Dragon Fruit

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a dragon fruit. I was introduced to them while I was in Cambodia and Vietnam. I've tried to find them in America and I only found them once in two years. They were $16 a pound. Thus, I didn't buy them. Since I'm on the other side of the world, they're much cheaper. This bad boy went for 5,000 won. They don't carry them in super markets and had to buy him on the street. I found him in a giant international district where I'm going to back for salmon cuts later. I personally think it look like a dragon egg, if those in fact existed.

This is a knife. The bride and groom have smooched, let's cut this cake.

This is what the inside looks like. it's sort of like a kiwi, but with different flavoring. It's wonderfully delicious because it's soft and cold. So good.

Sliced and diced into more manageable bites.

Another angle...wait, what's that there?

Oh my goodness. I found some international delegates while wandering the market as well. These were priced better than in America and thus it was a wonderful find. I still don't have any quality tonic water. Or limes. We're going to try and make our own, but we require Cinchona. Amazon trail anyone?

Simply lovely.

Time for a test drive.

No crashes or fatalities.


Also, I met Tane for sushi near his house. Afterwards, I boarded the subway and was stopped by a man named So Cho. After talking for a while, several handsome compliments, and confessing that I wasn't married he invited me for draft beers at a place called Starfish on Saturday. I'm not sure what to make of it. He told me that i reminded him of his grandson who was going to college in Switzerland. He told me to call him and gave me his business card. Apparently he works as an advisor for the "Busan International Environmental Design & Cultural Forum." Their website is here http://www.biedfo.org/forum/symbol.html . I'm not sure what I'm going to do. That organization seems like a major advertising firm that deals a lot in public art. He might be a fascinating contact and good person to know. On the other hand, he's someone I talked to in broken English for three stops on the subway. By the way, this is normal behavior to foreigners in Korea. When Danny, Tane, and I go out, we always get approached by old men who want to talk to us and tell us about the time they lived in America and were stationed at a Virginia army base. Most of the time teachers get propositioned to teach peoples children under the table. So, tell me what you think.

Where am I?

Geography time! Let's take a look at where I am.
First, I currently reside on the continent of Asia. I've circled the location of my city.


Here's a more close up picture of the Country. I've kept the labels on just in case you aren't familiar with the city layout of Korea. Once again, my city is circled.


Here's a nice shot of the topography of the area. Most of the country is mountains.


This is the city of Busan. 3.6 Million people live here. It's the 3rd most visited sea port in the world. The big red circle is the island on which I live. The whole island is really just two giant mountains.


A closer look at the island. In the circle is the Dongsam district where I do most of my snooping.


The top right circle is the location of Dongsam Middle School where I work. The other one is the apartment building that I live in. It's right along the course and it's gorgeous. It's in the middle of no where on an island of 400,000, but it's so majestic.


That's the uphill climb that I have to take to school everday. I'm used to it now, but just to get to the little spot in between those first two buildings, it's about a 14 story climb including lots of stairs and a graded slope. The route to school is colorful and has some great views. I'll post some pictures of the route sometime.


Thanks for the lesson. There'll be a quiz later.

And Yet More Questions are Answered

Yet again, here are more questions from the forums and their answers.

"this is amazing! How did you get this job?

-chrisb"

Easy. I found out about it from people on the Something Awful forums. There were a bunch of people teaching in Korea who frequented the forum and put themselves up for questions. I didn't know what I wanted to do after I graduated. I didn't have a career track in mind or know whether or where I wanted to go to grad school. So this is more a reflection time for me. I'm chilling out, it allows me to travel around in this part of the world for cheap. Plus, Korea spends the most on English education per capita than any other nation in the world.

What does that mean? That means I get paid bank. They cover my basic costs of living. I've got to play utilities, but find suitable housing for me and furnish my apartment with anything I need. They supplied a bed, wardrobe, TV, a couple of desks, pots/pans, utensils, rice cooker, dishes, glasses, washer, drying rack, easy chair, hot water pot, coffee maker, refrigerator, toaster, oven, gas stove, iron and board, chairs, shelves, racks, and more. They also give me health and dental insurance. Because I live in Busan, I get 1,800,000 won a month (I don't have an accurate adjustment to dollars because there's a lot of inflation) I just posted some pictures of where I live on www.grooveoninbusan.blogspot.com. The view and scenic area is a million dollar view.

As far as getting the job, I went through EPIK (English Program in Korea). This is one of the Ministry of Education organizations. EPIK is specific to Seoul, Daegu, Jeju Island, Busan, etc. Other organizations such as GEPIK are in charge of other areas. Other options include Hagwons (private schools) and Universities. The requirements to teach English in Korea aren't strict. I can only speak authoritatively about the public schools, but all you need is a degree and not be an insane criminal. I went through a recruiter, Footprints, which did a lot of the work for me. I submitted documents and talked them first. Think of a recruiter as a pimp. You jump through their hoops and then they shop you around. Pimp is perhaps the wrong word, maybe Agent is better. Their job is to get you hired because then they get a finders fee.

So I applied last February and did a lot of phone interviews and submitted all the necessary documentation. So that means copies of my passport, background checks, my degree, letters of recommendation, transcripts, and blah blah blah. Then I went through some phone interviews with people in Korea and you're in. You then apply for a Visa at an embassy and then buy your plane ticket (which they reimburse, there and back).

Dude, those PC gaming areas sound so rad. It is weird how that business model works so well in that country and refuses to spawn in this one. Then again, I don't think that I will ever grab my friends and head to Des Moines to ever use a service like that.

