Cruisin to Busan part two son

Alcoholism to the extreme!!!

Its 4 o'clock ( not really but this is where my mis-adventure starts) and I just got off work. Other good news aside from school ending at 4 from now on, is that I have a day off tommorow (applause). So I decided to head to Busan to do a lil mosien' around. So I grab a bus and a subway and a hour and a half later I arrive in Busan around 6 o'clock.

They have these huge cartoon bottles of 'soju' walking around with people inside of them handing out alcohol all over the streets. I even saw a mother hand a lil' bottle to their child, it really warmed my heart. Once that little bottle entered the kids hand it set that childs life on a path of alcoholism, and that people is something you dont witness everyday.

So after I brushed that out of my mind I checked out some fake Nike's that they sell on the street, but who would of thought I have the biggest feet in Korea and they didn't have my size. I wasnt even thinking, I pretty much came to Korea in the first place just to buy fake shoes on the street, but I didnt take into consideration that they have never heard of the size "twelve" before. Its ok I will live and have to find other sweatshop products to buy for even cheaper than the market sells them for.

So this bummed me out a little so I decided to walk down some random alleys lookin' for a bite to eat. Welly welly well, I stumbled upon a little fashion district, every store had cool retro clothes or the latest trend. I walked into this vintage store and started talking to the owner, this 26 year old named Kim, who spoke pretty good english and the conversation was good. The store having only clothes to small for my rugged Canadian body didnt work out, but Kim was a really cool guy, I asked him if he wanted to go for some maekchu's (beers) later and I said I would be back around 10.

Lou & Kim- new best friends

So I go to the shop next door and find some cool tie's and chat with the owner this 24 year old named Syon, pronounced "Shaun,Sean,Shawn", whose girlfriend was actually in Toronto studying English. This guy wanted me to teach him english and maybe go to this bar calle OL 55 where foreigners hang out. I told him I had already met another man and I am sorry even though he was really charming. No, the thing was that their stores close late and the subway stops running at 11ish and I couldnt get home in time for school the next day. So unfortunately he's out of luck since I will be heading to Seoul by the end of the week.

Lou & Syon- Tie shop

So I purchased a tie 'watermelon-esqe' and left. I made my way back to the busy intersection where the 'soju' bottles walk around and checked out this street vendor who was from Peru and selling bracelets, necklaces, you know chachka's. We went over the same routine of where we are from and how long have we been in Korea. He was a really nice guy we took some pictures with the soju bottles and I ended up getting a little necklace as a gift for someone, but I lost it. So Rowan i'm sorry, I hope you liked it.

Rafeal- King of Kyungsung Vending

I have gifts to get for like 20 people, but you wont be getting them until I come home.

As I was talking to the Peruvian vendor, this photographer came up behind me and asked me if he could take a picture of me for this magazine called streetstyle. He was digging my style, what can I say, im put myself together quite nicely. So I got his email and told me where I could cop the magazine and he went one way and I went the other.

I arrived back at the vintage shop at 10 to go grab a drink and Kim already ordered food and had a couple buddies coming with some soju and maekchu's to hang out in his shop. Honestly everyone was real cool, really good people. I tried a few dishes ive never heard of or ever thought of eating. There was this pig meat with bones in it, and you are supposed to eat the bone, just chew it up and swallow it. The meat was tasty and had a good spice to it, but the bone was not necessary thats how I felt, but really good. Then we had some dried squid that comes in packages like pepperoni sticks, just flatter. Not a huge fish fan I am, I had one piece and that was enough. Then there was this minced fish soup, also too fishy. Followed by some big kimchi pancake very tasty, and this tofu stuff which was good as well. The beer was the best part of the meal.

Kim was into photography and had like 3 cameras, this wicked strictly fisheye camera, a 1 shot two picture camera and this wicked digital single-lens-reflex. Pretty much just got along like we new each other for years, a great guy and he actually told me not to go to Seoul and get a job in Busan. Id love to guy, but I gotta follow my path.

So It was around 1130 and I had to grab the bus, because I didnt want to sleep in the subway like my last midadventure to Busan. So I buy my ticket and jump on the subway.

Sidetracked..... The subway was supposed to, and this was a big supposed too go to Seomyeon which is the transfer spot where I would get onto my train to go home. Well it got to one stop before that and said... end of the line. UHhhhhhh was my expression because I was still a long way from home and never been to this stop before and had 5 hours to kill. So I get out of the subway station and say 'hello' to a little city called Jeonpo.

I just start walking until I see a street with tons of lights down the way. So I hop on my left and rights and make my way like a deer caught in the headlights or bug in a bug-zapper you have heard the comparisons. This city actually seemed pretty cool, huge buildings, neon lights everywhere and I saw my first Mcdonalds which I would soon get kicked out of.

So I walk around the streets some more and they are filled with students and drunkards coming out of the bars or just entering. Bars here are open extremely late, some dont close until you leave. What a country! So I was getting a little hungry cause dinner didn't fill me up, so I thought lets see what the Korean Mcdonald's is like. I talked to the server and showed her my Mcdonald's gold card and said I worked for a Mcdonalds back home in Canada. I ordered a bigmac meal with a coke sat down to eat. Not to bad, but the same shit as in Canada. So I went back to order a 4 pack of nuggets for 1000 won,$1.25 cdn, and these have a distinctly different taste than in Canada. I think it has to do with the oil they cook it in, and the chicken tasted different too. Not bad, just different. So while I am eating this I am dozing off with my headphones on, and without noticing... I fell asleep. I woke like an hour later and the place was empty at around 2 in the morning, it was a 24 hour Mcd's though. So I went up to the server and told her that about the whole situation and that I had no clue what to do for 3 hours and I am so tired. She understood but said her manager was anrgy, so I picked up my stuff and left.

3 hours left in Jeonpo and all walked out. Basically I just baby stepped my way everywhere hoping it would take longer to walk around the town. But after an hour I was done. So now its 3 oclock and I decide to wake myself up by playing some hacky-sack. I find a nice spot right out infront of a Bar it looks like beside the Mcdonalds I got the boot from.

