happy festivus

Another Christmas come and gone. My 25th annual christmas.
it isn't quite the same to not spend it surrounded by the family and friends i hold near and dear to my heart. I missed the traditions and regalia of the holiday in the United States. Korea does not really celebrate this holiday. and the foreign population in the country is scant enough that our presence here does not warrant any kind of special treatment. though the churches that dot the landscape are numerous, i assume that the christians in the country do not care as much as those of us hailing from english speaking countries. we get the day off. i worked on the 24th. it was the last day of "classes" for the school. Saturday was Christmas, so school was not cancelled, so to speak. it was already no school.

i am now back in the office, following boxing day. the 27th. back at my desk. missing the long vacation that typically accompanies an american Christmas. or the life of a student. my korean students are back in their classes, though not for classes. today, they are cleaning and preparing for the break. they have the next two months (with the exception for a week in February for classes and graduation) on vacation. I have three weeks out the next two months to take for myself. i have to teach for another three weeks. and then, two solid weeks give or take, to desk warm. watch Youtube, scour the web for new music, read the news, update blogs, write letters, purchase visas, and plan trips to thailand, india, and maybe Indonesia to boot. the last place still is a maybe. i have a week in february that im going to take, but i may just use it here in Seoul to prepare to go home, packing, buying souvenirs, and all that jazz. save my money for the long trip after i leave here.

the end is in sight here. 15 more days of teaching over the next 9 weeks. the number is small when you think that with only 9 weeks left, i have been here for 43 weeks. out of 52. and ive been teaching for 40 of those weeks. or at least sitting in this office. watching some Youtube, jamming to some tunes. speaking with students on breaks, lunches, and every minute between classes, being swarmed.

i wonder if i have had any success with them? I wonder if any of them learned anything from me or my classes? With no testing, no homework, no nothing outside of class, it is hard to guage improvement or progression. i have noticed that those with talents have excelled and those who were already struggling now are REALLY struggling. I guess my class is most beneficial for intermediate to advanced. makes sense... i speak at a slow rate, but my dialect is english, not korean, so some kids have difficulty there, and my class focuses primarily on conversational english. that means the kids already are suppsed to have a solid foundation of grammar... what words are nouns, verbs, subject, direct object, all that jazz. preposistions. but most kids dont know that stuff. its bizarre.

wishing i still had my mustachio from november. it was quite savage.

it would have been a real contender in the mustachio contest.

winter camps COMMENCE!

a little catch up

wow.

no updates since august. it's been a long long time, I'm not sure what exactly happened, guess i just got swept away in the hustle and bustle of living in a large metropolitan area.

so let's see... where to begin... My last entry, I do believe was in the Philippines, so it is just to be writing again today.



I have just bought a ticket to Thailand. There was a sweet deal, but its only for a 12 day trip. I had to cut the first and last weekend off of the vacation. so i leave here on a monday, and i get back on a friday. but the savings are about 400 bucks. so..... i think i can live with it. here in Korea, I have been moving about a bit, Courtney and I had a couple of excursions out of the city again, we went to Busan for Chuseok. Chuseok being the Korean Thanksgiving where the families all reunite for a long weekend (3 days) and they make these delicious little rice balls which i ate in large numbers from local stores for a few days after.



in busan we spent the last of the warm weather on a beach, and wandering the coast in the rain. we had sun on our first and last day there, but the second day... it was cold, windy and miserable. we managed to find a little buddhist temple, but not without a fight. the fight was what made it worth it though, we walked along the coast, seeing both the beauty and the desecration of the land in korea. trash littered the coast, as a family gave offerings to the sea right in the midst of it. a stunning juxtaposition of modern and traditional values.

we were tourists at the temple, i was unaware of all the traditions, but Courtney kindly filled me in with the details... don't point my toes at the idol, take my shoes off, maintain a kind, courteous and respectful attitude in the place. most of those tips i recognized and knew from examples of previous religious locales... the pointing of the toes... that was new..

we ate out the second night we were there. it was a gastronomic adventure of raw and squirming sea food. we knew the sea food to be epic and delightful there. its a coast town. its got a world famous fish market you know.



we searched the fish market, looking for a something delicious. but settled with a small restaurant across the street from the market. they had fresh wares, and a matronly lady accosted us, explaining how we should sit and eat at her place, or so i assume... i couldn't and still cant really understand a great deal of korean.
we sat down, began eating some scallops. an older korean gentleman was seated across from us. at a seperate table. he began jovially bantering with us. we obliged, but didn't have a clue what he was saying... not. a. clue.







scallops


after a while, he had a plate brought out to him. it was squirming and moving. and i realized it was the baby octopus, that they chop up and serve, still moving in its final throes. i asked him if it was good. (our entire conversation that night consisted of Delicious? delicious. - we placed emphasis on it in different ways to get different meanings. "masheesahyo." quite versatile). i just wanted to try a piece, but koreans don't share food. in fact it's very impolite to eat something off another person's plate. i realized this in hindsight.

but as i sat back down after looking at the squirming pile of legs and body, i saw the manager/owner who had also joined us get up and walk over to the fish tank - cutting board area. he was behind a red barrier, but he was looking at us, and talking in korean.



