I just finished watching "Snakes on a Plane".
It was, at once, the best and worst movie I have ever seen.
Good:
Bad horror movie feel. w00t!
"I'm tired of these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!"
...
... ...
Okay, that was all the good, but hearing Samuel L Jackson say the word motherfucker is like hearing a glorious aria by a masterful soprano. It basically justifies the whole film.
Bad:
Seriously, a guy getting bit by a snake on the "snake" after asking "How's my little 'snake' doing?" or something equally ridiculous? That's just stupid.
The snooty guy getting eaten after throwing the purse dog to the anaconda type snake. Good for him! Throw one for me too! It wasn't comeuppance, he was right, anyone would do the same. I'd throw a small child if it meant I could get away, so yeah, I'd throw a bug-eyed freak dog too.
The fat lady getting aroused by a snake slithering up her dress. Come on, I get it, haha, fat lady getting turned on. I really expected more high-brow humour from this film.
WORST:
The music video at the end. It's so bad that it justifies the cost of rental, you MUST see it. Or, actually, just watch it on youtube, I'm sure it's there.
Anyways, thanks Jon. Best/Worst/Best again Christmas present ever.
Happy New Year Everyone!!!
May your year be filled with non-poisonous snakes! Snakes of JOY!
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Saturday, December 30, 2006
MIRACLE BONUS!
Yesterday was the last day of school before the new year, and the last day before winter intensives.
Classes went pretty well.. tests, talking, just goofing off with the students.
The best part was during my break when Mr Lee handed me an envelope, said "Happy New Year", and smiled. There was 200 000 won in it! That's about $230! w00t!
I had been invited out to the acoustic jam night at the Speakeasy, so as soon as school was out, I booted 'er over there. About halfway, I walked by a guy scraping ice off his windshield. He dropped his ice scraper on the ground, looked at me, said something in Korean, then got in his car. I was in a rush, so I just kept walking. I thought it was pretty weird that he hadn't picked up his ice-scraper.
Anyways, I got to the Speakeasy, and chatted up Dave for a bit. Then, I went to get a drink, and reached for my envelope. IT WAS GONE! I was in a panic for about three seconds, then I calmed down. Hey, what the hell, it was a bonus, I wasn't banking on it, so if I lost it, it sucks, but nothing is really going to go terribly wrong. I told Dave, he told a guy at the bar, Gary, and they were panicking for me. I put my coat on and headed out to look for it.
I was in the underground arcade walking under the main street. Then I remembered the ice scraper... it wasn't an ice scraper at all! It was my bonus envelope! Then I broke into a run. I was sure that the guy had probably picked it up, or the guy who walked by at the same time as I did got it... anyways, I got there, finally, and started looking under cars.
Then, in the distance, I saw it! a white envelope! It was a little worse for wear, and had clearly been run over a few times. But all the money was there!
It was a miracle on kumnamno street!
I bought a lens for my camera with the money. I brought it home and I've been playing with it all afternoon. The bad thing is, the kitten is afraid of the sound of the autofocus! haha. It's pretty entertaining. I can set it up, but as soon as I take a picture, she's off like a bolt of lightning to hide under the bed!
That's all for now!
Classes went pretty well.. tests, talking, just goofing off with the students.
The best part was during my break when Mr Lee handed me an envelope, said "Happy New Year", and smiled. There was 200 000 won in it! That's about $230! w00t!
I had been invited out to the acoustic jam night at the Speakeasy, so as soon as school was out, I booted 'er over there. About halfway, I walked by a guy scraping ice off his windshield. He dropped his ice scraper on the ground, looked at me, said something in Korean, then got in his car. I was in a rush, so I just kept walking. I thought it was pretty weird that he hadn't picked up his ice-scraper.
Anyways, I got to the Speakeasy, and chatted up Dave for a bit. Then, I went to get a drink, and reached for my envelope. IT WAS GONE! I was in a panic for about three seconds, then I calmed down. Hey, what the hell, it was a bonus, I wasn't banking on it, so if I lost it, it sucks, but nothing is really going to go terribly wrong. I told Dave, he told a guy at the bar, Gary, and they were panicking for me. I put my coat on and headed out to look for it.
I was in the underground arcade walking under the main street. Then I remembered the ice scraper... it wasn't an ice scraper at all! It was my bonus envelope! Then I broke into a run. I was sure that the guy had probably picked it up, or the guy who walked by at the same time as I did got it... anyways, I got there, finally, and started looking under cars.
Then, in the distance, I saw it! a white envelope! It was a little worse for wear, and had clearly been run over a few times. But all the money was there!
It was a miracle on kumnamno street!
I bought a lens for my camera with the money. I brought it home and I've been playing with it all afternoon. The bad thing is, the kitten is afraid of the sound of the autofocus! haha. It's pretty entertaining. I can set it up, but as soon as I take a picture, she's off like a bolt of lightning to hide under the bed!
That's all for now!
Thursday, December 28, 2006
MILK MOTHER!
Today I was playing with the looper.
The doorbell rang. I wasn't expecting anyone, so I shut down everything so as not to freak them out with the qeird sounds emmenating from the amp.
It was a woman.
She gave the usual "OH!" and look fo shock that happens when salesmen open the door to find a foreigner. She asked if I spoke Korean. I said no.
Then she got a pained look on her face and thought for a moment.
"I am milk mother!" she said, holding out a pamphlet with all different brands of milk on it.
Turns out they have a milk delivery service here.
Good times, Milk Mother.
The doorbell rang. I wasn't expecting anyone, so I shut down everything so as not to freak them out with the qeird sounds emmenating from the amp.
It was a woman.
She gave the usual "OH!" and look fo shock that happens when salesmen open the door to find a foreigner. She asked if I spoke Korean. I said no.
Then she got a pained look on her face and thought for a moment.
"I am milk mother!" she said, holding out a pamphlet with all different brands of milk on it.
Turns out they have a milk delivery service here.
Good times, Milk Mother.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
My Vet
I went to the vet again today.
No, foreigner hospitals aren't so bad, it's not a joke... actually, it was for vaccinations for Sam.
Anyways, the vet I found is awesome. He's right across the street, which is really convenient, and he speaks English! I mean, he have communication issues, because his English is pretty basic, but it's enough to communicate basic ideas.
The great thing is that he is pretty patient with me, even when I don't understand what he is trying to say.
Also, he sends me e-mails all the time with info he downloads about cats and kittens, and reminders of appointments.
Basically, he's super-awesome.
That's all, I just had to mention.
No, foreigner hospitals aren't so bad, it's not a joke... actually, it was for vaccinations for Sam.
Anyways, the vet I found is awesome. He's right across the street, which is really convenient, and he speaks English! I mean, he have communication issues, because his English is pretty basic, but it's enough to communicate basic ideas.
The great thing is that he is pretty patient with me, even when I don't understand what he is trying to say.
Also, he sends me e-mails all the time with info he downloads about cats and kittens, and reminders of appointments.
Basically, he's super-awesome.
That's all, I just had to mention.
Christmas Eve Dinner Photos
The tree and gifts.
The evening was extremely exciting. There was never a dull moment.
Me doing my usual thing.
Vanessa's Christmas Gift
Giving Vanessa's gift a try.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Christmas Day Dinner Pictures
Here's the Munhwa gang. Well, and ex-Munhwa-ers and a boyfriend. Back: Ryan (Brooke's boyfriend), John (the ex-Munhwa-er), Laurien (the new addition). Front: Emily (John's wife) and me, of course.
Brooke with a home-made egg-nog.
The wrapping on my gift from John.
Me wearing the shirt that John gave me. It's so fun! Also, a nice scarf, and some bootleg DVDs! Yay "Snakes on a Plane"!
Here's my kitten having horrible things done to her.
Making Teaching FUN!
So, I know that I have not been the king of updates, and that those of you who were reading the blog regularly have probably grown frustrated and moved on to more reliably updated pastures.
Truth is, I've been too busy. Last year was a year of boredom and being in need of venting, whereas this year I am frighteningly content, and finding lots of ways to fill my time. Unfortunately, many of these activities cost money, which means that my saving thus far has been less than spectacular. Far less. They haven't even been "Spook-tacular", which is abysmal.
One thing that has really changed is the teaching. Last year, it was a matter of getting through it, with the payoff of that huge vacation constantly on the horizon to brighten even the darkest days. At Munhwa, the classes are smaller, the kids have more ability, but there is NOTHING coming. Just more of the same. For a year.