Im not even playing for 5 minutes before some workers come out for a smoke, and this guy named Lee from the bar starts playing.

Sidenote... As we were playing this old woman was walking by

and the hacky-sack went right to her and she kicked and kept

it in play. I just want to say ' You are awesome Old woman,

thank you for restoring my faith that some people never lose

there love for kicking things"

So while Lee and I are playing were talking and his manager comes out and explains the situation I am in, and asked me if I want to come into the bar to get warm. The bar real looked nice so I was like... yes definitely.

So it turned out to be a kareoke bar, but each group of people get their own room and a server. This room is filled a couple flatscreens a strobe light, tamboreens, couches, and book full of songs. So the manager brings us some coffee and Lee and I start singing. I chose Bohemiam Rhapsody, that quickly changed and I ended up putting on Dr. Dre "forget about Dre", and tore it up. Ha, it was fun. The manager said I could crash in the room for however long I needed, and I did. I fell asleep right away and woke up around 5:30 am. Lee came back and wanted to introduce me to his girlfriend upstairs working at a GS 25, a convenient store like 7-11. She was a really pretty girl, and was happy that I agreed. Ha... So I said my goodbyes and com-sa-ha-me-da's (thank you's) and walked back to the subway station and got home around 7 in the morning.

Anyways today on my day off I am heading back to Busan a bit earlier though. Just to go to the beach and enjoy the beautiful sun and go back to Kim's shop and say thanks.

till we speak again...

Heres to the mom and pops

mute children, a big decision, and I know that sound

Ok...so ive been keeping it low key lately, not on purpose but mainly because theres nada to do around here. That being said I still manage to have a wicked time doing nothing. School from 9-6, which this week has consisted with halloween class. Basically I get my kids to dress up in costumes, put together a halloween word search, draw scary faces and then I staple them to their halloween bags and then take them around the school looking for candy that I have handed out to the teachers. Seems fun... YES. I could not imagine the amount of kids that have no interest in anything fun. I basically had to squeeze the fun them into them.

The classes at school range from Elementary 1-7 and then middle school. Elementary 1, being 10-11 year olds that range to 15-16 for middle. I recieved the Elementary 7 as my homeroom class, meaning they knew english (reading,writing) 2nd best out of all the kids. I teach E-5,6,7 and middle throughout this semester and my homeroom kids are the most non-verbal students in the entire school.

I thought instead of homework we could play something fun like animal bingo. The girls in my class apparently werent enthused because their reply was "This isn't fun we dont want to play" while the boys just sit with blank stares when I ask them if they need any help in the slowest voice to ensure they understand. The rest of the school has amazing kids and can have fun with whatever task I give them whether its drawing up a food pyramid to learning about different types of houses. Can you name 5 different types of houses? I bet you can... O.K. lets start yurt, houseboat, igloo, treehouse, and an apartment! Very Good, you all get stickers.

Luckily I only teach my homeroom 3 hours a day.

But enough about my mute children. I have been researching Seoul and all the hagwons for a job lately, but I have heard of many horror stories. For example... firing employess 11 months into their year contract so they dont have to pay them their bonus or flight home, pays being late if received at all, holding of passport and diplomas, inadequate living conditions (some even living with the director; which would be nice but they resent you because you are half their age making the same wage). I have been putting in some major thought about hagwons vs. public schools and I think I am going to wait until March and start at a public school because it is government run and has a lot more stability.

That being said I have the month of February to PARTY!!!!! Well not entirely, I have been messing with ideas of heading to Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan orTaiwan for a month but its the Chinese New Year right now and flights are expensive. If I can find some cheap flight somewhere warm I would definitely take up that offer. Until now, I will find a place to chill in Seoul and spend the month going for interviews and checking out the city for locations and hot spots.

So its 46 minutes past the midnight hour and I just heard a familiar sound. Well being that I reside in a love motel the sound of squeeky beds is not that far out of the question. And my ears just witnessed the first act. I had to bring that to attention because I figure I have to live with the fact, and now you do as well. The only point being, I will probably walk past the lovely man and his sub-par hooker in the morning if she doesnt decide to run out on him and take all his cash while hes sleeping.

I will leave you with that. Love you family and friends

Heres to the mom and pops

zaaaaaaaaaa.....

So I had my first Western craving tonihgt after a sub-par dinner of rice and some black slop ontop and cold dumplings once again, so a couple of guys and myself headed for some pizza. Oh my lord was it ever tasty. So I had to write about it. Other than that I started my new semester today with all new kids and once again I get the quitest bunch of the whole crew. I have never seen 13 year olds so dosile. I mean not even a peep. I honestly would rather have kids running and climbing the walls than quite because i can relate to that and use some sort of guilt or punishment to take things away from them, but silence doesnt work well with me.

Tommorow I actually start with the curriculum and I am looking forward to it. Actually a little update on the whole sexual harrassment bullsh$t, all the girls t.a's are not longer with us. They either left because they thought it would be uncomfortable or were canned not too sure, but we got 3 new girls in from seoul right away and they seem pretty cool. I have already challenged one girl to a little one-on-one.... pingpong that is. I hear shes the best and I have to put that to the test. I will probably get my ass served, but whatever all in good fun.

I have been looking for schools in Seoul in all of my free time and have come upon some cool hagwon's (privately owned schools that have students come and go) and some public schools, which i am more interested in for stability. And a plus side to the public schools is that some give you 2 months off for winter and summer break instead of only 2 weeks, so I plan on doing my research.

For anyone that is interested in coming to Korea, a few really good websites are:

www.worknplay.co.kr

www.pusanweb.com

www.daveseslcafe.com

www.englishspectrum.com

Also a cool thing to do is come here and live at a homestay, which is someone who rents out rooms in their house. It can be as cheap as 15,000 won (less than 20 bucks a night) to 30,000 (around 40 cdn). A benefit to doing this is that they know the area well and can tell you about museums, nightlife, subway routes, they have internet, free breakfast, a washer and dryer ( and dryers are very sparse here, so thats key, and you can stay from one night to however many. Lots of times if you teach their child english they will wave the cost for like an hour a day, so you can actually stay in seoul for free until you find a school. A great website for this is,

www.english.tour2korea.com ;unfortunately the website is down at the moment keep on checking.

