slowly put the towel over it and picked it up by the back of its neck, which it didn't seem to mind until we made eye contact making it freak out. I carried it back to the area it had fallen from and let it go so it could rejoin its mother, which had gone into hiding since I had come out.

Good deed done for the day, I went back inside fully awake at 7am and talked to a few friends online, including Lauren and Ash while I let my heart cool down. After that I went back to sleep for a few hours, because under 4 just wasn't going to cut it. Skipping the gym to sleep, I got back up around 1130, made a lunch and headed off to work. After work I hit the gym then headed home for some football action. I was about one quarter in on a game when Blake phoned me and said he was in my area and that we should grab a beer from the corner store. It turned out that he had been out to have dinner with a friend who will be leaving to study in New Zealand soon, and when that wrapped up he thought he would came and see what I was up to. We chatted over a couple beers outside the store until just after 1, then went our ways. Me home to finish the game and him home to bed.

Tuesday I got back on track and got up to go to the gym. After the gym I went home to get ready for work and grab my lunch, then it was off to drop some knowledge bombs on my unsuspecting students. Little did I know I would be the one getting the bomb shelling. Near the end of the day, the director came in with my pay stub from last weeks pay, and then sat down to "talk about" what had happened. I thought that I knew what had happened and told her that I understood, but she had a look that told me I was about to get some bad news. As it turns out, the money that had been missing from my account which I assumed was the advanced pay from the previous Friday and my pension plan, was really my pension plan and medical insurance back payments. This meant I still owed the school the 200 000W and that I was really missing 550 dollars from my last pay. Needless to say I was not happy, but already having come to terms with getting screwed last week, I just sighed, rolled my eyes, and said "whatever". In the end all it means is that I will not be able to send home as much money as i had hoped for the next couple months, or get into many extra curricular activities. After work I just headed home to relax and watch the Monday Night Football replay.

Still feeling the effects of this sickness I have been dealing with, which I am starting to suspect is pneumonia, I slept in Wednesday until 12 because I was feeling all dragged out. Once I got up and started moving and feeling better I got ready for work and headed out. Work was all in all the same as usual, teach some basic materials, have a few laughs, and call it a day. Again after work I waived the gym and went home to watch another game and see about getting some more rest. While the game was on I cleaned up a bit and prepped some more food for my lunches for the rest of the week, then settled in for the night. It was a good thing that I did too, because Thursday I felt a bit better and was able to get to the gym in the morning, and then after work it was off to Sincheon to meet Blake so that we could book some reservations at a few places for his up coming birthday. We booked at The Warehouse, and of course Gold Bar III where we also stuck around for a few drinks. Garret even showed up, and Blake and I had to explain to him that the football playing in the bar had to stop before somebody gets hurt. He seemed a little put off at first, maybe he thought we were hating on him, but we weren't it's just better for every one's safety if he doesn't try to tackle me every time we drink together. We hung out until about 130 before heading over to McDonald's for a Shanghai Spicy Chicken Burger, and then getting in a cab to go home.
Thanks to the Shanghai chicken, I was up early Friday and managed to catch a few people online for a chat. I actually missed the gym because I was busy talking online, but I probably needed the rest more than the exercise. Once I was done online I got ready for work and went to get the last day of the week done and over with. Seeing as it was Blake's birthday on Saturday, I decided it would be a good idea to stay in Friday night and rest up, because one never knows what's going to happen at a birthday at Gold Bar III. That and I had an 11am appointment to get my dreads tightened in Itaewon, meaning I would have to be up and out by 10.

I managed to get up before my alarm even went off at 930, had some breakfast and was out the door by 10 Saturday morning without any problems, making it to my 11am appointment right on time. I went in and for the first time in many years (over 5) had somebody else wash my hair for me. Generally I try to wash my hair before I go, to make sure that it is clean, but I washed it Thursday and knew that it wasn't that dirty after only a couple of days. Be that as it may, I let them wash my hair, and WOW did it ever feel nice to have somebody else washing my hair. After the washing I went to the chair for the lady to work on my dreads. The lady at the salon is in her late 40's or early 50's and seems to know what she is doing, and went to work right away hooking my dreads. Then it got weird. There is another lady in her mid 30's who also works at the salon who didn't have anything to do and decided to come over and help. By help I mean hold my dreads out of the way so the other lady could see better, and hold my head in place where she thought it would be most comfortable. All the while she was making small talk about how I looked like an actor, which I assume is because I am white; how I look older than 27, which I said was because of my several days of scruff; and how she was surprised I was single. I wasn't sure if she was hitting on me or just being Korean, or being a Korean gold digger. There were times when the conversation swung towards what I looked for in a girlfriend, and what I like to do in my spare time, and I tried to answer them as broadly as possible and try not to offend her. In the end my hair was done and I was quite pleased with the result. Before I left the salon the owner asked if she could take my picture since not many men go there. I agreed and they took a few pictures of their work, then Clara, the name of the one lady, sat down beside me and they took a couple pictures of me with her. She laughed and said she was going to tell all her friends she was dating an actor. Kinda weird, but whatever. I just told her to make sure she tells them the beard is for my up coming role as a motorcycle bad ass. Hair done and self esteem boosted, I headed home to grab a nap before the festivities for Blake's birthday started.

Waking up a couple hours before I had to leave, I watched some videos and took a shower before making for the subway. I met Blake and Nate on the platform of their subway station, and together we got back on the train and headed to Sincheon for the 6pm meet up time. Frank and Garrett also met us there, but a large portion of our friends had other plans and said they would meet us after dinner. We started at Aladdin's Lamb, a Korean style barbecue based on lamb meat, that has become a favourite of the area. After dinner we swung over to The Warehouse where we had reservations at 8 for about 20. Unfortunately, we only needed half the space we had reserved, as only Hayley showed up for the predrinking there. Near the end, about 30 minutes before our reservations at the next place took effect, Alex B and Dino showed up, followed by MinSup, Junk and his girlfriend KaeLim. They helped us finish our beer and we all headed to Gold Bar III. At Gold Bar we seemed to be the only ones there for quite some time, but eventually all our friends showed up as well as a lot of other people out for the night. Throughout the night Blake and I had been spreading word that Blake didn't want it turning into a constant flow of shots like every other birthday does, that way he would be able to keep partying longer. Everyone agreed and it seemed as though Blake might have dodged the Gold Bar birthday bullet that seems to hit everyone else. And then it happened........Blake's inner animal came out and the next thing I knew he was coming through the crowd holding a bottle of vodka and a bottle of whiskey, pouring them not just into other peoples cups, but into his own mouth. Looking over at Nate, we both had a look as to say, "Where did he get those?", knowing full well that he had bought them. I let him enjoy them for a while, but sooner or later he had to put them down, and when he did I snatched them up and took them back to the bar where they could put them in keeping for him. It was only 12 and Blake was well on his way to blackout city, so I pumped some water into him and we kept the party going for as long as he was still standing. By 1am he decided he needed to sit down, which quickly turned into passing out in the booth we had. No biggie here in Korea, we let him sleep for about 20 before waking him up to take him home. Luckily Junk happened to be leaving at that time and agreed to drive him home so that the rest of us could stay at the party. At the same time, Nate left to hit the casino. I went back inside for another hour of blurred hanging out before heading to McDonald's with Thomas and Jeanne for a late night snack. Off in a cab by 3, I was home and calling it a night just before 4.

Waking up to a phone call from Blake at 930 the next morning, I reassured him that he didn't do anything stupid and that everything was taken care of. He said he was feeling super shitty, rightfully so, and let me go so he could get back to sleep. I went back to bed for about another hour before I was up and feeling go to go for the day. Having rested up and drank a lot of water before the party, then taking it easy so I could keep an eye on Blake, I was far better off than I had been on most previous Sundays. I sat around for a bit watching internet videos before getting a hold of Nate about our plans to get together and work on our Halloween costumes. He however was in the same boat as Blake, after he stayed up all night at the casino. I told him to call me when he was feeling better, and went back to watching internet videos. Eventually in the late afternoon he called me and asked if around 5 worked, which since I had nothing else going on worked just fine. I went over to his place at 5, met Blake on the way and we grabbed pizza for the costume workshop. Nate was working on his King Kong mask while worked on my Predator armor. Nate eventually turned attention to a Predator mask for me......he's a very artistic guy, which is why we are doing costumes in the first place. By 8pm we were all feeling worn out so we shut it down for the night and headed to our homes. I grabbed some groceries on the way home, then settled in for the night with another football game.

Savin' cats and savin' friends. Hope you all had a good week, and are enjoying the cool fall weather.

Money Worrrrrieesss (in a singing voice)

2010-10-20T04:18:00.010-04:00

Oct 11-17, 2010

After having a rocky end to last week regarding my pay, this week didn't start much better. I got up Monday to head to a doctors appointment that I had to get some results back from a skin test I had done. It was earlier than I usually get up, so I was already no super impressed. Then on the way to the hospital a homeless lady decided it would be a good idea to slap me as I walked by. I know that I didn't say anything or even look at her, but being that she was old and a bag lady I let it slide and continued on my way. At the hospital I was hustled between a few rooms before the doctor came in to tell me everything checked out fine, and that I could go home. I felt like saying, "Hey Doc, why couldn't you just call and tell me?", but being that it was good news I just left. Once home I grabbed a quick nap before heading to work. Work was the usual, kids not doing their work and me not really caring. After work it was straight home to catch one of the Sunday football games on replay.

