Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Lazy...

I've been slack here... So I'm just gonna copy and paste some emails I sent people about what I'm up to all the time... Here goes... This might be rather dry... If you wanna read in order start at the bottom...

January 28th

Yesterday I went to Kyobo at Jamsil and bought a book about Hong Kong. I was gonna buy the big China version but I thought I didn't wanna carry that around with me on my trip. There was a Korean-American girl there with a notepad reading the same China Lonely Planet book as me. She had too many notes made. She said she never buys the books. She just goes to the bookstore for an hour or two and makes notes from the book.

I think she is typical Korean. She loves studying so much that she enjoys making notes and acting like a student. I think she was offended when I jokingly said that to her.

I should have asked her if she ever heard of those places called libraries...

January 22nd

Today I went skating with the kids at my school English camp. It's fun being the best skater on the whole ice rink.

I also booked my tickets to Hong Kong for February when my Diggz comes. Gonna meet my Sam from DL in Hong Kong because she lives in a nearby city so she can take care of us. That means I barely have to plan anything because she's gonna book the places for us to stay and take us around the city! That's my kind of travelling.

So we're gonna spend the weekend in Hong Kong then go to Shenzhen. That's the city where Sam lives. She has to work, but her Phillopino boyfriend works at a bar in the bar district so we can hang out in that area and meet him when he finishes work, if I'm not too wasted. Once again, no planning.

Then we'll head back to Hong Kong for a few days on our own. So gotta make some plans for those couple days, or but a Lonely Planet book.

God, I really really really really wanna go out and drink. All this camp and sick stuff has gotten the better of me. I've been at camp for two weeks, then I got sick the weekend I came back. I haven't seen Matt or Karen in weeks so it should be good to see them, especially Matt because I still haven't heard about his trip to Canada.

I'm pretty sure I can predict what he did there...

Unknown Date

Very weird.I'm listening to this band called Windir. A folk metal band from Norway. The singer died when he was 25 walking to his families cabin in the forest. I was reading the lyrics to the album that he wrote when he was 22 or 23. Creepy...
A fate, a destiny,
an inevitable early death
Finally I'm dead,
And the vision is revealed for everyone else

Dying with sorrow not in hand,
Welcoming my gods, an equal I am,
A travel awaits before me,
Encircled as a God, dead as a man
He must have been listening to a lot of Biggie and 'Pac 'cause he knew, just like two of the b'ys, that his time was coming...

January 17th

I'm back from ENGLISH camp!!!!!!!!!!!!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But a little bored because everyone I know has to work because they don't work in public schools so I don't have much to do. Last night I went to the Wa Bar near my home and drank with my bartender friend. She drank a lot while she was working. It was fun!

My apartment is such a mess!!! I still haven't really unpacked from camp and there is stuff everywhere. When you live in a box it doesn't take much to create a bad state.

Some students asked for my email address so I gave it to them. I already have about five emails from students. One kid already sent me three emails. He said "Why didn't you write back to me yet!" He sounds angry. But I'm not writing them back until next week because I don't want to think about those kids. Then after that, never writing to them again. Trying to forget the most of the last 2 weeks of my life!!!

The last night at camp we all went out for dakgalbi (spicy chicken... GOOD), beer , and soju. Then we went to a noraebang and it was so much fun. One of the foreign teachers called Jin a dickhead. We had two seperate rooms and when Jin would come in our room we (foriegners) would all leave and go to the other room. But we started smoking in our room so all of the Koreans left only and one or two stayed. One of the Korean teachers is such a giant flirt!! She liked all of the weigooks (foreigners) so much, but she has a boyfriend. She was the best thing about camp.

Everyone left the noraebang at about 2:30 so me and the foreigners went around the town stealing firewood. We had so much wood and our fire was burning until 5am! We were so drunk and happy and angry all at the same time! Happy to be going home... Angry about Jin and the old men who were yelling at us last time. One of the weigooks got crazy and started knocking over the barBQ and picnic tables and benches and just breaking stuff. So we shortly left because all of us were starting to go crazy.

We also bought a bunch of fireworks and put on a show for the students the last night. They loved it!!!

Today, I ordered 2 pizzas from the same place. I got my co-worker to call and order and the delivery guy just laughed at me because it was the same guy both times. DELICIOUS!!!!

Freedom is great...

January 10th

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

I really need to get out of here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just when things seem to be going good, something bad happens.

Last night, me and the weigooks had the night off so we had a fire by the river near of prison. We lit the fire with Pringles chips but we didn't have enough wood. Matt, the Aussie, went looking for wood and he broke into someones shed and came back with wood!!! He said the wood was actually a part of the shed. I don't know...

Then we wanted to sit down so we saw a bench in someones garden. So Matt went to get the bench and when he was walking with it, the old man came home and got out of his car and started yelling at Matt. Matt tried to explain we were just going to sit on it and put it back but he just kept yelling...

Then we bought MANY fireworks and shot them at the bridge!!!!! About an hour later a different old man came and started yelling at us and we were a little drunk by now so we started yelling back at him. Everyone was just yelling but no one understood anything... So he left.

Then we tried to cook frozen pizza on the fire but that didn't work?!?! Stupid weigooks...

When we came back to the prison it was midnight. We went in the staff room and the Koreans were having a party but they didn't tell us?!!?!?!??!? AHHHHHH a Korean teacher just snuck up behind me and scared the shit out of me while I am typing... She's one of the nice teachers...

Anyway... we went in the staff room and they looked so surprised that we were there. We started drinking their beer but we didn't really feel welcomed but we stayed anyway...

Now, on to Jin. So Jin apparently has a crush on my co-teacher. I actually had a crush on her when I taught with her this summer but now she has a boyfriend, and she isn't as cute. Jin is about 40 years old and she is 25. Jin is also married, but he is always kind of following her around and trying to sit by her. So, because I hate him, I decided I'm always going to flirt with her when he's around.

So I came into the staff room last night and there was no room on the table by her (Alice) but I went and told her to move over and sat by her. Jin looked so angry. Then I kept going "cheers" and drinking and joking with her, just to make him angry. He looked so cold. Next, I congratulated Jin for his wedding anniversary that was only a few days ago and said "you are so lucky to be so happily married."

I'm an asshole, but he deserves it.

Jin, and this camp, make me kind of hate Korea a little bit. All of us weigooks just complain about Korea and the culture when we are here because we are treated like 2nd class people at this camp (kind of, well, not really... hard to explain).

I just can't wait to get back to SEEEEEOUUUUUUUULLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How muchee...

This morning was awkward.

I got to the bus stop a little bit late so I thought maybe I would be late for school. I was waiting for a couple of minutes, then I saw a familiar looking man coming to the bus stop. It was my vice-principal!

I've never seen him at my bus stop before. He knew he was a little late too, and he knew I was a little late. He asked how long I was waiting in his broken English ('Bus. Wait. How muchee?') and I said 10 minutes. Really, I was just there a minute or two but I didn't want him thinking I was late. I wanted him to think the bus was late.

Then we waited together and it was the longest 7 or 8 minutes I've had in Korea. He speaks no English, but I felt rude being there with him listening to music so I took out one headphone, but then I couldn't properly enjoy my morning music. The song I was listening to had the guitar and bass and vocal harmonies and on different channels so I only go half the song. Maybe it would have been better if I took out the left ear, not the right.

So the bus finally comes and we get on. Then we have to transfer to another bus but it pulled out in front of us so we couldn't catch that bus. So we went one more stop to catch another bus. We should have went one extra stop, then we wouldn't have to walk to transfer but he wanted to get off one stop before. Then we had to cross the road and run because the bus was coming. Thankfully, I was with an old Korean man because the driver stopped way before the stop and picked us up. That wouldn't happen for me.

Thankfully there weren't two open seats next t o each other so I didn't have to sit by him.

Played 'The Price is Right' all morning with my grade four kids. My students liked this picture...

Thursday, January 17, 2008

A bad case...

I'm gonna incorporate this into my teaching somehow...


Bad Case Of Diarrhea - Watch more free videos

Home free...

Oh fack... Just got back from two weeks in English Camp Hell.

Terrible...

As expected...

One of the Korean teachers, a 37 year old man named Jin, was a total dickhead, and I had to work with him on a club performance.

The club practices were supposed to be one hour a day, but this guy made the kids meet after lunch and each day the kids practiced for about 2-2.5 hours. No other club did this. Pissed me off because the kids were tired and just wanted to play with their friends.

Also, he might be a closet fag. In Korea there's this song called "Tell Me" by a group called Wonder Girls. Picture a 16 year old version of the Spice Girls with, dare I say, less talent. For some reason, this 37 year old man knows the "Tell Me" dance. That is definitely questionable.



Jin Jin Jin.

He also monopolized the stage even when he wasn't using it so no other groups could practice. He knocked over a snowman that grade 5 girls made. He had an annoying voice. He was married but was constantly flirting with my cute co-teacher who is just 25. He learned to play guitar after a previous English camp because another teacher played guitar and his wife was impressed by that dude. He called one of the foreign teachers rude because she was waiting for 25 minutes to use the stage and he just had his kids sitting on the stage talking to them.

I had already had a run-in with him before but the rude comment really pissed me off. The first time I told him that it is unfair to the kids because he's making them work too hard and taking away too much of their free time. I questioned his motivations for doing this, telling him I thought that he just wanted to show everyone up during the performance and that it's not a competition. I pretty much told him I thought he was a selfish prick without saying that.

Then I told the supervisor all of this, but she's been friends with him since high school. Anway.

After the rude comment, I pretty much said the same things again, but by now he had pissed many people off and I told him he was completely inconsiderate to anyone else's needs. I told him I thought he was a smug prick who used "Korean Culture" as his scapegoat for any problems he had with the foreigners.

