Mononucleosis

I got mono over Christmas so I sat at home (Ohio) while the family went out to dinner and parties every night. It was a nice welcome back after missing Christmas for the past 3 years...now make that 4 years.



Me and the brothers on my one night out.

Skahty in the Mist

Last weekend I went to Niagara Falls to see a friend and check out the Falls, which I hadn't seen since I was 10. It wasn't how I remembered it at all but I had a good time even though a Denny's omelette cost $15 and a side of pancakes was $8.99.

Her name in English is Dried Seaweed Snowflake.
In Korean its Kim Noon Sung Yi.

Trans-Siberia

I have decided to post my journal of the Tran-Siberian railroad. After reading it I have discovered to my horror that I know nothing of writing in a journal. So take it all with a grain of salt.

At the bottom is a slide show, if you do not want to view it but still want to see pictures just go to the link on the right.

26 Sept. 2007

I am on the train! I woke up at 5:30 and was at the station (right across the street from the hotel) at 6:30 with my water and raman soup to last me for the week.

Just finding my carriage proved to be my first adventure with one conductor pointing left, then another pointing right. I finally found it and am sharing it with 2 Russian girls. One speaks a little English with a very seductive accent and the other not a peep. I do have a little Russian phrasebook to keep us going. Unfortunately Anna Kounikova they are not.

Went to the dining car for lunch where I met two Brits returning home from teaching in Japan. They have become my train friends along with an Aussie.

It took 4 hours at the Chinese/Mongolian border. The Russian girls didn't have proper visas for either country and were promptly led away by police only to return later a little lighter in the pocket.

Earlier in the day one of the Russian girls befriended a Mongolian passenger. Said passenger decided to stop in after we crossed the border (at 2AM). He and the Russian decided to have sex all night in the bed only 2 feet from me. It wasn't a quiet night by any means. I am hoping he gets off (of the train) in Ulan Bator, which is coming up soon.

27 Sept

So far, from what I see Mongolia is brown and flat. At one early morning stop I bought dumplings from a group of women pounding on the train's windows. Not sure what was in them (some sort of meat) but they were ok.


11:04 Right now I am sitting in my bed listening to my Polish neighbors playing guitar and singing. Outside it's mostly brown with small patches of green. Occasionally you can see Mongolian tents (yurt) way out in the distance.


As we pass all the Mongols wave. Ulan Bator looked to be a dismal little city and was happy to be out of there after our twenty minute stop. Wile there I tried to exchange money but the one and only bank was closed while we where at the station. A man was walking around offering to exchange with everyone but I passed since I had no idea what the rate of yuan to tugrik was.



On a positive note, the Russian's lover is gone! No more love sessions in my room! It was quite a teary goodbye for him though.

The train stopped just before sunset. I ran up to the train engine to try and get a photo of it and the setting sun for a nice cheesy memory. As I was lining up the shot a crazed (and possibly drunk) Mongol tried to smack the camera out of my hands! He kept shouting "No!! Go!!" and was trying to hit me. I let fly a few choice words (which he seemed to understand!) and started to chase me. I was able to hop on the train to relative safety where my courage came flowing back and I was able to convey through sign language that I thought he was numero uno. Why me?

23:00 Mongolia/Russia border

I am sitting in my room with the Russians and two Poles who are singing and playing guitar. It is nice but I just want to sleep.

28 Sept

00:00 The most beautiful woman I have ever seen just checked my passport. I think I am in love.


02:00. We just left the border. After sitting for 5 hours we are finally on our way. I am going to sleep.

I thought I was getting rid of the Russians this morning but it turns out all the schedules are on Moscow time (6-7 times zones away) so I didn't get rid of them until this afternoon. After they left an Australian moved in from down the hall. He is a nice 22 year old who is traveling around for 3 months before starting med school.

The big event for today is seeing lake Baikal. It was big and we had perfect weather as well.

Trying to get rubles is turning out to be quite a challenge. You can't get them outside Russia and locating an ATM is harder than finding Jesus' bay's momma. The restaurant car changes money sometimes so we tried there first. The restaurant car changes at every border crossing, so first there was a Chinese car selling Chinese food and cases of beer for $16. Later the Mongol car was selling cases for $30 and finally the Russian car sold beer for $60-100 a case!!