But dont only check out Seoul, if you arent into the whole crowded scene, Busan is a lot of fun and has a lot of universities, shopping and is right on the East Sea (pacific ocean).

If you have any questions about visas, where to stay, recruitors, what to do, schools, just leave a comment or email me at sweetlou1983@hotmail.com

Working on a song and Halloween class... too full to type anymore.

Heres to the mom and pops

MY CLEANING LADY IS COMING ONTO ME... unfortunately she cant read or write or speak english and she's in her 60's

So today I woke up to my cleaning lady in my room and she wanted to start cleaning. Luckily for her I was dressed, and in a half sleep I was like get out of here. NO NO, i dont need you to clean my room. So we had a friendly argument for a few minutes, before I got out of bed, walked to my front door and knocked on it myself, to show her that thats how you enter a room. You dont just walk in. Well atleast not in my culture, but there are always exceptions. Ahhhhh she finally understood so I shoed her on her way unfortunately I couldn't get back to sleep.

bring on the floodworks

So I arrived at school at 9 and went into the audotorium where all the kids were meeting to recieve their graduating certificates, awards for the play and newspaper, and a slideshow of their semester at camp.

I was the only teacher to sit amongst my class with the other hundred students, while the other teachers sat in cushy chairs against the walls. Ahhh Awards about to start!!First was newspaper. Drumroll... duh duh duh dah...then all I heard was a bunch of Korean that I couldnt understand, and my kids are started cheering. I was going to ask for a translation but I think i got the jist of it.

I am so proud of them, beating out the competion of children 3-4 years younger than them. It brings a tear to my eye everytime I think about it. They recieved a gift certificate for 5$ to some playland, I dont know they didnt seem to thrilled. Probably a childish place since they were up against kids. haha.

Then came awards for the play... and the kids that put on Sister Act 2 were the winners, as they rightfully should have been. It was really well performed and a lot of fun to watch. After that followed the slideshow. It started with the first day of camp with all the kids meeting each other for the first time, to being assigned classes and meeting their new roomates, to all the activities that we did throughout. This one sweet girl in my class Jane, was loosing it. Ahhhhh the tears just wouldnt stop rolling. Then after the sad pictures ended, the kids were hit with a bunch of funny pictures all of the teachers and t.a's posed for. They started laughing uncontrolably, until we had to stop the slideshow... just kidding. So with that being said and done, and camp being over all we could do now is say our last goodbyes and pose for one hundred pictures.

I swear i have never seen a generation of kids with more cell phones than I have in my life, everyone 10 and up. I recieved a few departing gifts, a mini rugby ball keychain from New Zealand from my boy Mcdonald and this hand-made decorated scarf/hankerchief thingy from my girl Sofia. I was touched, I had a great group of kids and definitely will never forget any of them. So class by class they left to board the bus, and I was there waving away until I couldnt see them any longer.

Finally got rid of the kids now its me time. Chad and I made plans to go to the outback and then head to Busan for the day to walk around and check out some sites.

I walked home first to unwind and then we left for the bank to change over all of my American $$$. I ended up with 20,000 less won than I expected just because the buying market was a few pennies lower. No big deal. So now we were on our way to Busan, stop 126 (on the orange line) to head to The Outback, and let me tell you I have been craving a bloomin' onion for a week now so there was no question what I was getting.

We ate and hopped back onto the subway to get to the popular spot near the 2 universities at stop 212 (on the green line) to do some shopping and walkin around. The ocean was the most popular beach in all of South Korea lay just about 30-45 minutes walking from where we were so even though it was a hazy day we were still ocean bound.

We cut across the university and first stopped for a coffee cause Chad was jonesin', we sat and chatted about the beatles, the whole sexual harrassment ordeal, and the assassination of JFK.
We then continued on and finally got out first glimpse of the pacific ocean (East Sea). It was definitely not the nicest day but just seeing it was still as breathtaking. I am still in awe that i'm in Korea in the first place, but to be looking out over the ocean.

Chad got some hookup with a professor walking by along the coast and they exchanged business cards, which is a sign of honor in this country. We continued on and walked along the Gwangalli Beach to collect a few seashells. I threw some pebbles in the water to hear that amazing plop...plop...plop sound of 1000 little rocks and I was ready to carry on. Chad had to stop once again at a local Starbucks for a green tea chai latte and I sat and looked at the beach. We arrived there at sundown and the Huge Gwangan Bridge slowly began to light up as the sun went down in a huge colorful spectacle. It was awesome, the bridge had changing colors from red to white to blues and greens and almost every post and railing had some sort of light flowing from within it.

We walked a little further up before turning around and coming down a busy bustling street with the kind of stores I came to Korea looking for. I found a cool snowboard and clothing shop called one-eight, some cool urban clothing and nike shoe shops, an old wooden antique shop that had some amazingly old carvings and sculptures that could make a lot of money selling his stuff online. And finally a clothing shop were they sold LRG (Lifted Research Group) clothing. So I bargained for a zipper down hoodie and a pair of jeans for 85,000 won down from 103,000. I dont care if they are fake they look and feel awesome and back home in Canada each one would have went for 100+ easily. So that was about the end of our day, so we jumped back on a subway and headed home, we had been gone for 9 hours and put about 4-5 miles on our feet. Luckily I have a day off tommorow.

Heres to the mom and pops

Quite the interesting last day (of the semester that is)

January 14th: Today was my last class of the semester, so instead I decided to play a game with. This was tricky of me because I was supposed to teach them writing, but the game was all about writing... muahahaha. Its called scattegories. Easy to play and it gets the whole class involved because kids are competitive even when they just wake up. So you pair the class into groups of two, meaning 6 groups for my class and you give them a piece of paper and I sit on my desk with a stop watch. 3...2...1... countries, then all the kids furiously write down as many countries they can think of befor I stop the clock. They have to write them in English, if its in Hanguel (Korean) I dont count it. And then we go over spelling when I notice lots of the kids had the same errors. I get them to tally up the number of countries and I write them all down on the board under group a,b,c,d... etc. Then we start again... jobs,school supplies,holidays,types of drinks,name brands until about 5 minutes of class is left and then I get them to do the math until a winner is decided. I was given a bag of chocolate and stickers to give out for the winners or whoever i decide was the best student of the day. The stickers were a whole other idea, whoever gets 10 stickers gets a pack of rahman noodles, and of course I weilded this over their little Korean heads until I got what I wanted. Shhhhhhhhhh..... ok, no stickers.