I then went to the supervisor and told her I will never teach another camp again if Jin is there. I told her she wasn't doing a good job at this camp compared to last year, and the other foreign teacher told her the same thing (and that teacher has much more experience and clout than me). I told the supervisor she put us in uncomfortable situations by asking us if we were having problems with Korean teachers while Korean teachers were in the room. I told her the Korean teachers didn't speak barely any Korean last year when the foreigners were around, but this year they were mostly speaking Korean in the staff room. I told her we don't like it when they speak in their secret code and then we hear our names in their conversations.

So that was that.

I put up with him the rest of camp and barely spoke a word to him even though we worked together for almost 2 hours each day.

The kids at camp were great, just like last year. My class of girls were less snobby so that was nice, and my boys were kinda pansies (but kicked ass at soccer) so they were no trouble.

My co-teachers were much better this year. I worked with both of them at a summer camp, and the young teacher Jin liked is extremely cute, so that made my days more enjoyable.

We had a foreigner party by the river one night. We had no wood so the Aussie broke into a shed and came back with some lumber that he actually tore from the shed. It was the shed. Then he went to borrow a bench from some dudes garden and the dude came home and got out of his car freaking out. Funny.

Then another old man came freaking out at us but by now we were drunk and lacking respect. We tried to say "It's ok" etc. but he kept freaking so a few choice words were flung his way.

The last night of camp we went out to dinner, then to a noraebang, then to the river again. This time, we knew where to get wood. One morning we went on a bike ride and I scoped out a dude splitting wood near the river. Soooo, we borrowed a little wood from him and had a kick-ass fire until 5 in the morning.

It's good to be back to civilization and back to a place where the food isn't utter shit.

That's it for now. Maybe I'll eventually write something more about China but meh... Probably not. Just look at the Facebook.

I ain't down with redundancy...

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Ching chang chong...

Got back from China a few days ago but I've been drinking every night since I've gotten back so no time to write anything... Well, I have time, just too hungover.

I'm hungover now of course, but I gotta go to English Camp tomorrow for two weeks so I thought I'd write something now.

New Years Ever last night. I met Kyu at Woodstock for a few drinks and then headed up to Jenn and Gavin's apartment. Karen met me there too. It was a big Newfy party. Almost everyone there was a Newf, besides maybe three or four people.

When I got to Jenn's, I started drinking somac (soju and beer mixed). I got pretty drunk and left kinda early. Not sure what time, but it wasn't too late.

I woke up in the taxi and he was just driving around my neighborhood waiting for me to wake up. The taxi was about ten bucks more than it should have been!!

I stepped out of the cab and started throwing my guts up. For some reason I just kept walking and barfing. I'm not sure why I didn't stop. Maybe it was too cold or something.

So that was New Years. All in all, total success!

And now, Christmas in China.

China was fun. Did all the touristy shite like the Great Wall and Forbidden City and some temple. Went to the big market and bought a bunch of fake stuff. Got three pairs of Jordans for about 70 bucks. Two pairs are fine but one pair isn't. The right shoe is about a cm bigger than the left.

Stupid Chinese goods...

The paint is starting to come off of the shoes I've worn only twice.

Stupid Chinese goods...

Gotta expect that I s'pose.

What else did we do. Went to lots of bars and found the cool back alley bars. We went to this area called Sanlitun (I think) . We kinda lucked out because we had no idea where to go so we stopped this white girl on the street. She gave us the lowdown and told us to go to The Rickshaw bar. Once we found that bar everything else fell into place.

It was definitely an expat hangout so got some go info there, although we didn't get this info until the second night. So we spent our first night on the main strip there getting harrassed by Chinese dudes on the sidewalk tryna get you to go to their bar. Every bar was essentially the same on that strip. They all had live music. Most bands were comprised of one or two hot Chinese girls singing, with an old guitar player and keyboardist.I think I was falling in love with both of those girls, especially the silver girl! They were so cute. They really weren't into it at all, and they be playing with their hair or looking at their nails. The silver chick sang the last song and by then she was giviner. Sexy sexy sexy girl!

After getting brutally overcharged there, we went looking for the back alley bars. We were actually in the right area but it was just so dead that we thought it couldn't be the right place. The next day we were talking to some diplomats at The Rickshaw. They told us some cool bars and they knew their shit. These bars were pretty awesome and that's where we spent x-mas night. Bar Blu and the China Doll.

I met these two cute Chinese girls at Bar Blu and danced with them all night. One of them spoke decent English because she is majoring in English. I got their phone numbers and was supposed to hang out with them the next day, but in my drunken mess I lost their numbers. Shitty deal!!! They wanted me to come hang out at their university which would have been super cool. They both lived the dorm there so I could have potentially stayed there with them. Ah, I don't wanna talk about it?!!?

Well, I gotta get ready for English Camp now, so I'll write some more later. For now, check out the Facebook to see my picture story of China.

Happy New Year ya pricks!