What other things can you pull out of the vending machines?

Also, I bought Vice Guide to Travel, what did you think of it?

-rempresent

They really are. They're extremely convenient too. While walking around the Nampo-dong city center one evening, we weren't sure where we were supposed to meet some people. So, we went to a PC Bang, paid a dollar, and looked up their emails and found the spot on google maps. Sure, you could get an iPhone and pay several hundred dollars for spotty service and glitchy software, but we just went upstairs and paid a buck. They're really nice places and I know they have PC Bangs in some larger cities in the US. They're more gaming centers though and offer consoles as well. I don't know how much they cost, but I'm sure they don't even touch the Korean prices. The other day when I bought some saltines at a GS-25 (just a corner shop, gas station without the gas) the attendant was grinding away on World of Warcraft. The whole centralized model of MMO's I think can be attributed to Korea. It doesn't work for people to save their information locally on the machine because they may not play on that same computer next time. It works better to log in and have your info on a server.

It's weird that you said drive to Des Moines to use one. I guess because there's so many here. I could go downtown and spot three just standing in an alley. They're across the street from each other and I must admit it is pretty cool to see giant Night Elves or Hydralisks drape the side of a building, advertising their wares. A few weeks ago Danny, Tane, and I went to one after dinner and brought a flask with us. We bought some OJ inside and just gamed online while swigging back every now and then.

I haven't really been to many arcades here. I did spend some time in one after going to the Busan Aquarium. House of the Dead 4 and Time Crisis 3 for $0.40 a play is really cheap. The other places I've stayed away from though. I looked in one arcade and it was 40 machines that were all the same. They only had this Aereo Fighters style game, but some people loved it.

As far as vending machines go, most of the time it's the standard crap. fake guns, light up toys, bouncy balls, or candy. But in some locations it's impressive as to what they have. One machine I saw sold Pokemon style DS styluses. Another sold DS skins and others had power ranger action figures. I need to go to more high class areas to see more vending machines. I haven't seen any that make Ramen, just beverages. I haven't seen any "Japanese" style vending machines, if you catch my drift, nor have I seen vending machines big enough to sell vending machines. Lots of coffee machines have pictures of football tackles on them. Go figure.

In reference to the Vice Guide to Travel, I liked it. Some bits were a lot better than others though. I feel that in too many of them, they promised the moon and didn't deliver. The hunting of radioactive warthogs sucked. Not only did they not get one, you couldn't even see them. It was just a giant let down. The same thing with the dinosaur. I'm not sure what they expected with that one. I loved the Brazillian favela one and thought it was hilarious. "The last man that filmed was put into a tower of tires and set on fire." "So, what do you think of us going to film it. (As he smiled, fighting back the laughter)" Genius. The Nazi one was interesting and not bad, but it would have been better if they met Nazis. The suicide boyscouts was fascinating and sad at the same time. The arms bazar was really cool. I did feel it was far too short though. I think I've seen different videos online. I remember watching a series of youtube videos where they went to North Korea and that was amazing. I can't find them anymore though. They also had one where they go to this South American region where supposedly all the men lose their virginity to donkeys in order to prepare them for marriage. Really funny. So I'd give it 3 stars. It was good, but disappointing as well.

"Right now, 1 Won = .000862 Dollars. That is awesome.

-chrisb"

It used to be a lot better. Last year, it was around 1 Won = .001400 Dollars and when I bought my plane ticket it was hovering around 1000 Won = 1 Dollar. Now, it's hovering around 1140 Won = 1 US Dollar. It's not much on a day to day level, but at the end of this when I send several grand home it's going to hurt to the tune of several hundred dollars.

Some Photos

Here's a few photos that I've taken that I wanted to share.

This is a picture outside of my front door at night.

This is out my front door, to the right.

My backyard at night.
A close up on a ship.

My backyard during the day. To the left.

Directly behind me, day view.
View to the right.
This is where I keep my shoes at school.

An octopus I saw at the Busan Aquarium.

More Questions from the Forums

See the previous post for an explanation of why I have quotes.

you must tell us how the entire country shuts down when Starcraft 2 launches.

-j0e

I just hope I'm here when it happens. If blizzard gets their act together and puts it out I'd love it here. Work will stop. It'll cause the highest rate of absenteeism schools have ever seen. I am going to try and go to the Blizzcon that they have here. I don't remember what the dates are, but I would gladly go just for the grab bag that they give you.

I'm living in South Korea now. It's just called SUV in Ames though.

-rempefiesta

I don't get it.

Brandon, thanks for your fast response. I guess MY love of Japan led me to believe that everyone loves those girls dressed in school girl costumes (and are japanese). Guess I was wrong.
This is sort of a weird question BUT in the "black market" type areas (if such things exist) or even in the rural markets that sell live food, have you ever come across anything exotic? I'm talking animal wise. I know this is asking a lot, BUT I'm wondering if anything that "shouldn't" be sold or is highly prized here, is sold there. Just curious.

-jahee

Just remember that those are all school girls. They have the uniforms here too. I admit the students are really cute. They're really silly a lot of the time. It's odd, but the smallest boys are often the naughtiest and have the most energy.

The black market is different over here. While it's the same as any other country and has illegal wares, it has it's own flavor. Example, I've been looking for limes while over here for Gin and Tonics. I had one coteacher call every 8 story department store in the city looking for them and no one has them. I asked my students and they all shouted "Lemon!" I'm to the point where I'm going to buy a lime tree and grow them myself.

