Taking a break.

Perhaps you've noticed that I've slowed down my blogging as of late. Not much has been very interesting lately, and I don't want to just throw something up here just to update every day. I'm going to take some time off to recharge. Look for an update after January 1st. Merry Christmas everyone!

John's Last-Minute Christmas Guide!

Don't know what to get your loved ones this Christmas? Don't know what to get yourself? You can't go wrong with these gift ideas! Oh, and please, don't buy me these. I own them already :)

Like music?


Like Books?


Like TV?


There you have it! Now you don't have to worry any more!

Election Day

It's election day...which means no school! Enjoy!

The best dinner in Korea.

Last night Kate, one of my co-teachers, took me out for dinner as a Christmas present. Due to the unique nature of Korean-English pronunciation, I though the name of the restaurant was "Bips" but it turned out to be "Vips." Anyway, it's been so long since I've had a good meal, I hardly knew what to do with myself! There was a stocked salad bar with hot and cold food, including some awesome garlic tortillas (about as close one gets to Mexican food in Ulsan). Then came the main course--steak! I nearly cried, it was so delicious. Then came more salad bar and for desert, yogurt and Canapé. Again, very delicious. I can't tell you how much I miss American food. I try so hard to like many kinds of Korean food, but I just can't get myself to like it. Dinner at Vips was like a little taste of home again, and enjoying it with a good friend made it all the more special.

Tomorrow is election day--no school! Woo hoo! :)

Politics, Korean Style

This is an election year in Korea. Presidential, provincial, local, everything. Everyone heads to the polls on December 19th. The run-up to elections in Korea is a lot like in the US. There are campaign ads, billboards, etc. The biggest difference is the presence of mobile campaign stations. These are trucks that have an open back. Some of the truck beds have a mobile stage on the back from which the candidates can pontificate with their street teams (who really just dance around and hand out flyers). Other trucks are outfitted with HUGE backlit pictures of the candidate and massive speaker systems that blare the candidates theme song for everyone to hear. Whenever I've gone downtown this month, I've been driven insane by two or three of these trucks being in the same vicinity, each trying to outdo each other in sound output. Luckily, since I don't watch Korean TV, I'm spared those political ads. I asked a few of the young people (around my age) in my school about how they vote--almost all of them just said they look for the man with the kindest face. Hey, at least they're voting, right?

Homegrown Engrish.

I would have probably picked a different name for this clinic. Unless you plan on serving mutants, of course.

The Old Three Thousand

Actually, I'm not sure if that's the name or not.

Ok, to be honest, I'm sure that's not its official name. But it accompanies all social gatherings in Korea. I think it's three thousand ounces. After choir practice on Sunday, they decided to have a party for me, which really means, time to drink a couple old three thousands. Good times.

Sometimes being a teacher sucks.

So today I had to discipline a student. She was drawing in class (supposedly an art project). I told her once to put her papers away. She complied, but five minutes later she had her papers back out and she was drawing again. This time, I took the papers away. While I wasn't looking, she stole them back from my desk, and was drawing again. The other students were witness to this. It was time for me to act. I took the paper and tore it in half. Was I justified in doing so? Probably. Do I still feel bad? Of course. I always hate disciplining students--it's one of the reasons why I could never be a teacher for life.

Engrish.com

Engrish. You love it. I love it. Go to the site. Laugh.

My Friend

That's right, this space heater shaped like a fan is christened with the name "My Friend." I prefer friends that don't have the ability to burn down my house.

Vacation time is over...for two weeks.

Well, I just ended two weeks of having no classes--just me and the good ol' internet. Today's Friday, but come monday it will be back to normal-for two weeks, and then I get a week off, teach a one week English camp, then possibly get two weeks off after that.

I really like my job.

Real Life Superheroes

Here are ten interesting folks. My favorite is this guy.

#2 The Boy with Sonar Vision (Ben Underwood)

Ben Underwoodtaught is blind, both of his eyes were removed (cancer) when he was 3. Yet, he plays basketball, rides on a bicycle, and lives a quite normal life. He has teached himself to use echo location to navigate around the world. With no guide-dogs, he doesn't even need hands: he uses sound. Ben makes a short click sound that bounces back from objects. Amazingly, his ears pick up the ecos to let him know where the objects are. He's the only person in the world who sees using nothing but eco location, like a sonar or a dolphin.


Read about all ten here.

American Football in Korea

I'll admit it, besides the food, I miss being home for the football season. There's nothing like relaxing on the couch on the weekend in front of a football game. In Korea, I thought that football didn't exist, but it turns out some universities have football teams, and *gasp*, marching bands!


Here is how Google translated the accompanying article.

----Involvement in the 10-7 win last year, taking up to two years in a row tayigeobol

College soccer is December 1, 2007, we gourmet (Saturday) afternoon 12 6:00 ungsang Stadium in volume production at Kyungnam University Article 48 times the national football championships before the final 'tayigeobol' involvement in physical sparring, 10-7, and won the championship. Our university has also won the last two times golfers, the tournament second consecutive victory for the glory of the team.

The final quarter of the 89 times against Sen. Don Kim Su-ro's 24-yard field goal, but the first three points, the second quarter from a stint in touchdown kicks and accepted by seven points in the game.

Fourth quarter and the game three minutes and 30 seconds, leaving a once Africa's touchdown and 33 times in Kim's success, thanks to seven points by adding the kick, 10-7 victory.

The award ceremony took place after the game in the tournament MVP 381 (Environmental Engineering and 3), while the players, coaches coach donguidae baekseungil award, best offensive player award Projects (distribution management departments 4), and best manager award 11.30 (a Japanese literature and 2) manager Water.

Yun said, "two in a row for the glory of sport too mean, the players work hard and are likely to result from hunting," he says, "American football game on the domestic kimchi with a win so that you can see exactly in the best of preparations," said the championship experience.

The tournament includes nationwide 35 intakes each region (Seoul, Busan, Daegu) Regions 4 expires after all 12 teams qualifying to advance to the finals, and the Seoul National University, 19-0, we practiced, in the semifinals of Daegu medicine to 45 -- 15, surpassing advance to the finals.

January 6, 2006 (1) 3,942 stadium in Seoul, Korea and Australia syupeobolin the final winners' foundation 'for the finals. The final will be Australia, Seoul and Busan draw beef producers' gwanggaetobol 'win for the December 2, 2007 (Sunday) in Yongin University Stadium finals.

----

Not too bad for a machine translation!

My thoughts on the current state of DCI and its relation to music education.

If you're here to read about something Korean, just skip this post. In fact, if the letters DCI mean nothing to you, this post will be of no interest to you. However, I spent a lot of time typing this up on the band forums, and I wanted to give any interested parties a chance to read about my thoughts on this issue.

DCI was formed out of necessity, but (in my opinion) has been doing far more bad than good for the activity in the past 15 years. Consider these questions.

How many corps have folded?
How many kids are participating in the activity?
How much influence do a few people have versus the many?
How many smaller corps are there?

The fact is, DCI has done nothing for the activity but drive costs up and widen the divide between the haves and have nots. You've got staffs (staves?) full of people who couldn't hack it on the professional circuit or who failed in broadway trying to impart their "artistic vision" on a group of young people.

In my opinion, drum corps should be something that is directed towards the entertainment of the audience. Do you think a drum corps audience of today walks away from a show as entertained as they did 15 years ago? Well, you may argue, even though the music is not as interesting to the audience, the members are getting a better musical education through playing original works.

Drum corps is not music education.

Drum corps develops good work discipline and provides a wealth of performance experience, but playing the same ten minutes of music all summer long is in no way a substitute for a curriculum that will increase your ability as a musician through playing a repertoire of different works, studying theory, aural skills, etc.

A summer at Interlochen is music education. A summer with DCI is not.

However, I'm not knocking drum corps because it's not music education. It shouldn't be. Drum corps should be a chance for young people who are driven enough to rehearse all through the hot summer to push themselves to perform a show to the best of their ability. The kids always have been and always will do that. It's the people in charge and their "artistic vision" that leads to glazed over stares from the audience who are the problem.

Playing original music when you're The Cadets is fine. You're big enough and have enough talent to make it interesting. A voiceover? Ok, you're The Cadets. The audience will still applaud.

