It's Friday afternoon, the sun is shining, the cherry and magnolia blossoms are starting to bloom, students are sitting around the student union building strumming guitars or practicing their fencing. I'm doing laundry. blah. I'm also contemplating buying a scooter for bombing around campus. One of my co-workers just upgraded to a real motorcycle, so I'm going to take his scooter for a test drive this evening.

I just finished my third Korean lesson with JooYong, and I think I'm improving. I still speak like a turtle with a mouthful of molasses, but at least I'm getting my verbs and object particles in the right places. (most of the time). It's a good thing he's patient.

Pottery classes are going well, and I'm going to try and sneak into the art room this weekend to make a few extra pieces. Yes, I'll do it under the cover of darkeness, and dress entirely in black, with some tree branches stuck to my head to disguise my appearance. Then, instead of asking the office assistant for the key, I'll try and sqeeze myself through one of the rusty barred windows. Yessir, it'll be an adventure.

Well, the race is on. Yesterday afternoon I played volleyball with the other foreign teachers. I stank. Today, I had my first Korean lesson with my tutor JooYong. I stank. So...the race is on to see which skill will actually improve this semester ~ My athletic or linguistic ability. ? I'll keep you posted.

I bought a pair of jeans from a sidewalk vendor yesterday. They were cheap, and they fit quite well. As I was taking the tags off, I noticed that instead of listing the fabric used, this is what the tag says....

mainly mum (25%) Korean, height, kind, stupidly believe, people, full of love.
Dad (5%) korean, height 170cm, sharp, sensitivity
#1 brother (15%) nine year older, married. sensitivity and sharp.
#2 brother (15%) six years older. Kinda lazy works with me.
#3 brother (15%) eleven years younger. student, loves with me. oldest
sister unlaw (10%) works with me. oldest brother's wife.
my wife (25%) height 173 cm, American, model

we are happy

Yup, so instead of your usual denim or cotton blends, my pants have 110% of a Korean family in them. I love this country.

I don't usually write about politics. I think that's because I'm not usually interested in politics, nor do I have anything relevant to say. However, when you're eating in the cafeteria and all eyes are glued to the TV, so you look to see what's going on, and you see a swarm of men in suits and ties brawling ~ you take some notice.

Yesterday, South Korea's president was impeached. From what I can tell, the Western Media and the Korean Public tend to disagree on exactly what went down. All I know is that Korean TV stations yesterday were full of footage that showed men in suits behaving like NHL players at a WWF Wrestling workshop. It was bizarre.

Some of my Korean friends attended impromptu candlelight rallies to protest the impeachment. About 70% of Koreans are opposed to the impeachment (according to German news sources), and everyone I've talked to sees it as an attempt for the opposition party to seize power...so they can go ahead and mis-use the money that President Roh was accused of mis-using. And that, my friends, is why I don't like politics.

Now that I've started to settle into the groove of teaching here, I've begun to fill up some of my free time. For starters, this afternoon I'll be starting pottery classes here on campus. I loved my pottery classes in Daejeon, and am looking forward to taking it up again ~ I can make myself some plates and bowls!

I've also arranged for a Korean tutor. His name in JooYung. He makes me laugh, and he's cute too ... so I think that will make studying Korean much easier :)

And finally, I was asked to write an ariticle for the campus English newsletter / magazine. I'm not sure what it is. Anyway, I took some of my free time yesterday to write it. I came to realize that with the exception of my occasional blurbs here on my Blog, I really haven't written much for over a year! That has got to change ~ I can feel my brain turning to oatmeal as the days go by. If that continues, soon the only thing you will see when you read my blogs is :

ugh. today. good. ugh.

Which, for all my caveman or neanderthal friends, that's fine. For the rest of you whos mental lexicon exceeds 12 words, it might get a bit tedious.

Of Farms and Flurries...

Sometimes, Daegu University is referred to as "The Farm" for two reasons. 1 - we're way out in the boonies. 2- we actually do have a barn and animals on the campus. My first class this morning was in the COW building ~ which, as you may guess, houses the Agriculture majors. The students are really nice, but have low level English and tend to be unmotivated. After all, if your prospective future is working on the farm in rural Korea, you don't have a pressing desire to learn a foreign language. I enjoy teaching those classes, because my flair for acting comes in handy :)


As for the weather, it's been cold, cold, cold here. A wet cold miserable rain, as well as some miserable cold snow flurries. However, we've been spared the freakish snowstorm they got in Daejeon and Seoul. Imagine a city with a climate similar to Victoria...and as ill prepared for snow...waking up to over 40cm of snow!!! It snowed heavily from 4am to 4pm nonstop. You can imagine the havoc and chaos reigning in the city. Buses skidded, and turned around so as to block all lanes of traffic, taxis were loading up with 6 or 8 passengers and people were simpling abandoning cars (by the hundreds) and walking home through knee-high drifts. I wish I was there to see it!!! Kim and one of her friends stood at the bottom of a hill cheering for cars as they attempted to reach the top, and groaning in dissapointment when the attempts failed. That amusement kept them occupied for an hour !