But anyway, she mentioned that I should try and buy them on the black market. Lots of western and international goods are sold on it. I know where the district is. It's a 15 minute bus ride away from me and it's called, "International Market."

But you asked about animals. I know of a couple giant fresh seafood markets. They keep all the critters alive or on ice. The living ones make their homes in laundry tubs or giant aquatic serving platters. Think a large fish tank overflowing with critters, the fish laying on their sides, or half out of water just gasping for scratching room. Everything seems standard. I don't know the names of all the fish, but I can't say that I've seen anything illegal. It's the standard tuna, squid, mackerel, black and striped fish, flounder, oysters, conchs, escaped octopus wriggling on the floor, weird red fish, shrimp, and the occasional shark. Live octopus is a delicacy and I saw a dog soup restaurant the other day. How did I know? It had a picture of a dog on the store window and they had a small cage full of dogs inside. They don't eat any dog, only mangy yellow ones. It's a specific breed. They get rather offended if you ask if they'd eat Benji or Lassie.

That fish market is a big touristy place though. I've seen a couple of pet stores that traffic in the standard parrots, hedgehogs, hamsters, and fish. People sell dogs and cats on the streets though. The only dogs they have here are little yappy dogs. Nothing bigger than a purse, well, except for the eatin' dogs. I have seen several rare and expensive lizards and chameleons that might be illegal in the states. I desperately want one, but I don't know how to take care of it if I go on vacation. I thought about fish though, because they seem more durable to starvation. I'll be on the look out for shady districts that traffic in monkeys and polar bears though. It would be so cool to ride a tiger to work everyday. I'd be better than He-Man since his shows were never educational despite what you may think about learning to handle a blade.

Comfortable

I've been here month now, so I'm starting to notice the little things. For example, in the teachers office, all of the heavy furniture has folded up pieces of paper or discarded books under the corners to keep them from damaging the wood floor. We don't get any beverages with our lunch so I've been using cooked rice to put out any fires or to cleanse my mouth. Also, the grapes here taste just like grape flavoring from home. Meaning, they don't taste like actual grapes, but instead taste like "artificial grape flavoring" tastes like. Also, they don't eat the skin here. You just have to pinch the grape and it'll get naked. They eat the juicy center and leave the carapace on the plate. Strangely, they eat the hard seed inside though.

Here's something I sent to my dad recently:
"We went to a restaurant Saturday night that I know you'd love. It was an all you can eat shell fish place. We got as many clams, oysters, mussels, and shrimp that we wanted. They came to us raw and alive and we had to cook them on this little grill in front of us. You would get one big half shell that's about as long as your forearm and you set that to the side. The rest, you just pop on the grill until they burst open and grab them before they spill all their juices. Then, you work them out of their shell and add the soft part to the big shell. You snip them up with a scissors into bite sized pieces, add shredded cucumber, some Parmesan cheese, thinly sliced green pepper, a little sea weed, and spicy red bean paste and let them cook and simmer in that big half shell. Then you scoop it out with a spoon into a little personal dish and eat away. Once again, it's all you can eat and it's only 10,000 won ($10). Add a couple of cheap beers and some soju (liquor) and you've got a wonderful meal. We ate six of those things along with a couple of seafood pancakes (an odd pancake mix with vegetables and shrimp, it's fried). So if you come and visit, we'll go to this place. Mom'll probably hate it, but I know you'd never leave."

I'm also going to repost stuff from the Goon Platoon forum, The Best Damn Crew. It's a forum for people who know/are friends with Nick Rempe. Their were some complaints about the lack of participation at the site, so I offered myself for a Q&A session. Here's some of the questions posed.

"I know this seems very generic. I was wondering, what country to they idolize? Is it Japan? America? One of the other countries that I don't yet know about? How are the corn dogs?

-jahee"

Well, right now they hate Japan. They're both claiming ownership over this little island called Dokdo. Korea raised a big stink saying, "We've had this for years! The imperialist dogs have taken it from us. We're not going to stand for this are we? No!" My students asked me about it the first day and most did not like Japan based on the polls I took. They love American junk, but hate our beef. All the girls like the show "Gossip Girl" and pop tunes and movies have always been popular. I talked to one of my co-teachers at length about The Dark Knight the other day for example.

I've seen corn dogs in the frozen section, but the blue stars and red and white stripes on the packaging aren't persuasive enough. They have lots of other fried food though. If I get a craving, I'll just go buy a dough ball with red bean paste in the middle.

"What kind of adapter would I need for my American toaster?

In all seriousness, are you really living in South Korea?

-bonertown"

The toaster you could probably just buy a new one hear for less than the cost of an adapter. But if you've got the settings just right and have to have it, I would get a middle eastern/asian adapter. It's just long and skinny plugs. A voltage adapter probably wouldn't hurt either.

And yes, I really am in South Korea. I've been here for about a month so far. I get paid today! A couple grand that I'm going to use to buy a telescope and a couple terabyte hard drives because I can download roughly 60-70 gb a day.

"What are you downloading? Food recipes? That is a dark and dangerous path I dare not tread.