So after this and the last class of flea market, the kids had a final exam which I had to mark their scores and do a bunch of grading and fill out papers to be sent home to their parents. I cant believe it, I actually feel like a teacher. I had to evaluate them on a grade system A+, A, B+, B etc. on levels of listening, reading, writing and attitude. The worst mark I gave out was a B, I had my best student at a C+ for attitude because she just was never pleasant and didnt care, but I just dont think she was challenged enough. But I really couldnt speed up the class for her because everyone else was going along at a slower level. I definitely learned a lot from this first semester and would do things differently.

So here came the interesting part of the day. As we are all marking the tests an email was sent to 3 of the teachers from headoffice. Brent, Chad and George all good guys and good teachers. The letter said in jist that they were in big trouble because of a sexual harrassment claim from one of the TA's(teachers Assisstants) and a student. WHAT!!! everyone couldnt believe it, mainly because it wasnt true, but because no one knew where the idea even came from.

Now let me take this back a day, to clear things up a little. The second semester of the camp has a lot less number of students coming so the school had to get rid of three teachers. Brenton, Peter and Nari were the ones chosen, mostly because of their visas and they can still get around without any trouble, so it was only reasonable to let them go. It was unfortunate but no hard feelings were brewing.

So fast forward a day back to when they recieved the email. No one knew where this sexual harrassment stemmed from. But through detective work and inside knowledge, it was found out that the head counselor at the camp Mr. Sol, who sits in the same room as us and one that I played ping-pong with created these allegations from a small fabrication that Brent made when touching one of the ta's neck. The t.a. went to Mr. Sol and said that she was uncomfortable which Mr. Sol turned around and contacted head office saying that Brent touched her breasts and ass and then through in some stuff that students made claims too.

This is how Korea works people and lots of the time people get away with it, but not this time. Chad and George got thrown into this mess because Mr. Sol wanted a different group of people gone instead of the 3 that had to leave because of their visa's. The main reason being that they were all older than him, and in Korea the head teacher likes to be above everyone and age has a large factor on this. He felt like he couldnt control them (not that we were even having any problems) and would be in a better position if everyone were under him, in age and status. So this thing got blown out of proportion and lets just say, Mr. Sol has his coming to him. I dont know what or when, but ill keep everyone updated on that.

SOoooooooo after that huge ordeal it was time for the kids to put on their plays that they had been rehearsing for the past week. My class middle-2 performed Snow White and it was awesome. Their english was really good and they werent nervous at all, and even one of the kids Tony who played the prince in the play wore a girls dress. Haha... it was so funny. Other classes performed "the boy who cried wolf", the section from "Sister Act 2" where whoopie and the choir were singing, and a bunch of other things. A lot of fun and I took like 50 pictures.

So with the camp over, I had to come back the next day to watch them graduate, give out awards and say bye to all the kids. I was about to leave when I forgot I put my laundry in the wash about 5 hours prior. And a little sidenote, Korea doesnt have dryers... ahhhh so I boxed all my and walked home.

It was Nari's last night at the camp, so Richard, Nari and I grabbed a couple Maekchu's and some Soju and snacks and chilled at my place and drank and watched 'The Best of Borat'. We actually stayed in my room so late, that the buffet we were going to go to closed. So we decided to hit up another spot, and orded a bunch of dishes. Mandu, kimbop, pork soup, and some other pork dish... aww really good. A fun last night with Nari and a good ending to a strange day.

Heres to the mom and pops

Pencil/Handsome Teacher

I wanted to start this blog with a little saying thats been going around the camp. So like I said their is about 100 little Koreans running around and everytime they pass you they say Hi or How are you, etc... Well for the past few days I have been referred to almost exclusively as Pencil teacher or Handsome teacher, especially from the boys! Korea is a weird country.

They call me pencil teacher because.... now this is crazy. I carry a pencil behind my ear. And well we all know why they call me handsome teacher... but it never gets old. Some even put put two together and call me Pencil Fashion Teacher. You know a small hometown jewish boy could get used to all this attention, even if its from 9 year olds.

So the past couple days have been same ol'. Teach the same kids but as of lately I have been doing the theme class which is a "flea market". So me and another teacher work together and get two classes, so roughly 20 kids. We discuss the object of a flea market 'buying' and 'selling' goods and trying to save money, which is where my judaism comes in handy.

One kid actually was in tears today when the market raised a nail clipper set from 1000 to 4200 won in a dual to outbid the other. It came down to a tough desicion and a very realistic life situation of "rock, paper, scissors". And like all situations you have a winner and loser, but it only made him stronger. So class ended and then I hit up the pingpong room which I have been doing the past couple days.

Well let me tell you this. Korea being known for its Pingpong runs in their blood, verses a canadian Jew who hasnt picked up a paddle in say.... 3 year+. Well you could only imagine my eyes when i wooped some Korean ass going 3-1 against Hong Ju. Then 3-1 against the korean camp organizer. Lastly, in an intense necktie loosening tie breaking game 1-1 with the Mr. Sal the head instructor, it came down to a deuce that went back and forth for 5 serves, until I unfortunately led the pressure get to me and lost the match, not only for myself but for my people of Canada and Jews worldwide.

I ran out of money today and have to head to the bank to change over some american. Today January 13th 2007, the currency convertion on $750.00 american would convert in $704,997 won, meaning I could buy a beachhouse off Hauendae in Busan. no jk everything is actually really expensive and over priced for no reason. LG and Samsung products which are produced and manufactured here, go for the same if not more than if they were shipped to Canada and sold at a future shop, it really blows the mind. But luckily my motel has a LG mini fridge already and a Samsung t.v.

