The Great Korean Choose-Your-Own-Adventure

It's been a long time since my last entry and I know I promised to tell you about the festival but I do have an excuse. I've been working on a project to mark the end of one year in Korea, and event which passed by on the weekend. The project is now complete, only a few days late, and it is now ready for your perusal. It is The Great Korean Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. Just CLICK HERE to get to it.

And now, as promised, stories from the Miryang Festival, as well some other things that have happened in the past couple of weeks:

The festival was a really good time. The best parts were the people in their brightly coloured, traditional clothes (hanbok), the traditional music, and the bustle of activity the city became. As well, the bungee cord/trampoline thing was fun, too.

That is me, careening through the air, trying to accommodate all the people telling me to do a flip. All photos, the links and the bungee one, were taken by the fabulous Laura.

Since the festival, the only really notable thing that has happened has been the barbecue which was organized by Andy the director of his school, Kim. We all piled into their school's van (we being me, Laura, Andy, Kim, Matt, Catherine - a fellow teacher of Matt and Laura - and Han Tae) and found a relatively isolated spot, grilled some meat, drank some beer (or wine, or single malt whiskey), played some ball, and had a great time. Laura plans to have some pictures of said barbecue up on her blog sometime soon.

Speaking of Laura, in my last entry I mentioned that she was still waiting on acceptance into SFU. Well, the wait ended rather quickly. She is in. In fact, she was in at the time I wrote my last entry, but SFU just neglected to mention it to her until the following week. Jerks.

That is all of my news. Remember to keep an eye on Laura's blog, she's been looking to do more with it lately. And also, don't forget to check out The Great Korean Choose-Your-Own-Adventure.

Guy

The explosion of a small city

...and Milyang has gone crazy. It's festival time and, suddenly, the city is full of people and the streets are lined with a wide variety of vendors, from people selling corn on the cob and steamed crab out the back of a truck to others selling things that can't readily be identified (in fact, there was on stall selling something that Laura and I couldn't figure out if it was supposed to be eaten or hung up for decoration). This usually quiet little city is now loud and boisterous, with music groups and fireworks at night, with cultural events both new and old, and with food, food, everywhere. I've walked through the thick of it a few times now, but haven't spent any real time exploring it. Luckily, it only started last night. Tomorrow, Saturday, a group of us foreigners will descend upon this seething throng of festivities and partake in all its glory.

In other news, my school has both a new director and a new Korean teacher. The director, Bryan, has, in just two short weeks, made things far more organized and easy to deal with. I feel far more comfortable bringing things up with him than I did with the owner. So, now, I'm hoping things will shape up financially there. I'm waiting on my next few pay periods to see if things have truly turned around. If, as usual, I get some of my pay on pay day and the rest a week later, then I will know that things still have a long way to go. Bryan claims that he can boost our enrollment from 20 students to 100 students in one month. We'll see. As for the Korean teacher, her name is Ellen (or Song Min-jeong). She teaches at Click school as well (the other school owned by Mr. Chang, across the street from ELC), and she's been around ELC for a month or so now but took over for Cathy this week after Cathy quit to prepare for graduate school. She's easy to work with, very friendly and the kids seem to like her. I'll miss working with Cathy, though. She was all of the above, as well.

Other than that, my past two weeks in Milyang haven't been much of anything. However, the weekends have been really good. Two weeks ago, Laura and I went to Jinju, a city about 3 times the size of Milyang and about 2 hours away by train. It's a really nice place and easily the cleanest Korean city we've seen yet. We saw some great temples, rode in some duck paddle boats (Ori boat, as the Koreans say), saw the end of a wedding between a Korean woman and a foreign man (they were wearing Korean traditional clothing, which was neat to see), enoyed the nature and the city itself and all in all had a great day. Last weekend we went to Haeundae beach in Busan and met up with Mark and Dave for some Indian food and beer on Saturday night. A good time was had by all. On the next day, Laura and I wandered about the beach. Laura got some great pictures, and yet another great day was enjoyed.

This weekend, it is definitely all about the festival. I'll be sure to update on that once it's done. The festival actually lasts a full week, but it's likely that we won't be much involved outside of the weekend.

And now, the news that is most exciting and important to me...

I got accepted to SFU. I'm quite thrilled about that. Anthropology department, here I come! The one thing tempering the excitement right now is the paper hoops they're making Laura jump through to get in. We're pretty certain she's basically been accepted, but they want her to get her past institutions to send in detailed descriptions of all her courses, presumably for transfer credit consideration, but they won't offer her admittance until those are in. It's a pain, for sure, but it's all in the works now and we'll know soon enough.

We're slowly getting things set up for our return to Canada, of which we are getting more and more excited about. We've been thinking of things we need to get here and send home, places we want to see here before we go, and all of that. As well, we've been looking into apartments and thinking about employment upon our return. It's going to be a rather busy 3 months or so, followed by another really busy month at home. It should be rather interesting. I've made my arrangements with my school to stay the extra two months, and they are starting to process the extension on my work visa. I had to sign a second contract, but they are well aware that I will be leaving after two months of it. I've put the idea in their heads as well that Laura and I would be truly happy if we could somehow end up on the same flight together. We'll see if that pans out. It would require the two schools, competitors in a tight market, to work together in setting that up. Despite that, I feel pretty confident about it.

Anyway, I think that catches us up.

Guy

Hurray for spring!

The flowers bloom, the trees are a-blossom.

Clearly, spring is here. I was expecting it a little while ago, but it is here now and I am glad. The days are pleasantly warm, the cherry trees add colourful pink splashes on the streets and in the hills. It's as if spring is nature's way of making up for the horridness of winter.

However, with the warmer weather come the insects, although they have yet to cause a problem. In fact, the bees in the cherry trees were rather interesting to watch and listen to earlier today as Laura and wandered down by the river. There were just so many of them and they were surprisingly loud.

Speaking of loud, spring also brings along an aspect of Korea that winter caused me to forget. There's something uniquely Korean (well, maybe, I haven't been everywhere, yet) about being woken up at 7:30 am to the sound of a man in a truck bellowing about vegetables and/or politics through loud-speakers. The difference between hearing it now and hearing it when I arrived is that now I can almost guess what they're bellowing about and it no longer seems like the cool cultural experience it was at first. Now, it's just irritating.

But, the days make up for it. So far, my allergies haven't been bad, but I'm sure they'll step things up in the next week or two. I've got my pseudoephedrine to get me by. Hopefully my supplies last it out, although I'm sure I can find some at the pharmacy should they not.

Anyway, that's about all for this entry. Still haven't heard from SFU, still am staying until July, the band still only vaguely exists. I miss home, but I am finding things here increasingly pleasant. Life is good, past, present and future.

Guy

From Russia with love

The following happened last Wednesday:

I was at school, in the middle of a class, teaching a small group of small children about colours. Things were going as usual when, all of a sudden, a Caucasian woman in her early 20's walks into my classroom. I had never seen her before in my life. I said, "Hello," in a rather surprised tone of voice while thoughts such as, "Have we inexplicable hired a second foreign teacher?" and "Can things get any stranger?" went through my head. She smiled, but said nothing and walked to the front of the classroom, where I was. Once reaching me, she showed me a laminated card with a paragraph written in Korean on it. I indicated that I don't know Korean. She nodded and then explained to me, in broken English, that she is Russian and that she was traveling here and trying to save some money. Then she opened a case she was carrying with her and asked if I wanted to buy any Russian items. She had necklaces and nesting dolls among other things. I told her that I was in the middle of a class, but to wait ten minutes or so until I was finished so I could take a closer look. She nodded, and left. She must not have understood fully or perhaps she was on some sort of strict trinket selling schedule because she was gone when I finished my class. She apparently was seen in the ECC parking lot a day or two later. It was really rather odd.

Otherwise, last week was a bit of a wash. I felt a bit despondent about coming back after the holiday in Japan and really didn't enjoy teaching in the least. I'm better now. It helps that tomorrow is a Korean holiday so I get an extra day off this week. The weather is great and is supposed to stay that way so I think Laura and will have a picnic or some such thing tomorrow.

That is all.

Guy

Days Three and Four, Nara/Kobe and Returning to Korea

And once again, we woke up really early and hopped on a train, this time stopping for coffee and pastries at a cafe at the train station.

The agenda for this day was a morning and lunch in Nara and the afternoon in Kobe.

The scenery on the way to Nara from Osaka was far more flat and open than I expected. I guess I've gotten really used to Korea where the mountain press in everywhere. In Japan, they're ever present, but not always so close.

Nara itself is a pretty little city mostly known for being Japan's first real capital. It apparently only lasted about 75 years before being moved to Kyoto, but it still counts. On the east side of the city is a huge park area filled with pagodas, temples and shrines, all of which are beautiful (not to say we saw them all, but those we did were pretty sweet). In particular, I loved the five story pagoda. The park is also populated by a large herd of tame deer. You can buy deer biscuits from vendors then just stand there as you are mobbed by a herd of greedy deer trying to get at the biscuits before you've even unwrapped them. I feared for my fingers.

In the park, we finallly saw the beginnings of the cherry blossoms. I think we arrived about a week too soon to see them in their full glory (we barely saw any in Kyoto), but they were still all pretty and pink and white.