-bonertown"

At first it started out very simple. I'd like the entire catalog of "This American Life" to listen to while I walk to work every morning. "9gb? This'll take forever." But a few hours later I was already drunk on power. From there I've downloaded a lot of games that I have yet to play. I'm in the middle of KotoR:II, waiting to play Prey, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Bioshock, played a few hours of Crysis and deleted it, CS:Source, and some others I can't think of. Then I thought, I'd like to watch a movie. Should I go to the video store? No! In only 20 minutes, I can download a movie. So then I got Fargo, Dune (in blue ray), Modern Times, The Deer Hunter, Rebel Without a Cause, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, all the Aliens movies, Vice Guide to Travel, the complete Adam Curtis discography, Planet Earth, 3 seasons of the critic, Gundam 08th Ms, The Wire, Entourage, It's Always Sunny in Philly, the mighty boosh (radio and tv), Batman the Animated Series (all of it), Curb Your Enthusiams (All of it), Arrested Development, a lot of music, and a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember because I'm at school right now. So I can barely find time to watch the stuff that I have. (In fact, I can't.) I feel safe because South Korea has given the finger to the DRM so I have no chance of reprisal. In fact, the vast majority of the software here is pirated; in schools, work places, and anywhere else, chances are it's cracked.

Which brings me into the next area. PC Bangs (pronounced bahngs). These are just internet and gaming stores. Get rid of your old concept of an arcade, because for a 0.75 cents an hour, you can play from a choice of around 80 different computer games. No need to have a LAN party when you can just go to the store and everyone together pays $20 for a whole afternoon of fun. The PCs are top of the line and all have anti-glare glass to make sure that your neighbors gaming doesn't dampen your own experience. They also sell popcorn, ramen, and every kind of non-alcoholic beverage around. South Korean kids have died in these from 72 hour gaming marathons. They didn't eat, sleep, or drink for that time period for which I cannot imagine why. So, every now and then Danny, Tane (a friend from college who is teaching as well), and I go to a PC Bang after dinner to play some Warcraft III or Brood War. It's just simpler and more fun than playing in our respective homes.

I apologize for the lack of paragraphs. Also, I'm supposed to get paid today. I hope to buy a telescope. That is if they can pay me. Apparently they need my Alien Registration Card number, but I don't have that yet. So, who knows.

Skype

If you want to contact me while I am over here, the best method is probably Skype. Skype is a program that lets you use instant messaging and free Skype to Skype calls. So if you're on the computer and so am I, you can call me and speak to me directly and if you have a webcam we can even see each other.

One ability I don't know if I want to pay for is for a fee I can make phone calls to land-lines, ie calling your phone. I'd rather just talk to you on your computer and save the $130 a year instead. But things might change and I'll let you know.

So to get Skype, go to the website listed above. You can download the program here.

Then just add me by searching for my name. I hope to hear from you soon.

Time and Time Again

It's been a while since I put anything up. A lot of the time I've either been too tired or thought that I'd just do it later. Last weekend was Chuseok, which is just Korean Thanksgiving. It's more similar to Christmas though because there is a lot of gift giving and I got three days off of school. I meant to write some that weekend, but I went out a lot with Danny and Tane and then thought it would be best to put on an episode of The Critic or watch the Vice Guide to Travel. Also, I've become a bit addicted to playing Knights of the Old Republic II. But, I've found that I've been able to keep in contact with most of you on an individual basis. I don't think I've outright neglected anyone. You've either emailed me or talked to me on Skype.

I guess to tell you what I've been up to. On Wednesday I went and submitted the information for my Alien Registration Card. It's supposed to take three weeks. Bastards. Mrs. Kyoung says they're lazy. After that I went to Pasta Vanita with Danny and his co-teacher Jey. It was a really nice pasta place and at $10 a plate it's very good. I had seafood pizza for your information.

Thursday was the day before Chuseok vacation began. The students were all on edge and the teachers were excited as well. I gave the Principal a bottle of Johnny Walker Black and he seemed astounded and very grateful. He held it above his head and waved it while the other teachers oohed and ahed and said, "well done" or "great gift." I then gave the vice principal a bottle of Chilean red wine that she seemed to enjoy. She felt sorry that she had not gotten me anything. So I got a cleansing collagen mask. Apparently, the male principal was in charge of getting a gift to all the men and the female vice principal was in charge of the women. So the males got a bottle of red ginseng which is supposedly a healthy stimulant and a cure for erectile dysfunction. So I packed away the boner juice for later that night in lieu of coffee. At the end of the day, when things were winding down the entire faculty was treated to "Mexican Food". This in actuality resembled General Tsao's chicken. I've been munching meat occasionally just because I think it's impolite to turn down offered food and often it's the only food available to eat. Most of the time it comes inadvertently, because I don't know what I'm ordering.

That night, we decided to meet up with some other people in the EPIK program. They were going to meet at an out of the way bar that we didn't know how to get to. So we thought we knew and just decided to find it. Didn't work. I can read most Korean now (even though I know so few words) and had some close calls where we found Shakies or Shakes, but no shakers. So we went to a PC Bang (PC Room) to rent the Internet. We looked at the original face book directions and made our way there. No one was there and we waited an hour and a half before anyone else got there. It was a nice place, but expensive. Drinks were 8,000 won a pop. So we ordered a couple long islands, played some pool, and waited it out.

They finally arrived and it was a rag tag group: Canadians, Britons, and Aussies. We sat down for a while with some girls and everyone else immediately started complaining about the prices. I'm not sure why they decided to meet at a bar they didn't want to drink at. So we eventually left. The group schismed and one set were going to find one bar and we recommend another, The Black Inca. So half of us set out for the 1400's Peruvian theme. We sat for a long time and guzzled three bottles of Soju and 3000cc's of Hite beer. We sat, laughed, and talked about Palin and eventually left.

