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...
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.
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.
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.