Tuesday, the day the title of this blog eludes to, stared out well. I went to the gym, hit home to make some lunch, and then headed of to work. Since we did not get paid on Friday we were supposed to have been paid Monday, but I hadn't checked yet. After getting to work, I walked down to the bank to check if we had and do transfer some money home as per usual after getting paid. Good thing I checked my balance before I started the transferring process, because it turned out that I was $350+ short in my account. By my calculations I should have had 1.85 million Won, but I only had 1.5 million, immediately throwing me into a Rage Factor of about 7/10. Leaving the bank I marched into work and demanded to know where the hell my money was from our vice director, who quickly came out into the main lobby to address our secretary in charge of accounting. Before too long they were telling me that it was my back payment into the National Pension Program that they have forgotten to deduct since I started. Still at Rage Factor 7, I told them that it was complete bullshit having to deal with Friday's payment issue and now this without being given the slightest notice, and followed that up with letting them know how budgeting works and that when they do shit like that it totally screws with my monthly budget plans. They were quick to apologize, which I 'accepted', but still let them know that it can't happen again. After that I was in a bit of a foul mood at work, and the office staff didn't talk to me for the rest of the week. C'est la vie. I left work still a little pissed and went home to watch some football and play with Goah, and try to forget about the way Koreans do business, especially since I know it's not just the foreigners they do this to.
Waking up Wednesday, still feeling some lingering effects of my cold, I hit the gym as usual, then it was off to work. Like I said above, the office staff weren't talking to me, so I went in in silence and got ready for my day by doing some crosswords and checking Facebook, the usual. After work it was home for some more football and high hopes of getting to bed early to rest off my cold. Just as the game finished and I was brushing my teeth, Goah started pacing around my kitchen counter. She will generally do this if she is stalking a fly or other bug, but then give up after it evades her or she looses interest, but not this time. This time she was more serious and chirpy than I had ever seen her. I decided to go and have a look, but at first saw nothing. getting down beside her, I tried to follow where her eyes were going and that's when I saw the gap between my stove (hot plate) top fan and the wall. Taking a closer look I saw a HUGE bug back in the corner. It was too big to have come through any cracks, and being an avid cooker I haven't noticed any bug problems with my food, so what was this thing and where did it come from. Getting out a flashlight, I went in for a closer look, only to discover that it was a cockroach the size of my thumb. And I have quite sizable thumbs. Immediately springing into Intruder Alert Mode, I grabbed a shoe and a long stick (the stick is attached to a Canadian flag) and went at this thing, trying to crush it against the corner of its hiding place. When that didn't work I cleared off my counter and got ready to lay the smack down on it. I got the shoe ready and quickly scraped it out from between the fan and the wall, and at once hammered the crap out of it with my shoe. It was obviously dead, but surprisingly not splattered all over the place like I assumed it would be. No wonder roaches have survived for so long. After that I was all jacked up, because nothing escapes once it's in the kill zone, so I decided to kill some zombies until I was tired again, making it a much later night than anticipated.Due in part to my late night roach rampage and my cold, I slept in Thursday and skipped my morning workout. When I finally dragged myself out of bed it was almost 1230, so I had to quickly put a lunch together, shower and head off to work. Work was par for the course, and seemed to go by rather quick. After work I decided to make up for my morning laziness, and hit the gym for my workout; which I might add, is way fuller at night than in the mornings. I was there until just after 11, before heading home to catch yet another football game and just relax before the weekend.
Friday morning rolled around and it was back to the gym, home to make lunch, then off to work as usual. After work, since it was Friday, I planned to meet Blake and his new coworker Wes in Jonggak for a few drinks. None of us had been there to drink in a long time so it was a good change of pace from the usual Sincheon or Gangnam. I met them there around 11 and we hit up a Ho Bar (popular chain in Korea that has nothing to do with the name on the inside) for a drink before deciding to leave on account of a group of stupid foreigners from France that we trying to do a conga line in a bar not meant for it. Outside we grabbed beer and took up shop on a set of steps to people watch, and boy were we ever glad that we did. To follow is the story of what we saw while outside.

--There was a guy in a suit (suit) and a guy in a blue shirt (blue). Blake, Wesley and I walked out of the bar to have a sidewalk beer while Wes was on the phone. Out of nowhere we heard the sound of two bodies hitting, looked over and saw them heaped on the ground not far from us. At first we thought, "oh it's a fight and they fell". Then suit got up and helped up blue. It turned out they were friends but blue wanted to take on the world starting with his friend. After a couple minutes of angry staggering blue wanted to be friends again and they hugged and shook hands forever because blue was so drunk. Then instead of putting his friend in a cab suit let blue stand around until his next anger fit came and he grabbed a stranger by the jacket. Getting between them suit managed to keep blue from starting anything serious and the other guy was cool about it for the first couple minutes, but when blue wouldn't let go he got angry and thought about beating him up. Suit then focused his attention on the random and not letting him beat up blue, while blue wandered around like nothing happened, then wanted to be randoms friend. Random eventually walked away and suit took blue out to the main street.
We finished our beers on the steps and several minutes later walked that way to find another bar. Going around the corner who do we see, blue shirt sucker punching some guy out front of Lotteria. Random 2 was on the ground because he looked a bit soft and blue was ready to fight him. Suit was stopping it, and nobody was really doing anything. Random 2 got up and yelled at blue then called the cops. While yelling at blue, blue tried to be his friend, until he realized the cops were called and wanted to fight again. We were watching (something we usually don't do) and wondering why suit hadn't knocked out his own friend or why someone hadn't knocked them both out. Not being our country we decided that unless something bad happened (it was all minor punches and slaps) we would stay out of it. Blue continued to try and take on the world and when some people were thinking about getting involved suit was able to keep them at bay. THEN he took a swing towards a girl, presumably random 2's girlfriend, and that's when a bunch of people rushed in yet did nothing but move the girl away. Suit dragged blue to the side of the street and open hand slapped the shit out of him and for the first time we thought it would be over. At this point we were seriously talking amongst ourselves about who was going to go and choke him out while the others held suit out of it because it was getting retarded. Luckily it didn't come to that and the cops showed up just as blue made another rush into the crowd and was taken down by suit. You would think that would end it but no. Once blue realized the cops were there for him he started to struggle and swing. The cops grabbed him and like complete fucktard Koreans didn't put cuffs on him, so on the way to the car he grabbed some girl by the shirt. The girls boyfriend quickly got between and as the cops were taking blue shirt down to the ground he managed to kick random girl's boyfriend in the face. Boyfriend exploded with anger and kicked blue in the back, to which the cops allowed. then boyfriends friends dragged him away (if I was his friend I would have been stomping blues head while they were cuffing him.....but thats me). They picked up blue and forcefully put him in the car thus ending about 45mins of total entertainment.
As bad as it was, nobody got hurt and that's what made it so funny. --

End of the story. From there we continued around the corner to a new bar called The Table. We went in to check it out and ended up staying for a couple hours because it was so cool. There were just large tables with chilled beer in the centre that you would take back and drink at your table. Then at the end of the night they would count what you had drank and give you the bill. Plus they were playing good music and there was a good non-foreign crowd in there. Calling it a night around 230am we jumped in a cab and headed home dropping Blake and Wes off first and then myself.

Saturday was a day of hanging out. I got up mid morning and sat around watching football games and napping while making plans to meet up with Thomas and Jeanne (Dave and Kate's replacements) for dinner and drinks. We hadn't seen them since Dave and Kate's going away, and Blake's brothers visit, so it was good to be ironing out plans. We decided on Itaewon since a lot of other people from the group expressed interest in going there. So around 7 we met at the station, myself, Frank, Blake, Wes, Thomas and Jeanne and went to Sam Ryan's for some western style food and a few beers. Joined eventually by James, we then went to Roofers where Jen and Matei showed up, Rocchi came by, and Garret made an appearance which was followed by Garret trying to tackle me and me almost punching him in the face. We hung out at Roofers until some time after 230am before checking out of there and heading over to Seoul Pub for one more round. That round took a lot longer than some of us expected, and before we knew it it was 5am and time to go. Thomas, Jeanne, and I went outside to grab a kabob before heading home, and then it dawned on us that if we waited another 20 minutes the subway would be open and we would save a ton on cab fare. So we waited and caught the subway home when it opened. I was home and in bed by 630 but having food in me and the smarts to drink some water, was feeling fine.
Waking up around noon on Sunday to Blake's call about our planned touch football game possibly being a no go, I laid around watching another NFL game until he confirmed it at 230 that there was indeed a major backing out of people, and we wouldn't have had enough guys to get a game going. With that news I took advantage of not having to leave my area for the day by watching some more football and then getting some groceries around 6pm, coming home and precooking some dishes for the week and watching yet again some more football. Eventually it got late and I went to bed so I could have a fresh start to the coming week.

New back home this week was that Nan had been taken to the hospital after being up north to close the trailer. Hopefully she will be feeling better soon.

Happy Thanksgiving Canada

2010-10-11T04:15:00.006-04:00

Oct 4-10, 2010

Well the weather, though not that bad last week, was quite nice this week. It was a bit chilly last week, but warmed up to a comfortable jeans and t-shirt atmosphere.