Tane felt his night was coming to an end, so we waved him farewell and set off for another bar. We decided to go to Cools which is a beer mart. It turns out that everyone else did as well. Westerners from all around were hunkered in a corner swapping stories. I saw two Kenyans who looked rather lonely so I went to talk to them. Big mistake. They wouldn't stop talking to me for an hour. Their English was great, but they only wanted to talk about the election. After a bit, I had a chance run in with the former Guest English Teacher at my school, Kirk. We talked for a while about different things and then he imparted some wisdom. His time was up and he was taking off. He mentioned that what he was going to miss was the excitement in life. In Korea, everything is always new and interesting. It's all a challenge that is to be overcome. The people are dynamic and everyday brought something glorious and interesting. Back in England, it all turns into routine. Same shit, different day.

Danny and I decided to mosey and went on our way. The buses were too infrequent to count on getting us home so we took a cab. While walking to a cab port, I saw a man sleeping on a grating with green duct tape all over his face and he had also fashioned some sort of cod piece. I also walked past someone pissing in the street. We had been told that's not uncommon. We got the cab and had him drop us off at my place. Only $4; brilliant. Danny didn't want to walk home from there so we had a sleep over instead.

The next morning was delicious. I tried my culinary skills and made scrambled eggs, hash browns, and jellied toast. Also available was some fruit cake that I had received as a gift. It was delicious, topped off with a cool glass of orange juice. We watched the Daily Show online and parted ways.

I lounged around for the rest of the day. We were supposed to have some sort of date with Tane's co-teacher and two of her friends. We weren't sure if it was just showing new people the area or if anything else was implied.

We met them after walking, the bus, the subway, and walking. Then we took a cab. We arrived at a large fish market. I don't recall if I've mentioned the markets, but think of something similar to a fish store. Lots of open tanks with fish swimming and writing around. You walk up to a tank and choose what you want. Each section corresponds to a store above you. Instead of wrapping the fish in a plastic and taking them home, the woman chopped each in the head with a meat cleaver until they quit wriggling.

We then went up stairs and waited. The eventually brought all the food, raw, prepared on little platters. I thought it was OK, but not great. A lot of the stuff was downright bad. Sea cucumbers? It's like eating salt water flavored cartilage. Other weird shit was put in front of us as well. The clams and oysters were delicious. Then we got a giant platter of raw white fish. It was ok, but I prefer salmon and tuna a lot more. These were all accompanied with vegetable dishes, large pickled roots, and kim chi. Then came dessert, fish head soup. It was delicious and I know most of you wouldn't be able to get past the floating head in the teok (mini cauldron) to try it. Far more pricey than I have would liked, $25.

Afterwards we went walking along Gwangali beach. There was a large "viking ride" which was like Adventureland's shooting star; just a large boat swing that went back and forth. Tane said he'd vomit so we decided to go to a bar. The area was gorgeous. It was well kempt and the decorations were nice. The gardens were well tended, the light posts were an ornately shaped metal, and art and interesting light installations dotted the area. You could also buy fireworks on the beach to shoot into the sea. We eventually settled on a place called Thursday Party. It had moderately priced drinks and was good. This area was just a hub for other whiteys. Up down and all around had bars filled with westerners.

We soon found out that the girls with us were extremely narcissistic. They were concerned with their looks at all times, constantly posed for pictures and deleted the photos taken by us that were deemed unflattering. I've always considered posing for photos bizarre. Just watching people hold a certain position for a little while someone tries to work a camera. As a historian it's bad history. They're trying to influence posterity and make an impression on the future people who look at it. It's dishonesty for portraying a natural look. Which is what they kept doing. Endless pictures of them looking disinterested were taken. They'd perfect these portraits until they were satisfied. Fluffing their hair or touching up their face if necessary. That's most of what they wanted to talk about as well. C'est la vie.

That covers the first two days of break. More later. My mouse isn't working at school at the moment

Hanging Decorations

I saw this article and since it took place in my city, I thought I would share it with you.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/09/117_30795.html

"The dead body of a man who lived alone lay unnoticed for 11 months in a one-room flat in Busan.

According to police, the new owner of the flat found the body of the previous owner, 49-year-old Sohn, Monday morning and reported it to police.

Sohn seemed to have hung himself from a pipe in the kitchen, police said. The new owner, Kim, had mistaken the body for a mannequin twice before realizing that it was a dead body.

``The body was dried up like a mummy. We suspect he died about 11 months ago, considering that his last phone call was made on Oct. 5 and that he was wearing fall clothes,'' a police officer said."

Editing and Grammar

After looking through some of my posts I've realized that my grammar is pretty bad. I apologize for that, as I usually do not edit these once I type them. I may go through and reword some sections because I think the writing is a bit off in some cases. I can't believe how many times I use the word "so".

So anyway, the teachers office was robbed last night of about 350,000 won of money and cell phones. It seems that this is a fairly big deal. First period was delayed today so that all the students and their bags could be searched. There was a 10 minute pep talk by the principal that I walked in on, but I couldn't understand a word of it. The searches turned up nothing, so the thieves remain anonymous.

