Hiatus...

Yeah. More than two months. I've just not been keen on keeping up the ol' blog lately. I'm still alive. Things are still good.

New Flickr Set: Funny Singing Room Names

Yes, I'm still alive :)

Private singing rooms, called noraebangs (or 노래방 if you have Korean font installed) are really popular in Korea. So are hofs, which are bars without a "bar"--basically a room with a bunch of long tables used for drinking beer. Some of them have really awesome and/or strange names. I decided to keep a running tab of them here on my flickr page. Enjoy!

See the set here.

And in related news, may I present menwholooklikekennyrogers.com.

Random thoughts on my trip to Japan

1. Japan is clean. Nobody spits on the streets or throws trash on the ground. Even though there aren't many public trash cans, like in Korea, people hold onto their trash until they throw it away.

2. Japanese people are polite. They say "excuse me" when they bump into you.

3. Japanese arcades are HUGE, and are filled with every type of game imaginable, from the newest titles like Street Fighter 4 to classic arcade machines to slot and pachinko machines.

4. Pachinko is hard. I never really did figure it out.

5. Stuff is really expensive in Japan compared to Korea. Just getting in a taxi in Japan costs $6, while in Korea it's $1.80. Food seemed to be about twice as expensive too, though it could have just been the area we were in.

6. Men in Japan are much more effeminate than in Korea, and if you know how Korean men can be, that's really saying something.

200 Posts!

Thanks for sticking it out through 200 posts! I wish I could do something more to celebrate, but I can't think of anything cool to write about other than...

....NEW COMPUTER!!!



Soooo nice....and this weekend I'm going to Tokyo for four days of fun!

Student Essays

I just started a lunchtime class for students who want to practice their essay writing skills. Today I gave them the prompt:

One night, I was lying in my bed in the dark. I heard a strange sound, so I...

...and then they finish the story. I got two great entries, both of which (coincidentally?) feature Johnny Depp. Here's one of them-click the photo link on the right to see the other.

Baseball Cards

It's so cool when something you like but think that nobody else cares about actually turns into something that someone else cares about. I'm talking about 1987 Topps. This was the first year I collected baseball cards, and I still have that first binder of them. Thing is, I kinda assumed that nobody else liked that set. It's got a cheesy woodgrain border, the backs are a boring dark blue and green, but to me they hold a treasure trove of memories of my childhood and little league.

Surfing the web today I started looking up baseball card stuff on wikipedia, which led me to a baseball card blog. Apparently the baseball card blog. And guess what set he rated as number one of all time?

Click to find out.

There and back again

I went back to the states for about ten days. It should only really count as about six though, considering all the travel time I used up in the car going to visit various relatives and things. Not to mention the extra six hours in the car when I forgot my passport at home, but that's another story.

Anyway, reverse culture shock. To be honest, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The main thing I noticed was how freakin' fat Americans are compared to Koreans. I never noticed it before, but going back it was just insane how large some people are there. Another thing...well, to be honest, I was missing Korea after a few days. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was great to see my family and stuff, but I don't know...I just wanted to be back in the big city again. I think it would be really hard to go back and live in a small town like Hurricane again.

Well, now I'm back and since I refinanced my car, I should have a lot more money to travel with this year. First up is Japan, from Sept. 12-15th. If I like it there, I may decide to apply for some teaching jobs after my current contract is up, or maybe even try and get a job working for the Apple Store in Tokyo. All I know is that I'm in no big hurry to get back to the states. Like, ever. Well, maybe I'll go back for grad school, but that's it. There's just a vibe in Asia that I don't get back home, and I really missed it while I was there.

One year down....

Next week I'll have been in Korea one year. I'm going back home on Monday for 10 days. It will be weird to be in the States again, I'm sure. Not much new to write about. In fact, I'm considering putting the blog on hiatus until something interesting does happen. When you're new in a country, everything seems interesting, but now it seems like nothing is interesting anymore, or at least interesting enough to write about. Maybe when I get back things will change. Anyway, as always, thanks for reading :)

Some of you may be wondering, just what does John do at this summer English camp? Well, every morning at 8am i go downtown, and a bus takes 4 other foreign English teachers and I an hour and a half outside of the city to sort of the Korean version of Deliverance where we work in a field all day teaching students English under funeral tents.

Hey, it's not that bad. I've made some great foreigner friends and I'm making plenty of money.

Busy and hot

Sorry I haven't updated this week. The summer English camp I'm working is 100% outdoors and leaves me 100% exhausted at the end of the day. Check back next Wednesday for a big update.

English Summer Camp

Today was my first day teaching at the mystery English Summer Camp I've been hearing so much about yet given so few details on. For one thing, it's outdoors. No, I mean the classes are outdoors. Under big tents, like the ones at funerals. And there are rock fortifications everywhere (see picture). I don't know why they're there, but they make the grounds look like Gettysburg. Anyway, I'm so thankful that I have my guitar, because the students are way too distracted by the insects, being outside in general, etc, to pay attention to any real lessons.

Cute student letters.

In Korea, it's tradition for the students to write letters to their teachers at the end of the semester. Here are some of the ones that made me smile.

This is just about the cutest thing ever.

This made my day. Such a great song.

Happy Birthday to me....

I celebrated my first birthday in Korea today with my co-teacher at Hogye Middle School. We went to this buffet called Marché, which was pretty good. I hadn't been to a buffet in a while and I was stunned at how little I could eat compared to the good old days.



Anyway, this past weekend I had a mini celebration with Lily at a nice samgyeopsal restaurant, and we had a good time at the noraebang after that.



Today was my last day at Gangdong Middle School. It's hard to believe in two weeks I'll have been in Korea for a year. I was a little bit sad to leave some of my students there, but there were a lot of problems with the curriculum and the schedule of my coteacher that were not going to be overcome. I hope to be placed at Yeonam Elementary School on Mondays next semester, while continuing at Yeonam Middle School Tuesday-Friday. Here's a shot of me and some of my students.


These students were the "nickname club." They gave each other English nicknames. From the left: E.T., Unicorn, Beaver, Dolphin. They nicknamed me "Teddy Bear."

I managed to lock myself out of my apartment tonight. Not out of the front door, out of my bedroom. I had the door closed to keep the AC only in there, and when I left to get something, I closed the locked door behind me. How the door got locked in the first place, I have no idea. At first I thought it would be no problem, just go upstairs to where the owner lived, and get the key. Turns out, the owner doesn't even have the key to the inside door locks. How does that even happen? I sure didn't get that key when I moved in. Anyway, I had to wait about 45 minutes for the locksmith to come, and then I had to pay him $30, which compared to an American locksmith is nothing, but it's still $30 I'll never get back. Oh well.

I got a new fish today, a Siamese Fighting Fish. Check it out.

Cat Fight!

Dear Lord, cats are loud. When I first moved into my place here, I thought someone was actually torturing a cat here every night. However, walking home one night, I saw two cats just screaming at each other. I mean, not like hissing or loud meowing, screaming like they were on fire.

Other than the noise though, there was nothing going on. One was sitting on a brick fence and the other one was on the ground. I guess they're supposedly defending their territory, but why do they wait until nighttime to start screaming like banshees?

Fish!

Here they are! 16 or so, I think...I successfully changed about 25% of the water in the tank today. I'm glad I only have to do that every two weeks, though it wasn't too bad.

See the rest of the fish pictures here, if you think you can take the excitement.

Baby Names

In anticipation of Chad and Lori's new arrival, I've been kicking around some possible names. Here's what I've got so far.

Boy:
Ambrose
Spivey
Bayonet
Norm

Girl:
Maude
Gussie
Rundgren (or "Rundie" for short)

Any of those would probably be appropriate.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Chad and Lori, who I've just been informed are expecting their first baby! In news that can only be described as on the same level of importance, I bought seven new fish for my tank. Pics to follow!

This is a little bit sappy....

...but hey, what's wrong with that? :) Enjoy.

Do the Fish Stick!

This might be the best podcast ever.

Link

Ten Days?

It's been ten days since my last post? I remember when I used to crank stuff out on here every day. This weekend I played guitar at Benchwarmers again. Here's a clip of me rocking some Oasis.




And when I say rocking, I mean barely getting by.

Cool glasses!

Yesterday one of my students brought some sunglasses to class. They were so awesome, I had to try them on. They reminded me of some Homestar Runner shades. (Image courtesy of The Homestar Runner Wiki.)

In case you need a benchmark....

That's all I've got for today.

Is this really news?

I got a new aquarium this weekend. It looks small in the picture, but it's actually pretty massive. I have to wait seven days for the water to be ready for the fish. Any ideas on what kinds of fish I should get?

Interview Exam

The next two weeks, instead of teaching, I will be doing interview exams with the students. Basically, they study and prepare answers for six questions, one of which they will have to answer (randomly) for the test. Some students did very well, although it was clear they'd rehearsed their answer, while some students gave me the ol blank stare for the 45 alloted seconds.

Starcraft

It's hard to believe that a game that's 11 years old is still as popular as ever in a nation as technologically advanced as Korea. Here's a shot of my students pouring over a strategy guide between classes.

Driving Ranges in Korea

Golf is popular here, but the bad part about Korea is that there's just not a whole lot of room. Instead of putting driving ranges in the countryside, Koreans prefer to have them close by so they can swing by after work. Here's a panoramic shot of a driving range behind Hogye Middle School, where I teach classes after school three days a week.

Happy together...

Lily and I finally made it official yesterday. Wish us luck!

My neighborhood

I've been playing around with a program called PhotoStitch that came with my digital camera. It easily lets you combine multiple images into one large panoramic photo. The process is automatic and the results have been great so far! Here's a picture I took on the bridge in my neighborhood. It's actually four photos merged into one.


More to come soon!

Bill Gates gives Lee Myung Bak a present.

This is pretty cool. Bill Gates gave Lee Myung Bak a customized 360. Well, the 360 is cool. The fact that an insanely rich man bought another insanely rich man a gift, well, that's not really that special.



From Engadget:

Apparently not one to let a tacky trend pass him by, Bill Gates has commissioned 100 mother of pearl-clad Xbox 360s to be used as extra special gifts, the first of which was given to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak earlier this month, prompting a response that we can only imagine to be, "gee, thanks." To be fair, the design by Korean artisan Kim Young-jun is a bit classier than most of the crystal-encrusted gadgets we come across, but the same can't quite be said for the move of bringing a bit of thinly disguised self-promotion to a visit with a head of state. We can also only assume that Gates is dreading the day that the President calls him up and asks him what the red rings on his Xbox mean.

New Flickr Set - Ulsan Grand Park In Spring

This past weekend I went to Ulsan Grand Park. The trees and the park an general were so beautiful, especially after coming out of the urban sprawl that is Ulsan. Of course, nothing was as beautiful as the girl I was with :)

Spring in Ulsan

It rained all last night, and driving to my far away Monday school in Gangdong, we passed all the flooded rice paddies in the countryside, with the cranes walking around inside them...it was like a scene out of some Vietnam War movie. I'll try and take a picture soon.

Two great pictures.

Last Wednesday was Teacher's Day, and to celebrate we took my gumdo teacher out. We ate jok bal, which is Pig's feet. I managed to snap this picture of the restaurant sign as we went in.



That's Marilyn Monroe with a pig face, and the name of the restaurant is "Sexy Pig Feet." I am not making this up.

Inside the restaurant, there was a bag with mysterious contents.



As far as I can tell, these are what the warning symbols mean:

1. Umbrellas are ok.
2. No Captain Hook.
3. This product cannot catch fire.
4. This product can withstand a falling meteorite.
5. Beware falling meteorites hitting you in the back while trying to lift this product.

Bus Ads

When you ride the bus as often as I do, you find yourself staring at the ads on the back of the seats for what seems like ages. This one I seem to get in front of me more often than not. It reminds me of a cross between my sister and Portia de Rossi from Arrested Development.

Happy Teacher's Day!

Today is Teacher's Day in Korea. Kind of reminds me of Teacher's Day in the US. Oh, wait. In the states teachers get zero respect from anybody. Anyway, I used today's holiday as an excuse to write a letter to one of my favorite college professors, Ray Feener. Mr. Feener was the director of the Singing Men of Ohio during my tenure at college, and I was a member of the group my junior and half of my senior year. Here's the letter I sent him.

Dear Mr. Feener,

My name is John Shawler. You may not remember me, but I attended Ohio University from 1999-2003, and was a member of SMO from 2002-2003.

Anyway, it just occured to me the other day that I never had a chance to thank you. I was a music ed major at OU and my principal instrument was trombone, but I never enjoyed an instrumental ensemble half as much as I did SMO. A big part of that was the way you handled the ensemble. Even though I rarely go back and listen to wind ensemble recordings I was part of, I'm always listening to old SMO performances.

These days, music isn't a big part of my life anymore. After teaching elementary school music for 4 years in the DC and Virginia Beach area, I decided that I wanted a change and have been teaching English in South Korea for the past 10 months. I still sing in my church choir here (in Korean, of course--I'm the only foreigner there), but aside from that and teaching my students a song once in awhile, I never even think about music. Kinda strange that I spent all those hours practicing, huh?

I know that you've moved on from OU to bigger and better things, but I just wanted to let you know that you really touched my life in a profound way during my college years. I really appreciate all the time and effort you put into SMO, especially our Florida trip, the most fun I had in college. I still laugh at the surprise Harry Carey part in Please Mr. Columbus.

I'm sure you get these kinds of letters from SMO alumni all the time, and I would be remiss if I didn't add my thanks to the pile. Never underestimate the influence you have on your students, even those who are college age. I truly believe that through your direction, you provided many young men in SMO with an experience they will never, ever forget.

Best wishes,

John Shawler

If you get a chance today, why not write one of the teachers that had a positive effect on your life? I'm sure they'd really appreciate it.

Could a robot orchestra be far behind?

So I kinda made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to post any more random non-Korea related videos, but this one is just too awesome to resist. This is a robot called Asimo made by Honda. Human directors don't have to worry though, he's only a semi-conductor*.




*I totally stole that joke from the Engadget comments, but it was too good not to copy.

It's my last day of vacation...

Starting tomorrow I'll be back on the ol' update trail. Oh yeah, and I actually have to return to work. Until then, enjoy this awesome music video made with the best OS on earth.

On vacation!

Yeah, I'm on vacation. Again. A week and a half this time. Well, two weeks if you count the time I had to come to school but had no classes. Anyway, my goal this week is to spend as little time in front of the computer as possible. In fact, I'm posting this from a coffee shop downtown that's serving as my main base for studying Korean. So anyway, I just want to apologize in advance for the lack of posts this week. I'll be back at school next Wednesday, and you can expect me to be back on my normal schedule of updating once every few days. I'll have some new pictures to post by then too. Ok, back to studying!

Does it get any better than this?

I feel as if I have nothing more to offer after watching this music video. How can I top this?

Movin' on up!

Oh yeah! Green belt! :) I finally passed the candle test too (I failed that part of my yellow belt test but I got the belt anyway for some reason). What's the candle test? This:

New Flickr Set- Arcade machines in Korea

In an effort to try and document the wide range of new and old arcade machines here, I added a new flickr set so they're a little easier to find. Check it out here.

The State That I Am In

Well, Green got back to the states safe and sound, so it's back to normal here for awhile. I decided to take on another class after school from 6-8 over at Hogye Middle School. It's not a bad gig at \30,000 an hour, and since it's in Hogye I can go right over to my gumdo class after its over.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are midterm tests this week, so I've had nothing to do but watch movies. Yesterday I saw:

Juno(awesome)
I Am Legend(bleh)
Cloverfield(bleh)
Walk Hard (ok but too long)
and I'll finish up today with Lars and the Girl, which I don't know anything about but is supposed to be good.

I'll have pictures up of Green's trip soon. Stay tuned~

Update soon!

I'll have a writeup of Green's visit here in a few days after he leaves. Until then, enjoy this music video. It's got everything there was to love about the 80's--break dancing, ghetto blasters, and a keyboard guitar.

What do you miss most in Korea?

Jim as Dwight: Question: What kind of bear is best?
Dwight: That's a ridiculous question.
Jim as Dwight: False. Black Bear.
Dwight: Well that's debatable, there are basically two schools of thought..
Jim as Dwight: Fact: Bears eat beets.
Dwight: Oh..
Jim as Dwight: Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica!


The Office = What I miss most in Korea.

Best. Trapper Keeper. Ever.

You've gotta love Engrish. One of my students walked into my classroom with this trapper keeper yesterday. Luckily, I had my camera phone and snapped a pic.

Online dating adventures.

So in an effort to find someone new, I'm back to the ol online dating game again. Reading through the profiles, you can get a pretty good idea of who has a handle on English and who is running their profiles through a translator. I recently saw a profile that had only one sentence.

"Hello ..It is Gimseoyearn I want to meet by good fatality with you and divide good Daehwaeul."

I'm not even going to try to figure that one out. If someone has the word "fatality" in their profile, I'm moving on.

I'm still alive...

Yeah, I've been pretty lazy lately when it comes to updating. Since Scarlett dumped me a few weeks ago, I haven't been motivated to do anything, really. But hope springs eternal. I'm going out with a teacher at the middle school across the street tomorrow night. Who knows, maybe I won't stay single for long. I hope not. All I know is I'm going to have a heck of a time going back to Western girls after dating Asian ones. There's just something about Korean girls that goes beyond their (spectacular) physical appearance. Their whole demeanor is different. And awesome.

Green is coming a week from today! My first visitor from America! I can't wait, though I'm a little bit nervous about picking him up from the airport. I've never been to Busan before, so I'm going to have to find a bus to take me there. I've heard there's a bus that runs directly from Samsandong in Ulsan to Kimhae airport where he's flying in to. If that's the case, then I'm home free. I won't have to worry about going through the subway and getting lost. I don't mind getting lost when I have the time, but his flight comes in at 9 pm and I don't want him to be jetlagged and miserable as we try and negotiate our way home.

Today's a gloomy day. It rained all day yesterday, and it continues to drizzle today. Tonight I'm going to fry up some bacon and have bacon and cheese sandwiches for dinner. Not the most nutritious thing in the world, but I'm tired of cereal and ramen. I've got to save money so Green and I can have lots of stuff to do when he gets here.

Oh, here's some happy news: the other day I went to a cherry blossom festival in Eon-Yang. It was spectacular! The blossoms were so beautiful, and there was kind of a carnival going on with food and games. I'll post a pic at the top of this post. You can check out the rest by clicking on the "Pictures from Korea" link in the upper right corner of the page.

Me Singing Don't Worry Be Happy

Inspired by that theramin video, I opened up Audacity this evening to see if I could record Don't Worry Be Happy using only my voice. Well, 3 hours later I discovered Bobby McFerrin I'm not, but I hope Scarlett (and you) will get a kick out of it.

Download it here!

This is probably the coolest thing you'll see all day.

Killer Queen

Scarlett really likes Queen. She wants to watch the Live at Wembley DVD whenever she comes over. Today I was looking on Youtube for other Queen concerts to show her and came across this. Good stuff.

Just call me Corporal--Corporal Punishment.

I finally joined the dark side today. There was some kind of emergency today at school and my coteacher couldn't be with me for my last two third grade (eighth grade in US) classes. The third grade students here act just like their counterparts in the US. The boys are loud and obnoxious, because they thought that they could get away with it without the co-teacher being there.

See, because I have a co-teacher with me in the classroom almost all the time here in Korea, I can relax my teaching style a bit since it's usually my co-teacher who handles the discipline. This isn't a point of contention between us at all, it's just an unspoken agreement we have. She's small but very tough (probably as a result of being so small) and all the students fear her wrath. I'm seen as something of a large teddy bear who's always nice. Well, today they got to see the real teacher side of me. I raised my voice, slammed a book on the desk, and basically did whatever my co-teacher normally does. In fact, there were some boys who were consistently hitting each other and wrestling around under their desk (I know, that sounds weird. Believe me, it looked weird too.) So I stood them up, had them put out their hands palm down, and gave them each a good smack on their hand with a radio antenna laying around. I hated to do it (ok, that's a lie. I didn't mind doing it because they were really getting on my nerves and I'd warned them three times to stop), but that's what gets the kids going here--the threat of physical pain. Now, suffice to say, it only actually hurt for about a second, but the fact that they were called out and that I actually followed through with some kind of punishment was enough motivation for the rest of the students to behave for the rest of the class. I felt like an old-school Catholic nun teacher with the ruler in her shirt sleeve :)

Robots are getting better....

This is awesome and scary at the same time.



Sorry for the lack of Korea-related news. I'll have plenty to write about once Green gets here!

Fast Car by Tracy Chapman

It's funny how sometimes you hear a song for years and years without actually paying attention to the words. Such was the case with me and this song. I always thought it was just a love song, but yesterday I listened to the words, and boy is it a sad song. Still great, though.

“It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn't in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals.”

- Charles Kuralt

White Day - Success!

White Day was great. Here's some footage of me eating pajon and enjoying some dong dong ju at a restaurant.

If star wars came out in the 50's instead of the 70's...

I love this kind of intro sequence-it reminds me of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Youtube definitely never fails to entertain, that's for sure.

White Day

Today is White Day. On Valentine's day in Korea, girls give boys chocolate. On White Day, boys give girls candy. Scarlett just got a job teaching English here, so I thought I'd do a little extra for her besides just the requisite box of candy. I made her an awesome card that looks like a six year old made it. I still don't have much skill with a pair of scissors. I'll give that to her with a gift basket I picked up from the local bakery (?) with chocolate, a teddy bear, and some other nonsense. Tonight she has to observe the class she'll be teaching, and after that we'll probably hit the noraebang. Good times :)

One month till Green comes to visit! Oh yeah!

Believe it or not, I'm glad to be back to work. I like being on a schedule, and my classes are going great so far.

You need to check out Andrew Bird. Here he is on Letterman.

Jim Croce

My dad always listened to Jim Croce when I was younger, so naturally I hated him. Of course, I never hated him as much as John Denver, because my dad couldn't play ol' Jim as well on the guitar. Recently though I've been giving him another listen, and I've got to admit some of his stuff is pretty good. He has a backup guitar player named Maury Muehleisen that really adds a lot to the simple chords Jim plays.

Some of Croce's lyrics are very affecting. Here's my favorite song by him.

Kangdong Fish Market

I'm not a great photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but once in awhile I get it right.

Teaching in Korea vs. US

My friend Laura lived in Korea for about four years (I think). She's the one who really made me want to come to Korea. She's awesome. Anyway, I read her blog all the time, and she had an interesting post on substitute teaching in the US:

My sister, a second-grade teacher, has always said her biggest role in the classroom is as a surrogate parent and disciplinarian. Now I've found this out by first-hand experience. The past few weeks I've been substitute teaching in the public schools, starting with my sister's class. Even at the so-called "good" schools, many of the children I've encountered are incredibly disrespectful. Students have called me names, taunted me and threatened me. One even threw a sharp pencil at my shoulder. More than once I've had to hit the panic button in the classroom, thus alerting the main office to send a security guard to my class.

But then I think about all the issues some of these kids have to deal with. A little girl started crying in class today. I asked her what was wrong. "I miss my Daddy," she said. "He's going to be in jail for 20 years." A nine-year old confided to me yesterday that someone at home might be touching her inappropriately at night. "I don't want to go home," she said. "I can't concentrate at school even though I wanna do my work 'cause I got all these thoughts running through my head like what's gonna happen when I take a bath tonight? I'm afraid to tell my mama 'cause my mama don't believe me."

Of course, there are kids who make me smile and laugh, like the girl who didn't groan with the rest of the class yesterday when I told them they had to do the work written on the front board. "Come on, y'all!" she said as if rallying the troops. "We are here to learn and I'm going to get me some learning!" Then she hunkered down and started the assignment.

Sometimes I think the kids misbehave around me because I'm a new and temporary person in their lives. However, conversations with teachers, janitors, volunteers and other substitutes have made me think otherwise. As my sister says, respect is no longer the norm in American society. I compare this with South Korea (the only other society I can claim to understand even a little bit), where respect abounds and test scores are high. Could there be a correlation between test scores and a culture's respect for authority? I think so.

I taught in the states for four years. I actually taught in the same school that Laura was subbing at. You hear this kind of thing all the time if you watch the news/60 Minutes/whatever. Respect is gone in American culture, students are out of control, youth culture killed my dog, etc. However, one thing I've learned teaching (for almost 7 months now--holy cow!) in Korea, is that things aren't much different here from a teacher's point of view. Here's the response I posted to her blog entry:

Interesting post. Let me weigh in on some things about the public school system in South Korea you might not be aware of.

Test scores may be high in Korea, but data retention is among the lowest in the developed world. Kids are taught tests here--everything in their lives is test driven. Students are rarely if ever taught critical thinking skills. Second chances are rare in public schools in Korea, so if a student does not perform well on a major test, he or she will likely be denied the chance of success at a later date.

As far as classroom discipline goes, I find that student behavior here left unchecked is not much worse than the most outlandish behavior I've encountered teaching for 4 years in the public school systems in the US, and since the majority of that time was teaching in the worst schools in my district, that's saying something. Why don't students run amok in Korean schools? Is it out of a Confucian respect for elders? Filial piety? No way. Students respect their teachers in Korea because if they don't, their teacher can wail on them with a stick. If corporal punishment was reintroduced into the US public schools, you can bet students would shape up.