Courtney and i knew something was up. i gathered that he was cutting up a fresh live octopus that very moment for us. i was right. it was a squirming raw octopus coated in sesame oil and some sesame seeds. on a plate, right in front of our faces in no less than..... one minutes, yes minutes. in the heat of the moment i grabbed a big piece and ate it. chewed like hell - you have to or else the suckers stick to you throat and can choke you to death... crazy, a chopped up octopus can still kill you. it was pretty tasty. Courtney gobbled up a big ole' piece as well. impressed, the manager dumped all the still squirming pieces that we hadn't ate after a couple of servings of it raw into a tin on the grill. he comes out with a big pile of squirming eel. dumps it in, it writhes for a bit, before becoming still. then some weird things that look like.... sea penises. those squirmed for a bit too in the mix before becoming eerily silent. he also chopped up some kind of raw mussel... it had spikes on it, but it was very tender and delicious. he fed it to us raw. of course.



as we continued eating massive amounts of raw food and cooked fresh sea food, we began, as most people do, to grow full. i was almost done eating. couldn't do any more. he walks out.. and throws into the mix a whole, medium sized live octopus into the tin, in front of us.


it was very much alive. and i am assuming throwing it into a cooking tin of boiling hot seafood and broth wasn't exactly an ideal environment for it. it was dead within a minute, but that was pretty miserable to watch. it being totally alive and healthy just a minute before and dead the next not only set my mouth agape for a minute, but when the guy started chopping it up, we realized it still had all its parts inside. he lopped off the brain-head region with some scissors - its brains and ink slowly dribbled out. i put my foot down.

"no possible way am i going to eat those brains. i mean a guys got to draw the line somewhere right?" i said to Courtney.

"you're totally right." she says. rolling her eyes a bit, as she knows those brains are going to be eaten sooner or later, and that its going to be me that does the eating.



she was right. wisdom of a woman. the guy looks at me, snips the brain in half, says masheesahyo and mimes the consumption of it. i was thought to my self. "DAMN IT!" but i ate it. im a push over sometimes. they probably laughed their asses off afterward. no way does anyone eat that stuff. it was foul. sandy, gross. and filled my mouth with ink and filth. i have never come closer to yakking while eating than i did on the patio of that place. i was finished eating there. donezo. i chugged a beer, stuffed some kim chi in my mouth, and ferociously devoured anything and everything in my sight in an effort to get the overwhelmingly foul taste out of my mouth. it didn't help.



but it was super generous of the owner. all of the fresh and raw seafood, aside from the scallops we initially ordered, and some rice, and two beers we had, the rest of the rawness was on the house. super kind. super generous. maybe he was proud to have some foreigners in his place, maybe he was astonished one of them ate the brains of an octopi, but either way, he was the bee's knees.

another trip was to Jinju. a Lantern festival. We made the trip down to jinju following julian's last weekend in korea. I went out with Julian and crew Friday night to celebrate and shipped out saturday morning to Jinju. i was in... rough shape. tried to make it the whole night through, 4 taxis later, all of whom did not drive me to the proper location, i made it to the subway stop where the bus was scheduled to meet. i was 20 minutes early. the dunkin donuts was not open, so i sat down to rest on the side walk directly in front of where the bus would arrive.
i woke up a few minutes later, climbed on the bus. it had magically appeared. and i had slept on the street for 15 minutes. chalk that up in things i never want to do again.

the bus ride was about 4 hours. i passed out for most of it. when we arrived, we wandered about the river, up and down. it was pretty beautiful. there were stalls set up all about, food, ice cream, wares, clothes, games. it was a carnival of lights and lanterns, games and music.



the lanterns filled the river on floats, with tigers, castles, athletics and dragons being just a few of the motifs. children fired roman candles up at the sky as the sun set. we sat down in a soju tent, and ordered some pahjeong. a pancake like food filled with some vegetables and green onions. magkolei is the drink of choice with this food, a kind of unfiltered rice wine, tastes a little like grass, sweet and milky. and as it was raining, the meal was specifically catered to the weather ( on rainy days Koreans eat pahjeong and magkolei). we drank the rice wine for a bit, before switching to beers. we had a large group, and after a while, the group grew loud. i began to feel slightly embarrassed by the stereotypes we were fulfilling here, as we became the loud, obnoxious foreigners in a quiet Korean Soju Tent.



I only left the table occasionally to buy a kebab around the corner. they were most delicious.



we left the next morning and went to the coast, we climbed down onto a large rock, and basked in the sun. i climbed a little on the rock faces, and then took some pictures of another offering the the Goddess of the Sea.




we climbed of the huge rock in the sea, and went to the beach. it was similar to Nice, with large black pebbles making up the ground. my friend Ash and I began trying to throw up a rock and hit it out of the air with another, thrown pebble. it proved to be far more difficult than we imagined, but like children we were absorbed and did not desire to be beaten by so simple a task.
i was the first to succeed at it. and fortunately, there is photographic evidence of the success. the second rock thrown shattered on its impact with the first, and it split off in multiple directions... i retired content.

lets see... what happened next. Halloween arrived. Courtney and I purchased costumes of a Korean Couple. Its pretty hilarious. tight jeans, Korean couple "t-shirts" some hipster glasses. spot on Koreans.

then I had my large open class. my school opened up to the entire state of Gyeonggi-do. my co-teacher and i practiced the same lesson for two weeks. the kids were dead tired of the lesson. it was not a typical class. the kids were far too trained, I was not involved a great deal in the teaching process, and it carried a general aura of ...... not sure what the word is. but it was real fake.

