Last Week

Well, Wednesday morning I woke up to a loud noise. Turns out the cabinet in my bathroom fell down, the glass broke, and it knocked the toilet out of its place. So, it really stank in my bathroom. The bathroom was a mess and unusable for quite a few days. Now, I have a new cabinet in the bathroom which seems firmly attached to the wall. I think the school is going to pay for the cost to have it replaced, at least I hope so, since I didn't do anything wrong. I guess I will find out on my next paycheck.

Speaking of paychecks, I forgot to mention that I did get one, which is one more than I got in Japan. It was only for the one week I trained so it was at 80% of my pay but it was still a few hundred bucks which was nice. I will get another one on Saturday, July 10th. In Korea, you only get paid once a month which is good and bad I guess, depends on how you look at it.

Then, in class, one student just started punching his desk and I didn't know why. He punched it again, really hard. By that time, the girl in front of him moved and he kicked it forward about 2 feet. Turns out the guy behind him called him a poor, homeless man or something of that nature in Korean, quite a few times which I did not hear nor could I understand if I did. So, I called the Teachers Assistant (TA) and the student did not speak to him. Then, the TA had to call the counselor. Finally, the counselor figured out what happened and explained it to me.

Also, last Saturday, Katrina and I got cell phones - woot woot! It is nice to be able to text each other. Additionally, it is a touch screen phone - sweet. For those of you who know me, you know I have had the same Verizon phone for about four years with no text messaging. So, this is definitely an upgrade. The phone cost a total of $20 and our bill for the first two months will be about $40 then we can change our plan. It usually averages out anywhere from $30 to $50 a month after that depending on the amount of calls and text messages you send.

After I got the phone, I went and played billiards with a few of the TAs. It was a Korean game with no pockets. The railing went all the way around. There were 4 balls - one yellow, one white, and two red. The object of the game is to hit the white ball into both of the red balls without touching the yellow ball. The next player must hit the yellow ball into the two reds without touching the white ball and so it continues back and forth between the yellow and white balls. It sounds a lot easier than it is and needless to say, I didn't make out very well. However, it was a lot of fun and I had a great time.

This Saturday we are definitely going to Itaewon to get Katrina a falafel sandwich and meet up with Transition (the guy from the trail) and his girlfriend Dani. They are going to spend the night Sunday and it is off to the Fortress again to show them around. Stay tuned for updates. I took a video of the apartment which I will try to post as well as a picture of the new phone. I hope everyone is doing great and loving life!

On a side note, my mother get her test results back on Tuesday and it turns out SHE IS STILL CANCER FREE!!! WONDERFUL NEWS!!! Take care.

Boryeong Beach

My apologies for not updating sooner. Things have been a bit hectic here. The new job is not quite as easy as I thought. Now, my prep time is filled with grading essays and making phone calls. Once a semester, teachers call the kids to check in and make sure everything is going fine. That keeps me busy for about an hour and will last a total of two weeks. Also, every week, I have about 80 essays to correct. When I say correct, I really mean red on every sentence. These are elementary kids who are not native speakers. So, every sentence is missing a particle or the tense is wrong. There are even some statements that make absolutely no sense and I will sit there for a few minutes trying to figure out exactly what the student is attempting to say.

Enough about work. Last weekend, a colleague at work, Johnathan, invited Katrina and I to go camping. We talked a bit during work and I found out him and his girlfriend are really in to hiking and camping. In fact, they were both vegetarians before coming to Korea. He played ice hockey and is from Alaska. His girlfriend's name is Lisa. They are the two in the picture eating dinner which I will explain later.

I had my small bivy tent which Katrina and I were going to use. However, when we woke up Saturday morning before leaving and I realized I did not have the tent poles. So, we were off to Homeplus in search of a tent. Katrina had heard there were kids tents for around 15,000 won so that was our goal. When we arrived at Homeplus around 7:30 in the morning, we found out that the upstairs did not open until 9 am. Mind you, our train left at 11 am. We got some muffins and milk and waited.

To make a long story short, we found an English speaker and found the tent. We caught a taxi to the train station and arrived around 10:35 am, plenty of time in order to meet Johnathan and Lisa. We ended up purchasing standing room tickets but sat in the food cart on the train, not a bad deal if I do say so myself. I'll get pictures the next time we are on a train. We got to the beach, set up our tent, unpacked, and headed to the water. There was nothing special about the beach. The tides probably moved in and out over a hundred feet. There was a paved walkway from one end to the other. The whole town had a 'beach town' feel to it which was nice.

(Beach Shot)

The beach was small in my opinion seeing as how I could see from one end of the beach to the other. The waves were tiny, no higher than my knees, nothing like on the East Coast. However, I got in the water just so I could say I did. We ended up meeting some guys from New Zealand and played touch rugby. My first time playing was quite fun and it is something I will play in the future given the chance. The best way to describe it is football with no forward pass.

(First rugby match with the boys. Our team won!)