As a result, I have had to find ways to make teaching more interesting. This usually means making jokes at the students' expense, which is terrible.
Terribly fun, that is.
There's a kid in my grade six class who looks like a photo of my dad from the early seventies. ie, a little hoodlum. So of course, I call him "Dad", and I talk about how proud I am all the time when he gets something right, and say "Come on Dad!!!" when he's struggling, which usually rouses a chorus of laughter form the rest of the class. So, that's fun.
There's my new grade seven class too, which had an awesome happening last week. One of the girls had a new red lib balm, which she used to write "First kiss tonight" or something in her notebook. I caught a glimpse of the writing, but not the content, and attempted to grab the notebook to check it out and show off the artwork to the rest of the class. But she was not having it. Finally, I got the notebook later, by which time the page had been torn out and presumably eaten to destroy the evidence. Unfortunately for her (and amusingly for me) the reverse page had an imprint which was quite legible. So... that led to lots of fun in class. I should qualify this whole story by saying that it was just that girl and her friends in the class that day, so the embarrassment was not too extensive. But still fun to refer to on later dates when more people were around.
My grade fours are just painfully cute, and in an awesome coincidence, the easiest to win over. If a kid is mad at me (because I yelled at him or her for doing something stupid/annoying), I'll just walk up behind him and do an entire exercise with my hand/book/board marker resting on his or her head. Suddenly, they're all smiles, and they love me. Actually, I almost started crying in class one day, because this really loud kid started hugging my arm when I did it to him and he wouldn't let go. He wasn't being annoying, it was genuinely affectionate. I felt really good that day.
It's funny, but being a disciplinarian teacher hasn't seemed to affect how the students feel about me too much. I punish them regularly, but I think these kids are even friendlier to me than the students in Yeongam ever were. Well, most of the Yeongam students, anyways.
Anyways, that's just some of the things that I do at school to keep myself from getting too bored with the situation. I have a lot of nicknames for individual student. Some they will understand, some they will have no clue about. Examples are "Mr Corner", "Grandpa Corner" (classroom geography references), TKO (always wears a Tae Kwan Do outfit), Judge Reinhold (Why not? he want's to be a judge!), "Street Legal" (he wants to be a lawyer), "Handsome Guy" (because he's always dressed nicely), "Favourite Lady" (when I asked a boy to choose his favourite lady to continue reading the story, he chose his male friend), "Han Solo" (his name is Han Sol). Anyways, as you can see, there's a lot of fun to have, and the kids seem to respond well to the nicknames.
There's one kid named Chan who is a real handful, and he has a long list of nick names. He started off as "Chan", but he quickly became "Jackie Chan", then "Channarammadingdong", then "BaChanarramma", then "Chan Gang"... and I'm sure more will come to me as time goes on.
Another huge change that has happened is that Jessie and I have broken up. It's been quite strange being here alone, but the bigger adjustment has actually been trying to think of myself as unconnected. I spent two months establishing myself as the "long distance relationship guy", and suddenly I have to reintroduce myself to everyone. Not literally, but I'm sure you understand. It's a total reworking of the headspace, and one that is going to take a good deal of time, I think.
In other news... I almost killed Sam on Christmas. There's a little storage area off the kitchen of my apartment that is not insulated. I used to have the litterbox for the cat in there, but I've recently moved it into the bathroom so that I could keep that room closed. The door to the room is this heavy steel thing that has been painted just too small for the frame. This means that in order to close it, it really has to be slammed hard. Basically, it's a big ugly cat guillotine. On Christmas I was putting my bag into the storage room, and as I slammed the door shut, Sam ran in, because a room full of bags is a room full of super fun straps and zippers. I heard a sickening scream from her, and she stumbled away. I was sure that I had broken some ribs or something, so I picked her up and cradled her, poking around to see if anything got a response. Her paw hung weakly, and I was worried that I had broken it, but in the day since, she has started to walk normally again, and is pawing with it like normal again. So, that is great news. But man, my stomach was absolutely churning with guilt and worry while I tried to figure out if she was okay.
That's all for now.