I cannot understand why, when teaching, using the co-teaching method, I create the lessons, the material, the worksheets, games, and PowerPoint. but for the open classes, i am excluded from the process, i do not teach the class, and i do not have a roll in the instruction of the class. i am, for the most part, a big puppet at the front of the class, that speaks in English occasionally, and helps to decrease the xenophobic tendencies of the children in the classroom. This may not be the original intent of the school, but in the end, its what it feels like. it the open class is supposed to be indicative of what my teaching is like... one would think they would allow me to do the class as i have been doing it for the entirety of the year.

the open lesson, once complete though, lifted a weight off of my shoulders as well as the shoulders of the rest of the English staff. it was the completion of a two year research development program for English curriculum in Korea. funded by the federal government. my boss was stressing out like crazy. but once it was over, we went and had a huge dinner at the Shabu Shabu place. it was spot on. spicy, hot, amazing. a kind of hurricane tornado rain storm hit on the way there. i got soaked. but the food was good. my co teacher min kyung, to celebrate ordered a beer. it was the first beer i have ever seen any of the female teachers drink at my school. so it must have been a big deal to finish up the day.

the next week I had thursday off. i spent it going to a palace, and taking some pictures, that i hope turned out ok. the palace was really peaceful. the day off was a result of high school testing. not sure why the middle school didn't have class, but i'm not really complaining. a day off is a day off. ill take it.

we now have three weeks left before winter break starts.
i'm in the process of creating a winter camp, 15 classes, 3 classes for 5 days, administered two times. and maybe i will have to give two more classes, everyday, after lunch... but they wont let me know if i ave to do that until its the last possible minute. i certainly hope that isn't the case. I already have planned the winter camp right now. its harry potter themed. i think its gonna be pretty baller.



Think ill come back through and put in photos with this when i get home and have access to my computer.

typhoons and sand miguel

flew in a few days ago. the typhoon that came with us was insane. it poured rain on us as we waited to try and get into our locked up hostel. the lights were off and the rain was coming in sheets. a crowd of filipino men gathered on the far side of the road. standing both in the rain and in the shelter of a small ice cream tienda kind of store.
it was a shady establishment, although the owner was kind and generous, the beds were out of the rain and the geckos all about would take care of many of the mosquitos floating about. we drank a few san miguels, which cost 25 pesos a piece. 45 pesos is a dollar. the beers were cold, we were the only people at the hostel. there was no place to go out to in the area. but in hindsight, we proabbly should have just walked about and seen what there was. the rain was not cold, tropical at best.
the next day we went to a different part of town, in manila. called malate. we met a german named daniel. he was travelling around the world, and spent the day with us. he recommened the palawan islands, where we are already planning on going. said it was the most beautiful thing hes ever seen/ we are going to rent out a boat, and island hop. explore reefs, lagoons, beaches, snorkle. im so stoked. its gonna be amazing.

also the couple staying in the bungalow next to us have a sweet little set up. they live here, but stay in the hostel to meet travelers and sell them real estate here. for very very little. a large, beachfront building here, think they said like 150 square feet maybe 200, not sure. was like 250,000 dollars. to buy a house, here, looks nice, beach front, 180. insane. thinking about buying some land here (proabbly not on boracay - but some other island, and set up a hostel, bar, resturant, activities - life goal achieved).
we walked about that night, in between the typhoon bands that plagued the city with periodic down pours and high winds. the bars int he are were though, unfortunately, filled with women of the night. we could not find a normal bar in the area. and we searched extensively. it was a really interesting experience. the moment we stopped walking, a crowd of soliciters would swoop in.. push women on us, or bar literature where they would try and push more women on us. we went to a hookah bar. but the searchfor it caused for us to pick up and elderly woman of the night who was followed us for upwards of 20 minutes, making cat calls, winks, blowing kisses and generally lewd behaviour. it was pretty funny, her persistence was laudable. albeit misguided.
we flew into boracay monday. and have spent the past two days lounging on the beach. a storm blew in today, (yesterday was clear skies and scorching heat. an amazing day).



so we sat and watched it come in on the porch of our little hut. the rolling thunder and downpour was interesting, a great way to start the day. i didnt even mind that it was thundering and raining. afterwards i went to the beach. julian took a nap. iwatched some locals start to build the evenining sand sculpture.

they build sculptures every night to celebrate the occasion of another beautiful day here. i love it. tomorrow, we will explore the rest of the island. mostly we have just been exploring white beach and the surrounding roads. the people here are the nicest people in the world. all so jovial and merry. wish i lived here. the pace and style of life is so simple and laid back. priorities are in a line with the people here. they know what is good.
best friend one. over and out.

doldrums

imagine a boat. sitting idly on a placid sea, an ocean perhaps. you are stranded. for days.with nothing to do but sit and wait until the wind picks up to carry you towards some destination - any destination really. any port is better than this.
i have read all the news i can take. CNN, New York Times, LA Times, Google News. I have sat on facebook for hours, chatting with random people from my past, acquaintances i have not communicated with for months, if not years.
I have watched movies from grade school: Little Nemo, Fern Gulley.
I have drawn pictures.
I have created a semester plan for class objectives and topics.
I wish i had the wits to create a plot worthy of publication. I certainly have the time to write a couple thousand words a day.