After a few hours in the park, we made our way back to town for lunch. We found a great tempura place, thanks to the Lonely Planet. We had shrimp, scallop, yam, potato, pepper, mushroom, crab, squid, fish, and baby corn, all battered and fried into light and crispy perfection. As well, the meal set we ordered came with a bowl of cold soba noodles which were great dipped in a sauce of tempura soy, wasabi, shredded daikon, and green onion. So good.

When lunch was over, it was off to Kobe, via Osaka. We had excellent timing for the trains and got there rather quickly. The scenery between Osaka and Kobe was exactly as expected, nothing but city.

Kobe is a nice city. There didn't seem to be anything particularly special about it, but I can see it being a nice place to live. We stopped at the HMV where we all went a little nuts trying to find some Japanese-only releases with bonus tracks and such. We all did rather well. I ended up with the new Beck, Guero (which has three extra tracks on it including one called "Clap Hands" on the cover and "Crap Hands" on the Japanese insert), the Matthew Sweet album he released only in Japan (I realize he is releasing it in North America with another album, maybe already has, but buying the actual Japanese release was pretty cool), and a Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her album with songs I've never heard before. I could have purchased some other Japanese bands like Buck Tick Romance (which I think I may have inadvertantly experienced for free in the park in Nara), Chicken Garlic Steak, or the ever popular Bump of Chicken, but I decided to pass on them.

After the music shopping we did some book shopping. Jon got himself a manga book. I considered doing the same but came to the realization that comic books/manga art/futuristic sci-fi have never really appealed to me so I refrained.

Following that we had a tired and frustrating time finding a pub that ended up not being worth finding. Then we went back to Osaka to hunt out some dinner.

The search for food was extremely difficult as we were all so exhausted and incapable of deciding on anything. We did, however, eventually end up at a really good Mexican restaurant in Minami. I'm not sure if it's because I haven't had decent Mexican food in a almost, or possibly more than, a year, but this was great stuff. It seemed pretty authentic and even came with a selection of Mexican beers (well, not "came with" as in free, they were 700 yen each). We were all satisfied and content with our meal.

After dinner we went back to the hotel with the thought of going out for one last Asahi before going to bed. Alas, it was not to be as the place near the hotel was closed and we were all too tired and grumpy to try elsewhere. It's probbably for the best that we just went to bed.

And so that brings us to today. We got up, cruised to the train station and, after a short worry about times and transfers, got ourselves on the express to the airport. It ended up being a rather expensive ride as our rail passes had expired and there was an extra fee for the express train (total cost, nearly 1800 yen), but we got to the airport in plenty of time.

The flight was remarkably uneventful, as was the train back to Miryang.

Being back in Korea makes me realize just how different the two countries are. Japan is generally quieter, tidier, and more subdued than Korea. People even seem to wear fewer bright colours in Japan. It obviously goes much deeper than that, and I did only have three days in Japan so there's a lot I've missed. If ten months in Korea can go by and I still can't say I've figured things out that much, a weekend in Japan isn't going to enlighten me that much at all. One thing, though, it is nice to back in a place where I can read the signs and order food. I had forgotten how difficult that could be. That said, I will go back to Japan. I need to see more.

Guy

Japan: Day Two, Kyoto

We woke up nice and early again, excited about visiting Kyoto. We made our way to the hotel restaurant where we were to have a free "American Breakfast." It consisted of teriyaki meatballs, some sort of fried fish cakes, an assortment of unidentifiable vegetables, a dinner roll, and some chicken/turnip stew. Thankfully, it also came with coffee and grapefruit juice. American breakfasts are a little different from how I remember them.

After breakfast, we went straight to Osaka Station to catch a train to Kyoto. We ended up on a local line that stopped everywhere and eventually just plain stopped, well before Kyoto. No problem, though, as we just hopped on the next train that came by and it sped us nicely into town.

Kyoto is a terrible place, horribly ugly and quite smelly. Clearly, I am lying as Kyoto could very well be the most attractive city I have ever visited. We started our wander through Kyoto in the Gion district, famous for its Geishas. We were quite pleased to even get to see a Geisha being taxied somewhere in a rickshaw (Laura got pictures of this, and basically all the other things I've mentioned so far and will mention later, so keep an eye on her blog as I'm sure she'll get some pictures up there).

After Gion, we went for a long walk past numerous old temples and shrines and such, ending up at an udon shop for lunch. This was the best udon ever. We had buckwheat udon, each getting a different flavour (beef, chicken, shrimp) and it was all so immensely tasty. Japanese food rocks.

After lunch, we went to Nanzen-ji, a very old shrine, and then to Heian-ji. These are the two places featured in "Lost in Translation" when Charlotte goes to Kyoto. The highlight was the garden at Heian-ji. It was breathtakinglly beautiful. I don't think I can even begin to describe it. Watch the movie and wait for the part where she's walking across some stepping stones in a pond for an idea, and that's only part of it. On a side note, the ponds have fish that swam up to us when we approached the pool, clearly looking for some sort of meal. They were rather insistent and actually a little creepy, but not enough to make me feel bad about the place at all

After a day of wandering Kyoto and being awestruck, we were exhausted, yet still wanting to do more so we looked into a shopping area. The highlight of this was eating. Automatic sushi, which I mentioned in the last post, is the best way to eat ever invented. Brilliant. They certainly aren't a new thing (I've had it in Calgary, in fact), but that doesn't detract from the joy I got of it. I ended up with a rather large stack of plates and a nicely full belly.

Well, following food and some rather fruitless shoppping (well, Laura did get a rather cool table-covering thing with apples and elephants on it that says something about "cram cream," whatever that it), we went back to Osaka where we headed directly for the Giant Ferris Wheel, or as the sign proclaimed, "World's Largest Giant Wheel," down by the harbour. It was big, 112.5m high, and pretty cool. You could see quite a bit of Osaka bay, and the city at night is rather pretty.

After that, Laura again was exhausted but Jon and I decided to go out for a beer. We decided to try the Kita district as it looked rather promising. The quest, while technically successful, was greatly disappointing. We went to a foreigner bar called Canopy after trying in vain to find the Pig and Whistle. The Asahi they had on tap paled in comparison to the places we went to the day before (they must have some sort of 'foreigner bar' setting or something) and the bar itself lacked in most regards. I must learn not to go to places the Lonely Planet lists as being "foreigner hangouts." They tend to greatly disappoint me.

Well, that sums up day two pretty well. Sadly, only one more in Japan. It's a stunning country, and I must return to explore it more thoroughly at some point.

Guy

Japan: Leaving Korea and Day One, Osaka

Work ended and I flew out the door. Taxis were abundant, thankfully, and I arrived at the train station in plenty of time. Laura and Jon had the tickets ready and the train quickly sped us to Gupo, the suburb of Busan closest to the airport. Upon our arrival there we immediately procured hotel rooms and dropped off our bags. The rooms were nice enough, in a Korean love motel kind of way and the beds were slighty bigger than Laura's apartment (the blankets, however, were considerably smaller).

After a cold and fruitless wander in search of food, we decided to just get some chicken fingers from the nearby burger place and bring it back to the motel. Then we slept.

We woke up at 6:21 and proceeded to get ready to go to the airport. All went smoothly. Even what could have been a terrible snag turned out fine when we discovered that Laura didn't have a re-entry permit for Korea. Immigration took care of that problem quite swiftly and we were ready to take off.

Customs in Korea was a complete breeze and we went out to board the plane. At the gate they put everyone on a bus to get to the plane. The plane was only about 30m away, but I guess the bus was necessary for some reason. Next time I expect piggy-back rides from the pilots to and from the plane. That's about the only way to top a 30m bus ride.

Upon arrival in Japan (Kansai Airport, near Osaka, to be exact) we again zipped through customs and immigration then obtained our Japan Rail Kansai Pass which would give us rail access to the whole Kansai region. Then we were off to attempt to figure out the Japanese train system and find our hotel.

It was all too easy. We showed the attendant our passes and went through the gate, down the escalator and onto the waiting train. We were sure we were forgetting something important, but no, it's just that easy and we were on our way to Osaka.

After the train ride came a short subway ride, which was also frighteningly easy to figure out, followed by a brief period of confusion as we exited the subway station and tried to figure out where exactly we were and what direction we were facing in order to find our hotel. Luckiliy, there was a map at the top of the stairs. We soon realized that all maps are oriented so that the direction you are facing is at the top. For some reason, it took contorting ourselves so that north was up to navigate the map properly, but once that was done, we found our hotel on the map and made our way over to it.

We arrived an hour early for check-in, so we gave them our bags and went to get some lunch. Nearby was a relatively cheap restaurant (by "relatively cheap" I mean it was cheap for Japan, expensive everywhere else). We sat down at a table and were immediately corrected on this assumption. Apparently, our first task was to look at our food choices on a coin operated vending machine, put in our money, make our selection from the pictured choices, obtain our meal tickets, and then sit down. We randomly chose a few appetizing looking things, sat down, let the server take our tickets from us, and waited for their arrival. It turned out well as we ended up with a sort of tonkatsu (breaded and fried pork) with what I think was a teriyaki style sauce. The coleslaw and tartar sauce was odd, but it all tasted good.

After lunch we cruised the stationery store to kill some time then went up to the hotel rooms for a brief rest before setting out to explore the city.