And with this talk about overpriced goods, it has got me upset and when im upset i get tired and bothered so I am going to go to bed.

Heres to the mom and pops

Movin' on to Busan

Alive and well and another day of teaching, except today is better because I have tommorow off.
The morning was the same as usual except i played dodgeball, Korean style with the kids at lunch. They are so damn hard to hit being small, I was always out quickly being a huge target and 40 kids all around me... bahhhhh still a lot of fun.

After lunch, my T.A. Ted took care of my class while they wrote a test, which gave me time to play a little pingpong with a couple teachers and one of the head Korean organizers. He beat me everytime, obviously though, but i put up a challenge. We got back to class an hour later and I tought a music class, but instead of getting my 16 year old kids to sing-along to The Lion Sleep Tonight, I got them to write their own songs or poetry instead.

Some of the kids picked it up quickly as I was teaching them about rhyming. Honestly if I had to learn another language and then think of rhyming words, id be losing my mind. They are a smart group of kids.

So my day ended and I went back home to relax for a bit, and made plans with this girl I met on KFF(Korean Friend Finder) to go to Busan for some drinks and a bite to eat.

One problem... I dont speak Korean and would have to get a bus, let alone the right one to the subway station and then find my way around getting on the right train and transfer and yadda...yadda...yadda....

So a group of teachers decided to go to Outback which was on the route to Busan. So I figured I could start the journey with them and then just continue on my way. Wrong!! They changed their minds but paired me up with my cleaning lady at the motel who was heading past the subway station. I write down how to say "thank you" formally, a-ja-ma-nee and we are on our way.

We stood outside trying to communicate, but she spoke no english. Most of the elderly dont speak English at all, but the younger generations are a lot more receptive to it.

Our Bus eventually comes, number 50, and we head to the subway station the last exit where I start at is called Nopodong. I paid for the bus ride 1300 won, sam cheon=1300(about 1.50 cdn) and we sit in silence while I begin to write.

The woman stays on the bus as I get off and I buy a ticket to Kyungsung University/Pusan National Unversity exit 212 on the green line. I start on the orange line and i have to transfer at Seomyeon a busy section in Busan.

So far during my travels ive seen 4 white people, not including the other teachers, but it does include me looking in the mirror. I have heard a lot of people say that they stare at us foreigners, i get a lot of glances but nothing to make me feel out of place. It feels like home here, well more of like a home thats not yours and when you are in it, people speak to you in a foreign language. And its not that you feel uncomfortable as much as you not having a clue to whats going on. So you smile, nod, or shrug until everyone and everything goes away. Home atlast!!!

I finally arrive at the university subway stop and make my way through the turnstyles and get to where im supposed to meet Jackie, thats her name by the way. She is Korean/American who moved to New Jersey when she was 9 and now shes back in Korea doing the same thing I am. But she tutors privately. I show up about an hour too early thanks to my cleaning lady, haha no she is sweet. I get a little grumble in my stomach and see all these kids walking with these kind of pogo-dog sorta snacks, but a lot more breading and sugar sprinkled all over it and ketchup and mustard.... so i follow my nose.

I left the subway station and get to the streets. Ohhh my god it was like NYC, neon signs everywhere, thousands of people, street vendors selling Louis Vuitton,Gucci,ps2 games and the pogo-dog vendor 'JACKPOT'. This huge thing cost 500 won, like 75 cents i couldnt believe it, so I wolfed it down and walked around the streets before heading back to meet Jackie at 9:45.

We hit it off right away. She seemed really cool and down to earth, but most important SHE SPOKE ENGLISH, so we walked around the streets looking for a place to grab a cheap beer and we ended up at Millers which was actually an american restaurant and served MGD,Bud,Coors and all the beers you cant find anywhere in Dokgae-ri. So we order some beers and just chat about life, her time in prauge, and our experiences in Korea.

When we are about to leave a table of Koreans next to us ask me where I am from I tell them Canada, and one of the guys says The Raptors so i pulled out my Toronto Raptors credit card they loved it. The invited for a drink, so we all cheeresed(made up word) in Korean you say Gom-bae, same difference. We talked for a bit, I got one of the guys business cards who works with Nike, Reebok and Converse distributing clothing I believe is what he said. The introduced me to this hot Korean girl at the table named Mishimcha(sounds like) but her nickname was cha-cha. She wanted my phone number but i dont have a phone so i gave her my email, she was excited. It was a pretty funny experience, but i dont know how the relationship could work out, with both of us being non-verbal... actually now that I think of it, this could work out great.

We leave and head to a foreigner bar called OL 55, its in the basement and has a very cool atmosphere and white people of everything. So we have a drink and listen to some live music. Its an open mic, and one of the guys singing was from Toronto, they were jamming some Pink Floyd Breathe. I was in heaven. We played some foosball, pool and chilled out until 3 am.
She had work at 9 the next morn, and I had to get back home, but the subway didnt open till 5am I found out right then. So after some persuasion, she left and I crashed in the subway station for an hour or so until it opened and made my way backhome.

I got home around 630 am and called it a night. Nothing to do tommorow but relax and thats all I plan on doing.

Heres to the mom and pops

Not your everday kind of day

So today started like every other, wake up and make my way to school for 8:30am. As I walk through the halls 100's of little Koreans try their newly acquired english on me "hello, how are you", I respond and they break into giggles. It is quite the funny routine though i have only been here for il ju(one week), the other teachers are losing their minds because some of them have been teaching for 6 years and apparently it loses its panache.

Reading, writing, reading, lunch, writing, drama, and then various activities. Today was science, so we mixed baking soda and vinegar in a film container and wait for it to explode. The kids loved it, especially Macdonald who was sent flying to the ground and scrunched up like a fetus in a womb. Aww so cute. So after that we filled a balloon with water and held it underneathe a candle. Magically the balloon didnt burst because the heat of the candle transfered through the balloon and began to heat the water slowly.