My week started out and was plagued with stage two of my cold. It seems to have swayed away from swamp fever, to a nagging morning/night cough. Hoping it would clear up, I went about my business as usual. I got up Monday and went to the gym (where stepping on the scale I learned the I had sweat out 3kg in the past week), then it was off to work for the usual classes. After work, I went home to get out a regular Monday email that I have started, then settled in with the cat to watch some football. Tuesday was pretty much the same, except I rode my bike to work after killing my legs at the gym and not wanting to walk. While at work I took some time that I had between classes to work on making a hot air balloon out of a paper material that I had hoped would hold up like tissue paper. It was in hopes that I would be able to make them with one of my older classes that was studying hot air balloons this week. Unfortunately it didn't work, as the paper was too porous and the hot air would not stay inside. After work, again I went home and threw on a football game to try and rest off my cold.
Wednesday I skipped the gym and just slept until mid morning. Instead of the gym I cleaned up my apartment and washed my dishes that had gotten out of control. Off to work again, the day went by quickly as I used my spare time to try wrapping paper for a hot air balloon. It went together much easier than the other paper I tried, but in the end was too heavy to take flight when the hot air was applied. At that point, I figured it was a dead idea since I couldn't find actual tissue paper in any of the stores near me. After work, I met with Blake in Sillim for a few drinks at Jack Daniel's Bar, and to just shoot the breeze. We got on the last subway home, and I was crawling into bed by 130 again.
Feeling a little more rested, I got up Thursday and hit the gym before work. Trying to get into shape takes much more motivation these days it seems compared to several years ago. After the gym it was off to work, and the boredom that is my schedule. After work it was home again for another football game and some rest. Sooner or later my cold has got to get better. Up Friday, my day took the same form as the one before it until I got to work and was floored by the information that they weren't going to pay us until Monday. I say floored because our pay day is on the 10th, and at almost any given company in the world, if your pay day falls on a weekend, then you get paid on the Friday before said weekend. This was exactly the case this week, with the 10th falling on Sunday, so I immediately marched into the directors office and demanded an explanation, letting her know full well that this is not good general business practice. She at first laughed it off, as if the concerns of the teachers wee but trivial matters, and explained to me that the owner's rule is that if pay day falls on a Saturday then we get paid on the Friday, but if it falls on Sunday then we get paid on the Monday. I was not having any of that and let her know that both Mike and I expected to have our money, because it is just general business practice and that we had both sent our remaining money home; not to mention the fact that it was one of my main questions when I was signing my contract. She wasn't sure what to do until I told her we needed money for the weekend and asked about getting some in advance. This seemed doable, and within minutes a pay advance was sent to both Mike and I. Problem solved, I went about the rest of my day and after work headed to Sincheon to meet some friends at Gold Bar. Mike went with me and we met up with Mike Stopp and his girlfriend, Alex and Louise, Brady, Frank, and Blake. Mike and I were there a bit early and ended up power drinking a few Jack & Cokes before the rest of the group showed up and we set the night on fire. Mike disappeared around 130am, and by 2am I was in no shape to go looking for him. So hanging out with a blurry Blake, I played some darts and talked to anyone who would listen until about 330 when it was time to get some doncass. Mine however didn't stay down long, and by just after 4am I was dieing in the streets. Luckily with it out of my system Blake and I got in a cab and headed home, dropping him off first in Kyodae.
Waking up feeling not too bad, puking which I rarely do always help the next morning, I refueled with some water and hung out at my place until about mid afternoon. After getting in contact with Blake to make sure he was still alive, we made plans to meet in Sillim for dak-galbi and to walk around since it was such a nice day. After lunch, Blake took off to meet up with some people at Yeouido for the High Seoul Festival fireworks show, which started at 730pm. I went home quickly to get my camera and meet Chrissy, another coworker, then headed to the park at 615. We wanted to get there early since there were going to be lots of people, but we underestimated the number of people that were going and found ourselves squished in like sardines on the subway after our transfer from the green to purple line. Missing our stop at Yeouido station due to the number of people on the train that were taking it to Yeoui-naru, the next/closer station, we just rode it out and planned to walk back to Yeouido to meet up with the others. It was a crazy walk, like fish trying to swim up stream, against all the people heading the the park but we made it, found Blake and SeaJin, and JungHun and went back to the park just in time for the show. My buddy Rocchi from university, also being in Korea, told me he would be late but that he wanted to meet up for the fireworks as well. Knowing how to give him directions now that I had been there and back again, I quickly told him how to get to the station and then on to the park from there. It was good that I could give him directions so that I could stay at the park, until he was almost at the front gate, and watch the show before having to make my way to the road to find him. That and my phone died shortly after contact so I was unreachable if anything went wrong. After the fireworks we avoided the crowds of people heading to the subway and just stood around off to the side for about 20 minutes. During this time a handful of small children came up and decided that I was the most interesting thing they had seen all night. All of them under the age of 10, spoke great English and wanted to practice it on the tall foreigner. Here is a segment of the conversation:
little boy : "Hi"
me : "Hi. How are you?"
little boy: "You are really tall!"
me : "Yes, I'm pretty tall. Did you guys watch the fireworks tonight?"
the group : "Yes."
little boy : "Where do you live? I mean your real home, not in Korea."
me : "I'm from Canada."
little boy : "Oh, do you know Montreal?"
me : "Yes I do, but I'm from Toronto. How do you know about Montreal?"
little boy : "It's famous."
The conversation continued about how the four kids are two sets of siblings that are cousins, and about how great a weekend they were having, having seen the president earlier in the day, then fireworks, and how they get to have a sleep over. All the while Blake, SaeJin, and Rocchi just stood back and watched, then later compared me to Jesus as we laughed about what happened. It was amazingly adorable to have such polite kids come and start up a conversation with a stranger, and show no reserve in their English ability. After saying good night to the kids we walked with the thinning crowd to the far end of the park before slipping out and taking up a spot beside the river to have a couple beers and finish waiting out the crowds. After a couple hours things seemed settled, so we left the park for some late dinner in Yeongdeungpo with Junk, and then a couple drinks at a random bar. the night wrapped up by 3am, and we all got in cabs to head to our respective homes.
Sunday was a lazy day to start. Waking up around lunch I did nothing but sit around for a few hours thinking about all the stuff I should do, being it was Sunday. In the end I called Blake to see if he wanted to get out and enjoy the cool sunny day. We decided to hit up Seokchon lake near Jamsil and by 430 we met on the train and finished the ride to Jamsil. We grabbed a cold drink and sat around in the park for a bit before getting up and walking the path around the small lake. Before we left the park we had another seat and let it get dark. By 645 we were both getting hungry and headed to Sincheon, where we were supposed to meet June, my Avalon replacement, for dinner. She said she would be late so we started grilling up sam-gyup-sal without her. Eventually she showed up and Blake and I joked with her about how it was our Thanksgiving dinner, but that the fired bacon strips weren't even close to real turkey. After having our fill we slid over to Gold Bar, we had to since it seems to have an iron grasp on us, for a couple drinks and some more conversation. Getting on the last subway of the night, I was home by midnight for my weekly call home, and to wish my mom and nan a happy birthday.

Another week, another story. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend, and Happy Birthday to my mom and nan.

The Swamp Monster Cometh

2010-10-08T01:22:00.004-04:00

Sept 24 - Oct 3, 2010

Well this is an extra long blog because it covers the weekend after Beijing through to the following weekend.

Back from Beijing late Thursday, I got up Friday tired and not wanting to go back to work. I pulled it together and got through the day just fine, and found myself telling and retelling the stories of my vacation to my coworkers for most of the day. After work on Friday Mike and I went over to Sillim for a couple of beers and to chat about what each of us did on vacation. We didn't stay out late because neither of us wanted to spend too much money, having spent it all on vacation. Home by 130, I hopped into bed and called it a night.
Saturday was a pretty relaxing day as well. I got up around 11am and just sat around for a few hours watching football and watching it rain outside. Eventually I got it together and ventured out to the grocery store to replenish my food supply, and got caught in the rain on the walk back. Once back at home, I planned to just stay in for the night, but I got a call from Alex about going to Rainbow in Gangnam for a couple drinks. What the hell I thought. So I got ready and headed out around 930 to meet with Alex and Louise, Brady and SoHyun, Frank, and a couple of Alex's friends. We hung out at Rainbow until 130 then hit Woodstock for one last beer before calling it a night and going our separate ways. Very low key which was just what I needed. Sunday was similar to Saturday, I just sat around at home watching football and making food for the coming week.
Monday of the new week, I felt a bit worn down like the sleep lacking trip to China was starting to catch up with me. I got up early to get to a doctors appointment for 930, which had me tied up until almost noon hour. Quickly getting home, I packed up some lunch and headed to school. After work I went to Sillim again to meet with Blake for some dinner and to talk about our vacations, as he went to Tokyo for a few days and then to Busan for the rest. We ate and shared our ridiculous stories and then caught the last subway home around 1230. Once home I talked a bit on the computer before crashing out, and inevitably having a run in with the Swamp Monster. I knew I had been a bit warm during the day, but wrote it off as the warmth of the building, but while I was sleeping a fever must have kicked in and throughout the night I was sweating a fair amount.
Waking up Tuesday morning, I was freezing from being wet all night, and starting to feel the aches of a cold. Pushing that aside I went to sign up for the gym because I'm tired of feeling so out of shape. I worked out for about an hour, then went home and got ready for work. Work went by just like any other day except I felt energized from working out, and after work it was home again to watch the Monday night game. Again after the game I went to bed only to sweat even worse than the night before. It was quite gross since I only have one set of blankets, so I just had to spin them around until I found a try spot and go back to sleep. Getting up Wednesday I went through it again, off to the gym, home to get my lunch then to school for the day. Home again, I watched another game and then went to bed hoping the worst of the nights was behind me, but boy was I wrong. It got worse, and by the time I woke up Thursday it looked as though I had been sitting in a bathtub all night. Everything on my bed was soaked through and I was wrinkled up like a prune. So fighting fire with fire, I went back to the gym. The inevitable aches and pains of the first workouts were setting in, but I wanted to keep going so that I didn't give up before I got started. After work it was home again to face another night as the swamp monster. Thursday night, though still bad, was much better than the night before, and when I got up Friday I felt like maybe I was getting better. Taking a break from the gym I just laid around watching South Park until it was time to go to work. After work Friday I kept it pretty quiet. Jean, Mike, Chrissy, and I just went to a chicken place nearby and got some food and a few beers. I was home and heading to bed by 1, hoping to get rid of this cold.
Having gone to bed early and sleeping until just after lunch time, I woke up feeling rested but still sick and achy. I sat around watching more football and thinking about whether or not I even wanted to leave my house. In the end I decided I should get out and get some air, and since I had been invited to Hayley's place in Bundang to make Halloween Caramel Apples, it gave me the perfect way yo get out of the house but keep a low profile on the night. I headed out to Hayley's around 630 and arrived by 730. There weren't many of us, just Hayley, one of her coworkers Rachel, her brother Brett and his girlfriend MiSon, and myself. Hayley had decorated her place a bit and had lots of snacks for us, so we sat around for a while just talking and stuff before making the apples around 930. We made two each and just got them finished and wrapped in time to run to catch the last subway heading into Seoul. I knew that I would make it as far as the city where I would usually transfer, but the likelihood of making the last transfer train was low. In the end I missed it by about 2 minutes and was faced with the problem of having to take a cab home but not having any money. usually this wouldn't be a problem, but as I left the subway station to find a bank machine i quickly realized that there weren't many banks in the area of the transfer station, and the few that I found wouldn't accept my card (it's a time issue with some machines in this country). A bit panicked, I was about to call Blake and tell him to meet me at his station, a 20 minute walk for me, for help but then I came across a bank machine that would give me money and everything was good. I was in a cab and home by 130, and wasted no time getting to bed.
Having not drank on Saturday, Sunday was much nicer than usual. There was no headache or smoke filled lungs leaving me dieing for most of the day. Again I slept late trying to sleep away my sickness, and then got up and made plans with Blake to get outside and get some fresh air. We met on the subway around 3 and headed to Ttukseom to hang to by the river, and have a couple beers. After walking around for a while we slipped over to Kondae for some galbi dinner and then to one of the Ireland Yuki Bars for a couple drinks with one of the bartenders Blake knows. We jump on the the subway to head home by 8 so that I could get to the grocery store and then get some things done at home.

The week coming to an end, I am still sick, but hope the rest of you are enjoying the cool fall weather.