Hooray! I had students! My last class of the day had 2 girls in it. I gave them a syllabus, and sent them away. Tomorrow I have a 9am class in the Engineering building complex. It's the most bizarre building I've ever had to navigate. I think it was designed by drunken space monkeys...or engineers. Either way, I'm about 80% sure I'm going to get lost.

In other news, I STILL have a cold, and continue to sound like Bea Arthur, although Chris has also likened me to Joan Rivers. I don't want to sound like either one of them!!!

Well, my first day of classes has begun...so to speak. I showed up for my 9:00 am class - nervous, but ready. None of my students showed up. I guess that's pretty common for the first day of the semester. So, I chatted with a Korean professor who could locate neither his class or his students. Then I wrote my name on the board, along with the course number, and went back to the office! Now I'm finished until 6:00 pm, when I'll do the same thing over again! Whew.

“It’s wave over wave, Sea over Bow, I’m as happy a man as the sea will allow”

Thanks to Great Big Sea for providing the soundtrack to today’s adventure. My 1st thought as I boarded the hydrofoil ferry to Japan this morning was “Why bother taking a boat if you can’t go out on the deck?” Soon I realized that in contrast to an airplane, if the ferry goes down, the life vest under your seat might actually do you some good. Secondly, you can watch the waves, so you can expect when you’ll crest or pitch….unlike crazy things like wind and airpockets that just lurk around in the sky waiting to shake your airplane.

On the ferry, they showed (with Japanese dubbing) the woodworking show with the woman who used to be on Anne of Green Gables, and Road to Avonlea.

Also on the ferry, I met a guy from Florida who was also going on a visa run. He knew where the Embassy was, so I tagged along with him until we got our paperwork done. After that, I wandered about for some time in search of my hotel. Eventually I found it, and it was wonderful! An absolutely perfect place to relax for a few days. In fact, after a nice hot bubble bath, I curled up for a ‘quick nap’ at 4pm…and didn’t wake up again until the next morning!! I had an intense 16 hour hibernation to help me recover from months of GO!GO!GO! Ahhhhhhhhhh. Maybe years from now, I’ll look at such a long snooze as a waste of my time in Japan. But right now, I think it's worth it.

Ahh. I've arrived in Daegu, and am totally congested. I can hardly breathe, but I'm too excited to care.

My new room isn't ready to move in yet, so I'm crashing on John's floor for the night - but I've seen my new place and I love it!! It's small, but bright and clean and new, and has a great view of the mountains. Very nice.

Tomorrow I officially move into my new place, but won't actually sleep there until Thursday night. grrrr.

Happy - excited - and going to sleep.

And so begins my last full day in Daejeon. I got up early, feeling like a big slimy cat had crawled into my lungs and had kittens. Not a good start to the day.

Now however, it's 11:00am, and the movers have just left with 7 boxes, 2 huge suitcases, and a bicycle, which they will deliver to my door in Daegu for only $55 !! Not bad at all. Everything else I'll carry on the train with me tomorrow. I also need to find room for a big Astro Boy alarm clock that Mike gave me for a going away gift. The thing is hilarious. When the alarm rings, it plays music, and makes 'blast off' noises, and he sings something in Korean. It's pretty funny.

Mike and Paula have fled the apartment for the morning, (after doing a stellar cleaning job!) so now I have a few minutes to get used to the idea that I really am leaving - before the place fills up again for my goodbye open house.

Yesterday, I was finally permitted to tell my students that I was leaving. The seemed confused, and a little sad. I was too. They're mostly good kids. Then, last night, I went out with my favourite Korean friends 'Ken' and 'Jenny' to the Outback steakhouse. Those two make me laugh and smile and keep me sane. I'm going to miss them tons.

I may not have any new postings for a while until I get settled in Daegu, but I'll try.

2 days from now, I'll be finished my current job.
4 days from now, I'll be in my new apartment.
7 days from now, I'll be in Japan.
10 days from now, I'll be exhausted.

"The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma." ...a good tip to keep in mind next time you're stuck on a deserted island, and are feeling a little anemic.

Ugh. I've come down with a cold. I'd planned to spend most of the day packing, but now it's 8pm and I'm ready for bed...and still haven't packed yet. I keep forgetting how much I hate moving. ugh.

On a brighter note, I bought an MP3 player today to keep me company on my trip to Japan. I'm listening to Duke Ellington right now, and have a happy smile spread across my face....although that could also be the effect of the cold medication. Either way, it's nice.