That was my last class of the day and getting off at 4 oclock left me a few hours before dark to go for a hike. Directly behind the school is a huge mountain, so i borrowed the schools camera and set out on my journey. Mom I told everyone where I was going, so that if i didnt come back they would know where I was, smart thinking ehhh.

My school in the background

So I begin my adventure and almost immediately spot my first temple structure at the base, looked pretty cool and I continued. There really wasnt a path so i made my own through the brush. It got so heavy that before i even started really, i was about to give up when i saw a little path. This path led a rubber plant, so I had to walk through it to get to the base of the mountain. As I am walking through the plant a guard comes up to me and i try to explain through hand gestures that i want to climb to the top of the mountain and take pictures from the top down. He gets another worker to come over and they kind of laugh saying its too hard but they allow me to walk through the factory to the back and they stare and watch as I swing myself up this little hill grabbing onto branches, and soon they dissappeared from my view.

Now this mountain wasnt anything too difficult to climb, not too steep and not too rocky, the only problem was that where i entered there was no path. So i figured up would be the best way to start, so i just start muscle-ing my way through more brush. About 15 minutes into it I question once again turning back because it was ridiculous, but I spotted this yellow cloth in the trees up ahead. I found a path atlast, it wasnt anything like clear cut, it was roughed out but it was perfect. So now with my new found confindence I start motoring up the mountain because i didnt want to get stuck in the dark.

As im climbing, this Korean deer noticed me and darted through the hills. I got within 10 feet of it, and I didnt even see at first I just heard it take off. I tried calling it in English but I forgot they only respond to Korean. So i keep on treking, higher and higher up until I see these rocks that looked like it could have been used as a home in the mountains like thousands of years ago, or atleast 50 or so before Korea got bombed to sh&t. I climb up onto some and look out... awwwwwww this is what I am I am here for. Just looking out and seeing nothing but more mountains all around was amazing, and actually i saw 2 golf courses that were right around the corner from the school I am teaching at. I take a few pics and keep climbing (ill fast forward to the to the top).

I finally got to the top and it was breathtaking, a 360 of nothing but mountains, and this little plaque at the top explaining the point on the earths axis and how high it was and a description i couldnt understand. I pose in some pictures, chill for a few and manage to catch it right near the sunset. So beautiful, I cant believe I am in Korea. So I begin my descent and take another path down because the one I came up i didnt know where the path started. So I start jumping down mountain swinging from branch to branch and eventually get off course. I can still see the town in the distance and know i am in the right direction so I kind of make my own path just zigzagging through trees.

This is where my hike comes to a twist. I see some tires in the hills and figure it was an entrance because i saw some signs near it. So as i get closer I see a manequin, I walk right next to it and see bullet holes all throughout. I was like what the #$!% and turn around and see a lookout tower with some people on it. I cant believe it, I walked onto a Korean military obstacle course in the hills. So im started to get a little freaked out and hoping that the guy didnt see me and think I was a spy. So run back into the bush on an angle. As im running, I notice bunkers dug in the ground for shooting, tires built into ruts for running up hills, and more target practice.

At this point my leg begins to shake, but I try stay calm because I want the hell out of here. So I actually begin to walk through the course on the other side because it was the only clear way down, and I see this sign.



There is pedastals for people to stand on take commands, ropes to climb up and other obstacles. I managed to get a couple pictures, but wanted to keep my camera in my bag most of the time. I duck back into the bush and run away until i come to someones property, where i see a paved road leading down the hill. I get onto the street, and this dog starts barking at me and chasing me away, but it was one of the greatest sights I had seen in my life. I continue down the street and it took me back to the main street and I walked back to the school, to tell them off my experience, and upload the pictures onto my computer.

I leave the school, walk home, and then end up just going for some mandu(dumplings) for dinner at this restaurant i have been to before. They begin some conversation with me, and tell me i am beautiful. I laugh and shake it off, and explain to them in my broken Korean that im from Canada and that ive been here for a week now, and that i cant speak Korean well. Extremely nice people, and they actually gave me more dumplings than the order says it comes with.

I walked back to my motel with a comfortable and familiar feeling to end my hectic and danger filled day.

Heres to the mom and pops, I got my misadventure out of the way. Its all uphill from here!

All caught up...enjoy

So today was my third day of school and it has been getting better everyday. I teach reading and writing everyday for the 2 classes and they have become more receptive to me... so it helps me out a huge deal.

Snow white is coming along good and i had them act in pairs, they were even add-libbing and adding in there own lines. How sweet is that!

The newspaper is coming along and kicking some sweet ass, apparently the best class newspaper also gets a prize(something like bottles of coke or rahman noodles)... so we better win.

I got out of school at 4 today and am going to be the next 3 days as well... so I think I will go for a hike tommorow.

I walked home eating ice cream that the shcool gave us and all the students, we get hooked up large. crates of oranges,energy drinks, coca cola, ham samiches(yuk!! I like how i will eat a bug over a ham sammich and i swear id do it again) but anything you want they have here.

I walked home cause the school is close by like 10 minutes away and I went into a electronic store on the way home and bought myself a microphone! All by myself... it was 24000 won and i came home to record some tracks and write this!

I have only eaten cereal at 7 and ice cream, i dont really have a huge appetite over here but I am gettin extremely hungry right now. So i am going to go for some gimbop(sushi rolls) or mandu.

Just got back actually so im updating this instead of writing a new note. I ran into a teacher while infront of the restaurant so he joined me. Which is extremely weird because this teacher named Richard is from Elmira, close to guelph back home in Dundas and we meet for the first time in Dokgae on the other side of the world... mind blowing.

Anyways im going to get a piece of backhome and stay in and watch a foreign film tonight, maybe something American.

heres to the mom and pop

Memories getting short; Too much going on everyday

Last night after school, George and I went to get a bite to eat and walked around the strip a bit. I ended up getting a pretty sweet new tie at a store called Hello Charlie; chaplin they are talking about.