Happy Chuseok Korea, and 北京欢迎你 Welcome to Beijing

2010-09-26T07:33:00.016-04:00

Sept 18-23, 2010

All the planning and waiting was finally over. Getting up at 8am Saturday morning I grabbed the last of my things and headed for the subway around 9 to get to the airport for my flight. I opted to take the subway since it takes about the same amount of time as the bus, but is half the cost. Since I left early enough to ensure I had lots of time to check in, I stopped and got McDonald's breakfast at the airport before checking my bag. After I ate I mistakenly went and stood in the wrong line for 30 minutes before making it to the front and being told that I was on a shared flight and had to sign in with Korean Air instead of Southeast China Air. A minor setback, I headed over to the other check in line and waited another 30 minutes before I was checked in and good to go. My flight, originally scheduled to take off at 1:10pm, didn't actually leave until 1:40. The hour flight to Dalian, China where I would transfer to my flight to Beijing was good, and we got a small lunch to boot.
Once in Dalian, I grabbed my bags and headed for the next check in counter where I ended up in line with a girl from South Africa, named Candice. I seem to be meeting lots of South Africans lately. Anyways, we got to talking and the lady behind the desk sat us beside each other for the flight to Beijing. turned out, like most foreigners travelling to Beijing, she also teaches in Seoul, so we shared some stories and laughs during the flight. After landing she headed out to met up with some friends who were waiting for her at the airport already, and I went on my way to find the train into town. Before heading to the train however, I made a stop at the washroom where I thought my trip was going to go sour before it started. After using the urinal I went to wash my hands and that's when it got strange. There was a guy mopping the floor, and as soon as I got to the sinks he decided he needed to mop right around my feet. O.K. that I can deal with, but then another Chinese guy who had also finished using a urinal came and stood right behind me to use the sink instead of using one of the other 3 that were there. So, when i was finished I backed up to try and go around the moper and bumped into the other Chinese guy with my huge bag. Right away I spun around, hitting him again with it, to say sorry and was given a death stare and some words. Not knowing what he was saying and not feeling in the wrong, I looked back at him and told him to kindly get bent and that if he didn't want to get bumped then he shouldn't stand directly behind me. He proceeded to follow me out of the washroom and down the airport corridor. Maybe he was going that way, or maybe he wanted to give me shit. Either way I headed for the train and never saw him again.
Once on the train for the city, I got out my Beijing book and map to where I was supposed to go for a Kung-fu show at 7. It was already 530 by the time I left the airport and figured I had lots of time to make it into town. Getting into town and switching to the subway was a bit of a task, because the English aspect that I have grown accustomed to in Korea just doesn't exist in China. Which I might add is very weird given they hosted the Olympics only 2 years ago. Eventually finding my way to the right subway stop, I got out and walked for a few blocks to the theatre, picked up my ticket and went in to see the show with plenty of time to spare. The show was more acrobatic and story based than I had anticipated, but was still a pretty cool thing to see and learn about. After the show, I grabbed my bag from the back of the theatre and headed outside to track down my hostel. By now I was getting pretty tired and it was only 930, so I wanted to get to my hostel with as little trouble as possible. I found myself being bothered by motorized bike taxis who wanted to charge a ridiculous amount to take me not that far. In the end I thought I had figured out a fair price with one and had him take me to my hostel. When I got there he insisted that we agreed on a different price and got super angry when I would only meet him half way, though in retrospect I should have gave him nothing and just walked inside. Once inside, I found out that my hostel, The Tian An Men Sunrise Hostel, had over booked the dorm room I was supposed to be in and moved my up to a two bed private room for the same price. Not one to make a fuss or care where I rest my head, I went along with it and threw my bags down. Then to my surprise, a girl also teaching in Seoul form Ottawa came in with the same situation and was going to be my roommate for the night. We talked for a bit before she went to bed because it was her birthday the day before and she was still tired from partying. I headed to the lounge to grab a beer and sandwich while talking to a traveller from Norway until 1am before calling it a night.
With my alarm set, I tried to get up around 8am Sunday, but still feeling tired from the night before I ended up laying around in bed until almost 9. Finally deciding to get up and going, i was dressed and out of the hostel on my way to the Summer Palace by 1030. I made it there on the subway by 11 and headed in at the North Gate for 60RMB (Chinese Yuan). I started out with a walk around Suzhou St., where I had an artist paint Braunwyn and Parker's names on some paper. Unfortunately the lady at the stand was very pushy about getting them laminated for an extra fee, but gave me a deal after 5 minutes of saying no. After Suzhou St. I headed into the palace grounds and headed up the way to the temples and other sights on Longevity Hill. I saw the Buddhist Tenants Hall, Buddhist Temple of the Sea of Wisdom, Buddhist Fragrance Pavilion, and then the Cloud Dispelling Hall. It was all super nice, and since it was a sunny day the colours were great. After coming down from the hill I walked west to the West Causeway, which is a walkway around the west side of the lake that the Summer Palace is at. Along the way there were several very nice bridges and pavilions that I stopped to take pictures at before eventually reaching the south tip of the lake and heading up the east side to see the 17-Arch Bridge that took me out to the Dragon King Temple on a small island. After the island I continued back up the east side of the lake to the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, then to the Theatre Stage, Harmonious Interest Garden, and then back to the place I came in. By now my feet were tired from all the walking and it was 530 in the afternoon, so I jumped on the subway and headed back to my hostel. On the subway I had a moment with a young girl who was in complete awe when she saw me get on. She was less than 6 years old and immediately began staring at me and whispering to her mother about how different I looked I'm sure, but I am used to it and I gave her and her mother a smile and went on with my business. After getting back to my subway stop I had my first run in with the money trap schemes that women here like to run on English speaking men. They come up claiming to be English students and ask you if you would like to go have a coffee or beer with them so they can practice, but what it actually is, is a way to get you to a place to buy $15 beers and rip you off (and possibly whore themselves out to you). Knowing what it was, I talked with them for a few minutes and then told them I was on to them and that I didn't have time for it. the conversation ended quickly after that and I was back to the hostel by 630, where I grabbed a beer and read on the front steps until dark. Once again I had a small child, who was walking with his dad, come over and stare at me in awe until his dad told him to say hello in response to my hello. Very cute.
After my beer was gone, I was feeling a bit hungry since I hadn't eaten all day, and decided to pop over to the near by Wangfujin St. Snack Street, famous for its weird food selection, and see what I could get in me. I started by taking a pass down the street to see what was there and found out quickly that one end was very typical Chinese food, and the other end was more critter based. I started with some scorpions on a stick (10Y) to warm up and then had a noodle dish (30Y) and beer (5Y) to wash it down. After that I walked around to see what the souvenir stalls were selling before heading back out to the main Wangfujin St. towards the Donghuamen Night Market, where they also have a cornucopia of weird food for people to eat. On the way, once again I was approached by several "English Students", to one I asked why there were no male students which made her quickly retreat. I also had one, after refusing her advances tell me I was poor, to which I replied "Not to poor to travel around the world and have hookers like you bother me." By then I was at the end of the street and at the end of my rope with the girls so it worked out well. I did a couple passes of the night market and promised myself I would get back to try some food there before I left. From there I went and walked around the outside of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City to try and get some shots at night. I was back at the hostel by 11pm where I sat down and had a couple beers with a girl from Australia and a guy from Montreal until 1230.
Monday morning since being switched from the two bed room to the dorm I had signed up for, I was awoken at 6am when one of the other travellers got up and went out for a bit. She wasn't gone long and I was still awake when she got back, trying to get the last 20 minutes of sleep in before my own alarm went off at 7. I understand that when you are sleeping in a dorm situation you can't control everything and that some people have things to do that might wake you up, but this girl decided it would be OK to take a phone call and talk for like 15 minutes in the room, the whole time telling her mom on the other end that she felt bad because people were trying to sleep. Normally I wold have told her to take that shit in the hall and stop being so retarded, but I was in a pretty good mood knowing I was heading to the Great Wall and I let it slide. Finally my alarm went of at 7 and I got out of bed and took my bags to check out since I was going to be gone to the wall over night. It was overcast and drizzling, which was how the weather would be for the entire two day trip. I had a quick shower, some porridge with bananas form the hostel then left my large bag in the store room for when I came back. I was supposed to be picked up between 8-9am but to my surprise I wasn't picked up until almost 930 because a few last minute people joined the group and the guide had to pick them up on her way to get me. More surprising was that one of them was Candice, the South African girl from the plane ride over and one of her friends. They had considered doing a solo sleep on the wall like I was thinking about last week, but also had no gear for it and looked into the tour company that I had told her about on the plane The China Guide). With the new people in the group it brought the total to 8, which dropped the cost from $245 to $200 per person.
On the road by 1030am we headed out of the main city towards The Secret Way, which is the entrance road to the Ming Tombs, the resting place of most of the emperors during the Ming Dynasty. We were luck enough that the rain would hold of every time we were out of the van, but it was still pretty chilly and without sun. The Ming Tombs were pretty neat, with lots of nice architecture and history. We finished up and headed to a Chinese restaurant for lunch around 130 and had our fill of delicious food and beer. After lunch we continued the 2 hour drive to the Jinshanling section of the wall and since it was still raining we were given the option of not sleeping on the wall as planned, but sleeping in a hotel near the wall for the night. Unanimously we all decided to go ahead with the wall idea, though a father and son later chose to sleep indoors at the hotel during dinner. We arrived at the bottom of the wall at 5pm, went through the security check and then on to the house where we would be having dinner. Since we were early, we walked up to the lower section of the wall and got to walk around until 6 before heading back to have dinner with the family. The food, all traditional Chinese dishes, was delicious and bountiful, and between that and the beer provided we had a great dinner and great time chatting with each other and sharing stories. Eventually it got super dark and we packed up our things and headed for the watch tower that we were to sleep in. The family gave us all lights, and we bought some rain coats from them to keep dry during the walk, then we packed some extra beers and headed up. Once at the tower the rain stopped and we were able to sit outside after making out beds (laying down mats and sleeping bags) and have some more laughs and beers. Around 1230 everyone started to head to bed, so Jay and I hung out and finished the last of our beers while the weather picked up again, making us call it a night by 130.
Waking up at 6am to the sound of the hotel goers, we crawled out of our sleeping bags and went outside hoping to see sunlight. What we got was more wind and drizzle (sad face), but it seemed to be letting up which was nice. The guides brought us up some breakfast, including muesli, bananas, and coffee and tea. I was able to locate a left over beer that hadn't been opened and started my day with a bowl of muesli, a banana, and a beer. After we were rushed through our breakfast we made for the side of the wall we would be hiking, the Jinshanling section heading towards Simatai. Along the way the weather let up and it turned out to be a good hike with plenty of great photo opportunities. We reached the end of our hike by 8am, as Simatai has been closed for repairs, and headed down towards the road though not until after jumping the do not cross sign to take pictures on the Simatai side. I'm just a rebel without a cause, what can I say. We reached the van by 845 where an elderly couple was selling t-shirts for 60Y ($8.50), but I haggled them down to 20Y and then hopped in the van so we could head back towards Beijing. A side not, during our hike of the wall our tour guide really wanted us to keep up and get it over with, but since I was taking my time because the views were so beautiful and I wanted to get lots of photos I was always last, and she joked about how she always knew it was OK to move on when she saw me approach. Nice to know I'm good for something.
Back in the van the rain picked up again during the two hour ride back to Beijing, where we stopped at the Olympic Stadium, before heading for lunch at noon. The Olympic Stadium was pretty neat looking but since it was raining we decided against going in and having to stand in the rain longer. Our lunch, at a Chinese restaurant was really good, and we ordered as many different dishes as we could without getting wasteful. Lunch was finished by 1pm and we got back in the van and jumped into the mid-day traffic of Beijing as we tried to get back into town. the one good thing was that the sun had come out and we could open the van windows to get some air and take pictures. jay, Candice, Yaara, and myself decided not to go back to our hostels, but instead to get dropped of at the Llama Temple. Why not make the most of the day right! We made it to the temple by 4pm, bought our tickets and got in for the last hour that it was open.

