Saturday Night Fever and the 8 Month Itch

I've come to the realization that I've become bored with teaching. Everyday, I see the same students, do the same things, teach the same words/phrases. When the kids are working in their workbooks my mind wanders. I doodle on the board, pace about the classsroom, or stare blankly at the wall until pulled out of my reverie by a questioning and/or rowdy student. I don't feel any excitement for teaching. Don't get me wrong, there are some classes I enjoy, especially the one with the doctors but that's because it's less like teaching and more like hanging out and talking with friends. I've really come to the conclusion that teaching children is not something I want to do for any extended period of time. 14 months will be plenty, thank you. This has been a rather gradual realization that I've probably hinted at previously, but only now feel it to be completely true. I like the kids (most of the time). I don't hate my job. I just don't want to do it for any longer than necessary. After 8 months of this, I am itching to move on. Thus, my decision to go back to school in the fall. Laura and I have managed to get everything set up so far and are just waiting for the transcripts to arrive at SFU. We should know soon-ish, I think, whether we're accepted or not. We're fairly confident that we will be.

Aside from teaching, though, I'm having a blast lately. Last Saturday was a great example of that. Our group (Me, Laura, Andy, Matt, and Ji Yeon) all went out for drinks. Ji Yeon's brother joined us, as well as another ECC teacher, Peter, bringing the Foreigner:Korean ratio almost into balance (we still slightly outnumbered them 4:3). It was a rather typical night out, featuring tasty food (eel and chicken), drinks (beer and flavoured soju), and singing. None of us felt overly intoxicated as the night progressed but I think the fact that Laura, Andy and I attempted to sing Bohemian Rhapsody to close the evening out and afterwards thought we did pretty well indicates that we were drunker than we thought (and I must note that we were goaded into singing something by Queen by the owner of the bar who decided that I look like Freddie Mercury. I can't say as I agree, but then again I don't access to his wardrobe, so we may never know for sure). Tonight, it's back out for more fun and this time Andy says he's bringing someone along. I think this picture of Matt and Ji Yeon fairly well describes the fun that was had:

For other pictures from last Saturday night, look here.

Well, to finish up here, I feel the need to qualify some of the things I said in my last entry. First of all, it should be known that Koreans make many other great foods that don't feature chicken. Just thought I should reinforce that. On the flip side, I may have given the impression that when a Korean cooks chicken, it is always an unqualified success. That is most definitely not the case.

Guy

I know my chicken...

... you got to know your chicken.

Koreans do. If there is one thing in specific that Koreans do well, food-wise, it's make a tasty, tasty chicken.

Recently, I've discovered this truck. It roves about the city, almost randomly, and out of the back of it one can obtain THE BEST ROAST CHICKEN EVER!!! It's called barbeque chicken here, and it's cooked six-to-a-skewer, rotisserie-style. I know what you're thinking, "Chicken out of the back of a truck? Um, sure... sounds safe." However, Laura and I have had it twice now without any ill effects. It is sooooooooooo good. They spice it just right, the skin is perfectly crispy and it comes with a tasty mustard sauce and a bit of seasoned salt. Drool. I hope the truck is my area tonight because I want some again.

Truck chicken isn't the only type of chicken Koreans prepare well, though. They make some damned good fried chicken, the best being yang-nyum chicken which is drenched in a sticky red sauce and sprinkled with peanut bits. A soup made with a whole chicken stuffed with rice (samga-tang, which I think I've mentioned previously) is also immensely good. Add to that the chicken cooked with a hair dryer and smothered in spicy sauce (dalk dori-tang (dalk is chicken), which isn't always cooked with a hair dryer, only one place does that), and the uber-spicy chicken chunks that go oh-so-well with beer and I think I can honestly say that there is no other country in the world that knows it's chicken quite like Korea does. I know this because I've been to every country. Yes.

***

Onto other topics, Laura and I have completed our applications for Simon Fraser University. It's just a matter of waiting for the transcripts to get there and for them to review it all before we start applying for student loans and such. We're rather excited, if a little scared. We both want to take honours degrees, I also want to add a minor. Laura is looking at sociology and I am looking to enhance my archaeology degree with anthropology (minor in Latin American studies). With the way the SFU departments work, that would actually put is in the same department (the Anthropology and Sociology Department, if you weren't sure), which is rather great if you ask me.

We're both pretty excited about coming home in the summer, seeing everyone, and getting set up in Vancouver, but as that's so far off, we're mostly concentrating on enjoying the rest of our time here. We're planning a trip to Seoul in the next few weeks and I would like to go to Pohang to greet Mark when he arrives. As well, Laura's brother, Jon, is coming for three weeks in March/April and the three of us are going to make a trip to Japan. After that (or hopefully, during), the weather should turn pretty nice and short trips to various other Korean places will be in order. Making this even more fun is the fact that Laura should be getting her brand new digital camera today or tomorrow (a Nikon 8700, but you can read her blog to find out more), so some picture taking fun will be inevitable.

All in all, things seem pretty exciting for us right now, which is good because December and early January weren't a whole lot of fun, what with various sicknesses and being all around busy the whole time. We're all smiles now, which can look a little odd as smiles aren't overly natural on body parts other than the mouth and maybe the eyes.

That's all.

Guy

Frozen Hair Tail, made in China

Well, yet again it's taken me forever to type up an update, but fear not, they always come eventually.

I'll start this one by welcoming my friend Myza to the country. I hope Seoul is working out for her so far and I'll be up to visit in a few weeks. As well, I have another friend, Mark, who will be coming to Pohang in a month or so. So, suddenly I'm about to have a good number of friends scattered about the country. Sweet!

I'm also very happy to say that my friends Sarah and Dave are ok. Sarah is in Thailand but wasn't in the part hit by the tsunami and Dave had his vacation to Thailand postponed by the airline. He was to have gone there right before the disaster. Needless to say, I'm relieved they're fine.

On other topics, winter in Korea is cold. Not as cold as Calgary, mind you, but cold nonetheless. It snowed yesterday, too. This is the first significant snow we've had here (about 2-3 inches). It's kinda cool actually. Everybody seems to get all excited about the snow here, I guess because it happens so infrequently. The world is now populated by an army of snowmen.

Laura and I just got back from a short trip to Masan. It's a rather pretty city on the south coast. We liked it muchly, but didn't get much time to explore. We intend on going back in the spring when the weather is more congenial and when we might possibly have more time.

Laura and I are doing well. We have basically made the decision to not stay for an extra year and instead to come home and go back to university in the fall. We'll likely be leaving Korea and heading for Saskatoon in late July then making our way through Calgary to Vancouver over the next few weeks where we intend to set ourselves up for the upcoming school year(s). We're looking seriously at SFU for our studies. Plans may change, as that is still a long way off and we still haven't applied to SFU (althought we plan to that this week), but we're fairly sure this is what we want to do.

Speaking of Laura, it seems our relationship is an object of amusement to my students. I walked into a class and saw written on the board "Steve + ECC" surrounded by a heart. I thought it was rather humorous that they knew where she worked but not her name and yet still thought they should write something. Kids are funny.

Hmm, I guess, despite it having been so long, I don't really have much going on. I'm really enjoying myself out here now, but am also eager to get home. I suppose those two things bode well for me as far as the rest of my time here and going back. Good times shall prevail!

Guy

Oh yeah, the title for this entry is taken from a discarded box I saw on the side of the road. I have no idea what frozen hair tails are, but I do know they come from China. If anyone can fill me in a little more, please do.