Of course, kids in Korea don't ever talk about being abused at home. Likewise, Korean kids (especially girls) are reluctant to admit that they've had any contact whatsoever with the opposite sex. There are some things that are still taboo in Westernized Korea. But if you think that kind of thing doesn't go on, you're only fooling yourself.

I don't mean to be down on Korea. I love it here. My students are great. But to somehow think that the problems experienced by teachers in the US are not on the radar of Korean teachers is a mistake. They've just got more weapons at their disposal. Literally.

Anyway, that response was longer than anything I've written for this blog in quite some time, so I figured I'd paste it here for your consideration.

It's the first day of school! In March!

Well, it's the new school year in Korea. A bunch of new kids. I'm in a new teacher room. I have a new co-teacher, in addition to my main one and Kate. Lots of changes. The principal wants me to move my office into the English room, which I don't want to do because I hate being alone all the time. Today the heater in there was broken, so I'm in my teacher room instead. I don't have classes today, so I'll probably work on the second Korean model home I bought. Tomorrow I'll have classes. I think. Maybe.

I'm still here...

Sorry for the lack of updates lately...I've been dating someone and haven't really had much happen that warrants blogging about. Classes start next week though, so I'm sure that will lead to something interesting :) In the meantime, enjoy some Tom Waits.

I'm a yellow belt! Yay!

To celebrate, I had to take part in "promotion exercises", which involved 600 overhead sword strikes, 100 kneeling strikes, and various other means of torture. Kind of makes me dread my next promotion :)

Fortune Telling

Fortune telling is big business in Korea. People set up booths almost anywhere, enclosed in transparent tarp to keep out the cold, and folks queue up on benches to wait their turn. Once you're in the booth, there are the old standbys--tarot cards, palm reading, etc, but last night I saw something new.

I was on my way to meet a friend last night and the taxi driver has his tv tuned to a fortune telling show. Apparently, from what I could gather, the fortune teller would make a prediction about someone based on whether their driver's license floats or sinks when it hits a bowl of water. One lady brought in her husband's license, and when it sank like a stone she started bawling.

I'm not sure if the news the fortune teller imparted was of imminent death or an extra-marital affair, but either way this woman was reduced to tears at the sight of a piece of plastic sinking to the bottom of a bowl of water. Strange.

End-of-school ceremony

So today was officially the last day of school for the students. When they come back after spring vacation, they will go to the next grade.

The highlight of the ceremony for me was when one of the teachers lit up a cigarette while congratulating the students.

Two great records.

I listened to two great records yesterday. One was the lone release of Zwan, Billy Corgan's band after Smashing Pumpkins broke up. This record is great because it actually sounds more like Siamese Dream and Pisces Iscariot than the last 3 Pumpkins records do.


The other record I listened to was Sunshine Hit Me by Band of Bees. You might as well call this a one-off also, because the rest of the records by this group sound nothing like this.

Spiiicy!

Last night after gumdo class some of us went out for beer and chicken. I ate quite possibly the hottest chicken ever. Well, probably not, but hot for me. I'm paying for it today--my stomach is not appreciative. While at the restaurant, I had to snap a pic of the restroom sign. It's good they were so descriptive, lest you forget how each gender relieves themselves. Sorry the pic is so blurry; I took it with my phone.

You know it's the 70's...

...if somebody's singing in front of some lattice.

Oh! Almost forgot!

My gig at the bar went well. The crowd was especially receptive during the second go 'round, when they'd had a few more to drink. After I finished, I took some requests, which was a big hit. Troy wants me to play again, so here's a setlist I'm working up.

Country Girl - James Iha
Here Comes Your Man - Pixies
Pink Triangle - Weezer
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away - The Beatles

Any suggestions?

Lots of updates today! I'm back from vacation, after more than a month off. I work this week, then I get two more weeks off. For some reason spring break in Korea is at the end of February. Don't ask me. I won't knock more vacation time though. This time I think I'm going to go to Japan. Really this time. I'm getting some extra money from working at the ULA (Ulsan Language Academy) over my last vacation, and I should have enough for a round trip ticket to Tokyo.

I test for my yellow belt in gumdo on Feb. 19th! It seems like I just started, but I've been training 4 days a week almost every week since I started at the beginning of January, so I feel like I've made some progress.

Today I'm back at Gangdong Middle School. The third grade class there is such a waste. We did kind of a spelling bee game and they couldn't spell words the first grade students could spell. Ugh. And to top it all off, there's a student in there who's studied abroad and his English is excellent, so he stays bored while the rest of the students are so below average. Frustrating.

Let's see, what else...oh, Peggle is awesome. If you haven't played it, you need to. It's free. Be warned--it's addictive.

ZenKimchi - Korean Food Blog

Unfortunately, Seoul Survivors is no more. They logged their last episode in last week. Luckily, the archives will live forever. During the last few episodes, they had a guest host on who does zenkimchi.com, the most famous food blog in Korea written by a foreigner. There are a ton of great Korean oddities, as well as some great Korean recipies you can try out at home. He even has ideas on substituting ingredients for people who don't have access to some of the more "exotic" ingredients found in Korea. Check it out! (Chad, this post is for you!)

http://www.zenkimchi.com/FoodJournal/

Best Superbowl Ad

Also, the only ad to feature an oboe.



Been busy so far this week teaching in ULA. I'll write more soon.

My first live music gig in Korea

So tomorrow night I'm taking the stage at Benchwarmers for a solo guitar set. This will be the first time I've played in public since The Hinge in 2002--a long time! Today I finally decided on the set list, after practicing through things all week. Here it is:

Wonderwall - Oasis
I've Just Seen a Face - The Beatles
Blackbird - The Beatles
Oh Susanna - James Taylor
Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers
She's an Angel - They Might Be Giants
1979 - Smashing Pumpkins
Beautiful - James Blunt
Overs - Simon and Garfunkel
Light Up My Room - Barenaked Ladies
Country Roads - John Denver

It's a 35 minute set--I played straight through today and boy it's tough to play that long when you're as out of practice as I am :)

So if you happen to be in Korea tomorrow night, come out to Bench and cheer me on! :) I'm sure I'll be plenty nervous. I could always do the ol Stevie Ray Vaughn thing and get hammered before taking the stage. Or maybe not. I don't think that worked out too well for him in the end.

Warning....non-Korea post ahead :)

I'm always on the hunt for good Catholic blogs, so it's always a joy to report I've found one. I mentioned Catholic Sensibility before, and let me add to the The Deacon's Bench.

A deacon is a clergyman in the Catholic Church who is not called to the priesthood. Most of them are married. Here's a little bit about deacons in the Catholic Church from Wikipedia:

Deacons can administer the sacrament of Baptism and serve as the church's witness at the sacrament of Holy Matrimony, which the bride and groom administer to each other. Deacons may preside at funerals, the Liturgy of the Hours, various services such as Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and they may give blessings. They cannot give absolution, anoint the sick, or say Mass. In the liturgy, it is proper for the deacon to proclaim the Gospel (in fact, a priest, bishop, or even the Pope may not proclaim the Gospel if a deacon is present) and distribute Holy Communion. Transitional and permanent deacons both have the faculty to preach the homily by right of their ordination unless the priest presider retains that ministry to himself in any particular liturgy.

So basically, a deacon can do everything a priest can do except for the exceptions above.

Anyway (where am I going with this, I know), the blog I found is called The Deacon's Bench. The writer is Greg Kandra, a Roman Catholic deacon serving the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, and a 25-year veteran of CBS News. Kandra's day job is writing for the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. He lives with his wife in Queens.

How awesome is the Brooklyn deacon logo?


Anyway, if you're interested, here are some stories linked from The Deacon's Bench:

An Orthodox Jewish Cowboy? Yup.

Why Non-Catholics Like Catholic Schools

"The Media: At the Crossroads Between Self-Promotion and Service."- By Pope Benedict

Slice of Life: Friday Night

I took a short movie of what my normal Friday nights are like "out on the town." Enjoy!

Also, tons of new pictures added!

Coffee and Dr. Fish

Every time I think I know all the weird things there are to know about Korea, out comes something new. There are various places around the country called Dr. Fish. They are usually accompanied by a beverage, like "Coffee and Dr. Fish" or "Tea and Dr. Fish." The premise is, you go in, have a cup of whatever, and stick your feet in a large aquarium, where fish come and eat the dead skin off your feet. Pleasant, eh? Actually, I kinda want to try it. I'll let you know if I find a Dr. Fish place in Ulsan.

It's freakin cold!

Tonight was the coldest I've ever been in Korea. Walking to the bus stop after Gumdo class and walking home from the bus stop it was so cold I took a wrong turn and was momentarily lost. Speaking of Gumdo class, the heat was turned off inside for some reason. I always get there early and sweep the floor (gotta do what I can to improve America's image as gun-toting rednecks), and my feet felt like they were going to fall off as soon as I took off my socks. Gumdo's going well, though. You'll notice I misspelled it in my original post. Kumdo is like Kendo, Gumdo is like...kinda like kenjitsu, I guess. Lots of forms, no contact or sparring. I'm definitely seeing an increase in my flexibility and I know I'm losing weight. Training four days a week instead of one or two is wonderful, especially since I don't have anything else to do, being on vacation and all.


In other news, I've been catching up on some TV shows I bought DVDs of back in the States. I'm on Disc 3 of My So-Called Life now. It still holds up really well, and though the fashion screams early-90's, the writing is just as poignant as ever. Claire Danes was never so pretty as she was playing Angela Chase. I remember really identifying with Brian Krakow (sp), but now he really comes off as a jerk who can't come to terms with a lot of things. Sounds like me--maybe I identify with him more than I want to admit.

I'm also watching the complete series of The Adventures of Pete and Pete. I can't say enough good things about that show. If you haven't seen it, you need to. Never before or since has a kid's show been so delightfully surreal.

That's it for now. Tomorrow, same schedule--get up, lay around, take a shower, take a walk, watch those tv shows, watch a movie if I'm in the mood, then go to gumdo. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The amazing Korean post office.

Recently I began sending all my packages to my school. It's a lot easier for the letter carriers to drop stuff off in the main office than go through all the rigmarole (10 points for using "rigmarole" in a sentence) of knocking on my door, discovering I'm not home, calling me, discovering I don't speak Korean, and finally leaving the package with my landlord. The last package I got at my house though was something special. There was nothing special about the contents of the package--just some jewelry I got as a Christmas present for my co-teacher at Gangdong Middle School, but the location of the package is what really got me.