Leaving the temple with the doors shutting behind us at 5, I headed back to check back into my hostel, Tian An Man Sunrise. Making it there by 6 I was in a hurry to get my things sorted out and get back out because I had made plans with Jay to go to an Acrobatics show at the Chaoyang Theatre at 7. After a quick shower, I ran out of my hostel to grab a cab, but my ever present whiteness made it impossible to get one and the time was ticking. Eventually I hopped on the subway and subwayed across town, showing up almost 30 minutes late and missing the first 15 minutes of the show. Luckily Jay had had taxi trouble as well and had only gone in moments before I arrived, so I quickly got a ticket from our guide who had met us there to get the special priced tickets and popped into the theatre to find him. We enjoyed what was left of an amazing show. We saw bike tricks, plate spinning, stacked chair handstands, and plenty of other things that I wouldn't dare trying. After the show Jay and I went our separate ways because we were both still tired from the Great Wall adventure. On the way back to my hostel i took a detour to Ghost Street, a famous restaurant street, where I thought I wold get some food, but after waling the strip I realized how tired I was and jumped on the subway to go home. Back at the hostel by 11, I grabbed a sandwich and beer from the lounge and chatted with some other travelers for a bit before considering heading to bed. Unfortunately, when I went to my room my other roommates (3 Americans and 1 Canadian) were just about at each others throats due to one of the American girl's need to be loud and heard about how crappy Canada is. Wanting to break her neck, not because of what she was saying because it was all in all harmless, but because she was just being so loud so I went back to the lounge for another beer where I got roped into playing no money poker until 4am.

Waking up exhausted at 8am on the 22nd, I had to get a move on to meet Jay, and Candice and friends at the far end of Tiananman Square for 830. We had made the plans after parting at the Llama Temple the day before because we all wanted to make a full morning/afternoon of the square and Forbidden City. I arrived fashionably late as usual at 840, but then was left waiting until 920 before I realized the rest of the group must have been out late and slept in. I headed in by myself which was no big deal, and the crowds were huge because it was the first day of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival to celebrate the harvest and there were dozens upon dozens of Chinese tour groups flocking to Beijing. I spent less than an hour walking around the square taking pictures and being complimented again on my use of the tripod for self photos. I was even stopped by a couple of Chinese girls for a photo, which seems fairly standard around Asian countries. By 11 I was crossing the street to head for the Forbidden City. I started at the front gate but was stopped by another scammer trying to get me to go and check out his calligraphy collection beside the palace promising it to be a better entrance to the Forbidden City from his gallery. He was quickly told how much I don't care about calligraphy, or the fact that he was trying to mess with me, and then decided to move on to someone else. I went into the city via the front Meridian Gate, then passed through the Gate of Supreme Harmony to actually enter the city grounds where you start to see the buildings. From there I walked through/past the Hall of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Middle Harmony, and Hall of Preserving Harmony, all of which were nice to look at and get pictures around, but in all honesty after seeing so many temples and halls in Asia they all begin to look similar. After the ceremonial halls came the actual part of the Forbidden City that I think was for the Emperor only, well him and his numerous concubines. First I walked through the Heavenly Purity Gate, and since I didn't burst into flames, I moved on to the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Union, and finally the Imperial Garden that included the Thousand Autumns Pavilion and Bronze Elephants. All of a sudden after a mere 1.5 hours I was at the back of the Forbidden City Shenwu Gate exit. Not wanting to leave I turned around and headed to the east side of the city where a miniature city within the city had been built during the times of occupancy and has since been turned into a museum wing of sorts. There were halls fills with artifacts such as jade-ware, jewelry, art, sculptures, and ceremonial wardrobes, as well as a stone carving nine dragons long, called the Nine Dragon Screen which was my favourite thing in the whole place I think. Having exhausted my time in the city I exited out the back and climbed the hill in Jingshan Park to get an aerial view of the Forbidden City.
Leaving the park I weaved my way back to my hostel by 2pm where I just sat around until 4 before having a 2 hour nap to make up for the sleep I missed the night before.After my nap I thought it would be wise to head back to the night market and try some food that I might not normally eat. Between 630 and 9 I ate several species of beetle, a centipede, and some lamb skewers; and stayed clear of things like sheep testicles and dog meat. There were several other things I could have tried but I was tiring of the walking and decided to head back to the hostel to check out the Mid-Autumn Festivities they were having. When I got there, the hostel was serving a hot pot dinner with moon cakes and fruit for dessert. I got in on the dessert part while talking with some other travellers from Seoul and a couple from Shanghai who were on vacation before their wedding. By 130 I was completely wiped and went to bed in a quiet non confrontational room tis time.
My last day in Beijing started at 830am and me packing up my large bag so that I could take it and go after my days activities. I checked out of the hostel but left my bag so I didn't have to carry it all day, and headed for the Temple of Heaven Park. It was a nice place to start the day with some more temples and green space, but what the day was really about was finding some Peking Duck. having been turned away the night before from a restaurant, I was determined to have Peking Duck (Beijing's former name) while in the city it was founded in. I left the park and tracked down one of the more famous duck places that is well hidden among a small neighbour, also called a Hutong, called Liqun Roast Duck Restaurant. It was rather expensive for me to eat there alone since I had to buy an entire duck to myself at 190Y ($27) a piece, but it was well worth it. the ducks are basted and basted then cooked over a fruit wood fire until crispy golden brown on the outside, and mouth wateringly tender on the inside. Then the chef shaves the duck meat off for you and you wrap it up in mini crepes, add some veggies and sauce and you are good to go. It was a great meal and took me until 130 to finish it. After satisfying my need for duck I went ack to the hostel to get my bag and head out to the airport. Since I still had some time to kill I bought some postcards and wrote them up to be sent to some family back home. At 3 I left forthe airport and was checked in for my flight by 430, which left at 610. Once on the plane I realized I had randomly been moved up to business class and that I had so much more leg room than the people riding coach. totally awesome. For the flight I watched Happy Gilmore on my mp3 player, and before I knew it we were landing in Seoul at 845. I quickly grabbed up my bag and headed for the subway to get home and cal it a day. Home by 11 I shot off a couple phone calls to let everyone know I was still alive, then spent some quality time with Goah who was all over me for attention.

Well there you have it. A trip to Beijing that I would recommend to anyone.

A Quiet Week

2010-09-26T06:45:00.002-04:00

Sept 13-17, 2010

This post only covers the weekdays because I want to get all of the trip to come in one post.
This week in general was a pretty quiet one, as well as lonely given the recent departure of Lauren. Work was work, I went through the motions with my classes, and had a few words with some co-teachers who felt I needed to do more to make sure the kids understand the homework. Well to that I say, "If they don't know whats going on then they should ask, and if they don't ask I can't help, and ultimately don't care." But we'll see how it goes over the coming weeks as the kids get used to my teaching style versus Mike's.
I did have the chance this week to get out and ride my bike to work a couple of times, and everything seemed fine, so I'll have to start making more use of it. After work both Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I came right home and watched replays of the football games, and just took it easy. On Wednesday night I also called my grandma since I hadn't talked to her since I came back to Korea, and Ash had told me she was waiting to hear from me. It was nice to talk to her and reminded me that I need to get on the ball and make some calls to the rest of my family before too long.
I got up Thursday and called my dad just to touch base before I took of to China, and then got ready and headed to work. On my way to work I stopped at the bank and realized I was missing my Alien registration Card, which is vital to traveling in and out of the country. I had a bit of a freak out, and when I got to work my boss called the travel agent who I last remembered having it out around and confirmed that she did indeed still have it for paperwork purposes. After work on Thursday I met Blake at my subway stop and showed him the way to my house so that he could switch up Goah's food while I was gone, and before he went on his trip to Japan. After that we walked down to Seouldae Station and grabbed a couple beers with Junk, who I hadn't seen in forever. We stayed out until around 130 then called it a night.
Waking up early on Friday, I went to the travel agency to pick up my visa before coming home to get ready for work. Again I rode my bike to work and spent most of my time between classes printing out flight details and other planned events that I had been working on throughout the week, including my stay on the Great Wall and a couple of shows. Then with about an hour left in the day the bombshell that I didn't have to work on the Saturday after Chuseok was dropped, and I had a bit of a problem with that. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful to be getting the Monday off, but to fly back from China for one work day when I could have had a 9 day vacation was a little irritating. You win some you loose some I guess. After work I rode straight home to pack my bags for my trip and get some sleep before I had to leave at 9am.

Well it's a short week, but the one to come promises to be entertaining.

Some Good-byes Are Just Not Fair

2010-09-13T10:31:00.008-04:00

Sept 6-12, 2010

Well once again it was a pretty rainy week all around. Waking up Monday, I just hung out inside to stay out of the rain before work, putting together my lunch that I made Sunday night and listening to music. At work, I had lots to do since I now have a full schedule of my own. I taught a few classes and spent the rest of my time looking over other material and making vacation plans for Chuseok. After work I met up with Lauren at my place and we just chilled out and talked about how much trouble she was having packing, and booking tickets online for her Euro vacation. We tried everything we could to get the bus company to take several Visas, but to no avail. Eventually we called it a night and she will deal wit hit when she gets there.

Waking up to a overcast sky on Tuesday, Lauren and I went to the store by my place so she could pick up some vacuum seal bags to pack her stuff in, and I got some groceries so I could make my lunch. We also checked out a couple of stores to see if she could find a travel scale to weigh her bags but had no luck. Back to my place we went so i could make a lunch and get ready for school. Heading to school just before 2, Lauren walked with me so she could go to the bank and tie up all her loose ends before she left. After work I hadn't planned on going out, but was invited to dinner with Lauren and her friend Michael in Gangnam and decided it was better than grilled cheese. We went out for Dak-galbi, and then a drink at Woodstock before hitting the last subway to get home by 130. On our walk to the subway we did happen upon a drunk Korean college student who was also trying to make it to the last subway. He was weaving his way down the street in a large staggering weave, and every so often he would stop and do a little boogie to his mp3 player, which made our night. Luckily he did make the subway. I know this because he got on a car ahead of us and promptly passed out on the bench seats.

