Tuesday, June 28, 2005

The Great Indoors

This is so me. I had to post it when i saw it. Damn i love Penny Arcade.

Monday, June 27, 2005


Need garlic or onions? You don't have to go far. I took this picture out our window the other day. Just a few feet outside of our door a truck like this one pulls up at least once a day. On weekends, like this Saturday, maybe ten times a day we'll hear the loudspeakers announcing the wares for sale. Most days the trucks have fruit or vegetables. We've also seen them carrying TV's and other electronics. On city streets trucks will pull up anywhere and unload whatever they have to sell onto the sidewalk.

Can't sleep again. I think this is the fourth day out of five that i'll see the sunrise before i sleep. Just can't get the mind to stop, so might as well write.

We've been really busy this past week. It's almost the end of the semester, so everyone's busy preparing tests, writing syllabi, and getting ready for the new semester. On top of that we're going through a curriculum change, and so far the transition hasn't been totally smooth.

We didn't go out at all this weekend because it's always so hot and humid. The combination doesn't gel well with C's asthma. Our big trip was to the supermarket. We spent yesterday morning listening to our Saskatchewan Roughriders beat up on their rivals the Winnipeg Blue Bombers over the internet. It was nice to hear something from home. It's too bad we won't be able to see any games this year because they actually have a decent shot at winning the Grey Cup. In the 93 years the Grey Cup has been in existence the Riders have only won it twice. It's a freaking miracle one time was in my lifetime. The team has been so consistently inept over my lifetime they haven't even had a home playoff game since 1988. I was 11 at the time. Pretty sad in a league of nine teams. Hopefully this year they can turn it around.
Photos

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire


Okay. So i stole the title of this post from the Queens of the Stone Age song of the same name. It took a few years, but i can finally say i'm a multi-millionaire. Too bad it's only won. We got paid late last week and this is the proof. It feels good to finally have a bit of money. We've been living off the few hundred we brought and the money from our ticket reimbursement for the last month and a half.

We had a pretty uneventful weekend. Walked downtown both days and saw Mr. & Mrs. Smith on Sunday. The whole movie was pretty meh. It started slow, but the action was pretty good. On Saturday we got stopped on the street by some crazy Korean trying to talk to us after he saw C's Canada purse. The only thing we could make out of his Korean babble was "Canada". I thought it was pretty obvious we spoke no Korean. He gave up after about ten attempts to communicate. That night we ordered Pizza Hut again, which is refreshingly easy to do. It's started to become a little Saturday night tradition for us. A little slice of home.
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Saturday, June 18, 2005

Hey, Teacher! Leave Those Kids Alone!

Teaching, so far, has been a fairly fun experience. Even though i'm unable to control about half of the classes the half that go well make up for the crazy half. The majority of the kids that i teach are probably in the 6-8 year old range. Since i had zero experience with groups of 6-12 kids in this age range it has been a little stressful at first. I think part of the problem was bringing us in the middle of a four month semester. Figuring out the curriculum and where the kids were resulted in some problems for me at the beginning. In one class i prepared for where the syllabus said they were, and they were actually four units behind. It's surprising to me it's not the lowest level classes that i have the most problems controlling. We've been taking Korean lessons from the director's wife twice a week. In exchange we're be helping her with her English, which is already quite good. The kids in the lower level classes get a kick out me butchering their language, and they have fun trying to teach me new words. Sometimes i have to stop them so we can get the lessons done. There are a few classes i can't get to pay any attention to the lesson at all. One 1B level class i have spend the entire time talking in Korean. There's only one girl who pays any attention and can answer the questions. I can't get through the lessons, and telling them why their answers are wrong is pointless because they refuse to listen. I have a feeling they may not be advancing to the next level. Keeping kid in their seats is an issue as well. Some kids can't sit still. In one class two kids began fighting when one got up and attacked the other. I got in the middle and asked the instigator to sit down. When he refused to listen i picked him up with one arm and put him in his seat. I've only done that a couple of times so far. If teaching has done one thing for me so far, it's raise the volume of my voice several notches.

We found out when we get our vacation the other day. We have a week at the end of July/beginning of August. It looks like we'll probably head to Japan if we can afford it, which i don't think should be problem. We thought about Thailand as well, but i looked on the internets and safety seems like it may be an issue there. It looks like we'll be cruising the streets of Tokyo a little sooner than we expected. Japan was the first place i wanted to go teach. At Christmas we have a break as well. For that one we're planning on going to Australia. I think i've wanted to go there ever since i saw that classic movie Crocodile Dundee as a kid.

