Seoul Seraching

There is a smell which belongs solely to Seoul (the place I live in). It can be identified by it's ability to grab your mind's attention away form whatever it was that it was enjoying and immediatlely introduce itself again and again. It is a smell which never fails to make me melancholy. On the plus side, it is least potent in winter, perhaps because the chilly air neutrilizes any sense of smell to begin with: it is winter now. On the plus side if there is one, it conceals any attempts at breaking wind from other parties, which such odor is utterly lost in what can only be described as the Seoul's far stronger influence on your nostrils.

A birthday party

Well what do you know. Birthday parties can still be fun, especially when it involves fire breathing English teachers (from the blazing shots) and all night romps on the town. What a crazy time that was. A friend (another English teacher) decided to drink a vodka shot which was on fire without bothering to put it out. A burst of flame spewed from his mouth and gust upon his onlooking friends. It was a sight I don't think I can easily forget. The rest of the birthday party was mundane enough. We eneded up at a karoke place, but I opted not to go and instead headed home for a little rest.

It's a bird, it's a plane no it's...

A green cross signal! Yes friends, I was walking around today and noticed people running in the opposite direction for no apparent reason. They were running like a flock of gazells being chased by a pugnacious lion snapping on their heels but when I looked back, I discovered the answer: the walk signal had turned green. Those things don't last long.

I wandered around the area known as Gwanghwamun and discovered a new pretty section which was nice. That is the fun of being in a large new city: so much to see, I couldn't see it all if I stayed only a few days.

It's gettin ga lot colder. Tomorrow is monday, which I don't dread, because I have two periods free in the morning to prepare for lessons. I will play the softball game with the teachers tomorrow too. we practiced a few times last week. Even the principal came out and hit a few balls around.

Karaoke is noraebang in Korean

And yes I did noraebang(NB) on Friday for the first time. It was a little different from the Japanese version I was used to. Despite Seoul being much larger than Kobe, the rooms at the NB place were large. I would think real estate would dictate the opposite. I was wrong. But the machine blasts this ridiculous music in the middle of songs which it's japanese cousins never did. I guess its an incentive to quickly load another song in. I brough two friends with me and as is customary these days, left at 3 am . Taxis are way cheaper in Korea so the cab fare is not a big hit. Trains run till 12 or so, which is really when things get rolling in Seoul.

BTW please feel free to post your comments.

I'd walk a long way to get to McDonalds

.. Because near my work, it has the only Western toilet. At my school, there is one bathroom next to the teacher's room which is shared by students and teachers. It's not that clean and the toilets are "the other kind" meaning they are squat toilets. I would not advise recruiters of bomber pilots to work at this school. Not much talent here.
Another thing about McDonald's: they actually use a roster in English for scheduling the bathroom clean times. What a great thing!

Halloween Fun

I skipped a class at the free Korean school that I usually go to on Tuesdays to go to a Halloween club. It was pretty nice. I dressed up as a cowboy (a very easy thing for me to do, since I have a cowboy hat). It was pretty nice. I met a few people, and got back at around 1 am. What a crazy life style. Someone asked "how do you stay awake after going out so late?" and I answered: " I don't drink caffeine" She was obviously puzzled by what would seem to be a contradiction but really, I think caffeine makes people more sleepy. Me at least. I've been off caffeine for a year (since last nov). No cola, tea, coffee etc for me. I even limit chocolate considerably. I feel great! I would recommend this to anyone. Caffeine is actually addictive according to Wikipedia because it contains some withdrawal symptoms. Some health articles I read online speculate that soft drink makers include them as ingredients, not because the taste is better ( I can 't tell the difference) but because people are addicted to caffeine.

Agent Molder runs..

In Sports day, which was today, Friday. Sports day is an all day event where students compete in sports such as basketball, soccer and volletyball. There are also tons of relay races, and tug of war competitions. There was a race with students and teachers running against each other. I ran in it and everyone cheered like I was a rock star! Afterwards everyone said I was a fast runner. Well, who needs the NBA, or the NFL? I've got my middle school job and 700 students cheering me on on my little stretch of running along the track.

Some of the students displayed their artwork during Sports Day. You can see the pictures.

A class invited me to their room for a party after the fesitivites were over. Naturally, I accepted and I mingled with the students while eating some dongbukgi (pictured). Afterwards, the principal ate dinner with me and drank soju (almost exactly like sake in taste, alcoholic beverage). I left and ran to my Korean class which started at 7. Then I went out with a girl who is in the class with me till midnight and stumbled home.

