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!!!!