Please, Please, Let Them Have Picture Menus

Shutting Down

2008-07-28T05:15:00.001+09:00

Over the next few weeks, I will be copying this blog into a word document and then deleting it.

There's too much information about me on the internet. haha.

Hope you are doing well, everybody.

Sleeping through stuff, unemployment suits me.

2008-01-02T20:39:00.001+09:00

New Year's Eve was the night of Meena and Ashlee's big Martini party, which I was actually really excited about! I brought back a metal shaker specifically for the occasion, and even bought some vermouth. But around eight or so Vanessa and I decided to take a nap and next thing we knew it was eleven, and we were both groggy and grumpy and neither of us really felt like going to a party, so we blew it off, pretended it was midnight, wished eachother a happy new year and turned in for the night.
We woke up the next morning, played Mario party, and then cleaned for about four hours. I didn't think it would be possible to clean such a small apartment for such a long time, but two people living in one divided room take a long time to organize. Of course, the spilling of pop corn and sugar onto a wet floor doesn't help either. haha.
And now, Vanessa's back at work at her winter camp, and I am sitting around the apartment, doing some cleaning and going to the gym when she's done work, and otherwise just relaxing, well into my second month of three unemployed. It's fun.

The Wii, games games games, couple stuff

2008-01-02T20:38:00.002+09:00

Boxing day morning I walked Vanessa to school. Vanessa was frustrated with her school, because they insist that Christmas is just as big a holiday here as in Canada, but it really isn't. It might only have religious significance, but none of the cultural significance translates over. Anyway, after I dropped her off, I called home and chatted a bit with my family, who were having their Christmas dinner at my uncle Brian's house in Toronto. It was good to chat with everyone. I kept walking about half an hour North to where Jon and Emily live, because a store near their place apparently sold the transformers necessary to hook up my new Wii to a Korean plug. I couldn't find it, so I stopped in and borrowed Jon and Emily's.
SINCE THAT DAY, I HAVE BECOME ADDICTED TO "ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS". Seriously, this makes my former "Bomberman" addiction look like nothing. Zelda is really addictive, and the scary thing is that the online cheats that I have used (twice, when really stuck) have revealed that I'm only about one thirtieth of the way through the game after playing for almost 11 hours on that account. yikes!
On Saturday Vanessa and I went downtown to do some shopping. Well, more accurately, she did some shopping and I sat at "Angel In Us" coffee and started this whole blog update thing... After that we met with Jon and Emily for Spicy Pork, which was just as delicious as it ever was. We then headed to Provence, and did the most couply thing I think I've been involved in since Vanessa and I started seeing eachother... First, we all ordered the same thing: Coffee with Bailey's. Then, we pulled out travel Scrabble and played in the coffee shop. Then we ate 7-11 snacks. It was very couply. But very fun. I lost.
Vanessa and I have also been also playing obscene amounts of Mario Party since first playing it with Jon and Emily last Sunday. Vanessa made a really good chilli, and then we all sat down and played Mario Party. Vanessa was instantly hooked, and we've probably played it 10 times since.

Christmas Day 2007

2008-01-02T20:38:00.001+09:00

Christmas was really nice too. We woke up and exchanged our stockings and ate obscene amounts of candy. Vanessa got me a really nice sweater and a shirt and she really liked the travel scrabble that my parents sent for her. She also enjoyed the 2 pounds of Moritz Icy Cubes that I had at the foot of her stalking. What else did we do on Christmas Day... (in typical fashion, I have put off writing for weeks, and now I'm struggling to remember back through a really busy week) oh, we cooked! Vanessa made bacon wrapped water chestnuts and oysters. I ate enough to officially qualify as a horny Cap'n Crunch. If you don't get the joke, I'm not going to waste my time explaining it. Well, I shouldn't... but maybe I actually should, I don't want to seem weird. You see, water chestnuts are crunchy and oysters are an aphrodisiac. It didn't matter, I ate so many that the only thing I could do was sit stock still in a chair and grunts demands.
I made tea biscuits, but by my usual miracle of mis-measurement they turned into something completely different and unexpected, those being biscuits that were basically deepfried in the excessive amounts of lard in them. Woohoo! The whistling sound you're hearing is rising cholesterol. We headed over to Jon and Emily's for dinner, and they were very gracious hosts. There were drinks, friends, games and one hell of a fine dinner, with a turkey, gravy, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, biscuits and cookies and apple crisp for dessert. We did a Secret Santa gift exchange, and I got this stuffed dog from Bobby that dispenses toilet paper from it's mouth. I've been informed that I am not allowed to take it into the bathroom, even as a joke. haha. Vanessa got a really nice scarf and mitten set from HangBin, and gave Jon a batch of home-made Candy-cane chocolate bark. I gave Vanessa (the other) a gift certificate for a bottle of wine for her and HangBin to share at Provence, but I was most proud of the card, which had hanbok on the front, and then a little lesson on what it was and who wore it, which was only fun for me, because she has been here for just as long as I have, and is dating a Korean guy.
After dinner we played some games, and had a generally good time. The Wii was a hit, and so was Scattergories, although as competition became fiercer I decided to opt for the room where the outcome of each turn was decided by a computer with whom you could not argue. I mean, you could try, but the computer would not listen, and would just move to the next round no matter what you did, which is unfortunately not the case with Scattergories. Vanessa kicked a lot of butt (mine is embarrassingly included) at boxing, and then we moved on to golf. The only frustrating thing about the Wii is that it's actually so accurate that if you break out of the narrow range of motion that it allows for a golf swing or a tennis swing it goes a bit wonky. You have to swing properly, and release the button at the proper time, or it can really misinterpret what you're doing, which can be pretty frustrating. But... you just plough on through and make up for it with your next shot.
I saw Dave brought his guitar, which made me wish I had brought mine, but he never played anyway... too bad, some music would definitely have been nice.
We wound up leaving around ten or so, I think, but I really have no idea, and heading straight to bed.

Christmas Eve 2007

2008-01-02T20:37:00.001+09:00

On Christmas Eve, I ran some errands, went downtown to pick up my Secret Santa gift for VCR and get a transformer so we could hook up the Wii to power. I ran into Ee MeCha and joined her and SeungJong for lunch, which was good bibimbap, plus raw fish, which I ate first to get out of the way. Anyway, I got the Christmas gift, then went to E-Mart to get dinner for Vanessa and I (I made a roast and squash) and then headed to Gumho World for the transformer, but it was unfortunately closed, so bad luck for me.
Vanessa and I had a really nice Christmas Eve dinner. The roast was well received, and then we exchanged our big gifts. She got us a couple gift, a three day spa stay in Bali, at a really small little resort where I will be treated like a king, and shower outside. woohoo! She also took one of my favourite photos, which I have wanted to get printed and mounted for a long time, and cut it up and did this basket-weave thing with it, and it looks really good. I almost started crying when I saw it... it must have been a lot of work, and it is really creative and thoughtful. I gave her her big gift, a pair of diamond stud that I got while I was at home. They were also well-received. :)
After dinner, Vanessa and I got dressed up and headed to the Christmas Eve service at Jon and Emily's church. It was not what we were expecting, it was very small, maybe only twenty people or so, and it was a lot of singing! Vanessa managed to entertain herself pretty well with her candle (haha), and after the service we headed out to see the movie "August Rush", which I highly recommend. I spent about three quarters of the movie on the verge of tears. After that we headed to Provence, had some tea, and caught a few of the last songs of their night, mostly the usual highly emo fare of SeungJong.
It was a good day.

Christmas Open Mic - December 23 2007

2008-01-02T20:36:00.000+09:00

Sunday was the day of my big open mic at the Speakeasy, a first at the Speakeasy, and something I was really excited for. I was really excited, but there was a problem, and that was I had no guitar. So I had to do some shopping! I went to a bank machine and discovered... no money came out. It said "Can not honour". Well, no u, I guess, but the implicit message was the same whether it was the Queen's English or not. Anyway, I went to a few, almost had a breakdown, and then Vanessa took me to another machine that she said always worked for her, and it did, thank goodness, but only in $100 incremements, and only four times, so I had to stop then. Which was fine, because when I got to the guitar store (Vanessa had some other shopping to do) and tried out some guitars, the owner eventually pointed me toward a 420 000 won guitar made by Cort, which had a beautiful sound (very country) that absolutely blew away the others. Of course, it's no surprise, I had been mostly trying guitars based on looks (I was infatuated with the idea of a coloured guitar), so no wonder the one that gets recommended by the owner kicks ass.
Anyway, he gave it to me for 110 000 off the list price, which was really nice of him, and threw in a soft case, strap, capo, patch cords, some picks, and two sets of strings, one cheap one for "single changes" and one nice Martin DS set for a "full change" (which he was very careful to explain to me).
I started the show off, playing about half of the Hawksley Christmas album, "Almost a Full Moon" (of course). I think it went well.
The open mic continued with a few really nice performances, with Jens Rushing and Ian from Mokpo making a trip down for the evening to spread some cheer. I'll honestly admit that I didn't get Jens at first... I didn't know what was going on, because his performance style and music (especially lyrics) are both so bizarre. But listening to the recordings I have made of him at the different parties, I can finally say that I understand it now, and I really love that he comes out to perform, because it makes my night every time. He played two of his own Christmas themed tunes, first a song about Christmas zombies, and then a tune about Frosty the Snow Demon. The Ian joined him for some more traditional fare, and I especially liked their renditions of The Little Drummer Boy and "Mr Grinch".
Anthony Coppa did his usual set of originals (plus some newbies, or maybe all newbies... he seems to write a lot) and did a really great job, and then did a little run-through of "O Holy Night" and did a good job, which I was glad for, because I was going to do it, with minimal practice, and I was glad to be relieved of it, because that some is a bit of a task, and really should be done well.
Jordan Emmans Band come out for the night and stole the show. They did a few Jordan Emmans originals, including a Christmas song that he set the music for, and a beautiful rendition of "O Holy Night" (again) that blew everyone away, with beautiful harmonies by Dave and some of the nicest drumming (tom-intensive) from Dan that I have heard in a while. I love when Jordan comes out to the shows, because it makes me look like a great organizer. haha.
Then Rebecca Fairless and Brian Bordage took the stage for a cover of "Christmas in Prison" (is that the right title?) with Rebecca on vocals and and guitar and Brian putting in an awesome turn on the dobro (extreme jealousy). The only complaint that anyone had was that the duo only had one song, but Brian continued with a few covers of his own, and I joined him on stage to throw on some harmonies for "The Weight" by the band, which I did well enough to surprise myself.
I took the stage a second time, and then Anthony, and Rebecca joined me on stage to put some harmonies on "Safe and Sound" by Hawksley Workman.
I thought the night really well. I had hoped for a good mix of Christmas music and original stuff, as long as the overall feel was upbeat, which I think was definitely achieved. Unfortunately, I was the only one to share any stories, which I had also hoped would be a highlight of the evening, and get some non-musical people involved in the night. But the night remained focussed on the music, which is also good, but I think that my story could have used some company.
What was the story? Well, sharing time, again.
So, it's the Amond family Christmas dinner, the Tuesday before I returned to Korea. The family is sitting around the table, eating, and my little cousin Ben says "Oh, I should have brought the game that my family bought, it's a lot of fun".
I said "Oh, what game is that?"
He told me about their new game, called "Things", which involves each player responding to the same question, and then everyone trying to guess the other player's responses, with points being awarded for correct answers. Ben then explained it further using the the example of "Super Powers".
I said (I admit this is a terrible joke) "I bet I know what Chris's superpower would be..." then I looked around "X-ray vision." A pause.
"And I think we all know why."
Dad proved he did know why with his response.
"I've always wanted to be a gynecologist."
And that's where dinner derailed for me.
Then my mom chimes in with an even more appropriate sidenote, "But you would only be able to see two patients a day."
Wow.
Awkward laughter.
And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, my grandmother puts in her two cents.

Wait for it...

"Well, Gerald, you've always had the hands for it."

Eww.

I lose it. I spend the next ten minutes in a fit of giggles that leaves me red-faced, sweaty, and on the verge of throwing up. I am so hot from embarrassment and laughter that I actually have to mop my face with my napkin. Then, just when I think I am done, I see that my cousin Sean and my aunt Margaret are in the middle of fits of their own. So there I go again...

The open mic was a good night. Unfortunately, Vanessa had to work on Christmas Eve, so we had to call it a night at midnight and head home.

The Return

2008-01-02T20:35:00.000+09:00

So, I'm back in Korea. It has been pretty exciting so far, lots to do, lots to do. This morning I was marvelling to Vanessa that it had only been one week. It's just hard to imagine, it really feels like I have been here for two or three weeks, like I barely even left.
I arrived last Saturday, and I was greeted by Vanessa waiting for me at the airport, which is a great way to start anything, really. I was horribly late getting out of customs, because I got stuck behind a bunch of people who apparently had issues, so they each took like twenty minutes to get through. I was really worried too, because I had never entered Korea on a tourist visa before, and I was concerned that with all the daily changes that were happening with my work visa arrangements (an entirely new blog entry/rant will follow) I was worried that they would stop me at the airport and detain me! But I got through, no problem, although I had a small panic attack when the man asked me "Where is your visa?", because he assumed I was here for work. YIKES! But I just said "Oh, I'm just visiting some friends" (a technical truth) and he said "That's coo" (spelling intentional) and let me pass with a stamp and a nod.
We got on a bus, chatted, and mostly slept, due both to my jetlag and the bus' interior temperature of approximately 7000 degrees. There was a condensation imprint of me left on the seat when I got up, it was that hot.

On the road...

2007-12-13T04:54:00.001+09:00

So, I've been back in Canada for a week and a half now...
It's been good, but I'm not meant to be at home for this long any more. It's a major adjustment back to living with the family. It's not that they're jerks, or that they're cramping my style (what style?) but I'm falling back into bad habits, and I feel myself getting almost bratty at times... I mean, I'm just not used to the schedule, getting called to dinner, that sort of thing, so even nice gestures feel like a hassle.
Anyway, in the interest of not killing anyone, and/or being killed, I have hit the road. I borrowed my grandma's car (a nice arrangement, considering that renting a car is the same price as public transit up north, and neither is cheap) and headed down to Toronto.
I'm staying with my uncle, visiting a few old friends, although in the interest of keeping my visit low-key, I am only seeing a couple of people. I'd like to see more, but I'm worn out, and more stressed than I would care to be right now, for some reason.

I forgot how relaxed I get when I'm driving. It was lovely to pop in a familiar CD and cruise down the (luckily snow-free) highway. SO nice to sing along in the enclosed space, be in total control... I really miss that aspect of driving. It's such a small thing, but when you get it back, that control is really nice.

I should go though, I've been sitting in the car for four hours, I should not be sitting now in an internet cafe, especially considering that there is a beautiful waterfront (snowy) just a few hundred meters away practically begging to be walked.

More news to come.

lots to do, lots to do...

2007-11-30T10:09:00.001+09:00

So, it has been an incredibly busy month.

But, I have a new job in Gwangju.

I will return in December.

I'll be working on a huge blog update for the next few weeks, so get ready, baby!

The end of an era!

2007-10-26T12:25:00.000+09:00

Today is my last regular teaching day at Munhwa.
I was taken on for two extra months a few months ago, and the plan originally, was that Mr C would take a vacation. But for some reason, he decided not to, and now he is back, and the school is overstaffed by one. So Mr C is sitting in on classes, and just generally being bored.
A while back, I had offered to help with the recording of the listening scripts that can be used in the class. Basically, you put on a short dialogue, and then the kids answers about it. I've honestly never used it. But I have heard that the listening script CDs that exist already are really tough to use because the quality is not good.
So I offered to redo them, and that is my job for the next five weeks! I will be going in to teach one day a week, but other than that I'll just be working at home.
Which is REALLY REALLY good. I am so tired of teaching, and I really really need a break. Yesterday I came so close to dropping the F-bomb in class... I am cranky, and I really just need a change of pace. So this is really good, I think.
I really like Munhwa. I think for a hagwon, it was maybe the best job I could have had. But working for a whole year without any vacation is insane. Especially when your friends all go on vacation at the time of year when your workload doubles. But no matter how good a job, no breaks can kill it, I think. You get into a groove, and that groove turns into a rut, which is where I am right now. I have become mechanical in the classroom, and that's no good.
So it's good that I'll have something else to do now.

So long Munhwa! See you next Wednesday!

You need to see "200 Pound Beauty"!

2007-10-04T23:19:00.000+09:00

I just saw this Korean pop flick called "200 Pound Beauty". It's been out for a while, but I find it tough to keep up on movies when you're single... or long distance. But now that'll change. Time to start reowking the butt-contour in the chair.
The basic story-line is that there is this fat and therefore undesirable girl who has a great singing voice, so she performs backstage while the "face" rocks it onstage into a prop mic. Then she falls for the manager, and discovers that they are using her (duh) and she gets hurt and blackmails a plastic surgeon into making her over (the voice she has also comes in handy as a phone sex worker). So she becomes beautiful, successful, and the manager guy falls for her (sort of).
You sort of sit watching this movie and feel all the time like you are on verge of being taught a lesson, but it never comes. I feel almost like it was written by a bitter foreign teacher. All the things people get together and drink and bitch about were the central themes/characters/motivations of the movie. The Narcissism, the shallowness, the mistreatment/shallow judgement of women, the drunkenness... I mean, all things that exist where we are from, for sure, but things that we see more blatantly here... but somehow this movie just seemed to hit on every terrible vice that is evident to every complainer here... it was really really bizarre to watch. I kept thinking "No, this can't be real!"
It was a cute movie though, if you could turn off your critical thinking... if you could get past the fact that the "EMT"s were struggling to lift a fat girl who was still smaller than a lot of ajummas here, it was at least enjoyable to watch.
But everyone should watch it. It's going to be the movie I show to people when I go home just so that I can nod my head and go "Yeah, it's for real!"

The Fourth Music Party

2007-10-04T23:18:00.000+09:00

Then it was weekend again, and this was the weekend of the fourth music party!
This music party was promising to be the biggest one yet, but I must admit that I was a little less prepared for it than I should have been. Everything was arranged last minute, but this was done a bit defensively after the last time, when I tried to plan and a bunch of people fell through/changed their plans, and left me a bit in the lurch and unprepared anyway. Anyway, there wasn't really much to prepare, the alcohol was all purchased (we sold this time) and it seemed like there was a good amount of buzz to draw people out.
Jim and I headed there a couple of hours early to get everything set up, and thank goodness we did. I thought that paying $100 for the use of a place meant that you would receive some assistance, and even though we did, the language barrier proved a real obstacle and meant that it often took too long to solve simple problems. One major problem was that one set-up involved two wireless mics set up through a single channel on the mixer. The problem? He didn't tell me that that was what had been done! So I didn't know how to isolate the mics to turn one or the other up or down! It was a big hassle. It took me three or four acts to figure out that they were controlled from a separate mixer.
Another big problem was that I had my set-up ready to go, with a single output for my guitar and microphone (pre-mixed through my system). And the old guy who was helping us out kept trying to turn one instrument up or down by adjusting the channel that controlled both! gah! There were a few instances of ear-damaging of feedback, but once I got control and figured out what the hell was happening (he disappeared to the store without communicating which channel was which!) I think that things got better.
But, other than that, there were no problems. And those were actually pretty small problems. The sale of the alcohol went very very smoothly, and everyone seemed to be enjoying the show. Of course, with the introduction of alcohol, some people got to enjoy the show a lot more (and a lot more loudly) than others.
I was really happy with the calibre of the performers who came out. I'll do a blow by blow of the performances when I listen to the audio, but I was absolutely blown away with Noel Moes' country arrangements, Kip Jones' incredible viola/violin (which?) playing and I was moved almost to tears by Ian Reid from Yeosu. He really reminded me of Fionn Regan, who I have been a little obsessed with for the last few months, so that's quite a compliment.
The night wound down around 12:30 or so, with Ian Reid ending, and then I took the stage to do a couple. For something that started out as a venue for me and Darren to perform, it has really evolved me right out of it. I'm honestly content to just watch though, I really miss seeing folk-y type stuff just being done by people who love it. I love to see a rock band too, but this is a completely different experience, and I miss it from an audience perspective. I played "The Origin of Love" and then "Almost a Full Moon", and then started part of the night. it was a bit of a stretch even for me to do that much, I've been so busy with other things that I could barely make my way through those songs, and I felt like if I kept going, it would have been more of a public practice than a performance.
Now unfortunately, one of the ways that the night could have been much better would have been if I had announced some jam songs in advance so that we all had some common ground to go on... but I didn't. So I fell back on "I will survive", because I know it, and it's not exactly difficult to teach to people if they don't. It went pretty well, and I got in a little bit of looping, which was neat, I think. We all took a turn soloing if we wanted, and Ian surprised everyone by getting up on the stage with his harmonica.
Then, of course, someone (I think Jim) started "All Along the Watchtower", and that went for a while. It was a little embarrassing, I was the only one with an electric guitar, but it had been a couple of weeks since I had been practising so I felt a little out of shape, and a little loose, but not in the good way. But I think everyone had fun anyway, and I was impressed with what a few of the others brought to the table, improvisation-wise.
After it was all over, we gave the place a quick clean-up, and were about to get into the nitty gritty when the owner insisted that we call it a night, and come back tomorrow. Which was fine, because I know myself, and I know that I would not be able to stop cleaning until it was finished once I had started. So we picked up all the valuables, and headed home to bed.
When Vanessa and I went back the next day, I expected to be there for a few hours, mopping, picking up garbage, all that kind of stuff (kindly she had offered to help). But when we got there, he ushered us towards the left-over alcohol, told us to pick it up, and then called us a taxi. He was going to clean up for us! I guess that the $100 rental fee was worth it after all!
Anyway, I was pretty happy with the event on the whole, but I feel like the vibe has really changed from how it started out. While I really liked the venue overall, I found that it just wasn't as homey as Sajik had been. Now I have the problem of wanting a homey place like Sajik with a great sound system that can accommodate upwards of 80 or so people... it's going to be tough.
Fortunately I have already found a pretty cool looking live club with a very cool owner (his business card says he is a trained "saw violinist"). There's a lot of couches, a groovy atmosphere. Unfortunately, they sell alcohol, so our main means of income for the orphans will be gone. So there will be one more in November, and then when I return in the new year, we will see about having one in the spring, but for now, I'm not sure. I really want to put together an art festival, so I may focus my efforts on that.

Chuseok in Seoul

2007-10-04T23:17:00.000+09:00

Chuseok was a lot a lot a lot of fun.
For Saturday and Sunday, Vanessa and I just sat and lounged around. We really needed some time to just hang out with out doing anything... it's been go go go, with her coming back and getting settled in, and all that jazz. So we just sat around and relaxed a lot.
On Monday we went to Seoul. Since we had a "whirlwind" introduction before she went home followed by months on skype, we haven't really had a lot of chances to have "dates". So on Monday night we put on a dress and a tie and headed down to Itaewon. I was relieved to find that my dress still fit.
We wound up at a really nice Indian restaurant behind the Hamilton Hotel (for those of you who know the area). It had a patio that was elevated and surrounded by trees, so the atmosphere was really nice, and made for a good date locale. The food was amazing, hot but very flavourful, and the atmosphere plus the excellent food made the higher than usual price definitely worth it. After dinner, we met up with everyone else who was in town (Jon, Emily, Meena and Bobby, and Bobby's mom and dad) for a few minutes. They headed to another restaurant for dinner, and we went out for some drinks with plans to meet up later.
We wound up on another patio out in front of the main drag of Itaewon, and we had chocolate mousse and Martinis (well, I had maritinis, I felt it was necessitated by the tie, plus, I love martinis). The drinks came with pretzels, which we quickly combined with the mousse. After two martinis, it became clear that I was in no condition to meet mommy and daddy Bobby for the first time, so we called it a night and headed back to the hotel.
Tuesday was an early morning. With it being Chuseok, and most Korean children being involved with the making and eating of "SongPyeon" (a sugar-filled rice dumpling), being bored by grandma or leaving feasts at the feet of graves, we headed to the one place where they would normally be on a holiday: Lotte World.
Lotte World is as close as you can get to Disneyland without actually crossing any legal lines. Imagine magic mountain, or whatever the hell Disney calls it, but with one extra peak, or a Mickey head outline but with pointy ears instead of round ones. It was... special.
Our companions for the day were Jon and Emily. They deserve a big thank you for suggesting the trip, and for being awesome companions for the day.
We started our day pretty early, around 9 am, and had breakfast at the only place that seemed to be open: Krispy Kreme. Forgetting that they give you freebies, I ordered myself three donuts, because it seemed likely that this would be my only food until lunch in the park. Then we got a bunch free too. So I started my day with five (I think) donuts and a large coffee. I could basically pass through walls from the vibrating.
Because most Koreans were busying themselves with the various customs and traditions of Chuseok, we were able to ride all the rides with much shorter than usual lines. Which meant: awesomeness.
We also ate hotdogs, which is much much more exciting than it should be. I loved eating that hotdog, let me tell you.
Anyway, they had a few familiar roller-coaster style rides, plus the drop-zone style thing, with the additional fun of a cork-screw ascent, which didn't really add much to the ride except to show you how high you were even compared to the surrounding very high buildings. That's another cool thing about Lotte World. It's right in the middle of town. It's just like they bought up a city block and built an amusement park.
After our quick hotdog lunch, we headed in to the indoor part to get out of the sun. Inside they had a few more roller coasters, and some more theme-parkish "experience" rides, like the ones you see based on movies. They had one roller coaster with a loop, and it was a bit of a disappointment. We all had our heads pretty rattled by the thing, and I had a headache that lasted about twenty minutes from it. And the line was really long, and it was a bit of a leer-fest. There are some creepy guys out there... all eyes and creepiness.
After that Vanessa wanted to go on the teacups equivalent, which was terribly named "Drunken Baskets". Wait, maybe not terribly. Maybe just terribly appropriately. But we thought that if you're going to ride the drunken basket, you should really make a go of it, so we both worked about as hard as we could to make that thing fly around. So hard, in fact, that Vanessa's pigtails stuck out backward like she was hanging her head back off a swing. So hard that our ride continued for a good minute after the actual ride stopped. So hard that I broke a sweat from whipping us around. I'm serious, I think people laughed at us, because they were starting to get off, and we were still whipping around and screaming, not realizing that the ride had ended.
There was another ride inside called "The Giant Loop", and it was possibly the worst ride I have ever been on. It's just as simple as it sounds. It's a row of cars that drive around a giant loop. They go back and forth until they build up momentum, and then they slowly roll around the loop. whoopee. We sat in the back car, so when it had almost but not quite enough momentum to swing us around in a circle, we were left for about 5 seconds or so with our entire weight being supported by a safety rod that locked in on our crotches. yeah, it was great. Did I mention that it stank like puke? Or that Vanessa was too small so her whole body weight actually shifted when we were upside down? It was a terrible ride.
We also hit up a candy store, which was awesome. We spent ten bucks on candy. I don't know if I have ever done that before. haha. But we discovered two new and previously unknown taste sensations. I hesitate to share them now, because I may be giving away a billion dollar recipe that rivals the Caramilk secret... but here I go anyway.
1) Caramel Apple Jelly Belly Jellybeans with Peanut M&Ms. It rivals Raisinettes for hard to explain explosive-tastey goodness.
2) Fuzzy peaches and Hershey Kisses. Seriously, just press the Hershey Kiss' point through that hole and give 'er a chew.

We headed back outside, and discovered that as they day went on, the lines had gotten longer. Luckily, Lotte World has this thing called "Magic Pass". You just pass your ticket under a scanner, and it prints you ticket that lets you skip to the front of the line sometime into the future. So we got magic passes for the long lines and then did a few of the shorter-lined rides while we waited. We did this one ride twice more, called the gyro swing, which is basically a big swing potato-masher shaped thing that spins while it swings back and forth. It's great because you get the awesome variation of plunging both forwards to a watery grave and backwards to a watery grave. Good times. Seriously though, there are few feelings for me that rival that of my stomach feeling left behind as I free-fall (or close).
Jon and Emily are masters of waiting games, so they were awesome companions for the long lines at the end of the day. Whether we were playing twenty questions (I still say that you technically COULD eat a screwdriver) or predicting how many thumbs would come up, it was a great time.
Once while we were waiting for the Gyro-swing, we were playing a game, and when we got to the front of the line, the girl working there asked me if I had had any beer. I understand, because we were laughing a lot and being boisterous. But when I said no, she leaned in to smell my breath! And then, because that apparently wasn't enough proof, she went to get another worker to come appraise my readiness for the ride. I was pretty offended by this point, because I hadn't had anything to drink all day! And then, when we were waiting in line for the ride for the second time, I saw a guy stumble off, clearly drunk, and almost ready to vomit, and they didn't say a thing! But, it's easy to single out foreigners here, unfortunately, and it does happen, no matter what anyone says, where local people are not questioned at all.
But I don't want to be bitter...
After our last ride (unfortunately this whole thing unfolded in the leadup to the last ride) we headed back to the hotel to clean up/nap/make room for dinner. We went back to Itaewon for dinner, and had a delicious meal at a Greek restaurant, where we all came dangerously close to exploding like that guy in Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life". The Tzatziki was amazing, the company was good, and I have not enjoyed a beer with dinner as much as I did that night in a long time. I don't know why, but I felt like George Bluth with an ice cream sandwich for some reason ("I am making love to this ice cream sandwich"). We ate (at least Vanessa and I did, Jon and Emily shared a dish) to the point of danger, and then we headed to the same little patio where we had martinis and mousse the night before for some more of the same. We met up with Bobby and Meena again, and Jon had a cigar, and good times and great photos followed. And a big bill. Martinis are expensive. Who knew?
The next day Vanessa and I headed to... oh man, where did we go? I'm losing my memory in my old age...