The woman who runs the Russian car is the meanest and rudest person I have ever met. She refused yuan (Chinese money) and threw (literally) US dollars back in Andrew's (the Aussie) face. Everyone I have talked to refuses to eat there because she is such a bitch.

The evening was spent playing cards with the Brits (Andy and Tamera) and Andrew.

29 Sept

Lots of exercise today. Every stop I and a few others would hop off the train (which only stops for 10-20 minutes) looking for an ATM and always failing. On the plus side we were able to see much more than everybody else who just stayed near the train.

I think my diet is getting to me. I have been eating ramon soup for every mean and have not had a movement since Tuesday, it's Saturday now.

Not much to see other than trees, lots and lots of trees. Chatting with the trains other captives breaks up the monotony.

30 Sept

Got into Europe today! Was also able to get some rubles from a more prepared passenger so it's been a great day! Some kind Germans had loads of rubles and were very willing to trade my yuan for them. I was able to feast on something other than ramon which included a sugared pastry and a fatty sausage that a Chinese girl picked out for me.

I hung out in the Poles room a lot today. They sang and sang. Jan (said Yan), the English speaker has been incredibly helpful and is always telling us where we are and what happened in the cities we passed through. Today he gave Andrew and I "Poland" hats. He is good people.

This evening the Chinese girl and her friend stopped by to chat. It was quite a struggle to communicate at first, but it was fun and lasted for hours.

At one stop a Japanese passenger decided to entertain us by playing an air organ(??) on the train platform. It was great and a few of us....er, well...me, danced along. Everyone seems to be having a great time on the trip.

1 Oct

Got into Moscow and flew to Vienna where I took a train to Czech Republic and got hit on by a gay villager.



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

pictures pictures pictures

Here are all the pictures from China. If you want to know a few details about where each is from you have to go to the PICTURES link and see. I will post the Trans-Siberian ones later this week.




Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Back in Europe

I am sitting in a coffee shop just down the road from my grandma's house and I feel like I am back in Eastern Europe. It is filled with Lithuanians (I think) playing dominoes. One guy is getting really upset because they aren't including him into any games...or maybe it is "Tom" who is quite annoying while on the phone and talks a bit to loud to his coffee partner. I don't think the rest of us need to know that he is a big believer of "fate and whatnot."

I really liked that I could go someplace and not understand a word anyone is saying. If I could get Tom out of here it would be perfect, other than not being able to get my phone online.

Looking around I just noticed that what I thought was a guy is really a girl. I never had that problem before I got here (other than the transvestite in Czech).

I gained 10 pounds (5 kg) in the past week. I have even been trying to eat light, but alas, if I am to stay in this country I am bound to be fat(ter). I went out with a friend and she mentioned traveling around South America. That would be great but she doesn't have a dime to her name and won't be getting a job anytime soon. I need somebody rich to travel around with.

I think there will be an untimely death on Gladys Ave soon. Not sure whose, probably mine, I think I get on Grandma's nerves a bit.

I posted some China pics!

Home

I am finally back in the USA.

After another week in Czech I headed to London to see an old roommate and drink some fine beer. I was only there 2 nights and one full day but I got in a lot. I went with Dave (of Korea and Czech fame) to sightsee and go to the National Maritime Museum where I really wanted to see the Longitude Clocks. I was as giddy as a school boy when I saw them and didn't care about the rude Koreans pushing ahead of Dave. Actually, that last bit isn't true at all. I wanted to yell "waygook-in!!" (foreigner) at them and point and say "an-yong" (hello) like they (or at least some of their fellow countrymen) have done to me countless times.

I have to thank Potter and his future bride's brother's future bride for putting me up for the two nights.

After that I went on to Toronto to see my friend Kim Noon Sung Yi (translated it means "Dried Seaweed Snowflake) who I met in Korea. After traveling through 7 countries in 2 months, Canada was the only place to give me a hard time getting in.