the windy thursday,

In Korea there are no lines. There might be some sort of formation that looks liek a line, but it just ends up being a mass of people. For example, getting on a subway. You may be right up in front, but when the doors open you have several chances of being left behind. People do one of those moves in football where they come from behind the linemen and break through (thats one thing that happens), another is that you actually wait to let the people get off the train before getting on. That is good and all but at the same time, the people onthe otehr side of the door, start to get on even while the people are getting off. By the time everone gets off and you start to get on, your the last one left outside. Yes I know what your thinking, but no, they don't allow guns in korea. So that won;t work! The only other option is to put my 7 th grade basketball weaving skills to good use.Someone nudges me from behind, what do I do: I turn my body around so all the end up doing is rubbing into me. It's very subtle, but I really don't like the idea of walking into an oncoming group of people who are trying to get off.
That's one thing I miss about Japan. The orderly formations. I had a friend come visit me from Japan. He said that when he first came, people cut in front of him. As this was happening, a Japanese man tapped him on the shoulder and said in Enlgish : "welcome to korea!". Anotehr thing i miss about Japan: plastic bananas, or plastic food rather. You walk by a restaurant in Japan, you know what youre getting because there is a display model (plastic of course) waiting for you oustide.
ONe good thing that happened: I arrived at my bus stop just as the bus was arriving.

I noticed two big headlines in the news: Walls being built in the Sun Belt and Gay marriage or "unions" rather. I got to thinking: Some day, theres going to be walls between pro gay marriage states and anti. I guess it just means that I won't be able to stand on the states border and proclaim that I'm standing on two states at once, unless I get really tall.

The day before, I had a class with my students (it was an elective conversation class) and I talked about North Korea with them. I asked them what they felt about people in the North and they said that they are Koreans just like they are. Also, they are angry at the North because they are really rude to the South. Even though they have given them lots of food, the North continues to threaten them. When asked about the US requesting them to stop visits to a North Korean tourist spot which gives lots of money to the NK government, they said that the tours should continue. They didn't want any war, just peace.

The day the music tried...

.. To fall out of my Ipod. And land on my foot. But I caught it in time, so its fine. I have Korean class on MWF so I went to class and then to a random bar afterwards and talked to the owner for about 3 hours. Hes a nice guy. He was convinced i was a gentleman.

Class was the busiest (like all wednesdays) but i dont mind it. The sutdents are the best and so the classes go faster. NOt like tuesdays (which are the opposite situation). At least I don't get students poking their fingers up my butt like in Japan! I still have the defensive crouch when students move too fast towarsd me!

I'm getting good at this english teaching stuff. Too bad I can't spell tomorrow (i spelled it tommorow unitl just recently) and hapiness. I'm getting better every day.

cold, but still no jacket yet

Today is tuesday. That means a few things to me now: A) I have my two hardest classes during the morning. They are grade 1 class 4 (grade one meaning, middle school first year students aged around 13) and grade 3 class 10. I have to yell sometimes in the classes so it's not really fun. You all know that I'm really a type B personality so I'm out of my element when I do stuff like that.

B) I go to my free korean language class which is located about 5 minutes away from my apartment buildng. It's pretty nice, and I have lots of laughst while learning Korean. Today was no exception. My teacher is a college student and she recently had mid term exams. I asked how they were: she said hard (all in korean mind you) so then I say, "I'm sure you did well, I'll bet you got a 10 percent on the test" - mistaking 10 for 100 . Whoops! we had a laugh about that.

C) today was special, it was payday. always nice, but I try to save a lot so hopefully it won't matter too much.

Lunch was Bibimbap - a mainstay korean dish with various korean vegetables (bean shoots, carrot like things, mushrooms, others) mixed with rice and a kind of hot sauce. It's good. There is a new cook at the school cafeteria so I talked to her in Korean. She was nice. I have to make sure there is no fish, I'm allergic to it. If I eat it, I'll get sick.

The first day of cold weather

I went to work today in the morning with a short sleeve shirt on (just like all the other days I've gone to school) and noticed something was different. Seoul isn't Chicago, but it was still cold today! But I felt fine with the shirt on. The students are starting their sports day this week (maybe pictures will follow). One of the classes I was supposed to teach was canceled. On the bus this morning, the bus driver actually picked me up on the intersection (which he wasn't supposed to do). It was a nice thing.

Still that annoying bell in the morning (beats the time on Dumb and Dumber for most annoying sound, at least for me). I can't get over that. I'm sure it's a sanity test for teachers of children - the bell goes off and insane people show their true colors.

Korean class was really hard today. I'm really noticing the fact that I started off in level 2 instead of level one, but I'm carrying on the best I can. Today I learned how to shop via the phone for items. It's more complicated than you think: you have to use a lot of polite language etc.

By the way, "to cut your hair" in korean= -literally- cut your head. so if you say, i just cut off my head, it means you got a hair cut. There are plenty more little tidbits like this in Korean. Hopefully more to follow at some point.

a weekend beckons, will I answer the call?

Today is an overcast day. I can hear lots of building and construction outside my window. Maybe their buidlnng me a new grocery store! More likely: a woman's clothes shopping mall. Even though there are a milion in the area, they can't seem to get enough. Had an all right week so far. Things seem to be looking up, now that Im kind of aware of what's going on with lessons and so on. I had a friend from England stop by, Joel. He's a nice guy who lives in Japan at the moment trying to make a living without spending all his money at the karaoke bars. He was able to meet no less than 5 Japanese people in one day. He told me that the seaweed here is really famous.