I went out for dinner with my co-teachers last night at a place called VIPS. They called it the Korean version of TGIF Fridays. I have to say that it was good. I would consider it abhorrently expensive by western standards but I can understand the pricing for Korea. There was a large mix of American food: pizza, tacos, steaks, Caesar salads, and the like. One of my co-teachers is tiny, only like four feet tall, but she put away three plates of food. The other teachers asked her if anything was wrong because usually she eats six! She found my amazement funny. So we sat and talked for a long time about a variety of different things, crime, teachers unions, food, teaching styles, the administration, places to visit, and whether or not Tane's co-teacher is hitting on him. My teachers are a lot older than I had assumed. Mrs. Kyoung (Jang) is the one who has been helping me with everything I would guess is in her 50's to mid 50's. A Young who looks no older than 24 is in her thirties and has two daughters. Ae Ran is only 27. They did complain about being housewives an awful lot. They said that an unmarried girl is a princess and a married woman becomes a maid. They hate cooking for their in laws and think that old women rule the country.

I'm going to get my Alien Registration Card this afternoon. That means that I'll be able to get a cell phone, leave the country, and get Internet in my future apartment. When I returned home from dinner last night, I had just sat down when I got a knock at the door. Two women were standing there and handed me a yellow post-it note that said, "I am a licensed real estate agent." They then snooped around the place and asked me questions about any problems. I fear I may be moving very shortly.

Free Time

As you can probably tell, I have a ton of spare time. I whipped up my lesson last night at midnight and had it done by 1:30. I've taught all my classes today but I have to stay until 4:30 each day. So I've got my lessons planned for the week, so that means I've got about 18 free hours for the rest of the week. Plus, I don't have school on Friday because it's Thanksgiving. So, here are a few anecdotes about school life. Last week Thursday, a casting crew came by the school to cast some students for a "Godfather like soap opera". So it was bit odd seeing kids getting headshots done near the vice-principals desk.

I had a Saturday class this weekend which means I had to come from 10:30-12:10. We just chilled in the library while they wrote out their schedules in English. After seeing that, these kids work like dogs. The norm was to go regular school and then have to go to a Hagwon (Private School) after regular school. So they go to classes from 8:45 until 3:30, when they go to their Hagwon at 5:30 until 10:00. Then they go to bed at 12:00. This is sometimes 6 days a week. Many of them seem exhausted at times.

Also, at the end of the day the schools clean the school. Sometimes it's as a form of punishment, but the kids clean their classroom with dustpans and wipe windows and mirrors. This means that the place is filthy because they don't do a good job. There's lots of dust here and there, the mens room has been out of paper towels for 2 weeks now and the trash never gets changed.

Last Thursday, one of my co-teacher's classrooms was broken into and wallets were stolen. I talked to some of the girls afterwards and they were very sad. The my co-teacher ended up giving them some money out of their own pocket afterwards though I was very impressed. I asked her if she was going to conduct an investigation and dust for prints. She said that was not CSI. The next day she had also bought new bilfolds for them. Monday, they had caught the 3 girls that did it. Apparently, two girls saw the girls that had done it and came to my co-teacher A Young. They did not want to accuse those girls so Mrs. Young confronted the girls and said she saw them and was going to report them to the police if they didn't spill the beans. They confessed and are in the process of giving the money back. They have to kneel and write lines on their knees for a few days though. They also have to clean and are generally in a bad place.

The recylcing system here is very complicated. Everything is broken down into basic ingredients and requires seperation. You seperate metal, plastics, cardboard, food waste, styrofoam, batteries, plastic bottles/cartons, and you have to buy designated bags for general waste. They pick things up only on certain days and they must be cleaned and have the labels taken off. It was daunting at first, but now it doesn't seem that hard. Still a pain in the ass. And all the sinks have fine gratings to keep food from going down, but even grains of rice get stuck in these things.

Hell, I'll probably write more later and put up some pictures. So stay tuned.

Palin

Also, what did you think of the actual convention itself? It's dominated our bar talk here. After talking it over with Tane, it seems like the purpose of Palin isn't to gain the Hillary voters. That's what it seemed like at first, but not strategic to think women just vote for vaginas. It seems more like they're going for victimization and shock. It's a seemingly radical move to put up the first non wait male for executive office for the republicans. It's about time, but it's not a milestone. It's not like they suddenly consider women equal because of this. But she's an attractive newcomer meant to offset the escaped Madame Tussaud like candidate, John McCain. Her speech got almost as many viewers as Obama and brought donations pouring in for the republicans. She's meant to offset Obama. She's getting as much attention as he is because she's attractive, likable, and conservatives can hold on to her non-issue views: abortion, abstinence, etc.

She really doesn't have any business being in charge of any sort of office. She barely posseses credentials to run a small business. She's aparently corrupt, believes in banning books, demands fierce loyalty, woefully mismanages funds and money, and lacks any meaningful directions for "change". Can you imagine her negotiating with Medvedev? Being an envoy to Pakistan? It's neocon puppets dream, she'll smile and do what she's told because she doens't have any opinions herself.

They're already laying her up as the victim. Talking heads and members of the McCaine staff have complained about the media and Obama slandering her because she's a woman when they complained about the same things when Hillary was in the running. "Blah blah Hillary can't be a victim, this is not a boys world, she needs to be tough" and now "Quit picking on her and being mean, not fair". Recently Palin was asked what criticism had Obama and Biden said that she objected to as unfair and distasteful. She couldn't name anything. They're playing up the non-event. It's like when the band Negativland called a bunch of Minnesota television stations after some kid killed himself and said that they had nothing to do with it and their music doesn't advocate suicide. All the news stations ran the story even though the kid never even listened to their music. They made a denial and played the victim out of a non-event that became an event. Personally, I feel that if they keep doing this, it'll crash and burn on them. McCaine is the POW who needs 37 houses because he was tortured. I just hate how he claims to be the everyman blue collar guy when his wife wore a 300,000 dollar outfit to his acceptance speech. That's more than the average person makes in almost a decade. He suffered a lot, but he's moved beyond that. If he's still agonizing from that, then I don't want him serving because he may have PTSD. So my hope is that they run the victimization card into the ground so that it becomes powerless and people are sick of it.