So we end up in this alley and then walk down and even smaller one and find this restaurant that serves this pork soup. This was my first experience with a restaurant where you take off your shoes and sit cross legged on a matt on a raised floor. This entire restaurant was three tiny tables but the food was awesome. George ordered us some soup and about 7 side dishes came with it; rice,noodles,hot pepper paste,onions and jalepenos, whole mini shrimp eyes and everything(used for a salt taste cause the koreans dont use it while cooking), and a ginger paste and all of this was to mix in with the soup. It was really tasty and we made conversation with korean who gave us his business card and offered me a job to teach his employees english. This guy was really nice and used his english on us and we were able to hold a conversation, well 3/4 in korean but every bit helps. He was a manager at a shipping plant in a few locations in Yangsan district in South Korea. When he got up to leave he kissed my hand and put it to his forehead, but i cant forget to mention he also had 3 bottles of 'soju'.

Then we headed over for a korean soda at the place I went to where they served me the bondaygee(silkworm). We werent there for 10 minutes before this drunk Korean literally fell onto our table and then stayed and chatted with us for 20 minutes. SOoooo hammered, but histarical, I managed to snap a picture after he took my hat off my head. He wreaked of alcohol and garlic, great combo the picture doesnt do him justice. But obviously a great guy none the less.

Overall a good night, and i went back home to write a lil something for the class tommorow

heres to the mom and pops

14 hours ahead of dundas... to early to teach

SOoooooo... my first day of teaching. I am not too nervous, more of an excitement. I have been giving 2 classes by now and they are the best of the best, I got a sweet hookup from S.J. the camp director cause i stayed at his house and he secretly gave me first pick before the other teachers got to choose. SO i have to teach my middle-2 students with the textbook BackPack 4 and my 6-3 students with the HipHip Hooray 5 textbook. My schedule is pretty solid, I teach 2 hours to each class starting at 9 and class ends 15 min to the hour, and they get lunch at 12-1, then i have a bunch of classes ranging from drama; acting out Snow White, newspaper( which are the 2 im doing right now with my homeroom M-2), arts and crafts and science. I have been given the subjects of teaching them reading and writing through the textbooks, while other teachers also do that to their students while others teach speaking and listening. Its a fricken new experience for me, but everyone has been a wicked help.

So... finally its 9 oclock and i walk into my first class. New faces, korean names and i am given to duty to name them. My dream but i choked, haha i let them come up with their own and some of them a couple already had them.

Kim Sun Jin- Macdonald; this kid loves soccer and me and the 3 boys go out and play everyday

Kim Sang Yeop-Tony: this kid loves hiphop so you can guess where he got his name from

Park Woo Jae- His name the first day was X, but then changed it to Harry: he is the shyest of the bunch

Kim Hye Won- Alice: one of the sweetest girls, i bought a hairclip off her for 500 won in a flea market

Kang Ji Hyun- Annie: this girl is the smartest of the group, but she is also really quite but seeming to warm up, shes always sleepy though, but the kids im sure dont get much sleep

Youn Jae Won- Sofia; this girl is an awesome artist which doesnt take away from other kids amazing ability but she stood out.( oh and you know those face covers that people wore when sars was going around, well she wears that thing everyday, not cause shes sick I just hear the air isnt the greatest)

Jeong Hyeon Ji-Say; this girl is real nice and friendly she bought me candy from the store the other day, its strawberry chews sooooo tasty, its pronounced 'mychew' but thats not how its spelt

Song Doo ry-Jane; this girl is smart like the others, but she seems like shes opening up more, its only been the first day

My boys are the 3 in the back (best pic I have of them so far) from my homeroom class Tony(left) Macdonald(right behind him whos face is kind of covered) and Harry ( the kid infront of hims finger is over is face)

So far the days been going well and i have moved onto the other class. This class i have 12 students and they are awesome, really really good kids. I cant get into all of them because THIS BLOG TAKES FOREVER and im so busy at it is.... but they are great kids ill get to them another time.

These are some of my girls from class 6-3: vivian left, olive middle and kate on the right!

Soback to my homeroom, we started drama and the class chose Snow White, so i organized roles for each student and we read over the screenplay once. Then the next class is Newspaper, where I have each student making a section ranging from; timetable,the play,introducing the boys and girls, sports, diary, a drawing of the whole class(Say is doing this and its amazing) and lastly a letter about the flea market that took place the first day which im getting too.... I know im writing the blog a couple days too late there is just so much stuff going on and im trying to explore. I am also going to write a section in the newspaper about the class and my experiences. Its going really well, each class does this and there are 11 classes with roughly 10 a class, meaning 100 students at the whole camp.

Everytime you walk down the halls their is atleast 50 korean kids yelling hello or something that is just so damn awesome. The building is actually really big so it helps.

We then held a flea market where students brought in goods ranging from hairpins and stuffed animals to key chains and egg candles and they had money and we tought them to haggle( so jewish) and actually bought goods from one another.

So this ended my first day and i came home to relax for 1 hour before going out with my korean teacher friend Nari, whos been all over Canada,U.S. and England; she actually had a Jewish friend visiting her so the three of us and 2 other teachers went out for some Korean food and i ordered the Mandu; meaning dumplings really really good and only 2300 won.

We then went to get some drinks and ended up in a korean bar where we were served complimentary carrots, radishes and 'bondaygee' which is a pre larvel silkworm taken out of its little cacoon and then boiled whole...ahhhhh it took me about 1 hour to get enough balls to finally toss it in my mouth and started chomping; oh it exploded everywhere BAHhhh the thought was horrible, but it didnt taste horrible! But it doesnt mean im going to keep ordering it, I had some beer and Soju to wash it down. Soju is a formented rice alcohol about 20% alcohol and sold at corner stores for about 1000 won a bottle the size of a coke. The koreans love this drink... and you can tell with them all hammered in the bars.

The bondaygee was a good ending to my night cause i have to wake up at 7 so i went back to my motel and wrote up a lil something to teach the kids the next day... looking forward

Heres to the mom and pops

Home at last... well for now atleast

I finally arrived in my new home town called Dokgae-ri, shi meaning city and it seems like a farely small town. I live right off the strip in this motel, which half the teachers have been split up into two seperate ones.