Truth is, I've been too busy. Last year was a year of boredom and being in need of venting, whereas this year I am frighteningly content, and finding lots of ways to fill my time. Unfortunately, many of these activities cost money, which means that my saving thus far has been less than spectacular. Far less. They haven't even been "Spook-tacular", which is abysmal.
One thing that has really changed is the teaching. Last year, it was a matter of getting through it, with the payoff of that huge vacation constantly on the horizon to brighten even the darkest days. At Munhwa, the classes are smaller, the kids have more ability, but there is NOTHING coming. Just more of the same. For a year.
As a result, I have had to find ways to make teaching more interesting. This usually means making jokes at the students' expense, which is terrible.
Terribly fun, that is.
There's a kid in my grade six class who looks like a photo of my dad from the early seventies. ie, a little hoodlum. So of course, I call him "Dad", and I talk about how proud I am all the time when he gets something right, and say "Come on Dad!!!" when he's struggling, which usually rouses a chorus of laughter form the rest of the class. So, that's fun.
There's my new grade seven class too, which had an awesome happening last week. One of the girls had a new red lib balm, which she used to write "First kiss tonight" or something in her notebook. I caught a glimpse of the writing, but not the content, and attempted to grab the notebook to check it out and show off the artwork to the rest of the class. But she was not having it. Finally, I got the notebook later, by which time the page had been torn out and presumably eaten to destroy the evidence. Unfortunately for her (and amusingly for me) the reverse page had an imprint which was quite legible. So... that led to lots of fun in class. I should qualify this whole story by saying that it was just that girl and her friends in the class that day, so the embarrassment was not too extensive. But still fun to refer to on later dates when more people were around.
My grade fours are just painfully cute, and in an awesome coincidence, the easiest to win over. If a kid is mad at me (because I yelled at him or her for doing something stupid/annoying), I'll just walk up behind him and do an entire exercise with my hand/book/board marker resting on his or her head. Suddenly, they're all smiles, and they love me. Actually, I almost started crying in class one day, because this really loud kid started hugging my arm when I did it to him and he wouldn't let go. He wasn't being annoying, it was genuinely affectionate. I felt really good that day.
It's funny, but being a disciplinarian teacher hasn't seemed to affect how the students feel about me too much. I punish them regularly, but I think these kids are even friendlier to me than the students in Yeongam ever were. Well, most of the Yeongam students, anyways.
Anyways, that's just some of the things that I do at school to keep myself from getting too bored with the situation. I have a lot of nicknames for individual student. Some they will understand, some they will have no clue about. Examples are "Mr Corner", "Grandpa Corner" (classroom geography references), TKO (always wears a Tae Kwan Do outfit), Judge Reinhold (Why not? he want's to be a judge!), "Street Legal" (he wants to be a lawyer), "Handsome Guy" (because he's always dressed nicely), "Favourite Lady" (when I asked a boy to choose his favourite lady to continue reading the story, he chose his male friend), "Han Solo" (his name is Han Sol). Anyways, as you can see, there's a lot of fun to have, and the kids seem to respond well to the nicknames.
There's one kid named Chan who is a real handful, and he has a long list of nick names. He started off as "Chan", but he quickly became "Jackie Chan", then "Channarammadingdong", then "BaChanarramma", then "Chan Gang"... and I'm sure more will come to me as time goes on.
Another huge change that has happened is that Jessie and I have broken up. It's been quite strange being here alone, but the bigger adjustment has actually been trying to think of myself as unconnected. I spent two months establishing myself as the "long distance relationship guy", and suddenly I have to reintroduce myself to everyone. Not literally, but I'm sure you understand. It's a total reworking of the headspace, and one that is going to take a good deal of time, I think.
In other news... I almost killed Sam on Christmas. There's a little storage area off the kitchen of my apartment that is not insulated. I used to have the litterbox for the cat in there, but I've recently moved it into the bathroom so that I could keep that room closed. The door to the room is this heavy steel thing that has been painted just too small for the frame. This means that in order to close it, it really has to be slammed hard. Basically, it's a big ugly cat guillotine. On Christmas I was putting my bag into the storage room, and as I slammed the door shut, Sam ran in, because a room full of bags is a room full of super fun straps and zippers. I heard a sickening scream from her, and she stumbled away. I was sure that I had broken some ribs or something, so I picked her up and cradled her, poking around to see if anything got a response. Her paw hung weakly, and I was worried that I had broken it, but in the day since, she has started to walk normally again, and is pawing with it like normal again. So, that is great news. But man, my stomach was absolutely churning with guilt and worry while I tried to figure out if she was okay.