The rooms were quite small, but that was to be expected. They weren't capsule rooms, by any means, but still small. The bathtubs were deep and short, more like glorified buckets, and the bathroom itself was reminiscent of a bathroom in a motorhome, but it all worked and was clean and comfortable so there were no complaints.

Exploring Osaka was awfully cold. It was great, for sure, but cold. The wind blew pretty strongly the whole time and the sun peeked through the clouds only intermittently. The day would have been much more pleasant if the weather had cooperated, but it was still a good time.

Osaka Castle (Osaka-jo) was really cool, from the outside, anyway. The grounds around it were gorgeous. I loved the dual moats and the huge stone walls rising out of them. The castle itself looked really impressive. Japanese castles are really tall and basically built like fortified pagodas. Unfortunately, it's a rather new, concrete reconstruction of the 16th century castle, but it looked good. The museum inside was pretty, but as it was all in Japanese, it was informationally useless to us. At the top, the observation deck gave us some great city views, but I'm not sure if it was all worth the 600 yen (about $6) entry fee. The park grounds and exterior viewing were all free, so all we paid for was a museum we couldn't understand and some pretty views. Oh well, I've spent $6 in worse ways before, so no harm was done.

After the castle we made our way to the Minami district of Osaka in the hopes of getting some automatic sushi (sushi made by the chef in the middle of a conveyor belt loop where the customers sit on bar seating and grab what they like as it goes by, paying according to the number of plates you finish with - more on this later). We searched and searched in the cold wind, but found nothing. We ended up at a small place serving a variety of things we couldn't read but where the staff was extremely friendly and helpful (the waitress even went so far as to imitate a chicken for us so we knew what we were ordering). We ended up having skewered chicken wings (yakitori) and the best sashimi I have ever tasted. The wasabi was obviousy freshly made and the fish was just perfect. As well, I ordered a beer, a draught Asahi. It was great. I've had Asahi before, from a bottle, and was never that impressed, but on tap it's rich and creamy and oh-so-tasty. Yum. We ended up paying about 3000 yen ($30) for a what basically amounted to a light snack then went off on a quest for more sustenance as our hunger lingered.

During our search, we stumbled into the Apple store in Minami and witnessed a live "Glitch" music performance. This was basically some guy with computers (Macs, obviously) hooked up to a PA system making computery blips and bleeps into a sort of arty electronic music type thing. It went from intriguing to mildly irritating to fascinating to slightly dull, all in about a half hour. Then we left.

We ended up on the Dotonbori Arcade which is the busiest, mostly brightly and crazily lit street I've seen yet. It was absolutely full of people and was basically walls of light and glitter. It was quite overwhelming. After a short wander through there, looking slack-jawed and over-awed, we made our way underground, found a cafe and had another snack, then went back to the hotel.

At this point, I would like to point out how much cleaner Japan is than Korea. There are no giant empty lots filled with trash, and streetside litter is minimal. Even the really busy areas and side alleys are exeedingly clean. The air even smells and tastes cleaner. It's a good way to be.

Anyhow, Laura was still feeling a little sick (mostly just quick to tire) so she decided to stick around the hotel after our venture through the craziness. Jon and I felt we needed another Asahi, so we went off in search of a bar near the hotel. We were successful in our search, finding a small, cozy place with Asahi on tap. On the way there, we found a vending machine on the side of the road that dispensed a wide variety of beer and other liquors (including Suntory Whiskey, among other brands). I have been searching for just such a vending machine all over Korea, feeling certain one must exist. So far, nothing in Korea, but there one was, in Japan, just outside our hotel (we later found one in the hotel lobby, too). Anyway, the Asahi was just as good as at the other place (but twice as expensive) and we were satisfied.

We stopped at 7-11 on the way back and marveled at the unidentifiable things, some sponge-like, some string-like, some like no other thing seen before, floating in water at the counter. They were all translucent and completely hideous to look at, never mind imagine eating. Blech. Other notable things at the 7-11 were the bowls of noodles topped with what looked to be raw bacon, an unrefrigerated shelf full of chili dogs, and Pringles with such flavours as "Cheese Fondue" and "French Consommee." Asia continues to surprise in the snack food department.

That's about all for day one in Osaka. One last observation is how quiet things are in Japan. Traffic is virtually noisless, people seem to shout less, and there are no random vegetable trucks or politicians with loudspeakers roving around, at least from what I could hear. The shopping areas certainly have their product hawkers, but all in all, it's a rather peaceful kind of place.

Guy

The quest for good sushi begins

Well, the time has come. In an hour and a half I will finish my last class of the day then begin the trek to Japan. I'm pretty excited about it. This is mostly just a quick post to express that excitement. Wheeeee!!!

As for the last post, I yet again ended up not performing with the band. I was attacked by a virus and had a really terrible week. I had no energy whatsoever and just felt flat-out awful. I was made to come in to work each day, although I did get to go home after an hour and a half on Wednesday when it became abundantly clear that I was incapable of teaching. Thursday and Friday were two of the worst days of work ever. Damn this fate of being the only foreign teacher!

Anyway, it looks like the band has yet another show. Tomorrow. When I'l be in Japan. I have basically given up on ever performing with them.

Well, that's all. I have a short amount of time then I'm free for a few days, released upon the unsuspecting Japanese. I'll be sure to post a rather comprehensive update upon my return, hopefully with pictures, although those may well be reserved to Laura's blog as she is the one with the camera. The trip should be a blast, despite the fact that both Laura and I have colds.

Guy

The Visit

Well, it's been a busy last little while, and it looks to remain so for the foreseeable future.

After getting over the bout of food poisoning, Laura and I began our preparations for the arrival of her brother, Jon. These preparations included the scrubbing down of Sean's (Laura's former co-worker who went home at the end of February) apartment. The apartment was graciously lent out by ECC for Jon's use while he is here (three weeks). It was, however, a filthy, disgusting mess in sore need of a thorough spray down with bleach (and if you are reading this, Sean, I hope you feel a rather large amount shame for leaving your place in that horrid condition). So, that is exactly what it got, along with a solid scraping and airing out. As it is now, it is still only habitable, but that's all it really needs to be.

Jon arrived on Saturday evening and so far seems to be enjoying himself and appears quite willing to throw himself into all things Korean, which is good because there's not much else here. The three of us will be heading for Japan on Friday of next week for a few days. We've paid for and picked up our plane tickets, rail passes, and hotel voucher and now we play the waiting. Seeing as we only will have a grand total of 3 days, we decided to spend it all in the Kyoto/Osaka area. There's quite a bit of history there, along with an apparently wild night-life in Osaka itself. Should be a good time. As for right now, we're letting Jon get adjusted and casually explore the city while we go to work. Perhaps we'll head up to Daegu or Pohang on the weekend to meet up with Mark.

In other news, I've been told that the band has a show this Thursday. I guess I'll be spending my evenings at practice for the next couple of nights. It appears to be in town and in the evening, so I should be able to join my bandmates on stage this time. We'll be doing three songs, so it will be rather quick and hopefully painless (even more hopefully, fun).

And finally, spring is most certainly here. I was taking a close look at the trees and bushes behind the school a few minutes ago and they all appear to have new buds on them, and as the forecast is calling for rain the next few days, I expect the country to be in bloom by the weekend or early next week at the latest. This makes me quite happy, except for my sinuses, which are currently recoiling in horror. Thankfully, I have my pseudoephedrine. Hurray for antihistamines!

That is all.

Guy

Ugh

Yesterday was, to put it simply, horrid.

I believe the blame falls on food poisoning, and more specifically, McDonald's. There's a chance it was the truck chicken we had the night before, but seeing as we didn't feel sick until about an hour after Big Mac's, I fully place the blame there. I won't get into specifics, nobody wants to read that, but it was easily one of the worst days I have ever had. Thankfully, Laura and I both feel way better today. It also helped that yesterday was a mid-week holiday (Korean Independence Movement), so we didn't have to work. Today was a bit of a struggle towards the end, but I got through my classes basically unscathed. Still waiting to see if Laura's doing alright. We'll be having bland soup and plain rice when she gets here. Hurray for intestinal discomfort!

I guess it works out for the best, really, that I wasn't allowed to go to Jirisan for the gig, as I would be preparing myself right now for going on stage instead of sitting here trying to get over yesterday. I get the feeling it would have been horribly painful to perform tonight.

In happier news, it appears spring is in the process of arriving. The weather has been progressively warmer in the last little while and the forecast looks even better for next week. I'm pretty tired of winter (I've been tired of it since it began, but that's hardly a new thing for me) and anxiously look forward to sun and warm (not hot and humid, though, but that's later). I love how the seasons here are so distinct and change so suddenly. There are three things about spring I am not particularly looking forward to, though. One, my allergies. They always act up. I have my antihistamines, so I'll get by like I always do, but it's still no fun. Two, the onslaught of the dreaded Chinese Dust season. This apparently happpens every year, usually in early April. The poor farming practices in northern China (Manchuria) combined with a southerly wind bring all sorts of noxious dust to all parts of Korea. With the dust comes such great things as lead and mercury among other nasty things. I have been advised to obtain a mask during that period. It sounds dreadful. Three, the return of mosquitoes and wasps. I hate those little bastards. However, the lack of a cold Siberian wind and the prettiness of the cherry blossoms as well as the return of outdoor festivals and the like more than make up for the three things mentioned above.