I really knew nothing about Korea until just before we started applying for jobs here. Now that we're here i'm very happy with our decision. Everyone at this school has been amazing. I thought the post on the internet made it sound too good to be true, so we were a little wary. We are ecstatic to find out every word was true. It really is a close group. As we were leaving school the other night the director said to us in his broken English something to the effect, "While you're in Korea we are your parents. Don't be afraid to call us for anything." He and his wife have been so amazing. We feel very grateful.

We ran into a fellow Canadian tonight at the supermarket near here. We met him our first week here when we were at the Korea Exchange Bank. He saw we were exchanging Canadian money and struck up a conversation with C. I gave him my email address and he sent an invite to a local expat bar in Wonju called "U2". Even though we're not really into bars, even back home, i think i may have to check it out sometime. The chance they may have Canadian beer will lure me in eventually, i'm sure.

-insomniac out.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Well, That Was Fun

I don't think i'll be sleeping for a while. Just got back from the hospital. C had an asthma attack that was pretty bad. I had to call the director of our school to take us to Yonsei University Hospital when her machine didn't help. I think we were pretty lucky that the head doctor has a couple of kids at the school. It didn't take long to see him. Before he got there C had already had a nurse and three interns poking and prodding her. She had an IV, oxygen tubes up her nose, and they attempted to take blood. You should see the posse my girlfriend rolls with when we hit the hospitals. If we didn't have someone to translate i think they would have opened up her chest. I couldn't believe the hacks trying to take blood from an artery in her wrist. They must have skewered her fifty times before they finally drew blood. Three different interns took a stab at her (literally). C was in a lot of pain and was very close to tears. One of the interns spoke at least a little English, and i was about to ask if it was all really necessary when they finished. After the doctor looked at her he decided she should have a chest x-ray as well. In Canada she would have got some medication, eventually, and we would have been gone. The emergency was packed with interns and patients. At one point we heard the word "enema" somewhere in the distance. We both looked at each other and i said, "If that's for you we're out of here." In the end everything turned out alright. C is fine now and is getting some well deserved rest.

Last night i decided to take some pills to help me sleep. A good friend of mine that works at a health food store got me some Melatonin. It's supposed to help "regulate circadian rhythms and improve sleep quality related to sleep disorders and jet lag". A couple of hours after taking the pills i really felt like i couldn't keep my eyes open and i went to bed around one. That's really early for me. As i was drifting off i got a feeling like my heart was fluttering and i was out of breath. That kind of scared me, but i was too tired to worry much. About six in the morning i shot up in bed with a stabbing chest pain. I haven't felt anything like that in a couple of years. After the pain subsided i did manage to get back to sleep for a few hours. I think i scared C a bit. Other than that i slept really well. Almost nine hours, i think. A few years ago i was having serious chest pains and a feeling like my heart was fluttering before i saw my doctor and changed my diet. Since coming to Korea i haven't had any pains at all in my chest. I think i'll lay off the pills tonight.

On Sunday we stopped in the stadium near here to watch some kids playing soccer. An old Korean man was walking by us staring a little bit when he saw the "Old Navy" shirt i was wearing. He asked, "Are you in the navy?" I told him we were English teachers and he sat down and had a nice chat with us. He said he works at Yonsei University in Wonju and went to school at Rutgers in New Jersey. It was good to have an English conversation with someone other than kids or the people we work with. At first i thought as he passed he was just staring as the Koreans here do. I'll have to write about the staring thing another time, and teaching as well. I will write about teaching some day.

-insomniac out.

Saturday, June 11, 2005


You've never seen straighter trees than in Korea. I first noticed these contraptions on our drive through Seoul. Koreans seems to have some kind of problem with trees that aren't straight. I've seen a few in Wonju as well as these from our trip to Chuncheon. I don't get it.
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One of the teachers from work offered to take us up to Chuncheon with a group they were leading there Sunday. We spent almost the entire day in two of the parks in the city. The trip and the parks weren't too exciting, but it was nice to see a little more of the country. It was a hot and sunny day. As i predicted C was burned badly, even though we stayed in the shade as much as possible. Five days later she's blistering and starting to peel. I have to watch her while we're here and make sure she puts on sunscreen from now on. On the way back the bus let us out in front of E-mart , so we went to the McDonalds inside for out first burgers in a month. It was pretty good, but nothing seems to taste quite the same as home. Pepsi, Coke, Pizza Hut, and the McDonalds we've had all taste a little different than the stuff at home.
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Sunday, June 05, 2005


