Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea

Just wanted to let everyone know, I've discovered a new way to display my photos. It's going to take me three times as long to do the html for each page then it would if I had my own computer and wasn't working from a PC Bang, but I'm gonna try and do it regardless. Maybe that'll be my project for this weekend...hours and hours and hours...
If I only I had Flash and Photoshop at my disposal....argh!


Prayers to Buddha blowing in the wind at Tapgol Park.

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Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea

Today I had an open class. This is where the parents of my Morning Kindergarten class all come in to watch me teach. It was a little bit nerve racking as I had to prepare a special 45 minute teaching session that included small bits of all the lessons I teach over the three hour class. Many of the parents of my students this term are very protective of their children. I always get cards that say "Please take care of my son." I never really know what their asking of me, I do my best to always protect all the kids from themselves...they're really violent against one another.

I had one parent ask me "What is the worst in this class?" I asked back "Umm....student or lesson?" I couldn't really figure out what she wanted to know. She said "Student." It was then I realized she was fishing for compliments for her son. I named a couple of the worst students and then she said..."And my son?" Now she must know that he is the best behaved student in the class, he always gets glowing compliments in his report card and speaks english very well. She just wanted me to say it again. That's basically what this is all about, a show for the parents and it can make or break the school.

Anyways, I did some verbal time, then reading and written academics, followed by Show and Tell and a Science Experiment...all neatly within 45 mins. The kids were all confused, they're use to all of those lessons being spread out over three and a half hours. They kept thinking that it was time to go home right after the open class. They really have no concept of time...I think it went well, my director said they were all satisfied, but want me to find individual reading books for them that can be sent home with each student at the end of the week. I now have to spend who knows how long after work at an English book store downtown with my director selecting a series of English readers for my Kindergarten students.

This month is also the month where I have to finish all my report cards for all my classes. Usually, it's just my 12 Kindergarten students. Every other month I have to write one for every student...all 40 of them. This is over 4 hours of unpaid work....yeah!

My director has also set up an English camping weekend with my older classes. It'll be Friday the 16th and 17th of July. We'll take the kids to some wilderness area and camp with them overnight, have breakfast and games and then send them home the next day at 2pm. It'll work out to be overtime for us....I don't know how much though...either way it means I'll miss out on another drunken Friday night and most of a Saturday day...and instead get to spend it in the forest with kids running around and socking me in the nuts...just what I always dreamed of...

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Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea

Sorry, I haven't been updating this very often lately. I've been really busy these days and there's been a lot going on.

Getting Paid

In case you were wondering I did eventually end up getting paid. The day I was supposed to get paid my director told me that there was a "lobbely" in Gangneung and that the bank was "fired." I took this to mean that the bank was closed. She went on to explain that the bank downtown had been robbed by some masked men, who gassed the bank and that the leader had long hair. The she said "One person dead...one person dead." I could hardly keep a straight face, the money was already five and a half months late and this was the best excuse she could come up with. She said it would take another week before she could get to a different bank and get me my money. So, all weekend I was dumbfounded, she had to have known that if something like that really did happen I would be able to find out about it. I thought it was the worst lie I had ever heard.

Then Sunday night, I read Soutthida's blog where she described, in detail the robbery in Gangneung. I couldn't believe that it had actually HAPPENED...here's what she said:

I forgot to add this story that I heard from Dylan and Ras. It's one of those stories that is so bizarre that you can't believe it could happen is this small city. I had heard from Ras, (who was told by story-telling Ryan) that on Friday, nine guys tried to rob a KB Bank in downtown Kangneung. There's a bank across from Popeye's, but it's not that one. A couple buildings down, toward Jacob the Baker, a new KB Bank opened up 2-4 months ago. There was a fire there, and it was rumored that's how those nine people tried to rob the bank... by setting it on fire! The real story seemed to surface when we had lunch with Dylan and Levi on Sunday. There was a Korean man, who was denied a bank loan the day before. So, on Friday, he went to the bank, brought gasoline, and set it on fire. The whole building didn't burn down or anything, but it was a huge mess. The police were called, so this man went to the top of the building, and jumped off the three story building when the police tried to apprehend him. Nobody I know personally saw this, but he supposedly landed on his head, got up, ran some more, before falling down and dying. (gruesome!) Dylan DID confirm that he saw someone from the bank hosing down blood from the front of the bank. The nine robbers, ended up being nine people that were seriously injured in the fire. CRAZY..... When I walked by tonight, there were at least 15 people inside the bank, cleaning and doing construction work inside.

So in the end, she was telling the truth. Ha...who would've thought! And I did end up getting paid afterall...a huge brick of cash...it's nice to finally be out of debt.

Drunken Nights

My birthday on the 15th went pretty well. We had dinner in Gyo-dong and then headed over to this new convenience store, Dream Mart, for some drinks. I wanted to do something a little different and had decided that it would be fun to hit up some "new" bars in my area. We all walked to Club Shocking and sat at the bar, but eventually were turned away as there were too many people at once for the bartender's too handle. From there we headed to Waikiki Brothers and were turned away for the same reason. It's important to mention that there was no more than two other customers in each bar when we arrived...they just didn't want to serve us. From there we headed to Bar Bumpin' for another All You Can Drink night. I don't really remember anything after that. I know I did end up at The Warehouse and fell over a few times. I woke up with bruises on my elbows and arms and of all places....my knees...so go ahead and make your jokes...