Anyway, I'll sign off with a welcome to Mark who very recently arrived in Pohang. Hope it's all good,man. As well, I would like to apologize once again to Myza for the mix-up in meeting in Seoul and I hope everything is ok.

Guy

So much for that...

Well, the gig is a no-go. I talked to the school owner today and he said that taking March 2 off is "impossible." His reason was that it was the beginning of the month and there would be new students coming. Fair enough. I'm a bit disappointed that I will miss my first, and possibly only, opportunity to play in front of a live audience (the dead audience has been a bit of a let down, really), but I'm also a bit relieved. I didn't feel all that ready to do this and I was feeling pretty nervous about the whole thing.

Actually, today has been one of the most anti-climactic days I've ever had. I went into it expecting to teach my full day of classes, begin a new class afterwards, and practice with the band in preparation of our upcoming show, and I expected this to be my pattern for the rest of the week. Only the first of those things happened. The regular work day went as planned. I talked to the owner and, despite his smashing my hopes of playing in the show, I still fully expected to practice tonight. However, Han Tae called almost immediately after I finished talking to the owner and said practice tonight was cancelled because he was too sick to sing. Then, after my extra class at Oxford academy, I was expecting to start a brand new class with the Oxford director and another of the Oxford teachers, but when I went to the desk to ask about it, the director just smiled and told me "good-bye." On top of all that, I found out that after this week, my Oxford class is no more. So now, instead of preparing myself for what was supposed to be me at my busiest since my time at "the Farm," I'm now sitting here at the computer, looking at what should be a rather free week. I swear, every time I think I have a handle on things, it turns out that there is no handle and the "things" I thought I had a handle on are really just formless masses that sometimes only seem to go in the direction I steer them but really just ooze along in their own bizarre and meandering way. I should just learn to sit back into the ooze, let it contour itself to my shape and take me where it will. At least the class with the doctors starts up again tomorrow.

Anyway, in other news, I was so inspired by the case of canned ham I received a few weeks ago, I wrote a haiku about it. As well, Laura has now posted those Seoul pictures I was referring to, so check them out. And finally, one of Laura's friends sent out this brilliant work of digital art.

That is all.

Guy

Surprised, once again...

After weeks of inactivity and practices that never happened, the band finally got together last night and played some music. As well, new information regarding our upcoming show (March 2) came to light. It seems the show isn't in Milyang at all. In fact, it's at a festival of some sort at Jirisan Mountain, which is quite a ways away. On top of that, it was revealed that we would be adding two new songs to our list bringing the total to six. Oh yeah, we also seem to be the headlining band. Well, sort of. We are the last band on for the entire day. Han Tae tells me there should be close to a thousand people there.

You'd figure I'd have learned by this point that plans here can change abruptly and dramatically and to expect all things unexpected. Well, apparently, I haven't.

So, in a little over a week, I have to learn to play two new songs, master playing all six songs while standing up, something I have never done before, and figure out how to get the day off at work (March 2 is a Wednesday). I'm fairly nervous about the whole thing. I'm not even sure if I'll be able to go. Laura is pretty certain she won't be able to, which changes the one song she was going to sing and eliminates the chance of having her take pictures. We'll be practicing every night until the day of the show, thus I'll likely not be posting much nor replying to many emails in that time, but I will catch up afterwards.

Oh yeah, Laura will be posting some of the pictures she took in Seoul soon, so keep an eye on her blog for those.

Guy

Fun in the chilly north...

Well, Seoul was a blast. The three of us (Laura, Andy, and I) managed to fit, into a span of three days and two nights, a visit to Deoksugung (a palace from the 17th century), a trip to the World Cup Stadium where we attempted to obtain tickets to the match between Korea and Kuwait that was to take place the next night (we failed), two nights out drinking in Itaewon (the designated "foreigner district" in Seoul), a long and memorable journey through the Seoul Contemporary Art Museum where there was an exhibit of digital art and its ubiquitous presence in the world (especially Korea) and how that effects the way people think, look, feel, etc. (it was pretty great), meeting up with some of Andy's friends as well as my friend Dave, shopping for clothing and gadgets, numerous subway trips, a trip up Seoul Tower (Laura and I did that, Andy went off on his own having done that before), and just an all around good time. Many pictures were taken by Andy and Laura (a few by me, but nothing all that memorable). Laura is busily sorting out the good ones and will likely post some up here soon enough. I'll send a notice when she does so that those of you interested can take a peek. My one regret is that we weren't able to meet up with my other friend, Myza, despite repeated attempts. Worst of all was that we had arranged to meet at Seoul Station for dinner before we hopped on our train home but somehow didn't see each other. I'm not exactly sure what happened and haven't heard from her since, but I hope all is well and that we'll be able to meet up in the future.

Hmm, that paragraph contains what may be the longest sentence I have ever written. Hurray for bad grammar!

Anyway, now it's time to concentrate on the arrival of Jon, Laura's brother, and our subsequent trip to Japan. As well, we're still waiting on notice from SFU whether we are in or not.

That's about all from me today. Oh yeah, just so you know, blogger has made it a bit easier to comment on stuff now, so please feel free to do so. The comment posting window now is a pop-up, so for those of you who block those, be aware.

Guy

I am attentively pink.

The best wrong answer ever.

This is a sentence given to me by a student on a test where I had her and her classmate write sentences using specific words. The word in this case was "attentively." I'm not sure what "attentively pink" means exactly (and I guess she isn't either), but I like the way it sounds.

In another interesting English malfunction, Han Tae and Yong came into class yesterday and immediately asked me to give them English names. I've known them for months now and found it strange that this was the first time they have asked for this. I wasn't sure what kind of names they wanted and told them that if they were concerned about English speakers not being able to pronounce their names then they should just spell their Korean names using the Roman alphabet. They agreed with this but immediately informed me that Yong had already come up with a name for himself and wanted to ask me my opinion of it. The name he had chosen: "Cock Wild." I'm not sure where he got it from or why exactly he wanted to be called that, but wow, did I ever have a good time explaining to him exactly why it wasn't such a great name to have.

An interesting side note to this naming business, Han Tae and Yong told me about a common Korean name that always catches foreigners off guard. The name is 박규 (pronounced "Pak Kyu"). Just say aloud, "Hi, my name is Pahk Kyu," once or twice, you'll understand.

And finally, one last bit of strangeness to to end this entry. I mentioned last time that next week is the Lunar New Year. Koreans treat it much like we treat Krissmuss; days off, travelling to see family, and gift giving. Well, I got a gift. It was a very nice gesture by the owner of the school to get me something and I appreciate it. I'm just a little confused and, frankly, extremely amused in his choice of gifts. I took a picture of it because I don't think describing it quite does it enough justice (plus, I just LOVE using Laura's new camera and any excuse to do so is fully utilized).



Yes, you see that correctly. I was given a case of canned ham. Happy Lunar New Year, everyone! I hope you, too, get ham.

Guy

The new colony is progressing nicely...

So, my life in the world of education has gone full circle from my days as an elementary school student. I am now teaching nuns. They arrived in my final class of the day yesterday. They were shown into the classroom by the director and immediately dove into their work. I was slightly startled at their sudden appearance, dressed in full habits (brown ones, if you were curious), but managed to continue on with my class without interruption. I think that I would be able to establish a successful colony now with my students, preferably on a tropical island as it's horribly cold here right now. My students are of varying ages from young children to adults, and all are fairly evenly distributed between male and female. I have doctors, Laura and I are educators (of sorts), and now I have nuns. (Un)fortunately, it's not the 17th century anymore and no one is shipping out boatloads of people to colonize the "uncivilized" parts of the world. Nope. It's planeloads now and we're here to spread the word of Angle-land. The Mormons, etc. have their own agenda.

In other news, Laura, Andy and I will be heading up to Seoul next week for the Lunar New Year (Sollal). For those of you unsure what that is, it is otherwise known as Chinese New Year, but keep in mind that when I said that to one of my doctor students, he seemed a bit offended and rather clearly stated that it is celebrated in Korea and Japan as well. Thus, I will just stick to calling it the Lunar New Year. Apparently, on the day of Lunar New Year, we can go to the Han River in Seoul and watch the kite fights. Not sure exactly what that will entail, but it sounds entertaining, regardless.

For those of you asking for news about the band I'm in, Junior Panthers, well, not much is going on. We're supposed to have a show on Feb. 20, but we can't seem to get together to practice very often and when we do, half the time we don't actually do anything. It shouldn't be too much of a problem as we're only doing four songs for the show and we all know them pretty well, but it can be a little frustrating to sit around a cold practice room, not practicing, while listening to the other three band members talk to each other in Korean. I'm sure we'll pull it all together in time, though.

Well, gotta go eat. I think pizza sounds good. Hopefully it tastes good, too.

Guy

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.

An invitation to craziness...

Well, things appear to be changing once again.