However, if you're a small corps, you want to be like one of the big boys. Your staff comes from people who want to eventually work for The Cadets. They want to have their "Artistic Vision." Guess how well that corps is going to go over with the audience? And if I busted my butt all summer to perform this show, how the audience responds is going to make all the difference in the world to me. I couldn't care less about imparting some greater "Artistic Vision." So I have two choices:

1. Drop out of drum corps.
2. Move up to a top 12 corps.

Sadly, that's the state of DCI right now. You've got small corps trying to mimic the repertoire of larger corps who can only get away with the music they're playing because they have the talent (artificially increased by the numbers flooding in from smaller corps) and the money (to buy a staff who is top of the line.)

Maybe you don't think DCI is in trouble. Maybe you think all the shows are great. Maybe you like this new direction. But the numbers don't lie. The top corps need the lower corps just as much as vice versa. Whenever you see the dramatic decrease in numbers for the activity, it can only spell doom for the organization.

More culinary adventures.

This bad boy is Sundae. At first I thought sundae was the same as hagis, but it turns out sundae is much more disgusting.

According to wikipedia, sundae is Korean blood sausage. Now if you know me, you know I've got nothing against sausage.

Sundae is not sausage. It's some kind of potato and blood mix mixed together and stuffed inside the intestine of a pig.

Of course, I tried it once, like everything else, but never again. I don't know if it was worse than bundaegee (see the previous culinary adventures post), but it was definitely equal.

Between live octopus, sundae, and fish head soup, Korea is doing its best to turn me into a vegetarian.

100 Posts!

Oh happy day! This is by far the longest I've ever managed to keep a blog without losing interest. I guess it's because this is the first time I've ever had anything in my life interesting enough to write about. Anyway, help me celebrating by posting a comment! Looking at my Google analytics, people are looking at my blog from all over the world! Please, just once, post a comment! I'm talking to you, Mr. Nishinomiya, Japan who's been here three times!

Last night I went to go visit my friend Becky at work, since she had to work today, the day we normally hang out. First, I took the bus to Samsandong to have some KFC goodness. KFC is sooo good :) Anyway, from there I took a taxi to dong-gu, where the hotel is where she works as a bartender. Anyway, I tell the taxi driver where to go, and off we go. Except he's watching tv on his GPS. Ok, no problem. As long as we don't die, whatever. The interesting part comes when as we get closer to the destination, he taps the gps screen to bring up the map. "Cool," I think, "he's going to get me right where I need to go. However, he taps it again, so the map is sharing the screen with the tv.

So let me clarify. The taxi driver is

1. Driving
2. Watching the Korean Oscars on TV
3. Looking and inputting information into his GPS about where we're going

...all at the same time! Talk about multitasking.

What sucks is that he didn't know where to go anyway, and I had to take another taxi from my pharmacy to the hotel. Oh well.

Climbing a mountain, indoor version.

So I decided to get out tonight since it's Friday. Well, technically, if you've been reading along you know I was supposed to have choir practice tonight. I walked down to the church and it was full of people listening to a guest priest talk. I saw my friend Hwan Jo's dad and sat beside him. Using a combination of facial gestures, his cell phone's calendar and my cell phone's dictionary, he silently told me that choir practice was canceled this week. So now I had no plans.

I took a taxi to Mega Mart and walked around there for a bit, to see if they had any Christmas decorations for sale yet. They're slowly starting to bring them out, so maybe I'll go down there again next weekend and pick up a small tree and some lights for the apartment. Speaking of next week things, last week I went to ETLand, an electronics store. They promosied me that they would have the iPod Touch in stock next week, which is now this week. Conveniently, ETLand is right next to Mega Mart, so I strolled in, only to be told that the Touch isn't going to arrive until December 16th or so. I don't know if this is a sign that I should order one online or if this is a sign that I don't really need one at all.

Anyway, I was already halfway downtown by this point, so I took a cab to Hyundai Department Store. Assuming they closed at 9 (it was 8:30), I went in and took the escalator to the second floor. Then, abruptly, the escalator stopped. "Hm," I thought. "I guess they shut the escalator down half an hour before the store closes. I'll just walk up the rest of the way." Big mistake. By the time I got up to the sixth floor where the iPods were, I was about to die. It was like climbing a mountain, part two, this time in public and wearing a winter coat. I arrived to a deserted electronics section. There were a few guys in suits over by the big screen tvs, but I don't know if they were employees or what. At this point I noticed there were dust covers over everything. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe the department store doesn't close at nine.

I was wrong. The department store closed at 8:30.

So anyway, in no shape to mount the escalator for a manual descent, I looked for the elevator. Finding it, I was dismayed to discover it was not functioning, it being after store hours. Frantically looking for an alternative to climbing down the escalator from the 6th floor of an empty department store, someone asked, in English (!) if I needed any help. Luckily, the 6th floor manager was walking around and spotted me. He took me to the employee elevator and rode it down too the ground floor with me. Then some Korean girls (who were simply amazed that I knew any Korean at all) talked with me for awhile and gave me directions to Bennigans. I knew where Bennigan's was, but it was a nice gesture nonetheless. We said goodbye, I walked for about a block, stepped inside a Paris Baguette for a pastry to fortify myself, and took a taxi home.

Not a bad Friday night. Sure beats sitting at home.

Results of the first experiment--subject is a hopeless failure.

I lasted about thirty minutes last night in my quest to not become a screen zombie. Part of the problem is that the view out of my apartment window isn't as much scenic as it is facing the side wall of the apartment building beside me. There's only so long I could look at the posters on my walls before I just had to get on the internet. Oh well. I accept my defeat.

Tonight is my first choir practice at church. Should be interesting.

Nothing like a little K-Fed talk in the morning...

One of my little joys in life is talking to one of the office girls via the school's IM client every day. Here is a transcript of one of our recent chats. Unfortunately, you have to read from the bottom up. I've also changed her name, so no stalking! ;)

자님이 보낸글 >>
That is , a good father

John님이 보낸글 >>
Ah, I see. He is not a good father?

자님이 보낸글 >>
He is a merciless demand to brittney spears.

John님이 보낸글 >>
why?

자님이 보낸글 >>
I think a bad man.

John님이 보낸글 >>
k-fed = Kevin Federline

자님이 보낸글 >>
k-fed ?? What mean??

John님이 보낸글 >>
what about k-fed?

자님이 보낸글 >>
I remember . She's exacting.
Paparazzi always picks on her.

John님이 보낸글 >>
Remember when she shaved her head? Why did she do that?

자님이 보낸글 >>
Take pity on brittney spears. Not crazy.

John님이 보낸글 >>
i dont think brittney spears is dignified any more. she is crazy!

자님이 보낸글 >>
She's a dignified appearance, Good~


John님이 보낸글 >>
i think every korean girl likes brittney spears and beyonce ^^

자님이 보낸글 >>
like a Korean girl????

John님이 보낸글 >>
You sound like a Korean girl ^^

자 님이 보낸글 >>
Britney Spears, Beyonce , Ne-Yo(Shaffer Chimere Smith)

John님이 보낸글 >>
do you have a favorite american singer or band?

I'm a screen zombie.

I need to get away from the screen. What screen? All of them. Television, computer, you name it. Since coming to Korea, whenever I'm not teaching, I'm usually in front of my laptop (at school) or my television (at home). This can't be good for my eyes. I've got to find something to do to make my eyes relax. I think tonight I'm just going to go home, lie down, turn off the lights, and put on some music. No screen time tonight. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

In the meantime, why don't you read Azreal's (of Gaijin Smash fame) editorial on his quest to overcome the dreaded screen zombine syndrome.

OLPC

I've never found a way to accurately describe what a waste of time, effort, and resources the OLPC (one laptop per child) project is. Luckily, someone summed up my feelings in a comic.

It's Desert Bus for Charity!

I went to these guys' website to check it out--it's super cool how you can watch both a live stream from their house and the "bus cam." Watch and donate (if you're so inclined) at desertbus.org!

This article says they will raise $5,000, but they've almost raised four times that amount!

Article Link

Three, oh three, it's a magic number

In class this week I'm doing a lesson on numbers. As a treat at the end, I printed up the lyrics to Three Is A Magic Number from Schoolhouse Rock and showed them the video featuring the Blind Melon song. Have you ever heard something so funky?

New culinary adventures.

This past weekend was full of that great Korean tradition, drinking and noraebang. I did try some bun dae gee, which is silkworm larvae (see above). Never again. Mind you, the folks I was with were gulping it down like there was no tomorrow.

Thanksgiving is not a good holiday to spend alone. Of course, in Korea, there is no Thanksgiving. I spend the evening with a pizza and Oblivion for the 360. Not an ideal marriage, but that's the breaks when you choose to live in another country. Tonight I'm going out with some of the administration staff for dong dong ju (potato liquor) so that should be fun. Today is pay day too! And Friday! Woo hoo!

If you know me, you know I love Gaijin Smash, the best ex-pat blog on teh intarwebs. It puts mine to shame by at least a thousand percent. Anyway, in his newest article, Azrael talks about his perfect wedding.


Personally, I want my bride-to-be to come down the aisle to the Voltron theme song. Preferably running. And then I could hire Peter Cullen to do the narration in the Optimus Prime voice - "From days of long ago, from uncharted regions of the Pacific Ocean, comes a legend. The legend of Azrael, Defender of the Gaijin. A mighty Gaijin, loved by teachers, feared by junior high school boys..." And then the minister could say "Ms. Azrael, do you vow to activate the interlocks, to always connect the dynatherms, to ensure that the infra-cells are up, and to make sure that the mega-thrusters are go for as long as you shall live?" Would that not be the most awesome wedding ever? Any woman who can't get on board with this is clearly not a woman I want to be marrying.


The teachers had to look up at me to make sure I was ok after reading that.

Let me tell you something I don't udnerstand about Korea. It's November. It's freakin' cold outside. Inside the teacher's room, it's warm and toasty. However, once you step outside those cozy confines, it's cold. The schools I teach at have no heating system in the hallways. Ok, I'm fine with that--maybe it provides some extra incentive to get kids in the classroom on time. However, why open the windows? That's right, the teachers open the windows in the hallways in November, allowing an arctic wind to permeate throughout the school. I asked a teacher why they did this and she responded, "Air conditioning." Maybe she misunderstood the question.

Also, random question. Why bother using the vibrate function on your cell phone if the sound of the phone vibrating is louder than the ringtone? Just throwing that out there.

My nonprofit dream....

Considering what the Eee PC can do with such small processing power and RAM, I'd love to start a nonprofit that:

1. Accepts old computers free of charge and gives receipts for tax writeoffs.
2. Wipes the HD.
3. Puts a build of Linux on there that looks similar to Eee PC's--or even simpler. 5 big buttons: Email - Internet - Office - Pictures - Solitaire. Each one leads to its corresponding program (linux again).
4. Sells these computers to the general public for $25-$50.
5. Gives away these computers to people or organizations in need.

This has always been a personal dream of mine. Maybe one day it will come true.

Classic Video Games in SK

In Seoul, there's a place outside of Yongsan Station that sells video games. However, most Koreans are only interested in the latest and greatest, so it's difficult to find anything before the PS2. Also, it was technically illegal to import anything VG related from Japan until 1997. However, Hyundai and Samsung somehow convinced Nintendo and Sega respectively to put their company badge on their consoles and games, making them legal to sell. However, all these efforts were generally a flop, so those Hyundai and Samsung branded games and consoles are very hard to find now. I did manage to find some though, with the help of a Korean friend.



Samsung Saturn Game


Hyundai Super Comboy Game


Here's a random Game Gear (I guess in Japan it's Kid's Gear) game. I never knew they ported Virtua Fighter over!


I also found a Tagamotchi game from Japan buried within some random stuff.

The importance of being earnest.

One of the best things about talking to other Koreans is because of their limited vocabulary, it's actually easier for both of you to say what's on your mind. It's wonderfully refreshing to hear things like, "I really like having you as a friend," and "Was lunch delicious?" It's hard to explain, but in America everyone is so dependent on euphemism and indirect comments that sometimes you wish people would just come out and say what's on their mind. Of course, this has its downsides, especially if you have thin skin. Korean men regularly comment on how fat I am, for example. I don't think they mean it as an insult, rather, it's just an observation. On the other hand, you never need to worry about someone saying something and meaning something else--it's all out in the open.

TGIF!

Here's some K Pop I actually don't mind. Of course, the video makes no sense, but that's ok.

Feeling lazy today, here's a music video.

Our step mom we did everything to hate her
She took us down to the edge of Decatur
We saw the lion and the kangeroo take her
Down to the river where they caught a wild alligator

Sangamon River it overflowed
It caused a mudslide on the banks of the operator
civil war skeletons in their graves,
They came up clapping in the spirit of the aviator

The sound of the engines and the smell of the grain,
We go riding on the abolition grain train
Steven A. Douglas was a great debater,
But Abraham Lincoln was the great emancipator

Chickenmobile with your rooster tail
I had my fill and I know how bad it feels
Stay awake and watch for the data
No small caterpiller, go congratulate her

Denominator, go Decatur, go Decatur,
It's the great I Am
abominate her, go Decatur, why did we hate her?
It's the great I Am

Denominator, go Decatur, anticipate her
It's the great I Am
Appreciate her, appreciate her,
Stand up and thank her,

Stand up and thank her,
It's the great I Am.
Stand up and thank her,
It's the great I Am.
Stand up and thank her,
It's the great I Am.
Stand up and thank her.

-Sufjan Stevens

I really hate the litter in Korea. I guess about 15 years ago there were trash cans everywhere, but people tell me that they were removed because people were putting their home trash in them and not paying for trash pickup, so they were removed. The downside of this is now when people are out and about they just throw their trash everywhere. At the end of November we're doing a special lesson on pollution, so I was looking for a good Youtube clip to show the kids. I found this, which I must have missed when it aired on American TV.



A great reminder that the US hasn't come far enough since the original crying Indian commerical in the 70's.

Today is Pepero day, a day invented because "Pepero" spelled in Korea looks like 11/11. Kind of. Anyway, this is so much more of a Hallmark day than Secretaries Day, Paraprofessional day, etc. The company that makes Pepero, Lotte, makes a mint, because the entire holiday involves around people exchanging Pepero. Not even individual sticks-whole packages!

Here's some more info from Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepero_Day

Another...interesting....school outing

Yesterday the all the teachers at Yeonam Middle School took a trip to see the fall foliage at Pohang. We loaded up in a charter bus (which had the same disco lights as the one I rode from Jochiwon to Ulsan in) and took off. On the way up I ate some Jeju oranges, which is by far the best fruit Korea has to offer. I especially appreciated the lack of seeds. Anyway, we got to Pohang about an hour later, and as a result of the curvy mountain roads, many of the teachers were extremely sick. After a half hour looking at the mountains and the local Buddhist temple, we got back in the bus and went to dinner. What's good for curvy mountain road-supset stomach? Raw fish! That's right! We went to a raw fish place for dinner. Not only that, there was (as always) a ton of soju. Some of the teachers were trashed. Of course, she threw up in the bus on the way home. Good times. Not to mention I had to sit next to a drunk adjosshi who insisted I repeat his name over and over while he gave me a hand massage. Not the best time I've ever had in my life. After we got back to Yeonam-dong, I was going to go home, but once again I fell under the influence of members of the fairer sex and ended up going to the noraebang. Luckily, I was able to escape after a few songs (and a painfully sung rendition of George Harrison's Something sung by yours truly) and went home to bed. The teacher that threw up on the bus last night sits next to me in the teachers room. I don't look forward to seeing her condition this morning.

Korea's got Seoul.

I had a good time in Seoul this weekend, but I don't know if I'll ever go back. It's just like a bigger version of the city I already live in. They do have a lot more western resturaunts though. I bought a computer so I can watch American TV. It uses Windows XP so I couldn't use my Mac. I got a good deal on one though--a brand new Pentium 4, 3Ghz for $120, including mouse, keyboard, speakers, and Windows XP. I also got an adapter to hook it up to my tv, which cost $30. Now I'll be able to watch tv from back home using Sopcast.