The following weekend was Club Night in Seoul. I ended up getting into Seoul with Soutthida a decent hour and we ate quickly and then headed out to meet Glyn and Misty at our hotel in Sinchon. From there we went to Hongdae and waited around near a stinky sewer for Giselle and her Korean boyfriend. After spending some time in Joker Red and meeting up with some GI's, one of whom was wearing a wig to hide from the MP's, Misty and I decided to buy some Makkeolli, get beyond drunk and start hitting each other. It was all in good fun...and the night ended up being long and crazy...we saw a few clubs including the new Ohoo Club, where Glyn and I did a rendition of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets StreetFighter on the stage. We had sound effects and were jumping off furniture and the sides of the stage...I'm not sure what it looked like to everyone below but it was amazing to us.

The next night I headed back to Sokcho for Glyn's birthday party. Glyn and I did an encore presentation of our show at Hacker Club. Everyone was really drunk, after almost getting shot by the Korean military and getting a spotlight shone on us for sneaking on to a forbidden area of the beach we went skinny dipping down on the main beach. I left two bottles of beer out there somewhere...but you won't hear me talk about that.

Soutthida has put together an amazing presentation of the pics on her site. (Scroll down past the Hi Seoul Festival to find them)

http://www.lao-ocean.com/2004_May.html

The following weekend was a River Party in Yang-Yang. It was a nice change from the usual Korean drinking scene, but I had to trek through a small river and bushes and ended up getting soaked on the way home. Glyn almost died. He was walking to the campfire on this small spit of sand through tall weeds. I could see his head and the weeds were towering over him. All of a sudden he disappeared and I heard some bushes shaking...followed by an "ohhhh Fuck!!!" We continued on in a different direction and found him waiting for us at the camp fire..."Good thing you made it Glyn!" We ended up getting really drunk and making asses of ourselves off on the side...

The next night I went back to Sokcho for Stuart's (one of Glyn's co-workers) going away party. It started out pretty shitty. Glyn and Kate took me to this fish restaurant that had hundreds of dead bugs all over the floor. I didn't eat much and drank way too much...not a good combination. From there we met up with everyone at this vampire bar that had severed limbs everywhere and mannequins dressed like a vampire bride and groom at the door. We moved on to this horrible Jazz Bar that was playing Jazz-Elevator music theme songs from the 80's. They kept on playing the theme to WKRP in Cincinatti over and over again. I couldn't take it.

Kate, Glyn and I left and went to Family Mart where we shared some drinks and talked. From there we all headed to the Tara Burn. It was closed but we managed to see one of the bartenders who reopened it for everyone. I ended up going home early and broke Glyn's key in his lock. It was stupid....well I was stupid, I was trying to open the wrong lock on his door with his old bicycle lock key. The key broke off and I ended up getting the door man to come let me in. When I got in I locked the door and passed out, so that when Glyn and Kate came home a couple of hours later they had to get the doorman to let them in again....

I don't know, last night was Kate's Gangneung going away party. Good times...
I've got a lot more to write about the Danoje Festival and stuff...

Knowing Is Half The Battle

If you have a sec, check out these hilarious videos. Remember those GI Joe public service announcements they always had at the end of every show, followed by "Knowing is half the battle!" Well, someone has dubbed over the voices with sheer stupidity...enjoy!

http://www.fenslerfilm.com/?sec=video

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Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea

I'm exhausted and overworked. These 45 hours work weeks have been taking their toll, especially since I haven't been paid in 5 and a 1/2 months. Today's the final due date according to my director, so we'll see what happens tonight. I guess things have just been building up and I'm getting annoyed with a lot of the little things about living here. Not to mention my work schedule which leaves me virtually no time during the week to do anything. I'm living by the minute and it's even harder to get by when no one understands a fucking word your saying. Get this, the Post Office is open only Monday to Friday and is closed by the time I'm finished work, you can't buy stamps for international mail. In order for me to send a letter out of this country, I have to show up, in person, at the Post Office and have my mail weighed. The Post Office is a cab ride away from work and I'd have to spend a lunch hour just to mail a letter.

Then there's laundry, and the lack of clothes driers everywhere in this country that sucks too. If I do a wash, when I'm lucky to find one of the two machines in my apartment building free, I can't wear anything I've just washed for at least twenty four hours...which usually translates to two days as I can't do the wash unless it's late, late at night....my only free time. And don't even get me started on what it's like to wear clothes right off of a drying rack in your living room...dammit...I never knew what static cling was until I came to Korea...my quilt sends electrical bolts through my sheets when I get into bed at night...like blue lightning through the covers, yeah that feels great.

Now, let's talk about the construction. There's six buildings going up within one block of my apartment. Construction work goes from 7am to 8pm...every day of the week and has been going on for the last four months. The typical Korean villa apartment building usually has a facade of cut stone. The most annoying noise on earth is a bunch of Korean men cutting hundreds of blocks of stone for five hours with a wet saw at 7:30am on a Saturday morning. Especially when I just got home at 5...

In addition, the stone dust blows through my windows coating my apartment in a thin layer of ground stone and Yellow Dust (carcinogen laden sand and metal dust from Mongolia that blows over Korea every Spring). Try breathing that in every day. No wonder they all wear "health masks."

And the bathrooms...your typical Korean shower is in the middle of your bathroom with just a drain in the floor, very primitive, but Western style showers just really haven't caught on here...not like it would make any sense to not soak your entire bathroom every time you have a shower??? Anyways, when the trap dries out during the night, these drains leak sewer gas and small flies up into my bathroom and out into my apartment. Tasty...I love waking up to that every morning...

Soooo....Tomorrow night's the start of the Danoje Festival, which I'm really looking forward to. I'm also looking forward to spending some time around town. I've gone away almost every weekend for the last month...or have been too drunk to remember that I was even here in Gangneung.

I may sound like I'm not really having a good time...but you know, it's just work...it sucks, if I was at home, I would've quit a long time ago...But, outside of work, the last few months have been the best out of my time here so far. I'm having a great time, summer's coming, it's Festival time, it stays light out late and is getting really hot...everything's good as long as it's not a weekday and I have to face those monsters...

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