It seems the director of my school is leaving at the end of the month. She's apparently got another job lined up at a bigger school in Ulsan and wants to take Cathy and me with her. This offer, of course, is pending the continuance of late payments of salary that the school has steadily supplied for us. It would take a lot to dislodge me before my contract is up, though. While the late payments and poor accomodations suck, I'm pretty fond of Milyang and moreso of Laura. So to pull me off to another city, even though it is only an hour bus ride away, would take a guarantee of equal or better pay that would arrive on time, all the time, a much nicer apartment, and a contract that would end at the same time as Laura's at the end of July. Likely, this is not to be and I'll struggle through my contract here, but it is good to know there are options out there should the late-pay situation get worse and become a no-pay situation. I'm not sure who's going to be our new director, likely the owner will take over. I'm also not sure what will happen with Cathy. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she left for Ulsan seeing as she hasn't been paid in two months. I seriously would be completely incapable of teaching everyone by myself, so the hiring of another teacher would be essential for the school to survive, but how can you hire people when you already can't afford to pay the employees you have? And here I thought things were stabilizing...

Other school things are changing as well. I will begin taking a bus out to Bugok three days a week to teach the doctors. This is because my director has been driving me there and, well, she's leaving. This really isn't that big a deal other than the fact that at the bus station in Bugok, when we stopped to investigate the bus times, we were accosted by a rather angry man who seemed to hate me on sight. Actually, accosted is a pretty mild term to describe the encounter. This man, who by the looks of it hangs out at the bus station frequently, immediately started yelling things at me as we entered the building. He got right up to us, kept yelling, took a full on swing at me while completely ignoring my director who had interposed her slight five-foot-nothing frame between us. I had no idea what to do. My director seemed only mildly concerned by this guy and led me across the room to check the schedule. He followed, his white robe and long hair flowing behind him (seriously), and proceeded to whack me across the back of the head with a roll of paper, all the while yellling more. Having seen the bus times, we left. He didn't follow us outside. I am more than a little concerned that he will be there again every time I show up at the Bugok station. Not such a great welcoming committee they have there.

And now, the final change... I turn 30 on Sunday. I hereby am inviting you all to join me in celebrating this with bowling and drinking on Saturday night (keep in mind that Saturday night here is early Saturday morning in Canada). I realize it's short notice, but I will cover your food and accomodations (spare room or heated floor). Airfare not included, but you should be able to find some good last minute deals to Seoul, I'm sure. I expect you all to be there. I'll give you more specific directions by email when you let me know what time your flight arrives.

See you all soon!

Guy

Six months, time to take stock...

Well, it's been a little over six months in Korea now and to mark the occasion, I've decided to make a couple of lists. The first, all the things that irritate me about being here. The second, all the things I love about being here. So, here they are (and the lists themselves are in no particular order):

The Bothersome

1) The dreadful missing of my friends and family. Random talks on messenger and occasional emails just aren't enough. I need to be able to sit in a room with my people. This is easily the hardest part about being here.

2) Inconsistent working conditions. I really would like to have a job where my daily schedule isn't randomly shifted on me at the last second as well as a job where I get paid in full and on time. So far, they haven't missed giving out any actual money, but I've only been paid on time once, and that was the first time. And what's with taking away our photocopier? How can a school survive without a photocopier? I just don't get it.

3) Smart-ass students who refuse to put in any effort. I realize this has nothing specifically to do with Korea, it is a general teachers lament, but I include it here because I doubt I would be teaching if I were not in Korea.

4) Bizarre text books that have me teach the students such interesting sentences as, "Fasten your pants," or, "Take off your pants." I find the pants obsession a little concerning. Some other examples of strange things I am forced to teach are an entire chapter dedicated to the proper usage of the word "mustn't," a unit that has the students tell me detailed instructions on finishing a level in a video game, and various words such as "cardiogram," and "filet mignon." That last one isn't even English! Grr. I could go on and on about the text books, really, but I'll stop there.

5) The inability to walk around town without some random person, usually a middle/high school boy, yelling "Hello!" to me. At first it seems kind of funny, but after six months of it, it gets quite irritating. I suggest that everyone at home yell, "Anyeong haseyo!" to every Korean they see. Those of you in Vancouver could be a little busy.

6) The food, while good, can get a little redundant after a while. This would probably be less of a problem if I were in a bigger city with better access to food from elsewhere, but I'm in Miryang and all that is available is Korean food, pizza (which pales in comparison to what is available at home) and McDonald's (which is the same everywhere, except that here, they don't have breakfast). I would love to have a good caesar salad (or any salad that doesn't consist of shredded cabbage topped with thousand island dressing and ketchup), or a falafel, or good Mexican food, or Indian food, or a turkey dinner, or...

7) The beer sucks. It's weak (4.5%), it doesn't taste all that great, and it's not all that cheap in comparison to beer at home. That said, I still drink it.

8) The unavailability of certain products such as deodorant and my brand of shampoo (well, not so much my brand, Head & Shoulders, but the specific kind I use which has selenium, not zinc). I'm told that deodorant is available in the bigger cities, but that it is prohibitively expensive and I highly doubt my brand (Tom's of Maine, calendula or scentless) will be among those shipped in. Decent toothpaste is also nonexistent (why would anyone use pine flavoured toothpaste?). I brought supplies of each of these, but they are starting to dwindle. I may request a care package soon...

9) My apartment still sucks. Laura and I cleaned it on the weekend, making it livable for the first time since sometime before I arrived, but the computer room is simply an awful place to be (too hot in the summer, frozen in the fall/winter), the kitchen still features a toilet, and the walls are still covered in water stains and full of bugs. It is not a pleasant place at all.

10) Korean music is terrible. I've explained it all before in previous posts, though, so I won't elaborate further.

I'm sure I could come up with all sorts of other things if I really wanted to, but I think these ten items cover the major irritations I have with being here. Now, onto the good stuff:

Things That Make Me Happy

1) Meeting Laura. Sure, she's from Canada, too, but I doubt I would have met her there. Since we met, my time here has become far more enjoyable, so much so that we're both thinking of staying for another year. She has made what some might have considered a questionable journey worthwhile and more.

2) I'm making decent money here and don't have to pay rent which makes it actually possible to pay back my student loans. If I were at home, I don't think it would have been possible.

3) The food is good and cheap. I know, I complained about it in the above list, but I do like Korean food and it is so very, very cheap.

4) The textbooks, while being mostly stupid, do offer up some amusing bits. My personal favourites are the sentences that sound like euphemisms. Last week I got to teach the sentence, "He eats the big sandwich." I want to work that into a conversation somehow. Here are some samples of how I may try to do so: "Hey, do you know Tony?" "Tony? Pfft. That guy eats the big sandwich." Or, "Hey, did you hear what happened to Tony?" "Yeah, I heard he ate the big sandwich last night. So sad." Or lastly, "That Tony guy, wow, he sure eats the big sandwich, if you know what I mean..."

5) The students who laugh and ask questions and want to show you the things they made at their real schools and who just seem happy to learn stuff. To me, they are the lone redeeming quality to teaching. I would like to have more of them, or have at least one in every class. Sadly, that is not the case.

6) The ease of traveling across the country. Train or bus will get you anywhere in South Korea cheaply and within 8 hours at the most. Can't say that for home, can you? It makes exploring so much easier and completely possible on weekends and for those of us without a car. Even within the cities, it is easy to get around. Buses are common and fairly simple to use (if you have a guide book, anyway) and taxis are extremely plentiful and quite cheap.

7) The people are generally quite friendly and they want to make you happy. Makes for good hospitality.

8) The scenery, when not being bulldozed, is quite beautiful. The mountains are steep and the valleys are narrow. Not much flat land here. It can be quite beautiful.

9) I'm in a band! I have attempted this at home before, but nothing ever came of it. It actually is a functioning band here. It is so much fun and my guitar playing has improved immensely since joining. Wheeee!!!

10) The experience in general is great. I love just being able to experience a different culture, try to figure out how to interact, see all the interesting things, hear the stories and histories, and learn the language (which is coming slowly, but I have mastered the alphabet and am able to read things with increasing quickness. Now, if only I could understand what I'm reading... I also don't understand spoken Korean in the least. I can pick out a word or two here and there, but I'm a long way from being able to carry on even a halting conversation).

So, those are my lists. The urge to come home battles constantly with the urge to stay for another year. Right now, I'm leaning towards staying. I will be home in the summer though, August by the looks of it. I wanted to come in the winter at some time, but I haven't been able to save any money due to my excessive student loan payments. Laura and I want to make good long visits with everyone and I really want everyone to meet her (and she wants to meet everyone, too). Anyway, that's all for now. Onto the next six months...

Guy

To the bat cave!

Ah, what a good weekend.

As mentioned last time, Laura and I decided to go to place called Donghae (which, literally translated, means East Sea), up on the northeast coast. It was actually a random choice of places. We originally wanted to go to Gwangju, which is on the complete opposite end of the country, but were advised that if we wanted to see the north part of the country, this would likely be the last time it would be pleasant to do so before spring, so Donghae it was.

It started with a lovely seven hour train ride overnight from Milyang. For some reason, they decided to crank the heat on the train making for a rather uncomfortable ride. We survived despite the havoc it wreaked with Laura's cold. The other unfortunate thing about the train ride was that it was taken at night, thus denying us the opportunity to gawk at the scenery. The night travel was a good thing in theory, though, as supposedly we could sleep while traveling. The sleep on the train sucked, but the train did get us there for 6am giving us plenty of time to check the place out.