Though Tane did mention a dangerous situation. When Hillary was running for Senate, the key moment when she basically won was during one of the debates. Her male opponent made a strong point and when and slammed some papers in front of her. Lots of people found that to be threatening and empathized with her. So the Biden debate could make her all the more lovable even if he's more eloquent.

Then there's the idea that republicans have run this country for almost three decades, controlling congress and/or the executive branch and things are in the shitter. The Bushes and Reagan gave us deficits.

*I apologize if any of this reads wrong. I originally wrote it as an email.*

What Have I Done

Hey folks,
I'm still in my place and haven't been kicked out yet. I'm writing from school and this is my first real week of education. Last week I just had to introduce myself 17 times so this is when I learn how to teach. It's going to be a long period of trial and error, probably for the next month, as I figure out what works and what doesn't. 7th grade gets to learn about vacations, 8th learns about women in sports, and 9th learns the joys of saving energy. I'll start class by going over a few concepts with them, asking them questions about the unit and then we'll read a dialogue together. We'll alternate sentences because I think it'll help their reading/listening and reading/speaking. Maybe I'll change it, who knows. I figure that'll take around 20 minutes. That means I have another 25 minutes to kill.

I've got four back up games for that. One is called World Cup game, I write a short phrase on the board, then ask them to get into pairs and find words in the phrase, so "world cup game has": worm, lace, rue, etc. After a few minutes, I write another phrase on the board. Next, basically a spelling bee, boys against girls, two people come up to the board and I give them a word and whoever spells it fastest, that team gets a point. Then if I had a ball or a wadded up piece of paper, it's the catch and answer game, you ask a question, toss the wad and whoever catches it has to answer the question, then they ask a question and that person answers. Finally: phrase hangman, just hangman with a phrase. It'll get them to think about grammatically correct phrases and word order when they try and guess what it is. These are placeholders for when I actually figure out how to teach. It's not busy work, but it's not really a lesson. I need to figure that out yet.

Had a good weekend. I met Danny and Tane at nine at a Starbucks in Nampo-dong. Let's see, what did we do? We went drinking, but the specifics are lost to me at this point. I'm really tired this morning and haven't been sleeping well. I got maybe 5 hours last night and I have a bad habit of waking up at 4:00 am thinking, "Shit! I'm late for school." Only to realize that I'm really tired and have to go back to bed. So, I need to build a circadian rhythm. Time zone changes are a bitch. One body of research I've seen says that you can never truly adjust to a change. That your body becomes hard wired to an area and you're stuck with it. I hope not for my sake.

Bit of a tangent there, so Saturday I had to come in for a short class. I got here at 10:30 and taught until 12:10. I just had the kids write down their schedule and then read it. I don't think they liked it one bit. Then I met danny for lunch as he lives like 3 blocks away from my school. We wandered a bit, craved some pizza but didn't want to pay $20-30 for one, so we settled on a nice Korean place. We put our shoes in cubby hole and went and sat down on the floor. I made a crib sheet for different foods so that I might have some sense of what I'm eating but it's so difficult. Looking at the English translation/ingredients and then trying to read the Hanguel alphabet for an exact match is so time consuming that we rely solely on pictures and point to sustain ourselves.

Oh, I just recalled what we did Friday. We went to a "Beer Mart" called the Cool club. No bozos allowed. Walked up to the second floor and it was a hip little establishment that was sort of like a grocery store. You'd walk over to the cooler or rack of snacks, pay and then go sit at a table. It had a good atmosphere and great beer selection. I had some Duvel, Danny a pale ale (which he hated), and Tane had some Warsteiner. We chilled here and then left to an Incan bar. By that, I mean the motif was 1400 Peru. Stone carvings, spears, foliage, except filled with Koreans. We got two bottles of Soju and 1700 cc's of Hite (piss water). We talked a lot about Palin but I'm not going to do that at the moment because that'll take to long.

Anyway, back to Saturday. Still with me? Good. After I finished lunch with danny it started to rain. Our mission was to find some cheap imported booze. Target numero uno was the Duty Free shop at the Busan Ferry Terminal. We walked, took a bus, and after more walking found it. Turns out you have to have a ferry ticket to buy non-taxed goods. Blast. So we asked information for the Lotte department store. Think a mall, but instead of different shops, the areas are separated into brands. We took the subway there and walked to the underground entrance. The area was set up like a Renaissance fountain. Cherubs spitting water, the ceiling painted as the sky, and a bunch of Greek gods presiding over a pool. Redic. After walking through the 11 floors, we found no booze. I bought some lime juice, hot sauce, and a iced latte. Danny got some peanut butter, whole grain pasta, and a coffee. We then knew of one more place. We'd heard whispers of a back alley booze store located near the Jagalchi market. We knew that area and went in search. We wandered around for a long time and were running down the clock. We were to meet Tane at 6:00 at Hadan, near his house. It was now 5:40. After backtracking several times and moving in circles we finally found the booze stand. Hundreds of bottles of cognac, whiskey, brandy, and vodka were put on display. Everything was expensive. I grabbed an $18 bottle gin, danny agonized over $30-40 bottles of whiskey and left empty handed which he would regret later that evening. His goal is amass a collection, sort of like Pokemon. He'll catch these brutes, and then line them up in his home to fight boredom and holidays when they rear their ugly heads. I joked that his goal was to just sit in an easy chair on Sundays, pour himself a "neat" glass of scotch and just lay around with his shirt off and trousers unbuttoned.