I digress. Once in for the night, Lauren double checked to make sure she had all her things for her departure in the morning, and then it was bed time. The problem was, that I had taken a ton of Allegra-D and was unable to sleep. I was feeling stuffed up during the day and had gone to the pharmacy to get some medication. The pharmacist thought I was stuffed up from allergies and gave me the wrong stuff. Since the first two pills weren't working, I decided to take two more, putting me in the unable to sleep predicament. Fuse that with being nervous about missing the airport bus in the morning and I barely slept for more than an hour all night. Before i knew it the alarm was going off at 8am and it was time to get a move on. We walked down to the bus stop at 9 and waited for the bus to come. Saying our good-byes, Lauren got on the bus around 940 and headed off to the airport. I went home and watched some more Aqua Teen Hunger Force while trying to figure out how to purchase and watch the online NFL package for the 2010-2011 season, which Matei and I are splitting. It turned out that it is only compatible with 32-bit internet systems, and I was trying to run it on my 64-bit Firefox and Internet Explorer programs. Eventually I figured it out and learned that I have to run it on my 32-bit Explorer, and everything was on the up and up from their. I traded texts with Lauren while she was riding the bus, and then she had to end her service at the airport. After that I was able to catch a little nap before heading to work on my bike for the first time since I crashed it a few weeks ago. After work I went out with Mike, Jean, and Chrissy for some dinner, then came home and went right to sleep.

Thursday I woke up feeling better and decided that it was due time for me to book my Chuseok vacation before tickets were gone and all my planning was for nothing. For a few months I have been thinking about taking off to Beijing since it is close and relatively cheap. On top of that, Blake was going to go with me until his school changed his vacation dates. Either way I had been looking and following tickets online, waiting to make up my mind. I finally settled on a ticket, and wrote it all down so when I got to work I could book it. I got ready for work and left home a bit early so that I would have some time at work before I got too busy to book my flight. Flight taken care of I settled in for my day at work and watched the rain outside hoping it would stop so that Blake and I could follow through with our dinner plans in Sillim. Unfortunately it didn't and we canceled on account of not wanting to get soaked, and after work I went straight home, watched a movie and went to bed.

Friday I got up early and headed to the Chinese consulate to get a travel visa before my trip. Little did I know that the consulate/embassy no longer give out visas for travelers. You actually have to apply for a visa through a travel agency. So there I was outside the consulate and being told I would have to find a travel agent, and thinking to myself "How am I going to do this?" But, as it turned out, there were several travel agents who just hang around waiting for people like me, so I went with one of them, filled in the paperwork, and everything seemed good to go. Other than that it was just another day at the office, still rainy so it was a straight to work kind of day. After work I wanted to keep it local, so Jean, Chrissy, and I went out for some fried chicken and a couple beers, after which I grabbed a couple more cans and came home to watch the NFL season opener replay. It was a good quiet way to spend a Friday, and it was nice to watch some football for once. I went to bed feeling alright, but woke up Saturday feeling under the weather, and spent most of the day lazing around my apartment. Eventually I talked with Blake and we met up for diner near his place so he could tell me about his epic running somersault in the rain from the night before that left his arm sore and slightly immobilized. After dinner we went back to hang out at his place for a couple of hours before heading to meet the group in Cheonho at 10pm for a late diner and some drinks. We met with Matei, James, Alex and Louise, Brady and SoHyun, and Frank and had some delicious BBQ, then continued onto Rodeo St. for some drinks. Blake and I called it a night and taxied home around 3am, while the others stayed out later.

Sunday was another day of cleaning, laundry and cooking so that I wouldn't have to do it during the coming week while I would be trying to plan out my Beijing trip. I started with washing the floor, then did up my dishes, got groceries, and then dirties the dishes I just did. In between all those things I took some time to read through a book on Beijing Emily left for me, and get a game plan for my vacation there.

That's it another week down. Speak to you all next week.

The Only Rainbow During a Typhoon Is In Gangnam

2010-09-02T12:02:00.009-04:00

Aug 30 - Sept 5, 2010

Well as the weekend came to a close and another week started, my leg was beginning to show great signs of improvement. And that was a god thing because our new semester started midweek and I actually got some classes to teach. Still it was too rainy to get back out on the bike, which is probably a good thing.
Having chewed up most of Lauren's free time lately, I went down to Yatap after work on Monday to help her pack since she had to move out of her place to make way for the new teacher on Wednesday. Like a tornado with trash bags I was throwing out all the piles of stuff she had sorted through, but were still blocking progress. She had already taken a trip to her friend Shauna's house where she was gong to keep her things for the last week that she was in the country and was hoping to only have to make one more. She was throwing away a lot of things that I could tell she did not want to, but due to weight restrictions when flying to certain places she had no choice. By about 2am we had it pretty much all taken care of, and I scored a sweet set of speakers that she didn't want to leave for her replacement.
Work on Tuesday was my last official day of sitting around, so I took advantage and did a few extra crosswords and listened to music while I looked over some of the new books I will be teaching from. After work on Tuesday, the whole school went out courtesy of the owner to say good-bye to Rebbecca, a Korean teacher who was leaving, and welcome to Chrissy and June, two new Korean teachers. We went to a Korean BBQ place close to work and ate an incredible amount of food, including dwaegi galbi then bulgogi (pork then beef), the later being mostly eaten by me as the rest of the people at my table had bigger eyes than they did stomachs. Be it my luck, the owner decided to sit at my table right across from me, and since he doesn't speak much English it made communication a little hard. Luckily Jean sat with us and translated. Either way, the language of drink was on the table and he made sure that we were all getting enough beer and having a great time. The party wrapped up around midnight since everyone had to be at work the next day. Still in a productive mood, I came home to have a couple more beers and type up a topic list for my discussion class that I will be starting this semester, then called it a night around 2am when Lauren came by after being out with some friends.
On Wednesday I got up and went to meet Blake and his brother Grant and girlfriend Michelle for lunch by Blake's house. They were going to be leaving that afternoon, so I thought it would be nice to have one more lunch with them before they left. After lunch I came home to get ready for lunch and bring Lauren some halls because she was coming down with a cold from all the rain and stress of moving out lately. I went off to work and got ready for my first day of the new semester, which wasn't anything too different from the few classes I have been teaching. After work I headed towards Gangnam to have one last round of drinks with Dave and Kate at Rainbow before they left. Blake, Brady and Sohyun were all there and Lauren even joined on her way back from a get together with some of her friends. We kept it pretty laid back, had a few beers and smoked some shisha before calling it a night around 130. The problem after we decided to leave was that it was Gangnam, and on a good night it is impossible it get a cab there, but it just happened to be pouring out making it a herculean task. We managed to find cabs for all but Blake, Lauren, and I quicker that we had thought, but then had to stand out in the rain sharing umbrellas for several minutes. Eventually we got one and got out of there, dropping Blake off then heading home.
By the time we arrived in Bongcheon the storm had really taken form and was pounding us with rain. Later I found out it was the end a typhoon that had come up from the south and had really done a number on the city of night and into the morning. The storm actually knocked out the power to my apartment for a few hours throughout the night, but I hardly noticed since I use my cell phone as an alarm. The black skies were deceiving however, and every time I woke up I thought I had more time than I actually did to get to work and ended up sleeping later than I should have. Waking up at 130 I had to hustle to get ready and get out the door so I wouldn't be too late for work. Work was work, and then after work it was time to have an easy night. I just came home and worked on some blogs, then talked to Adam on skype before calling it a night around 2am.
Feeling well rested Friday I got up, got ready and went off to work. After work there wasn't too much going on with my friends and I had got an invite from Lauren to hang out with her and some of her friends at Rainbow again, so I went back to Gangnam. It was a little weird going into the bar not knowing where anyone was sitting and having to stand around awkwardly until someone saw me, but hey weird is my way it seems. After finding them ad meting her friends, I proceeded to unleash and give Lauren a glimpse of the rage-aholic that is Mark. We were sitting in a loft area of Rainbow, but with my leg being sore I had hung it over the edge because there was nobody sitting below us for it to interfere with. A little time passed and I didn't notice a group of Koreans move in below us, or else I would have moved my foot. Then out of nowhere.... SLAP... right in my sore ankle. Immediately I was in pain, but overriding that was my anger. looking over to see what the hell was going on, I saw a Korean face look up at me laugh then slap my foot again. At this I lost it, screaming a few obscenities and making for the railing in order to jump down and kick this person in the face, Lauren stopped me. I was fuming and being a very passive person she didn't really understand, and to her credit wouldn't just let me go down there. It took a little while to calm down and I'm sure Lauren was beside herself with my anger. Eventually I calmed down and went to get another beer, which was when I realized life could have gotten out of control if I had of jumped down in blind rage. It turned out that the person who slapped me was a girl, and if I had of kicked her it might have landed me in hotter water than if it was some guy. Either way it was over and we went back to having a good time, until all of Lauren's friends took of to make the last bus/subway since they all lived so far away. In the meantime Jean had showed up so we had a drink with him before calling it a night ourselves at 230. Once again trying to leave Gangnam was impossible, and we ended up walking down to Kyodae to get a cab and got home around 3am, where I proceeded to make up some food to fill the gap before morning.
Not waking up until just after noon hour on Saturday, Lauren and I killed some time before she had to go meet up with some friends and go the the stage production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. They had the idea of dressing up as characters from the show, and in the end were the only few people that did. This is Korea you have to remember and people don't get into those things as much as westerners. I on the other hand had gone to COEX Mall to met up with some friends for the weekend wine buffet, but to our surprise it was booked solid, so we went to On The Boarder instead (also in the mall). It was my first time there, and other than being slightly more expensive than other places, it was a great meal with large drinks. After dinner we all decided to head to Kondae and do some bar hoping. As we were finishing our meal, Lauren was finishing with the show, which was also at COEX and since her friends were calling it a night she decided to come with us. She met up with us in her drag looking clothes and then changed once we got to Kondae. We started at Ireland Yuki Bar, then went to the Underground Lounge, before ending the night at Ho Bar where I had a drink called a Mexican Durango that was like drinking rubbing alcohol. it was so strong and bitter that James and Alex N both had to get one. By 2am Lauren and I had had enough and called it a night, taking a cab home and crashing out.
Sunday was another write off, as we spent most of the day in bed watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force and other stupid shows from my library. Eventually, I went out for groceries and Lauren headed over to Shawna's to get her things in order before meeting up with one of her friends for dinner. I spent the rest of the night cooking up food for the week and watching more silly videos until bed time.