At first, checking the place out consisted of wandering around, cold, hungry and tired, from motel to motel trying to find one that had someone behind the counter to give us a room. After about an hour of this, we finally succeeded. Our room was, well, kind of icky, but seeing as we just planned on using it as a base to explore, it would do.

After a quick nap, it was time for some food then some exploring. We found a cheap and tasty place nearby the motel. We had some tasty chol-myun (cold noodles with veggies and a spicy sauce, really tasty) and pizza mandu (mandu are dumplings and these were fried dumplings with pizza sauce and cheese on them). Then we were off... to the bat cave.

The bat cave was very interesting. Actually, everything from its unpronounceable name (Cheongokcheonyeondonggul, as listed in the Lonely Planet) to the fact that it was in the middle of the city made it appealing to us. It turned out to be bat-less, at least as far as we could tell, but it did have strings of colourful light along the railings and on certain bits of jutting rock that one might otherwise crack one's head on and these lights more than made up for our disappointment in the lack of bats. The cave itself was pretty cool. Stalactites and stalagmites, weird bacon-like formations, and one rather phallic bit of stone that everyone seemed to want a picture of (well, ok, it was one lady, but she seemed to make an extra effort to get that picture). The signs labeling certain things thought to be of extra interest were pretty interesting themselves. According to the signs, nearly half of everything in the cave was "Mysterious," and one thing was actually described as being "bacon-like," despite the fact that it clearly wasn't. The bacon-like formations were elsewhere. The exit from the cave was lined with glass cases containing a variety of geodes which fairly likely had nothing to with the cave, but were pretty stones nonetheless.

After our cave adventure, we decided to venture down to the water. The waterfront in Donghae is very pretty. We found this cliff-lined beach with fishermen and playing children on it. As well, there was the pretty little restaurant/coffee chop that looked like it could have been transported directly out of Nova Scotia. We sat up on the third floor, drinking our bad and overpriced coffee (something one just gets used to here), and looking out at the fishing boats on the East Sea (or, Sea of Japan as anyone outside of Korea would know it). It was really quite pleasant.

Due to our lack of sleep and the fact that we both had, to differing degrees, colds, we were pretty tired by this point so we made our way back to the motel for another quick nap.

A few hours later, we emerged refreshed and made our way back into town for dinner and some beer. We found a nice seafood restaurant and had eel and salmon rice hotpots. Tasty! Afterwards we went to the 11th floor of a building to a place called Sky Beer. It was full of well dressed young Koreans. It seemed to be everyone's birthday that night as at numerous times the lights would dim, birthday music would blare out of the speakers, strobe lights would come on and a cake would be delivered to a table accompanied full of happy people detonating those loud popping streamer things. Laura and I just sat at our slightly isolated table and observed it all, enjoying the spectacle and attempting to converse over the din. Just as we were figuring on leaving, our pitcher of beer done and our feeling of exhaustion returning, we mysteriously found that a second pitcher of beer had been delivered to our table. We didn't order it. We didn't want it. And we didn't want to pay for it. When the waitress returned to add it to our bill, we used various hand motions, grunts and head shakings to indicate that this beer was not ours and we wanted to leave. She seemed to understand as it was not added to our bill. Why the beer came to our table is still a mystery.

We slept well that night and got up mid-morning. Our train back to Milyang didn't leave until 2-ish so we casually got some food (pizza don-gas - pork cutlet with pizza sauce and cheese, and more chol-myun) then wandered about the area around the train station in search of snacks for the ride. We found those and discovered we still had a few hours so continued our wandering. We ended up at the Mukho fish market (Mukho is the slightly smaller town just north of Donghae - they may as well be the same city) which was really cool and was just asking to have pictures taken of it. Still don't have a digital camera or a scanner, so it will be a while before I can show anything from these, assuming they turn out at all, but it was a cool place with buckets of live squid swimming around and row upon row of all sorts of fish of various sizes, shapes and colours.

Well, that pretty much took care of the rest of our time and we were off to catch our train. The ride back was long and uneventful, but the scenery was really pretty, at least those parts that weren't being bulldozed to make a new expressway (I really think this country just wants to become one giant, thousand lane highway).

So, in a week I will have been here for six months. Half way through my contract and currently debating whether I want to sign on for another. If I do, it likely will not be with this same school or likely even in Milyang. I have lots of time to decide on that though. Regardless of that decision, I will be back in Canada at the end of my year here, at the very least for an extended visit before coming back. We'll see how things go the rest of the way. I'll be sure to keep you all updated.

Guy

Peppero Day

Well, yesterday was Nov. 11. A special day here in Korea: Peppero Day. Those of unfamiliar with Korea may be asking yourself, "What is this Peppero of which he speaks?" Well, it may be familiar to those of you in the know about Asian snack food in general because at home (and in Japan), it is known as Pocky. If you are not in the know about Pocky, I will now explain: Pocky is a thin stick of dry cookie, coated in a chocolatey substance or some other tasty confection.

Yes, an entire day has been dedicated to them here. The sheer marketing genius behind this astounds me. I believe the brainstorming session may have been a little like this (only, in Korean):

"Peppero sales have been slipping, especially during November. What can we do about this?"
thoughtful pause
"We could try putting them in fancier packages..."
"We've done that, didn't help."
more thoughtful pausing
"Well... the sticks kinda look like 1's... um, maybe, it being November, you know, the eleventh month, we could make it Peppero month or something..."
"I like your thinking, but a whole month is probably too much. Maybe just a day. I know! 11/11! Yes! We'll make millions!"

And that is the story of Peppero Day, as interpreted by me. I was given many sticks of Peppero by my students. Pure choco-stick fun!

In other news, it appears that I am gaining another class outside my institute. It starts on Monday and involves students from middle school to adults. Not sure what to expect, really.

Laura and I are going to a small city called Donghae for a few days. It's on the NE coast of the country. Hopefully, it will be good. We figured that this might be our last chance to travel before winter comes along. The weather here is still quite nice (it's mid-November and we still have mosquitoes) and it would be a shame not to take advantage of that (not the mosquitoes; they take advantage of me, though - I feel so used).

Well, that's about all today. I may still try to type up the full stories of the hike, the trip to Andong, etc. Time is lacking lately though, but I will try.

Guy

Laura, Doogie, and Ethan

Well, it's been far too long and far too much has happened in that time for me to get into any real details, but a quick glossing over is certainly in order here.

First and foremost, it should be known that Debb and I have decided to part ways. We both have found others to be with and the distance/time factor certainly has played a role. However, we plan on remaining close and so far, we're keeping true to that. My new "other" is a girl from Saskatchewan by the name of Laura. She's quick, with an abstract and sometimes silly wit, she's an excellent photographer and has a degree in graphic art, she enjoys eating strange food and drinking beer, she has a strange obsession with monkeys (no, wait a minute, that's me), she's tall, pretty, has cute freckles across her nose and cheeks, and really wants to meet all my friends and family. She's been in Milyang for almost 4 months now and we've been seeing each other basically since the last time I posted on here. Things are still new with her but it all feels pretty good right now. My description doesn't really do her justice, so if anyone has any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them.

Other than spending basically all of my free time with Laura, my past month has consisted of me climbing an 1189m mountain on a day that got progressively colder, wetter and windier as it went along making for a rather uncomfortable and brief stay at the top, going to the city of Andong and the nearby Korean traditional folk village, another visit to Pusan this time with Laura (we went to get her alien registration card) instead of by myself, the progression of the band I'm in from disorganized and unproductive to disorganized and surprisingly good at our selected songs (Laura has joined the band as a keyboard/tambourine player and singer, as well), taking on a new class teaching doctors (one of whom calls himself 'Doogie') at a psychiatric hospital in a nearby hotsprings resort town, meeting up with Matt, Sean, and the new guy in town, Andy (he's from Liverpool), and pondering the inexplicable appearance of a framed picture of Ethan Hawke, taken directly out of Reality Bites, in my stairwell.

Hmm, that really is a quick glossing over. Perhaps I'll get into more details about all of the above items later, but right now I'm too hungry and tired to say much more. I promise to do better next time, and next time will come much sooner, too.

...and yet more adventures from Busan.

Last night was pure confusion, but before I get into that I should let you all know that I'm no longer sick. The cold has subsided and I think I must give credit to my Korean acquaintances who supplied me with a non-stop barrage of remedies such as bottles of vitamin C drink, chicken-ginseng soup (samga-tang), and a vile tasting murky brown/green liquid that I think was devised to eliminate any psychosomatic illnesses (if being sick means having to drink this, no one will pretend - Buckley's has nothing on this stuff). Regardless, it seemed to work, so I thank them.

So yes, the confusion...

I had intended originally on spending my five day Chusok holiday (I've heard it referred to as Korean Christmas as well as Korean Thanksgiving, but I'll just call it Chusok) just relaxing, not going anywhere at all. This was partly due to being sick last week, partly due to a lack of funds to go anywhere. This plan was forestalled by Han Tae and the rest of the band (Yong and Dong Un). They insisted we go to Busan to see live bands. Yong has a car, they would pay for food and we would drink little to nothing. Inexpensive and convenient. They made it clear I had no real choice in the matter, plus it sounded fine to me.