This isnt where i first started though. When i first got here we went directly to the camp, its called SK english only winter camp. I got to meet the other teachers their are 11 in total from all over the world. I am one of 6 canadians + 2 americans, 1 brit and an African and Korean everyone is awesome. Also each one of us is assigned to a Korean Teachers Assisstant, my T.A.'s name is Hong Ju or TED.

So we met all the children in a audotorium and got assigned our classes. I got the best of the best, middle-2 which means middle school aged around 15-16 year olds, and then my second class is 6-3, meaning they are the best of grade 6(these students are actually a lot more responsive and easier to teach, so cool). But im skipping ahead I never got to meet this kids the first day.

So back to what I was saying, the middle 2 students came back to my classroom and i had to occupy their time with no plans... I was like AHHHHHHH eight 16 year olds that dont know each other and being my first time alone with the kids. So I did what any good teacher would do, let them run around the building aimlessly, ha no we pretty much walked around the whole building and onto the roof, in the pingpong room, went outside and took some pictures with some viscious dogs, and then rolled tires around and I jumped on big bags of plastic to get a laugh out of them.

Phew... finally done and now i get to unload my bags for the first time during my whole trip. We arrive at our motel and try to figure out who gets the rooms with computers in them, and if they meant that the room had internet access or just a computer in it. So now i have a room with a computer and a laptop while others have nothing, hahaha suckas! but I need the room because the other ones dont have internet access.

So that being said I got finally got to see my room for the next month. When you first enter i have a bathroom and a little entrance for shoes and then a door right infront that leads to my room. I open it, oooh what a site its actually pretty cool, i have a bigger bed than mine back home a few desks, tv with Korean channels and i think 2 english but im way to busy for it, a computer, mini fridge with some o.j. in it, and dun da da dahhhhh HEATED FLOORS. Mom were getting heated floors when I come back home, thats a freakkin promise!

S0 I rearrange the room, move some tables put up a map of the area, unpack my bags and make it officially my new home, and im out the door ready to explore within 30 minutes. I meet up with about 6 guys and we head to a megamart for some essentials then to a bar called Hiteer, for a couple beers and some anjou(this is a small appetizer that people eat while they drink;unlike in Canada where they serve you peanuts and pretzels to make you thirsty so you come to drink, these places expect you to drink, its disrespectful for you not too).

I am with George;6 years teaching, Chad;2 years, Joel;1 year,Brent;6 years and myself 1 day and we order a couple pitchers of Hite beer 13, 000 won and an array of french fries in a basket which was the anjou for 9000 won. 1000 won is equal to about 1.50 canadian, so we split the tab and head home ready to start work the next day.

Heres to the mom and pops

The 38 hour day: two planes to seoulfood

I arrive at the airport 2 hours early because neither my aunt or myself could sleep. Since I was just sitting around watching episodes of Bam's spring break and drinking heinekins... I thought my myself "let's do this".

I check my bags and head to gate 12 with the only inconvenience being that the detector lady took my deodarant, I think she mistook it for a pipe bomb. So now I have a 30 hour adventure across the globe smelling like Richard Simmons after videotaping "sweating to the oldies". Still I manage to save a sexy middle-aged woman's day by assuring her she was about to get on the wrong plane, and that her flight to chicago was boarding as we speak. So she left and i put on my headphones and began to watch The Best of Borat and laughed histarically to myself in the airport before boarding the plane.

This might have just been the smallest plane I had ever just seen. It looked like a toothpick in Rosie O'donells mouth. It was so small we had to go outside to board the plane, because it couldnt reach the loading dock.

So I sat next a Peurto Rican family and listened to Dark Side of the Moon before arriving in Washington D.C, Dulles International Airport. I make my way to B32 where I try to sleep, but something caught my eye.... you will never guess what it was. It was two times better than gold, 3 times better than diamonds, and almost better than sex... It was a Chevy Chase Bank Machine! YES, I thought the same thing... is this really happening!

So after making a scene I returned back to my seat and slept for an hour before boarding the plane. This plane was something out of the future South Korean Air 747, it actually had a driving range, spa, rock climbing wall and to scale size monument of Rosie O'donell... thats how big it was!

Each seat had a t.v. that had an array of built in movies which included blockbuster hits such as; Talledega Nights, Click and Doctor Zhivago, but I opted to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and You, Me and Dupree ( I cant say no to Owen Wilson... im sorry its to damn hard.. it's to hard).
This t.v. also had built in games like TETRIS, golf and blackjack.

I opted for more leg room and took the aisle seat and I sat next to a Korean girl, which i forget her name (not off to a good start) who goes to Penn State taking microbiology, so obviously i brought up my thoughts on the direction chemistry is headed in relationship to.... im sorry i cant even finish this sentence i have no clue. Though she helped me gain a better understanding of the language and how it is formed.

The stewardess came around with drinks and I got milk and a spoon so I could mix my box of Peanut Butter Captain Crunch that I had been craving all year. Lunch came shortly after and I decided to try the korean meal which consisted of bulgogi babim (still not to sure what was in it), sea weed soup, with rice and fruit. I slept some more watched anoter movie and then dinner came, american style... a shrimp pasta, buns, coleslaw, chocolate cake and more buns.
The flight was right on time and She, Me and Dupree got off and i headed to immigration to check in.

My bags were the last to come off, literally my bag was the only and last one rotating on the belt and i left the station, with my korean friend she was kind enough to wait around with me. I went outside to look around for a unknown face holding a sign with my name on it... but no dice!
The girls family came and i made a few phone calls and finally reached my man Alex who was about 20 minutes away finally heard my name on the announcement to meet him at a desk. AHhh what a beautiful sight...

Alex and i started chatting as we waited for a bus ride, he set me up with a place to stay at the camp directors apartment, to which im writing this message right now. They have an amazing family, cute kids Chrisina and Joshua and I finally had a tradional Korean meal. This one was a lot better than the one on the plane. I had a 5 dish meal, bulgogi, rice, taap tyae (is how you would pronounce it), an egg and kim chi (koreas staple).

I am now in a rush to eat breakfast and dress before i take my trip cross country to Busan, I hear good things and apparently am living next to a mountain! I guess ill find out soon!

here's to The Mom and Pops, thanks for my life