OK Maybe Seeing The Doc Is A Good Idea

2010-09-02T11:15:00.010-04:00

Aug 23-29

With my leg still swollen from my crash last week, work was a bit of a chore this week. Not so much from the classes, which I didn't have, but from the having to sit in the office for 8 hours with no real good place to put my leg up to keep the swelling down. That coupled with the fact that we don't have a fridge/freezer so I also didn't have ice to put on it made sitting around pretty crappy. The bruising however was starting to come out nicely and my leg was beginning to look jaundiced from the knee down, except for around the initial injury site which was a little red.
Not being one to let an injury slow him down. After work Monday I headed down to Yatap for my Eddy Izzard education hour. For those of you know don't know, Eddy Izzard is a British comedian who many find hilarious. Lauren and some of her friends were getting together to have a Izzard marathon, so I thought I should give him a try. Turns out that he is kind of funny, but a lot of the British style humour is lost on North Americans so some of it I found humourous but not comical. Not a bad night either way, but a little more activity than I needed for my leg. I woke up Tuesday and my leg was the sorest it had been yet and the redness was spreading as well as the bruising. I came home and limped back to work for another day of sitting around, though the pain was evident and my coworkers were really persistent about me going to the doctors. I told them I would go Wednesday morning if it was still bad.
Waking up Wednesday morning after having come home from work and put my leg up with some ice, the swelling and soreness was much better. It was still sore however, and I thought a visit to the docs couldn't hurt. I called Jean who had said he would help me translate if needed and we went down to a local clinic just a few minutes from where we live. It turned out that the doc spoke perfect English and had studied in the U.S. Right away he took a look at my leg and was pretty sure I was going to die. That's the thing about Koreans, they always give over the top diagnoses. For the littlest thing they won't hesitate to put you in a splint or a cast and give you wicked strong meds. So after his initial freak out to which I had to tell him to relax or I was going to leave, he checked me out using a sonogram, saw that nothing was broken, and that it was just a bunch of mashed up tissue in my leg. He was quite worried about infection so he aspirated my leg to see what was in the lump, seeing it was just blood he gave me some antibiotics and pain killers, then asked me to come back in a couple days for a check up.
After work Wednesday I came home again and took it easy trying to get the swelling down and pain to subside. It was strange though, because most of the pain and tightness wasn't around the main injury but around my calf where the swelling was probably pulling the most, and from the limping I'm sure; and was spreading to the ankle. By the time I got up Thursday and had made a call home to dad I was feeling much better and things were looking much better, so I got ready and headed off to work. After work Thursday I headed back down to Yatap to hang out with Lauren and some of her friends for a few drinks in Seohyun. It was the day of the week when the bar offers good deals so it was quite full, mostly of foreigners, and was a pretty good time.
Friday was just another day at the office, though I did have a few classes to teach and that helped relieve my boredom. After work I had planned on meeting up with Blake, because his brother Grant and his girlfriend Michelle had flown in to finish up a 5 week Asian vacation. However, very last minute a group of teachers decided they wanted to go out to have drinks as a teachers only good-bye party for Rebecca, who is leaving the school at the end of the semester to go to Ireland. I couldn't very well say no, so I had to cancel on Blake and go out with the school. It was still a great time. We started at SeoulDae (Seoul National University) with some drinks and food for a couple hours before moving to Ho Bar in Sillim for a few more drinks. We called it a night around 2am, and I shared a cab back to my area with a couple teachers then came in and went to bed.
Getting up Saturday around 10am, my leg was feeling much better but the meds I was on were making me sleepy, I'm sure mixing them with alcohol wasn't helping but whatever. I got up and cleaned up a bit then had a nap then got up again around 1 to head to Itaewon for a hair appointment. I was given the name of a hair shop that did dreads and had finally gotten around to making a much needed appointment for 2pm. I got on the subway and made my way there, trying to be a little early so that I could find the place, which backfired when I walked the wrong way and ended up having to back track and was 15 minutes late anyways. I went in and they sat me down and a lady started working on my dreads, twisting and hooking and putting wax in them. I didn't particularly want wax, because it gets all over your clothes, so I asked her to not wax it and just hook them. This was very opposite of what they were used to doing and it took a little explaining on how I liked it done, but in the end it worked out. It's not as good a job as when I go to Creative Trends back home, but for the situation I'm in it's not bad. After getting my hair done for a reasonable $60, I went and put money on my phone, grabbed some kebabs and headed home on the subway for another nap.
Waking up from another 2 hour nap I had another shower and got ready for Saturday nights going away party for Dave and Kate. The plan was to meet at 9pm in Gangnam for diner, then have a few drinks there before heading to the inevitable Gold Bar. We gathered around exit 6 in Gangnam while we waited for the group to come together (Dave & Kate, Alex & Louise, Thomas & Jeanne, Frank, myself, James, Blake, and Grant & Michelle), then walked down to a Korean BBQ place under Woodstock Bar for dinner. After dinner we stopped at Castle Praha for a few beers, and Brady and SoHyun showed up. We stayed until about 1230 then got going to Gold Bar. Before we left though, there was a guy in a shirt that said 'Free Hugs', so we Rock/Scissors/Paper'ed for who had to hug him and I lost, so I walked up behind him and hugged which totally freaked him out until he realized what his shirt said. Getting in cabs, we all got to Gold Bar quickly and tried to stay out of the rain that had been plaguing us all week. Once in, it became a typical night at Gold Bar, but this time I was not the one getting out of control. In fact, I was trying to watch my consumption because of the medication I was on, so was not drinking too much at first. It was inevitable that someone would cross the line between sober and too drunk sooner or later, and Thomas became the first casualty of the night. He was hanging out with Brady, but I quickly stepped in and took him outside where he got some of it our of his system. I hung out with him outside while he drank some water, then helped Jeanne get him into a cab and on their way home. Before I knew it I was back at Gold Bar helping Blake's brother Grant up the stairs for the same reason. He was in a bit better shape than Thomas, but still needed to be outside for a while. Michelle and I forced him to drink some water after puking on the street while Blake went to find him a motel to stay in instead of trying to get him home. Blake returned after several minutes and we helped Grant to the motel, but en route we lost Michelle to a convenience store and Blake had to go find her before we all got too separated. Getting them into the room and having Grant puking in the garbage can was our cue to head out and get some McDonald's. Blake and I got some breakfast which we ate in the cab back to his place, and then I continued on to my place, where I met Lauren who had been out with Candace and had come to crash at my place. By now it was 730 in the morning and I was in much need of sleep.
I didn't get up until 3 in the afternoon on Sunday, and then spent the entire day laying around in bed watching movies. I had thought about going out with Blake and company for some dinner but decided that I didn't really want to leave my place.

Another week down and another lesson unlearned :)