So, we all met up at about 5:30 last evening and made our way to Busan. One of the first things they told me was that they'd never driven to Busan before and weren't exactly sure how to get there. I didn't think much of that as I was fairly certain the highway would be easy to find and road signs would be fairly helpful. For the most part, that assumption turned out to be true. We got a bit lost once we entered Busan, but finding Busan itself was no problem.

There was confusion once we arrived in the city as we didn't know exactly how to get to the university area. I was no help at first. I only knew the train and subway. However, once we finally did encounter the subway line, I became the guide. It is a strange experience to be a Canadian guiding three Koreans around a Korean city. I managed to get us where we wanted to be and after some parking issues, which will have a role to play later in the story, found us a place to eat.

I had eaten at this place before. I had scallops and noodles there the night I met all those new people from a couple of postings ago. My Korean friends did the ordering, as was expected. The food was not what I expected. It was Korean BBQ, but along with the regular pork were thick slabs of pig skin and bits of cow intestine. I turned off the part of my mind that screamed, "Good lord! You're not eating that, are you?!" and ate it. Both were remarkably flavourless. The textures were odd. The skin was softish while the intestines were quite chewy.

Anyway, after dinner we made our way to Soultrane and found out there was a big thing going on involving three bars and a whole lot of bands. We bought the passes and made our way inside. It was a completely different crowd than usual and I saw none of the people I know there other than those who work at the bar. We watched a bit of one band there who covered the likes of Good Charlotte and Blink182 and got bored fairly quickly.

Next up was Moo Monk. I had been there once before on my first trip to Busan. We walked in during a set of a woman fronted rock band. It was the first time I had seen a female in a band here. The drummer was also female. They were pretty good. They did an almost dead on version of You Oughta Know. We left after their set and made our way to the third of the three bars we had passes to get into.

I had never been to this place before. It's called Queen. We were greeted by the sound of creepy organ music. This very quickly changed into full on head banging speed goth metal. It was great. The guitarists and singer all did the whole twirling of their long, straight hair thing. The drummer was amazing. Everybody but the keyboardist was extremely active in their headbanging. She just passively stood there and played her music with an intent look on her face. It made for a good contrast. Unfortunately, I was the only one of the four of us who enjoyed it, the other three just found it humorous and quickly wanted to leave.

We went back to Soultrane where we watched another band that covered some bland pseudo-punk and at midnight my bandmates wanted to call it a night and go home.

At this point, we had to find the car. At first, we had parked right next to the subway station, but when we got to the restaurant we were told that the car would likely be towed if it were left there. So, Yong and Dong Un went to go move the car. They came back shortly and it was forgotten about. But now we had to find it again, and they weren't sure where it was. We wandered around the general subway station area, stopped for some food and some coffee and after making many wrong turns and doubling back frequently, we finally found the car.

This doubling back thing turned out to be a theme for the rest of the night. I can't count the number of times we pulled a u-turn because nobody was sure where to go to get back home. All I know is that we were at various points in construction sites, on barren, narrow country roads, and we ended up at the same toll booth about five times. Eventually we got ourselves on the main highway and made our way towards Miryang. However, we missed some turn offs along the way, apparently, as we suddenly found ourselves in the province to the north of the one we usually find ourselves in. We passed through Gyeongju and eventually turned around in Daegu and found the highway that would take us to Miryang.

All in all, a trip that costs 3000\ (approximately $3) by train and takes 45 minutes ended up taking 4 hours and likely costing a hell of a lot more in gas money. But hey, it was an adventure for sure.

I slept late today, obviously. Have spent all of it just lounging around, other than getting some groceries. I still have 3 days off. Not sure what I'm going to do. I have literally no money left and don't get paid until next weekend (or possibly even next Monday), which seriously curtails my possible activity. I'm sure I'll come up with something, though.

Guy

Waiting for the drugs to kick in...

Well, I'm sick. This is my first, non-alcohol or head smashing induced illness in Korea. It's not fun. I'm completely stuffed up, but hopefully the incessant sneezing will take care of that soon. The director of my school brought me some medicine at the end of the day. I have no idea what it is. Two capsules of some sort and a pouch of something. The stuff in the pouch looked like food for miniature rabbits but tasted oddly like tea. As I said, I have no idea what it was, but I apologize in advance if this update becomes painfully incoherent as it starts to take effect.

The illness actually started on Friday night, a slight scratchiness in my throat. I went out with my fellow aliens that night, again had a great time. Leave it a guy who's been here for five years (Matt) to find to places in the city that have a good atmosphere. This time it was a very nice BBQ restaurant. The food was tasty, the side dishes were plentiful and varied and it was pretty cheap. After that we migrated to Blue Moon and ordered giant armour-plated jug of beer after giant armour-plated jug of beer. It was fun. After a few hours of merriment there, we still felt like enjoying ourselves and made our way down the block to a late night restaurant. It was there that I finally tried the infamous silkworm larvae of Korea. Mmm-mm, was it nasty, but I can now add silkworm larvae to the list that was started in Mexico with grasshoppers. After that, it was pretty late and everyone dispersed. I hung out with Laura, sitting around talking for a few more hours, finally got to bed by 4:30 am.

On Saturday, I felt awful. I slept late, my throat was worse (gee, I wonder how that happened, what with all the drinking and bar talking and staying up late). I decided early that I wasn't going to make it to Busan that night. I was wrong, but I'll get into that later. I hung out with Laura for a while, but we both were feeling pretty rotten so it didn't last long.

At 8:00 that night I decided that I needed to do something and I decided that I wasn't too late to make it down to Busan to see Astroboy's final show. I knew it was a bad idea, having already cancelled on Han Tae and informed my friends in Busan that I wouldn't be there as well as being very tired and increasingly sick, but I did it anyway. It proved to be an even stupider decision than originally estimated. When I got to Soultrane, I was quickly ignored by the friends that were there. Feeling a little odd and realizing that I still had a half hour or so before the show started, I went over to Crossroads. Again, I was mightily ignored by those I knew, with the exception of the people behind the bar, including Hyuk, the guitarist/singer for Astroboy. But he was busy getting ready and didn't have much time to talk. I had a beer, and made my way back to Soultrane for the show. The show was great. It's sad that it was the last.

Right before the show, Jonathan showed up and he was his usual friendly self. After the show he seemed to take in the situation of me being ignored and offered to take me to a different club where he was DJ-ing that night. I went. I did not have a good time. It was a typical dance club scene, which is not what I'm into. The only person I knew was very busy putting on the music. I got irritated quickly and fled after about an hour.

Fleeing was a strange decision as I was in a part of the city I didn't know at about 3:00 in the morning. The busses/subway weren't running and I had no more money for a room or a taxi to the train station. Being me, I used my map studying skills and walked to the train station. It took two hours. That was fine as it got me there right on time to catch the first train home.

I slept very deeply on Sunday. I still got up by noon and ended up spending the day with Laura and Alex. I finally got to see the places where other foreigners live in Milyang and I am very jealous. Laura's place is tiny, yes, but its clean, bug free, the ceiling doesn't leak and it has actual cupboards and drawers as well as laundry facilities. Alex's place is amazing. At home, her place might be considered slightly small, but it's not really. It was extremely nice. The colours chosen are soft and soothing, it has an air conditioner and private laundry facilities. It was a dream apartment, and by that I mean I would kill for it at home, not just here. Anyway, Sunday ended up as another very late night.

Monday was a long day. I started off feeling ill, but strangely got better as the day progressed. Tuesday was perfectly fine, health-wise. My throat was still a little sore, but seemed to be getting better. Han Tae took me out for lunch, a yummy bowl of dolsot bibimbap, and I also had spicy-ish chicken that was cooked with a combination of a grill and a hair dryer with Laura that night. It was good.

I slept great Tuesday night and woke up feeling wonderful today. Han Tae came by for lunch and brought along Yong, the other guitarist for our fledgling band, which we have decided to call Junior Panthers. Don't know if that name will stick, but we'll see. Anyway, all was going relatively well until I got to work. Gradually, I descended into this current state of abject illness.

Speaking of which, I am starting to feel the drugs coming on. I'm a bit loopy and can feel myself starting to float a bit. I should stop typing now.

Guy

We're not alone out here... I've been discovered by aliens.

Since making my last posting, where I predicted that this week would likely progress in a remarkably similar fashion to last week, things have changed significantly.

It turns out that I am not the only foreigner who lives in Milyang. In fact, there appear to be quite a few. I met four of them last night. One of them, Matt, has lived here for 5 years. He was randomly looking around for Milyang related stuff online and stumbled across this blog. In turn, he invited me to join him and his co-workers for beer last night.

It was a great time. He works with a guy named Sean, whom I had met once before at a bar (yet strangley neglected to mention it), and a girl named Laura who has been here about 6 weeks. As well, another lady by the name of Alex joined us, she's been here about six weeks as well. She works at a different school altogether. Matt's girlfriend, Ji Yeon, also came along. I am still a bit amazed that I haven't run into these people before, with the exception of Sean whom I had run into once.