We met Tane and wandered around in his wasteland for a long time. We couldn't find any restaurants that had pictures or English, so we went back to Nampo-dong. We had a big plate of seafood rice and squid pancakes. Then we went to a high class bar and had shitty cocktails. I was fiending for a G&T, but instead got the stumbly-wumbly version of diet sprite, maybe gin, and a lemon. Sad. Then went to Noreabang (kareoke) and sang our hearts out. We took some pulls of gin and and drank 3 more bottles of Soju. After singing all the Radiohead songs we knew, I was ready to go home. It was around 12:00, but they wanted to go to Haendae beach, the youth paradise. The place was 40 minutes away by subway. So at 2am, when it was time to turn in I would have an hour commute of multiple transfers on subway lines, a bus, and walking. I laughed at them and went home. Talking to them the next day, they said it was not worth it. There was a bazillion kids there and they saw a bunch of westerners, but that was all.

Yesterday I watched The Fog of War, ate Ramen, and played Knights of the Old Republic II. It was a good day. Now I need to go to class soon. Wish me luck.

New Surroundings

My landlord has decided to sell my apartment. So my school is in the process of finding another place for me to live. The landlord hadn't raised the price of the place in four years and decided that he wanted to sell the place because it was worth a lot more. So he's selling my place and going to be showing it to people over the next few days. What's weird is that Korean Thanksgiving is coming up on the 15th. In their culture, it's a custom not to move during this period. So after the financial director of our school called 10 different real estate brokers nothing is available to look at. So, I've got to shack up with danny for a few weeks while this gets sorted out. I'll be touring different places and helping decide with them. The current place I'm in is a bit of a dump and located in the middle of no where, with no restaurants or stores nearby. The only thing going for it is the unbelievable view. While I will definitely miss the view, the sight of the East sea along the coast with all the ships parked in the harbor, dotting the black ocean like a christmas tree at night, I would like a better location. So, we will see what comes of this.

You are Sexy

So I've been teaching for three days now. I've done the same basic lesson with modifications here and there. I write my name on the board, introduce myself and then say how much I love it when people speak English. I repeat how when they talk English it makes me happy. When they speak Korean it makes me sad. It is important to speak English because it becomes easier the more that they do it. Then the order of things is often moved around but I flash up a picture of America and tell them where I live, then I tell them a few things about it. Then I show them the flag. Then I play the game two truths and a lie. Lots of repeating here, and saying things over and over. I write an example on the board, "I am a boy, True" and "I am a girl, False", but the Korean teacher still explains it often. Then my three sentences are, 1. I have one brother and one sister, 2: I do not like Kim Chi, 3. I have traveled to many countries around the world. Then I ask them which is the lie by raising their hands or shouting the number. Then I tell them that #2 is the lie because I like Kim Chi. Then I show them a picture of my family and point out that I have one brother and one sister. I point out my mother and father and then ask them if my family is handsome. I ask them if my sister is cute (the boys go whooooaaa), then I ask them if my brother is cute (and the girls go whooooaaa). Then I show them pictures of where I've traveled and ask them questions about them. Then I ask them to take out their notebooks and pens and write two truths and a lie of their own. Then I either put them into groups of four to ask each other or I go one by one and have them read outloud to the entire class.

I've altered this hear and there based on responses that I've got. My first class was hell. The students were wild, I wasn't organized, and ended up with a lot of free time. They didn't understand and it was just chaos. Things are manageable now. The 9th grade girls all fawn over Derek. When I mention that he's sixteen just like them they go nuts. Then they ask if they can have his phone number. Last period, I had a student profess her love for me. Then she asked if I knew the Korean word for "Freaky". Not sure what that means, but she lives in a building right near me so hopefully I haven't germinated a budding stalker.

The walk to school sucks. It's about a half a mile walk up a hill, err...I mean mountain. Some inclines are 45 degrees. I'll get used to it eventually, it's just terrible now. I always get to school a little sweaty. The mountain affords a great view, but everyroad is so steep.

I met Danny and tane at Nampo-dong yesterday for dinner. I found out that danny lives in my area, about a mile away. Once again, not very far but it involves a lot of hills. We walked around for a long time looking for a place to eat and after lots of walking in circles we found a really nice sushi place. So incredibly cheap. It would have cost about 60 bucks in America but we got it for $18 between the three of us. Then we went looking for a bar and went to a place called "Hollywood" because we were looking for decent beer and they brewed their own. But we got trapped. It's one of those places where you HAVE to order food along with drinks and all the food was priced above 12,000 won ($12). So we got a ton of bar food (prawns, popcorn, sunchips, mealworms, curried potatoes, sweet pretzels, and other things). That food was free, but we had to pay for pizza potatoes. Just think a hollowed out potato half with pizza ingredients. Then we hopped the bus and went home.

I'm going to go get my medical check later on today. They're going to do a physical, HIV/AIDS blood test, drug test, dental, and a chest x-ray to assess the state of my health for insurance purposes. Let's hope I don't get denied anything. It'll cost 70,000 won but I found out that I'll be teaching after school classes for 3 hours a week and get 80,000 won each week for that. But, paid at the end of the semester. So it'll be a nice little bonus come January.