"What are you looking at white boy? Haven't you seen a squid tank on the back of a truck before?" Your squid just doesn't get any fresher than this. We see a truck like this parked in front of the school every of couple days at least.
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The first decent shot i've taken of where we're working. Readingtown is on the third floor of this building. My home room is on the far left of the building. I can hear people playing the piano in the piano school below us almost everyday while i get ready for class. The director of the school lives in the apartment right behind the school. We have a 15 minute break each day and we go to his apartment for a meal his wife makes. On Tuesdays and Thursdays the director brings in food for the teachers to eat in my classroom. I'll write more about my teaching experiences another time.
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We went for a walk to downtown Wonju on Saturday and ran into this performance in the middle of the street. The dancers were actually pretty good and the crowd seemed to dig the performance. We didn't stop long because we were on a mission for comfortable shoes for C so we can go walking more. I also wanted to find the movie theatre where the new Star Wars movie was playing. C was getting frustrated and emotional as usual. This time was because she was hot and thought we were lost. After we made it around this performance i did manage to find both the shoe stores and movie theatre we were looking for. No luck finding shoes, but we did see and enjoy the movie.
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Wednesday, June 01, 2005

The Long Road

We arrived in Korea on Saturday May 7th after over 30 hours and 10,000 km. I had only slept for about an hour before we got up at 4am to catch the plane, and had only five hours sleep the night before. As usual i couldn't get my mind to stop long enough to sleep. As i had thought, sleep for me on the plane was impossible. While the ride from San Francisco was comfortable for the first eight hours, i only managed to doze during the middle of "National Treasure". I'm sure i only managed about a half hour. The head teacher of our school, Robert, picked us up at Incheon Airport west of Seoul. On the way to Wonju we took a wrong turn and had to drive through Seoul. That was a trip in itself. I have never seen anything like it. Every major artery was a parking lot. I'm sure i'll never see as many cars in one place in my life again. A trip that would have taken less than two hours in good traffic ended up being four and a half hours. About half way through the drive i think we passed out from exhaustion. I remembered seeing a sign that said 'Wonju 85 km'. When i woke up probably a half hour later the next sign i saw said 'Wonju 75 km'. Our first impression of Korea was not a good one.

We finally arrived in Wonju at somewhere close to midnight, i think. Everything was a blur at that point. The director of the school and us had us in for our first Korean meal when we finally stopped moving. They are both extremely nice and go out of their way to help us. As nice as the meal as soon as we arrived was, all we really wanted to do was see the apartment and pass out. Unfortunately i don't think seeing the apartment in the dark when we first arrived was a good idea. It was very dark and dingy and we could tell the "cleaning lady" they hired had not done a good job. As soon as we walked in the door i wanted to turn around and go home. The giant garbage bag sitting in the doorway didn't help things. I can only imagine how C felt. She can get very emotion at (all) times. I don't blame her though. I think tears were shed by her, but i can't remember much from that point until we slept. We are feeling much better about the apartment now that we have had a chance to clean a little ourselves. We got some furniture this weekend from the apartment of one of the teachers we replaced and it's starting to feel like home.

We spent Sunday with the teachers we would replace, Chris and Jessica. We spent the day walking around town. They showed us around and we went and saw "Kingdom of Heaven", which was forgettable. It was nice to know that we can see some North American movies. Jessica has been amazing with all the information and help she's given us. Shopping has been interesting. Most of the packages have no English, so figuring out what everything is has been fun. That night we went out for a typical Korean supper. We sat on the floor around a table and in a huge pan on the table a dish of cabbage, chicken, and other assorted vegetables was cooked. It was very good and not too spicy. I really thought it would be harder to find western food then it is. There seems to be a lot of pizza and fried chicken places here. The pizza is a little different as some has corn on it. We were told that the Dominos and Pizza hut in the city have English service, which will come in handy when we're feeling homesick. There's even a McDonald's at the E-Mart (like a Wal-Mart) and we even saw a Dunkin Donuts downtown. There's also something like a Korean McDonald's at the supermarket not far from here called Lotteria.

Chris and Jessica left on the 19th to go back to the states before taking off for Japan. Now the real test starts with no English speakers near our age around that we know. I wish we could've got to know them better. They never got to see how funny i am once you get to know me. It's hard to joke with people you don't know since you're not sure where the boundaries are. They both were very nice and i think we all could have been good friends if we lived within 2000 km of each other. I wish them the best and hope they enjoy Japan as much as they did Korea.

-insomniac out.