Anyway, we all met at a place called Hof Village. I'd been there once before with James a while back. It has a big sign outside proclaiming it be a "Western Bar." We sat around, getting to know one another for a while, ordered some food, drank some beer. The food was fairly typical, but one part is worth mentioning. The menu called it turkey. Matt and Ji Yeon called it turkey. All of my senses called it ham. It looked like ham, it smelled like ham, it felt like ham, it even sounded like ham, but most importantly, it tasted like ham. Laura, Sean, Alex and I were assured that it was turkey. It came with a bone. A large leg bone. I really wish I could have taken it home and looked more closely at it to determine whether it was turkey or pig. You'd think it should be blantanly obvious, and well, it probably should be for a guy that took a faunal remains analysis course (which I have), but it wasn't. They took the bone away before I could grab it, so that opportunity was lost. Regardless, it tasted good with mustard.

After the Western Bar, we made our way to a place that is about a 30 second walk from my apartment. This place, called Sor, is absolutely amazing. It is so retro 60's-70's and in a very classy lounge kind of way. I love it. The booths are like little rooms with beaded curtain entrances. The lighting and walls give it the perfect atmosphere. In fact, I think it may be the first place I've been to in Korea with a real atmosphere to it. The owner, an interesting Korean guy who used to play guitar and now plays the drums due to a hand injury, has a rather large wall full of old records. He played us specially selected songs all night and sat at the table with us for long periods of time. We drank beer and lemon flavoured soju (very tasty) and talked about work, speaking Korean, music and many, many other things.

All in all, last night was probably the most comfortable I've felt in this city yet. Thank you Matt for contacting me. This isn't to say I haven't enjoyed my time with Edward or HanTae or James or Cathy, but this was the most comfortable yet. Everyone was so great.

I'll stop gushing now.

As said before, I'll be backin Busan again on Saturday to watch Astroboy's final show. Laura said she'd like to come along and Han Tae said he would, too, so it should be a blast.

That's all.

Guy

When exactly does night become morning?

Well, as promised, I went to Busan. I've actually been twice since I last posted. That sangria party I mentioned last time was actually this past weekend, not the one before as I previously thought, but no matter (I'm really not sure what it was all about, actually, as nobody was drinking sangria from what I could see and it just seemed like a rather typical Saturday night at the bar, but I'll talk about it more later). Fun was had on both trips, regardless.

The first of the two weekends was quite a lot of fun. Until I hit the bar on Saturday night, I had a bit of a running commentary going on in my notebook, so I'm going to just copy it here (it's so much easier that way) with maybe a few slight edits for the sake of grammar and the children (won't anybody think of the children!!!). Anyway, here it is (it will be followed by a report of this past weekends shenanigans):

Milyang Station

Everyone here looks so damned young. How old are those two girls? They could be 12. They could be 23. I have yet to guess anyones age right here. I think I'll just give up. Train will be here soon. Yay! Food when I get to Busan. Food makes me smile.

At a coffee shop near Pusan University

I really wish I lived here. There's so much going on. This area in particular is great. So many shops, restaurants, bars, and the people watching is absolutely fantastic. I also like how here, while I'm still considered a bit of a freak, the reaction is more subdued. It's more a sort of "Oh, look, another one" kind of attitude as opposed to the "Oh my god! Look at the Alien!!!" reaction I still get in Milyang, even after three months.

All I can think of to write about is girls right now. I like to think its just an interest of mine, along the same lines as my interests in music, beer, food, books, and art. I'm not even really looking at them in a lustful way, although I suppose it is always there, at least in the background. But I would consider myself more of an appreciator of beauty in its many forms than I would consider myself just some horndog guy looking for hot chicks, however I could just be putting a nicer sounding phrase on the same thing. But in a way, it is true. It's not like I feel the need to possess all these girls, just like I don't need to possess every nice piece of art I see. That said, I could sure use a good painting or two in my apartment to make it more appealing to live in. I'll just let that topic go for now. Miss you Debb!

So, how long should I stay here (the coffee shop, not Busan)? I'm not sure what else to do. It's still very early (mid afternoon) and I've decided that I have nothing I really need to do at all. If the music here was in any way decent I'd consider staying here for a few hours, but it's fucking terrible. Maybe I'll go looking for a good stationery store. They're always entertaining here and I need a few things anyway. Yeah, I'll go do that.

Comfy internet/coffee place, still near Pusan University

I like this place. The couches are really comfy and the internet is free. Sure the coffee is horrbly weak and highly overpriced, but it all balances out. If I can spend 3000\ on a bad cup of coffee but manage to stay here for a few hours, it's no waste. The stationery store was fruitful. I just can't enough of the great sayings and pictures on Korean notebooks. They're just so much fun. I had sushi for lunch. So good. I am satisfied and content right now. I've only been here a few hours and I can already call this trip a success. Next up is dinner and drinking. I found a Mexican restaurant I may go to for dinner, but I don't know if it will be worth it. I get the feeling Korean style Mexican food will leave something to be desired. Another option is Chinese. That spicy seafood soup Dave recommended to me sounds great. We'll see.

Mexican Restaurant

Well, here I am. It's expensive, that's for sure. The pictures on the menu look good, though, and the restaurant itself is very nice. A bit warm though. The music is interesting. I've now heard three songs: Flashdance, Ain't No Mountain, an a rather interesting 60's chamber pop song (and no, I actually have no idea what chamber pop is, but the phrase seems to fit so I'm keeping it). Oh... new song. The theme from Fame. Flashdance and Fame separated by two completely non-80's dance drama related songs. Interesting.

Ahh. It's much cooler by the window.

You know what? I'm really tired of eating alone. It's fairly rare that I take a meal with someone. Well, the nachos have arrived (cheapest thing on the menu). No company, though. I could ask the waiter to join me, but he seems otherwise occupied. As expected, fake cheese, but everything else looks good. There's even guacamole. Now the taste test... Hmm, not bad. The guac is decent and there are actual jalapenos. the salsa is a bit weak and I already mentioned the cheese.

Well, I thought the music mix couldn't get stranger, but it has. How does one follow Boney M and Donna Summer with Chris DeBerge? It's just not right. I have to get out of here. The nachos and the music are depressing me. Bar time.

So, the bar...

Well, I ended up staying at the bar for a good ten hours (actually, alternating between two, Crossroads and Soultrane, but they're across the street from each other and owned/staffed by the same people so they might as well be one place) . I drank, I talked about books and music, I danced until 5am. After that, I was pretty tired, so I caught a train home to Milyang and passed out.

The intervening week was pretty nondescript. The groupies have settled down a bit. They still gather about when they see me, but they seek me out less and are far quieter about it. As well as groupies though, I've discovered that one of the little girls in my kids class, Suzy, has a crush on me. Cathy said she thought so but I didn't believe her until I found a crayon picture on my desk of myself and Suzy surrounded by a heart (she labelled us both). She later made me put the picture in my daytimer. It's so cute.

Well, onto this most recent weekend, which was also a lot of fun. It started off inauspiciously, though. Everybody I was supposed to meet up with in Busan on Saturday cancelled on me (Han Tae cancelled earlier on Friday, Cathy cancelled that night, and Edward just didn't show up). None of my Busan friends were at the bar when I got there, either. I sat around by myself for a few hours, talking to the cute bartender girl (who's university major is German literature of all things), watching another bartender (who is also the bassist for Astroboy) do card tricks, and generally just doing nothing.

After a while of this, a very attractive Korean girl invited me to join her and her friends. I was startled, but quickly agreed. They were all very friendly and we all talked for a while. Her friends are very nice, and they were very drunk. After a bit, they decided they wanted to go for food and invited me along. We had tasty scallops and yummy soup and intoxicating soju. We talked a lot more, drank a whole bunch, then we finished the food and she and her friends left. I went back to Soultrane.

I was really drunk by this point and suddenly found myself alone again. I decided to dance away my frustration, but it was really crowded on the dance floor and nobody would let me actually dance with them (everyone turned their backs to me), so I just ended up more frustrated. I drank some more, then decided I needed some air.

I went outside, sat on the curb and put my head on my arms. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, really. Frustration and alcohol are never a good mix. Anyway, I was sitting like this for a while when I felt someone tap my head. I looked up and there was a girl, a fellow alien, standing there. She asks if I'm ok and I say I'm fine and she says ok and leaves. I figured that was the end of that and put my head back down. Moments later, though, she comes back with her friend and they ask me how to get to Crossroads. I take them there.

We get some beer, sit down, and chat. The girl who tapped my head is from Vancouver. Her name is Jocelyn. She's been here for almost exactly the same amount of time that I have. Her friend is from England and has been here for 9 months. Her name is Catherine. They're staying in Seoul and had come down to Busan for the weekend.

Catherine ended up leaving early (well, relatively as it was about 3:30am by this point). Jocelyn and I sat around drinking and talking, then this guy from New Zealand joins us. He's a little older than me, and has this intense, almost creepy way about him. He was nice enough though, a lot of fun to talk to. His name is Adam. We end up closing the bar down, but still wanted to go do stuff. The suggestion is made to find a karaoke room (nori-bang). Trying to figure out the controls at those places is difficult. We struggled mightily. After some fiddling and button pushing, a good time was eventually had by all.

It was light out when we emerged and I eventually stumbled back to Milyang for some much needed sleep.

Well, it's Monday night now. I'm going to assume that the rest of this week will go much the same as the others, but if not, I'll let you know. I'll most likely be back in Busan on the weekend as its Astroboy's final show (the singer/guitarist has to take his requisite 2 years in the army now). I don't want to miss that.

You'll hear from me soon, I'm sure.

Guy