I leave for the Philippines on saturday morning. So there is a finish line in sight for this doldrums session. I will be there for two weeks. i return back to the ROK on the 18th. get back in around 7pm. then i have the friday saturday sunday to readjust to the life here. get out of the beach mode. settle in to the school planning. create a couple of power points for the first couple weeks lessons. maybe think of a new morning lesson. maybe ask when im supposed to be paid for my extra hours i worked all last semester.

I'm guessing they are not going to pay me for any of the lessons worked. some kind of bureaucratic red tape they set up to keep me from getting mine.

im ready for the wind to pick up and carry me to somewhere more entertaining than this chair and this computer screen. my eyes are burning from the time spent here.

all the Chinese food at lunch has been nice though.

gone to the beach

I've made it out of the beach. traveling to the beauteous beaches of South Korea. With a group, we went to Boryeong Mud Festival, the weekend of July 17-18. While there, i participated actively in the events organized on the beach.
we arrived in the morning, around 11. Purchased some snacks, some ramien, some beers, some soju, some chips, veggies, all the necessary party favors. the rain was coming down in a light mist, just enough to keep you cool, wet, and had it not been in the middle of the summer, and we were going to a place that required excessive amounts of water to keep the mud, well, muddy (instead of just dirt), then the weather would have been the pits. I thought it was alright. i made the mistake of rocking my t shirt for the beginning of the weekend. we walked the five minutes to the beach from our pension.
a pension is a little hut hotel, no beds, just mats, and pillows and a floor. you sleep there. on the floor. its surprisingly cheap, and after a long day on the beach, and walking about either dodging the mud, or seeking it out, its a welcome sight.
the place was packed with people, all wearing bathing suits, or if Korean, wearing, most likely, a t-shirt and jorts, but short jorts. i have a feeling the Koreans suffer from a serious case of never nude. almost to the level of arrested development, but i can't be certain. all i know for sure is that they don't like to wear just bathing suits, and have to wear some kind of clothes, usually, on top of it.
once we got to the mud, people bumping into people slowly spread the mud, but we were searching for the source. the little taps of mud, covering only a patch of skin here and there was not enough for me. i had to find this fountain of mud that was so thoroughly coating people as to make them look like little mud monsters, coming out of a bog to eat your eyes and feed the rest of your body to the leather head. i kept walking with purpose, only to turn around after a few minutes to find i had lost my entire posse. slowly meandering through the crowd, without cell phones (for fear that the mud would ruin them - a tale two of my fellow ex-pats experienced first hand) it was slow moving trying to keep tabs on all the members of the group. i turned back, played a quite game of where's Courtney, Dana, Naz, Naz, Alysia, Missy, Meghan. in real life, its almost as fun as the book, except there are no wizards, gnomes, trolls, little critters of evil and malicious intent, and other mythical and mystical creatures. i still hold that these creatures were all present and accounted for. some of them just look more like people these days than they used to. its only logical.
the mud slinging was located another three minutes meander down the beach. we could here it a hundred yards away. could see the pandemonium much closer. i leaped into the fray, had mud chunks hurled into me at astonishing speed. one managed to slam into the side of my face. it was awesome. a few hit my body, as i turned around and began to lob the huge chunks of mud i was pulling up from the ground into the group of girls i was with. they wanted to come to the beach for mud fest. so i was giving them mud. i got a few of em pretty good, so i turned my efforts on the kid standing across the divide, on the other side of the tents covering the mud source. he was hurling mud with vicious intent at all passer-bys. i threw a few big chunks at him, hitting him once or twice in the body, never the face. we held a duel, each standing stationary, offering a free shot to hit where you would. I covered my parts, soccer style. i then grabbed a huge gob of the blue smooth clay, the sediments in it where tiny, so small that the mud was perfect. it clung together solidly, could form perfectly into a slinging ball, and when it impacted, it would flatten out into a pancake of muddy mess. i covered Courtney with the mud, started tossing it at the other girls around me, and when i killed a beverage, i decided that my jovial intents were being lost, as annoyance was building out of the remnants of the dead beverage. the spirit of soju never takes kindly to mud apparently. i thought they would be close, being of the same nationality. guess i was wrong.
we went to the beach, stashed our stuff in a free locker, and raced into the water. it was filled with people, far more than i had ever seen at a beach or in the water, excepting maybe for Miami, but even in Miami there was plenty of space in the water for people to space out and have private conversations. not so here. there was people everywhere. the water was spectacular. cool, refreshing, and super salty. they say the yellow sea is dirty, it very well could be. but there is so much salt in it, that i don't think much of anything bad will live long in it, unless they are those crazy extremophile bacteria strains that thrive in harsh growing conditions.
OK maybe not that extreme of an ecosystem, but it was super salty.
the mud washed off, the rest of the weekend went on repeat. mud, water, beach, mud water, beach. food, mud water beach. the sun came out in force on Sunday. scorching the beach with heat i had not known it was capable of. i bought some sun screen, but alas it was too late. my body was parched, my skin beef jerky.