We met back up with everyone around 3 or so at the train station, and then headed to a black market DVD market near the train station... of course, we didn't buy anything, because that would be illegal. But it was nice to just see it, haha. Also, I am now addicted to Grey's Anatomy (embarrassingly so), however that is unrelated. We rode first class on the way back, but I'm not sure it was worth it. We got access to the dining car, which was kind of cool, but they didn't have stuff that was on the menu, and then we saw people eating things that weren't on the menu, and the dining car experience was just a bit of a drag overall. We finally got back, and collapsed into bed.
Then it was two days of work before the weekend. Most people like the short weeks, but I found it to be a bit of a hassle more than anything. Also, I had been led to believe that there was no staff meeting on Thursday because we were keeping our classes form the week before, but I arrived (an hour after the meeting) to discover that I had in fact missed a meeting and now I had to scramble to prepare for new classes.
I also don't really like short weeks because I am a major creature of habit, so I find it difficult to prep stuff for just a couple of days when I am used to doing stuff that lasts a full week.
anyway... venting.

GIC Foreigner Day, September 16

2007-10-04T23:15:00.000+09:00

Last week was the big GIC foreigner day. I was the emcee for the first half. I wasn't qualified (they wanted someone who spoke Korean) but I figured that since I was comfortable enough to do it, I should throw my name in in case no-one else signed up. Well, no-one else did, so I won! yay!
What did I win? Well, I won an opportunity to script two and a half hours of banter! Of course, I didn't. hahaha. I told them that I would be very off the cuff, and that I wouldn't have any idea what I would say before-hand. I really didn't. But now they want me to type out what I did say... impossible! hahaha, I'll just give them my notes.
Anyway, it was a horrible day. There was a typhoon passing through, so it was really windy and rainy. I was actually afraid at a few different times because of all the electronics on the stage that someone was going to be electrocuted, and I was more afraid that that somebody might have been me. Because, I'll be honest, I like me.
A lot of the program that I was supposed to be emceeing over was cancelled because of the rain, so my script and notes became largely useless anyway. So my coemcee (Minji) and I zoomed through our part, with many too cheezy jokes from myself, and most useful information coming from her. I was actually a bit bored on stage for a lot of it, so most of the jokes were made just to entertain me. A 30 000 won gift certificate to Shinsaegae (an upscale department store) is way too easy to connect to a joke like "Enjoy the sleeve of your new sweater!" or "Wow, you can buy a napkin holder!" And all the second place prizes were cut out, a decision apparently made by coemcee after each time that I announced who the second prize winner was. So I felt like a jackass more than a couple of times.
When our half of the day was over, the other emcees took over, and they started their program right away, so everything was much earlier than had been scheduled. It seemed really stupid, and frustrated the talent show performers a lot, because everyone had told their friends that they would be performing. They asked me at one point how long my performance would be, and I said ten minutes, just as I had said it would be in the e-mail when they had asked me the same thing a week before. They told me that that was too long, and asked me to cut it to seven minutes. I yelled a bit, I'll admit. It's so terrible to ask people to prepare for a performance and then ask them minutes before they go onstage to cut down their time. Like, what am I going to do? Play the songs faster? People are SO stupid sometimes!
Anyway, there was quite a variety of performances, from highland dancing to Philippino dancing to karaoke to a great performance by the Jordan Emmans Band to close. The judge was BRUTAL though. It's a volunteer talent show. I didn't even know that there were prizes for the performers until I showed up. And I hadn't expected the judge to give individual critiques of all the performances before announcing the winners. And they were really ciritical. He told one girl she was rude for sitting on the floor, he said that one guy's dancing wasn't traditional because he used a pop track (and it was a Nepalese pop tracks, with a definite fusion traditional/pop sound), and he deducted points from one team for having a lyrics sheet while they sang onstage. Okay, these are things you write in your notes for judging, not something you announce to everyone at a talent show that people volunteer for. It was brutal, and it made me really angry. And it's not because he gave me a bad review, I was fine with what he said about mine. He said I did a good job "even though" I didn't play guitar all the time. He also said I was mysterious because I had voices coming when i was not singing, and both those comments just tell me that a) people don't really understand what the looper does, and b), I did a good job of doing it, because a guy sitting five feet away couldn't figure out how I was doing it.
After the talent show, they had some drummers, who were really good. It was like the closing scene of Nanta, minus that amazingly hot woman. haha.
Then they had a raffle. Because of the typhoon, there weren't a whole lot of people out for the day. There must have been around 200 or so throughout the day, because there were about 350 or 400 raffle tickets sold. That meant that the ten tickets that Vanessa and I had had pretty good odds, and they really panned out. We won:
1) a bicycle. The model name, appropriately enough, is "typhoon". We got the man-sized one, and Vanessa is going to inherit my current bike, which is lady-sized.
2) a digital camera. It's a Nikon Coolpix S500. Oddly enough, I was just looking at that exact camera about two weeks ago, and came very close to buying it. It's fun to have a point and shoot again. I really like my SLR, but it's not the most convenient camera for day-to-day use, or just capturing silly little things that I see.
3) A gift certificate. It's for ShinSaeGae, again, but it's only for 10 000 won. Combined with my 10 000 won for performing in the talent show and a trip to the Body Shop, it means that we both smell really nice. Gift certificates are remarkable, you give them away, and they bring in more money. I mean... a 30000 won (about $30) gift certificate for Shinsaegae is like giving someone an obligation to spend a further 100 000. Like at E-Mart, they give away these free fish. Bobby and Meena got some a few weeks ago, and they wound up having to buy a small tank, the stones, and all that other stuff, and then the fish died! So now they had all this stuff, so they wound up going back and buy more fish. Whoever invented free stuff deserves a handshake.
Getting back to my non-tangential run there, it was a pretty good day for us. It was pretty funny that we won the bike though, because apparently Vanessa and Emily had just been having a conversation about how much it would suck to win a bike because you would have to find some way to get it home in the typhoon. We wound up having to pay 15 000 to get a van to bring across town to my apartment, but it was definitely worth it in the end.
That was last weekend. This week, we got a new teacher at Munhwa, Ashlee, who was actually a former coworker of Darren's at ECC. She's been fun to have around, although her stories have reminded me of how awesome Darren (and Mo) was (were) and how much I miss him (them). I think she's going to fit in really well at Munhwa. We have a pretty awesome staff right now, and there is really no drama making things awkward now. Everything is just calm and fun at work.
This weekend is a five-day weekend, because next week is Chuseok, the Korean celebration of harvest and rice-cakes.

Starting to catch up.

2007-10-04T23:14:00.000+09:00

Summer in Korea is a hot and sticky wasteland.
It's too hot, and I honestly didn't care to go outside at all.
The result? a whole lot of taxi bills, and addiction to Iced Chai Tea Lattes (with soy), about fifteen extra pounds, and an electricity bill that could reduce people to tears. I also ate a lot of pizza. I know that that's not exactly a summer-time escape the heat food, but the oven would do a remarkable job of fighting my air conditioner. I often make the joke now about turning on the oven and the air conditioner at the same time to let them fight, but it's a joke that is based in fact.
Fact: The oven wins.
So, yeah, that's balls. I've put back on a lot of the weight that I lost, but I'm already taking it off again now that the weather is cool again. It's really terrible, it honestly is. It's so sticky... and then every place is overly-air conditioned, so a lot of people wind up getting sick, just from the transition from hot to cold and back to hot again. I couldn't sing for about a month, just from waking up every morning with a sore throat from my apartment being so dry.
Work has been an adventure. Brooke and Ryan are gone now, which has been tough, but luckily, they left at the same time as two new teachers arrived, Bobby and Meena, who have proven themselves to be super-cool people. And there's Jim, who looks enough like Colonel Sanders to be entertaining on those grounds alone. Luckily, he's also entertaining on other levels. Which is good, because a lot of his friends are blind.
I tried to extend my contract through to December, but I was told that they would only extend to November. Then Mr C decided to use that time to head home for a vacation (Thank God, if anyone ever needed a vacation, it's Mr C). Then they decided that maybe I could stay, but I had already decided to head home for December, and then back here for Christmas. I think I've said it before, but I think it's really important to be here for the people we know, because we're all away from our families, and we really don't have anyone but eachother. So I'll be coming back here.
Anyway, they told me a few weeks later that they wanted me to stay until December after all, but I had already made my plans. Then that changed Mr C's vacation plan, which was about getting a surgery or something, then a doctor's visit, and now it's just a vacation... which is weird, because the illness keeps getting downgraded. Which is good, I guess! So now I'm staying, and there is an extra teacher. So I will be balancing out for Mr C while he is away, and when he gets back on October 15th, I will be taking Mrs Woo's classes while she is off on maternity leave. The weird thing is that because Mr C has shortened his vacation and I will only be covering Mrs Woo's classes for three weeks, it means that most of my work obligation will be over by November 1st or so, which will leave me with almost a month of contract with no apparent work. Mr C told me the other day that my "contract will be honoured", so I guess that means that I won't be kicked out of the country. Which is good news. But who knows what anything really means here until the day? Seriously, everything is up in the air until the moment it's a mess on the floor. But, there is a really cool potential scenario now in which I have no classes for a month, but I still get paid. That would be SWEET! Although I have offered to do some recording for them, since they need to make some recordings for TOEIC tests and for listening tests in the classrooms. It's easy stuff for me to do, since I have all the equipment anyway, and I would be able to work at my own pace on it, and I could work during the day, leaving my evenings free to go bowling and make key chains with cutesy photos in them.
Anyway, this is random, but I'm currently sitting in a Starbucks near Chunnam University with Vanessa. She's working on lesson plans and I am writing in a word document that will sometime become a blog entry. We are reaching new heights of pretentious stereotype embodiment. haha. Anyway, some old guy just walked by, and since I was people-watching, I noticed that he had the finest comb-over ever witnessed this side of the Rio Grande. It was perfect, it was made of several groups of strands glued together with pommade. It made me so excited, I think I peed a little.
So... back to the life recap. Although, I suppose that was more indicative of my life than anything I've already written. yikes.

Two years!

2007-08-27T23:09:00.000+09:00

So, I have officially been in Korea for two years!
Pretty neat, eh?
I just finished teaching nine classes a day for almost a month. Well, last week, there was only eight, and that was pretty sweet. But today, and for the rest of the week, there's only four! and next week only five! and then back to four!
I love life.
I'm so glad that the intensive period is over. It was really tough. Vanessa came back early too, so she was here, and I was trying to make time to be with her and not totally neglect my classes. I managed to do a good job of it, I think, but I did have a whole shitload of marking to get through. I did it all though.
I've been worried about the impression I've bee giving off at work lately. I feel like I've been looking very slackerish. I've been doing all of my work, of course, and I feel like I'm doing a good job, I've just got it down to such a routine now, such a smooth machine, I can just show up and everything seems to come easy. So I'm afraid that everything looks really loose with me. Also, I've been reading the Harry Potter 6 and 7 books... at school. The kids have had a lot of reading and writing assignments in my classes, so I've been popping open my own books during that time. I feel bad sometimes, but then I figure that when they're reading and writing there's not a lot I can be doing... they usually cover their papers until they are finished, which i don't understand, I'd rather get help on the way than hand in a final product that is not so good. But not the kids...
Anyway, two years, it's been a long ride, a long time, and I feel like I've changed a lot, and for the better. Especially this year, I feel like I've really figured out who I am, although I still have no idea what the realization of who I am has to do with what I should be doing... although I'm pretty sure that teaching in Canada is no longer something that I want to be doing.
Well... more posts to come. I'm not feeling too prolific right now.

Best 500 000 I ever spent

2007-08-03T17:11:00.000+09:00

First pose: Natural wood finish... just the way I likes it.
Second Pose: have a closer look.
Third pose: that's right, baby.
Fourth pose: boo-yeah!
Fifth pose: Doin' my rock n' roll duty!

INSANITY!

2007-07-12T23:18:00.000+09:00

So Brooke, Laurien and I were walking home tonight, and we heard a smack.
We looked behind us... Brooke and Laurien made panicked sounds... I was less worried, until I saw their faces... I assumed that it was just a can getting run over or something...
Anyway, it turned out that it was a woman slapping the hood of a minivan.
None of us really knew what happened before we looked, but what we saw after that was so bizarre, that we couldn't even walk away. We wound up sitting on a bench to watch the drama unfold.
This woman was apparently angry at the other woman in the minivan for something that happened before we looked. She leaned down on the hood, and refused to move! So the light changed, and all the cars stacked behind her... this was on like a six lane road... it was bizarre.
Then she started slapping the hood of the van, and yelling. She started kicking the bumper, and a few minutes into it, she wound up bending the license plate right in half! The woman in the minivan called someone, we assumed the police, and I saw her crying in there at one point, because she was trapped, and this crazed woman was hitting her car and screaming at her.
The police came at one point, and they just slowed down and then finally they drove away.
Finally, some guy walked out on the street and pulled her off, but she really fought him, and twisted her arm around running back to her place in front of the van.
They finally got her off the road and onto the sidewalk, and she was still trying to pull her way back onto the road, as cars were driving by, it really looked like she was going to break free at any moment and wind up throwing herself in front a car. She really seemed hellbent on getting back in front of that van.
And the weirdest thing was that the woman in the minivan didn't pull away! She just stayed there in the middle of the road.
Anyway, I finally decided to get outta there before this clearly drunk and insane woman succeeded in throwing herself in fornt of some traffic.

A note of explanation

2007-07-12T00:41:00.000+09:00

I am in the middle of writing my first big e-mail home in more than four months.
That's a lot to report, so I thought of just referring to my blog.
Then I realized that I hadn't updates this thing in close to three months, so I went on a major updating frenzy.
Then I wound up with these huge entries with much too much information to properly reference in an e-mail.
So I broke up the large entries into smaller ones and backdates them.
So if the tenses are wonky, or the references in an entry don't make sense, that's why I'll try to fix it up at some point.
I've also left in the big entries for the sake of completeness.

and... scene.

a good day of teaching.

2007-07-11T23:52:00.000+09:00

Sometimes I feel like I'm really not accomplishing much. Especially the last month or so, with midterms, the kids have been pretty stressed and unenthusiastic about most things I have been doing with them.
But this week I had a great idea.
Munhwa has recently introduced a new rule that says the kids can not speak any Korean in class. Every time they speak Korean, they lose 1% on their Korean tests (because penalizing the tests we give them was losing effect). Combined with their usual apathy, it was brutal combo... they were just shutting up completely!
Anyway, with exams, a lot of kids don't come so that they can dedicate more time to studying. So I can't teach curriculum, and I am left to basically kill time with the kids who do come.
I decided to kill two birds with one stone, and I got my grade sevens to make lists of words and phrases that they would like to know so they can speak in class without using Korean. We are making huge posters that I am going to put around the room so that the kids can see the words and sentences and use them in class.
The kids LOVE IT! I haven't seen them so enthusiastic about anything in a long time. They're making long lists, and they're really decorating the posters well. We have one done so far, we're doing three more at the moment, and tomorrow I'll have to go buy more paper. They're going to be poorly organized and jumbled, but it'll still be nice for the kids to have it up, and Brooke pointed out that the other classes will be interested and wind up learning a lot of things from the posters too. It'll be the best kind of learning... sneaky. They won't even realize that it's happening, and one day they'll just know all these extra words and phrases. It's also cool because it's really student directed, so I have to assume that they will be phrases that will stick, because the kids in other classes will think "Hey, I wanted to know how to say that too!"
I'm trying to get my grade eights to make time capsules, which I though they would be excited about, but they aren't. It's going so slowly that I have decided to make it a two-week project instead of a one-week one. BUt one student requested a game, and I asked "What kind of game?" He said a game that involved drawing pictures of me.
So today, I made them come up with three verbs, three adjectives and three nouns, and then they have to write a short story about me that includes all of those words, and they also have to draw an accompanying picture that explains/complements the story. But there's one more twist! They have to write those stories within a scenario that I assign them, such as "Matt can fly" or "Matt is a terrible bus driver".
THE LOVE THAT TOO!
So basically, I'm having a great teaching day.
Also, I went out to lunch to day with Brooke and Ryan. It's been a while since I've hung out with them, so that was really nice. And I got a new fridge, finally, my Lonely Planet books for India and Nepal, which cost an arm and a leg and have a combined weight of close to two kilos.
Lots of reading to do before vacation!

Bad move, Jon Bon Jovi

2007-07-08T12:34:00.000+09:00

So, I'm watching the Live Earth concert, and Bon Jovi is performing.
I'll admit to a soft-spot for Sambora/Bon Jovi harmonies. Actually, I love Jon Bon Jovi's voice... not a huge fan, but a fan, I guess.
Anyway, he just introduced the awesome "Wanted:Dead or Alive" with "Please stand for the praying of the national anthem".

wow

Dude, you don't introduce YOUR OWN SONG like that. It was cool when the Doors introduced "Money" that way, because it wasn't their song, and they were making a point.
I know he's in his hometown, but you just don't say that sort of thing about your own song without coming off as being super cocky.

anyway... the performance was awesome... ooh, not liking the next song too much though. haha. oh well, cowboys are still cool.

Getting out of the rut + PARKING LOT FIGHT!

2007-07-07T23:46:00.000+09:00

So, I've been feeling lately like I'm in a bit of a rut...
Today I tried to get out of it. Luckily I had an awesome way to do it.
I've been reading this book, "Korea Bug", which is a compilation of article from a zine that was published in Seoul in the late 1990s with the same name. I started reading it way back when I was in Busan, but I put it down, and I never picked it up again, until just last week, and since then I have ploughed through it.
I was flipping through the newest issue of the Gwangju Times, which features a photo I took on the cover (won a contest! Got free Korean lessons!) and a quick blurb and some photos from the music party on June 23rd. I checked out the lecturers that were being brough tin by the GIC this month, and the lecturer for today was J Scott Burgeson. I thought that sounded familiar, and then I looked at "Korea Bug" and saw the author's name "J Scott Burgeson".
I've been really enjoying this book, so I definitely wanted to go hear him speak, and to meet him. I remember when I first started reading it in Busan, and Ryan and I got drunk and made all these plans to make a zine of our own. I still have the paper that I wrote down a number of names of people that I had thoought of to speak to about and/or interview for it.
Of course, it was a drunk plan that never got acted on.
Anyway, the title of his talk was "Is Cultural Revolution Still Possible In South Korea?". It was pretty interesting. Most of his 45 or 50 minute-long discussion was on the factors that led to cultural revolution in the west, and then he talked briefly about the times Korea came close, but that it didn't happen. He talked about beatniks, and the social uprisings in America in the 1960s, and the use of drugs and free love, and how those factors all contributed to a movement away from the other main revolutionary drive - capitalism. It was really very interesting, and I got a bunch of notes that I'm really hoping that I can research and learn more about.
One highlight was this guy, I don't know who he is, but he walks in, holding a very loud conversation on his cell phone, with no hint at an inside voice, totally booming out his conversation to the 20 or so people (mostly Korean) who had already arrived. Highlights included "Yeah I don't know who's talking today so I don't know if it'll be good" and then, when discussing whether his conversation partner should come or not, the shocking "I don't know, there's only two white guys here".
wow. you're a loser.
Anyway, even after his phone conversation was over, he still murmured through the entire talk and chimed in when he felt appropriate. When Scott made a point about the Beatles taking their name from the beatniks, he chimed in that there was also "the crickets". In response to a look that could best be described as "??", he said "Buddy Holly and the Crickets". It was totally beside the point. So that was fun.
Finally, after a lengthy discussion with whoever had sat next to him about something that apparently required medical attention - "Yeah, you should totally get that checked out" - Jim asked him to take it outside. Mad props Jim.
I did meet a cool lady who runs a volunteer organization here in Gwangju, and I'm going to meet with her and her group to help some new Phillipino immigrants learn to use the internet. I originally introduced myself to her because I was interested in getting any people she knew or worked with who might play folk music out to the music party.
Anyway, I feel like getting out tomorrow to volunteer will be a good way to get myself out of this rut I'm feeling. So that's a good thing. I hate feeling like I've done nothing lately. It's been good, I really needed a rest after the last few months, but I'm ready to start doing things again.
After the talk I had a good chat with Jim over some sushi, and a good walk home along the river. I crashed when I got back though, and took a nap.
When I woke up, I was greeted by a beautiful sound I haven't heard in a few months, a PARKING LOT FIGHT!
Just short little bursts of yelling that come in through the window. I opened them up to check it out, and it was full blown. It was by far the biggest parking lot fight I have ever seen.
One of the local purveyors of deep-fried and moderately delish chicken was in the parking lot, big rubber grease apron and all. He was yelling at a group of about ten people, mostly women, and it appeared that I had missed most of it, as a man from the building across the lot took him by the arm and led him out of the area.
BUT THEN (!) he rounded the corner, charged back in and headed straight for the lead woman... my immediate thought was "Holy Fuck! He's just going to drop this woman, isn't he? wow... and terrible!" He didn't hit her, thankfully, he just charged into her! Like, full shoulder bump, with minimal effect. Then she and three other women charged over to him and surrounded him. They were all yelling at him, and a man kept trying to pull him out, and a few times I thought for sure someone was going to get hit. The crowd was growing outside, and at one point I counted 25 people in the immediate area... but there was no way to count all the balcony spectators, and there were a bunch, because I could hear them from all around me as I stood on mine.
Then, the most amazing thing happened. This shaved-head guy from the building across the lot pokes his head out, and then charges down the stairs, comes out on the ramp/entrance, and does this:

I apologize for the "nudity", but how the hell else could I properly describe this?
Needless to say, it was a breathtaking display of manliness. He then walked/power walked up the guy and slapped him full on the back of the head. Like, hard. I heard it from the seventh floor!
Then, the ladies get the chicken guy against a car, and baldy runs over and tries to kick him! He must have been drunk, I mean, there's no other explanation for the shirt thing followed by a missed kick.
Anyways, there was much yelling and excitment, and he finally left, only to return about 40 minutes later to finish the shouting match with a new lead woman, but in a much more subdued manner.

Man, I wish I spoke Korean, because I would have loved to have known what it was all about.

Well, I'm off for now. Have a good one everybody!

weird barbecue cat girls

2007-07-06T09:43:00.000+09:00

So, I am continuing to have very strange dreams.
I was telling Ee MeCha about this latest one, and she asked me if I had moved my bed recently. She said that there were different energies based on where your head was pointing... and that this could really affect your sleep. That's neat... I don't know how much I believe about different energies, but it makes sense that moving the bed would affect your dreams. There are different sounds, different spaces, different resonances when you move... you know? And if there was a field, magnetic or otherwise that affected a person, it would definitely be different if you moved the bed.
Now, let me take you on another bizarro subconcious journey...

I was at my parents' home. It was built into a sea wall. There was literally a huge tall wall, with a door, and inside was my parents' house. And on the other side of the wall, there was a beach. The beach rose right to the top of the wall, so that there was a cliff that was also the front of my parents' house. It was under the beach! strange, no?
Anyway, we're kicking around the house, and mom tells me to go out to ask if dad was done barbecuing. I go out, and across from this wall, on the other side of the driveway, is a huge rockface, and the top is covered with glowing red-hot rocks, and possibly lava. I call out to dad, and he steps out from behind some of these glowing rocks and tells me that it's almost ready, but he's not sure about the potatoes... and then he starts to step off from this high rock face! I was amazed to see him bounce down in his flip flops, like when you straighten your feet and slide down the stairs (assuming you have feet as big as mine). he bounced off the car, off the molten rocks, everything, and landed safely in front of me.
END OF PART ONE.
Then, I was in my room in the sea-wall house, but somehow it was an apartment payed for by Munhwa at the same time. In it was a bunch of old, out-of-date sound equiptment that they had furnished my apartment with. Old tape decks, a record player, ghetto microphones... a lot of crap I would never use.
I went to sleep.
When I woke up, there were two young girls with long black hair standing in my room, nude. They were both very very thin, and one had very nice smooth hair and a big dark tattoo on the back of her right leg, and the other had dry, frizzy hair (and no tattoo). They stood in my room and talked to me about all this shitty sound equipment, and we just laughed together at how useless it was to have four double tape-decks with no stereo to connect them to.
END OF PART TWO
Then, I awoke again. There was an electric keyboard in my bed with me! But, unfortunately, it was a crap keyboard too.
I got up, and noticed two kittens in my room under the desk. It was weird, but I left it alone.
Then I ran into mom, and she said she was leaving for the day soon. I said goodbye, and I went back to my room.
When I got there, it was filled with clothes hangers hanging from strings, and there were cats everywhere! I saw the kittens again, and one had a dark black mark on the back of it's right leg! I freaked out! Somehow, these cats were familiars of a witch who was spying on me!
I yelled to mom to wait for me, that I had to get out of the house, and I ran to the washroom to wash up. I grabbed the soap, and started to lather up, but something wasn't right... I looked down, and it wasn't soap, it was a sponge or something that was filled with this toothpaste-coloured paint! My hands were painted green, and I couldn't get it off!
My mom ran upstairs and yeleld at me that I was making her late, and I tried to explain about the paint and the cats and the doom, but she wasn't buying it.
Finally, we left, and got into our beaver-panelled big jeep-style SUV, and drove along the beach... I woke up just as we were trying to get into a parking lot by driving up a staircase that led to nowhere.
END OF PART THREE

So yeah, that's messed up. But how the hell do I remember so much detail? I'm not filling in the blanks here, people, I actually remember the feel of the paint being spread on my hands, and I remember (though I forgot to mention) the feel of the fur of the stray dogs on the beach behind the house. Anyway, I'm really enjoying my dreams lately, so I don't think I'm going to move my bed any time soon.

some thoughts, few happenings

2007-07-04T22:53:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was a pretty strange day of school.
I have a new grade five class, which is pretty neat. Grade fives are usually pretty easy, because they don't have any attitude yet. They still volunteer, even in bigger classes. The new class is also cool, because it means that I no longer have to teach the puppy killer. They're doing the usual first weeks stuff, introductions and such. Mr Kang wants me to start them on Basic One, which I think is too simple for them, so I think I'll motor through it. I was going to start them with Intermediate One, but I saw that some of them had already bought the first book without me telling them to... so no dice.
My grade six class has a new dynamic going on. My favourite class, which I have had since I got here, recently got split up and divided according to level, which is good for them, I guess, but bad for me, becuase I really enjoyed that class. Two of the students from the good class got moved into my attitude-rich grade six class, so I'm anxious about whether they will rub on the rest of the class, or if the rest of the class will rub off on them.
I gave my grade sevens easy homework because it's midterms, so it's not worth studying the book, because most kids don't come to academies so they have extra study time for school. Anyway, miracle of miracles, they did their homework. It was basically "Bring something for show and tell", and they both did! (two students attending out of about 15 or so)
One kid brought a really cute picture of himself as a baby, and the other kid had his wallet that he got for his birthday. It was a "Beanpole" brand wallet, so now I'm assuming that the kid's family is loaded. I went in there the other day for the first time, and I didn't see anything for less than $120!. Anyway, he told me that when his father gave it to him, he also got a kiss, which was pretty cute.
My other grade sevens... hoo... I was just told that the reason they are in the calss togetehr is that they are the ones the director hopes will just leave. They're apparently more trouble than they are worth. Too bad, I guess, I actually like the class compared to the one before it. haha.
I started getting sick again a few days ago. I'm pretty sure it's just a cold, but I have that really annoying nasal drip, which is just constant and unstoppable. I can't blow it out, and I can't sniff it, because it jsut keeps coming. Okay, that might have been a little graphic, but I'm jsut being honest. Today it's in my chest a bit, and tomorrow I'll have to decide if it's worth a doctor's trip or not. Luckily, today was a holiday for Munhwa, so I didn't have to go teach. Tomorrow I will, but it's a short week this week, so luckily the speaking test day will be tomorrow instead of today, and I can just say "Write dialogues!" when I arrive and then sit while they write and read to me.
My big project this week has been putting all of my photos into albums. I finished it today, about one third of the way through a third album! I have a lot of pictures. So, I ahven't been going out much lately... obviously. haha.
Actually, I've been feeling today like I'm in a bit of a rut. Too much internet TV and sitting around. It's mostly because I'm sick, but I've also been avoiding things on the social front lately, for a reason I'm not too sure of.
I've also been eating a lot of pizza lately for reasons I'm not too sure of. Like, three in about a week and a half. I've just had the most intense cravings, and actually just writing about it is making me have another one. ugh... it's like I hate my heart. haha.
One neat thing about working evenings and then coming home and eating a pizza is that they lead to awesome dreams. Awesome, crazy, messed-up dreams.
I had one the other night that I was having dinner with Vanessa, Carol, Mel and other Vanessa (haha) and Richard and Shannon, a couple from Mokpo who somehow snuck into my dream even though I have really only met them a few times. We were eating in this bizarro restaurant with moose and deer heads mounted everywhere on the walls. Everyone was shocked by how many they were, and someone started complaining about the cruelty of it all... which struck me as strange, because I had noticed that they were actually toy moose and deer heads, that somehow had antler-shaped cacti growing out of them so that they looked like real heads. Also, one wall was a gently sloped rock wall with moss growing on it, and giant lizards crawling on it. We didn't actually eat, we just sat around drinking colas.
Then I was in New York. I was in a guest-house type thing with a little cafe under it. Apparently it was really hot, because I decided to wear nothing but my yellow golf shirt out that day. Like, literally nothing else. Just nude from the waist down. So I was flashing/mooning everyone, but I remember being pretty cool with the whole situation. I went out, nothing happened, then I came back and that's when I realized that I was travelling with my friends John and Brian from university. They laughed at me because I looked like a crazy person, and then (potential homoeroticism warning) they chased me up the stairs of the guest house and hit me with wiffle bats or something. Now what that means, I don't care to speculate. hahaha.
After the wiffle beating was completed, I went down to the little cafe for a drink, now fully clothed. I got my tea, and then this smoking hot blonde asked me to join her. That's strange in itself, because in real life I'm not much for blonde women... but in my dreams, I am, apparently. Anyway, she asked me to join her, and I did. I started to drink my tea, but I got a little fright when I realized that there was some sort of wriggly creature beneath the smoky/frothy surface. I told the girl about it, and she told me that it was normal, and that I should just drink it, it was part of the tea.
So I did. But it turned out that the thing was actually an alien symbiote and that was how it took control of your body! Apparently it was a sexy symbiote... because the blonde then started fooling around with her friend who had shown up out of nowhere.
Is it weird that I'm putting this in a public forum? aww, who cares, it was a crazy cool dream.
I fought like Kirk against the evil alien symbiote...
and then out of nowhere it was snowing! Very bizarre, considering that just a few moments ago, I had been wearing no pants because I was too hot. Anyways, I realized, rather suddenly, that I had to catch the bus to the airport, or I would never make it back to Korea in time! It was going to be rough, because the bus was sliding around in the icy snowness of the New York winter that had suddenly happened. I got into a bus, which quickly had an accident. So I got into a cab... but the cab got into and accident too, so I got into a second one, and it finally got me to the airport. Luckily, the travel agent had apparently given me maps to everywhere I would have to go, including the terminals... I put down my bag to look, and then, incredibly, I was at the ticket counter when i looked back up. I love miracle dream maps.
For some reason, in my dreams, there are always a lot of ski lifts in dream airports. No idea why. But I usually get taken to my plane via a ski lift. weird? yes. anyway, that's the whole dream.
I had another crazy dream last night, thanks to pizza, but I can't remember it now. Too bad. I remember thinking it was a doozy.
I went into Provence the other night after work to get my recording stuff. Ee MeCha told me that I should "come back home" which was pretty sweet. I haven't been in there much in the last month or so... without the girl motivation to practice my Korean, I've been focussing a lot on other things. Not even anything, really, I just have wanted to be home lately. Rut. haha. I'm totally in a rut lately. Maybe I need to start going back there again just to get out of it. I definitely need to have a change of pace. most definitely. Too much home time lately, not enough of anything that even remotely resembles excitement.
Hopefully I get better in the next couple of days, because I got invited out to "Super Night" on Friday, for my first Korean night club experience, which I am told will be pretty memorable. I don't know what to wear, I'm all out of fop-wear, and glitter. I'm pretty sure that my normal bar-wear of "Snoopy and Linus T-shirt" will be out of the question...
Maybe I should go shopping. hahah.
Okay, I have to stop rambling right now. Goodnight everybody!

Full Frontal!

2007-07-01T18:44:00.000+09:00

So, it's been a lazy Sunday (no attempts at referencing intended).
Yesterday was a mess...
I went to Provence at around 4 or 4:30... I set up all the sound stuff, and finally left around 7 or so to head to the Speakeasy. I was hoping for some more downtime after the set-up before going, but I was nervous about the levels so I kept checking them again and again. I showed Seung Jong everything he had to know to work it while I was gone and how to set it up to record and then I headed out, so that I could enjoy some of the rooftop barbecue that was happening before I played at 8:30.
I headed over to the Speakeasy, and chatted with Mike and Dave about the music party and different happenings, and I spent an absurd amount of time discussing chocolate with Dave. haha. Jason Kelly was also playing, which was really nice to see, because I haven't seen him playing in such a long time, and he was so good! I was blown away with the variety he played... haha, Jethro Tull!
My set went really well. I played four or five songs with the looper, and I didn't make any mistakes! woohoo!
I even had some goofball army guys doing pushups to the beat. I can't decide if that was a good thing or not. I mean, they were out on the dancefloor, but doing one-armed pushups to the musical accompaniment of me covering Mika. Either way, it was well received, and I was really happy with how it turned out. But it was so loud, I was sorry to leave and miss the other acts, but I was happy because my ears were already starting to feel like they were ringing.
I got to Provence, and my head starting pounding. Maybe it was the cigarette smoke at the Speakeasy... I haven't been around smokers in a long long time. I hope not... that would suck. If I'm going to get a headache every time I'm around smokers, I'm going to have to cut myself off from a hell of a lot of the social scene in the world...
The Provence party was pretty neat to see. It was almost entirely candle lit, they had live piano music, poetry reading and everyone heard Ee MeCha read excerpts from the guest books that she leaves out for people to write messages in around the cafe. It was wonderful. I've actually never been to something like that before, and I really really wished in that time that I know more Korean. I felt lost for most of it.
But then I got angry... not immediately... but it sunk in a few minutes after being told by SeungJong that he had forgotten to press play on the recording program on my computer. So, my gift for Ee MeCha had bsically been eliminated. At first, I was thinking, hey no big deal, but then I realized, hey, this thing I had planned for weeks for this really nice lady who helps me so much here is now gone, and it's because my friend couldn't even remember to press play! I chewed him out baout it for a while... and we're cool now. I just needed to let him know that he let me down, and not just let it roll off my back. I'm trying to be more upfront about stuff like that lately, instead of just repressing... it's probably healthy. I hope so.
I played a bit too, and I recorded everything that happened while I was there.
It was really enjoyable, and I liked some of the new people that I met, but I didn't meet many, because it was so quiet that mingling wasn't really possible.
Unfortunately, around midnight, my headache got too bad, and I had to leave. I packed up the computer and the m-box so that I could work on the recordings that I have at home (and possibly skype with Vanessa when I got home) and headed out. I got a round of applause as I left (not BECAUSE I was leaving) and I congratulated Ee MeCha on her five years of business, and finally got a chance to tell her that she looked beautiful, which she really did.
I got home and procrastinated before going to bed, because I was hoping that Vanessa would come online... but she never did. haha, turns out she was gone camping... or something. I can't figure out the timeline.
Today, I slept in, woke up with the same headache (it's been a few days) and watched like two hours of Family Guy... then I started cleaning up the apartment. I had another pizza craving (they've been coming a lot lately) but when I called, after a few minutes of yellign at eachother, I finally got that, OH, they're not open yet. They told me at 3:30 they would open, but it didn't work, I got the same message.
I've also started work on my scrapbook, finally. I have about six months of photos to put into it... it's pretty exciting. But also stressful. I keep worrying that I will miss pictures and then wind up with leftover pictures that don't fit into the order of the book. So I turned the apartment inside out a couple of times looking for them... I started, and then of course I found another two stacks of them. But I still feel like I'm missing a stack, but I have no idea where they might be.
Anyway, back to it, before I lose the drive for it, and I put it off for another six months.
OH!
I forgot the reason for the title.
I was sitting here, working on putting pictures into my scrapbook, and two little kids from down the hall ran right into my apartment yelling "Annyeong Haseyo!" (I have to door open to air out the apartment, it's cool today) and smiling and laughing. Then they realized that they were in the foreign guy's apartment, and they kind of stopped dead and stared at me until I said "HELLO!", then they laughed and turned around and ran out again.
And they were both naked from the waste down!
Korea is a strange and very trusting place... I can't imagine that would/could ever happen in Canada.

Provence's 5th Anniversary Party

2007-07-01T00:41:00.000+09:00

There's a party tomorrow at Provence that is pretty exciting. I should say... it's now June 29th. I'm back at Starbucks sipping an iced Tazo chai tea latte, which is the longest-named beverage I have ever had. So anyways, this party is on June 30th and it's being held to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the cafe. As a member of the "Provence Family" (guilt over Starbucks visits increasing) I have been invited to perform and hang out with the rest of the regulars. It's pretty nice.
Unfortunately, this is on the same night as the Canada Day celebration at the Speakeasy. Dave asked if I wanted to come out and perform, and I said yes, then I had to cancel because the Provence party got moved to the same day, and I really want to play and hang out with the Provence Family. So anyway, a week or so later, I got news that Jeong Hyeon's grandmother had died, so he would not be able to come on the 30th, so it would be moved to another day.
sidebar - this guy just walked by Starbucks in leather pants with zippers all over them, long dyed-red hair, a black mesh shirt with a black wife beater under it, studded riding gloves and big black boots on. Did I mention that it's about +30 degrees and humid as a locker room out there? Oh, and he was carrying a gift bag that was pink. I love this country, if only for it's bizarro entertainment value.
anyways... the party was cancelled. Awesome, now I could play at the speakeasy. So I called Dave and put my name back in the hat there. Then I told Ee MeCha, and she told me that the party was back on. I can't cancel at the Speakeasy again, so I have to do both, which will involve a lot of very hot running.
It wouldn't normally be a big deal, but I told Ee MeCha that I would record the night at Provence to make her a CD. So I now have to leave a lot of my equipment unattended, which I'm not too pumped about. But... it'll be great to have a CD of that for her. It'll be a great souvenir form her party.

Music Party Blog Entry... is forthcoming

2007-06-30T13:28:00.002+09:00

This is not the real entry. It's just to let people know that I am currently mixing down the recording, which turned out pretty well. I'll be totally ripping off Dave Martin's awesome idea of posting it to an e-mail account so that everyone can download it all if they want to. It's almost ready... maybe another three or four days, depending on how busy I get over the weekend.
Anyways, I'll also be preparing a blow-by-blow of it as I listen back to it, and then posting it with huge amounts of unnecessary detail.
For example, I may transcribe my short rant about elephant penises!

Good times!

Students respect me?!

2007-06-30T13:28:00.001+09:00

There's this phenomena that happens every few weeks here in Korea... EXAMS! These kids have more exams than a proctologist, and then we wonder why they are always depressed. What the hell? I was talking to my friend Gumi at work the other day, and in conversation, I realized that if I had gone to school here, I probably would have been just as lazy and unmotivated as most of my students. I mean, I usually get a little steamed with them, because I try to make my classes a little fun, and I try to make the classes as free and student-directed as possible. I've even told some of my classes that we won't follow the books anymore if they talk for the whole class, because that is better for their conversational skills anyway.
Growing up, I was a pretty self-motivated student. I didn't always do my homework, but I usually did enough to know what was going on, and I always studied for tests. I don't remember getting rewards for good grades, and I don't remember getting in any particular trouble for bad grades. But until calculus, I had consistently good grades (oh, and except for grade nine gym... oh God! I will never be a gymnast, stop testing me on cartwheels!) and no real troubles. I was a chronic procrastinator, but I came by it honestly, and I still am, a lot of the time. But I learned a lot. I did a lot of stuff outside of school, and I feel now like I am a pretty well-rounded person because I wasn't overly scared of failure and I wasn't pushed too hard.
But these kids... I keep hearing stories of being hit until they get welts by teachers because they got a question wrong, and then getting the same treatment from their parents when they get a bad score. Now, I'm not a parent, so I may be out of place to comment here, but maybe this isn't the best approach to discipline here.
I mean, have none of these people ever seen the circus elephants on "When Animals Attack"? Your kids are just like those elephants, except that their noses aren't so "tall".
And instead of attacking their handler (tugs awkwardly at collar) they just shut down, and stop caring. You'd be surprised how little you can learn and still do well on tests designed for rote-memorization. That's all these kids seem to do... just regurgitate. And when a teacher tries to make them talk about something that excites or scares them, it makes them only have two responses.
"I get excited about good test scores" and "I am scared of my report card". I'm not joking. Anyone who has worked here will know that pretty much any writing assignment will always end up with kids talking about being nervous for tests.
I remember being nervous for tests, and I remember my friends being nervous for tests, but when they were done, good or bad, everyone seemed to just move on... there's just way too much pressure here...

Wow, I totally rode a tangent off into the sunset there... I was meaning to talk about my students respecting me!

So yeah, apparently my students like and respect me. I mean, they don't show it in obvious ways (although... I think I did really clean up on teacher's day... thank you for the shopping bag full of candy bars!) like talking in class or doing their homework, but in the weeks before exams, I seem to be the only teacher who still has classes full of students, whereas everyone else seems to wind up with only one or two students, and the rest stay home to study for their school exams.

I guess the flip-side to that is that maybe I have classes of students who are so unmotivated they don't even think to skip... oh Gawd, here comes that sick feeling again...

Photo Contest

2007-06-30T13:26:00.001+09:00

I recently read about a photo contest in the Gwangju news. I'll be honest, I usually only breeze through the Gwangju News... but since I had an article published about the Music Party in the last one, I spent considerably more time with the most recent issue. Which is why I noticed that there was a photo contest being held.
Well, I have this new, super-expensive camera that I have been trying to justify having bought, so I thought this would be a good way. The contest was for photo of "Summertime in Korea", so I entered this one, along with two others.
Guess what? I won!
So, the next Korean classes I skip will be FREE Korean classes.
Woohoo!

Oh, the drama!

2007-06-30T13:23:00.000+09:00

In other news, I have to vent a bit about drama.
You know what I'm talking about... the talking, the awkwardness...
I've always taken a very strong anti-drama stance. But now... I'm forced to admit that I love drama. I hate being involved in it personally, but I love witnessing it around me, because it's honestly the most entertaining thing going on around me sometimes. Which is - in a word - pathetic. But hey, I do what I can with what I have.
And this country... oh man, it is a breeding ground for drama.
There are a lot of crazies and drama queens/kings here, both local and foreign, and it makes life so interesting!
But I often get embroiled in a bit of it myself. No details, of course, it was a misunderstanding that could have been easily cleared up, but instead it turned into this big "thing" and I eventually dropped it and moved on because it wasn't worth it to me. It was so stupid too! There was even the inevitable attempted guilt trip... which I'll admit, is/was useless. Anyway, this really doesn't make any sense until names are introduced, so I'm just going to drop the whole thing.
But please! Foreign community! Local community! Continue involving me tangentially in your stupid little mountains out of molehills arguments. Continue ignoring each other in front of me! It is hilarious to watch two grown adults dance around pretending not to see each other! Oh, and don't get awkward when I laugh out loud in front of you. It's just that it's so good, I honestly feel a little decadent just watching! I swear, if I see another person walk into something because they are avoiding eye-contact and thus can't see their own path, I will piss my pants.
As for me... I'm going to try to be a little less passive aggressive when I get involved directly.

After all, it's only fun from the outside.

P.S. Hey, no, this isn't about you. Relax. It's about that other person we talked about that time.

Highlight Reel - Post-mom to Pre-Music Party

2007-06-30T13:22:00.002+09:00

I wish I could say that it had been an eventful month. It really wasn't. At all. First, I became a master of Skype. Oh yeah, I can now hold web-cam chats with the best of them, assuming that Vanessa is one of them, my one and only contact currently.
I had an article written in the Gwangju News about the music party, which was pretty exciting. It was by my new friend Rebecca Fairless, and she talked about the first music party on April 28th, why I was doing it, and encouraged people to come out. I've never had an article written about something that I organized before, so it made me feel a little bit famous, and perhaps more cool than I should have. haha. She invited me to a pancake party at her house, and it was a lot of fun. It was a bit intimidating... lots of new people, very few of whom I had met before. I still get pretty shy in new social situations like that... but luckily the fact that I brought a jar of maple syrup was a good ice-breaker. I also brought my guitar, but I didn't wind up playing, so I just awkwardly carried it to the bar after the party.
After a while at the Speakeasy, I realized that a) it was way too loud for me (Tinitis!) and b) Rebecca was gone, and I wanted to leave, but I wanted to say goodbye first. I figured that she and the rest of the gang had probably gone to the German Bar, so I headed down there. When I got there, the new Gwangju band "The Tent Pitchers" had just finished their set, and all their stuff was still set up. I asked if I could play a few tunes, and next thing I knew I was doing an impromptu (and obviously unrehearsed) set of about seven or ten songs. It went well, I made a good impression on the band, so maybe I have someone I can open for now. Then I headed back to the Speakeasy to say goodbye (for reals this time) got talking to Rebecca, then I got pulled into the hall by Smashlee, the new teacher and former co-worker of Darren's who will be taking my place at Munhwa at the expected end of my contract. We chatted for a bit about Munhwa, and all the last minute panic questions that she had about the place before she signed. We wound up talking for about an hour or so in the stairwell, which is admittedly strange.
Then, goodbye.
What else happened? umm... I bought a reverb-producing pre-amp, which was expensive. And exciting. It was necessary because I had gone cheap-o on my mixer, so I had no internal effects. My own fault, I guess. But it still sucked. It was a big misunderstanding between me and the salesman, but in the end it came down to me not having researched the product at all.
I also rode the subway... twice! Turns out that small city subways are SLOW. It might actually be just as fast to walk from say downtown to halfway home, the nearest stop to my apartment. But in this heat, I will gladly wait underground in air-conditioned comfort rather than out in the soupy humidity.
Vanessa is coming back early now, which is really good news. She was going to come back in August, but then that got bumped to late June, which was really exciting. Well, it's now late June, and she's still not here, and it's looking like it will be another three weeks now. But that's okay. Luckily, we are making good use of the internet-based communication possibilities available to us, and we talk for a few hours every day. Plus, who wants to be outside these days? I'd rather be chatting with a pretty lady, even if she is pixelly.
Speaking of not wanting to be outside, I moved my bedroom into my living room, and made my bedroom into a practice area/studio. The reason? My air conditioner was in the living room. Why would I not want that available to me at sleepy time? Answer: There is no reason, because I am not a clearly insane person. And it's actually made the apartment a little more hospitable, because now there is more sitting room if we employ the bed. everybody wins! Plus, it feels like a dorm room, which it turns out I really missed.
And, I almost forgot, but of course I have to document the most horrific thing I have ever witnessed... or, heard about. I guess I didn't really witness it, but I did almost shake a student to death after hearing it. Well, once again, not really.
Anyway, it was in one of my classes. This is the class that I have been told is not worth much worry, because most teachers have already given up on them. So, that's great. Actually, they are full of energy and they are wonderful and brave speakers for the most part, they're just unwilling to study, so they can't retain any new vocabulary. So I've taken the approach of just letting them direct conversation so that they can practice the words they do know, and I correct and make them repeat when I think it's a situation where they will understand why I am correcting them.
So the other day, I asked them if they wanted to talk about anything, and almost all the hands shot up. Oh man, I would take ALL low-level unteachable classes if they went like this all the time.
I eventually came to this cute little chubby guy who always chuckles at his own stories and is just a wonderful little guy to have in my class. His uncle has a husky, and this husky recently had puppies, so every week we are told a few puppy stories, which are always nice. So last Tuesday, he of course had some puppy stories left from the weekend.
He finished, and then this little girl, who I probably shouldn't name, shoots up her hand, because she is ready to talk. I know that I should choose her next, because she is a little spoiled princess, and if I don't choose her, she's liable to start crying and pout for the rest of the week.
Her face lights up, and she launches into a description of her new puppy, which sounds super cute. She's really happy, and manages to guide me into the breed "cocker spaniel". "Wow, a cute little cocker spaniel!" I say, "I have friends who have cocker spaniels, they are very cute and fun!" (using small word for the benefit of the class). Then she says "Yes, I was happy for new puppy! Old puppy died Friday..."
She looks a little distraught...
"Oh no! How did your puppy die?" I asked.
"He bad. Bark bark bark bark. I was tired, so (gestures punching) him."

and a cloud falls over the room...

I thought for sure that I had misunderstood. I mean, how could that possibly have been what happened?
"You killed your dog?" I asked.
"Yes teacher, but dog was bad."
Holy Shit.
I was honestly in such shock, I didn't know if I should hit her, start crying, or throw her out of the room. My head was instantly filled with visions of this poor puppy being beaten to death by this cute (looking) little fifth-grader. I mean, I've seen her get angry, and let me tell you, she did not just hit this dog once. If she killed this dog, it was not a punch, it was a beating. I can't look at her anymore... I'm trying to put it out of my head in class, but I keep having visions of this little girl beating up a puppy until it dies.
And I'm also shocked at her parents. She beat her puppy to death, so obviously the best course of action is to give her a second puppy to replace it. What is wrong with these people? Oh well, I mean the girl is a spoilt brat... so I guess it's no big shock that they would do something like this. Holy jeez, I can't believe it.

Provence's 5th Anniversary Party
There's a party tomorrow at Provence that is pretty exciting. I should say... it's now June 29th. I'm back at Starbucks sipping an iced Tazo chai tea latte, which is the longest-named beverage I have ever had. So anyways, this party is on June 30th and it's being held to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the cafe. As a member of the "Provence Family" (guilt over Starbucks visits increasing) I have been invited to perform and hang out with the rest of the regulars. It's pretty nice.
Unfortunately, this is on the same night as the Canada Day celebration at the Speakeasy. Dave asked if I wanted to come out and perform, and I said yes, then I had to cancel because the Provence party got moved to the same day, and I really want to play and hang out with the Provence Family. So anyway, a week or so later, I got news that Jeong Hyeon's grandmother had died, so he would not be able to come on the 30th, so it would be moved to another day.
sidebar - this guy just walked by Starbucks in leather pants with zippers all over them, long dyed-red hair, a black mesh shirt with a black wife beater under it, studded riding gloves and big black boots on. Did I mention that it's about +30 degrees and humid as a locker room out there? Oh, and he was carrying a gift bag that was pink. I love this country, if only for it's bizarro entertainment value.
anyways... the party was cancelled. Awesome, now I could play at the speakeasy. So I called Dave and put my name back in the hat there. Then I told Ee MeCha, and she told me that the party was back on. I can't cancel at the Speakeasy again, so I have to do both, which will involve a lot of very hot running.
It wouldn't normally be a big deal, but I told Ee MeCha that I would record the night at Provence to make her a CD. So I now have to leave a lot of my equipment unattended, which I'm not too pumped about. But... it'll be great to have a CD of that for her. It'll be a great souvenir form her party.

Mom's visit, birthday weekend and the journey home

2007-06-30T13:22:00.001+09:00

Saturday we woke up, and we headed to the Jongmyo Shrine, which is one of my favourite places in Seoul. We met up around 10:30 (mom and I were late for our 10:00 meeting) at Tapgol Park, and we met a kind old man who informed us that he knew we were Canadian, because our clothes were neat and we were not wearing ball caps set at a jaunty angle. haha. We looked around the park, which was still nice because they had not taken down the lanterns from the festival yet.
We headed to the Jongmyo shrine, and we had a little walk around in there. I really like that place. It's not a flashy as some other temples or palaces. It's much more subdued, with less flashy painting and decoration. There were some tours of kids going through too, but they were Seoul kids, so mom's exposure to "HI HI HI HI HI I'M HUNGRY! HOW ARE YOU HOW ARE YOU?!" was enough for her to get the point of it, but not enough to annoy her. We spent a few hours in that park (the four of us now, Carol had joined the party the night before, if you remember) and then we headed off in the direction of the gallery I had seen and the NANTA theatre.
Well, that was the one time my sense of direction truly truly failed me. We walked about 45 minutes in the wrong direction. But, on the bright side, we came across an awesome restaurant. That was where mom had her first meal of SamGyeopSal, which no-one should ever go without if they make a trip to Korea.
(OKAY, so it's now June 28th. I'm sitting in a Starbucks, and I'm going to rack my brains to try to remember the details of the last few days of my time with mom in Seoul. I've been so busy/distracted that I haven't made time to sit down and get it all down, which is too bad, because it means that a few juicy anecdotes and tidbits have undoubtedly been lost).
We wound up taking a taxi back downtown where we went out for ice-cream (which made everyone feel bloated, if I cna extrapolate from personal experience. I mean, we had just had a HUGE meal). Then we headed to the NANTA theater to buy tickets. There were difficulties, because we arrived twenty minutes or some ridiculously small amount of time before the "appointed selling time" for the 7:00 show. There was some debating, and she finally decided that it would be alright to give us tickets, even though it would undoubtedly cost her her job. God! She wanted us to come back in two hours... I mean, yeah, sure, we'll just sit outside... what a jerk. anyway...
After that we headed back on our original route from Thursday night (I just remembered that I forgot to mention that I fell in a hole on that walk! I was just walking along, and FOOMP! Left leg goes into the ground. Fortunately, the hole was full of blankets. Unfortunately, they were all wet and gross) towards the Sejong culture complex, only to find out that it was in fact a theater, not a gallery. But then I spotted a sign for a gallery, and we headed towards it. We spent probably half an hour snaking around inside looking for the gallery, only to discover that we had gone in the wrong door, and that it was in the basement, not upstairs. The art was good... but not really my favourite mix of pieces. Some of them were good... including some photo reconstructions of childrens' drawings, but most of it didn't really move me at all. After that, to Starbucks for a coffee and then we decided to part ways for a while to rest after all that walking I made everyone do.
We met at the NANTA theatre at 7:00 or so, and once again, NANTA did not fail to impress. For the first three songs, I was so happy that I almost started crying. I love when random things suddenly turn into music. And it's such a funny show, I don't know how anyone could ever not be amused by it. And of course... the female actress doesn't really take away from the equation at all.
I was surprised to find that it was mostly the same cast as it had been when Jessie and I went with her parents last year. I definitely recognized the "head chef" as being the same guy. Pretty lucky, I think, considering that there are several different casts that perform on different nights of the week.
After the show, we headed to Itaewon and "Ali Baba's" for some Egyptian food and birthday hookah with Roberta and Rick. It was a great night. Mom did her best to embarrass me with childhood stories, but I honestly find that I am more embarrassed by everyone looking at me and expecting me to be embarrassed than by anything that anyone could actually say. The food was great too, and who doesn't love hookah? Of course, it made for a rough morning the next day, when I sounded like an 80 year-old grandma after 2 packs of cigarettes, a bottle of jack and and a chocolate shake.
Mom stayed out until about 12:00 or so, but the combo of jet-lag and all that walking caught up to her, so she went back to the motel early. I got a really nice birthday phone call from Vanessa, which I moved out onto the street to take, and then another hookah, and we closed the place and got kicked out around two or so. I said "Hey, we should walk home, I'm in the mood for a walk" and Mel and Carol were up for it, so I said I would walk them home to their area, and then head to mine. Well... I don't know Seoul too well, and next thing I knew we were passing the Korean War Memorial, and I was thinking "Hey, my hotel is just about a kilometer that way..." so I apologized, because I had walked them in exactly the wrong direction.
Then I went back to the hotel for another late-night phone call with Vanessa. haha.
Carl and Mel came over around ten the next morning (Sunday), and we all shared some birthday cake that mom and I had brought from the previous week. It was good, then we said our goodbyes, and Mel and Carol headed back to Suncheon.
Mom and I had a pretty relaxed day. We headed back to InSaDong,
(I need to interrupt the narrative to give a bizarro Starbucks update... they're playing amazing music in here, for one thing. Stuff you would rarely hear even on the radio in Canada, which is amazing, because it's amazing Canadian indie stuff... anyways, the real bizarre thing is that there is this woman sitting on a lounge chair about ten feet away from me who is reading picture books with her very young son (who looks like he took his first steps last week) and she is reading to him in English with this terribly thick accent with apparently no understanding of what the words she is reading mean. She's just sounding them out for him. And he probably doesn't understand Korean yet, and she's reading English to him... oh man, the lengths people go to to teach their children English here. It's part admirable, part fucked-up. The poor kid just want to see what bug is inside the "Big Black Box", he doesn't want to be read to... poor kid. He'll probably wind up in three hagwons studying until eleven every night by the time he is ten years old.)
anyway... InSaDong... so we headed down, because mom wanted to more art shopping. I also found a decently sized and reasonably priced copy of the painting that I have been looking for for almost two years now. It's the summer/original version of the winter painting that I bought last year. It's pretty famous here, and it's in most temples and palaces, copied and usually placed behind the seat of whoever was important. It's funny, because I see it everywhere, so it's obviously a fairly important piece of art, but hardly anyone here seems to know what I am talking about when I ask about it. I also bought an acoustic guitar modeller, which I have yet to actually learn how to use properly, and I met a man who used to play bass for Bill Haley and the Comets. Now he's in Korea spreading the gospel, as he quickly informed me. He looked good though, for someone who was old enough to play with Bill Haley. We went out for tea, then we headed back to the hotel and each took a nap. It had been a pretty exhausting week.
We had dinner at, where else, Outback. We ate too much , again, and then retired for the night. We had clearly already had enough excitement, and with Mel and Carol gone, we had no-one left to prove ourselves to. haha.
The next day, Monday, would turn out to be one of the most stressful days of my year here so far.
We left really early to catch the airport shuttle, because I was worried about getting back to Gwangju by five to teach my classes. We must have left around 9:45 or so... and we headed out to the bus stop. The main reason that I still stay at the Rainbow Hotel is that last year Jessie and I used it so many times as a launch point to the airport, because the shuttle stops so close by. It's just really convenient! Anyway, we walked out, and the shuttle stop sign was gone! Nowhere to be seen! I walked around for about ten minutes or so, up and down the street, but it was nowhere to be found. I started to get worried, so I left mom and went back to the motel to ask about it.
The clerk at the counter told me (after apologizing a LOT) that the stop had been moved to the new bus stop in the middle of the road. I had seen it, but I had assumed that that had always been there, and I just hadn't noticed, so why would I catch my bus there?
So mom and I headed back to the bus stop and waited.

... and waited...

... and waited...

Finally one came, but the driver (with a look of frustration) waved for us to stop boarding the bus, and pointed about 200 meters down the road to another bus stop going the other direction (the direction the bus used to go in, and I guess still did). I just figured that if they changed the bus stop, they must have changed the route... I admit, it was pretty stupid on my part. We walked over there, and I was pretty embarrassed and frustrated by this point.
We finally got on a bus at around 11:10. We got to the airport at around 11:50, and I said a very quick and non-teary goodbye to mom (stress=no other emotions) and ran down to the ticket booth for the shuttle to Gwangju. It must have been around 11:55, which meant that I had missed the 11:50 bus by five minutes, and would have to wait an hour for the next bus at 12:50. So, I was now officially late for work. Since I had time, I went back up and waited with mom in line, and then walked her to the security section. Then we said goodbye again, but I was still really too stressed to be affected by it...
I got out to the bus about 30 minutes early, and I tried to call the school to tell them that I would be late, and that someone would have to cover my first class. I had already called Harley and Nella, and left a message with Nella, but I thought I should tell the school too. I wound up getting SoHee, the secretary, and when I asked for Mr Lee, she said "Not here" and then quickly and shyly hung up. So, my message didn't arrive until later with Harley, and they were not happy to get it that way... argh.
I got on the bus, and became aware of one of the worst situations that a person can be in. You know you will be late, and you are stressed about it, but all you can do is sit there and wait. sucks,
Oh, and to make the bus ride even worse, they had the TV on, and guess what was playing? No, not Dirty Dancing.
That's right! The Passion of the Christ! If there was ever a movie designed specifically for an unwilling and captive audience, that's gotta be it! Come on! I am restraining from typing so many four letter words, because I am getting angry just thinking about how inappropriate that a) it was playing on TV in the afternoon and b) that a whole busload of people were forced to watch it. I put on my headphones and went to sleep, only to be awoken again and again by the screams of Jesus, and finally by the blood-curdling roar of what I can only guess was supposed to be Satan at the close of the film. Oh yeah, that makes for a pleasant ride. I mean, I thought being forced to watch Anaconda was bad. Turns out, I didn't know bad.
I wound up typing most of this little story on the bus, but I didn't shut my laptop off, I just put it into sleep mode. Then, that night, while the kids were working, I continued to type more. And then bloop! Battery goes dead, and I lose the whole thing. Gah!

And that is the story of mom's visit to Korea. Finally.

Music Party

2007-06-24T18:03:00.000+09:00

I'm sitting in my newly bedroom-ized living room (the air conditioner is out here) and I am listening to the recordings I made at last night's music party.
They turned out really well.
I am really really proud of last night. It was probably the most impressive thing I have ever been responsible for, or been a part of. There was such an amazing variety of music, and of performers. There were beginners, seasoned veterans... and through the night 62000 won was raised for the Sung Bin Girl's orphanage in Gwangju!
About 60 people came out, with about 30 people staying for almost the whole night. I don't know... maybe there were more people... but I'm pretty sure no less than 60 at least came and stayed for one act.
We had Elton John covers on piano, eccentric originals, some campfire-style sing-along songs, a honky-tonk band, some instrumentals, folky tunes and some pop tunes. It was a great night.
One highlight was a Korean trio who heard about the party and came out to "Congratulate and Welcome" us. They were so amazing!
Anyways... more later.

Map to Sajik Park

2007-06-15T18:53:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone!
Some more detais to add to this map:
It starts at 8pm. Please arrive right at eight, as the music will start instantly! poof!
We'll go until two. Everyone will get the same short set time, and then at the end we will open things up for a big ole jambouree. If there's time after, we'll let people return to the stage. That's the royal we.

Musicians: Bring your networking skills!
Attendees: Sign up to the "Acoustic Music in Jeollanamdo" group on facebook for updates about upcoming shows of a similar nature.

listening back

2007-06-08T00:47:00.000+09:00

I'm not going to finish the epic adventure of mom in Seoul for some time... but I'm currently mixing down recordings from the last few months, and it's giving me a really great opportunity to reflect on a very cool relationship that I developed this year, which unfortunately has come to an end.
Well, not an end, just ended in it's current phase...
I'm speaking of course about the musical partnership I had with Mr Darren Grimsley, and our little duo, Bikido. It was a lot of fun.
I learned a lot from playing with Darren. He really taught me, unintentionally, I think, a lot about improvisation, and about following things through to their end... I mean, I'm currently listening to a three chord ad-lib that last almost 35 minutes. This one is all him too, I'm just giving a little rhythm and embellishment, he's totally making it though.
Anyways, I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm going to miss playing with Darren a lot now that he is gone back home. Where else am I going to find someone willing to explore three chords for 35 minutes? And to let me abuse the reverse function on my loopstation with such patience?
I'm getting sappy... it's time to stop writing about it.

But... continue listening back, I guess. Continue following through with simple ideas, with experimenting with every sound I can get out of me and my guitar.

Thanks Darren.

Mom's visit, up to the point that my blog got accidentally deleted.

2007-06-08T00:23:00.000+09:00

On May 19th, my mom came to visit for nine days.
These have possibly been the busiest nine days of my life. No joke.
Friday, May 18th: Vanessa came to Gwangju. Actually, she came on Thursday, I think... oh man, blurry month. We went to a student art gallery downtown, and then out for some tea. Yeah, it was definitely this date for these activities... it was fun. After work we met for Shabu Shabu with some Munhwa figures, including Jim, the new teacher!
Saturday, May 19th: Said goodbye to Vanessa, hopped on a bus to Incheon, which I almost missed, to go pick up mom. Arrive at Incheon about one hour early. Spend most of the trip back discussing Vanessa, cartoon characters painted on the sides of buildings, and my Uncle Brian's gas problems.
Sunday, May 20th: Head to the Bong Sun Si Jang, the local daily market to pick up some food supplies. Return to the apartment for a meet-and-greet with my friends for my mom. I said it started at 12:00, so I am expecting guests to arrive at around 1:00 or 1:30. Ee MeCha breaks with convention and arrives on time, which means that my ice-run leaves her alone with my mom. Awkward! She was surprisingly shy to speak English to my mom... so my mom played Foose with her son while we prepared snacks. Around 1:30, people started showing up, and it was a great time. I'll try to remember who came:
Ee MeCha and her son, Jim, the new teacher at Munhwa, Vanessa Reid and HangBin, Carol, Mel, Mo and Darren, my young neighbour and his girlfriend, and Vanessa (Sweeney) of course. It was a great little gang! My mom was pretty impressed with everyone, and everyone enjoyed hearing all the blush-worthy stories. We hung out at the apartment untl about 4:00 or so, and then we headed to the North End of Gwangju to a youth festival where Darren and I were scheduled to play. Now, in Canada, youth typically means high-school, teens, maybe young university students... here it means kids. tiny kids.
So... our set was not ideal for the audience, but it was what we had practiced, and it was maybe best for the parents and other volunteers. haha. We wound up playing "Blue" by the JayHawks, and a medley of "Dry the Rain" by the Beta Band and "Take Your Mama Out" by the Scissor Sisters, and Darren even worked in a little "Free Radicals" by the Flaming Lips into the outro. And yes, it sounded just as awesome as you are probably imagining. I did some vocal looping, so we had simultaneous "I need love"-ing, with the super-high falsetto of the Scissor Sisters going under Darren's claims that although you think you are so radical, you are in fact "fanatical", and not really so radical at all, and his reassurances that if there's something inside that you've got to say, you should say it out loud and it will be okay, he will be your light, he will be your light, he will be your light, he will be your light.
After the music, we headed back to the apartment, and then finally downtown for "Shabu Shabu", again, this time with mom, Vanessa, Carol and Mel (and me, of course). It was delicious, and mom fared well with her first introduction to spicy-ish Asian food.
Monday, May 21st: At around 10:00, HangBin came and picked us up and brought us to BoSeong to see the tea plantations, and idea that he had just brought up the day before. The tea plantation was breathtaking, huge, and green beyond all belief. He was an excellent tour guide for us. And a good photographer as well!
After the tea plantation, we headed into BoSeong the town, and picked up Vanessa from work. Then we all went out for a local specialty "boribap", which seemed a lot like Bibimbap, but with Barley instead of rice, and more ditch food (shoots and ferns). It was delicious, but a little spicy... I was worried about mom, but then I looked over and she was scarfing it down no problem. haha. After that the four of us went to HangBin's family's home and his mother served us Green Tea. It was delicious, and a great experience for mom, I am sure. Then we dropped off Vanessa back at the school, and we headed to DaeWonSa (I think!). It was a beautiful little temple, that seemed to be Tibetan Buddhist. It was full of beautiful gardens, and the lotuses were in season, so it just just a treat for the eyes.
Then he brought us back to Gwangju (our visit to Damyang was cancelled due to time constraints) and I rushed to get things ready for school, because I arrived home twenty minutes before my first class... School was an easy night, the assignment for that day was to make questions and/or presentation for my mom. I tried to order us a feast of Korean food, but they were no longer delivering, so we had... PIZZA.
Tuesday, May 22nd: We woke up, and we headed downtown where we met up with Ryan, Brooke and Darren for lunch, at the usual "Spicy Pork" restaurant. It was delicious, as per usual. Then mom and I headed to Art Street, and we checked out all the little shops, and ate at this little "down the rabbit hole" basement tea shop that Rodrigo, Sarah and I discovered last year. Then we headed to E-Mart, because mom wanted to see if she could find some Konglish clothes, but it was unsuccessful. Then, I dropped her off at home, and headed off to Mokpo.
I had a great last night in Korea with Vanessa. We went out for Kalbi, then we watched a movie, although now I can't remember what it was... maybe it was just TV... anyways, it's just nice, everything seems very natural with her, and even though it was our last time together for two months, it didn't feel pressured at all, which was really nice. It was just another great night, just with tighter hugs.
Wednesday, May 23rd: We headed to the bus terminal in the morning with all Vanessa's worldly belongings, and had a good bus ride. A very old woman across the aisle from us tapped me on the shoulder to let me know that Vanessa was "Sexy". I said "Thank you, yes, she's very beautiful.", and nodded, but the woman felt the need to reassure me several times that Vanessa was, in fact, very sexy. Then, a few minutes later, she busts out with "SOUTH CAROLINA!" and some rather aggressive pointing. Okay, I said, but she's from Canada. "Canada Saram Imnida!" But... she insisted that she was a sexy South Carolina lady. She asked if she was my wife, and since we both agreed it would be easier to say yes than to deal with the questions following a "no" answer (Vanessa was draped over me snoozing a bit at the time) we went with yes. Later we got shushed because we were really laughing a lot. Oh, and we got congratulatory (although belated) corn bread for our happy marriage.
We said a tearful and at times a little cheesy goodbye (I managed to refrain from putting my hand against the bus window, which was harder to avoid than you might imagine) after a small Dunkin' Donuts picnic on the floor of the bus terminal. Man, I really miss her. We have a lot of fun together.
At one, Gumi picked us up, and she brought us out for lunch in Damyang, and then out to an old Korean garden that was once a meeting place for scholars. It was another really great afternoon, and I was glad that my mom got to meet Gumi, because she is super cool. We got back to Gwangju at around 4:20 or so, so mom and I stopped at Provence for some lemonade. Then, it was into the mix with mom.
The grade sixes did a pretty good job, but I was disappoint with their effort. They had the names of things to tell mom about, but they hadn't really tried to make any sentences ABOUT things. Mom did a good job of introducing herself, but every once in a while, I had to stop her and repeat what she had said using some simpler language.
The grade fives were, awesome, as expected. They're really low-level, but they want to talk, so they are always fun. One highlight was the kids asking where dad sat at the table, because they didn't think that a normal chair would hold him.
The next class of grade fives were dominated by the three new girls who really dug a bit in an effort to get some good stories about canada and me. I was really proud of them.
The first class of grade sevens, or my "dentistry class", was brutal, as would be expected. It's pretty bad when they don't even pay attention to a guest, especially their teacher's mom. They even turned up their noses at the pictures of our house, just barely acknowledging them. If nothing else, it made me feel better, because I realized that it wasn't me.
The second class of grade sevens was better, but unfortunately mom had started to feel pretty worn out by that point, a problem that was compounded by the soul-sucking previous class. It always happens, even to me, that I am shorter with the second class because I am still mad with the first. Gotta work on that.
The grade nines really turned the night around. They had such good little presentations, and they had obviously put a lot of time and effort into it. Mom was laughing, and she had the laughing a few times (and me turning beat red). Her response to the questions "Did Matt wet the bed?" was classic mom. "Not after he turned fifteen!"
They also asked about me as a student, and they asked about mom's dreams before she had a family. It was really a great class, and a great way to end the night. After that we headed out to the gimbap house for some kimchibokkumbap, sogogibokkumbap and mandu, a meal I like to call "The sampler". Unfortunately, the kimchibokkumbap was ridiculously hot. But I ate it anyways, because last time it was too hot, and we had to send it back, and I felt bad about ordering it again, because last time they had replaced it with another dish for free. Then, we crashed for the night. I actually woke up on top of the covers the next morning in a "getting into bed" position, suggesting I had fallen asleep rather quickly.
On Thursday we had a leisurely morning and then met Mel at the train station and we all headed to Seoul together at noon.

And... the saga continues. Kiss Time, Music Party, Stamina Wine, Butterflies...

2007-06-08T00:17:00.001+09:00

But she came back to Gwangju the next weekend as well, a day early to attend my Live Music Party. We went out on Friday night, and we wound up at Provence (of course). The highlight of the night? Apparently Ee MeCha thought that there wasn't enough happening, just a lot of laughing, so she and SeungJong turned out the lights and then yelled "Kiss Time!".
I don't know if I have ever been so red.

As you will discover, the last few weeks have been very busy. This entry was started a few weeks ago... and will be finished now, on May 28th, as I am riding in an express bus on the way home from Incheon International Airport near Seoul. Busy busy!

Then we headed back to the Windmill, and we wound up watching bad movies and late night TV until about 5 or so in the morning (I can't believe I watched The Saint again. I mean, you know you're really into something good when two people are willing to sit through that just to be together)... it came to be decision time, ie, stay or go, and I wound up staying. No nearly enough sleep though, considering I had the live music party the next night. We walked around a bit that afternoon, and I did a sneaky sneak down the stairs to avoid meeting other people in the elevator. hahaha, but now I can write about it, and it's okay... somehow. But it seemed too risque at the time. Man, blogs are weird.
The live music party was a great success, I think.

Bikido played for about an hour and a half. There was, of course, documentation in the form of recordings (Darren and I are both huge nerds, so it's hard for us to set up without using about 7000 chords and half a dozen laptops. Nerds love to document!). Listening back, I'm really happy with how we did. I was supposed to break up the recordings into mp3s in the following week, but I became much too busy (as you will learn). It was such a good night, I couldn't believe how well it turned out. Throughout the night, we probably had about 40 or 50 people come in and pass through, and a lot stayed the whole night. Of course, the Bikido fanclub/groupies were out in full force, as were the photo nerds who flashed up the place.
The music went to about two thirty, and we had a number of guest performers as well. Mr C (Harley) was a highlight for me, he came out and jammed out a few tunes, some originals, some covers, including Gordon Lightfoot and Bob Dylan, and it was great. He has a great voice, it sounds perfect for the songs he was singing, very "experienced". haha. Noel from Boseong came out, which was really nice, because I have been hearing about his playing for months, so it was great to finally see him in action. He did some great covers, and I'm looking forward to the next time that I can hear him play. Darren got back up to do some solo stuff, as well as some accompaniment for some ladies from his hagwon who got up to sing. It was so good, and Darren's solo set was an awesome reminder of how lucky I was to meet someone with such similar musical tastes... he played all these classic pop songs that are so awesome... those tunes that everybody knows but hardly anyone plays.
I'll post some photos form the music party eventually.
That night Vanessa and I stayed up all night just talking again. I love meeting someone I can talk to so easily, and how conversation just seems to flow, and how most of it is just random funny stuff we say that we don't even remember an hour later. Or... minutes later.
The next day we checked out of the Windmill, and we were walking around town delaying saying goodbye... or at least, that's how I remember it now, the decision may have come earlier... I don't know, it was a long, blurry while ago now... and I thought "This is bullshit!" But I SAID "How about I come to Mokpo tonight? I don't work until five anyways!"
So, awesome night, and we wound up hanging out almost all day together the next day, because she called in sick. w00t!
The next few weeks are honestly a blur, so I'll just give you the highlight reel:
Weekends in Gwangju (well, some in Mokpo), Night-trips to Mokpo after work (lots of related sleep-deprivation, arriving around eleven thirty most nights, just arriving in time to catch up on work/prep ahead for mom's visit), conversations continuing in an awesome manner...
The painting: After our first big lunch together, I knew that it was something really special. But I had no idea that a relationship would come out of it, I just thought it was an awesome lunch with this cute girl (with amazing hair). But I knew that I wanted to remember it... and I'm tactile, right, so I wanted something that I could see and touch. The first night that I had been at Vanessa's, I had received a warning... there was a painting of her in her apartment. It was a painting that she thought might make me blush, so she warned me, which was sweet... but what stuck in my mind was not the blush-inducing parts of it, but the decorations around her (although she looked good in it too). I thought that a painting would be a great way to remember the weekend, and even before things started developing after the music party, I was pretty confident that she would be willing to paint a picture for me. I asked her after the music party, and she said okay. Anyways, it turned out amazingly well, and it's hanging now in my living room. It's chock-full of our inside jokes and references to things that have happened to us (kiss time!) and it's just a perfect way to remember how things started for us.
What else did we do? We had a great little picnic in the park one day, with so much food... she's a great cook. Which is nice, it's been a long time since anyone cooked for me, on a one-on-one basis. And... it's GOOD!
We also tried to spend a night at my place once, I forget when... oh, the weekend of the Hampyeong Butterfly festival, I remember now... more on that later! Anyways, we thought it would be convenient, and much cheaper than her staying at the Windmill... but Vanessa is very allergic to cats, so that idea was out, when she lay down and proceeded to almost have an asthma attack. She was stubborn about it being okay, but I insisted, and it turned into another night at the Windmill. That damn place is inescapable!
In other Sam News, I will be looking for a new home for her. The last month has obviously been very busy with Vanessa (and later, with mom) but even before that I was having trouble with Sam. I bought her because I was very lonely and I wanted a pet in the apartment... and for a long time, it was wonderful, because I was spending a lot of time at home with her. But in the last few months, I have become very very involved in some other things, and I just feel like it is unfair to Sam. She's just a kitten, and she needs more playtime than I can offer right now. But I'm traveling a LOT now, visiting people, playing music, performing, starting to organize the music parties as a regular thing, and taking Korean lessons, and practicing... I'm a busy guy.
Oh, the Korean lessons, I can make a confession now, publicly. I was looking for something a little different... and I thought that maybe a Korean girl could be it... and I know this extremely cute Korean girl... but her English was not so good. Maybe you have talked to me, and you thought "Holy Crap, this guy really wants to learn Korean! What a trooper!" Well, yeah, I have a lot of reasons to want to learn Korean but chief among them for a long time was this girl... there was always good vibes from her, and lots of giggly smiles, so I thought "Hey, If I could talk to her, this could probably be fun", and since I'm not one of those guys who will date a girl they can't talk to because they want to touch a boob, I tried to learn. I really tried. Like, combined lesson/language exchange of up to 12 or 15 hours a week. Needless to say, it got a lot better real quickly. My speaking Korean, I mean. A few weeks in though, the vibe changed... I still liked her, but I started to think "Boyfriend?" Yes, that means I had dedicated that much time to learning for a girl I wasn't even sure was available. Boys, stop laughing, girls, stop saying "aww". Anyways, she did have a boyfriend. A fiancee, it turned out, but I was not crushed. Luckily, the vibe warned me, and I had started backing off a little... and good timing worked for me again, just as I was backing off, I met Vanessa.
But, timing is a two-faced bitch sometimes.
As good as it was, for both of us, really, timing-wise, it was also terrible, because Vanessa left Korea on May 23rd. So we had a couple of amazing weeks together to try to make up our minds about where this was going. We decided that it was worth waiting for a while, and it looked like we were going to get back together and see how things went when I got back to Canada. But then more time passed, and she decided that she would come back in August. So... wow. That's good, two months are a lot shorter than six. But two months... oog. I'm... like, four or five days in, and it already sucks. Luckily, mom has been here to distract me and keep me busy.
SO yeah... before I talk about mom's visit, I should talk about the Butterfly Festival and a few other things.
So, anyways, the butterfly festival. I was invited to play in the talent show for foreigners at the Hampyeong Butterfly Festival, which was pretty exciting. Vanessa and I panned the whole weekend around it, starting with a FRiday night in Gwangju, then the Festival on Saturday, then over to Mokpo for the rest of the weekend. Anyways, Friday was the night that we wound up going to my place after having some drinks with Mel in Gwangju, but then we wound up at the Windmill anyway, because of the cat's damned allergens. haha. We got up bright and early to catch the bus to Hampyeong leaving from the Gwangju International Center. We got there at nine, and there was no-one there! I started freaking out a little bit, but not too much, because great hair has an incredible calming effect on me.
Anyways, I called at around ten to find out what the heck was going on! I was very surprised to learn that the festival performances would actually be taking place the following day. Yeah. Shitty.
But it turned out alright, we were already packed, so we headed to the bus terminal and got on a bus for Mokpo and caught up on our sleep there (late night illness+early morning=tired). The next morning we caught a bus to Hampyeong, and got there just in time to grab some lunch and then perform. I played three songs, opening with "Such a Simple Way" (of course) then a Ryan Adams cover "The Hardest Part" and closing with a new song "Make you smile". It was well received. We were asked to wear "traditional costume", so I wore Columbia Hiking shorts, a gray T-shirt and some Birkenstocks. Basically, that's my uniform in Canada, so it seemed appropriate, especially since I have no Voyageur pants.
Ooh, I just had a random flashback to playing against the Valois team from Mattawa, with the guy who was playing house league after years of double and triple A who made me wet my pants (not really) every time he took a slapshot at me... yikes, still remember how bad he hurt my elbow through the shitty house-league monkey suit that the Powassan hockey league provided for me.
I won second place, which came with the awesome prize of 200 000 won in Farmer's Coop gift certificates! That's just over $200! So, I'll eat cheaply this month, that's for sure. The woman who won did a traditional dance from India, I believe, and it was quite good! The other highlight for me was two girls who did a very country-ified cover of "Last Night" by the strokes, with some great harmonies and tambourine/cowboy boot accompaniment!
After the performance we had some tent meat, which is always fabulous (seriously) and then we headed home (to Mokpo).
I forgot to mention that the other part of the prize was "Stamina Wine". hahaha, awesome. I love how every second thing here is lauded for providing increased stamina... especially alcohol. I think that general consensus is that alcohol has the opposite effect... and why the obsession here? There is a LOT of concern over stamina here. Do Canadians have so many stamina products, and I've just been ignorant of the market? Is there an pickled eel store somewhere that no-one ever told me about? If there is...
What else happened that was awesome? there was another thing I wanted to mention... before I turned it over to mom...
Oh, the Wando Beach party? Well, that was cancelled, which sucked. But, it led to a pretty awesome weekend with Vanessa anyways... we had a double-date with Kristin and Jeff, who are a LOT of fun, and we gifted out some stamina wine. Jeff drank it at dinner, which was highly amusing. Then we went out for some drinks... I had some over-priced/under-tasty sake... and terrible sausages. ugh.
I forgot to mention this party we went to at Jeff's uncle's house... it was really nice, we had some barbecued burgers and we drank wine coolers, and I wound up playing some guitar for a while, and meeting up with some new musicians, as well as some just general noobies... which was fun. I got to play the part of "Sage". haha. It was nice, but it rained later in the night, and kind of put a damper on things.

Sam News and more Vanessa progress...

2007-06-08T00:15:00.000+09:00

In other Sam News, I will be looking for a new home for her. The last month has obviously been very busy with Vanessa (and later, with mom) but even before that I was having trouble with Sam. I bought her because I was very lonely and I wanted a pet in the apartment... and for a long time, it was wonderful, because I was spending a lot of time at home with her. But in the last few months, I have become very very involved in some other things, and I just feel like it is unfair to Sam. She's just a kitten, and she needs more playtime than I can offer right now. But I'm traveling a LOT now, visiting people, playing music, performing, starting to organize the music parties as a regular thing, and taking Korean lessons, and practicing... I'm a busy guy.
Oh, the Korean lessons, I can make a confession now, publicly. I was looking for something a little different... and I thought that maybe a Korean girl could be it... and I know this extremely cute Korean girl... but her English was not so good. Maybe you have talked to me, and you thought "Holy Crap, this guy really wants to learn Korean! What a trooper!" Well, yeah, I have a lot of reasons to want to learn Korean but chief among them for a long time was this girl... there was always good vibes from her, and lots of giggly smiles, so I thought "Hey, If I could talk to her, this could probably be fun", and since I'm not one of those guys who will date a girl they can't talk to because they want to touch a boob, I tried to learn. I really tried. Like, combined lesson/language exchange of up to 12 or 15 hours a week. Needless to say, it got a lot better real quickly. My speaking Korean, I mean. A few weeks in though, the vibe changed... I still liked her, but I started to think "Boyfriend?" Yes, that means I had dedicated that much time to learning for a girl I wasn't even sure was available. Boys, stop laughing, girls, stop saying "aww". Anyways, she did have a boyfriend. A fiancee, it turned out, but I was not crushed. Luckily, the vibe warned me, and I had started backing off a little... and good timing worked for me again, just as I was backing off, I met Vanessa.
But, timing is a two-faced bitch sometimes.
As good as it was, for both of us, really, timing-wise, it was also terrible, because Vanessa left Korea on May 23rd. So we had a couple of amazing weeks together to try to make up our minds about where this was going. We decided that it was worth waiting for a while, and it looked like we were going to get back together and see how things went when I got back to Canada. But then more time passed, and she decided that she would come back in August. So... wow. That's good, two months are a lot shorter than six. But two months... oog. I'm... like, four or five days in, and it already sucks. Luckily, mom has been here to distract me and keep me busy.

It's been a long time since we blogged at all.

2007-06-08T00:13:00.000+09:00

Okay, here's the beginning of it. I've been procrastinating about it, because I had it typed until it was almost current, and then I misplaced it all somehow... so I have to retype almost everything about mom's trip.
Here's the beginnings of the last month and a half. Starting with:

The eighties party

Last weekend (THIS WAS WRITTEN BACK WHEN THIS WAS LAST WEEK, SO... Late April) was a big eighties party in Mokpo, in celebration of my friend Carol's birthday, and to say farewell to longtime Mokpo-ite Mary, who was heading too to live on a beach in Bali, I believe. Seems excessive to party before heading to live on a beach, but hey, I am hardly one to judge. haha.
So, I got home on Friday with a cardboard box in my hands, because the only thing I really know about the eighties was that they had rubics cubes. So, yeah, I was going to make a rubics cube hat and call it a costume. Brooke had also given me some advice about making loose jeans seem tighter. I wish I could say that that advice had been "Just cynch 'em!", but it wasn't.
I warmed up half a pizza that was leftover from that afternoon's little binge, and I looked at the box. And in that box, I saw a DIVO hat. Yes, divo.
Combining it with the other box I had brought from I created a perfect power dome, or whatever it was called, and with some handy red paint (a pun to be exposed later), I was ready to whip it, and whip it good, having also created a whip out of my Murder Mystery cigar and a patch cord.
I did some looking online, and found a few pictures, and sacrificed a black turtle neck to make the sleeveless, high collared shirt that was their trademark.
And with that, I was off to bed.
I woke up on Saturday, and spent the day scrambling to get my stuff ready, although I honestly don't remember just what I was doing... this all seems a lifetime away right now.
Anyways, the bottom line is that I arrived in Mokpo late for the afternoon barbecue that I had been invited to. Most of the food was already eaten, and the bananas and grapes I had brought just were not cutting it for "completeness". The bottom line is that I didn't really eat anything, But i was having fun, and a little too busy to notice.
Then there was a pre-party at Crystal's. It was mostly a rehashing of the barbecue, with eighties music, everyone in costume, and the leftover food, which I nibbled at.
So... that means that all the food I ate on Saturday was basically a crepe in the morning, a banana, some grapes, some crackers, and a sick amount of Doritos (more than three).
There was a guy there named Tony, who totally outdid everyone on the costume front, it was a hilarious DLR-style rock outfit with a stuffed animal in his leopard print tights with that tail sticking out so that he could comb it. Yeah, he was eye-catching.
We were, of course, the first to arrive at the party at the bar, so that meant that we were the most bizarre looking people, all done up like new-wave rockers or burned out rolling stones or Cindy Laupers...
Vanessa Reid and I started buying eachother round after round, just taking turns.
Now you see the significance of the count of what I ate all day. yeah, it was trouble.
I did okay for a few hours, and then I remember it just hitting me like a wall.
I was having a great time, and chatting it up, telling a guy named Phil what was apparently the funniest story he had ever heard (the one about dad in the Ewok costume and me shooting him in the hands at paintball. Yeah dad, it was on purpose. What can I say... teenage angst and all...). Apparently on finishing the story, I just said "I'm going!" and walked out. My friend Mel escorted me to a cab (thankfully) and I made my way to "Motel B***s" for the night. For those of you with even the slightest knowledge of Korean, I'll let you know it's "Hotel kisses" haha.
Oh, I just remembered something! I had been invited by the Provence Family to go to some river to play guitar and hang out for the day. I told them that I would catch the 7:00 am bus out of Mokpo so that I could be into Gwangju in time to go with them.
When I finally emerged from bed at ten am, I realized that I was not going to make it to Gwangju in time to meet the gang. I had a splitting headache, and the motel room looked like a murder scene. I'm not trying to be clever, it actually did.
You see, the copious amounts of red paint that I had applied to my Divo hat had never really dried. The room was covered with red streaks and hand prints. Including the white sheets. Thank God that the hotel did not require my passport number as did some others I have stayed in in the past. It was everywhere... the mirror, the toilet (interior), the bathtub, the TV, the keyboard and mouse, the bathroom faucets and mirrors. I figured I had probably fallen asleep with my contacts in, so after a few rather painful minutes of "looking for them", I saw the red paint all over the case, and found them in there, quite safe, but dry, because I had not put solution on them.
I drew myself a bath, which may not have been the best idea, because I was still a little drunk, and very exhausted.
I'm not saying this to brag, just being truthful. I'm actually pretty embarrassed, but what the hell, eh? Why keep it to myself? It's funny!
Another thing that I did in my lowered inhibition-state was ask this cute girl from the party out for lunch. She was online when I happened to sit at the computer, and I thought "This will be fun!". We had met a few times before at different parties, and she had always seemed really cool, and also has really great hair. haha.
Anyways, I packed up my gear, cleaned up as best I could, and headed out. I got one last chuckle at myself when I spotted huge red hand streaks on the elevator button panels.
So this girl and I, Vanessa Sweeney is her name, met for lunch at 12:30, and I immediately warned her that I was not going to be much for conversation.
At 6:00 (7:00?) we were still sitting in the same GimBap restaurant. We only left out of a want for coffee.
Then Holly's for a few hours more, and to her apartment after that for some music downloading/swapping.
I left at 11:00 for fear of missing the last bus to Gwangju. I didn't want to go, I'll be honest, it was the best day I had had in a really long time. We kept talking online all week, but I really thought that was the extent of it. Or would be...

Mom's Visit - the journey home

2007-05-29T13:19:00.000+09:00

The next day, Monday, would turn out to be one of the most stressful days of my year here so far.
We left really early to catch the airport shuttle, because I was worried about getting back to Gwangju by five to teach my classes. We must have left around 9:45 or so... and we headed out to the bus stop. The main reason that I still stay at the Rainbow Hotel is that last year Jessie and I used it so many times as a launch point to the airport, because the shuttle stops so close by. It's just really convenient! Anyway, we walked out, and the shuttle stop sign was gone! Nowhere to be seen! I walked around for about ten minutes or so, up and down the street, but it was nowhere to be found. I started to get worried, so I left mom and went back to the motel to ask about it.
The clerk at the counter told me (after apologizing a LOT) that the stop had been moved to the new bus stop in the middle of the road. I had seen it, but I had assumed that that had always been there, and I just hadn't noticed, so why would I catch my bus there?
So mom and I headed back to the bus stop and waited.

... and waited...

... and waited...

Finally one came, but the driver (with a look of frustration) waved for us to stop boarding the bus, and pointed about 200 meters down the road to another bus stop going the other direction (the direction the bus used to go in, and I guess still did). I just figured that if they changed the bus stop, they must have changed the route... I admit, it was pretty stupid on my part. We walked over there, and I was pretty embarrassed and frustrated by this point.
We finally got on a bus at around 11:10. We got to the airport at around 11:50, and I said a very quick and non-teary goodbye to mom (stress=no other emotions) and ran down to the ticket booth for the shuttle to Gwangju. It must have been around 11:55, which meant that I had missed the 11:50 bus by five minutes, and would have to wait an hour for the next bus at 12:50. So, I was now officially late for work. Since I had time, I went back up and waited with mom in line, and then walked her to the security section. Then we said goodbye again, but I was still really too stressed to be affected by it...
I got out to the bus about 30 minutes early, and I tried to call the school to tell them that I would be late, and that someone would have to cover my first class. I had already called Harley and Nella, and left a message with Nella, but I thought I should tell the school too. I wound up getting SoHee, the secretary, and when I asked for Mr Lee, she said "Not here" and then quickly and shyly hung up. So, my message didn't arrive until later with Harley, and they were not happy to get it that way... argh.
I got on the bus, and became aware of one of the worst situations that a person can be in. You know you will be late, and you are stressed about it, but all you can do is sit there and wait. sucks,
Oh, and to make the bus ride even worse, they had the TV on, and guess what was playing? No, not Dirty Dancing.
That's right! The Passion of the Christ! If there was ever a movie designed specifically for an unwilling and captive audience, that's gotta be it! Come on! I am restraining from typing so many four letter words, because I am getting angry just thinking about how inappropriate that a) it was playing on TV in the afternoon and b) that a whole busload of people were forced to watch it. I put on my headphones and went to sleep, only to be awoken again and again by the screams of Jesus, and finally by the blood-curdling roar of what I can only guess was supposed to be Satan at the close of the film. Oh yeah, that makes for a pleasant ride. I mean, I thought being forced to watch Anaconda was bad. Turns out, I didn't know bad.
I wound up typing most of this little story on the bus, but I didn't shut my laptop off, I just put it into sleep mode. Then, that night, while the kids were working, I continued to type more. And then bloop! Battery goes dead, and I lose the whole thing. Gah!

And that is the story of mom's visit to Korea. Finally.

Mom's visit - Sunday

2007-05-27T13:20:00.000+09:00

Carl and Mel came over around ten the next morning (Sunday), and we all shared some birthday cake that mom and I had brought from the previous week. It was good, then we said our goodbyes, and Mel and Carol headed back to Suncheon.
Mom and I had a pretty relaxed day. We headed back to InSaDong,
(I need to interrupt the narrative to give a bizarro Starbucks update... they're playing amazing music in here, for one thing. Stuff you would rarely hear even on the radio in Canada, which is amazing, because it's amazing Canadian indie stuff... anyways, the real bizarre thing is that there is this woman sitting on a lounge chair about ten feet away from me who is reading picture books with her very young son (who looks like he took his first steps last week) and she is reading to him in English with this terribly thick accent with apparently no understanding of what the words she is reading mean. She's just sounding them out for him. And he probably doesn't understand Korean yet, and she's reading English to him... oh man, the lengths people go to to teach their children English here. It's part admirable, part fucked-up. The poor kid just want to see what bug is inside the "Big Black Box", he doesn't want to be read to... poor kid. He'll probably wind up in three hagwons studying until eleven every night by the time he is ten years old.)
anyway... InSaDong... so we headed down, because mom wanted to more art shopping. I also found a decently sized and reasonably priced copy of the painting that I have been looking for for almost two years now. It's the summer/original version of the winter painting that I bought last year. It's pretty famous here, and it's in most temples and palaces, copied and usually placed behind the seat of whoever was important. It's funny, because I see it everywhere, so it's obviously a fairly important piece of art, but hardly anyone here seems to know what I am talking about when I ask about it. I also bought an acoustic guitar modeller, which I have yet to actually learn how to use properly, and I met a man who used to play bass for Bill Haley and the Comets. Now he's in Korea spreading the gospel, as he quickly informed me. He looked good though, for someone who was old enough to play with Bill Haley. We went out for tea, then we headed back to the hotel and each took a nap. It had been a pretty exhausting week.
We had dinner at, where else, Outback. We ate too much , again, and then retired for the night. We had clearly already had enough excitement, and with Mel and Carol gone, we had no-one left to prove ourselves to. haha.

Mom's visit - Saturday

2007-05-26T13:21:00.000+09:00

Mom's visit, Thursday and Friday

2007-05-25T13:21:00.000+09:00

This is finally being finished on test day, Friday June 8, 2007. The kids are studying, and soon I will hand out the tests. I love giving them study time. It just means less time I have to come up with stuff to do after the test. hahaha, I am a lazy bastard.
So we arrived in Seoul in the late afternoon, and it was just starting to rain. However, by the time we got to the Hotel Rainbow (my Seoul hotel of choice!) it was really starting to come down. We headed back tot he hotel, and we agreed to head to Outback, conveniently right across the street for dinner that night. The original plan had called for Outback on Saturday for my usual birthday dinner of "Prime Minister's Prime Rib" (A tradition I hoped to extend to a second year) with cheesy fries. But we decided that it would be better to do foreign (Thai or Middle Eastern) while Carol was there, so Outback got bumped up.
On the way, we bought umbrellas at the 7-11 store near the hotel, which mom really got a kick out of. I guess they don't have umbrellas at convenience stores at home. I never really noticed, I drive everywhere at home.
Outback was good as ever, but there was some disappointment when I couldn't find the "Prime Minister's Prime Rib" anywhere on the menu. I settled on the equally body-damaging "Huge hunk of meat with mushroom crust on top". Apparently crusts now include almost exclusively BUTTER. Didn't know. Anyway, I ordered it medium, and it came back blue. I mean, literally, definitively blue. The meat hadn't even gone grainy yet from heat. It was cool in the middle. You know what I mean? I sent it back, and it came back very rare, again. So rare that it still spilled blood all over my plate. Gah! Anger!
Sent it back again, but it worked out all right. I had wolfed down some cheesy fries, and was actually full. So the break that sending my food back allowed me was actually a very good thing. haha. By the time the steak came back for the third time, it was done enough (still not medium) and I had made some room for it. Mom and Mel polished off a few drinks, and then we headed back to the hotel.
Mom was still jet-laggy (and maybe a little tipsy) so she turned in for a rest. THREE HOURS LATER, Mel and I decided it was probably a good time to go and wake up mom. So, around 9:30 or so, we headed out, and we walked around downtown Seoul together.
I can't remember the order of things anymore, but we wound up walking through Namdaemun area, but unfortunately the market was closed. We walked through to city hall (the sense of direction was working well that night) and by the nearby old palace and down the street that leads to the NANTA theatre, which is charmingly lit with lights embedded in the ground and stone ladybugs that keep cars from careening onto the sidewalks. After that we just kept walking, we wound up walking right by GyeongBeokGung palace, by the Korean Government buildings and to a new area I had never been before, where they have a large "Sejong Culture Complex" or something by a similar name. It looked really good, and I made a note of it so that we could return to it later, because I saw a sign for a gallery, and it seemed interesting.
We got into a nearby subway stop and took the train back home, just barely making it on one of the last available trains for the night. Mom headed to bed, Mel and I stayed up and chatted for a bit, and then we too turned in, exhausted after our over two-hours long walk.
We left around ten the next day for the COEX aquarium, the next stop on our whirlwind tour of Seoul. We filled up on energy juice at the Dunkin' Donuts conveniently located across the street from our hotel, then got onto the subway. COEX was good, but not quite as amazing as I had remembered, perhaps because many of my aquarium memories (including those of penguins), came from Busan. It was nice though, and it was followed by my first burger in months at the COEX food court. Highlights!
After the aquarium, we headed out to GyeongBeokgung palace. We arrived just in time to see the changing of the guards, so we all got to check "See gross taped-on beards" off of our to-do lists for that day. It was good timing though, because it was a really good thing for mom to see. It was also good, because it led to one of those random trip inside jokes between Mel and I where a pigeon wandering around in front of these very serious-looking guards was hearing that British comedy chase music as he mosied. We spent the next few hours (most of the afternoon) wandering around inside the palace. It's a really beautiful place. It was such a nice day too, the sun was shining, and it was hot, but not too hot. Mom was impressed, I think. We took in the whole place, and then we headed to Insadong (on foot, thank you sense of direction) and we grabbed a coffee and hung out while we waited for Carol.
We popped into a lot of different shops, saw the same art again and again, and mom wound up deciding that her souvenir would be a couple of scrolls to hang on the stairs up to her bedroom. She bought one that said love, and we looked around for different ones that might complement it. I wound up buying one that had a mantra on it, something about keeping your mind on things that are not of this world (this was communicated with my limited Korean and grunts and handclaps). We met up with Carol around 8 or so, and we headed to Itaewon for some Thai food. We arrived pretty late, because you know... travel. We were lucky though that that didn't seem to be a problem.
I forgot to mention something earlier, and I don't feel like scrolling back up. While we were on the subway either coming back from or going to COEX, we were waiting in a station and my cell rang. It was Stu, my Australian friend, calling to see if I was home. Stu's been arranging these photography road trips, and I guess he wanted to free up some room in his car, because he wanted to know if he could leave his guitar with me for the day. I said "No can do, mon ami, I am in Seoul in a subway station."
He said "Oh bummer (or some equivalent Aussie thing)! What about Ryan? Is he home?"
I said "No, he's in Tokyo for the weekend."
And THAT was the coolest conversation I had ever had.
We had some other very cool conversations at the restaurant, Thai Orchid, that ran in a similar vein. At one point, we made spur of the moment plans to go to Busan the next weekend, and that was so cool that I had to slap my forehead in amazement. Of course, the plans fell through, because having mom here was EXPENSIVE! Anyways, we all ordered our own dishes, and then we shared with eachother, and in the end we wound up ordering another dish, and I ate so much that it hurt a little bit.
Then we all headed home, and had weird Thai-food related dreams.

Friday - COEX, National Palace Museum, and Insadong

2007-05-25T13:19:00.000+09:00

We left around ten the next day for the COEX aquarium, the next stop on our whirlwind tour of Seoul. We filled up on energy juice at the Dunkin' Donuts conveniently located across the street from our hotel, then got onto the subway. COEX was good, but not quite as amazing as I had remembered, perhaps because many of my aquarium memories (including those of penguins), came from Busan. It was nice though, and it was followed by my first burger in months at the COEX food court. Highlights!
After the aquarium, we headed out to GyeongBeokgung palace. We arrived just in time to see the changing of the guards, so we all got to check "See gross taped-on beards" off of our to-do lists for that day. It was good timing though, because it was a really good thing for mom to see. It was also good, because it led to one of those random trip inside jokes between Mel and I where a pigeon wandering around in front of these very serious-looking guards was hearing that British comedy chase music as he mosied. We spent the next few hours (most of the afternoon) wandering around inside the palace. It's a really beautiful place. It was such a nice day too, the sun was shining, and it was hot, but not too hot. Mom was impressed, I think. We took in the whole place, and then we headed to Insadong (on foot, thank you sense of direction) and we grabbed a coffee and hung out while we waited for Carol.
We popped into a lot of different shops, saw the same art again and again, and mom wound up deciding that her souvenir would be a couple of scrolls to hang on the stairs up to her bedroom. She bought one that said love, and we looked around for different ones that might complement it. I wound up buying one that had a mantra on it, something about keeping your mind on things that are not of this world (this was communicated with my limited Korean and grunts and handclaps). We met up with Carol around 8 or so, and we headed to Itaewon for some Thai food. We arrived pretty late, because you know... travel. We were lucky though that that didn't seem to be a problem.
I forgot to mention something earlier, and I don't feel like scrolling back up. While we were on the subway either coming back from or going to COEX, we were waiting in a station and my cell rang. It was Stu, my Australian friend, calling to see if I was home. Stu's been arranging these photography road trips, and I guess he wanted to free up some room in his car, because he wanted to know if he could leave his guitar with me for the day. I said "No can do, mon ami, I am in Seoul in a subway station."
He said "Oh bummer (or some equivalent Aussie thing)! What about Ryan? Is he home?"
I said "No, he's in Tokyo for the weekend."
And THAT was the coolest conversation I had ever had.
We had some other very cool conversations at the restaurant, Thai Orchid, that ran in a similar vein. At one point, we made spur of the moment plans to go to Busan the next weekend, and that was so cool that I had to slap my forehead in amazement. Of course, the plans fell through, because having mom here was EXPENSIVE! Anyways, we all ordered our own dishes, and then we shared with eachother, and in the end we wound up ordering another dish, and I ate so much that it hurt a little bit.
Then we all headed home, and had weird Thai-food related dreams.

Thursday - the trip to Seoul

2007-05-24T13:20:00.000+09:00

Mom's visit - Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday

2007-05-23T00:21:00.000+09:00

Monday, May 21st: At around 10:00, HangBin came and picked us up and brought us to BoSeong to see the tea plantations, and idea that he had just brought up the day before. The tea plantation was breathtaking, huge, and green beyond all belief. He was an excellent tour guide for us. And a good photographer as well!
After the tea plantation, we headed into BoSeong the town, and picked up Vanessa from work. Then we all went out for a local specialty "boribap", which seemed a lot like Bibimbap, but with Barley instead of rice, and more ditch food (shoots and ferns). It was delicious, but a little spicy... I was worried about mom, but then I looked over and she was scarfing it down no problem. haha. After that the four of us went to HangBin's family's home and his mother served us Green Tea. It was delicious, and a great experience for mom, I am sure. Then we dropped off Vanessa back at the school, and we headed to DaeWonSa (I think!). It was a beautiful little temple, that seemed to be Tibetan Buddhist. It was full of beautiful gardens, and the lotuses were in season, so it just just a treat for the eyes.
Then he brought us back to Gwangju (our visit to Damyang was cancelled due to time constraints) and I rushed to get things ready for school, because I arrived home twenty minutes before my first class... School was an easy night, the assignment for that day was to make questions and/or presentation for my mom. I tried to order us a feast of Korean food, but they were no longer delivering, so we had... PIZZA.
Tuesday, May 22nd: We woke up, and we headed downtown where we met up with Ryan, Brooke and Darren for lunch, at the usual "Spicy Pork" restaurant. It was delicious, as per usual. Then mom and I headed to Art Street, and we checked out all the little shops, and ate at this little "down the rabbit hole" basement tea shop that Rodrigo, Sarah and I discovered last year. Then we headed to E-Mart, because mom wanted to see if she could find some Konglish clothes, but it was unsuccessful. Then, I dropped her off at home, and headed off to Mokpo.
I had a great last night in Korea with Vanessa. We went out for Kalbi, then we watched a movie, although now I can't remember what it was... maybe it was just TV... anyways, it's just nice, everything seems very natural with her, and even though it was our last time together for two months, it didn't feel pressured at all, which was really nice. It was just another great night, just with tighter hugs.
Wednesday, May 23rd: We headed to the bus terminal in the morning with all Vanessa's worldly belongings, and had a good bus ride. A very old woman across the aisle from us tapped me on the shoulder to let me know that Vanessa was "Sexy". I said "Thank you, yes, she's very beautiful.", and nodded, but the woman felt the need to reassure me several times that Vanessa was, in fact, very sexy. Then, a few minutes later, she busts out with "SOUTH CAROLINA!" and some rather aggressive pointing. Okay, I said, but she's from Canada. "Canada Saram Imnida!" But... she insisted that she was a sexy South Carolina lady. She asked if she was my wife, and since we both agreed it would be easier to say yes than to deal with the questions following a "no" answer (Vanessa was draped over me snoozing a bit at the time) we went with yes. Later we got shushed because we were really laughing a lot. Oh, and we got congratulatory (although belated) corn bread for our happy marriage.
We said a tearful and at times a little cheesy goodbye (I managed to refrain from putting my hand against the bus window, which was harder to avoid than you might imagine) after a small Dunkin' Donuts picnic on the floor of the bus terminal. Man, I really miss her. We have a lot of fun together.
At one, Gumi picked us up, and she brought us out for lunch in Damyang, and then out to an old Korean garden that was once a meeting place for scholars. It was another really great afternoon, and I was glad that my mom got to meet Gumi, because she is super cool. We got back to Gwangju at around 4:20 or so, so mom and I stopped at Provence for some lemonade. Then, it was into the mix with mom.
The grade sixes did a pretty good job, but I was disappoint with their effort. They had the names of things to tell mom about, but they hadn't really tried to make any sentences ABOUT things. Mom did a good job of introducing herself, but every once in a while, I had to stop her and repeat what she had said using some simpler language.
The grade fives were, awesome, as expected. They're really low-level, but they want to talk, so they are always fun. One highlight was the kids asking where dad sat at the table, because they didn't think that a normal chair would hold him.
The next class of grade fives were dominated by the three new girls who really dug a bit in an effort to get some good stories about canada and me. I was really proud of them.
The first class of grade sevens, or my "dentistry class", was brutal, as would be expected. It's pretty bad when they don't even pay attention to a guest, especially their teacher's mom. They even turned up their noses at the pictures of our house, just barely acknowledging them. If nothing else, it made me feel better, because I realized that it wasn't me.
The second class of grade sevens was better, but unfortunately mom had started to feel pretty worn out by that point, a problem that was compounded by the soul-sucking previous class. It always happens, even to me, that I am shorter with the second class because I am still mad with the first. Gotta work on that.
The grade nines really turned the night around. They had such good little presentations, and they had obviously put a lot of time and effort into it. Mom was laughing, and she had the laughing a few times (and me turning beat red). Her response to the questions "Did Matt wet the bed?" was classic mom. "Not after he turned fifteen!"
They also asked about me as a student, and they asked about mom's dreams before she had a family. It was really a great class, and a great way to end the night. After that we headed out to the gimbap house for some kimchibokkumbap, sogogibokkumbap and mandu, a meal I like to call "The sampler". Unfortunately, the kimchibokkumbap was ridiculously hot. But I ate it anyways, because last time it was too hot, and we had to send it back, and I felt bad about ordering it again, because last time they had replaced it with another dish for free. Then, we crashed for the night. I actually woke up on top of the covers the next morning in a "getting into bed" position, suggesting I had fallen asleep rather quickly.
On Thursday we had a leisurely morning and then met Mel at the train station and we all headed to Seoul together at noon.

no posts, will catch up soon.

2007-05-21T09:33:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the lack of news of late!

But here's what you can look forward to hearing about in the near future:

The Live Music Party, and SUCCESS!

New Cute Girl! Kiss Time!

Business!

Lots of goodbyes!

Mom comes to Korea!

Children's Festival!

Mom's visit - first weekend

2007-05-20T00:22:00.000+09:00

Post Music-party

2007-05-07T00:16:00.000+09:00

That night Vanessa and I stayed up all night just talking again. I love meeting someone I can talk to so easily, and how conversation just seems to flow, and how most of it is just random funny stuff we say that we don't even remember an hour later. Or... minutes later.
The next day we checked out of the Windmill, and we were walking around town delaying saying goodbye... or at least, that's how I remember it now, the decision may have come earlier... I don't know, it was a long, blurry while ago now... and I thought "This is bullshit!" But I SAID "How about I come to Mokpo tonight? I don't work until five anyways!"
So, awesome night, and we wound up hanging out almost all day together the next day, because she called in sick. w00t!
The next few weeks are honestly a blur, so I'll just give you the highlight reel:
Weekends in Gwangju (well, some in Mokpo), Night-trips to Mokpo after work (lots of related sleep-deprivation, arriving around eleven thirty most nights, just arriving in time to catch up on work/prep ahead for mom's visit), conversations continuing in an awesome manner...
The painting: After our first big lunch together, I knew that it was something really special. But I had no idea that a relationship would come out of it, I just thought it was an awesome lunch with this cute girl (with amazing hair). But I knew that I wanted to remember it... and I'm tactile, right, so I wanted something that I could see and touch. The first night that I had been at Vanessa's, I had received a warning... there was a painting of her in her apartment. It was a painting that she thought might make me blush, so she warned me, which was sweet... but what stuck in my mind was not the blush-inducing parts of it, but the decorations around her (although she looked good in it too). I thought that a painting would be a great way to remember the weekend, and even before things started developing after the music party, I was pretty confident that she would be willing to paint a picture for me. I asked her after the music party, and she said okay. Anyways, it turned out amazingly well, and it's hanging now in my living room. It's chock-full of our inside jokes and references to things that have happened to us (kiss time!) and it's just a perfect way to remember how things started for us.
What else did we do? We had a great little picnic in the park one day, with so much food... she's a great cook. Which is nice, it's been a long time since anyone cooked for me, on a one-on-one basis. And... it's GOOD!
We also tried to spend a night at my place once, I forget when... oh, the weekend of the Hampyeong Butterfly festival, I remember now... more on that later! Anyways, we thought it would be convenient, and much cheaper than her staying at the Windmill... but Vanessa is very allergic to cats, so that idea was out, when she lay down and proceeded to almost have an asthma attack. She was stubborn about it being okay, but I insisted, and it turned into another night at the Windmill. That damn place is inescapable!

Butterfly Festival, dates

2007-05-07T00:14:00.000+09:00

SO yeah... before I talk about mom's visit, I should talk about the Butterfly Festival and a few other things.
So, anyways, the butterfly festival. I was invited to play in the talent show for foreigners at the Hampyeong Butterfly Festival, which was pretty exciting. Vanessa and I panned the whole weekend around it, starting with a FRiday night in Gwangju, then the Festival on Saturday, then over to Mokpo for the rest of the weekend. Anyways, Friday was the night that we wound up going to my place after having some drinks with Mel in Gwangju, but then we wound up at the Windmill anyway, because of the cat's damned allergens. haha. We got up bright and early to catch the bus to Hampyeong leaving from the Gwangju International Center. We got there at nine, and there was no-one there! I started freaking out a little bit, but not too much, because great hair has an incredible calming effect on me.
Anyways, I called at around ten to find out what the heck was going on! I was very surprised to learn that the festival performances would actually be taking place the following day. Yeah. Shitty.
But it turned out alright, we were already packed, so we headed to the bus terminal and got on a bus for Mokpo and caught up on our sleep there (late night illness+early morning=tired). The next morning we caught a bus to Hampyeong, and got there just in time to grab some lunch and then perform. I played three songs, opening with "Such a Simple Way" (of course) then a Ryan Adams cover "The Hardest Part" and closing with a new song "Make you smile". It was well received. We were asked to wear "traditional costume", so I wore Columbia Hiking shorts, a gray T-shirt and some Birkenstocks. Basically, that's my uniform in Canada, so it seemed appropriate, especially since I have no Voyageur pants.
Ooh, I just had a random flashback to playing against the Valois team from Mattawa, with the guy who was playing house league after years of double and triple A who made me wet my pants (not really) every time he took a slapshot at me... yikes, still remember how bad he hurt my elbow through the shitty house-league monkey suit that the Powassan hockey league provided for me.
I won second place, which came with the awesome prize of 200 000 won in Farmer's Coop gift certificates! That's just over $200! So, I'll eat cheaply this month, that's for sure. The woman who won did a traditional dance from India, I believe, and it was quite good! The other highlight for me was two girls who did a very country-ified cover of "Last Night" by the strokes, with some great harmonies and tambourine/cowboy boot accompaniment!
After the performance we had some tent meat, which is always fabulous (seriously) and then we headed home (to Mokpo).
I forgot to mention that the other part of the prize was "Stamina Wine". hahaha, awesome. I love how every second thing here is lauded for providing increased stamina... especially alcohol. I think that general consensus is that alcohol has the opposite effect... and why the obsession here? There is a LOT of concern over stamina here. Do Canadians have so many stamina products, and I've just been ignorant of the market? Is there an pickled eel store somewhere that no-one ever told me about? If there is...
What else happened that was awesome? there was another thing I wanted to mention... before I turned it over to mom...
Oh, the Wando Beach party? Well, that was cancelled, which sucked. But, it led to a pretty awesome weekend with Vanessa anyways... we had a double-date with Kristin and Jeff, who are a LOT of fun, and we gifted out some stamina wine. Jeff drank it at dinner, which was highly amusing. Then we went out for some drinks... I had some over-priced/under-tasty sake... and terrible sausages. ugh.
I forgot to mention this party we went to at Jeff's uncle's house... it was really nice, we had some barbecued burgers and we drank wine coolers, and I wound up playing some guitar for a while, and meeting up with some new musicians, as well as some just general noobies... which was fun. I got to play the part of "Sage". haha. It was nice, but it rained later in the night, and kind of put a damper on things.

Dates... kiss time!

2007-04-29T00:18:00.000+09:00

Music Party - April 28th

2007-04-29T00:17:00.000+09:00

The live music party was a great success, I think.

Bikido played for about an hour and a half. There was, of course, documentation in the form of recordings (Darren and I are both huge nerds, so it's hard for us to set up without using about 7000 chords and half a dozen laptops. Nerds love to document!). Listening back, I'm really happy with how we did. I was supposed to break up the recordings into mp3s in the following week, but I became much too busy (as you will learn). It was such a good night, I couldn't believe how well it turned out. Throughout the night, we probably had about 40 or 50 people come in and pass through, and a lot stayed the whole night. Of course, the Bikido fanclub/groupies were out in full force, as were the photo nerds who flashed up the place.
The music went to about two thirty, and we had a number of guest performers as well. Mr C (Harley) was a highlight for me, he came out and jammed out a few tunes, some originals, some covers, including Gordon Lightfoot and Bob Dylan, and it was great. He has a great voice, it sounds perfect for the songs he was singing, very "experienced". haha. Noel from Boseong came out, which was really nice, because I have been hearing about his playing for months, so it was great to finally see him in action. He did some great covers, and I'm looking forward to the next time that I can hear him play. Darren got back up to do some solo stuff, as well as some accompaniment for some ladies from his hagwon who got up to sing. It was so good, and Darren's solo set was an awesome reminder of how lucky I was to meet someone with such similar musical tastes... he played all these classic pop songs that are so awesome... those tunes that everybody knows but hardly anyone plays.
I'll post some photos form the music party eventually.
That night Vanessa and I stayed up all night just talking again. I love meeting someone I can talk to so easily, and how conversation just seems to flow, and how most of it is just random funny stuff we say that we don't even remember an hour later. Or... minutes later.

The Eighties Party - the day after

2007-04-24T00:11:00.000+09:00

When I finally emerged from bed at ten am, I realized that I was not going to make it to Gwangju in time to meet the gang. I had a splitting headache, and the motel room looked like a murder scene. I'm not trying to be clever, it actually did.
You see, the copious amounts of red paint that I had applied to my Divo hat had never really dried. The room was covered with red streaks and hand prints. Including the white sheets. Thank God that the hotel did not require my passport number as did some others I have stayed in in the past. It was everywhere... the mirror, the toilet (interior), the bathtub, the TV, the keyboard and mouse, the bathroom faucets and mirrors. I figured I had probably fallen asleep with my contacts in, so after a few rather painful minutes of "looking for them", I saw the red paint all over the case, and found them in there, quite safe, but dry, because I had not put solution on them.
I drew myself a bath, which may not have been the best idea, because I was still a little drunk, and very exhausted.
I'm not saying this to brag, just being truthful. I'm actually pretty embarrassed, but what the hell, eh? Why keep it to myself? It's funny!
Another thing that I did in my lowered inhibition-state was ask this cute girl from the party out for lunch. She was online when I happened to sit at the computer, and I thought "This will be fun!". We had met a few times before at different parties, and she had always seemed really cool, and also has really great hair. haha.
Anyways, I packed up my gear, cleaned up as best I could, and headed out. I got one last chuckle at myself when I spotted huge red hand streaks on the elevator button panels.
So this girl and I, Vanessa Sweeney is her name, met for lunch at 12:30, and I immediately warned her that I was not going to be much for conversation.
At 6:00 (7:00?) we were still sitting in the same GimBap restaurant. We only left out of a want for coffee.
Then Holly's for a few hours more, and to her apartment after that for some music downloading/swapping.
I left at 11:00 for fear of missing the last bus to Gwangju. I didn't want to go, I'll be honest, it was the best day I had had in a really long time. We kept talking online all week, but I really thought that was the extent of it. Or would be...

old test funny.

2007-04-23T11:52:00.000+09:00

I think I forgot to post this... but it's a winner for sure! I think the sentence was for the word "cheer"

Always I go to the sport ground to see a battle, so many cheerleaders cheer, and I go to next to the cheerleaders then I can be take a camera.

The Eighties Party

2007-04-23T00:12:00.000+09:00

Last weekend (THIS WAS WRITTEN BACK WHEN THIS WAS LAST WEEK, SO... Late April) was a big eighties party in Mokpo, in celebration of my friend Carol's birthday, and to say farewell to longtime Mokpo-ite Mary, who was heading too to live on a beach in Bali, I believe. Seems excessive to party before heading to live on a beach, but hey, I am hardly one to judge. haha.
So, I got home on Friday with a cardboard box in my hands, because the only thing I really know about the eighties was that they had rubics cubes. So, yeah, I was going to make a rubics cube hat and call it a costume. Brooke had also given me some advice about making loose jeans seem tighter. I wish I could say that that advice had been "Just cynch 'em!", but it wasn't.
I warmed up half a pizza that was leftover from that afternoon's little binge, and I looked at the box. And in that box, I saw a DIVO hat. Yes, divo.
Combining it with the other box I had brought from I created a perfect power dome, or whatever it was called, and with some handy red paint (a pun to be exposed later), I was ready to whip it, and whip it good, having also created a whip out of my Murder Mystery cigar and a patch cord.
I did some looking online, and found a few pictures, and sacrificed a black turtle neck to make the sleeveless, high collared shirt that was their trademark.
And with that, I was off to bed.
I woke up on Saturday, and spent the day scrambling to get my stuff ready, although I honestly don't remember just what I was doing... this all seems a lifetime away right now.
Anyways, the bottom line is that I arrived in Mokpo late for the afternoon barbecue that I had been invited to. Most of the food was already eaten, and the bananas and grapes I had brought just were not cutting it for "completeness". The bottom line is that I didn't really eat anything, But i was having fun, and a little too busy to notice.
Then there was a pre-party at Crystal's. It was mostly a rehashing of the barbecue, with eighties music, everyone in costume, and the leftover food, which I nibbled at.
So... that means that all the food I ate on Saturday was basically a crepe in the morning, a banana, some grapes, some crackers, and a sick amount of Doritos (more than three).
There was a guy there named Tony, who totally outdid everyone on the costume front, it was a hilarious DLR-style rock outfit with a stuffed animal in his leopard print tights with that tail sticking out so that he could comb it. Yeah, he was eye-catching.
We were, of course, the first to arrive at the party at the bar, so that meant that we were the most bizarre looking people, all done up like new-wave rockers or burned out rolling stones or Cindy Laupers...
Vanessa Reid and I started buying eachother round after round, just taking turns.
Now you see the significance of the count of what I ate all day. yeah, it was trouble.
I did okay for a few hours, and then I remember it just hitting me like a wall.
I was having a great time, and chatting it up, telling a guy named Phil what was apparently the funniest story he had ever heard (the one about dad in the Ewok costume and me shooting him in the hands at paintball. Yeah dad, it was on purpose. What can I say... teenage angst and all...). Apparently on finishing the story, I just said "I'm going!" and walked out. My friend Mel escorted me to a cab (thankfully) and I made my way to "Motel B***s" for the night. For those of you with even the slightest knowledge of Korean, I'll let you know it's "Hotel kisses" haha.
Oh, I just remembered something! I had been invited by the Provence Family to go to some river to play guitar and hang out for the day. I told them that I would catch the 7:00 am bus out of Mokpo so that I could be into Gwangju in time to go with them.

WHIP IT!

2007-04-21T12:56:00.000+09:00

EIGHTIES PARTY!!!!

Making an 80s costume...

2007-04-21T00:49:00.000+09:00

First, get some round things... you'll need a few sizes, try the kitchen, there are lots of round things there.

Then you'll need that greasy old pizza box that you forgot to take to the recycling...

Now, the paper box that you stole from work...

You'll need some scissors, a sharp knife, and some red paint. Oh, and tape. Lots of tape...

Time passes... can you guess what it will be?!?!

Eventful Uneventful Weekend.

2007-04-15T00:10:00.000+09:00

So... it's Saturday night. For the first time in weeks, I am at home with no plans, and I'm loving it!
I had a lazy day today... well, relatively. But I'll get to it.
Last night, after work, I headed to the Speakeasy for the acoustic jam night. Disappointingly, Dave was absent, apparently busy or sick or both. Which really sucks, because he's always fun to play with, and this has been the first time I've had a chance to play with him in a long time. I arrived to a crowd of strangers (not surprising, considering that I rarely go there anymore...) and got worried because Darren wasn't even there yet, and I didn't really want to play alone to a crowd I didn't know... not last night anyways. But I wanted to play, because OkYeon and SoHeoo and their comrade from the math school were coming (they're all the secretaries), eventually.
Darren showed after a bit, and we started setting up. We played for about an hour or so together, then went into trading solo stuff back and forth for maybe another hour. Darren also had some good covers... it's really odd how synchronous our knowledge is... We were running up to join eachother on solo stuff a lot, because we would know the harmony or another guitar part... I did mostly Hawksley covers, because that is mostly what I have been playing lately. We were pretty well received, and in particular an acoustic version of "Striptease". I mean... from the one girl in the audience who knew Hawksley it was particularly well received. The rest of the crowd was the usual Speakeasy crowd that only claps for songs they know. It's a tough crowd to crack if you're a folky/art-pop guy who doesn't like playing popular rocks songs...
I wound up staying out until three, then having a late night dinner at Gimbap Cheonguk when I realized that I had forgotten to eat dinner at a more reasonable hour.
As a result, I slept until almost one today, which has only happened once or twice since that bender I had on arriving here. haha. Darren and I had plans to do some live recording today, so I wanted to get the place cleaned up. I procrastinated a ton... wound up taking a trip to the street market just so that I could make myself some crepes. When I got back, I decided to make some pasta sauce. I thought "Hey, I've got the whole day, why not make it from scratch?" So I blanched the tomatoes, and pureed them, and peeled some other for chunks... anyways, it was going really well when Brooke phoned an hour or so later, so I invited her and Ryan over for dinner. Anyways, a while later I was walking by the pot, saw the wine, and thought "Hey, that could be a nice touch to this little sauce that is going so well."
Anyways, I poured some in. Mistake. I should have smelled it first. It's been open for a while, and it satrted to have that old wine taste. Soon that's all you could taste in the sauce.
I also cleaned and did laundry. Sweet day, no?
I wound up making some more sauce, because I had invitees!
Darren showed up around six or so, and we got things going with the recording. The amount of stuff he brought on his bike honestly boggled my mind. He has this way of rigging his guitar on his back with bungee cords over his backpack, with another bag strapped to his bike... and two mic stands!
Anyways, we got some pretty solid live recordings of five songs, which is good for an evening. After we finished, we wound up eating the pasta ourselves. Ryan and Brooke cancelled, they both got sick... somehow. Everyone is sick right now.
We actually ate home made noodles, because I was almost out (Ryan and Brooke were supposed to bring some with them). We went to the underground market, no pasta. Went to the market market, no pasta. So, I wound up making some. I am super full now...

Thanks for the sweet dating advice, guys.

2007-04-13T00:53:00.000+09:00

I had the strangest day... work was WORK today, but Provence before and after made the day much more bearable.
Before work at Provence, I was given some advice to aid in "pursuits".
Here's what I need to do if I want to win over some of the young Korean ladies.

First:
They dig money, so I need to conspicuously count my wad at every opportunity, possibly dropping it on the floor as the subject fo interest passes.
Second:
Good looks. Well, I'm flashing the killer smile at every opportunity, so there's not really much more I can be doing here. If they don't like what they see, I'mma outta luck. I mena... I could shave... I guess...
Third:
I'm too happy. I was told I should be more broody. They suggested a black ensemble, and I added that a cigarette holder and a book on/by Kafka would add to the look. Much laughing ensued. Then they said "Seriously, stop dancing and wearing the red velour pants."
Fourth:
Most importantly, I must learn how to use dirty words well. I told them I could swear a blue streak in English, but this is not good enough.

Anyways, I demonstrated my ability to "sweep that grin" right off my face, which never fails to impress. Then I broke into laughter, as I always do. Luckily, they did too.
After work I went back over, and Ee MeCha and I had our usual language exchange. Except that instead of the planned hour, I was there for two and a half. She's funny! And we made fun of Korean men's love of stripes for a long time. It was divine.

Simple rules:
Only one plaid at a time.
If you wear a striped shirt, wear a plain tie.
If you wear a plain shirt, a striped tie is okay.
If you wear a striped shirt, avoid a striped pant.
Never, under any circumstance, wear several different stripes or plaids at once.

The same rules apply to floral patterns, except that you should never wear floral patterns, unless it's that cool shirt that you bought that time in Thailand.

I also have new code for things I don't like.

"That's stripe music."
"That's a stripe movie."
"That place is for stripes."

I pulled this off of Crystal Benjafield's facebook page.

2007-04-12T00:47:00.000+09:00

So, I didn't last like this, I quickly changed the style, got a hair cut and shaved. Now the beard is back.

Jessie was right, I looked like a youth minister.

Photo links!

2007-04-12T00:42:00.000+09:00

So, loading photos to my blog is a pain.

But loading photos to facebook is easy!

The drawback? Before, you had to have a facebook account to look at those photos.

Now, all you need are these links.

More to come soon!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1607&l=11f58&id=51569966

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1608&l=456a3&id=515699664

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1609&l=73c48&id=515699664

Bawling

2007-04-10T20:24:00.000+09:00

I just made a girl cry all class.
Here's what happened.
I was trying to get them to speak about restaurants.
"What makes a restaurant good? What makes a restaurant bad?" It was like pulling teeth. I've never had a class like this at Munhwa before.
There's a smart girl in the class who never speaks, so I called on her. She ignored me. I gave her a little tap on the head. She continued to ignore me, and decided instead to draw a tie onto her teddy-bear pencil case.
The obvious solution? Remove the distraction.
I took away the pencil case, and locked it in the drawer with all the rest of my confiscated stuff.
Then she started crying. She continued crying all class.
I told her not to worry she'd get it back tomorrow.
She left class and ran straight into the bathroom.
The funny thing? I don't feel bad at all. So rude! And like crying will make me just give it back, like she hadn't been rude. What a brat!

Random thoughts

2007-04-10T12:26:00.000+09:00

So, my Korean class was cancelled today, a fact that I only remembered as I stepped out of the shower. Well, out of isn't really the right word. I mean... well, here's my bathroom:
As you can see, the bathroom tile just changes into "shower zone".
This means that I have the whole day free, so I'm going to clean up a bit, and leave the window open so that I can add thoughts as they come to me!

First: THE BEST CAB CONVERSATIONS OF MY LIFE!
Since taking Korean lessons, I have been having the best Korean converations of my life. They ask a question, I answer them. Somehow these lessons seem to be set up in order to give me the perfect responses to the very small set of questions that Korean cab drivers are interested in. Where are you from? Where are you going? How long have you been in Korea? Do you like Kimchi? Do you like Gwangju?

A COMMITMENT!
So, just so everyone knows, and they ask me about it in some years' time, here's the plan for vacations in the next few years.
1. India, Nepal, Tibet and China in the fall. Solo, for a month and a half or two months.
2. 2010, late spring to fall, hiking the Appalachian Trail. 3500 km from Georgia to Maine. It will take close to five months.

BEAUTY!
I walked to school yesterday (as I do almost everyday), and I was struck at the transformation that almost happened without me noticing. It's spring! The river is starting to look a little more... undisturbed... as grass and reeds grow up around it after the disturbance of a winter's worth of construction. And on the way home, I caught a whiff of lilacs blooming along the sidewalk. Oh, and did I mention that it was like fifteen degrees? It was. I walked home at 11 with no coat.

REDUCING MY CAFFEINE CONSUMPTION:
I've been conciously reducing my caffeine consumption. During intensives, I was drinking about six cups a day, and with all the work-related stress and personal goal-pursuit, I was stressed enough to actually develop an eye twitch that lasted about a month and a half. Now I'm not so stressed, and I'm cutting myself off after two cups a day. Although on most days it's only one. I noticed last week that the twitch was gone, and it was a really good day.

I LOVE SINGING
I've been singing more lately than I ever have in my life. Performance and personal, there's always sound escaping my lips. And I'm discovering new sounds that I can produce, and gaining new confidence and comfort every day. I'm starting to long for it. I'm starting to wish classes were over, and I could just close the door and enjoy the acoustics of my room.

BAD BREATH
I had a cabbie a few weeks ago with breath so bad that I had to open the window in the BACK SEAT.

CLEANUP DAY
So, I'm doing laundry... and I just ordered in some of the usual rib soup with a side of mandu... life here is so easy once you break through... I love it. And take-out comes in real dishes here! You just throw them in the hall when you're done, and they come back to pick them up!

MISSED WEEKENDS
So, I didn't blog about Busan. The reason? I was super drunk! And I was hungover... and I didn't feel like writing about it. But it'll be coming soon. Then, the JinHae weekend. I just got busy. But they're coming, I promise.

that's all for now... I really didn't write as much as I had thought that I would... oh well. little tidbits, little tidbits.

A dose of shame

2007-04-10T00:23:00.000+09:00

I've been thinking about my year in Yeongam a lot lately.
I mentioned it as something that came up over the weekend, but I actually have been thinking of it for a while now.
I am ashamed. Absolutely ashamed. I did so little last year. I barely connected to anyone in the community, except in the most superficial way. I didn't make any effort, and the nice people that I did meet did were held at arms length, if they were held at all.
I had some bad experiences, yes, but it was my outlook that meant that it affected my future interactions. I wasn't adventurous, I didn't peek my head in doors, and I didn't call even the few people that I did meet.
And I don't think that it is fair to blame the size of the community. Yeah, their English ability was nill, and communication was much more difficult, but the effort on my part to meet them halfway was minimal.
I think that the problem was that Yeongam was a place where I worked, and now I'm starting to see it as having been place where I should have lived, much as Gwangju has become for me now.
Anyways... it's funny how you get thinking about things.

What a weekend!

2007-04-09T00:30:00.000+09:00

ROUND TWO!!
Friday:
A long day of testing and yelling. I don't know when I started yelling, but all I know is that lately my fuse has been exceptionally short. It could be that I have been dedicating so much of my outside class time to studying Korea, and that I have been busy all the time... who knows? Anyways, I managed to finish most of my marking at school, which meant that when it was over, I actually felt like the day was over. I headed to Provence, where I had plans to meet up with Carol, Vanessa and HangBin. I had my guitar, and planned on play a few tunes.
Well, a Matt in need of some relaxation with no dinner and wine makes for a loud Matt who experiments in his performance, and that's how I found out that I can sing higher than I thought, right through high G and on to high A now. For those of you who don't know... that's really high. So, I feel good, and my confidence is way up now. I played for about an hour or an hour and a half, and drank a lot of wine... to much wine. There was some throwing of things across the cafe (some of which I picked up and ate), and Vanessa made me laugh and I spat wine out all over my lyrics... and the cabbie closed the window on my hand, but it didn't hurt. Or... I didn't feel pain anyways. It was a really good night, and just what I needed after a tough night at work.
Saturday:
Awoke at nine, and got ready, headed out to pick up some groceries for the day ahead, and some food for Sam. Forgot to buy eggs, so I had to make a second trip, because I wanted to make an omelette. haha, useless information. Had a nice breakfast with Carol, who had crashed for the night, and Bryce and Lana arrived from Gurye at around 11:30. The three of us headed over to Brooke's building, where the gang was meeting with a rented van and we set off on the Birthday Roadtrip Extraodinaire (soundtrack by Smashmouth) to DdangGgeut, the southern-most tip of Korea. We were on the road at around 12:00 or so, and I was surprisingly excited when we passed through Yeongam.
We stopped at the good ole E-Mart to pick up some wine. It has changed a lot since last year. I actually felt a little bit ashamed being back in Yeongam. Being there just reminded me of how isolated we had made ourselves last year, and how little I had done to be a part of the community. I don't really have any connections to the town, and I lived there for a year. Well, aside from the Ryus, and I haven't even seen them! I mean, I haven't even been back to visit since I got here.
anyhoo...
We got back on the road and wound up arriving at a small park on the beach at around 2 or 2:30. We all set out and gathered up armfuls of firewood, and built a small campfire. We had tons of food and a great little picnic in this beautiful little park. There were tall pines and leaf litter scattered all around the ground, and a great long beach that spread on for miles. Bryce and Lana brought devilled eggs, I brought a fruit loaf with cream cheese, Jon and Emily brought tons of snacks (they are the official snack supplier of every event), and Brooke and Ryan contributed chicken that we cooked on the coals of the campfire. Or... should have cooked on the coals. We got a little impatient, so we wound up cooking them on sticks and flames. Very quickly. haha. It was a little lunch, and we cracked a bottle of wine and everyone just hung out on the beach for a few hours.
After the beach, we headed to this little temple that the rest of the gang knew about, and had visited before. I've heard the story so many times... I was excited to see it finally, it always sounded amazing. but we'll get to that.
As they say, getting there is half the fun, and this was no exception. Brooke spotted the turn right away, which was good, because it was small, and looked to me like it might easily have been missed. However, once on the road, the backseast memories became less than confidence-inspiring. They started doubting themselves, so we asked for directions.
Asking for directions turned out to be another problem, because it didn't seem like anyone was really sure that the name that they had for the place was actually the name of THE place that we were going to. But people seemed to point us in the same direction as we had been going... so everyone was encouraged.
Finally, we reached a water-access, and Brooke recognized it, and there was much cheering. Then honking. From behind. From a police car. Waving us over. He came over to talk to us, and told us that we were going the wrong way for what we wanted to find. He offered to guide us out to the place whose name we gave him... but Brooke was sure we were on the right track now that she had seen the waterin' hole...
We wound up turning around and following the police officer... but then the debates started.
"I'm sure that that was the place"
"I can't just turn around, he's a cop!"
"Try to honk and wave him down"
"He's too far ahead now"
"Don't worry, maybe this is just a better way!"
"Turn around!"
And that's what we did. When the cop rounded a corner, Ryan pulled a maneuver that can only be properly described as "Wailin' 'er around!" and zoom zoom zoomed off in the opposite direction. We passed the water place and wound our way up the mountain side on a narrow one-lane road that gave me vertigo when I looked out the window. In a moment that almost made me believe in the power of "The Secret" (gag) I said "Man, it sure would suck to meet another car on this narrow road" seconds before one rounded the corner.
Good one universe!
When we got to the top, we all piled out and walked off down a really narrow little dirt path (a rarity on Korean hikes). It was beautiful. The cherry blossoms have passed their peak, but there are still a lot of them out there. And there are conveniently canary-yellow flowers called "kaenaree" (get it?) and lots of trees just beginning to sprout leaves. Not to mention that this was a beautiful fractured landscape, with sharp rocks jutting out of the trees and making strange silhouettes in the sunlight. We walked for about twenty minutes, and came to the temple. If you weren't looking for it, you might walk right by it without even noticing it. It was very very small, and built right into the rocks or the mountain. There was a tall stone staircase leading up to a mural framed by two tall stone pillars that looked like they must have been natural, and the temple just built to fit inside. It was beautiful. We stayed there for about half an hour or so, admiring the view and snapping photos, but left when we realized that we were really disturbing the woman trying to pray inside.
After we left the temple, we headed to another peak where we could see all three coasts of Korea. There was a lot of haze, but I could definitely make out the ocean in three directions! It was so beautiful there, and the sun was just starting to go down. I took a few pictures, and I'm pretty sure that the gang all sitting on rocks around this small mountain peak could be used to market any number of guidebooks or hiking products. I'll post it when it gets developed!
When we were heading back, we ran into a man who informed us that the police were looking for us.
Shit.
I got worried, but not too worried, because we hadn't really done anything wrong, we'd just been a little rude. But still... maybe the wailin' 'er around and zoom zoom zooming might have looked suspicious, and he might get worried about our cavities...
It turned out to be for nothing, because all there was was a a note tucked under the windshield wiper with a few phone numbers on it, and the name of where we were. So... problem pinesolved!
Then we went to this lookout in the small town nearby and visited this lookout station that looked like a mini space-needle from one side and a ship from a spy kids (starring Antonio Banderas) movie on the other side. We hung out there for about 40 minutes or so, enjoying the view, and then returned to the van to find that we had left the side door open the whole time. Thank God we were in Korea, where no-one steals (except through contractual loopholes).
Then we headed back to Gwangju. I played Dj in the car. I started aggressive and fun, but fell back on calm music because the mood definitely changed when everyone else fell asleep (nearly including Ryan up in the driver's seat a couple times too). I stayed awake the whole time though... I closed my eyes a few times, but I just couldn't fall asleep.
Everyone kind of petered out once we got back, with the exception of Bryce and I, even Lana, who I thought would require a wall made of six foot thick tempered steel to prevent her from reaching a Norae Bang. Bryce and I wound up catching up with Mel Carol and Stu at the Speakeasy. We sat in the new lounge area, which was pretty nice. The bartender up there was super friendly, and very concerned with making sure that the music was right up our alley. The night was good, but not really the vibe we were looking for, so we headed out. Highlights from that time included me being snubbed by a girl I recently met who came over to talk to Bryce, and a random middle-aged woman coming to sit with us who told us to grow a pair when we refused to do shots with her.
We headed out to a tea house and Bryce and the girls got strange float-ish things with neon red pop and fruit chunks layered with ice cream and cornflakes (that's right, cornflakes) and I got ginger tea. Listen up folks, ginger tea is spicy. If it goes down the wrong tube, you may well sneeze out your lung.
After that we headed home. On the way, we walked through Sajik Park, and stopped in at a live club there. It was very small inside. It was all wood inside, which is really rare, and all the tables had old sewing machine bases for legs. We shared a beer and listened to the people sing at the next table, as they passed a terribly out of tune guitar back and forth and all sang old folk songs together, eight or ten of them. It was wonderful, even with the guitar totally out of town. We left there and popped into another one that looked cool, but they were actually closed and we were quickly ushered out.
Then Bed.
Sunday:
Started with an early wake-up, shower and breakfast with Bryce and Lana (they spent the night, I love having a spare room). Unfortunately, Bryce took ill right after breakfast, but luckily Lana was here. I headed out and collected the last of the things that I needed for the big Easter lunch/brunch at Sajik Park that I had planned. I got there at one, figuring that I could get the food prep done and maybe hide some candies for a little easter hunt... but unfortunately there had been a miscommunication and Reo did not arrive to let me in until right at 2. I mean, that was the agreed upon time, but I had thought that the club would be open before then. Anyways, no hunt.
But, at two, everyone started arriving, and I got the food going. The rest is kind of a blur... there was a lot of photography, with Stu, Mel, and I showing off our fancy SLRs, and Carol getting special attention for her camera, a new Nikon D40 that she had just purchased. I cooked crepes, of course, Brooke made an awesome layered strata thing, Jon and Emily brought some home-made banana bread, and others brought... other stuff. Even SoHee, one of the secretaries from Munhwa came, with a friend, and brought some gimbap, mandu and some tempura-looking shrimp. Unfortunately OkYeon was absent from the affair, for reasons unknown.
After the eating, Stu and I picked up some guitars and plucked a few tunes. That petered out after maybe an hour or so, and everyone started heading for the door. It was a really fun afternoon. There was lots of laughing. And lots of good food.
Oh, I forgot to mention the mini motorcycle gang that accomplanied the Provence family because they had misunderstood that this was a concert, not a meal. haha.
Anyways... it was a great weekend.
The downside to all this hanging out is that I always get the blahs after everyone leaves. What a shitty way to finish an entry about a great weekend. oh well... I have a new editorial policy. No more post editing, unless it's a serious mistake.
Hmm... how to end positively... oh yeah, had a good dinner out with Ryan a couple hours ago, I still can't get over how much delicious meat I can eat for $6. And that's an expensive place! You can find places to get the same meal for as little at $3.50!

shazam!

Good times

2007-04-01T00:06:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone!
I just wanted to let you know that I am drunk in a hotel room in Jaenam (or something) at the cherry blossom festival and I am having a wicked time.
I mean, it's kind of like Chiang Mai was in Thailand. You come expecting a lot of new stuff, but then you realize that the night market is basically the same as the day market, except that it's darker. But it's all the same shit, just marked up a little higher because they know the tourists out.
But the city is beautiful and absolutely alive with blossoms on the sidewalks of every street, and the friends I am with mean that no matter what happens, the fact that soju only costs a dollar at the corner store means that good times are never too far away.
ANyways, I should get to bed. It's early, but the ones who were not oout drinking will want an early start.
And since the mood/alcohol level is just right, let me just say that I love everyone and that my life is awesome right now.

Morning after edit: We are in JiNam... I think. I didn't plan the trip, I just showed up and got on a bus. Still feelin' the love though.

Next day edit: I must have still been drunk, because I was actually in Jinhae. That's trouble.

BIKIDO, Live at Provence-ukon, March 10, 2007

2007-03-28T13:09:00.001+09:00

The venue

The Early birds, and the sweet spread.

SeungJong and Ee MeCha

Darren during his solo set

The place starts to fill up

2007-03-28T13:08:00.000+09:00

Me during my solo set

Again.

Some of the gang

SeungJong warming up for his set.

2007-03-28T13:07:00.000+09:00

BIKIDO! In mtaching SHIRTS!

BIKIDO AGAIN!

ME, rocking out. This picture is actually oriented properly, I was just spinning wildly at the time.

The brave few who stuck it out until almost 2:30 when we finally finished.

Now, for actual reviews and such, here's some blogs:
http://vanessainasia.blogspot.com/ - entry for March 13th, 2007
http://canuckinkorea.blogspot.com/2007/03/weekends-in-march.html
http://goulash75.blogspot.com/2007/03/bikido-bikido.html

I had a great time, despite some jitters... thanks to everyone who came out, and thanks to Ee MeCha and the gang at Provence for being such wonderful hosts!

THE STREAK OF AMAZING WEEKENDS CONTINUES!

2007-03-25T22:00:00.000+09:00

So, after the good Saturday afternoon came the birthday party for Mrs Woo's one-year old son on Saturday night.
That was pretty neat. It was funny though that it was in a restaurant of private rooms, and we didn't know how to communicate to the hostesses at the door who we were there to see. haha.
When Mrs Woo finally came down (after I called EunKyeong and was having her relay the situation to the hostess for us) and brought us up to our own room, down the hall from the rest of the party (Us being Ryan, Brooke and I). We ate another meal nearly identical to what I had had for lunch, without the black tofu. After dinner, which was an endless parade of dishes that were constantly replaced after choruses of "OH GOD! I could not eat another bite to save my life!".
Anyways, after that we decided to head downtown and went to a DVD room and watched a Korean movie called "The Art of Fighting". It was entertaining, but quite short of great. The previews (which I had seen last year) really set it up to be more of a comedy, but at best, it was a "dramedy". It was the story of this kid who gets transferred to a technical high school from an academic school, and the school is full of delinquents and gang members, and when they find out he is the son of a police inspector, they take out all their anger on him. Anyways, he meets this random old guy who teaches him how to fight, and he kicks some ass, but it's not as triumphant as it might have been.
Today I got up, and got ready to meet the Provence gang for lunch. I walked, of course, and wound up being the first there, because I was on time. That's just how it works here.
Anyways, Ee MeCha tried to explain the quote on the board to me, but we garbled it so badly... I think it's to the effect of "I don't know why she's so worried..." SeungJong showed up next, and he and Ee MeCha had some pretty serious talking going on about his recent heartache, and I just looked at the art and movie posters.
On the way to the restaurant, unfortunately there were some jokes made that did not translate well... and it made the lunch a little awkward. And shifted my mood slightly for just a little bit, but we all recovered pretty quickly. There's just something about innuendo-based jokes and timing that does not allow for translation. And no, it wasn't me. I know you were thinking it, but it wasn't me this time!
Anyways, lunch was good, it was a vegetarian restaurant that served fake meat, which was better than expected. It was actually the same fake meat that Sedexxho used to serve in the cafeterias in Canada. I got to meet JeongHyeon's girlfriend, who was really nice. She just got back from Australia.
After lunch, Ee MeCha asked me if I would come with them to DamYang to go to the lake and play some guitar. I said, "sure!" because, hey, free roadtrip.
We listened to a Radiohead mix CD on the way there that was mostly from "The Bends", and I was having wicked high school flashbacks, driving through fields with Radiohead on the stereo and lots of commotion in the back seat and guitars in the trunk and an air of expectation...
When we got there, we got the guitars out, and headed out on this really narrow boardwalk. Some guy stopped us and told us that guitars were not allowed, but it was quite obvious that no-one I was with was taking him seriously when SeungJong basically told the guy off and Ee MeCha lied and said that we had no intention of playing them.
So we walked on this boardwalk for about half an hour,and I saw a student, who was pretty shocked to see me with a group of Koreans carrying a couple of guitars. Anyways, we finally got to the place where Ee MeCha wanted to hang out and for us to play... and it was not nearly as isolated as I had imagined. It was the observation platform at the end of the boardwalk, where everyone came to look out on the lake and have snacks.
I had two options, pussy out or giv'er.
I decided to giv'er.
I played for about an hour with SeungJong, even though I felt that it was probably one of the most bizarre situations I have ever been a part of in my life. Here I was, in Korea, on a nature boardwalk, playing guitar to a growing crowd of Koreans in their day-hiking gear, being given bananas by passing hikers and receiving pretty big rounds of applause at the conclusion of every song.
I started laughing in the middle of one song, because it was so bizarre. Then a group of foreigners showed up, and I started to feel really self-conscious for some reason. I am really starting to wonder about the way that seeing other western people makes me feel now...
Anyways, after our little jam session was over, we headed off, I gave an awkward hello to the other foreigners, and we hopped in the car and headed back to Provence.
Ther rest of the night consisted of seeing "300" (great movie), then dinner at TGI Fridays (Jack Daniel's Marinated Ribs and Beer) and then I shopped for some new glasses and black shoes, since my black shoes actually cracked right across the bottom last week (all shoes from Canada have now become unwearable). Then home along the river, and writing in the blog.

Goot times!

Here's me and EeMeCha outside the cafe.
Here's ME!

AWESOME SATURDAY

2007-03-24T15:44:00.000+09:00

So, wow, I am giddy.
I wrote a week or so about this place at Sajik Park. I had my follow-up meeting to my stand-ups/miscommunications today.
I went there at noon, and I met with Kathy (an English Teacher acting as translator) and ReOh, the owner/manager of the membership club.
I brought my guitar, for reasons unknown. I had mentioned playing there, so I wasn't sure if maybe today was an audition or what, so I thought I would be safest to bring it just in case, but it got some looks. haha.
Anyways, it turns out that this place is actually some kind of coop, when you join you have free run of the place, and you can borrow stuff, use stuff, and there's even a kitchen where you can cook for yourself if you leave stuff to replace what you take. ReOh was talking almost immediately about giving me a key to the place, which was unexpectedly trusting.
Anyways, turns out that they do some charity and volunteer work, so it sounds like a really cool group to get involved with. ReOh told me that I would be welcome to join them on movie nights or dinners out anytime.
After we had our litlle "getting to know you" session, he took me out for lunch, to this restaurant that is famous for it's black tofu, which was actually pretty good. Other dishes included raw fish, which I am slowly getting more comfortable with. The lunch was good, and... well, this is hard to say without sounding rude, but I felt bad that I spent so much time talking to Kathy. It's just that she could speak English, so it was easier, and eventually conversations would wander from "tell him that ... please" to "so yeah bla bla bla". She was really nice, and she lived in America for two years, so she was easy to talk to.
I have really good feelings about both of them, and I am getting really excited about the whole thing.
Maybe Gwangju is looking better for another year...
EDIT: I forgot to mention that when ReOh dropped me off he told me in that super-sweet way that only a Korean with limited English can:

"Today I meet you, so... It is happy day!!!"

So long Dragon Pants.

2007-03-21T12:26:00.000+09:00

It's really time that we parted.
We had a good run. You've seen some beautiful things, you've seen some terribly disturbing things, and you have sat wet in suitcase bottoms wrapped in a musty towel.
But let's be honest... You're just very old and worn out. I will always treasure our memories together, but I'm getting tired of hearing tearing every time I reach into the pocket, and worrying about your holes expanding with every wash.
I will always remember you, and I am creating this very special blog post in your loving memory.

Behold their charms!
Small, curious holes.
Large pocket holes.
The tattered waist band. You have seen me through the gain and loss of nearly seventy pounds.

I will always remember you!

THE DRAGON PANTS ARE DEAD!
LONG LIVE DRAGON PANTS!

FLATTERED!

2007-03-21T00:24:00.000+09:00

So, I'm almost caught up on marking... with Bikido, the intensives, and all the other crap I manage to fill my days with, I had become almost three weeks behind on marking. I'm almost caught up now though. Once that is done... updates on the events of the last few weeks.
But for now, just a quick one.
I was invited, today, to attend and play at Provence for their fifth-anniversary. MeCha told me that it was a party for the "Provence Family", which I am really flattered to be included as a part of.
I had my first language exchange with her tonight, and it went just swimmingly.
I think I might actually have a chance of having conversations with Koreans... which is good.

Updates to come soon!

Things I miss

2007-03-19T11:00:00.000+09:00

I was thinking about this a few weeks ago, as my classes were watching Madagascar.
I have not mentioned people, because then I might forget someone, and everyone would get offended, or offended for their friends.
Here it is:
Anonymity: Oh, to blend in again. Of course, I did grow a beard, so I should probably not comment about not being able to blend in.
Stars: You can't really see stars here. This is what inspired the list, when Alex the Lion points out that the star is out, but it turns out to be a helicopter. I miss being able to see a sea of stars, with a misty star backdrop. I try to explain it to my students, but they just don't get it.
Quiet: Korea, land of the morning calm. More like land of the white noise and honking horn.
Live music at parties: I've been doing my part... but I really miss being able to jam with friends on any given party night, or stopping in at someone's house and hearing music being played in a back room somewhere.
Patios: specifically patios with beer and all-day breakfasts. And back-yard varieties that come equipped with a grill. oh yeah.
Variety: I'm starting to find it now, but I would love to have a little more... like, infinite.
Big dogs chasing frisbees
FRISBEES!
Pogos - they have something like it here, but it's not the same. Also road trips to the Riv in Sturgeon.
Poutine - see above
seasonality - eye-brow frosting cold, and an actual change from winter to spring to summer... it all just seems to blend here.
Spring and the emergence of girls in summer clothing - this follows naturally from the previous, of course. With seasonality comes a change in fashions... here, it's the same, pretty much all year, which is not a complaint, but absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say. And there was nothing like that first day sitting in the JDUC Tim Hortons... ah, memories. JOHN! Back me up on this, I'm sounding pervy!
Italian Barbers - Please, won't someone compliment my shoes with a charming accent? Shave my neck?! Oh wait, scratch that one. No, not my neck! augh!
Big red tomatoes - Like dad used to grow beside our house on Morin Street, and bring home sometimes from clients' gardens. All the tomatoes here have a disquieting pinkish-green tinge.
Lakes!!!! - Oh man, I'm not much of a swimmer, but driving by lakes is one of my great joys, to see the light reflected, and the forest on the other side...
Driving - in continuing word association, driving. I miss long distance driving, not nuisance driving like what I have to do to see anyone since my parents moved. Like, driving to Huntsville for a sandwich.
Wild Animals - , oh the stories I have relayed to the kids... my mom's record of confirmed porcupine kills as they tried to eat the undercarriage of her car, almost hitting deer on my bike, bears trying to eat our barbecue, moose staring into our dining room...
The Bike path! - (do you see how this game works yet?!) I miss the bike path. A lot. I miss biking, I miss rollerblading, I miss the ladder in the trees that made me all paranoid that night.
The comedy network - I've been watching a lot less TV lately, but I could easily become addicted to SCTV reruns again.
Used book stores - actually, since making this list, I discovered the library at the international center, and am now reading at length at the most admired/hated of Canadian leaders, Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
Public Parks with Grassy Areas - if it's a park, I should have a grassy place to lie and throw a frisbee long-distances. Case closed.
Open-mic nights - well, there is an open mic night here sometimes. More, I miss playing with high-school friends at open mic nights.
microbreweries - actually, there's one of these here too... maybe I just miss university.
concerts - okay, this one actually does not exist here, often at least... there's the speakeasy, which is great... but I rarely feel like drinking that much.
Running into friends at the grocery store - it's fun to be in the grocery store and see someone from highschool and have a little catch-up session... oh, you're married? Two kids! Wow! Yeah, I've been in Korea... no, South. yeah, it's pretty good.
Garage Sales - Where am I to buy my cheezy Westerns?! I need my pulp fiction fix, and also this record player. and these cross-country skis. That's all though. oh, and this old English text book.
Nature trails - oh flat hiking... sigh
HARVEY'S - I would give my cat's paw for a spiced beef patty grilled on a sesame seed bun.
SWISS CHALET - I love chalet sauce, and given a choice between chalet sauce and water, beer, wine and milk, I choose chalet sauce. For bathing.

FORTUITOUS!

2007-03-15T00:08:00.000+09:00

Here's the latest great tidbit:
I was walking with Ryan, Brooke, Jon, Emily and Tracy the other day... we were downtown having coffee, debating a movie, eating pizza in a cup... the usual thing.
We walked home, and I suggested that we walk through Sajik Park, this park in the center on town on a hill... it's pretty cool (and has been mentioned before in the blog). We were walking by the big central pagoda with an observation tower, and I heard live drumming. So I ran up the stairs to check it out.
When I came up to the third floor, I found a little "Members club", and when I went in, I found a guy playing the drums along with a "teach yourself the drums" tapes. I introduced myself, and decided that it looked like a pretty cool place. I told him that I played guitar, and he invited me to come back and play with him sometime. I said that I would and left...
Last Friday, towards the end of my grade five class, I got a phone call. My phone was on, because I never get calls, so I am usually safe at school. Anyways, I picked it up, and it was a high school English teacher. I forgot to mention, the guy who owned the bar was a high school teacher. He had one of his coworkers call me to arrange a play date! We agreed on Tuesday night, around 10:30, the earliest I could get there after work.
When I went there last night (Tuesday), it was empty. I was a little peeved, but since Sam is recovering from being spayed, I figured that going home was probably not the worst idea anyways. I wasn't too angry, I figured that it had probably just been a communication error.
I went again tonight, because one obvious communication error was mixing up Wednesday and Tuesday nights. I went back and it was once again closed. I was a little pissed, but I figured, hey, let's not freak out, and just head to the observation deck one floor up (I was talking to my jacket). I walked up, and just as I came to the top step, I heard a big boom, and I was just in time to catch the tail end of a fire-works display.
Somehow, everything seems to be working out for me lately, and I love it.

Anyways.. I'm thinking that this would be a really cool place for a party... I'm working on it. Stay tuned for details, and photos of the latest bashes!

2007-02-26T22:52:00.000+09:00

Mr C pouring out some whiskey for Mrs Woo.
Mr C singing "Sweet Caroline"
Christy, Gumi, and EunKyeong
Me doing the obligatory "Ziggy Stardust" cover
Gumi, EunKyeong and Mr Kang.

Welcome party for the new math teacher.

2007-02-26T22:39:00.000+09:00

Friday night was a party after work for a new teacher at the Munhwa Math Hagwon.
We went to the usual restaurant, whose name I can not remember... it was fun. Laurien brought a bottle of whiskey that was split among the staff during the dinner, and made for some interesting faces, it being 40% and all, as opposed to 20% soju.
Dinner was great, and it was followed, as usual, by a Norae bang, where the booze was really given a chance to shine. I was in a bit of a metal mood, which was best satisfied with some hard(ish) rock covers. My singing David Bowie, Muse and Radiohead was simultaneously applauded and resulted in the moving of my songbook to the other end of the table. haha.
Here's some pictures!
Here's the handsome and talented Mr Lee, all-round nice guy who runs the ship with Mr Kang.
Here's Mrs Woo! She has a cute chubby baby!
Here's the old new math teacher and the new new math teacher! He's the one the party's for!
These are the two lovely secretaries that I eat my lunch with every day. I just realized that that'll be stopping come Thursday, and I got a little bit sad...
Here's the old-new math teacher and Mr Moon.

The wine and cheese!

2007-02-26T22:18:00.000+09:00

So, Saturday was the day of my big wine and cheese. I was starting to get nervous, because I was trying to visualize how so many people would fit in my apartment... luckily there was a good combination of furniture rearrangement and people who could not make it.
I hung out with Vanessa for the afternoon, and then came home and started getting everything ready. I was having a few jitters about how it would all turn out.
But I had a good formula: lots of people who are interesting, lots of wine, and good food and music.
Jon and Emily arrived right on time, as did Jeong Hyeon (one of the dudes) and Michael was there already (helped with the set-up), and Ryan followed shortly, but Brooke was absent due to illness. My friend Mallessa came later, and was followed by Lana and Bryce, Stu from Naju, and Laurien. Luckily Brooke let her presence be felt via a veggie tray and dip.
There was a table full of wine and food, and everyone mixed well, or at least I thought so. The reviews have been good so far.
My highlight reel (all things I was involved in, because that's what I remember):
Jeong Hyeon's lethal chinese alcohol that made you drunk before you even drank it. You would seriously just smell the fumes and start to feel dizzy.
My mistakingly thinking that Stu was on a motor bike and accidentally telling him to just "park it down by the trash, there's always room down there", and being told after I got off the phone with him that he was in fact driving a car.
Guitars coming out at around 10:00 or so (details now become fuzzy), moving out into the main room after about half an hour and culminating in a noise complaint from a dishevelled, robed neighbour at 1:30 am.
Wicked flashbacks to Pete's wine and cheese parties in university that also usually ended up with me on guitar and Bryce on a drum.
Stories about church elders at sex museums in Jejudo.
Overhearing "That's why I vote for serial monogamy." come from someone.
Wicked little jams involving Bryce, Stu, Jeong Hyeon, Lana, Mallessa, Laurien and myself involving everything from hand drums to guitars and hand claps.
We shut down the music after the noise complaint, but the party continued until three.
If you read this, and you were there, please add more in the comments section, I'll check and update with your tidbits... I'm too tired to remember any more right now.

Bryce and I.

Bryce, Laurien and Mallessa at the food table.

Lana, Emily and Mallessa.

John, Ryan, Jeong Hyeon and Michael.

Lana and Stu.

More pictures to come in one week's time... they're B&W, and that takes longer to develop, apparently!

2007-02-26T22:17:00.000+09:00

Made Ee Meecha's day!

2007-02-26T22:14:00.000+09:00

So, I just finished telling Ee MeeCha how many foreigners she should expect for the little performance at Cafe Provence on March tenth... she just about jumped out of her skin!
I didn't realize just how many people would be coming until the wine and cheese on Saturday night, when everyone responded in the affirmative that they would be coming. It's starting to look like we might have a crowd or 40 or fifty between Darren and I in this little cafe with a seating capacity of (looking around...) about thirty. So, that'll be fun. She'll have to rearrange some things... but I wanted to let her know, so that she doesn't run out of wine or anything.
She's pretty happy. I think this might be the most people that have ever been in here. haha, awesome.
She's a little bit giddy... when she came over to pick up my cup and dishes she was giggling a little bit. Which makes me really happy. I hope that everyone shows who said that they would!

Here's the ad that's drawing everyone in!

Another test funny.

2007-02-26T22:13:00.000+09:00

Oddly enough, this was the sentence used for the word "lock".

Most of Korean husbands hide the money which their wife doesn't know. I also hide money that my parents don't know. Ha Ha Ha :)

Notice that it does not mention "lock" at all.

So much is happening!

2007-02-26T08:15:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone!
Things are continuing to be great here. I just had another in a long stretch of great weekend, this time in the form of a wine and cheese party that I hosted on Saturday night. Last weekend, Busan... but more on that later. I've just been too busy to properly update.
In the meantime, here's a picture of me in my expensive gift shirt (which I tried to look in the mouth, but I couldn't find it).

test funnies

2007-02-21T22:22:00.000+09:00

"I hate her because she always pretended to be pretty."

"She have stressed very well. because she is depressed."

"The man made me very annoyed. So I hate him but he is my father. I'm frustrated."

"I pretended to cry because my mom will punish my brother."

Sore leg

2007-02-20T00:16:00.001+09:00

My leg is killing me. About two days ago, I got a wicked blister on my left foot.
It all started a few weeks ago when both pairs of my good work shoes crapped out on me. I mean CRAPPED OUT. My good black shoes started hurting the tops of my feet, and by brown shoes, which have holes in the bottom for a long time, wore out in a way that I can feel the hole now (they're like cracks, not actual holes). I think that that is where this blister came from.
So, it's like the size of a quarter, and it's right on the ball of my foot. I was stubborn on Monday night and I actually walked home with it, and that proved to be my undoing. I got home, and my leg was just starting to hurt.
It turns out that walking for forty five minutes on the side of your foot is not good for you.
So now, two days later, my whole leg aches, my blister still hurts like hell, and now my other knee is starting to hurt from the way that I walk.
Oh you can tell by the way I use my walk I'm an injured man...
Brooke suggested that I soak my foot in some salt water, so that's what I did last night... for an hour and a half. It didn't seem to do much. I mean, it felt good, once the water cooled below scalding temperature, but it didn't seem to get rid of my blister. I'll try again tonight. It's kind of nice to soak my feet after a long day... or, at least, my foot, since I have no tub and I have to do it in my big pot.

Hey, anyone want to come over for dinner?!

Michael is back now, too. He's a good house-guest, and I think it's good for Sam to have someone around to give her some attention, since I am so busy. She started meowing early again today... I was sleeping in because I have to take a cab because of my leg, but luckily Michael was there to keep her entertained and she didn't wake me up.
Anyways... I have kids writing stories right now. I can't walk around the class, so they have to yell their questions to me, which is turning out to be easy, since they are all listening to eachothers' questions with a lot of interest. So, I'm just sitting here, I figured it was a good time to write some updates for my blog. So look forward to a day of UPDATES GALORE!

Speaking of updates galore:
I got the first three of the grade nine projects today. That's good. They'll lose marks, but at least I have something to assign marks to now.
I've given these guys pictures to write stories about too. I have high hopes for them.
There are a few really good writers in the class.
I yelled at my first class today. One kid was supposed to give his speech today, and he didn't have it, so I asked him how much time he wasted in the month I had him working on it, and he said "30 minutes." I said thirty minutes wasted or thirty minutes of work? and he said "Work".
One good thing about these kids is that they know enough English to understand that I am disappointed, and it actually seems to resonate with them. And they understand the phrase "You should be ashamed." and it seems to have an effect. We'll see how much tomorrow when he has promised to be finished his speech. I hate to say it to them, but it's honestly what I think sometimes. I mean, he had almost a month, and I know that he wasted it. Of course, his progress marks reflect that, and he knows that.
I'm in grade nine right now, or my "apathy class". They don't do anything. Understandable, I guess. I mean, they're leaving this school in a week or so, I would be pretty unmotivated in what they undoubtedly consider to be their least important class too!
It's frustrating, because their Korean teachers make them memorize, and their foreign teachers actually try to teach them how to speak and create with language, but it's seen as less important, because it doesn't directly link to a TOEFL exam. ugh.

No Grade Nines

2007-02-20T00:15:00.001+09:00

So, I have no grade nines today... and my grade eight attendance is getting a little spotty.
I have no idea why my grade nines are not here today... they were doing really well with their projects, rough copies were finished or started on time, but they were due yesterday, and I don't have a single one yet. It's really pissing me off...
I bought a mixer this week... it's pretty exciting, because it means that I'll be able to set my levels before I go to a performance. Also, I'll be able to control my looped vocals and my normal vocals separately. Luckily, my looper has three channels, so I'll be able to loop the vocals and mix them separately from the looped guitar...
That may not sound so cool, but trust me, it IS!
I had a good grade eight class today. That was good. We talked about the astronaut who was recently arrested. It was fun, and they seemed to enjoy it.
Michael is coming back tonight, and he's going to stay with me for a while. I'm pretty excited, he's a good guy. He's back a few weeks early before his new contract starts.

Anyways... I'm sleepy. Blog updating time is over.

Posts from February 8

2007-02-20T00:14:00.000+09:00

Holy cuteness, Batman!

So I found out what the fight after class was about yesterday.
It is unbelievably cute, actually, I can't believe it.
So, HoHyun apparently pulled aside Puma Man yesterday because he noticed that Puma Man had a big crush on a girl in class. It wasn't a "Back off, she's mine!" type conversation, or anything like that. Apparently Ho Hyun thought that it was important to tell Puma Man that he should back off for the sake of his studies! Puma Man didn't take too kindly to the advice, and that is what started the whole thing.
So then Puma Man writes some insults on Ho Hyun's paper, which, while it wasn't told to me directly, I think were written specifically to show off how funny he could be, because I noticed that his crush spent more time than should be expected...

Anyways, I was told that this was all "very secret", and the story was related to me in hushed tones. So if anyone asks... you don't know anything.

Worn out

I am feeling exceptionally worn out today... and yesterday too. Luckily, I'm in the midst of graduation week, so many kids are having strange schedule mix-ups, and it has meant that today and yesterday I did not have to come to school until 11:10, and tomorrow I don't have to come until 1:40. It's like the random holidays I used to get last year, just on a much much smaller scale!
It's raining today, and only about 7 degrees or so, which is a huge shock to my system after a week of +15 or higher weather with sunshine. I walked to school today, like I do every day, and I arrived feeling terrible. I was cold from the rain, but because of the humidity I had started to sweat... which locked me into this horrible cycle of being cool but sweating anyways... man, it sucked! I felt like a slob when I arrived... but it came after a really awesome morning at home.
I got to bed at around 11:00 or maybe a bit earlier last night. I set the alarm for 8:30, but of course I was up at 7:15, because Sam was outside my door meowing for her morning pat. I patted her and then tried to go back to bed, but she would not allow it, so I played with her for a while, which was great. I haven't had much time for her lately, because I have been working so much.
I also had my pizza last night, which I have been craving since last week... I ate more than half though, which was too much, and I spent the rest of the night sprawled out going "oooooOOOOooooog."
I bet so much pizza is probably playing a role in my being so worn out today. oh well... it was delicious.
I have four more classes today... I was really cranky in my last one yesterday. My body was screaming at me that I should be at home by that point. It did not want to be teaching. Not that I was doing much... I gave them a creative assignment, so i pretty much only did something when they had a question or when I spotted that they had a problem. There was also some yelling... there's a girl who always plays video games on her cell phone. I caught her again last night. She insisted she was using the dictionary in it, and when I told her that most dictionaries don't show explosions and have sound effects, she insisted that I hadn't seen or heard what I thought that I had. I got really angry, because she would not give me her cell phone, and my usual policy is to keep them until the next class.
So, minus 20. Or at least that's what I said. Truth was that she just got a 2/10 participation mark for the day, because aside from playing the game, I didn't see her do too much for her groups assignment.
anyways... venting.
I should go. I need to be NOT angry when the classes start up again.

Grade sixes
So my class that I can't get to do anything...
I gave them the option of homework to help them study tonight, and they ALL jumped on it. I found it pretty hilarious that when I assign it, I get cursed under their breath, but if I give them an option, they are all over it.
Hilarious.
I even pointed it out to them, and they laughed too.
Maybe I'm making some headway here...

The new set-up

2007-02-13T23:23:00.000+09:00

Dude, could this get any more complicated?

I need to get a whole bunch more short cables, because this is a tangled ridiculous mess

Grade sixes

2007-02-08T23:06:00.001+09:00

So my class that I can't get to do anything...
I gave them the option of homework to help them study tonight, and they ALL jumped on it. I found it pretty hilarious that when I assign it, I get cursed under their breath, but if I give them an option, they are all over it.
Hilarious.
I even pointed it out to them, and they laughed too.
Maybe I'm making some headway here...

Worn out

2007-02-08T23:05:00.002+09:00

I am feeling exceptionally worn out today... and yesterday too. Luckily, I'm in the midst of graduation week, so many kids are having strange schedule mix-ups, and it has meant that today and yesterday I did not have to come to school until 11:10, and tomorrow I don't have to come until 1:40. It's like the random holidays I used to get last year, just on a much much smaller scale!
It's raining today, and only about 7 degrees or so, which is a huge shock to my system after a week of +15 or higher weather with sunshine. I walked to school today, like I do every day, and I arrived feeling terrible. I was cold from the rain, but because of the humidity I had started to sweat... which locked me into this horrible cycle of being cool but sweating anyways... man, it sucked! I felt like a slob when I arrived... but it came after a really awesome morning at home.
I got to bed at around 11:00 or maybe a bit earlier last night. I set the alarm for 8:30, but of course I was up at 7:15, because Sam was outside my door meowing for her morning pat. I patted her and then tried to go back to bed, but she would not allow it, so I played with her for a while, which was great. I haven't had much time for her lately, because I have been working so much.
I also had my pizza last night, which I have been craving since last week... I ate more than half though, which was too much, and I spent the rest of the night sprawled out going "oooooOOOOooooog."
I bet so much pizza is probably playing a role in my being so worn out today. oh well... it was delicious.
I have four more classes today... I was really cranky in my last one yesterday. My body was screaming at me that I should be at home by that point. It did not want to be teaching. Not that I was doing much... I gave them a creative assignment, so i pretty much only did something when they had a question or when I spotted that they had a problem. There was also some yelling... there's a girl who always plays video games on her cell phone. I caught her again last night. She insisted she was using the dictionary in it, and when I told her that most dictionaries don't show explosions and have sound effects, she insisted that I hadn't seen or heard what I thought that I had. I got really angry, because she would not give me her cell phone, and my usual policy is to keep them until the next class.
So, minus 20. Or at least that's what I said. Truth was that she just got a 2/10 participation mark for the day, because aside from playing the game, I didn't see her do too much for her groups assignment.
anyways... venting.
I should go. I need to be NOT angry when the classes start up again.

The best reason to fight ever.

2007-02-08T23:05:00.001+09:00

So I found out what the fight after class was about yesterday.
It is unbelievably cute, actually, I can't believe it.
So, HoHyun apparently pulled aside Puma Man yesterday because he noticed that Puma Man had a big crush on a girl in class. It wasn't a "Back off, she's mine!" type conversation, or anything like that. Apparently Ho Hyun thought that it was important to tell Puma Man that he should back off for the sake of his studies! Puma Man didn't take too kindly to the advice, and that is what started the whole thing.
So then Puma Man writes some insults on Ho Hyun's paper, which, while it wasn't told to me directly, I think were written specifically to show off how funny he could be, because I noticed that his crush spent more time than should be expected...

Anyways, I was told that this was all "very secret", and the story was related to me in hushed tones. So if anyone asks... you don't know anything.

FIGHTING!

2007-02-07T22:30:00.001+09:00

It appears to be "Hostility Day" on the Korean calendar... or something.
I can't explain it, but there seems to be a hostility in the air. and this is all before lunch!

First:
After my first and only class this morning (I got to sleep in until 9!) there was a fight that I had to break up. It started in class. The kids play this word game where you change one syllable or add a syllable to a word to change it to another word (syllable rather than letter, because Korean words are written in syllable blocks). Anyways, the kid I call Puma Man turned another kid, Ho Hyun's, name into "tyrannosaurus" in about four steps. The other words I did not know. Luckily, tyrannosaurus is the same in both languages. I thought it was a fun joke between friends, so I didn't say anything.
Oh, new news... I'm writing this in the staff room on lunch, and Mr Kang just came over to tell me that the words were actually a bunch of nicknames that Puma Man had given Ho Hyun based on his appearance, and also included Monkey. This has been going on for some time, apparently, and Ho Hyun told Mr Kang that finally today he could not take anymore.
So anyways, I laughed it off in class, because I figured it was just a joke, and harmless fun, I had no idea that this was going on for a long time (how could I? I don't understand what they say!). But then as they were leaving class, a plastic milk container bounced into the room, apparently off Puma Man's head!
I went out into the hall, just in time to see a roundhouse kick from Ho Hyun to Puma Man's torso! It was brutal! I stepped in between them. Puma Man had no interest in fighting, because I think that he knew that Ho Hyun would kick the shit out of him. haha. Anyways, I was trying to break them apart, which was pretty easy, because Puma Man was backing off, when Ho Hyun came up and gave him a stiff-handed slap across the face!
So I marched them both up to the office and told them to explain the situation to Mr Kang after I told him what I knew... anyways, I was shaking. I haven't had to deal with anything that intense since I was a don.

SECOND:
Harley and I were talking about the schedule changes at the start of lunch when we saw a fight come so close to happening out at the intersection in front of the school. Not much detail there, just weirdness from a distance.

Third:
I went to the little business lunch place where we get free food during intensives, and as I was eating, a group of businessmen came in, and one guy was SERIOUSLY distressed by my presence, and he made that pretty clear by glaring at me and standing with his arms crossed across from me. Like he expected me to leave or something! I've been yelled at by random men here before, and it seemed like was pretty close to going on a tirade about something to do with foreigners... or teachers... or Americans. I love the anti-American rants that get directed at me. Such fun!

Anyways... I'll be hiding in the cafe all afternoon, so hopefully I don't have any more hostility to deal with. Except of course, from students who will get back bad tests today. haha.

It's the weekend, Sam.

2007-02-03T10:53:00.000+09:00

Every morning in the week I get up at 7:15.
Sam has become accustomed to that schedule.
So when I want to sleep in on the weekend, she's very confused, and she voices this confusion by meowing very loudly outside my door.
You know, because a cat doesn't understand that I was out drinking.
Sleep is very important.
so yeah, I guess three and a half hours is enough for a cat...

I'm sleepy.

Cafe Provence

2007-02-03T10:24:00.000+09:00

So, I'm sitting in Cafe Provence right now. I think that this place will really save my sanity during this intensive period.
I just finished marking some stories. I have some planning to do, but I still have another hour before I have to go back to school, so I have lots to time to relax too.
Lee MiCha is playing one of the CDs that I gave her right now. I signed up for this online newspaper... I don't really enjoy it's politics too much, but the arts section is really good. They reviewed this guy, gave him top marks, I watched his video. He's an Irish folk musician. He's quite good. Anyways, it's just really cool that she likes it enough to play it in her shop. Not just for me either, I've come in at other times and heard it playing, times when she would not have been expecting me!
Anyways, a really cool thing happened the other day. She was asking me the other day what authors I liked, and since I haven't been reading much, I was stumped. I didn't feel like saying "Dan Brown", but I really just not been reading much else since my Dan Brown marathon last year.
Anyways... I searched, and I hoped to say something that she would have heard of so maybe we could chat about it. Anyways, I said "Leonard Cohen", because it seemed to fit with the place and her tastes that I knew (I read a book of his poems a few years ago) and, with no word of lie or exaggeration, reached behind her, grabbed the needle on her record player and began to play "The Best of Leonard Cohen", which was already on there.
Anyways... the coffee is good too, thank God! And if you order wine, you get free salami and cheese (and ritz sandwiches, which I am less excited about. haha).

Well, back to the grind... I've got some Friday games to make! Maybe a pizza after work... mmm... Bacon Cheddar Cheese... with garlic dipping sauce!

weddings, movies, work work work

2007-02-03T10:23:00.000+09:00

So, last weekend. Pretty chilled out. Friday, I just relaxed. Literally. Just. I came home, sat around, the cat fell asleep on my belly, and I just vegged out. Teaching eight classes a day is hard work! And it does take it's toll. Finally stumbled into bed.
Saturday I cleaned up. I had planned to go shopping for a wedding present for Gumi with Laurien and Brooke, but when Brooke backed out to do some cleaning (eight classes plus a cold was hitting her too. haha!) I looked around at my apartment, the growing stack of marking, and backed out too. Money is a good gift for newlyweds too!
At five I went downtown to meet a girl that I met at the murder mystery party weeks back. We ran into each other again at the UNESCO Christmas dinner, and got to talking about the film festival and volunteer projects... she seemed cool so we met up for some dinner and chatting. I had been under the impression for weeks that her name was Skippy, because of a novelty name tag that she wore at the Murder Mystery Party. Turns out that it is Mellessa, which I have probably spelled incorrectly. Dinner and hanging out confirmed my earlier suspicions that she was in fact pretty neat.
Anyways, went out for spicy pork and to the dog cafe, and met up with Brooke and Ryan later at my new favourite place in the world "Cafe Provence". We had coffee and wine, and then Mellessa had to leave to catch a bus back to Gwangju. Ryan, Brooke and I stuck around for a while, finished our wine, then went out and found another little wine bar that I had spotted walking downtown earlier.
It was a nice place, but the colour scheme left a lot to be desired. It was like the Easter Bunny's fortress of solitude. All pastels and tiny dioramas of farmhouse rooms... very weird. But, good old jazz was playing and the wine was good. The "party" finished at my place with further libations. It was a great day, just hanging out and gabbing, loving life. haha.
Sunday was Gumi's wedding, which was very interesting. Oh, I forgot! When I was getting ready, Jessie called, and we had a great chat, which was nice. We hadn't talked in a long time. Anyways, the wedding.
I really enjoyed it. It was definitely not a wedding like I would have, but it was definitely an experience to see! When we arrived, Gumi was in a little room with an arched door. In the room, everyone would pass through to take pictures with her in her gown. Her whole family was outside of it, which was really neat. Gumi was beautiful, and it was nice to meet the families of the Korean teachers and see them outside of work. The ceremony was a full of pomp and circumstance. There was a soundtrack to everyone walking down the aisle. Like "INTRODUCING: THE FATHER!!!" and then a huge horn interlude as he walks to the altar area. "INTRODUCING: THE MOTHERS!!!" and then the mothers walk down the aisle in the hanbok. Then "INTRODUCING: THE BRIDE!!!" and then Gumi walks down, with the wedding march playing, and for some reason, bird song.
OH! I forgot the best part! During the processions, the parties are accompanied by these two girls wearing marching band uniforms and carrying swords. Then as Gumi walks down the aisle, they stand at attention half way and slowly cut an arc with their swords that starts when she starts and is completed as she reaches the altar.
I obviously did not understand much of the ceremony, but I was quite entertained by Ms Woo's son sitting in front of me, who has these unbelievably chubby cheeks and was fascinated with my camera, which I was more than happy to entertain him with.
The ceremony ended with a ton of photos with the wedding party, friends and family (and coworkers). Another highlight was constantly trying to snap a photo of my student Hyeong Deok who was apparently in Gumi's family. He's pretty shy, but it was fun. He looks like kids I have seen in old photos of my dad and his childhood friends, so I knew right away that he would be trouble.
After that I just chilled out for a while, and then went out to the movies at this cool theatre that I found. Actually, I was told about it. This is a really old theater that only plays independent and foreign and art films. So, a very cool discovery. I met up with Brooke and Ryan, and we saw that movie "The Science of Sleep", which I have wanted to see ever since I saw previews for it in Canada in the fall. I was super happy when I discovered that it not only played in Korea, but that there was an art film theater!
Anyways, it was a good time, and then we went out for shabu shabu, the perfect ending for pretty much any day. I also shopped for a black sweater, which I have come to require for two important reasons.
1) I have no black sweater. How have I been living?!
2) I've come to realize that a lot of my clothes have retained their pear shape even as I am losing it. It's kind of fun, because I can see my gut in the form of my clothes! hahaha. Anyways, not to make myself sound like an Adonis or anything. Far from it. But I'm feeling pretty good!

This week has been more of the same at work. I'm still frustrated about the projects in most of the classes. They just don't seem to get that when I say they need three pages, that I want three pages! I mean, they've had a month, and I've even cut it down to two pages typed or three pages written, both double spaced! The other class, the one that I cut down to just speeches, not only is not even close to finished, but since I threw down some deadlines, they've just BEGUN! They wrote things every day, I checked! But then they would apparently just throw it out! It's the whole "appearance of work" thing that seems to be everywhere here.
The other classes are all great. I had an awesome surprise yesterday when the schedule changed. I was expecting a new grade six class, and when I opened the door, my favourite grade four class poured in, and they all looked so happy to be back with me! I'm glad they're back too. I couldn't stop smiling, and I almost burst out laughing a few times because I was so happy!
I also headed back to the cafe yesterday for the first time this week... I've just been too busy! Her son was there, and I had my laptop, so we watched some of "The Incredibles" with Korean subtitles before I headed back to work.

Unfortunately... Sam is being terribly neglected in all of this. I've been making a concerted effort to give her a solid half hour of playing every day, on top of the other times I just sit with her. She's so highstrung because she's lonely... I'm going to be happy when the schedule returns to normal, and I think that she will be too!

But, Life is good. I have no complaints right now about my life.

Badabapbah bah! I'm loving it. I can't believe I typed it, but I'll leave it, because it's a good indicator of mood.

Kitten Mystery

2007-01-27T14:26:00.000+09:00

So, I was playing some guitar, sitting on my bed...

Sam was running around, and then all of a sudden, she had disappeared. Well, I gave up on guitar after a while and got up, put it away. I turned around, and saw this.

She's still sleeping under there.

This coffee is merely a medium for communicating Bailey's

2007-01-27T13:41:00.000+09:00

So, it's the weekend. In contrast to the hubbub of the last two weekend, this Saturday has started out rather slowly, and last night was spent (after a great dinner out with Brooke and Laurien) watching Troy with my cat sleeping on my belly.
I wanted to write about my cat. She doesn't scratch, and I can't help but be constantly amused by this. She'll use her claws when playing with toys, but not on me. They are sheathed, and all I get is pads. It's nice. She's a good cat.
Also, she's been really needy lately. I feel bad, because I've been working so much, and she hasn't gotten much attention. Every morning when I walk out of the room, she runs up and immediately and flips onto her back so that I will rub her stomach. If the bathroom is more urgent for me, she'll follow me in and roll on her back in front of me on the floor.
It's pretty endearing, which makes me think that she's a pretty smart cat.

Now, back to my coffee... wink wink

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

2007-01-25T21:49:00.000+09:00

So, I'm realizing that I'm goign through a little bit of a Madonna thing here, where I keep changing my appearance every few weeks. I didn't realize just how much until I started looking at the photos I have taken with the ole webcam since I got here. A little Narcissistic, I know, but hey, that's me. It's not so apparent in these photos... but in four months, I've gone from bearded to clean cut to mop-topped to clean cut and back to bearded.
Here we are, the passage of four months in pictures. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of me fresh off the plane with beard v1.0. It lasted for about two weeks, at which time I started to feel like a slob. I unfortunately thought that it was the beard, when it was in fact my hair, which was also longer than usual, and made me look like a bit of a youth minister, as Jessie described it. Combined with my newfound love of black oxfords, I was truly ready for some preaching and saving.
So here's me immediately following my first haircut in korea. A definite imrpovement over the mop I had been sporting before.
This is me at my most Canadian, in a turtle neck layered with a t-shirt after getting back from a photo walk. Long hair definitely showing that a toque has been worn in the recent past.
I had been planning on letting my hair return to unversity lengths (ie, braids/pony tail length), but I just couldn't handle it. I got the top cut, but left the sideburns, and you can read all about that further down.
The thought of shaving in the summer was starting to freak me out, because razor burn + humid 35 degree weather = ouch, so after the Munhwa vacation, I just stopped shaving. It's been a couple of weeks now, and I've had no negative comments at work about my appearance, so, the beard is a go. Here's the present look.

What's next? Maybe some sweet conical braziers and garters.

In continuing kitten news...

2007-01-24T22:41:00.000+09:00

I swear, as soon as I sit at the desk, she jumps up on my shoulder and starts chasing her tail. Every time!

Best letter of apology ever.

2007-01-23T23:28:00.000+09:00

On Friday, a student, who I call "Puma Man" because of his love of a bright red Puma hoodie, was about twenty-five minutes late for class, which is significant, because the classes are only 45 minutes long. So I told him to write me a letter of apology.

Here's what he wrote, word for word, line by line:

I think I'm a very rude student.
I didn't want to late your class, but I had a test
I have many plans in all day, I'm very busy and I have no time
study for the test. So I decided to absent your class.
but I couldn't because I love your class
It's very funny, interesting of your explaining
Everytime you explain somethings, you explain with acting
I can understand its meaning and feel that you're a good teacher
I've ever met.
I never late your class. I never absent your class.
I'll do the best in your class
You made a nickname 'puma man' to me
I was really amazing. No one (foreign teacher) had a mind on me.
I really appreciate about that
I'm very proud that I'm your student and you're my teacher
We'll not be able to mee after a month
All students will be graduated and leave from Munhwa Academy
I want to make great memory with you until the last time
and I'm really sorry...

So, that was really nice, I was expecting your run of the mill "I'm sorry, I'm ashamed, teacher please forgive me" stuff that is usually written for these things. I had to write it down here, so that I would not forget it.
Interestingly, he was absent today. Even though he said "I never absent your class." Probably something to do with a tense issue. haha.

In other news, here's a cute picture of Sam.

Yet another stellar weekend.

2007-01-21T22:51:00.000+09:00

Saturday: Crazy Busy.
I woke up on Saturday, and started cleaning up. One hting I have noticed about the intensive schedule is that it does not leave a lot of time or energy for home maintenance. So, there's a nice bit of dust and crumbs on the floor, and it needed to be taken care of. Did some laundry, got all my stuff together.
It was Sam's vaccination day, so I wanted to get her to the vet by 11:00 or so. I got there, and I got another speech about how I should get her the very expensive but optional FIP vaccination. Since she's not exposed to other cats, I don't think it's necessary, plus, it's really expensive. Anyways, it was into the humidifier box with her, and off to the vet.
Get back home around 12:00, and hurry to eat some lunch, because I had decided that come hell or high water, I would be going to the orphanage this week, because I have been cancelling going almost every week for four months. Every week, a group of foreign teachers volunteers to hang out with girls at the orphanage for an hour. I didn't realize it was only for an hour. I actually didn't know that it was all girls, either. They were young too. I didn't really do much, just stood around. I was the new guy, and pretty intimidating, I think. We made sock puppets, so at least I have a great souvenir!

I headed to Holly's Coffee after the orphanage gang dispersed, and I actually managed to mark five tests in about an hour and a half, a new record. I think that in the future I will do all of my marking out of the house, where there are fewer distraction. Then I headed to Gimbap Nara for some dinner, and then off to the other coffee shop, Cafe Provence, to meet my new friends before the concert. I gave the mistress a few CDs (Hawksley Workman, Gordon Lightfoot, Fionn Regan and Iron and Wine), and then we headed out.
The concert was an incredible experience. Firstly, as you know, if you read this blog, I don't get out with young Koreans too often, so just that was a great treat. These two guys are really funny. And they're both music nerds too, so we had a lot of fun at the concert.
The concert started with two local acts, who played three songs each. When the stage was being set, the music playing was "Rosanna" by Toto (I think) which was really inappropriate for the style of music. Anyways, these six kids come out (drums, two guitars, keys, bass and vocals), and they look totally high school, and I'm not really expecting much. But I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, it wasn't my favourite music in the world, but it was surprisingly well rehearsed. The best part was the lead guitarist, who looked like a Korean Ziggy Stardust, and wore really tight pants that showcased his chicken legs very well. But he stood with his feet about two feet apart, and only moved once during the whole set. So yeah, what he lacked in talent he definitely made up for in charisma. haha. The vocalist was pretty good. They were all pretty good, but I couldn't stop watching the kid to see if he moved. I started taking notes during their set... let's see if there's anything more to add... nope.
Second local act looks like Limp Bizkit, and they unfortunately try to sound like Limp Bizkit mixed with the worst screaming punk in the world. Rap rock is not my thing, and I found it hard even to get into the instrumentation (which was out of tune).
First headliner is "Newk". They take the stage after more Rosanna over the PA and some "Felt the rains down in Africa". They take the stage and there is instant debate about whether the bassist is a man or a woman. The hair says woman... I make a comment about how the pink shirt really isn't a factor in Korea, the dudes laugh. We go in for a closer look... thin moustache, it's a man. The band is tight, it's funny though, I feel like I'm watching the scene in Wayne's World where they go to an Alice Cooper concert and he's playing "Feed my Frankenstein". The music has the same feel. The singer is amazing, but the overuse of pinch harmonics on the guitar makes me feel like I'm on an 80s metal binge. Which would be cool if that was what I was in the mood for... and if the rest of the music felt like 80s metal. Newk has a girl drummer, and we all comment later about how cool that is... I'm tempted to make a comment about how she could probably bench me, and that that's hot, but then I'd have to explain too much. Oh, language barrier.
The lead singer made a comment about how many children there are, and I looked around... there were maybe 50 or 60 people there, and probably 15 of then were under ten. Then, there's the high school crowd out to see their friends in the openers. There was one girl who was pretty punked out, wearing strategically cut black stockings, but they looked terrible, because her legs were too skinny to pull them tight. It was pretty funny, actually. The rest of the crowd was mostly parents who didn't seem too impressed by the music. There was a dad and a baby in the seat next to me, and the dad was holding the little guy and making little dance moves with his arms, while other kids fought in front of them using glowsticks as light sabers. The band was good, with Tom Cochrane-esque riffing and a Maiden feel to the closer. They play four songs.
Carrie by Toto is piped in as the band leaves the stage. Hilariously inappropriate.
Band 2, otherwise known as "Jekyll" takes the stage looking like a post-apocalyptic nightmare. They have the windtunnel hair, the lead singer is wearing a super frilled out tux that is all black (capri pants) with red and white tips on the lapels and frills. The lead guitarist is wearing what can only be described as hot pants. attached with thin laces to these hot pants are patchwork chaps held together by stitching that runs through shoelace holes. These chaps/leggings are held on so that there is about two inches of exposed bare thigh. Really, it's so hot I can barely stand it. No wait, its just bizarre. And His shirt matches. And the bassist is wearing a tattered half shirt. Apparently in the future you have to assemble your clothes from the scraps that you find on the ground. Man, life's hard when you're an irradiated vampire, I guess.
Me and the dudes decide that now is a good time to take a break.
As they start, the lead singer yells "ARE YOU FUCKING READY?" at the top of his lungs. I can't help but think "Dude, it's Gwangju, and you're playing to high school kids, parents and babies. Is that really necessary?", followed by "Wait, do you even know what that means?" Their first song after we return from our break is Oasis-esque, but I really can't concntrate on anything but the pants. Way too much costume-related effort. At least they didn't seem to sacrifice practice time to go shopping, they sound well rehearsed. But it's still not my thing. During their set, this adorable little boy wearing a black coat tied closed with an orange sash starts dancing around the floor in front of the stage. It's so cute it hurts. The singer ends each song by screaming "THANK YOU!" before anyone has time to realize that the song is over.
They leave the stage, and "Faith" by George Michaels begins to play. Again, not really fitting with the mood of the night.
The third band, "Africa", takes the stage, and they look awesome. They're some forty-somethings, with a young bassist. The lead guitarist just looks like a metal-head, the rhythm player looks like a Korean Slash (Slashee as he is known here) and the drummer is wearing a wife beater that says "The critics loved Moby Dick, but the typesetters hated it". The band looks like how I have seen Crazy Horse in photos. I have a good feeling, so do the dudes, so we get up and head to the stage. When they start playing, I pull out my earplugs, because I can instantly tell that this is a band worth some ear damage. They get some nice blues-rock riffing going, and then this little firecracker of a Korean Janis Joplin walks out, and she starts WAILING! I mean, wailing HARD! She was awesome. They were so good that I didn't write any notes, because I was too busy rocking out stageside. Also, since I really stand out from the other people at the stage (high schoolers and my two twenty-something Korean comrades), I get sung to and vamped to by the singer all set. w00t! They even covered Rock and Roll by Led Zeppelin. And they did it well.
They were awesome. Preview: they were the only band that sold out their CDs that night.
The next band, Syndicate, was by far the most entertaining, but not for their music. They were such a mismash of styles. The rhythm guitar player looked like Paul McCartney circa "Meet the Beatles" had had a baby with Moe from the Three Stooges, and together with the bass player, formed the non-mobile half of the stage. They just stood there and looked bored most of the set, which was too bad, because the rest of the bend was so entertaining. The lead guitarist was wearing super tight acid-wash jeans and a tight black T with the sleeves rolled in. They start a rhythm going, and I instantly think "Judas Priest style metal". Totally unexpected and totally awesome. They're going for a few seconds, but there's no lead singer to be seen, so I'm wondering who'll take the mic. Then BOOM! This guy walks on, stage left, dressed in full Rob Halford gear - leather vest, leather pants, black T, Corey Hart shades and riding gloves - comes out. Problem: he's a 45 year old chubby Korean dude with feathered hair. It was pretty funny. He did a good job, and I was rocking out with them. The lead guitarist was ridiculous with tremolo picking, and it was fun to watch, for sure.
The last band was called "What" and featured the rhythm guitarist from Africa on lead vocals. I liked Africa better, but these guys were alright. I found out later that the Slashee lookalike was actually a retired Korean baseball player who I was told was "a little bit famous".
After the show was over, I took the guys out to see the Jordan Emmans band play at the Speakeasy. They didn't seem to be hurting at all for my having left, so that was good. In fact they were sounding really good. They did Jordan's new song, called "Ice Princess", a break-up song, of course. It's really good. It's like nine minutes or something, and I think it's the best thing he's written. I actually felt a little stalkerish, standing at the back and singing along with everything. haha.
My contacts started to bug me, so I decided to call it a night. Luckily, the guys reminded me of our lunch date the the next day. I would have forgotten to set my alarm, I think.
The next morning I got up and got ready a little early so I could have a stress free visit with the guys and the mistress. I was ready when they called at 11:30, and they were waiting for me on the street when I came out of my building with rice cake ice cream, which was better than I expected.
They took me to a restaurant that had been recommended by a friend. It was really nice, very woodsy, which was fitting, ebcause the translation of the name was "arbor town". They serve "Well Beeng" food, which basically means organic. But it wasn't too expensive, surprisingly. Anyways, we laughed some more, and it was just a really fun time. Mistress brought her son, and he was super cute and fun too.
They invited me back to the cafe afterwards, and I said sure. I had to grab some stuff form my apartment, because I wasn't sure if this was a hanging out invite or a walk with us invite, so I wanted to have some work ready in case I got some free time. It turned out to be a hanging out invite, which was awesome. I helped them open the cafe, and we sat and listened to music. Mistress introduced me to Han Daesoo, who basically sounded like a Korean Tom Waits. (cue me downloading obscene amounts of Tom Waits). Also, I noticed an ad for the movie "Science of Sleep", which I really want to see, so I asked if it was playing in Gwangju, and they told me that yes, it was an ad for the movie playing at a specialty theater that only played art films. So, awesome! All the movies I wanted to see recently, they seem to play at this little theater. So I am le happy.
I noticed an old vinyl copy of Led Zeppelin 4 sitting behind the counter, so I asked if I could see it. It looked like an original Korean pressing! I was in awe of it, honestly! Oddly, it was missing Misty Mountain Hop, so I couldn't help but wonder why that song would have been left off. I know that albums at the time had to pass censors, so I wonder what could have been so objectionable (especially with Stairway on it, considering all the Christian Hysteria in America over the apparent messages on the recording when you play it backwards).
Anyways, next thing I knew I was passed a guitar, and me and the guys were playing Zeppelin riffs back and forth to eachother. It was like high school! I couldn't believe how many of the riffs came back to me so quickly... although it was pretty apparent that I don't play them too often anymore. It was so much fun, but I had to go, because I had an evening jamming appointment with my friend Darren.
I got home, made myself an experimental (and delicious) stirfry with tomatoes, broccoli and tofu, and some sesame oil. mm
Anyways, Darren showed up a couple of hours later and we got down to jamming. The last few times have been unproductive, but fun anyways, more "experimental", now that we both have our loopers set up. Last time we chose some songs, so our mission was to come to this practice with music for eachother.
Holy crap, it was great. I was honestly a little bit giddy. Every time we get together, Darren impresses me a little bit more. We were getting some really good harmonies going (good enough to get excited about, but still needing some practice). We have quite a little set forming, with a lot of harmony, which is really exciting. It seems to be coming a lot more naturally to me now, which I think may be due to the fact that I'm playing a lot more now, and trying out harmonies. Just practice, I guess.

And that was my weekend. Pretty awesome, no?

Then, back to work today, where it was very tiring, but fun. I've won over some of the hard students, which I am really proud of. I rewarded myself with a new pair of work shoes, which I needed desperately. They're a new pair of brogues to replace the ones that I wore through in university. You can't understand how happy I am about leather with strategic holes in it.

Too excited.

Bye!