That's all for now.
Christmas in Korea
Well, my three-day Christmas weekend is coming to a close... man, it was an eventful one.
Friday was pretty standard, just kicking around really, no big whoop. Well, except that one of the desks in my classroom fell apart (not on top of a student's legs, thankfully) and I arrived to find two of my grade six girls jumping on a board that was propped up on to a chair like a ramp. Man, I yelled at them like a champ.
Saturday was the fun day... lots of cleaning and prep. Sunday, Christmas Eve, I was heading to the city of Suncheon for a party hosted by my friend Carol. And Monday, Christmas Day, I was hosting a little get-together for everyone from work. So that meant that before I left for the party on Sunday, I had to have everything ready for the party on Monday! I was planning to make pies, and the crafts I had planned still had to be made... bla bla bla...
So all day Saturday was cleaning, and I had the added distraction of the looper, which I had just realized was, in fact, not broken. The looper is this obscenely expensive piece of equipment that I picked up in Canada before coming here. It lets me record loops of myself that I can play over, and then make live performances sound more full. I thought it was burned out after I plugged it in here (serious miscommunication between me and the staff at Steve's Music in Toronto) and it stopped working. It turned out that all that had happened was that the adapter that plugs into the wall was burned out, so I could
buy a new one here for about $5! So, of course, I was experimenting with that, creating epic loops of vocal and guitar harmonies for every song that popped into my head, including "Christmas Time is here again" by the Beatles, which I managed to duplicate all the harmonieson, and even add some of my own... which I then listened to on a loop
for like an hour, until I was ready to go insane.
I had a practice with the Jordan Emmans Band on Saturday, which went well. I was feeling a little useless in that group for a while, but we did some work on stuff, and I think it'll go better now. After that, I went back home to start making pies!
a friend came over to help peel and to keep me company/Sam occupied whille I baked. We got to planning things out, and I couldn't find the pie plates! We had a little more shopping to do anyways, so we headed to E-Mart, the local huge-ass department store and grocery.
Luckily I had a friend with me afterwards to keep me company and to help out with the peeling. She took a casserole dish to put the peels into, and what should she find other than the pie plates! So... that was annoying.
I made two perfect butterscotch pies, which is cool, because it's a family tradition. After the pie baking (and sugar daddies, which were amazing) I made a Christmas tree made out of rice paper and construction paper, which actually worked out well. I had no plans, but it actually looked pretty good. I've included a picture.
On Sunday, we headed out to Suncheon, which is about 70 or so minutes from Gwangju. Anyways, we had a butterscotch pie for the dinner party, but unfortunately the heat of the bus combined with the vibration of the trip left us with a pie crust full of liquified butterscotch. so, that was too bad.
Anyways, the party was fun. Apparently, I have come to Korea in order to meet people from Canada, especially North Bay. I met a guy who actually used to work at The Fox in North Bay (the rock radio station), and he is now engaged to my friend Mel, who went to Nipissing. It's so weird, most people think North Bay is Thunder Bay, and now it seems like a bunch of people I meet here have lived in North Bay! It's very strange.
It was a very great drunken evening, and it was great company, and I had a wonderful time. I played guitar and sang a lot, and of course the 151 proof rum I was drinking sure helped me with getting into the right mood.
Today we came back home, later than I had planned (of course) which meant that I just got in the door of my apartment a few minutes before I was expecting people to arrive. Of course, things were cooking more slowly than expected, so luckily I had lots more time to get ready before the others arrived with their food.
Everyone finally arrived around 5:30, and it was another wonderful meal that went off without a hitch. I even experimented with making eggnog, and it turned out to be SO easy, and delicious. Brooke, Ryan, Jon and Emily prepared a roast, two chickens and mashed potatoes, Laurien prepared some veggies, and I contributed two pies and some
appetizers.
We all ate until we were sick, drank a bunch, and then played Taboo.
Jon got me a copy of the Borat movie, which we watched, and everyone enjoyed. It was a good Christmas!