the next weekend, my appetite whetted with the desire of the beach. the taste of an authentic summer, visits to the beach, i had to have more.
Took a short bus (3.5 hours) to Seokcho. East coast. East Sea / Sea of Japan depending on where you're at, its east sea (Korea) or Sea of Japan (rest of the world). there, we stayed in a love motel. continuous porn on the TV. that was an interesting experience. they involve alcohol in the plot a lot. really shows how deep alcoholism runs in culture here. sex is directly connected with alcohol. bizarre.

arrived at the city around 3. confused our starting location, and walked for upwards of two hours to get to the beach that we thought was right next door to us. it was not. it was far. far. far. away. we walked around the entire city. the interior of a harbor. to get to the side where the beach was. good lord. my flippy floppies tore a hole in my flesh between the big toe and the next one. it was gnarly.
the beach was interesting. far more crowded than Boryeong, the water cleaner, colder, less waves, and the beach much smaller. there are sales people walking about the portable shelters assembled in efficient rows up to the water line slinging fried chicken and soda.





Koreans wearing button up shirts and ties, inflating boats for the water, making blatant and hilarious references to the stamina and work used in sex. "Oh man.. Oh man... its so hard..... oh shit..... god i can't stop...... oh shit.... i'm done."
that went on for a solid ten minutes. it was ridiculous. i got a picture of the cat. ill post it up sometime soon.
we went out and got some 물고기 (mul goki - fish) had to cook it ourselves. that was tough work. it was tough to keep up with the cooking of the fish and then the eating of the fish. getting all the bones out of the stuff was the hardest part.
went to a bar that night for a night cap. ran into some other foreigners. shared a drink with them, we were propositioned to come out with them to the beach again, go skinny dipping, live it up. I wasn't feeling it too much, but it could have been an interesting time.
we crashed, went back to the beach the next morning, relaxed until about 4. the bus back turned out to be a bust. 4.5 hours. traffic. vicious. but two grilled cheese sangwishes rounded out that rough day into something special.
until next time.

summer.

summer has hit here, potent in its humidity. you cant even step out the door before it jumps on your back, the burden of it makes you sweat profusely. the koreans here eat a hot spicy diet during the summer to make up for the heat. the food makes you sweat even more, but the evaporative cooling more than makes up for the momentary discomfort.
my air conditioner has been m.i.a. up until this lovely evening, i have endured. now finally, i can close up the windows, lock my door tight, turn off the fan and crank up the cool, controlled climate of my tiny studio. a miniature terrarium, a capsule, of the arctic circle brought south, and placed in the gut of korea. they won't even know i am here. ill be the silent, cool, one on the tenth floor of bobostel.

work has been on and off. teaching it seems, has moments where the work load is enormous and seemingly impossible to finish all of it. other times, the past two weeks for example, i sit at my desk and struggle to fill the 8 hours i spend in my chair. the new york times are a thorough read. several blogs are good reads as well. there would be a great deal more digital ink on my blog as well, were it not for the censoring power of the gyeonggi-do school system. several web-pages have limited access if any: facebook, myspace, bbc, and blog postings (reading posts is a different story) - all in the negatory.
I received a package today in the mail from my parents. it carried with it reminders of the southern united states: taffy, texas pete, and the black spot.

"I think i smeeellll somesin burnin."

it was a pleasant surprise in the middle of the work day, to be interrupted from the complete isolation of my english office and notified of the arrival of a package from the united states for me. my weeks of waiting at an end, i could not wait the whole day to open it back at my humble house. in the middle of the teachers office i broke out the box cutter and opened up that monster to reveal its innards. they spilt out onto my lap and i gleefully stuffed my face with its contents. i offered my co-teacher Min Kyeung some of the taffy. she took it, but did not give any indication as to whether she enjoyed it or not. it might have just been out of politeness that she took it from me.

I have been living for 17 days on a paltry sum of 60,000 won, or about 50 bucks. some unexpected bills came up at the end of july, namely the bill for my housing service fee. it does not pay automatically as i had initially assumed. the number was substantial. im working with 40 for this weekend and the next week. it should be more than enough, but the food from the box sent from home was a welcome addition to my ramian in the pantry.

Mud-fest is coming up next weekend. Its a large festival in Korea, its purpose: unknown, but perhaps it has something to do with the coming of the rains, the monsoon season, and the excesses of mud it brings with it. but for any reason, they have massive amounts of mud in a beach town, with music, and festivities and food, and many people come to join, celebrating for a saturday in the middle of july. the summer is here, and its keeping it real.

over and out.

spent the weekend walking about town, exploring music festivals in HBC, street markets in MyeongDong, small jazz bars in jamsil. it was a pretty amazing weekend, laid back yet productive. still haven't managed to get out of town yet, but in a city of this size, it doesnt really matter that much.