W-W-W-Wipe Out

2010-09-02T09:42:00.006-04:00

Aug 16-22, 2010

Well this week took an unexpected turn, not so much for the worse, but for the painful. So lets get through the boring parts first then on to the good stuff. Weather wise, it was pretty nice this week. The heat had subsided a bit and the rain seemed to hold off. Work wise, I was still not very busy. In fact, it was the last week of having my conversation classes, which means in the coming weeks before the new semester starts, I will be back to doing nothing for 8hrs a day.
Outside of work life was a bit of a chaotic blur this week. Monday night to be honest I can't even remember what I got up to. I may have gone down to hang out with Lauren in Yatap, or I might have just hung out at home. Your guess is as good as mind. From there the rest of the week is more memorable. Tuesday after work I headed to Gangnam to meet up with Blake Nathan, and Emily for Emily's last night out in Gangnam. Before getting on the subway however, Blake called me and had me pop home to check a stock he had been watching that had gone way up throughout the course of the day. When I got to Gangnam, I let him know that it was still up and then we got to having a few beers. We didn't stay out too late, and by 2am we were calling it a night. Seeing Emily into a cab, Blake and I (Nate stuck around Woodstock for a bit longer) headed back to his place to see how his stock was doing. He had come to the decision that if it was still up he was going to sell for a pretty hansom profit, and I was there for moral support and to celebrate with him if it was the case. As it turned out it was still up and he sold, then we went to the bar next to his place, which we have given the name Yugi-Ohs for a beer and bite. I ended up staying at his place for the night, as it was 330 by the time we were done.
Waking up on Blake's couch Wednesday morning, I took the subway home and then decided to ride my motorcycle to work since it was a nice day, and since I was a little late. It felt nice to ride to work, but as my luck would have it, after only being at work for a couple hours it started to rain. Not wanting to ride it later in the rain, I had high hopes that it would quit and dry up before he end of the night. I got my wish and it did stop and dry up. My next dilemma, which was the one that sealed my fate for the evening, was whether or not to drive it to Bundang after work. The reason I was going down to Bundang was to have some drinks with Dave and Kate, Thomas and Jean, Blake, and Lauren was going to join us, for Kate's birthday. Though we had gone out on the weekend for her birthday, Blake and I had promised that we would come down for a more subdued night. To put it in perspective, Bundang is about an hour ride from where I work, I have never ridden that way, and didn't even know the way other than for what I had been looking at on maps all day. Having several coworkers tell me that I shouldn't all day wasn't my confidence, but then at the end of the day Jean pulled through with some encouragement, and I decided to go for it. BAD CHOICE.
I got on my bike outside of work, and took off without any problems, and for the first 20 minutes everything was cool. I was watching the traffic around me, going with the flow, and then it happened..... Korean driving snuck up and bit me in the ass. As I was slowing at a red light near Seocho, about 1/3 of the way into my trip, a truck decided to jump into my lane and slam on his brakes. Not wanting to hit him, but having no room to stop safely, I spiked the brakes and laid my bike down to the right. Since I was going just under 10kmp, I didn't slide, but just toppled over with my bike landing on my right leg because I couldn't get it out of the way fast enough. So there I was laying on the road with a bike on me and nobody seemed to care. Full of rage, I held the bike up off of myself, stood up, then pushed it to the side of the road. The guy in the truck never even noticed it happened, and before I could kick in his windows the light turned green and he took off. Taking a quick look at myself, I realized I had skinned my elbow pretty good and where the bike had landed on me I already had a baseball size lump with a few surface wounds, which made me even angrier because I knew how much it was going to hurt later when I wasn't full of adrenaline. As it was, being to stupid to call it quits, i got back on my bike and fired it up. I roe for about another 20 minutes to Daechi before I had completely forgotten where I was supposed to be going, and my leg hurt enough that I felt the need to get off my bike. I parked my bike a Daechi station, made some calls to let everyone know I was a bit behind, but was still coming, then jumped in a cab to get through the last 1/3 of the venture.
Getting down to Dave and Kate's neighbourhood of Jukjeon by 12, about 30 minutes later than expected i met up with Lauren at the subway statoin then limped to where the group was. Upon arrival everyone was in awe about my leg, but being foreigners didn't freak out poured me a beers and got me some ice. We hung out until 3ish before calling a night and going back to Lauren's to clean up my wounds and get some Band-aids. By the morning, the swelling had gone way down from the baseball it was to a large lump with swelling encompassing a good portion of my lower left leg. Knowing that my bike was in the middle of nowhere, and with the towing trouble I had with it already, I headed back to Daechi station to get it and ride it home. I was less nervous than one probably should be getting back on it, but as we've all been taught 'if you fall off, you have to pick yourself up and get back on'. The ride from Daechi took longer than i had hoped and was a little riskier given the midday traffic, but I got to work just fine and only 30 minutes late. Still having blood on my pants i went into my directors office and explained what had happened and asked if I could head home to change my pants and wash up. Shocked that I hadn't seen a doctor yet and that all I was worried about was changing my pants, my director gave me leave to get changed and asked me if I wanted someone at work to take me to the hospital. I told her that it was O.K. because I knew nothing was broken and that the bleeding had stopped so there was no need to go. I walked home, though I should have rode my bike just to get it home, changed my pants and new bandages, then returned to work to sit around for the day. Luckily the pain was pretty minimal and I got a good kick out of all my coworkers freaking out, like my leg was going to fall of throughout the day.
After work Thursday, I had to ride my bike home, which was fine except Lauren had come through to check home I was doing so I had to stop at the subway station and wait for her before riding home while she walked. She walked up the hill as I rode up then walked down to meet her, then we came back to hang out at my place where I made her and myself some Kraft Dinner and put my foot up for the night. Friday brought with it more concern from my teachers, and more sitting around at work with my leg up, telling everyone not to worry and that I wasn't going to die. After work on Friday, I took my coworker Jean to Sillim where we were gong to meet Blake
for kal-magi-sal (marinated pork strip BBQ) dinner and some drinks. To our surprise, Mike our other coworker came out. Not that Mike is a dud, but he was unsure about other plans and couldn't give us a definite answer earlier in the day. We ate and had some beers, then switched it up to get some drinks at a bar. We weren't sure where we wanted to drink since non of us planned on staying out too late, and randomly we stumbled on a new Ho Bar (weird name but popular in Seoul) where we set up shop for a few Jack and Cokes before calling it a night around 130. Mike had already left to meet up with some other friends, so Jean, Blake and I shared a cab as far as Bongcheon, where Jean and I got out and the headed home.
Not being hung over, i got up Saturday and cleaned my apartment in between bouts of putting my leg up to keep the swelling at bay. I got my dishes done, laundry washed, and even washed my floor. In the late afternoon, I grabbed a nap before getting up and getting ready to head to my briefly lived neighbourhood of Pyeongchon for Emily's good-bye party. We weren't actually staying in Pyeongchon, but one stop over in Beomgyae for dinner and drinks. I got there a little late after missing one of my trains, limp related, but made it for dinner at a Mexican place where I gave Blake and Dave an update on my condition (Kate couldn't make it due to a wisdom tooth removal Friday morning) and letting Emily in on the whole story. After dinner we headed to India bar for a couple drinks and some darts, then to Habidus for some more drinks and pool. I wasn't sure how late the party was going to go, but was quickly brought back to reality when I realized it was a going away party and that someone had brought up the idea of going to Slang, the local night club. I was down for whatever, but wasn't looking forward o the standing aspect of the club. Either way, we rolled in and kept the party going and eventually I was intoxicated enough to believe some dancing wasn't such a bad idea. Around 230 or 3 we had all had enough and left to catch cabs. After saying our final good-byes to Emily, Dave, Blake, and I shared a cab back to Seoul where I got out at my place and Dave and Blake rounded out the trip to Blake's where Dave stayed the night.
Waking up around noon on Sunday, I spent a good portion of the day just hanging out at home with Goah, watching movies and making food for the coming work week. Then around 8pm I went to meet Blake and SaeJin for some dinner in Blake's area. We had some lamb barbecue, which was delicious. From there we headed over to a little bar for a few drinks, where Lauren joined us after she was finished her Han River cruise. Together we chatted until just after 11 then got on the last subway so that we wouldn't have to take a cab to my place.

And so another week comes to an end. Hope you are all doing well.

Finally I Get My Bike - Too Bad It's Not In Seoul

2010-08-23T07:33:00.008-04:00

Aug 9-15, 2010

Monday this week I got the best news in a while. Emily text me to let me know that my keys had arrived at her place finally, though I was a little upset because they were post dated July 31, instead of around the 15th when he got them. I had given Arthur her address because I was between places at the time of the key mailing mix up and happened to have hers on hand. Excited I swung by her place after work to pick them up and start to formulate ideas of how much I was going to ride it. Unfortunately, thinking about it was as far as I got until the end of the week. With it pouring rain on Tuesday, there was no way I was about to go to Cheonho and stand in the rain waiting for it to get boosted or towed to a shop. I did however go to Alex B's to get my helmet and paperwork, which Arthur left with him. Returning to work, one of my coworkers went to the bike shop next to the school to see what kind of help they might be able to lend to the situation. It turned out that they were willing to retrieve my bike and get it going for around $100, depending on if I needed a new battery or not. Which since Korea doesn't seem to know what battery charging is, I knew I was in for a new one.
Leaving my keys with them, I hoped to see my bike by Wednesday, and after work I headed over to hang out with Lauren for a bit and tell her about my bike. Now here's where every sense of logic gets thrown out the window. As it turned out, the guys from the bike shop went to get my bike and it wasn't there, because the building manager had it towed since it hadn't moved in so long. Thank you very much Arthur and family for sucking so bad at life. I can understand the towing, but when they told me it had been towed to Wonju, a city an hour and fifteen minutes southeast of Seoul I wanted to kill someone. Then on top of that they wanted $180 dollars to bring it back to town and $50 for the original fine. I really had no choice but to pay, since I had no other way to get it back to Seoul, and was in no position to go pick it up myself given that I have to be at work. So giving them copies of all my paperwork and signing a release form giving them the authority to get it, I was assured to have my bike by the end of the week.
After work Wednesday I went to Sincheon to meet up with the group for one last go 'round at Gold Bar III with Doug and Rachel before they left Thursday afternoon. It was a good party that went much later than any of us had anticipated. When it was all over, Blake and I grabbed some McDonald's and went back to crash at his place. I didn't wake up until 1pm Thursday which put me in a bit of a rush to get home cleaned up and to work, but I was able to do it, and enjoyed another long day of sitting around doing nothing. After work i just went home to get some rest from the late nights I had been having, and watched Max Payne, a movie about a vigilante cop.
Feeling well rested on Friday, I got up and puttered about the apartment until it was time for work, and to my surprise, while I was walking to work I saw my bike at the bike shop next to the school. I quickly signed in and went to take a look. The guys at the bike shop saw me and came out to let me know that they had got it running, of course with a new battery; had changed the oil; and fixed some lights. I payed them the rest of the money that I owed them, but they told me they were going to wash it for me and that it would be ready Saturday morning when they opened at nine. This was perfect since we had to be at school Saturday for an Open House Activity Day, which is our way of drumming up business. I returned to school and happily went about teaching the classes I had. After work, again I went home to get some rest since we had to be at the school for 9am the next morning. Being home on a Friday night for the first time in forever, I decided to watch the original Indiana Jones movie, then get some sleep, which was interrupted oddly enough by messages from Lauren who was out of town with friends and bored out of her mind.
Though not happy about it, I got up just after 8 on Saturday and made my way to the school to help set up for the open house, though there wasn't much to do since the office staff had stayed late the night before putting up all the decorations. Including the several dozen balloons I blew up by mouth Friday night. Sure I could have used the pump they had but it just took too long. Anyways, around 10 the first group of kids came in and were separated into the classrooms to play games. After they were done playing the games, in which they earned reward points, they came out to the food market and gift shop to spend their points. My job was to work the gift shop and make sure nobody lifted any prizes, and to let the kids know how many prize points they needed to get certain items. It was utter chaos as the kids rolled in with hands full of food they had gotten. And with no understanding of organizing what they could carry, kids were dropping food all over the floor, themselves, and each other. I even watched one little boy take a half eaten piece of pizza, fold it up, and put it in his pocket when he needed more hand space to check out prizes. As cute as it was, I could only imagine how his mother was going to react when she found it later. When the first group finished at 1130, then second group filed in and it started all over again, though since they were the older group it was a little easier to keep them organized.
Once it was all over at 2pm, we cleaned up the garbage and extra food, then went to have lunch at a shabu-shabu place near the office. From there it was back to the bike shop, where I picked up my bike and took it for the first ride in so long. I only took it as far as home, since I didn't want to push my luck, and I had to rest up for Kate's birthday party. I napped for a couple hours before getting up and getting ready to hit the COEX Intercontinental Hotel weekend wine buffet. The hotel offers the wine and finger food buffet every weekend from 6-9pm for only $25, and it's a great place to hang out with friends in a classier atmosphere before going out on the town for the night. I arrived with Blake around 630, and we quickly found the birthday group, and got in on the conversations. After we were finished at the wine buffet, we went to the only logical place to go.....Gold Bar in Sincheon. In fact, my coworkers Mike and Jean even came out, and saw how awesome/dangerous Gold Bar is. Kate unfortunately felt the night coming to an end sooner than she hoped, and her and Dave had to step out early. The rest of us stayed and partied until the late hours, when once again Blake and I found ourselves at McDonald's eating cheeseburgers at 3am, though this time I split a cab with him and kept on going to my place.
Waking up Sunday to a cheeseburger and alcohol induced stomach ache, I made some phone calls to make sure everyone was still alive, then laid around relaxing until 3pm when I had to get up and make something of my day. I talked to Lauren and asked her if she would like to go out and do something. We agreed on seeing the movie Inception, and were scheduled to meet at the Express Bus terminal at 630. Once we got there it was a bit of a task to find the movie theatre, but eventually we did and booked tickets for the 9pm movie. In the mean time, we headed down to chill at the river and then grabbed some Pizza Hut for dinner. The movie was awesome, and definitely lived up to the hype I had heard about it. It was a good way to end the weekend. : )