After hanging on the beach for a while, everyone went up to the campsite, showered in the sink, and changed for dinner. We went to a seafood BBQ place where you cook your own food. The seafood was quite delicious and Katrina even enjoyed it until a few hours later when it came back up. I do not know if it was because of the fact that she hasn't eaten that much seafood in so long or her consumption of soju. To cook the food, everything was brought in its shell or aluminum foil and we were given a glove to grab it off of the pit. There were clams, oysters, conchs, razor clams, and all sorts of goodies. It was very enjoyable. After dinner we set off Roman candles and hit the sack.

(Items in their shell or foil on the grill. If you look closely you can see the two large coals in the center under the grate.)

(Pile of shell fish that was brought to our table. The clams were delicious.)

(Katrina in her glory as she sets off a firework!)

The next day we hung at the beach for most of the day and relaxed. After our time on the beach we all went to a bath house. It cost about $3, you walk in, take off your clothes, shower, hop in the hot bath, then into the sea salt bath or mud bath (which Boryeong is famous for), next it is on to the sauna, then cold bath, then you paint yourself in mud. Finally, you take a shower to clean off again. It took an hour and a half and felt wonderful after being at the beach for two days. Nothing else major happened until we saw two old ladies get into it at the train station. I wondered why two old ladies would be fighting? Then I realized, it could be over anything. You need to know that old ladies rule the country in Korea. Men and women stand up so they can have a seat on a bus, train, or the subway. When they are walking, you move out of their way. They can pretty much do whatever they want. We got back to the station and shared a cab home with a girl we met on the trip.

(Second day on the beach it got a bit cold)

(A rock outcropping we walked to at the beach)

Argentina 4, Korea 1

Contrary to the states, World Cup Soccer is very popular in many foreign countries, including Korea. This past Thursday, Korea was playing Argentina and if you haven't guessed by the title, it was a devastating loss for the Fighting Reds of South Korea. In case you don't know, I am not much of a soccer fan myself (nor Nascar for that matter). Anyway, one of the guys from work kind of follows soccer and invited myself and another guy out for drinks on Thursday night. We got to the 'Western' Bar around 10:15 and from there, it was 30 minutes of non-stop fun. We ordered a beer the got a red shot on the house. The lady bartenders were screaming and yelling and singing and dancing the whole time. Meanwhile, Korea is losing 3 to 1 but there is still this sense of hope. Even after Argentina went up another goal, every time Korea would touch the ball, even in the defensive half, those in the bar would stand up, hoping for a goal. It was unlike anything I have ever seen in regards to sporting events.

I finished my beer and ordered a second round for the guys. By this time, the game was over and the next thing we knew, there were three more shots lined up in front of us. Everyone around the bar had a shot, I am guessing to celebrate the game but who knows. Anyway, down the hatch that shot goes and before I knew it, while everyone was standing for the shot, the one bartender shouted in English, "Nobody sit, dance party now!" On comes this loud music, which is Korea's theme song for the World Cup, the whole bar is holding hands in the air and swinging them back and forth, and everyone is singing this song. I am holding the Korean man's hand to my right and a co-workers to the left. I look at the door, people walking by are stopping to see what is going on in this bar and why all the yelling. Thirty minutes of craziness.

We settled up on on bill and then walked home. I thought it had to be mid-night all the fun I was having. Sweat was pouring down my body. Korea has a very humid climate, more so than Pennsylvania to give you an idea. I checked my watch and it was only 11. It was a lot of fun in a short period of time. I wonder if it is because we were foreigners or if that is how things typically operate at that particular bar. Neither one would surprise me.

Birthdays, Vacations, and the Fly Guys

Good news and bad news. First, the good news. Today was the owner's birthday so, after singing happy birthday, and the owner's short speech, cake was offered to everyone. I politely declined - not a big desert man myself. I came back from teaching to find pizza, from Dominos, another nice treat since I was planning on getting pizza for dinner anyway. I must say, the $30 Dominios pizza is definitely better than the $5 Pizza School equivalent. However, I can't see paying the extra money for a pizza that is a little better and a little bigger. In difficult times, Pizza School will suffice. So, that was the good news.

The bad news. One of my co-workers is going to Thailand on vacation next week. Yay, I am happy for him! However, I got stuck covering two of his classes. So, no dinner break next week. I will work from 4:10 until 9:20 without a break. I know, I know, woah is me... However, when you are used to it, it is a bit disheartening. To add salt to the wound, I will not even be paid extra for the classes I will be teaching due to the fact that I will not exceed the hours in my contract for the month! I guess when you only teach for three and a half hours a night, there has to be some give and take at some point. Katrina and I are headed to the beach this weekend and I believe Matt and Dani are making plans to join us. I think it is about a two hour train ride then a short bus ride afterwards.

Congrats to the Hawks. Watching the replay, it looked like a fluke goal, the shot taken about three feet from the goal line. Oh well, way to go Flyers, made it farther than anyone thought you would have made it.

Female Monks at Donghaksa

(The monks praying)