Get wednesday off this week, for election day. i have never been more excited to see an election day come and go. where as in the states, you go to see the candidates, and canvassing always seems really low key - here its a zoo. they have been posting up on the corner outside of my abode, and campaigning begins bright and early at 630 with singing, dancing, hand shaking loud korean speaking and plenty of jingles and bowing. i sincerely tried to get out to the beach this weekend just to escape the worst of the election, but seoul forecast rain for the northern part of south korea, so the trip was post poned. poned by nature is what it was, but good old gaia pulled a fast one on me, and apollo carried the sun across the sky strong. saturday and sunday. only letting a light drizzle drop down on the land for a brief 20 minutes in the evening of saturday, i was played like a fiddle by a young tevey.

my next lesson plan has been taken from codey's genius idea of zombie survival: kids learn the future tense, and they learn the practical skills necessary to survive a potential zombie apocalypse. and lets face it, what could be more useful, more interesting, and more engaging than that. i only hope that the kids don't get nightmares from the graphic nature of zombies eating brains.

Sara, i hope you enjoyed the World War Z. If you find the book Gravity's Rainbow in my house down in North Carolina, can you grab it and mail it to me? i need some serious complexity in my literature now: gatsby lasted a hot minute, two evenings. sure its spectacular, but its too light.

so stoked about this week though. So weds is off, thursday and friday, the kids go to a field trip retreat. I still ahve to warm my desk at the school, but I think i will bring my computer, some movies, and maybe make a rad power point display for the zombies. throw in some animation or something to keep the kdis on their toes. and start planning the after school lessons that I am going to ahve to start doubling up on for the adults and the students, since i have been missing many of the lessons in previous weeks due to outside circumstances.

and rest in peace ipod: you made it through college, and beyond. road trips and beach trips. you kept it real. you carried my tunes, my collection from over the years. if i can resurrect you, i will. you will not be soon forgotten.

full-scale war

title less shall the post be. I recently purchased a new camera, one of the primary justifications for me leaving the patria to go abroad. Glad to finally see my goals come to fruition. I went with a Nikon D300s, with a prime 50mm f1.4 lens. its a pretty dope set up. I am very excited to be able to start taking it out on my forays into the country, other countries, and the town here, locally.
it isnt really a town though. seoul continues to amaze me with its diversity, buried deep within the homogeny of the country. that doesnt make sense at all to yoe, but if you were to visit.... you would see it. I am sitting in my house waiting for the arrival of a good friend to head out for a going away party.
the friendships made here are fast, and from what i feel in the union, i believe they will be lasting. that is an exciting concept. everyone here comes with open expectations, and in this fashion it is very similar to university. people here always give at least one opportunity before a judgement is passed. home, judgement is presented after the first glance at many times, here, at least the time of day is offered before judgement is passed.
there was only one instance where this was not the case. it was for saint paddy's day.Some friends and I went to an all you can drink guinness bar party. it was an amazing deal. not to mention that fact that guinness is the most amazing beverage made for the consumption of human beings in a bar environment. we commenced with the consumption. it was great. meeting new people, jovially conversing, bouncing from conversation to conversation as if at a large party in college. my courage was up, courtesy of the beer of champions, beer of the irish, beer of the best. and well, i was walking to the line, when these two women looked at me in a strange fashion. i glanced back, noticed the strange glare, and then maintained eye contact. they then stated, "you are totally being judged right now. Say something funny."
I had nothing to say to someone who does that. I said as much, and walked away to the grab another round of guinness for the table. but the confrontation has obviously been in the back of my mind for the past couple months. that was march 20th, about (the saturday after st paddy's day) and it is now may 27. i never really thought it was a big deal, but my writing it down ehre must mean otherwise, correct?
possibly it could be becuase it is accordance with my own personality as dictated by the myers-briggs personality test - i turned out to be an INTJ. introverted, intuitive, thinking, judging personality, alhtough i consciously try to minimize my judgements, because i despise those people who consider themselves better than others based on some kind of moral/intellectual higher ground. its preposterous.
my friend still has not arrived, and we have an hour to commute now in 15 minutes. this is going to be intersting. take it easy yall,
oh and north korea has currently been threatening "full-scale war." end quotations. taken from an AP source. its is about to get real here.