I hung out with my friend Hwan Jo, and he took me to some of the more famous street markets in the city. We went to one that Metallica always visits when they come to Korea. It was pretty awesome. I'll have some pictures up soon. The thing is though, there are all kinds of those markets in Ulsan. Basically, Seoul is just like a bigger version of Samsan dong and Seongnam dong. Lots more people but the same stuff. The train ride was really nice though--much better than taking a bus. The return trip was better than the going one because it was daytime and I could see more of the scenery. I also picked up some cool Korean video game stuff--a Super Comboy, which is a localized Super Famicom marketed by Hyundai of all people, and a Comboy Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cart, which as common as it is in America, is really rare in Korea, because back in the 80's the console scene was almost nonexistant. At any rate, Oblivion came today in the mail so I'll be spending lots of quality time with the 360 this weekend-no more travel for me until I visit Dan.

Going to Seoul today!

Woo hoo! As soon as school is over I'm going to Ulsan station and taking the next train to Seoul. It should take about six hours--not a short trip by any stretch. I've heard the train is very comfortable here though. Tonight I'll stay in a hotel and tomorrow I'll hit the streets to do some gift shopping for my family and maybe pick up a cheap Windows computer so I can run Sopcast. Saturday night I'll stay with a friend, and come back on Sunday. Yay for having something to do on the weekend!

Happy Halloween!

Well, it was yesterday for me, but in the US, the fun is just getting started! Kids here in Korea have a faint idea about Halloween--they know it involves ghosts and pumpkins, but I had to explain to them the whole process behind dressing up, trick or treating, the ghost of the bayonet, etc. I still don't think they understand completely how trick or treating works. I used my buddy Flack's blog post on pumpkin carving to help explain that.

The thing I was most surprised at (though in hindsight I shouldn't have been) is that Korean kids don't really understand how a witch is supposed to look--the pointy hat, the broom, etc. Of course, the hagwon kids that study after school with other foreign teachers knew all about it, but the kids who didn't had no idea what I was talking about.

If you don't know about Homestar Runner, their Halloween cartoons are a great place to start. It's the best Halloween tradition on the internet!

http://www.homestarrunner.com/ween07.html

Korea still has a ways to go in terms of making all their buildings wheelchair accessible. Just like with smoking, I see Korea as similar to the United States 25 years ago. They are making progress though...kinda.




Is it just me or does that ramp look a little...steep?

My students are playing the Tanso in music class. The tanso looks like a recorder but instead of a plastic mouthpiece there is an indentation that you blow across like a flute. Sort of.

Anyway, the quality of the instruments vary wildly. Some students have new tansos made of plastic resin, while others have varnished wood ones. Some even have ones that look to have been passed down since before the Japanese occupation of 1913. These guys look hollowed out by hand and are bound together by some kind of old wire. I feel bad for these kids. Good think kimchi cures tetanus.

Seeing kids outside of school is a pretty common occurrence, since most of them live within walking distance to the school. However, whenever I see them, their behavior depends on who they're with. If they're with their friends, they tend to be very friendly. Even when they're alone, they still will say hello. However, when they're with their parents, they're almost always afraid to say a word to me. Many times the parents will recognize me, walk up and say hello, and ask their child to do the same, and the students will just give me the deer in the headlights stare. I don't know what to make of it. I can see if the student is just shy in general, but twice I've had kids who are the exact opposite of shy act this way around their parents.

Video Game Review: Eternal Sonata

I started Eternal Sonata with a little bit of trepidation. The last RPG I played was Final Fantasy X, and it was not a pleasant experience. I ended up giving it up about ten hours in. Luckily, ES, while a very modern RPG, cuts out a lot of things that I hated about FFX. I compare ES to FFX in this review simply because it was the newest RPG I'd played before ES.

To begin with, the cut scenes are far fewer. The time amount is probably the same, but the time between them is much larger. One of the worst things about FFX is that you'd have a cut scene, usually about 10 minutes or so. It finally ends and you think you're getting ready to start the action. You take five steps out of the village and boom, another cut scene. ES has no such problems. Admittedly, there are a lot of cutscenes, and if you play this and last generation RPGs, it's just something you're going to have to deal with. Luckily, ES lets you skip any cutscenes you like by pausing and pressing B. Or A. Whatever the green button is. This is especially useful when you're fighting a boss repeatedly, because you know each boss has to have a long soliloquy before each fight.

This leads me to my next point. The game actually makes you grind a little. This is my number one complaint with modern RPGs. It's even worse than the rampant cutscenes. What's the sense of spending $60 on a game if you can just breeze through it? The first time I died fighting a boss and had to start from my last save point, I practically wept for joy. Fighting around in this game is a joy too. The battle system is half turn-based and half action-rpg like Secret of Mana, which adds an extra element of difficulty to the fights. There are no random battles--you can see every enemy before you enter the battle screen. FFX suffered from major loading problems before and after battles. ES has next to no loading when fighting enemies.

Of course, the game is beautiful. This is by far the best-looking game I've ever played. All the scenery is perfect; I just wish I had an HDTV to take in even more of the goodness. The jaggies that made every PS2 game look bad are gone. There is no overworld, like in traditional FF or Dragon Warrior games, but the in-game world's environment is really, really vast, so while you travel across a wide plain you really get a sense of the size of the area. One downside is that unlike the RPGs of old, the linear nature of this games means that you rarely revisit places you've been before in the game.

The plot is pretty interesting, and I give Tri-Crescendo some points for thinking outside the normal RPG box a little. You really learn a lot about the life of Chopin during the game, and also get to hear full versions of his works. Of course, if this doesn't interest you, it's not important to the game and can be skipped using the method described above. The cut scenes are well done, but the dialogue, just as with all JRPGs, is a bit on the corny side.

There are a few things I don't like about the game. When do we get an RPG that doesn't use the same enemies over and over again, just with different colors? I mean, for crying out loud, this is the XBOX 360! Some of the monsters are poorly designed too--some of them look like monsters you'd see in a PS1 RPG--a striking contrast to the beauty of the rest of the game. Another annoyance is that the game has locked up on me 3 times since I started it, maybe 4. Luckily it's always been just after a save point, but it's still annoying to have to get up and cold start your 360. Of course, this is a problem that's not relegated only to ES, but it kind of puts you on the edge of your seat a little more when you're playing a game that's so dependent on save points.

Another thing I question--why is the voice acting so bad? I thought for sure we'd left bad voice acting behind in the last generation, but it's back with a vengence in ES. You're better off just turning on the Japanese voices and reading the subtitles.

I was pleasantly surprised at the ending of the game. I thought for sure I knew how it was going to end, and while I was mostly correct, the pacing and structure of the ending was excellent. The game took about 30 hours for me to complete, and I spent probably more time than I needed to wandering around the areas collecting things and grinding.

I can't recommend the music in this game enough. In a game about Chopin, I was expecting some of his music, but I believe the recordings they used of his pieces during the cut scenes were recorded specifically for the game. The in-game music is some of the best video game music I've ever heard. Unfortunately, like most RPG's, the battle music stays the same throughout the whole game, so you get sick of that after a while.

On the whole, this is the RPG that has given me hope in the future of the genre. While I'd like to see a return to the less linear RPGs of yesteryear, I know that those days are probably gone. In trade, now we have beautiful games like Eternal Sonata that are truly works of art in every since of the word--story, pictures, and music.

I give Eternal Sonata a 9/10.

I'm cured!

I'm feeling much better today. I think it might have been some bad food I ate. This weekend is just for resting. Tonight is a school staff dinner, and tomorrow I'm just going to hang out at home. Next weekend will be the big weekend--my maiden voyage to Seoul. I need to hit Yongsan, Itaewon, and Insadong. Yongsan is supposed to be Mecca for cheap electronics, Itaewon has a big English bookstore, and Yongsan is the antiques district. A train ticket from Ulsan costs about $60 round trip, but I'm hoping I can stay with a friend when I get up there so I won't have to shell out any more cash for a hotel.

Here's some K-Pop. All my girls students love this group. Their name is Big Bang.

Ugh...

I have a stomach ache today. It sucks. Both my co-teachers are sick. Tis the seasons. Maybe I should go to the doctor.

Vlogging the YMS Fall Festival, Day Two

The second day of the festival was held at KBS hall, sort of a civic center for Ulsan. It was a day comprised entirely of performances. The day started, as all performances do, with a lot of standing around.



Finally, after about two hours, the show finally started.

First up was the Yeonam School Song




Things were still pretty normal--no cause for alarm. We had the Happy Hands club, just like Napoleon Dynamite!



Next up were the dancers. This was cute, and what I was expecting to see.



After them, more dancers. This was not what I expected to see Middle School girls doing at a school-sponsored function. Can you imagine how long this would be allowed to go on in the US?




...and then came the biggest shock of all...even the teachers had a dance routine! (By order of the principal, only the cute teachers under 30 were allowed to participate.)



And then, just when you thought things couldn't get any more weird, the festival ended with Miss Yeonam, a drag competition.



And that was it! The Yeonam Middle School Fall Festival was...interesting, to say the least. And I guess we do it all over again in the Spring!

Big update tomorrow on day two of the fall festival

Until then, enjoy some Sufjan :)

Vlogging the Fall Festival Opening Ceremonies

Today was the first day of the Yeonam Middle School Fall Festival. There were lots of cool exhibits that showcase the artistic skills of the students, as well as your normal food and carnival games that you get at any kind of festival. By far, the most interesting thing about the festival was the ceremonies. To begin with, all the students massed outside at the end of the soccer field. If you've seen old drum corps or High-step style bands, you'll recognize the opening set.




This was followed by each class (there are many) paradaing in front of the booth that the dignitaries (as well as myself) were sitting in. The first class' theme was something about a monster and how to beat on the monster and shoot it with toy guns.



After all the students came out, there was the pledge and the singing of the National Anthem.



This is when things started to get a little bit weird. The chagi jalgi was brought out, which is kind of a Korean Hackey Sack. I thought maybe it was for the students to play with, but no. This chagi jalgi was for a special duel between the principal and vice principal, who, by the way, don't really look like chagi jalgi guys.



After the principal won the match, he celebrated his victory in the only obvious way possible, by singing a song.




...and that was it! The students fled inside and began walking around the exhibits, playing the games, etc. I took some good pictures of the art--some of it was really impressive. Tomorrow is the performance day, expect another update!

If you're going to comment anonymously...

...that's totally cool. Just make sure you sign your post somehow (first name, fake name, Don Cornelius, whatever) so I know if one person is commenting on one thread several times or two, or whatever :)



oh, I mean ^^

Today was the first day of the Ulsan English Festival. Each Middle School sends a foreign teacher plus a few Korean English teachers to man a booth, each with a different theme. Our booth was the airport, and my job was immigration officer. What that means is I asked each student for their passport (a paper one they filled out at another station in the booth) and asked them where they were going in America (apparently America is the only destination out of our airport), why they were going, and how long they were staying. Those three questions. Over and over and over. I don't know if you've ever seen pictures of masses of Asian schoochildren at events, but thats what it looked like today. Think a crowd just slightly larger than the Michael Jackson at Budapest concert. Ok, that's an exaggeration. That was the biggest crowd ever. But anyway, not much fun for me. And guess what? I get to do it tomorrow, from 9-5! All freakin day! Those three questions! Oh, did I mention the booth beside us had YMCA on repeat blaring all day? Apparently Koreans never get tired of that song. Before the festival started, that booth was playing other things. I heard Rock You Like A Hurricane followed up by the Imperial March from Star Wars. A perfect segue if ever there was one. Once the festival officially got going though, it was YMCA from there on out. Can't wait for tomorrow!

So what do you do all day, anyway?

I come into work around 8:15. I leave at 5 or 5:15. Out of all this time, I only teach 3 or 4 45-minute classes, so I have a lot of free time. A lot of free time. Especially when classes are canceled, like they were today in the afternoon. Here is a list of places I frequent online. Maybe you can kill some time there too!

Message Boards:

Digital Press - I've been a member here since 2001. Great community tailored to retro gaming enthusiasts who are also interested in current consoles.

Atari Age - I go here just for their Atari 8 Bit computer board.

Audio Karma - Vintage Audio Discussion

HHS Band Alumni - I run these boards.

Blogs:

Gizmodo - Gadgets and stuff

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Gaijin Smash - Rarely updated, but the archives are gold.

Homestar Runner - Of course.

I supplememnt this with MAME and AIM, and somehow I'm able to escape boredom :)

Woo hoo! Beautiful Katamari is out! This is why I bought a 360! Now I just have to wait two and a half weeks for it to get here from play-asia :( Maybe I'll throw in a little extra for expidited shipping, but the site's blocked here at school so I have to wait until I get home.

They want me to sing another song at the school festival. This one. It's not going to happen. Not only do I not know the song, even if I did know it there's no way I can sing that high.

Emoticons in Korea

Korean emoticons are different than the ones we use in the west. Normally, to describe happiness or a smile, we would use :-), or the shortened form :). In Korea, however, they use eyes to show emotions, so happiness becomes ^^. For the life of me I had no idea what this meant and in text messages with my coteachers I just thought they kept hitting the ^ key by mistake.

Other Korean (and I assume Asian) emoticons:

(^_^) = smile

(^o^) = laughing out loud

d(^_^)b = thumbs up (not ears)

(T_T) = sad (it's a crying face)

(-.-)Zzz = sleeping

(Z.Z) = sleepy person

\(^_^)/ = cheers, hurrah

(*^^*) = shyness

(-_-); = sweating (as in ashamed)

(^_^);; = sorry! my mistake

(?_?) = nonsense, i don't know

(^_~) = wink

(o.O) = surprise

v(^_^)v = victory

(>^_^)> = hugging

(>^_^)> <(^_^<) = hugging each other (^o^)

Source.

I found out today that I'm supposed to be a judge for the an English speech contest put on by several elementary schools. You know, because of my long history and recognized competence in that sort of thing.

Korean names, even almost two months in, give me trouble. You've got the last name, which you say first, and is limited to mostly Park, Kim, and Lee. Then there are the other two names. Koreans, almost without exception, have three names-just like in the United States, except in Korea you have to say all three names, unless you are speaking informally, but then you still have to say the first two. Although the names are so short, I guess it makes sense. The pronounciation has to be exact though, or no one will be able to tell who you're talking about. Case in point: the teacher who sits beside me at Yeonam Middle School is named Yun Jeong, and my co-teacher at Gangdong Middle School is named Eun Jeong. Not a whole lot of difference there.

Adding to confusion, Koreans frequently omit the subject of sentences, so you have to make sure it's well implied whether you're talking about yourself or someone else when you say, "I'm going to the store tomorrow." How you do that, I don't quite know.

Para Gliding...not for the faint of wallet

Wow, what a weekend!

Saturday morning I met my adopted Korean family to go climb a mountain. In my small brain, I thought this meant climb a little hill with a nice little hiking path. Oh no. We're talking a rocky mountain-size mountain here. 1000 meters. It about near killed me. The first half was all rocks, all incline. Not gravel rocks either, but these big boulders you had to climb up and over. The last half, thankfully, was comprised of a paved fire road, but by that point I was so tired from the rocks I felt little relief from the pavement. At the top we saw some guys para gliding. It looked super fun, so I asked one of the Korean people I was with if she could ask how much it cost. Before I know it, the guy is waving me over and we made plans to meet Sunday morning to go out with the rest of the Ulsan Para Gliding Club.

Sunday morning I got up and met Mr. Lee, the head instructor of the club. He was friendly and smoked about two cigarettes a minute. We went to his house to meet the other members of the club, a Greek guy (yay English speaker!) and another Korean guy. This is where the good times stopped. All three of them smoking in his van, no ventilation to speak of, me choking to death.

The first mountain we went to was deemed a no-go due to the lack of wind. the second mountain we went to was too windy for most of the guys, although the instructor took me up for a tandem flight.

Para gliding is cool, but way too expensive for me. Lessons cost about 500 bucks, which isn't too bad because you basically get lessons forever from Mr. Lee, who is a really great teacher. The expense comes in with the rest of the equipment you have to buy. The canopy and harness alone costs $5,000, and the rest of the random stuff you have to buy like a helmet and windsuit brings the total up to around six large. Not for me. Still, para gliding is something I've always wanted to try, and now I can say I did it, and in Korea no less. I took some pictures of Saturday, but unfortunately I didn't bring my camera on Sunday, so no record of my first flight exists.

Seagulls sing your hearts away

It's getting to the point now where I really miss being able to talk in English. That's the number one thing that sucks about being here. Especially outside of Seoul, people either don't have much English ability, or (more frustratingly) do have the ability to speak English but are too shy. I think I'm driving my co-teacher crazy because I keep wanting to talk to her, just to be able to talk. Ugh. Anyway, it's Friday. Tonight I'm going to stay in and put in some quality time with the 360, and tomorrow I'm going on the mountain climbing expedition. After that, we're supposed to go to a sauna. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, it will be good for me to get away from my apartment and from the school, the two places where I spend most of my time.

Wine for the the woman who made the rain come

Another day of testing, which means another day of sitting here with nothing to do. Hopefully I'll be able to finish This Side of Paradise today in the downtime. Eternal Sonata, the game I ordered from Play-Asia on Sept. 24th, finally came this morning. I was pretty worried it was going to get lost forever, so now I feel more confident ordering stuff online.

This is my new favorite website. It's called the Gallery of Regrettable Food. It's basically a collection of old cookbooks from the 50's and 60's with the most garish pictures you'll ever see. The commentary on each page is a riot.

Tea for the tillerman, steak for the son....

Sorry for the lack of update yesterday. I found out yesterday morning that my mom is back in the hospital. After that fantastic news, I went downtown to Samsan-dong to see if the main Catholic Church in Ulsan has any mass in English. While I like my church here in Yeonam-dong, I find I'm not getting much spiritual fulfillment there. Anyway, the main church also has no mass in English, so I'm going to have to go to Pusan. Pusan is about an hour away by bus, so I'm going to ask Mi Sung if she can call the church and confirm that they do have an English mass.

Let's see...any happy news? Hmmm... There's testing this week at school so I have even more free time than I do normally. Also, I'm climbing a mountain with my adopted Korean family this weekend. That should be fun and a change of pace from my normal weekend activites, i.e. drinking and sleeping. Oh, and my letter got read on my favorite Korean Podcast! Here's the link. If you don't feel like listening to the whole thing, my letter is read and commented on at the 1:15 mark (that's one hour and 15 minutes in).

New videos today!

Click on the movies link on the side of the page to see!

Randomness is bliss

To further the notion that to be unique in korea is something to be undesirable, Koreans all clap as one. Even the students. It doesn't even sound like clapping. I don't know what it sounds like. Something strange though.

Things I miss from the US:

You know I started this list and can't really think of anything. Of course, there are lots of people I miss from the US, but as far as actual things go...I guess I miss my car. I miss XM for the BBC and baseball. I miss ESPN Radio. I guess I can get both of those here though via the web. I do miss cruising around in my car, which leads me to...

The bus in Korea. I finally figured out how to take it. Let me just say I'm glad I live in a country where there is no odor in people's persperation, because you're packed pretty tight in there. I don't think I could survive the bus in Europe, or even the US, where people's hygenic habits are less than stellar. Right now I'm sitting in a pizza place. Normally I go with the hot chicken, which is about the only way to get chicken around here.

Oh, I miss chicken. Good chicken. Like KFC :) And Taco Bell. And Arbys. And Tudors. I almost cried last time I thought about Tudors.

Ok anyway, so I'm about ready to order this new kind of "combination pizza". Who knows what kind of food it will be a combination of. Squid? Octopus? Kimchi? All of the above? As long as its not seaweed. I really hate the seaweed here. It's completely different-tasting than Japanese seaweed I've had back home at Chinese and Japanese resturaunts.

Oh, that reminds me, I miss Chinese food too. There is an Americanized Chinese resturaunt down by Ulsan University I'm going to have to check out soon.

I got my pizza, and what I thought was a cheese-filled crust was actually filled with mashed potatoes. Weird, but pretty good.

One of my female students brought in a cd of one of the popular boy bands in Korea, FT Island. I had been wondering in a country as wired as Korea how artists make any money in album sales, since I'm sure downloading tracks off the internet is so commonplace. The package she brought me showed me how. And when I say "package," that's what I mean. The whole operation came in a thick plastic bag. Inside were three keychains, 10 sticker pages, a full-color, nicely bound, 30 page artbook with interviews and bios of the bandmembers, and of course the cd. Total price for everything? 11500 won ($12.58). Now that is what the RIAA needs to do to encourage people to buy records rather than download them. Back in the old LP days, this sort of thing used to be commonplace, but with the advent of the smaller form factor of the compact disc, many record companies abandoned the booklets with lyrics and pictures in favor of a cheaper, single sheet of glossy paper with the production and songwriting credits. It's no wonder people download music now! What else do you get with the music if you buy an album?

I met the head of the English department at the University of Ulsan at Purple Haze Tuesday night. He seemed really interested in having an English teacher work for him with a music background. He said as long as I'm in the process of getting a master's degree online he could hire me as a professor there. This is certainly something I wasn't expecting to consider. A university job is definitely the pinnacle of teaching in Korea, but it would also mean I'd have to commit to a master's degree in English, and also commit myself fairly long-term to teaching in Korea. Of course, I have a lot of time to think about it, as this year's just started.

I might go to Seoul this weekend, for the first time. Woohoo!

CD Review - The Else, They Might Be Giants

The Else, TMBG's first "proper" album since 2004's The Spine, is in many ways the successor to John Henry, the band's last album with Elektra, released in 1994. John Henry saw the band move in a much more "rock" direction, and most of the cuts on that album featured not only a full "real" band (hence the name John Henry), but a horn section as well. While The Spine had a few songs that fit this mold, The Else completely embraces this tactic for almost all of it's cuts, with heavy guitar and drums, multi-tracked vocals, and, in some cases, a full symphonic orchestration.

Song-by-song breakdown:

I'm Impressed - This is a Flansburg vehicle that's catchy enough, but on the whole pretty unremarkable. It's upbeat and a good title track, but beyond that, there's nothing special about it.

Take Out the Trash - It sounds deceptively simple in the beginning and lyrically is a bit cliché, but redeems itself somewhat in the chorus. The verses kind of remind me of a hard rock version of Paul Simon's 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.

Upside Down Frown - Another solid Linnell number. This one has the a cool kind of shuffle dance beat behind it. The lyrics are vintage TMBG--only the beat is different.

Climbing The Walls- Stylistically, this is in the same vein as many of Linnell's songs on John Henry. Not much to write home about. Musically the song is boring and lyrically it's just a bunch of phrases similar to the title. Bleh.

Careful What You Pack- I thought this after I heard The Spine, and this record definitely confirms it--Flansburgh has caught and passed Linell in terms of lyrical. Flansburgh's style has also matured some too--he can craft a pop song just as well as anybody. Careful What you pack starts out with some ambient electronic noise that sounds like it was ripped straight of a Mum album. When the song finally hits its groove, Flans comes in with "The known, the unknown, and the underknown..." At this point I started to lose hope in the song--it sounds like just an excuse for some wordplay, but the lyrics improve drastically and by the time you get to the chorus this is the catchiest and most sublime sounding pop tune as any Fountains of Wayne song you've ever heard.

The Cap'm - This is why we love John Linnell. Again, the words are nothing to nothing special, but it's that Paul Revere and the Raiders "Glad All Over" beat that gets in your head and won't get out. Think Dr. Worm, part II.

With the Dark - I'm kind of undecided about this track. It might grow on me a little its ok enough, pleasant, but nothing really great. It almost sounds like three or four songs that they couldn't finish smashed together. The music is really reminiscent of John Henry. The best bit is when Flans sings about "bustin' my pirate hump, rockin' my pegleg stump."

The Shadow Government- This is the one Flansburg song that I feel is timeless TMBG. It could have been on any of their albums and fit fine. Again, Flans is at his best lyrically, and the will have you singing along after the first listen.

Bee of the Bird of the Moth - I hate this song. If you have The Spine, this is in the same vein as Wearing a Raincoat. Just a bunch of repetitive garbage.

Withered Hope - One of the deepest Linnell songs on the album--the lyrics are reminiscent of his younger days back when he was churning stuff like this out like it was going out of style. The combination of horns and dj scratching is really impressive. Lots of good musical stuff going on here.