I was sent to a special desk where I was quized about where I was staying (a hotel, just didn't know which one), who I was meeting (Seaweed girl), her phone number (didn't know), her birthday (didn't know), and lots of other things. The officer didn't seem to like any of my answers and had me sit and wait for 30 minutes before deciding I was mostly harmless. Yay Canada!

I had a great time in Toronto and Noon was a great hostess. She showed me all around and even took me to see the Lord's Cup. She is one of the few people in Korea (or at least met in Korea) that I will really miss.



I promise I will post loads of pictures soon. I am just waiting on my computer being shipped to me.

Duff

Sorry for my lack of writing, just don't feel comfortable doing it in a internet cafe. I have received some complaints about my lousy Chinese coverage so I will rectify that in 2 weeks when I get on my own computer and can upload my pictures.

Czech has been great. Seems that I have consumed more liquid in the past two weeks then I have in the past year. Went to one bar on Friday that has individual taps at each table and keeps track of how much the table drinks. It then shows up on a large screen so all the tables are competing with each other. Even though there were only 5 of us and were competing against tabls of 8-10 people we held our own and stayed in 2nd place most of the night (we started after one large table, otherwise we would have been in first) before we all reached our limit. Whoever thought of this was a genius.

Went on a pub crawl the day before going to many of the former pit-stops one takes whilist being an English teacher in Brno.

Other than speanding my time in pubs I walk around town trying to decide if this is the place for me again, at this point I am leaning the way of the no. We'll see what happens though.

I was planning on posting everything I wrote in my little journal but then thought how you'd all lose interest after day 2, so instead I am putting up my last day which is more than enough.

October 01, 2007

I am sitting in the Breclev train station located on the Czech/Austrian border enjoying my first Gambrinus beer in over a year.

I got into Moscow at 14:15 local time and after a few quick goodbyes I set out looking for a taxi to take me to the airport. Finding one was much more difficult than it should have been but after awhile I was approached by a young Asian boy pointing to his beat-up old Lada (a Soviet era relic) that had a taxi sign precariously placed on the hood. After some haggling over the price (wanted me to pay $100 for the 40 km ride)I hopped in and noticed that the driver took the taxi sign off of his car. He went flying through traffic just ignoring most signals and signs and all the while trying to show me how well he could write in English much to my dismay. He did alright spelling "Texac" but considering "C"="S" in Cyrillic he didn't do so bad, and he also managed to avoid the many cars everywhere. Ulan (the driver) was good company but all I wanted to do was look out the window for my whirlwind tour of Moscow.

At one point he warned that we may get pulled over so I was to lie to the police and say that he was my friend. It turns out he was an illegal taxi and could get huge fines if caught. Lucky for both of us there were worse drivers for the police to worry about.

Sitting in the bar now I have realized some of the similarities between Czech and Korea; House is on TV, three very drunk middle aged men are sitting in the bar, touching more than is appropriate for hetrosexual males, and all are going to drive home soon. Also, the bar is bleak, all just like Korea.

I need a shower. Washing in a dirty train bathroom using only a coffee mug to rinse with for 6 days leaves one quite rank. I am tired, dirty, and in need of a bed that isn't rocking back and forth (from the train, not the Russian girl that was having sex next to me in my cabin my first night on the train). I will miss not having the Polish singers next door though.

At the warning track

I don't leave Korea for a few more days but it is going to get pretty crazy here soon so I am doing the so long post now.

I am not really sure about Korea at the moment. I haven't had any truly bad experiences and my school treated me great. So I guess all in all it was positive.

I will try to update while I am in China but I heard it doesn't place nice with this site's provider.

We'll see.

UPDATE: added pictures to the post below

It has been an eventful past couple of weeks.

Camp was camp, nothing special happened but it's over now and I start "teaching" at the high school for 1 more week starting Monday.

What is it with weirdos moving to Korea to teach (keep your jokes to yourself)? I went to my beach last week and while taking a dip an Australian joined me. He quickly started in on tall tales and about all this money he is going to be making. Also told me about all the schools that have fired him. Almost like it was some sort of accomplishment. I quickly tried to get away from him.

Busan is a city of 4 million people. I went to a different beach today and who do I see? Crazy Australian! I quickly found something very interesting to look at so as to hide my "handsome face" (that is what 2 middle school girls told me today on the subway).

The differences in the beaches is amazing. My beach has no one on it except old women, while the beach I was on today was packed to the gills with people. It is a tough choice as to which is better; a beach with tons of people, many of those Korean girls in bikinis, or an empty beach that is incredibly beautiful.



Went to a Busan baseball game with one of the teachers from the camp last Friday. It was a great game and we sat in the cheering section. Was we were shuffling between people to get to our seats Koreans were giving us high-fives. One man behind us gave me some warm beer and dried squid that I kindly forced down my gullet. He was a nice guy but a bit drunk. He wanted my number and sent me the message "I love you" (foreshadow!!!!!). Oh crap! He just called while I writing this!! Something magical is in the air.

We were the only foreigners in the area and the cameraman noticed this. We ended on the Jumbo-tron numerous times but it wasn't until I put my rally-cap (orange plastic bag filled with air) on that he singled me out and put just me on the screen. I gave a beauty queen wave which got a few cheers (jeers?) from the crowd. Soon after I got a message on my phone from a friend who recognized me. Seriousl, this is a huge city, why am I seeing people I know all the time?

I headed to Seoul the following day to see a friend that was visiting from the States. She is a Canadian-Bulgar living in Moscow, Idaho. We met up with others and at one pointed ended up in a gay-bar. I was told by many Koreans that there are no gay Koreans. I have to disagree with them. Just walking to the bathroom I had numerous guys grabbing my hands trying to drag me onto the dance floor. Well, at least the Korean guys like me *sigh*.

This is what I saw getting off the train in Seoul.


And this is what I heard outside...



I only have 7 days left of Korea. I will then go on a long trek around China. Not sure how long I will be gone, I am thinking 5-6 weeks but I might go crazy since I am doing it alone and cut it short. I hope that won't happen though. I will try to update while I am there, but don't count on much, I have heard that this site is a bit screwy in Chinaland.

This ferris wheel just dropped a car killing 5 people. I can see it out my window. Was going to go on it the other day but didn't have money. Now I think I'll pass.

Last Wednesday, after camp, I went out with another teacher to grab some food and a beer or two. We had a real nice dinner and then went searching for a bar with some atmosphere. We didn't have any luck and just popped into the next one we saw. As we walked in all we saw were attractive young girls putting on makeup. One of them guided us to the bar were we had a choice between $5 beer and $150 bottles of whiskey. We chose the beer and then the girl served us and just sat across from us staring. It took me a few minutes to realize that we were at a room salon. This is a place where you pay girls to talk to you, and if you reach an agreement maybe something else in another room. Our girl didn't speak any English and took off as soon as I paid but another one tried to get us to stay. Se told me I was handsome but didn't even acknowledge my friend (maybe I looked desperate). Anyway we finally squirmed out with our money in our pockets and STD free.

Friday we went out to one of the big beaches where we met up with my friend Steve. We were all a bit disappointed that there weren't any outdoor bars along the strip of beach so decided to just do a pub crawl. At one bar they told us they didn't have any seats in the nice area but led us up some stairs to a gigantic roof patio! It was great with a nice sea breeze and a beautiful view (I'll take pictures when I go back next week). The tables had built in refrigerators to keep our crap Korean beer nice and cold. I thought I had gone to heaven. That was the second time I have been here that I completely forgot that I was in Korea.

Went to a different beach on Sunday which was huge but only had a tiny area for swimming. There were very few people do to the overcast weather but the lifeguards were ruling with iron fists. It started to drizzle so they ordered everyone out of the water (I guess so they wouldn't get wet). I have yet to see any Korean go into the water any deeper than their thighs (my knees) but even then the lifeguards are blowing their whistles yelling for people to come closer to shore. The picture below is a typical beach scene.Notice how far out everyone isn't in the water.
Below are just some random pictures I took this week.








I see this old woman all over my island collecting cardboard boxes for recycling. She is maybe 4 feet 6 inches tall and 80+ years old but is always working so hard.

Below are some signs around town.

A busy one

This past week was my first full week of camp. It keeps me busy but isn't too difficult. The kids are great and there English is much better than my high school students.

I had to make a run to Seoul on Wednesday to visit the US Embassy and get some more pages put into my passport. I will be getting visas for China, Russia, and Vietnam this month and they were going to take up a lot of pages that I didn't have. As I was exiting the embassy I saw this man and hundreds of police.

After that I went and visited a nearby palace where the King of Korea lived. It was nice but I think most of it was built very recently. Tons of people at the entrance, but none of them seemed to want to go farther in, which was fine by me as I pretty much had the grounds to myself. There are pictures of it on my Flickr account, just go to the Pictures link on the right.

I saw these ladies walking down the street. Koreans love to preach the Word.



Friday night was spent with the teachers and the boss. He took us to some interesting restaurants and bars. I didn't have my camera but I will find some pics and post them later. He took us to one club that was in a hotel ballroom. This place was huge but security and staff outnumbered customers 2/1. There was a huge stage and when we got there a man and woman started dancing all sexy like. They started taking off their clothes and stopped when they got down to their skivvies.

After they finished a huge rock/techno band started playing. They all wore matching clothes and one even had a keytar. Maybe they were good, I don't remember.

Less than a month till I am outta Korea!!!!

Nothing Doing

It has been a slow week. English camp started Friday and I found out Thursday that I was going to be teaching math and Friday they changed it to social studies. It is more of vocabulary building than anything else but the kids are smart and nice for the most part.

Went to an ex-pat bar with one of the camp teachers who is from Vermont. We met an Englishman and an Irishman who were in town for business. The Irish guy bought many rounds and gave me his daughter's email address.

Other than that it has been boring here so I will post some pics I got from here showing Korean protesters. Koreans love to protest and there must be a nice little industry for printing up headbands and sashes with slogans on them.

This first picture is of a cattle farmer throwing cow dung on American beef that has just been allowed back in the US after a long hiatus following a mad cow scare a few years back. All Koreans seem to think that the US is packed with mad cow.


Next are protesters with dog heads.


This guy is upset that the Koreans lost to the Swiss in the World Cup. FIFA (soccer's governing body) even had to block Korea from accessing it's website because of all the trouble they were creating (they were upset with a couple refereeing decisions, the referee was right).


These guys are about to cutoff their fingers.


Prostitutes upset that their trade had been made illegal. Of course their are brothels on almost every street corner, but Korea has a huge don't ask policy for many of its laws.


Also, if I ever get arrested I hope it's in the Philippines...

The Longest Journey

This weekend I headed up to Seoul to see friends and help celebrate a birthday. I left at 12:50pm from Busan taking the slow train to Seoul. I was to meet everyone at Songnai subway station at 7ish. I picked up a subway map from the Tourist office and headed to the only Seongnai station I could find.

While riding a nice ajumma (old woman) invited me to sit next to her in the old people/pregnant lady section. She was very nice and kept telling me I need to study Korean by reading the newspaper (at least this is what I think she was saying). When she found out where I was going she announced it to the rest of the car and must have assumed I was lost and couldn't read a map (foreshadow!!!) Everyone stared.

After an hour on the subway I finally got there and saw no one.


My phone broke recently but I have been able to receive calls, just not dial out. So I waited at the station for over an hour for Steve to call. Finally, after not getting a call I tracked his number down, got in touch, and eventually figured out that I was at Seongnai station, and should have been at Songnai station. I looked at my map again and surprise surprise! No Songnai to be found. They never updated the maps since the last expansion of the tracks. Also, it was an easy mistake. The Romanization of Korean is tricky at best. I live in Busan, but half of the signs say Pusan. I live on the island of Youngdo (or Yeoungdo, or Yongdo) and Steve lives in Yeosu (or Yosu). So I am not that stupid and I wasn't the only one to make the exact same mistake that evening.

So, at 10ish pm I finally meet up with everyone (that is almost 10 hours of traveling) which could have been done in 3ish if I took the fast train and was more knowledgeable of the Seoul subway system.

We had good food and bad beer.