I ordered the earrings in the beginning of December. They were shipped on December 18th. Therefore, I should have received them by the end of December. Turns out, I did. I called the guy who I got the earrings from (a foreigner living in Korea), he asked his Korean wife to call the post office to check on the shipment, and they told her that the letter carrier delivered the package on December 20th. Ok. They also told her that the letter carrier put the package in the TV amplifier box outside my apartment. Not in my mailbox (it would have fit). Not outside my door. Not with my landlord. In the metal box crammed with wires and a TV amplifier. And there it stayed. Somehow it never occurred to me to look there, even though I never got a note or anything to tell me that's where it was. Anyway, I get that email from the guy yesterday, and sure enough, that's where the box was. All's well that ends well, I suppose.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

If the title didn't give it away, this is a non-Korea post :) Feel free to skip if you're so inclined.

In the Catholic Church, next week begins the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Of course, Christians should always pray for unity, but in this week a special prominence is given to what each branch of Christianity brings to the faith. Here's one of my favorite quotes from a French Bishop.

"Some aspects of the Mystery of the faith have been developed better by each Christian tradition.

The Christians of the East have always emphasized the resurrection of Christ that already transfigures the world. Is it not because of this that in past centuries many of them were able to endure decades of suffering? The East has preserved the teaching of the Church Fathers with great fidelity. Monasticism, which it gave to the West, has breathed a life of contemplation into the entire Church. Can Western Christians become more open to these treasures?

The Christians of the Reformation have strongly stressed these Gospel realities: God offers his love freely and unconditionally; by his Word he comes to whoever listens to it and puts it into practice; the simple trusting of faith leads to the freedom of the children of God; singing together allows the Word of God to penetrate us. Are not these values essential for all Christians?

The Catholic Church has kept visible, throughout history, the universality of communion in Christ. It has constantly looked for a balance between the local Church and the universal Church. One cannot exist without the other. A ministry of communion at all levels has helped to maintain unanimity in the faith. Cannot all baptized persons go further in a progressive understanding of this ministry?"

Read more at the Vatican web site here.

Kumdo!

I started taking Kumdo lessons last night. Kumdo is the Korean version of Kendo, which means "the way of the sword." Unlike Kendo, though Kumdo encompasses work with a wooden sword, which (I believe) falls under the category of Kenjitsu in Japan. Also, the work with the wooden sword is only done alone, not with a partner. Kumdo forms are much flashier and acrobatic than the forms (kata) used in iaido, which is mainly focused on only drawing the sword, cutting the enemy down, and re-sheathing the sword. All these differences were just things that I observed watching yesterday. I'll keep updating as I learn more.

My dojang is great. There are only about five students in the adult class, and we can practice up to five nights a week (I'll practice every night but Friday, due to church choir practice). There is one other foreigner in my class, who I met through working at the English Village in Hogye, and her Korean is pretty good, so I'm sure she'll be of great help to me. The foreigner fee is only $20 a month too! You can't beat that, especially for four nights of training a week.

I'm back!

Well, kind of. I don't have much to do when I come to school. I only "teach" between 9-10 and 3-4. I put "teach" in quotes because most of the time the students don't show up. That's fine with me--I got an iPod Touch for Christmas and its movie player function has been of immense value to me. I've been watching Boston Legal and all the great (and not so great) video podcasts that are out there.

Let's see, what else...today the principal invited me out for lunch along with one of the English teachers at the school that I don't teach with, as well as some other guy. I figure we'll drive, or at least walk on the road, but no. He takes us straight through a muddy field. In Korea, there are little plots of land used for farming everywhere outside of the biggest cities. So here I was in my dress shoes, walking through a recently plowed field. Not so happy. But at least the food was good--pork bulgogi, some kind of mint-shaped lettuce with a strange (but not bad strange) taste, and some other unidentifiable vegetable. Oh yeah, and Korean style noodles, but they had a fish-based broth so I didn't partake.

I've been putting a lot of thought into what I want to do next year. It looks like selling my car is out of the question, because of the way I decided to pay for it, so I'm considering going back to Newport News and interviewing for a TCIS position, which is basically a technology coordinator job. I know I have the skills for it and there are some TCIS's in the system that will vouch for me. On the other hand, I really do like it here, but it kills me having to pay for a car that I can't drive. Also, although my job here is stress-free, I still miss English conversation outside of the weekends when I trek down to the foreigner's pub. Another upside to the TCIS job is the significant bump in salary--not only would I be able to pay for my car faster, but I'd also be able to pay off my credit card loans that are preventing me from going to grad school.

Oh yeah, grad school. Right now, I've decided that maybe I don't want to be a lawyer after all. It's back on the old Library Science wagon (at least for now.) I'm really interested in document conservation, as I have been, well, forever, and the best place in the country to go for that is The University of Texas at Austin. I checked out their program; it really looks top-notch. Not to mention the awesome music scene in Austin. Who knows what I'll be thinking when the time comes to actually make this decision, though. I'll keep you posted!