now we can see

another weekend down, another week begins. Mondays are usually the worst day of the week, a slow and groggy rise from bed begins the day. a cup of mixed coffee crystals and sugar/cream powder are passed off as a morning beverage to jump start the pep and the smile.
This past weekend was filled with big plans, most of which slowly fizzled out. First a Pension, a trip to a secluded cabin where people relax, socialize and live large. that didn't end up happening, so we planned to meet in Seoul and go see a baseball game. this was an activity i have looked forward to for several weeks now. I plan on going to many baseball games, and many horse races here, both of which are popular and easily accessible from my humble studio abode.
The ball game didn't happen. We ended up playing Foosball for upwards of two or three hours before heading out into town to go to our Project Mayhem meeting to plan mischief and general misdeeds.
Didn't Make it to the meeting either. I ended up going home early, around 2 I believe and proceeded to sleep for the rest of the day, only to awake to find my voice, once again had decided to make off with some one for the day, leaving me croaking with a sorry excuse for a frog in its place. i wonder, if someone were to kiss my vocal cords, would they turn into a prince charming voice? or would it remain the croaking bullfrog they have morphed into for eternity? a spell cast by the pollution of Korea, a potent and powerful magical entity. one you wouldn't want to cross paths with often, if ever. and one you certainly wouldn't want to have you its bad side. otherwise it might just rain yellow dust on you as you walk around and about the country.
the weather this weekend was the first deep breath of spring the planet has thrown at Korea. and my god it was glorious. a pleasant 20-24 degrees, with sun, and no rain. a light breeze would blow aorund about the roof tops, enough to keep the heat from building up. Julian, Dave and I sat on a roof top fora couple of hours, talking about everything and nothing all at once. planning for activities that may or may not happen in the future. making big plans for our lives, wondering what it will take to actualize the visual predictions. We left the rooftop and went to Dave's residence where we played a little wii, and then ate some massive cheeseburgers. those Jacoby's cheese burgers are rapidly becoming a weekend staple in my diet. I don't know if i can survive without the consumption of a pound burger stacked 8 inches high with various toppings such as eggs, salsa, tortilla chips, pineapple, hash browns, relish, the works really. the burger is epic.
This week follows the GEPIK training workshop we had last Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. it was on this retreat that my voice decided to first begin its hiatus, and a sore throat took up residency. viciously holding on to its territory until the end of the weekend. only yesterday did I lose the sore throat. and It was glorious in the extreme once it left. to be able to swallow and drink without a grimace at each bite is a pleasure I rarely take for granted anymore.
I learned a great deal at the workshop, and met a good deal more people there than i had before. It was a great opportunity to network, meet some new faces, and gather up stories of experiences and places to go when i do decide to take vacation. I need to organize a trip somewhere, perhaps a large pension of sorts with a group of people from the trip and see what happens. I think it could be quite fun and interesting to see what happens. maybe we could even get the pension somewhere far away from here, in the country, near a mountain or by the ocean. Especially now that its finally warming up, the beach could be quite an amazing thing to do. I do not know what an Asian side pacific beach looks like, but if its anything like Cali beaches, it should be pretty incredible. i only keep my fingers crossed for sand, and not rocks. rocks on the beach just really aren't for me. its like trying to take a bath in yogurt, or drinking milk with the consistency of cottage cheese. you get this archetypal form of a beach set in your head, and when the reality of the situation is not what you expected you aren't upset, but just well... i don't know how to verbalize the feeling that comes afterward, its not disappointment, there is always the elation of the beach, but the malcontent of the rocks seems to gnaw at it, especially when your toes get bloody or stubbed in the mixture of heavy earthen materials.

so it has been a while since the last entry. Slowly falling into place all the pieces of life in korea have been. I think I may have finally fallen into a groove of living, sans the gym. Still haven't gotten around to joining a gym. Thats still on the list.
Finished another work week here. It seems that I, like the rest of the english teaching workforce of South Korea, live for the weekend. a time of unforeseeable events. No one knows what could happen. its a page unwritten, blank in a fresh journal, waiting for the ink of a pen or the graphite of a pencil to smudge and deface its surface with untold memories and actions, until the page is nothing more than a dark covered scribble of action, passion, and folly.

who knows what this weekend will bring. it's hewlian's birthday. he has a grand scheme brewing in that chaotic mind of his, and until it hatches, there is no telling what direction it could take.

The weather is finally starting to look up. the days are warmer, the sun shines much more often, and the cherry trees just outside the rear window of the school have begun to blossom. the blossoms line the bank of the han river and are said to be beautiful beyond comparison. the pink and white flowers all open, catching the light, making every passerby think of witty haiku's or other poetry in an effort to make words match and communicate the beauty of the natural world.

except people probably don't conjure poetry in their minds anymore, the everyday person. especially over nature. a tragic loss that will echo in the human psyche for ages, or at least until a cataclysmic even realigns the species with the moon and our necessary bond to the immortal gaia.

have a lovely day everyone.
best friend 1.
over and out.

seaweed wrapped rice beef sandwich

this past weekend, I managed to meet up with my good friends codey and julian, both of whom crashed on the floor of my "studio" apartment.
to be honest, i think an artist would be hard pressed to have enough space to really work in the place as a studio. and if i did, i think at least one wall woudl be lost to a painting. now normally i would consider this something that could- possibly - cause an appreciation of value in the otherwise cement wall (mine happens to have a few pieces of wall paper that look like cinderblocks..... not really sure what the previous guy was thinking. becuase to me the process osunds kind of like this
Gosh, these walls sure are cement. how could we decorate them tolook better, more interesting?"
I know, lets cover them with a plain yellow wall paper.
yea but that looks plain still
heres a thought, lets put some more wall paper on top that looks like cement bricks!.
GENIUS!

i want you to think about that. becuase my room has cinderblock wall paper on top of cement walls covered in wallpaper already. wow dude.