So, things are going really well! I'm not too happy that the weekend is over, but I have another four day week and then another three day weekend, so I think that it'll be no problem.
And I forgot to mention the weirdest thing... it was 16 degrees yesterday!
Friday was pretty standard, just kicking around really, no big whoop. Well, except that one of the desks in my classroom fell apart (not on top of a student's legs, thankfully) and I arrived to find two of my grade six girls jumping on a board that was propped up on to a chair like a ramp. Man, I yelled at them like a champ.
Saturday was the fun day... lots of cleaning and prep. Sunday, Christmas Eve, I was heading to the city of Suncheon for a party hosted by my friend Carol. And Monday, Christmas Day, I was hosting a little get-together for everyone from work. So that meant that before I left for the party on Sunday, I had to have everything ready for the party on Monday! I was planning to make pies, and the crafts I had planned still had to be made... bla bla bla...
So all day Saturday was cleaning, and I had the added distraction of the looper, which I had just realized was, in fact, not broken. The looper is this obscenely expensive piece of equipment that I picked up in Canada before coming here. It lets me record loops of myself that I can play over, and then make live performances sound more full. I thought it was burned out after I plugged it in here (serious miscommunication between me and the staff at Steve's Music in Toronto) and it stopped working. It turned out that all that had happened was that the adapter that plugs into the wall was burned out, so I could
buy a new one here for about $5! So, of course, I was experimenting with that, creating epic loops of vocal and guitar harmonies for every song that popped into my head, including "Christmas Time is here again" by the Beatles, which I managed to duplicate all the harmonieson, and even add some of my own... which I then listened to on a loop
for like an hour, until I was ready to go insane.
I had a practice with the Jordan Emmans Band on Saturday, which went well. I was feeling a little useless in that group for a while, but we did some work on stuff, and I think it'll go better now. After that, I went back home to start making pies!
a friend came over to help peel and to keep me company/Sam occupied whille I baked. We got to planning things out, and I couldn't find the pie plates! We had a little more shopping to do anyways, so we headed to E-Mart, the local huge-ass department store and grocery.
Luckily I had a friend with me afterwards to keep me company and to help out with the peeling. She took a casserole dish to put the peels into, and what should she find other than the pie plates! So... that was annoying.
I made two perfect butterscotch pies, which is cool, because it's a family tradition. After the pie baking (and sugar daddies, which were amazing) I made a Christmas tree made out of rice paper and construction paper, which actually worked out well. I had no plans, but it actually looked pretty good. I've included a picture.
On Sunday, we headed out to Suncheon, which is about 70 or so minutes from Gwangju. Anyways, we had a butterscotch pie for the dinner party, but unfortunately the heat of the bus combined with the vibration of the trip left us with a pie crust full of liquified butterscotch. so, that was too bad.
Anyways, the party was fun. Apparently, I have come to Korea in order to meet people from Canada, especially North Bay. I met a guy who actually used to work at The Fox in North Bay (the rock radio station), and he is now engaged to my friend Mel, who went to Nipissing. It's so weird, most people think North Bay is Thunder Bay, and now it seems like a bunch of people I meet here have lived in North Bay! It's very strange.
It was a very great drunken evening, and it was great company, and I had a wonderful time. I played guitar and sang a lot, and of course the 151 proof rum I was drinking sure helped me with getting into the right mood.
Today we came back home, later than I had planned (of course) which meant that I just got in the door of my apartment a few minutes before I was expecting people to arrive. Of course, things were cooking more slowly than expected, so luckily I had lots more time to get ready before the others arrived with their food.
Everyone finally arrived around 5:30, and it was another wonderful meal that went off without a hitch. I even experimented with making eggnog, and it turned out to be SO easy, and delicious. Brooke, Ryan, Jon and Emily prepared a roast, two chickens and mashed potatoes, Laurien prepared some veggies, and I contributed two pies and some
appetizers.
We all ate until we were sick, drank a bunch, and then played Taboo.
Jon got me a copy of the Borat movie, which we watched, and everyone enjoyed. It was a good Christmas!
So, things are going really well! I'm not too happy that the weekend is over, but I have another four day week and then another three day weekend, so I think that it'll be no problem.
And I forgot to mention the weirdest thing... it was 16 degrees yesterday!
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