Contrecoup - Linnell really starts to pick up speed towards the end here. This is the Linnell song that I feel could fit on any TMBG album. Classic stuff.

Feign Amnesia - Filler. Sounds like a Mono Puff song.

The Mesopotamians - I'm so glad this album didn't end with Feign Amnesia. The Mesopotamians is great musically and lyrically. It actually sounds like something that came from the Apollo 18, which is high praise from me, given that that's my favorite TMBG album.


And that's it! As far as recent TMBG albums go, I'd rate The Else far above Mink Car but just a notch below The Spine.

I rate The Else 8/10

I guess I haven't written too much about my other school, Gangdong Middle School. It's a much smaller school than Yeonam Middle, only about 100 students total. The layout of the school is exactly like the school levels of Katamari Damacy, and even the outside of the school is the same, with the bleachers and the soccer goals and the dirt floor. And I'm not saying this because it's not really true and by writing this making you believe it's true and therefore making it at least a little bit true. It really is true!

Gangdong Middle School. Not really much else to write.

Engrish

If you haven't been to Engrish.com, you should check it out. Most of the Korean Engrish is on the Engrish from other countries page. Here's a few examples.

Why I like teaching in a public school.

Before coming to Korea, I struggled with whether to take a public or private school job. Ultimately, of course, I decided to go the public school route through EPIK. Every week, I listen to an excellent podcast called Seoul Survivors, by a guy named Carl and a rotating female guest, usually another English teacher. A few weeks ago, they briefly discussed teaching in public schools vs. hagwons (private schools), and they, both only having taught in hagwons, didn't have a lot to say about public schools, and what information they did have was pretty outdated. Here's an email I sent to Carl after listening regarding why I like being a public school teacher.



Hi Carl,

First off, let me say that I really enjoy your podcast. Listening to it in the weeks before I came to Korea really got me excited about living here. I just wanted to expound a little on the email you read last week concerning the EPIK program.

*We did stay at Korea University for orientation, just their branch campus in Jochiwon, which is in fact a small town of only about 30,000. We were fed for free and housed in dorms for a week while given information from veteran english teachers as well as Korean teachers on what to expect in the classroom.

*EPIK does place teachers in large cities. Before 2002, however, public schools had no mandate to place native teachers in schools, so usually public schools who did request teachers were in rural areas where there were no hagwons. Now, EPIK teachers are placed in every city in Korea besides Seoul. Seoul has its own program for placing native English teachers, SMOE (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education). Teachers I was with during orientation were placed in Incheon, Daegu, Busan, Ulsan, and other places. Of course, there are still plenty of teachers who do not get placed in large cities, but you can request to be placed near or in one. Just like you said though, you don't really have a choice about which city you go to.

*The 11 month contract thing must have ended awhile back, because none of the EPIK vets mentioned it during orientation and all our contracts are definitely 12 month.

Lastly, I just wanted to say that I've really enjoyed being a public school teacher, much more than I think I would have teaching at a hagwon. It depends on what you want, though. I have a lot of friends here in Ulsan that teach at hagwons, and they seem happy with their jobs. Since that's your area of expertise, I'll let you wax poetic about them :) Here are just a few reasons why I chose to go the public school route.

1. Government job, so automatically guaranteed to get paid on time, not have insurance/pension/tax issues with shady hagwon owners.

2. Morning work hours. My hours are 9-5, in which I only teach 4 or 5 classes a day. Of course, many people would list that as a downside, but coming from teaching in the US, I'm used to working during the day and having my afternoons/evenings free. I also don't mind staying at school when I'm not teaching. I just go online and play games, read message boards, listen to podcasts, etc. :) Some hagwon teachers say they'd hate this though, so to each their own.

3. Structured curriculum. I have a little freedom to do things in class, but for the most part, each one of my classes is scripted out for me. A little dialogue, a little freeform conversation, and a little pronunciation. I teach right out of the textbook, which means no planning!

4. Co-teacher. I have a co-teacher who is in the classroom with me that helps with translation and general crowd control. This is identical to English teachers in Japan. Again, this is something that some hagwon teachers say they'd hate, but personally, coming from teaching in the states and being responsible for everything, I'm more than content to sit back and let my coo-teacher handle the discipline (usually with her big stick :) ).

Anyway, I know that this email is a bit long-winded, so feel free to use as much or as little as you'd like on your podcast. I just want to make sure no one is scared away from a public school teaching job based on outdated information.

Your podcast is awesome. Keep up the great work.

John in Ulsan

My baby has a penis.

On Friday afternoons I teach a class for other teachers who are interested in learning more English. Usually we spend about 20 minutes doing a scripted lesson I plan out and the last ten minutes we practice conversation. Today's topic is "What did you do for Chuseok?" Of course, the first thing I expected to hear was the man in our class announce, "My baby has a penis." After several attempts to regain my composure, I was informed by one of the other teachers that he was trying to tell me that he has a son. The thing is, this guy's wife is an English teacher! He can't just say, "I have a son?" Ah well, that's Korea.

My kids are the best

Coming back from vacation is always hard. You have to get up early, trudge to work (I did a little less trudging today-I caught a taxi about halfway to school,) and get ready to start. However, one thing makes it all worthwhile.

*sappy alert*

The students. They're always so happy to see you. Even in the US, coming back from break was always made a little better by seeing all the smiling faces that greet you when you come through the door. Here in Korea, it's even better, because my schedule is so much easier here. I only have two classes today, and on top of that, it's Friday! This Wednesday is a holiday too! You just can't beat that.

Vacation's almost over...

Sorry for the lack of updates this week. Since I've been off for Chuseok, not much was happened. Tomorrow I'll upload some more pics and movies. Today I did have a few firsts though.

*I rode the bus for the first time. Talk about inconvenient! It costs about 5000 won ($5) to get from my apartment to downtown by taxi. The taxi ride takes about 10 minutes. On the way home, I took the bus. I had to wait 40 minutes just for it to arrive, and then the actual ride took 25 minutes! Over an hour! It is only 950 won though, less than a dollar, so if I have the time to kill I may take it instead of a cab.

*I also got my hair cut here today. I look totally stylin' :)

Hanging with other foreigners!

On Friday night I ventured downtown by myself to try and find some of the expat bars around Ulsan. After about an hour walking around, I managed to spot another foreigner, so I was able to get directions to benchwarmers, the best expat bar in the old downtown area. I hung out there for awhile, and then came back on Saturday night. It's a pretty laid-back place. After a couple hours, on Saturday night, who should show up but the guy who gave me directions! He's a pretty cool guy, and after a few more beers at Benchwarmers, he took me over to Ulsan University where the other two expat bars are, Tombstone and Purple Haze.

Hanging out with other foreigners is kind of weird though--it shows me how unique my experience has been so far. Since I teach at a public school, I think I have a much closer relationship with more Korean people than most hagwon teachers, and for a lot of them, all of their socialization comes from talking to other foreigners at these bars. I'm glad I've had a chance to make some Korean friends and go out with them. I didn't come halfway around the world just to make friends with other people not from Korea! Check my pictures and movies for last night's revelry.

My boss is pretty cool, too.

In Korea, the principals (at least at my schools) are not what you'd call really approachable. They have fortress-like offices with private secretaries and are not generally seen walking the halls. It was very surprising to me when the principal stopped in to observe my class today. I guess it went well, because after the class he invited me into his office and handed me a 17-year old bottle of Ballantine's scotch. Without disclosing how much it's worth (do an internet search if you're curious), let me just tell you that it's by far (by, by far) the most expensive liquor I've ever been in possession of.

Chusok time is here....

...and I've decided to stay home. At least for the first couple days. My apartment is in dire need of a good sweeping, and I'm less than happy with my current setup as far as all the wires crisscrossing over the floors.

Last night I met up with my friend Bo for a drink. I met him briefly during orientation, but I hadn't really had a chance to sit down and talk to him. He knows about drum corps, which, as you can imagine, made my day. We talked about that for awhile, ended up going to another bar in hopes of seeing some pretty ladies, but the next bar was just as empty as the first. I guess we didn't go out late enough. He's going to Seoul for Chusok, and he invited me to share a hotel room with him and come to his friend's birthday party, but I feel like I need to take care of stuff here at home first.

Pretty much everybody is going away for the holiday. I won't be lonely, though. After all, I need to give some love to my newly reactivated 360 Live account--Puzzle Fighter, here I come!

You can't tell me that's not the sweetest thing you've ever seen. Sometimes I really want a motorcycle. Then I remember I'm not so hot on a bicycle. Maybe I could just sit on it parked, maybe take up smoking to give me that Marlon Brando from The Wild One look, I dunno. Just look how awesome it is though! And I need a way to blow ten grand!

More observations...

People don't eat grape skins here. Out of all the things they do eat, they don't eat grape skins??

Italian restaurants use ketchup instead of marinara sauce. Pickles are served with every dish. Coke is sometimes an item on the desert menu.

Last night Mi Sung and I went out to dinner--my present to her for carting me around to immigration and all the other stuff she's helped me with. I found this restaurant online called Canta Napoli, but try as we might, once we got downtown, we couldn't find it, nor did anyone we (she) asked about it know anything about it. We settled on some random Italian place instead. It was alright, but again I noticed the abundance of pickles and ketchup. We had a great time though. The worst part for me about being in Korea is having to limit my English to very simple phrases while talking to others at work. Mi Sung is so good at English that I can speak normally to hear and she actually understands, which is awesome. I know, I know, you're thinking, "So? What's the big deal?" Try going a week without saying anything more than "Hello, Good Morning," etc. By the end of the week you'll feel like you just want to pour out your soul to anyone who actually understands what you're saying.

Here's a great article on the PC gaming culture in South Korea. I've done my time in PC bangs during the two weeks I was here without internet in my apartment, and I can say for sure that this article is spot on.

The thing that makes PC bangs so appealing in Korea (as opposed to in the US) is the price. 3,500 won for 5 hours. That's about $3.80. There's nohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif way I could be on a computer for 5 hours straight (at least without having something else to do like watch tv), so I never ended up using that much time, so the most I ever paid was 1,000 won. Not too shabby, especially since that includes a free drink when you come in.

In other news, happy birthday to :-).

Chusok...what to do?

Next week is Chusok, Korean Thanksgiving. We get a whole week off of school, so I need to figure out what to do. I wish I could remember one of my friend's email addresses near Daegu--then I could go visit him and ride up to the city with Mi Sung. I thought about taking the slow boat to Tokyo, but unlike the slow boat to China, this boat is just as expensive as a plane ticket, and I don't want to blow that much money until after I get paid.

I could always stick around Ulsan, maybe finally overcome my fear of getting lost on the bus. It just seems so sad though, because all my Korean friends are going away for the holiday.

It's still typhoon season here, which means nonstop rain until forever. I keep losing or forgetting my umbrella at school, so now I have a grand total of 3. Nothing says useless like three umbrellas in a bag.

All things considered though, I'm still having a great time here. This is by far the easiest teaching job I've ever had, and so far the kids are still really responsive and eager to learn.

Welcome to Asia

Sad but true: I was officially ttong chim-ed today. I wanted to believe it was all a myth, that Azrael over at Gaijin Smash was making all that kancho stuff up, but no, it's real and its painful. I spun around, but like a flash he was gone like a thief in the night. I have a feeling it was this kid who is obsessed with asking me if I'd like anything to drink. I started to just ignore him completely and this might have been his act of revenge.

Gotta love my recruiter

So I'm going out on a tonight with some of the teachers at my school. My recruiter happened to be online so i asked him for some tips.

Me: so give me some tips for tonight
Sent at 1:57 AM on Friday
Recruiter: well obviously no underwear
keep all conversation light
keep it fun
never ask about family
never ask about ex boyfriends
never talk about money
never talk about ex girlfriends
talk about how wonderful Korea is
anything positive at all you can think of about Korea and Korean people
Me: Sounds good.

Yeah.

I told you I am not making these names up. Check my pictures for a Nino and a SexyYoung.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

I guess there's a typhoon coming today. Woo hoo. I've been here three weeks now, and I'm starting to feel at home--at least in Yeonam-dong. Downtown is still really big and confusing to me. In case you didn't notice, I added some links to pictures, movies, fan death, and a great site I'm using to help improve my Korean over on the right side of the page.

Next week, the after school class I will teach begins. Three 45-minute classes a week, which equals 500,000W (~$500) overtime pay a month. I can deal with that. Plus we have some great books called Side By Side that I can take lessons from.

TGIF!

More awesome English names

God (At first I thought he wrote Gob, and I almost passed out.)
SCV (I swear I had nothing to do with this--I need to take a picture to prove it!)
Another Macguyver! He's got to be on tv here, which is awesome.


New pics today--some nice dinner out with some teachers from Gangdong Middle School and the English Village at a nearby middle school Mi Sung and I went to visit.

Sometimes in Korean dramas, they play instrumental versions of Western music. I was pretty surprised when I heard:

Blue Light, Red Light - Harry Connick, Jr.

Breakfast at Denny's - Combustible Edison (!)

Also during a climactic moment in one drama, I may or may not have heard a haunting rendition of the Inspector Gadget theme song playing softly in the background.

Also, at around 2:30 a.m., Korea turns from ultra-harmless, kid-friendly programming to the all porn network.

Finally!

I got my Alien Registration Card today! Finally I can get internet and a cell phone. You never know how alone you feel until you try going without those things. Just shows how dependent I am on technology :) Anyway, time for more random Korea things:

Many bathrooms in Korea are unisex. Not in the way you can go in and lock the door, one person but can be used for two people kind of unisex, but the full-on, Ally McBeal style. You can be in there doing your thing, and all of a sudden, some girl can walk in on you. I was, naturally, disturbed by this the first time it happened, but the girl had no visible reaction to coming in right in front of a guy at the urinal.

Women here eat. A lot. And they're still rail-thin! I don't understand it. My co-teacher at Gangdong eats about three times as much as me each time we have a meal together, but she's so thin. It's amazing.

Did I mention that a dish of pickles come with pizza? No matter if you get it from Pizza Hut or Pizza Bingo (Korean pizza place), but at Korean pizza places the pizzas come with corn (?) on them too.

More to come!

Awesome English Names

At school, each of my students gets to pick his or her own English name. Most were normal. I even put a few on the board if the students couldn't think of one. No kidding, the first thing a kid asks me;

"How do you spell Macguyver?"

Now keep in mind, this is Korea. And Macguyver has been off the air for at least 10 years. Basically this kid is now my new hero.

Other notable names:

Milk
Whoseain (I think he was trying to spell "Hussein.")
Horror
Boss
BumBum

New pics and photos!

New pictures and photos of my apartment and my district, Yeonam-dong! Scroll down to see the links.

It's the little differences.

All Pulp Fiction references aside, I've noticed a few differences living in a city here vs. a city in the US.

* People take recycling here very seriously. At every fast food place, you seperate your own trash (food waste, paper, plastic) into seperate bins.

* Lots of little resturants. Tons of them. Everywhere. Some sit as few as eight people.

* "Well Being." This is some kind of new fad. You'd think well-being products would be confined to healthy food, but I've even seen well being cigarettes.

* Cigarettes. Tons of people smoke. All over the place. I think it must be like how the US was in the 50's.

* It's safe here. Kids run around everywhere. There is very little crime, and violent crime is almost nonexistant.

* There are two Starcraft channels and a channel that has Go games 24 hours a day.

My Co-teacher is Awesome

Well, finally, orientation is over. I moved into my new apartment in Ulsan and was quite shocked. It actually has four rooms! A kitchen, a bedroom, a living/dining room, a laundry room, and a bathroom! Woo-hoo! As someone who'd prepared himself for just living in a one bedroom/efficiency type place, this was quite the pleasant surprise. Not only that, but also included were all new appliances and a HDTV! Oh yeah! Anyway, my co-teacher has already been very helpful; showing me around and helping me buy some more stuff. Oh, did I mention they're giving me $500 more for other new appliances I might need? Geez Louise, that's awesome! Anyway, I'm about halfway unpacked. No internet yet; I'm typing this from a PC Bang down the street from my apartment. Hopefully I will get internet on Tuesday or Wednesday and I will be able to post some pics and a movie tour of my apartment I made.