After we went to a noraebang called "Bat Man".


The next day was spent in "China Town" but it seemed to me too look just like "Korea Town". We did get some Chinese food though which was tasty.

The evening was spent eating meat and watching the Korean vs. Iran soccer game on TV. Korea won.

White Water Madness

I returned to Korea full of energy and ready to finish my two remaining weeks before our 5 week break. I got back on Tuesday and was told that we only had four days till the break. Seems that they changed the schedule but never bothered to tell me. Of course if they did tell me I would have stayed in the US for a few more weeks instead of sitting around Korea doing nothing...

Well, I guess that is not entirely true. I was also told that the teachers and staff were all going on an overnight trip. We were to go rafting on Monday then stay overnight somewhere and head home Tuesday. Wow! I had never rafted until 2 weeks prior, now I had the chance to do it again.

After 4 days of watching "Titanic"(a horror movie for my soon to be seafaring students) with the students I had 2 days relaxation before the big trip. On Monday we all piled into buses and headed out to the river. It took forever to get there since we seemed to have stopped at every rest-stop there was. I am not sure by what standard the restaurants were chosen but they sure as hell didn't consult me.


We stopped off at a zoo type place for a nice walk around. It made me sad to see the animals, they looked quite depressed and one ostrich looked like it was on its last leg.


We finally made it to the river where I was promptly given proof that the Koreans would suck every bit of fun to be had out of this trip. We all had to line up and do stretches which I stayed away from...lots of bounce stretches and hand clapping. We were then instructed for 15 minutes on how to properly put on a life vest and helmet. Our guide seemed desperate for me to have my helmet snapped in place during our kilometer walk to the river.


After playing some "let's get the rafters wet" games we crammed into the rafts. We had to fit 10 people plus guide into each raft. They were no bigger than what we had 6 people in when we went rafting in Pennsylvania a couple weeks ago. Not much room to move and then having to strap our feet down (so we don't go flying overboard) left us all nice and cramped. Because of the lack of room, we all had to paddle in unison "Ching chong due qua!" (Er..."one two three four!") I don't think anybody got it right.

I will admit that we did have fun and the guides were good people. At one point they piled up all the rafts and made a sort of waterslide for us. As with all of Korea, there is a dirty underbelly to this. We are covered with safety gear from head to toe, but while doing the waterslide (where the slidee couldn't see the slided until it was too late) everyone was landing on each other. I almost destroyed one man but somehow Cirque du Soleil'd my way over him much to the delight of my co-workers.

At one point I was nominated to be "Jack" and to hold "Rose" as she flung her arms out Christ like to a catchy tune by Celine Dion. I was so sick of "Rose" by then (having watched "Titanic" 12 times the week prior) that she was soon laying face-down in the murky river and I was soon to join her thanks to my shipmates.

After rafting we went to a Jimjaebang (sp?) which is just a spa of sorts (no, not that kind of spa, think pubic* baths). We all took a group shower (separated by sex) in which I noticed quite a few of the Korean teachers sneaking a peek (maybe to see if the rumors are true...they are). I could go on, but as this is a family site I will refrain.

We later headed to our dwellings for the night (a few little one room houses) and had some grilled pork and a whole lot of booze. Many of the teachers began signing songs and after much begging, got me to sing a few lines of "Piano Man". I wasn't in the right mindset to remember much more than that. Around 2AM I searched for a free place in one of the houses to no avail so I stole a blanket and plopped down under one of the covered outdoor tables. I woke at 5 covered in mosquito bites and went for a walk before stealing another early riser's sleeping spot inside one of the little houses to grab a little bug-free shut-eye.



All in all, a good trip and I am glad I went.


Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.


*Oops! Freudian slip!!

Wedding II

Sorry for the delay, but most of you who read this saw me in person anyway. For those that didn't, I was in the US (Ohio to be more precise) for the past 2 weeks. I am now back in Korea doing the work thing.

I went to Ohio for my brother's wedding and left a few days early to surprise him and make it to the bachelor party. It was also my fist time to meet his (then) bride to be. She is a good catch. My first meal back (not counting the Philly cheese steak I had at the airport) was Danny Boy's pizza and it was amazing. 3 days later I gained 10 pounds.



After that I saw lots of family and ate tons of food, went to an Indians game and to the Smith Family cottage ("The Barn"), went rafting for the bachelor party and to an amazing theatre for the wedding reception. The church that they got married in was the same one my grandparents were married in in 1941. It was also the same church that the Bride's father was once a priest.

I am posting lots of pics and have linked to my brother's site if you are so inclined to see what happened.

Wedding

I completely forgot that I went to a wedding last weekend.

It was for a fellow teacher and it wasn't what I thought it was going to be. It was a normal Christian wedding and there was no reception (at least I wasn't invited) afterwards. It is a custom to bring money for the coupe so I gave 30,000 won in an envelope and was given 10,000 back in another envelope.

The wedding was very relaxed, people talking throughout and others wearing t-shirts. One interesting thing that did happen was many of the church youth gathered round the couple and sang some songs. Maybe I can get my brother's students to do that for his wedding soon.

No pictures yet (waiting for a teacher to send me some) so enjoy this shirt that I saw for sale in the subway.

Last week my friend Dave came to visit. It was a typical weekend of eating and drinking. On Saturday we went to a little restaurant that had tables out in an alley with scooters zipping by. Dave brought his tiny yet very cute Korean friend with him. Turns out she lives in Busan but Dave never thought to mention her to me. Oh well, she is gone now (thanks Dave). The restaurant seemed to like us and gave us some free beef. It was just a plate with cooked ground beef. I have to admit it was tasty and they secured return business. Afterwards Dave and I went to the bar "Cowboys" to have a few beers before we headed in for the night.

As we were drinking a drunk Korean guy walks up and asks if we are Americans, I said we were Czech in hopes that he would leave us alone since he didn't speak English (except for a few basic words) and I was pretty sure he didn't know any Czech. Unfortunately this didn't deter him and he kept saying either "your gay" or "ok" again and again. He would leave then come back and at one point brought over a plate of half eaten food and picked some up with his bare hands and tried to feed me. The manager finally had to drag him away.

After a while he returned and was even more annoying and at one point he somewhat slapped me. I started to push him away and say goodbye but this pissed him off a bit and he through a shoulder into my back (we were sitting at the bar so our chairs were high). During this Dave and I were both staring down the manager to get this guy away from us. Finally the manager came and kicked the guy out.

Koreans are like most people and when the guys get a few drinks in them they get very in your face and feel the need to prove themselves. I have had a few drunk Korean men stare me down, or at least try to, and it is more comical than anything else. They are so cute and tiny, like little elves (I kid!!).

On the opposite side of things, more teachers are finding out that I am not coming back after the semester and they really seem disappointed. In fact, they are angry at my co-teacher because they think it is her fault for not getting me to stay. Everyone at the school has been so nice to me and they have done nothing but help and try including me in everything. As I got back from one class on Friday I had a giant box of tomatoes sitting on my desk. Turns out some of the parents got them for all of the teachers. It was only a coincidence that it was the last class before finals.


This next week I will sit around and do absolutely nothing all day. During the testing I have no job but have to be at the scool so I will spend all my time reading or sleeping in the rest room. The great thing is that on Saturday I will be going to the USA for my brother's wedding. Huzzah!!

I will miss the school.

push the little pink button.

Yeah, that's the ticket!

While at the Lotteria (Korea's McDonald's) on Thursday I ran into a fellow foreigner. There are very few on my island and he is the first non-Russian I have seen here. I got a little excited and made plans to meet with him and a friend of his on Friday night. He was a short fat man with no chin and a lot of stubble. He seemed like a nice talkative guy and would make for a good night out.

I met up with him and he started telling me about his friend who has been here for a couple months and was a great story teller. I am all excited for a good night of some light dialog and crappy beer. As I am talking to the guy a hand pops out through the plants behind the booth. This hand precedes to give "bunny ears" to my booth-mate for 2 minutes thinking it's the bee's knees. The bunny ear maker then sits and starts shouting in a horribly fake Australian accent (he obviously doesn't know about the rule where only I can make obnoxiously bad attempts at accents).

This guy (the one making the bunny ears) looks like he is in his 50s but the way he was acting and from what I gathered throughout the evening he is only in his mid-twenties. I thought he was gay but it turns out he only worked in a gay bar. He was married once to a stripper that died but he only married her because his parents wouldn't let him marry the German girl that he'd met through the Internet (who is also now dead). He talked about how his girlfriend got a restraining order against him and how he is so poor and medically challenged but was supposed to be a Marine sniper. I heard about how he picked up a woman and her 14 year old daughter on the side of the street and let them live with him. Turns out the daughter was pregnant and the woman later became his "medicine woman". He sold candy in school and became so rich he paid $3000 (CASH!!) for his first car. He also mentioned politics and a few other things.

It wasn't so much that he talked a lot, it was that he was the worst storyteller I have ever heard (even worse than me!). Most of what he said was BS, much of his story telling mirrored John Luvitz' style. All of his political rants and anything about history (he is a history buff) were blatantly based on crap mass emails that have made the rounds over the years. I found myself going to the bathroom just so I could get away from it all. I had a beer mug planted to my mouth so I would either get drunk quickly in hopes that his blathering would make sense or I would quickly pass out. Neither happened.

A tad under dressed

I am definitely not one to judge if some one is ever under dressed but a teacher just walked by me wearing a "Psycho Bitch" t-shirt. She saw me looking at it and ran. I diligently looked up the word bitch in a handy "swears of the world" website and tried to write it down in Hangul (Korean) for her. Now they are passing the note around to everyone and laughing. Glad to be of service.

sniffles

I was expecting on writing about what a great time I had at the Netherlands Korea soccer game but it is not to be. I have been looking forward to this day for at least and what happens? I get sick the day before. I spent all last night coughing and my throat is raw and nasty. The friends are all still going to the game so I hope it is a good one. I also hope that they will broadcast it on TV, but since I get the Singapore sports channel and not the Korean one I somehow doubt I will see it. Sorry for this weeks post being so lame. Maybe something exciting will happen during the week that I can write about...or not.

More ball

UPDATE: Added pictures to flickr, click link on right.

After a short 3 day week I headed up to Seoul to meet with Dave and Steve to catch some baseball games and knockout a few stadiums on the list. Unfortunately there was a down pour on Thursday so the game was a wash. So instead Dave brought us to a great restaurant for some galbi (rib meat minus the rib) and later to a nice pub where we met one of his Aussie friends (who is much better than his other Aussie friends).

The next day was beautiful and we spent a large part of it sitting outside of a decidedly non-Korean type bar and had a few Guinness to pass the time as we waited for the ball game. We all sat there reminiscing about the great times we had at outdoor pubs in Czech. To ad a bit of surreality to the experience, a group of Russian women turned up to give it an even more Eastern European feel. Spasiba(sp?) ladies!

After spending ages on the subway we made it to Incheon where the game was being played. We bought our $2 tickets and $8 bags of chicken and took one of the rows with tables in front. The game was exciting, lots of fans there cheering on their team and lots of beer a very short walk from out table. At one point in the game all the home fans pulled out sparklers for some reason. I was given one as it was on its last leg but I was happy nonetheless.

On Saturday Dave had to work so we parted ways and Steve and I headed off to an old prison that the Japanese used to hold Korean "heroes"(not Hiro, who is Japanese). It seemed more about hate mongering than anything else (our guide even pointed out some turncoat Koreans and told us how she hates them) and it even gave us the opportunity to try out being tortured. I got inside one cell that I couldn't stand upright in (I ain't Asian) and the guide locked me in (wasn't happy about that). You could also stick your head into a display that was supposed to show your face on the body of a Korean being electrocuted. Nice. After the Japanese were kind enough to leave Korea the Koreans used the prison for non-hero Koreans until 1989 (hopefully with less torture).

Steve and I hoped onto the subway for a long journey to Suwon (a Seoul suburb)to another game. We got on the wrong one watch and went a bit out of the way but finally got there.

Somehow we got seated with the visiting fans but still had a good time. Nobody gave me a sparkler though.