so work for my first week started in earnest today. it is intense. i thought my not having any teaching experience would not be an issue here. that i would be able to use the lessons and information left behind by the pervious native english speaker who inhabited my humble abode, and my office desk space and my computer for the previous three years. so far, i have found one lesson plan. for the first lesson. and it has nothing to do with anything in the book, that i have been told to abide by in creating my lesson plans.
then i found out today, that the 20 minute conversational lesson i have to create for aa twice a week morning class is part of a nationally funded english research program that my school is a part of. so i am, as the native english speaker in resident at the school, a crucial part of the research and teaching development of korean-english education. shnikes. the work im doing now seems horribly unacceptable for a natnioanlly funded research program.
i hope they realize they hired a completely unexperience college grad with no teaching experience and very little experience in controlling groups of 40 plus kids in a classroom.
i hear its a fast learning curve though. so ill keep you all posted on that. however, my co teachers are all great help at keeping the little rascals in line. otherwise i think they would just go straight korean the entire time.
as it is, the teacher are all very nice. I havent been chopped again by the principle.... but its only a matter of time. i did get a crash course on east asian etiquette. so hopefully that will come in handy when ever i do eventually have to socialize with the elite officers of the school.

total sleep time over past 72 hours - 6

So here goes post numero uno -
Made it into Incheon International Airport yesterday at around 5PM Seoul time, around 3AM east coast time. surprisingly, customs was exceptionally easy. They asked if i was military, i stated in the negatory, and she realized upon looking at my sweet full page visa in the fresh new passport i paid 160 for (only to find out two days ago, my original passport was in my little bro's closet, in a box, with the rest of my travel documents like a ISIC Card and god knows what else. figures i would hear of its existence the day before my departure; fate is always predictable in that manner of things).
so where was, ah yes before the aside about fate and the passport, she saw i was going to be a teacher for the youth of korea and even though i was carrying booze and cigarettes in mass quantity, i was not given a second glance through the rest of the customs process. i picked up my luggage, my 45lb backpack and a 40lb unmanagable orvis bag (who knows what the rents where thinking when they bought that satchel - its impossible to carry any distance if its packed full), and walked out the door. i was confident that my ride would be waiting, as promised, in the zoo of people sitting at the baggage claim exit, name signs in hand, waiting to pick up the travel weary passengers who were fortunate enough to set up the ride out. this was going to be a personal first for me, having a ride ready for me at the airport... usually i arrive in a far off exotic country, with nothing but my large backapck and a childlike sense of wonder that is only slightly blended with dread.
the sign with my name on it was no where to be seen. i was furious. soon chan, that durvish fellow, had abandoned me to korea. i hadn't even remembered to right down the name of my emergency contact in the city to call should i find myself in this situation. i opened my laptop and went to work, finding the contact info - a secretive fellow by the code name of mr. ham (thats his real name actually, but the story flows better if we made him a secret agent of sorts).
just w\hen i wrote down the number on the post-it note that had the serial number of my laptop, which i saved to extend my applecare plan and only just then noticed that the number is etched into the computer itself, i heard a page go out over the intercom.
"yada yada yada, a mr patrick gehling go to the east information desk."
maybe the sign name guy had arrived, or had been there for ages, wating for me and had gone out to his car to check on something. i had to find this east information desk. my sense of direction in an airport in terms of north south east west is relaly limited to entrance exit, baggage, gate of departure. and even then, its not that solid.
as it turns out though, the east information gate was right next to me. i literally turned around, and bam, i was there. no floo network necessary. remarkable.
the ride out to my humble abode took about an hour by car, although for me to get into seoul, i think i only need hop on the subway and i shall soon be transported with rapid efficiency and minimal carbon footprint to the city center.
i met my co teacher kim at the base of a tall building, in which i live now. she took me in, and upstairs to the tenth floor where my abode resides. great window view of the city, too bad it was rainy and cloudy today and yesterday.
i went out that night, to the grocery and the nearby mall to find some food and maybe some fresh sheets for the bed. there are sheets on it, but i dont know how ancient they are, and whether or not they have been cleaned is a whole different question, a horse of a different color if you will. needless to say, i didnt find the sheets, but i did find the grocery. tons of great looking food. most of it i have no idea what it is. if tehre is not a defining picture, there is a solid chance i have no idea what it is.
went back to the place, took a shower, listened to some tunes, broke the window shade trying to close it, and went to bed.
sleep didnt last long, as i woke up at first 12 am korea time, then 3 am korea time, then 6 am korea time. im not sure if its becuase im 14 hours ahead of th states and still on that time, or if it was becase i dont ahve an alarm clock, or anyway of making sure i wake up intime to make it to work. im going to say its a combination of the two. first item of order - buy an alarm clock. and some sweet slippers for work and maybe for my crib as well.
sunlight finally began filtering into the apartment as i put on my fresh office digs for my first day at school as a teacher. gah these kids are in fora treat.
only i dont get to teach at all today, or tomorrow. as it turns out, i'm the one in for a treat.
In my first five minutes upon arrival, i am already publicly shamed by the principle. i, in my naivity, did not have both hands out in front of me when i shook hands with the principle and vice president. as a result, in the process of shaking hands, my offending phalanges are lightly chopped witha karate style blow. my co teacher is like, oh god, so sorry, he didnt know . then she looks at me dead serious like take your hands out of your pockets when you talk to elders here. i havent put my hands in my pockets since, even when we stood outside for a solid hour in the cold light drizzle. hands were and are out, and ready to not offend any elders. lesson number one - forever burned into my skull - no hands in pockets.