I only have 5 teaching days left here in Daejeon - and the woman who was supposed to replace me just backed out. So if you, or anyone you know wants to come to Korea ASAP, we'd love to have you!!!! Send me an e-mail, and we'll talk.

"Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes." ~ thanks again to Jason and Stephanie for that useful tidbit. I immediately cancelled my ticket on the trans-pacific donkey caravan that I'd been planning on riding home next summer. It looks like I'll be flying afterall.

Today was pretty taxing. Not a single one of my 7 classes went smoothly. However, my night class did do their homework (a rare event) - which was to prepare a History lesson for me about Korean history. There are only two students, and they stood up at the front of the room for almost a full hour regaling me with tales of Korean history. Dates, Kings, Generals, etc. They're only 1/2 way through, so they said they can finish the rest of it next time! I'm looking forward to it. With that exception though, I spend most of my day mentally counting down my days here.

(8 more teaching days to go....)

Thanks to my friends Jason and Stephanie, I now have a list of tantalizingly trivial information in my inbox. I've decided to start each new blog with an interesting tidbit. Today's is "Turtles can breathe through their butts". There - now don't you feel smarter already!?

In other news, I spent some time at a PlayStation room today (where my wonder-friend Ken works). I was playing a new game - something about mobsters in London and a car chase. I wasn't interested in the plot...I was just trying to go for a nice drive around London and try to see some familiar sights. Unfortunately, the mobsters kept shooting me, and I never got very far.

Sometimes you feel like a nut...

Since today is the 1st full moon of the new Lunar year, it is auspicious to eat nuts. I asked my students if they ate nuts today. One bright young man answered "No, I don't like any kind of nuts. I don't like peanuts, and I don't like doughnuts"....but he didn't realize he was saying anything funny.

In another class, I am stuck with a textbook that is way beyond the capabilities of my 6th grade students. Most of the students in that class just finished a book about clowns, colours, and shapes. In their current book, both the vocabulary and the subject matter are way off base. Consider today's scenario: The title in itself was incomprehensible "Stereotypes: What are your initial reactions to the following occupations?" right. After lots of drawing and re-phrasing, they finally understood - then we started working our way down the list of occupations....only to be stopped short by occupations #8. The conversation went as follows...

-Students: "Teacher....nude model....what?"
-Me: "uhhhh, like a fashion model, but naked."
-Students: "Teacher....naked....what?"
-Me: "A person in a magazine - a model - but with no clothes"
-Students: "Teacher, draw!" (often, when they don't understand a word, I'll draw it on the board for them. This works well for some things, not so well for others)
-Me: "NO! No, no,no, no. It's a model. (nods of comprehension), but no shirt, no pants, no ..." (the lights go on in their eyes)
-Students: "Ugh - teacher! next question, please, next question!!"
-Me: whew.

I don't know who chose that textbook for a bunch of elementary school kids, but today's lesson wasn't an uncommon one. They'll be finished at the end of the month, so hopefully their next book will be a little more appropriate.

Two things happened today - one made me remember I was in Korea, and the other made me think I was in Canada.

When I was coming home after work, I could hear the distinctive sound of the instruments the Buddhist monks play. I thought it sounded a little loud to be coming from the monastary on the hillside. I was right. As I approached the intersection near my house, there were about 4 or 5 monks sitting on the corner with about 12-15 women behind them singing and bowing in the buddhist way. That made me remember I was in Korea.

Later, as I was running some errands, snow started to fall. Huge fluffy flakes coming straight down from a black sky. It was beautiful. That made me think I was in Canada.

Of roses and protests....

One of my co-workers broke up with her boyfriend recently, so yesterday 100 longstem red roses appeared at the office. They were gorgeous. I've never seen so many roses in a single bouquet before - and they teachers room smelled fabulous for the rest of the day. Wonderful for us...not so wonderful for they guy that bought them, because I don't think they're going to do him any good.

In other news, students at the university I'll be working at next month are in the midst of massive demonstrations. They are protesting tuition hikes by staging huge sit-ins. The protests haven't interrupted the teaching schedule, but they have blocked access to the main building (where our new offices are going to be) - so we'll be working out of the old offices for a little while longer. It makes no difference to me however, since I've never seen the old offices, or the new.

Thanks to Ben for the link to countries visited. As you'll notice, there are still lots of green 'unvisited' places yet to be explored!! I cheated and put Japan on, even though I won't be there until the end of the month. (And Singapore is just too tiny to show up)

It looks like I'll have to start working on Africa and South America next...

My roomate just came home with the movie "Maid in Manhattan"...I think I'm going to go hide in my room.

World66, the travel guide you write: visited countries: "

create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide"