message from thailand

hey everybody i wanted to let you all know that we are all fine. when the earthquake and tsunami struck we were in bangkok. we felt the aftershocks in our hotel but didn't really know how diastrous it was until today. i know many of you have sent emails and i really appreciate it you thinking of me. lucky for us vickie's friend told us about koh chang which didn't get hit. so far everything here is great. the island is beautiful and our hotel is very posh. this is a new experience for me cuz i'm so use to staying in average hotels. so far we've done nothing but sit on the beach and swim. tonight i had a young coconut and a pineapple curry which were both delicious. we ate at our new favorite bar we found along the beach called the porn bar. go figure. if it has to do with porn i'll find it. tomorrow we are going elephant treking and on thursday we are doing an all day snorkling trip. i can't wait. i'll write more when i return to korea. again thanks for all the messages. its so great to know that you guys are thinking of me. i'm going to take a walk on the beach now and then go to bed. thinking of you all...

noel

this morning as i was walking down the empty streets in ansan i heard faint music playing. it was kind of surreal since it was only 8:30 am and there was no one in sight. as i got closer to the corner i realized it was "the first noel" that was playing from the corner store. i felt like i was in a christmas special. as i was heading home i saw all these handmade posters for a christmas party written in korea. i knew i had to have one so i snagged one. now its hanging in my apartment. its time for me to head off to the airport. i'm taking a week hiatus from the blog writing so don't be alarmed. i'll return with new entries of my adventures in thailand on january 2, 2005. i hope you all have a great holiday season. see ya next year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS
and a
HAPPY NEW YEAR
to all

christmas party

well folks its christmas eve here in korea. today we had a christmas party for the students which meant no classes. instead we had craft day. we made angels out of dixie cups and strofoam balls and decorated christmas hats. i made 5 angels the best being my goth goth angel which was all black including her face and she had blue and red hair. i also made a christmas hat. the students all seemed to have a great time. we passed out gifts to the teachers who all seemed very surprised. i'm glad we did that. i felt really good giving them presents. horace and i even got a card and money from jk and jane. that was so sweet of them. after school horace, christine, anna, and i went for some drinks. it ended up being a very nice evening. i'm glad we decided to go. all right i have to cut this short cuz i still have to pack for THAILAND. i can't believe i'm leaving tomorrow. i hope you all have as great of a christmas eve as i've had. see ya next year.

cry baby cry

it doesn't matter what throwing muses song pops up on the itunes party shuffle whether deeply depressing or suedo poppy it always puts me in a good mood. right now i'm listen to "cry baby cry" and all i can think about it is that tomorrows the last day before vacation. vacation. what a great feeling that is. i love having that one band that evokes such feeling for me. if i were to be stranded on a tropical island i would definitely have to have the entire discography of throwing muses. then i wouldn't care if i was ever rescue or not. speaking of tropical islands i saw online today how they had a gillian's island reality show. what in the hell will they think of next. i can't believe anyone watched that. what's next a "lost in space" reality show. i'm sitting here sipping some honey ginger tea while i'm typing. there's nothing better on a cold day some great tasting tea. i've turned into a major tea drinker since being here. a lot of that has to do with the fact that i'm trying to stay warm. the buildings here have a tendency to stay cold. i think the granite floor has a lot to do with that. its always ice cold. we had tae kwon do class again tonight because some of the students had plans for friday. of course the ones that wanted to change the day didn't show up. go figure. for awhile it was only the master, myself, and cg (canadian girl). it was a pretty decent class. we learned more of form 3 and practiced kicks. i really need to work on the kicks. thats the hardest for me. everytime i kick i want to completely turn my whole body. i must practice, practice, practice. perhaps i'll do some practicing while on the beach. that should be fun. tomorrow we are having a school party which means no classes. how excited are we. and the best news of all today is that satan aka brenda aka little brat will no longer be at our school. YEAH!! she might be back in march but if she does she has to attend a regular class. jk and lisa's mom are thinking about moving lisa into my green a class with sally. that should definitely be interesting. sally already expressed no interest in having another student in that class and lisa is a little princess. however i think it will be good for both of them. lisa is definitely one the youngest and smartest students at the school. i'm constanstly impressed by how much she understands and retains. that girl definitely has a bright future. time to motor. i got some stuff to do. two days and counting…

this little kitten…

this little kitten lost his mitten. actually i lost it about a couple of weeks ago. if memory serves correctly i think i mentioned this already. why do i bring it up now. besides the fact that its so cold i finally broke down and bought a new pair. i went into one of the numerous stationary/gift shops thats sells about everything. they had gloves there for 2,500 won which is less than $2.50. and they are actually thick and warm. this is why i love this country. some things are so damn cheap. so now this little kitten has new mittens and his is very happy and warm.

i got my first christmas card today from lisa, satan's friend, who i teach every day for 3 hours. taped to the front of the card were three little charms [two drums and one with jade pigs). i was completely surprised. after reading the card i felt really good about myself. its amazing what a little card can do. anyway i thought i'd share with you all what lisa wrote to me. i'm going to type it exactly as she has written it. well at least try to here goes:
Happy christmas.
What do you want
for presents? Wishes
Chirstmas and Take
a much thing
Happy intering christma
s! Happy new year.
I Love you teacher.
lisa
how cute is that. she's totally scored major brownie points and made up for all those days she's given attitude. 3 more days…

last minute shopping

during our break between classes horace and i set out to do last minute christmas shopping for the folks at work. we realized that we should probably get them a little something. nothing like waiting til the last minute. we hit all the places possible in ansan and finally after an hour of non-stop running around in the freezing cold we found some gifts for them all. now i can honestly say christmas shopping is done. next on my plate is to start packing for my trip. i still can't believe we leave this saturday. nor can i believe that it will be christmas. it seems strange not to be going to florida this year. it'll be my first time not going home. but i'm looking forward to this trip. to be able to do nothing for a week but sip cocktails and soak in the sun. it can't get much better than that. lets just hope i don't get burned on the first day. with each passing day it gets colder and colder. i feel like i'm back in boston. the minute you walk outside the cold rips right through you. feeling a bit lazy tonight horace and i decided to go to pizza hut for dinner. yes, there's a pizza hut right next door to our apartment. when the pizza was brought to our table we couldn't believe have tiny it was. immediately i though this is never going to be enough. nevertheless it was and i must say it tasted so good. this had to be the cleanest pizza hut i've ever been in. i must say this for korea their resturants are always spotless. i picked up a new obsession here. lately i find myself spending hours on tvtome reading synposis of old tv shows. i recently finished reading through all nine seasons of "dynasty" and before that it was "beverely hills 90210". its amazing what one does with no television. now if i could only focus that energy into doing something productive i'd actually acomplish something. but until then i guess i'll relive all those old shows i use to watch.

pretty persuasion

have i mentioned how cold it has gotten here. well it has. walking home from school today i realized that i might as well have not worn pants since the cold went right through them. i haven't been this cold since my days in boston. it looks like i'm gonna have to do some sweater shopping soon. can't wait to see what kind of fabulous korean fashions i can find. the day passed very slowly. how come it always seems that before you're about to go on vacation the days linger. in five more days i'll be boarding a plane for a tropical paradise. of course this weekend horace and i watched "lost", the tv show where the plane crashes and these people are stranded. i'll have to pack sensibly in case i find myself stranded on an island. speaking of tv i know i've mentioned "desparate housewives" before but how good is that show. i think horace and i are finally caught up. i'm so enjoying nicolette sheridian's character. every suburb needs the hot slutty divorcee to spice things up. it great to see the primetime soap making a come back. i use to love watching "dynasty, knots landing, and dallas" back in the day. although now a days the writing is a lot smarter. kudos to abc for taking a change on this show. and you would have thought that the guy who gave us "golden girls" could produce such quality drama. go figure. lets just hope bea arthur doesn't make a guest appearance. now for some exciting news. i traded in my yellow belt for a green one. yes, i passed yet another test in tae kwon do. GO ETHAN, GO ETHAN, I'M A GREEN BELT, I'M A GREEN BELT. i'm getting closer and closer to that black belt.

busted in carrefour

this morning while trying to get a few things from carrefour i got a phone call from master shin. what can only be thought as a moment of lack of judgement i answered the phone. mistake number one. apparently the master was sitting in mcdonalds and saw me come in. he asked me to come join him. i told him i was in the middle of getting some stuff and would stop by on my way out. i tried to prolong my shopping but inside i felt kind of guilty because i knew he'd probably wait there until i showed up. i got the few things i needed then headed to the pharmacy counter since that is where the contact solution is. one of my students parents work there and she gave me a 2005 day planner. that was so sweet. i love these random gifts. i met the master at mcdonalds and after several attempts of telling him i wasn't thirsty i finally caved and let him buy me a coffee. mmm. coffee from mcdonals. theres nothing better. i sat there as the master was telling me how i can improve my life here in korea. his main point being that i need to meet more people and not stay in ansan the whole time. i tried to explain to him that he really doesn't know that much about me and that i was meeting people no problem. then i started realizing it doesn't really matter what i say because he's still going to give me his opinion. i'm not sure why he feels that he has to help every foreigner he meets. part of me is starting to think that it bothers him that i don't give him many details about myself. mainly thats because i don't care to. everything he has to say is either about meeting korean women, money, money, or money. at one point he offered to teach me korean to which i replied politely no thanks. i told him that 3 nights a week of his insults were enough for me. then he had the nerve to tell me i needed to be more open minded. the man is crazy and needs a life. and just because i don't feel like becoming a part of their little rat pack crrew doesn't mean i'm not open minded. then he told me he was worried about my finances. when does it end i tell you. i already have parents i don't need any more thank you. i can't wait to see what monday's class is going to bring. all i know is 6 more days and then i'm beach bond. thank gawd.

the moment of truth

i'm almost afraid to admit to what i did today. although its not extremely bad i'm sure some of you will be grossed out. please don't hold anything against me. afterall i am in a foreign country experiencing a completely different culture. whats that saying "when in rome. well, when in korea…" now to begin the story. after months and months of horace and jk talking about going to a dog meat resturant that day finally arrived. we met jk, jane, and their daughter rosa [she gave up on kelly] at the subway station. that in its own right turned into a comedy of errors. when we arrived we exited the same side where jk dropped us off after chusok. we were standing around for 5 minutes or so when he called to tell us he was running late. he asked where we were and he side to go to the other side. up the stairs we went. we walked through the station and departed through the other side. while we were waiting down there all these school kids were walking by yelling "hello. welcome to korea. nice to meet you." etc. its always the same with them. there was no sign of jk though. he called again asking horace where we were. when horace told him he said to go to the other side. this is korean logic at it finest. back up the stairs we went, crossing through the station, and back out the original exit. thats when we saw them on the other side of the street. apparently thats what he meant. the other side of the street and not the other side of the station. we drove to jk's in-laws to pick of mr. oh [jane's father] and danny her brother. mr. oh is the one who wanted to take us to the resturant. we went up to apartment and had some tea before heading out. i had this lemon honey tea with pieces of lemon in it. it was great. supposedely like everything in korea it was good for your health. we sat there talking. mr. oh would ask us questions in korean and then danny or jk translated for us. after the tea was done it was time to go to the resturant. before leaving they asked if i wanted dog meat too and i said i'd stick to the chicken soup. i tried to explain that having grown up with dogs i didn't think i could eat them. in turn they explained that like cows and chickens these dogs are raised to be eaten and not as pets. still i didn't like i could do it. it was a nice walk to the resturant. the oh family live in a very nice area. it feels very residential. at the resturant the dog meat eaters [mr. oh, jk, and horace] sat at one end of the table and the chicken soupers [me, jane, and danny] sat at the other end. before the food came out they brought out various sidedishes of kimchi, radishes, hot peppers. all of which were very good. then the waitress brought out the dog meat. i watched her as she cut it off the bone. i thought i was going to gag. mr. oh kept asking me if i wanted some so finally i caved and said i would try a little. i handed him my plate. as i watched he started to pile meat onto it. i told danny to tell to stop. i only wanted a little. i asked danny if he ever tried it and he said no. later he confessed that he liked american food better than korean. i'm sure that makes his dad happy. by this time the chicken soup was brought out. however this wasn't the chicken soup your grandma makes. it comes in a giant steel bowl and there's a whole chicken stuffed with rice, gingers, and a prune [at least i think it was a prune]. it was kind of odd looking at my soup seeing a whole chicken in it and then looking at the utensils i had to eat it with: a spoon and chopsticks. this was definitely going to be interesting. before i dove into the whole chicken i decided to actually try the dog meat. it actually looked like lamb which is not one of my favorite things. not wanting to insult anyone and seeing that even jane decided to tyr it for her first time i figured why not. so in it went. it really didn't have much of a taste to it. then again i didn't really chew it. i kind of just swallowed it. they asked me what i thought and i politely said its all right but there was no way i could eat a lot of it. i think if i didn't know what it was it wouldn't be so bad. its more of a psychological thing then anything else. now it was time to dig into the chicken. i had a little bit of trouble at first trying to pull the legs off with the chopsticks but soon i was tearing into it like an old pro. the soup was actually quite good. it definitely needed salt so i added a whole bunch of it. after lunch we went back to mr. oh's apartment for some fruit. mrs. oh brought out some homemade pumpkin soup for us to try. it totally rocked. mrs. oh is a great cook. we sat around for a little then jk drove us back.

i really enjoy spending time with the oh family. they are such nice people and are so concerned with our well being. telling us to keep warm, eat good, etc. like any parents would. danny has two months off from college so once we get back from thailand he wants to show us around seoul. that will be fun. i also told him i'd help him with his interview. it seems that he's going to be interviewing in march to attend a school in the states. last time he was in los angeles. this time it looks like he'll be trying to go to a school in the bay area. he's a really nice kid. so to all my friends in the bay area if he ends up going there i might ask you to show him around and make him feel welcomed for me. i know i can count on some of you to do that for me.

that about sums up my saturday. again i hope none of you hold the dog meat against me. and dad i promise when i'm home i won't be looking at bando, coco, or kayla as a tastey meal.

the annoying one…

of course it was too good to be true. after weeks of a nonannoying master the annoying one has returned. the master was in rare form tonight. from the minute he walked in it was nonstop ragging. first he went on and on about how there were no girls in class tonight and he didn't feel like teacher because he was tired and the people next door were too noisey. then he moved on to me. you know that feeling of when you are trying to sleep and you keep getting woken up by a mosquito. thats what it felt like again tonight. its like you try to concentrate on what you're doing but you has the bug buzzing in your eye non-stop. the master went on and on about heather liking me. it like he's never known a guy and girl to be just friends. he kept asking me over and over why heather likes me. according to the master i'm "soft" and "a sissy man" to which i made no comment. i realized its best to ignore him otherwise he's going to completely piss me off. its getting harder though. at one point i felt like leaving class because he just wouldn't shut up. there is nothing more annoying then when you are trying to exercise and he's complaining about women. finally i told him its probably because he tries to hard. of course this didn't shut him up. finally scrappy showed up for class and the masters attention was focused on him. i swear i actually want to kill this man. he's driving me crazy. as if the master isn't bad enough than i have on of the brown belts constanstly giving me pointers. it wouldn't bug me so much but it reminds me of my childhood when we had the one older kid you kept telling us younger kids what to do. i tried my best to block every thing. it was tough. this was the longest hour and a half of my life. thank god christmas break is coming. it'll be nice to get over from everything for awhile. i'm starting to realize that i have a hard time listening to people other than the instructor give me feedback. the only good thing is that know that i realize this maybe i can work on it. after class i was walking home with scrappy and he asked me if the master said something about scrappy not liking me. i told him no. and that i could really care less. i guess heather told him the master was insinuating that he didn't like me. can anyone say high school much. i'm there to learn one thing and one thing only tae kwon do. i don't really care about making friends, or listening to who's getting laid and who's not. i don't want to know about any of their sex lives or lack of. is it too much to ask. i think not. the master is so obsessed with meeting a woman and getting laid that its affecting his mental being. i want to shake him and say "get a life you freakin troll". is that mean. it felt good getting all that out. i'm starting to feel much more relaxed. i'm also having a cocktail which probably helps too. anyway thats my rant for this evening. i had something else in mind to write about before class but i'll save that for another day. tomorrow horace and i have to meet jk, his father -in-law, and his brother-in-law for lunch. they're taking us to a dog meat restuarant. i can only hope that there's something else on the menu because i really don't feel like eating dog meat. i'll let you know how it goes.

short but sweet

its thursday and i'm super tired. the winter weather makes me want to cuddle up under the covers so i think thats what i'm going to do. i'll write more tomorrow. goodnight…

cookies for e!

what started out as a drab day for me turned into a day of happiness. my day took a dramatic turn for the better when a package from misty arrived at the school. yeah!! christmas stuff!! its amazing how getting a package from back home can make ones day. this package was like no other cuz it was filled with lots of cookies!! homemade cookies at that. i'm not sure how they made it through customs but they did. they are usually strict about letting unpackaged goods into korea. perhaps the christmas spirit was with the customs checkers. whatever it was i'm glad they made it. there were loads of sugar cookies with thick icing, molaasses cookies, and my favorite peanutbutter rice krispy treats with milk chocolate and butterscotch frosting. these are the treats that misty insists that i eat when ever nancy sends them to her. and you know what…she's right. YUMMY!! of course horace and i immediately sampled all the goodies. i even shared with the others. inside the package misty included polaroids of kate, ted, derek, and herself making cookies. and pictures of the cookies. derek made superhero cookies. there was wonder woman, aguaman, batman, and catwoman all ready for me to eat. how great it that. you guys totally rocked. and of course there were presents which i haven't opened yet. i'm saving those for christmas eve. the best though was a dvd that was labeled "cookies for e! a very special christmas dvd". to be honest i was afraid to play it at work because i wasn't sure what was on it. was it a naughty or nice kind of video? i didn't want to take the change so i waited until i got home to play it. once home i popped the dvd into my computer. i was quite anxious to see what this was. it opened up to a theater curtain scene with the words "cookies for e!" i immediately hit play. then it begin. it was a homemovie starring misty, kate, ted, derek, craig, natalie, jojo and special guest star aikea. i had to hold back tears when i heard my little princess meow. watching her walk around, meowing and looking so healthy and happy made me happy. it was so great seeing her and all my friends. this is THE BEST present i could have ever gotten. these guys are so thoughtful and its stuff like this that makes me realize how great my friends are. i haven't even had a change to finish watching it yet. i'm only 40 minutes into it. they gang has just now started to make the cowboy molasas cookies. i can't wait to see what happens next. will kate keep her apron clean? will misty burn more chocolate? will jojo get egg shells into the dough? will ted run out of batteries? will derek ever stop washing dishes? all these questions and more. i actually feel like i'm there making cookies with them. and to tie it all together theres christmas music playing throughout. one of the many highlights besides kate, misty, and derek doing the various dances from the peanuts characters is that misty showed me her new boots. by the way very nice. this is why i love these guys because you never know what to expect. i continue to go on and on about this dvd but i won't. i just want to say thanks to all you. i love and miss you all. thanks for making this one of the best holidays ever. i will forever cherish this dvd.

p.s. love the shirt you gave jojo. classic. and the wife-beater shirt you mentioned…you know i want that.

school girl crush

today begins the countdown for vacation. only 11 more days and then i'm off to a tropical paradise. i've never looked forward to a vacation more than this one. it will will be good to get away from the kids and the cold. to sit back in the sun and do nothing but relax. i had a new student added to one of my classes today. of course she was totally shy and when i had her read i could barely understand her. just when you think you have a handle on your class and things are going well a new one appears a throws a curve in the whole thing. hopefully since there are two other girls in the class she'll break out of her shell quickly. we also had three other students take tests and will most likely be joining. even with the new school that opened on the third floor we are still continuing to grow which is good. although it means more work for us. there are some days when you look out on these faces and you wonder if they understanding anything. i'll like to think that i'm making some progress with them. olivia told me today that joy, one of horace's students, has a crush on me. aren't i lucky. joy hasn't been in school this month and hopefully she won't find out the others told me. i don't want to be embarassed. i seem to be making points with the girls since i know a lot of the pop bands. after school emily was asking me about all these different bands. it was kind of cute talking music with them. i'm hoping by doing this it will increase their conversational skills. make them feel a little more comfortable when speaking english. we'll see how that goes.

and so the battle begins…

we have a new battle starting at our school. surprisingly enough its has nothing to do with the children. instead this battle is over heating. every time jane comes to school she's constanstly going into our classrooms and turning off the heat. you can leave the room for 5 minutes to pee and come back and its off. well today she come into the school earlier than usual. she's actually been at the school a lot lately since the university she teaches at is on vacation. anyway so as soon as she comes the main heat gets shut off. its 15 degrees outside. do you think we could have some heat. just because all of them keep their coats on i don't feel like it. at one point i look over at horace and he's all bundled up. this is ridiculous. i ate my lunch wearing a scarf and finished it so fast because the room was like ice. and to top it off there's no hot water in the building so when you wash your hands the water is ice cold. i spent the entire day locked in my classroom with the heat cranked to 30. all day my students were complaining about being too hot. i looked at them and said "sorry" teacher cold. it will be very interesting to see how this no heat when jane is there pans out. i don't think the university starts back until february. this should be interesting.

just another sunday

today i awake in a much better space than yesterday. it still so weird how one day you can be totally down for no reason and the next day you're perfectly fine. i think spending some alone time on saturday was good. like saturday i begin my morning with episode 31 of "love's pinwheel". its getting good. afterwards i went with horace to carrefour were we got groceries and finished off at mcdonalds. its starting to become a habit which is bad. on the plus side the do give vitamin drinks with your meal. around 4pm i went down to horace's apartment where we had a tv marathon. one episode of "popular", one episode of "strangers with candy", and six episodes of "desparate housewives". ok. how good is that show. i'm loving it. we couldn't stop watching. the characters are great. the actors are good. the writing is great. what more could you want: sex, drama, camp, and a dark comedy all roled into one. there is definitely a lot of eye candy on that show. finally something worthwhile to watch besides reality shows. i can't wait to watch episode 7 and 8.

a spotless home is a happy home

today just seemed to have escaped me. i'm in the middle of month 3. the time was homesickens stricks the hardest. i was in a funk all day for no apparent reason. i spent the morning watching my favorite korean soap opera "love's pinwheel". managed to throw a load of laundry in and then found myself in bed again. this time watching "braveheart". what in the hell was i thinking. thankfully my laundry ended and i forced myself to get up and turn off the awlful movie. i was only like 40 minutes into it. mel gibson sucks. my question is what was up with the mullet-esque hair styles. especially when he was younger. he had two rat tails on either side of his head and was wearing a burlap sack. i've seen better costumes at a high school play. i'm just glad i didn't watch the whole thing. the other night i watched the unaired pilot of "buffy the vampire slayer". it was pretty interesting. they had a completely different willow. this one was fat and couldn't act. its a good thing they booted that actress. it was definitely a trip seeing some of the things they changed from the pilot to the actual series. i definitely recommend any buffy fans to find this pilot and watch it. after breaking away from the bad mel gibson movie i threw myself into cleaning my apartment. i must say its amazing how messy one person can be. i guess it would help if i kept up on the cleanning but i don't. it looked like a small tornado came whirling through my pad. nevertheless after a couple hours of cleaning it is not spotless. lets see how long i can keep it this way. i give it one day. i really do hate cleanning. i should look into getting a maid. wouldn't that be something.

the tofu house

tonight jk and jane took us all out to dinner. it was such a nice gesture especially after a long week. we went to the tofu house which was an old-style korean resturant. the meal started off with two different types of tofu. one was a blend of white and grey tofu and the the other was a warm pudding-like tofu. both were very good. next we had some pork that tasted like it was cooked in brown sugar. that was followed by various types of side dishes: sweet potato noodles in seasame sauce [my favorite], some kind of cole slaw, various types of kimchee, potato pancakes, and radishes. next came three different types of soup: one white tofu soup [bege], a redish kimchee tofu soup, and soy bean soup. all of which were very tastey. it was a very low key dinner. which means no alcohol which was actually nice. just good conversation. its moments like these that make being here a the more better. although at one point they were laughing at my stomach. yes i know i don't have 6 pack abs but do you have to rub it in. surprisingly enough it didn't really bother me. it was all in good fun. they were actually laughing at the fact that i looked completely full which i did. it was pretty great evening. i'm really lucky to have landed a job with such caring people.

on a different note i got business cards today. i'm still in shock that i actually have korean business. its pretty cool. one side english one side korean. unlike my previous job where we had to constanstly ask for cards they just made them for us. no fuse about money, no complaining about, they just did it. now thats the way a company should be. perhaps "they who i won't mention" should take a few pointers from them. now its time to retire to the old bedroom in the sky. this boy is tired.

strange occurrence #33

the other day i was chatting with d via yahoo messenger before heading off to school. i was downstairs sitting at my little table where my laptop is. i had music playing through itunes. bascially my typical morning. while chatting with d i suddenly heard some korean guys voice. the sound was coming from my apartment. to be more specific it sounded like the was the person was upstairs. they've be doing some construction or something upstairs so i thought that maybe they had accidentally busted through the wall. then i realized i hadn't heard any commotion so that couldn't be it. thats when i came up with the idea that the tv turned it self on. as i climbed the stairs the voice got louder and louder. when i reached the top i noticed that the tv was still off. i started to look around the room. as i looked up at the ceiling i noticed a litte yellow speaker thing. upon closer inspection i realized that the voice was coming out of that. yes people, i had some voice like a morning announcement at school talking to me through the ceiling. my phone starting ringing. it was horace. i started laughing before i answered it because i immediately knew why he was calling. he heard the voice too. of course the two of us are coming up with all these different scenarios for what he was saying, the main one being that everyone needs to evacuate the building. it was kind of creepy having this random voice come out of nowhere. i've never heard of nor lived anywhere that had such a thing. apparently all of the apartments must have them. of course there was no evacuation. i realized if there was we would have heard people running through the halls. at school we told jk about the incidient. he said they were probably making an announcement about some function or something happening in the building. thats kind of a bizarre thing to do but then again we are in korean after all. still it was weird. and the fact the jk made it seem like such a common experience made it all the weirder. now it makes me wonder if there are little hidden cameras throughout the apartment. perhaps there is some crazy old korean guy in the basement watching and listening to everything we say or do. didn't this happen on melrose on time. someone was hiding in the ceiling spying on amanda. it makes you think huh. so far i haven't heard anything else come out of the speaker. hopefully that will be the last. and if its not maybe next time i'll be prepare but i doubt that.

the korean way

as i've mentioned numerous times the simplest task in korea is never that simple. case in point. a few weeks ago i need to get toothpaste. one would think that you could simply walk into the grocery store and pick of a tube. right. wrong. first you have to figure out which brand to get. none of them looked like menta dent or crest. all they all seemed to come in bundles of four or more. seeing that toothpaste can vary in flavor and effectiveness i didn't want to buy a bundle for fear that i might hate that particular brand. after searching for over twenty minutest i found one brand that was sold in singles. that brand happened to be 2080 where the slogan was "keep the 20 healthy teeth til 80 years old". now my question is what happens after 80. do they expect people to start dying off around then. or perhaps around 80 people start losing their teeth. i'm not quite sure. all i do know is that 2080 is not as good as crest. however, i'm stuck with it until the tube is done and hopefully the next time i venture out for toothpaste there will be more of a selection for single brands.

the toothpaste was just one incident. i ran into the same problem when purchasing toilet paper. i couldn't believe how expensive it was. most of the brands ran around $10 or more for like 6 rolls. do koreans not wipe their ass. if you go into the public restrooms one would think not. there are never any toilet paper rolls nor is there sopa or hot water. what's up with that. after searching up and down the toilet paper isle i finally found a brand that was ultra cheap and you got 20 rolls. the catch was that it's herb fresh scented. how nice is that? finally after three months of using this stuff i realized today while blowing my nose that the smell reminding me of my great-grandmother. you know how some people have certain smells. well my great-grandmother smelled like the herb fresh tp i bought. now whenever i get a good wiff of it i'm thrown but in time at my great-grandmothers apartment. its actually a nice feeling. my great-grandmother has been dead for some time now and i haven't really thought of her much in the past. now i think about her daily. of the time we'd go visit her or when she'd come to florida to visit and our dog would chew the buttons off her night gown. or if he could find them chew her slippers. its weird have things can trigger memories like that. i guess being so far away from home opens your mind to events long ago. i look forward to finding more things that unleash such memories while living here. its such a nice feeling.

dinosaurs + fossils

as i mentioned in an earlier blog, i'm once again in the dinosaur and fossil unit. yesterday after reading the same dinosaur story twice i started to think. if dinosaurs extisted before man and either: 1. the were slowly killed off by volcanoes constanstly erupting and destroying plant life 2. a meteorite crashed to the earth added iridium to the soil which helped to off the dinosaurs, or 3. a combination of both; wouldn't all life forms in the world have been completely destroyed too. and if so just how did man come to exist. are we to believe that a supreme being healed the earth and started life again. what if dinosaurs never really existed but are only great fable created by man. sure we have dinosaur bones in museums but couldn't they have been manufactured? i'm not saying that i really think dinosaurs didn't existed but questioning what if? wouldn't that be interesting. if these theories are true and the atmosphere of the earth was changed in such a way the it was killing off species then how could anyone have live here. perhaps i should do some more reading. i don't really remember much from early education and i'm not the smartest when it comes to history. i probably should have paid attention more in school. its been a long time since i've even thought about any of this or even really cared for that matter. now that i'm in a school environment reading all these things i'm starting to think more about everything. perhaps teaching wasn't such a bad thing. afterall it is getting me interested in history and other things i brushed off before. go figure.

fahrenhiet vs. celsius

have i mentioned how cold it is here. in some areas it reached 0° celsius. it wouldn't surprise me if it snowed here at any time now. besides trying to figure out a new language i also have to contend with the converision from celsius to fahrenhiet. 34 years of nothing but fahrenhiet and now i'm in a nation of celsius. wouldn't it be great if the entire world could use the same measurement. actually if i'm not mistaken i think most of the world except america uses celsius. whenever i want to figure out want the temperature would be back home i now have to do math and use formulas. i knew i should have paid attention in science class. anyway i thought i'd share with you my friends the formula: Celsius = (Fahrenheit - 32) x 5/9; Fahrenheit = Celsius * 9/5 + 32. that's just too much math to remember. why oh why could we not just have one standard unit of measurement. is that too much to ask. perhaps i'll draft a note to our fine president and ask him this very question. i'm going to make it my mission to bring celsius to the states!! as if the temperature wasn't enough. they use the metric system here which means instead of being 5 feet 10 inches i'm 178 cm and my weight is not 165 lbs but 75 kg. i'd much rather say i'm 75kg than 165lbs. again why not have a standard world wide. these are the things that have filling my mind lately. my whole way of thinking about things and their relationship to one another is completely getting turned around. its as if i'm learning them all for the first time. which in a way is actually kind of fun. i can't wait to return to the u.s. and give the dmv my height and weight using the metric system. won't that just piss them off.

the bitter cold has made me think of my favorite christmas cartoon "the year without a santa claus" so i feel its only fitting to end with the snow miser's song. enjoy!

[Snow Miser]

I'm Mister White Christmas
I'm Mister Snow
I'm Mister Icicle
I'm Mister Ten Below
Friends call me Snow Miser,
What ever I touch
Turns to snow in my clutch
I'm too much!


[Chorus]

He's Mister White Christmas
He's Mister Snow


[Snow Miser]

That's right!


[Chorus]

He's Mister Icicle
He's Mister Ten Below


[Snow Miser]

Friends call me Snow Miser,
What ever I touch
Turns to snow in my clutch


[Chorus]

He's too much!


[Snow Miser]

I never want to see a day
That's over forty degrees
I'd rather have it thirty,
Twenty, ten, five and let it freeeeEEEEEEeeze!


[Chorus]

He's Mister White Christmas
He's Mister Snow


[Snow Miser]

That's right!


[Chorus]

He's Mister Icicle
He's Mister Ten Below


[Snow Miser]

Friends call me Snow Miser,
What ever I touch
Turns to snow in my clutch
... too much.


[Everybody]

Too Much!

new day rising…

the heaviness that once comsumed my body has finally seemed to have left. all that remains is a bit of a sore throat. its a good thing i brought some meds with me. that plus the ginger honey tea i've been drinking like crazy. at carrefour i bought some ricola, which oddly enough they keep in the candy isle. go figure. i felt a little adventurous today and decided to make some homemade chicken soup with rice cakes. it was actually quite tastey if i do say so myself. its amazing what one can do with only a pot. now i have lunch for tomorrow. most of the end was spent finishing up with my christmas stuff that has been littering my floor for weeks. my apartment is actually starting to look normal again. i did a lot of tv watching this weekend. i'm halfway through season two of buffy, caught two episodes of "love's pinwheel", charlie's angels the movie, and the korean music video awards. i must say watching the kmv's was quite satisfing even if i could understand a word. i did manage to catch my favorite korean pop band perform their hit "tri-angle" with boa and my favorite korean rock band the trax. so good. if only my describing it could do it justice but it can't so i won't. everyone on the show was quite fashionable. my favorite by far was the korean guy with dreds. so now here i sit and type on sunday night. no 60 minutes to warn me of my approaching bedtime and the dawning of school. remember those days. i used to cringe when i heard the 60 minutes theme. its funny how some things just stay with you.

friday + saturday

last night [friday] i was completely wipe-out. have you ever felt like there were all these tiny wieghts attached to your body weighing you down? thats how i felt friday night. when i got home from school i just couldn't get warm and my body ached all over. i went into bed to rest before tae kwon do. around 8:30 pm i called master shin to let him know i wouldn't be there. i couldn't get out of bed. it looks as if i'll be spending this weekend in bed. i have managed to take a shower but i still feel exhasted. its a good thing that its a rainy saturday. a perfect day for bed and movies.

it seems that the drama with sammy has yet to end. even though she's no longer at the school she's still managing to cause problems. the latest is that she called the parents of two of our students. to make a long story short she told the mothers that students were leaving because she left and that the foreign teachers [horace and i] were complaining about teaching. i had a long talk with jk and reminded him who was the one that refused to teach in the morning…sammy. he kept saying how he felt bad and i tried to tell him that unfortunately in life you are going to run into people like this. the worst part is that sammy was so helpful to us and now here she is creating all these problems. i really just want to bury my head in the sand. i'm so tired of working in places with high drama. when will the madness end? when?

survivor

at school today i discovered little video snipets of "survivor". which meant during our breaks horace and i were glued to the the computer watching all 11 of them. now that was a productive day. i just couldn't pull myself away from the them. i'm beginning to feel the onset of a cold coming. not fun. i had all this stuff i wanted to do tonight, like wrap the rest of my christmas presents, but instead i think i'm going to curl up in my bed and watch tv. that sounds like more fun anyway. we started putting up christmas decorations. its starting to look all festive in school. i can't believe its december all ready. time seems to be going by much faster these days. i was trying to explain fossils, petrified, and preserved to my students today. talk about a challenge. finally after 30 minutes i think they started to get the hang of it. who really knows. this is my least favorite part of the book. that's really all i got to say tonight. i'm going to head off to bed now.

and a new era begins…

today was the start of a new beginning at ils with the new teachers. it was kind of strange not seeing sammy's smiley face when we walked through the doors. "the devil" child refused to go to horace's class so jk taught her for two classes. her last day will be december 21. jk told her mom that he thinks she needs a break. supposedely at her last institute she cried every day with the foreign teacher that she said. its apparent that her problem runs deep and there is not much we can do for her. her mother seemed very understanding about it. she'll probably return in march 2005 or even perhaps next january 2006. i couldn't really understand what jk was telling me. i just nodding that i understood. my classes are going well. the 3 boys are behaving a little better these days. i make them line up at the end of every class before leaving. i've become quite militant in that class. with all these classes i'm finding less and less time to prepare. and when i do have a break i'm drawn into the newspaper. although i'm getting a little tired of reading about nuke talks with north korea, the college test scandal, and iran. unfortunatley now that mr. bush is back in office i'm sure that news will continue forever. i did read something with the officials in north korea called bush and "ignoramus". you gotta love that.

we learned combo fake punches and kicks today in tae kwon do. that was fun. i was partnered up with dr. no until his glasses fell off and broke. then i got stuck with master shin. after practicing various combos we moved onto sparring. of course i got stuck with master shin. he was kicking my ass up and down the mat. i did manage to get a few good jabs and kicks in that made me feel good.

its been cold here lately. i find myself drinking more tea than i've ever have in my life. the best is this ginger honey tea that comes in a jar. it has chunks of ginger in it and is quite thick. a scoop of that in a cup mixed with water…so good. i'm definitely going to bring some of that home with me. its one of the best things i've discovered so far. i had strawberry milk today too. i'm such a child it kills me.

the last super

no this isn't going to be my religious rant, nor is it going to be about jesus. instead its about having our goodbye dinner with sammy and julie. horace and i treated them to bbq at our favorite place. it had been over a month since we were last there. we were greeted with handshakes and hellos from our favorite bbq lady. it was good to be back. i forgot how good and fresh the food is there. by far its the best bbq in ansan. i can say that now because i've tried three other places. i did realize last night that i still not able to welcome soju back into my life. i tried drinking a little of it last night and it wasn't going down to well. i guess thats what happens when one over does it. hopefully in another months time i'll be able to return to my favorite korean beverage. in the meantime its back to beer. dinner was nice. it was kind of sad to realize that i won't be seeing sammy at school anymore. she's been so helpful and nice to us. hopefully we'll continue to keep in contact with her.

in school today the "little brenda" who was coloring a bunny decided to have the bunny called horace "a stupid, shithead" or something like that. of course it was in korean so he had sammy translate it. when he showed it to jk, jk sort of softened the whole thing up making light of the situation. i know i've never taught in america but i don't think our teachers and principals would make light of such a situation. at lunch sammy overheard "little brenda" whispering to lisa that she hates teacher horace. this little girl is definitely something. we now refer to her as "the omen" or "bad seed". the minute i see her head spin i'm out of there.

revolving door

today was a complete bummer of a day. everyone is up in arms about having to teach nine hours. they decided to combine one of the green a classes so now i get to teach that class. it wouldn't be so bad if the students were on the same level but they aren't. one is my student from before and the other two were horace's. well we were a lot farther along in my class and now these two girls are completely lost. their reading is fine but they don't really comprehend any of it and they are definitely not understanding prefixes. i will probably have to give them extra attention. i don't want to review everything we've done because ashley will be bored. hopefully it will all come together. to make things worse our part-time teacher julie quit today. this really sucks because she was good. i guess jk had made some promises to her and went back on his word. tomorrow's sammy last day too. now we are losing two good teachers. it's only been three months and the turnover there is unbelievable. i can't wait to what's going to happen in the next 9 months. on the plus side we did get a xerox machine. now that's fun. i can't wait to make copies.

i was in better form tonight during tae kwon do. i realized that if i eat a light meal beforehand i'm much better than when i eat something heavy like pasta. scrappy kept running his mouth all night about some korean girl he hooked up with on the weekend. sometimes i feel like i'm in a bad espisode of "saved by the bell". sometimes i wish he would just stupid up for five minutes.

we going out for drinks tomorrow night with sammy and julie. i'm sure horace and i are going to get an earful. i thought life here would be much simpler but it really isn't. its the same old bullshit just a different language.

during my buffy marathon this weekend i realized that she does tae kwon do. she made a few references about practicing her round house kicks. oh yeah. i'm learning the buffy moves. look at vampires here i come. time to unwind with a few more buffster epsidoes before turning in. later.

weekend update

this is going to be a combo and short entry seeing that i did absolutely nothing this weekend and i really don't have anything profound or otherwise to say.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27
today i ventured around old town ansan. i wanted to check it out again. the last i was there i wasn't in the best of moods. i went into 2001 outlet which is a giant department store. today it was packed with people. it was nice to see christmas decorations and hear christmas music. but after a few minutes it started to annoy me. it kind of felt like a giant flea market. i didn't really find anything of interest except for a maple story gang day planner. maple story gang is some anime kids. as tempted as i was to buy it i didn't. my venture through old town ansan was spent under the watchful eyes of everyone. i know people stare but usually i'm with horace so i don't notice it as much. that wasn't the case today. its a good thing i didn't have to pick my underwear out of my ass because everyone would have seen. there are a few good gift shops in the area which are worth returning to. thats always good to know. i did find one clothing store that had american superhero comics as wallpaper. very nice. unfortunately i didn't find any clothes i liked. there's always next time.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 28
or otherwise known as lazy day 2. i did manage to go to carrefour for a few supplies. upon leaving the food store floor, i noticed that they had a pet chipmunk for sale. yes, i kid you not. there was a little chipmunk in a hamster cage spinning around in the wheel like a mad man. he was so cute. very hyper. he came over to me when i called him. that lasted about a second before he ran back to the wheel to do more laps. so now the debate begins: chipmunk or bunny. chipmunk or bunny. perhaps i'll get both. once downstairs i hit the food court for some good old mcdonalds. this time i got the big mac set. not only to do you get fries and coke but it comes with a vitamin drink too. how about that! as always it was very tastey. i hope this doesn't become a regular sunday habbit. i spent the rest of the day watching "buffy the vampire slayer." sometimes its good to do nothing.

and so winter begins…

this morning i awoke to the sound of rain. i opened up my window and a gust of cold air came rushing in. yes, winter is on its way to korea. today was a typical day at school. lisa cried because she lost in a game we played and told sammy she hates me. the other day she drew of picture of me and jenny. jenny had a sword and cut my head off. sara continues to not do any of her homework and everytime i ask her a question she stares at me. dave and eric continue to misbehave so today i made them put their heads down on the table for a majority of the class. don't you just love children some time.

around mid-afternoon the wind had picked up and it started to sleet. however, it didn't last long. it sure was pretty to watch it fall over the fields while it lasted. we just might see snow some time next week.

in tae kwon do it was only jenny and i. i learned my second form. we also practiced some kicking. unfortunately i was having an off day. didn't really feel it for some reason. i guess that will happen. i'm not really too concerned. however, i do have the second form down. with a little practice this weekend who knows maybe i'll be a green belt before christmas.

tonight i'm going to spend my evening watching bad tv that i downloaded. let the good times role.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

well its that time of year again when friends, family, and others get together to stuff themselves with various delicious tasting sidedishes, a juicy turkey, and pumpkin pie. what more could anyone want. i hope all of you that happen to visit my blog today have a great thanksgiving and take some time to think about the things that you are thankful for. i know i did. boy, am i sounding all oprah like or what today. maybe i can have my own feel-good talk station when i return. you all would watch wouldn't you?

we were talking about the holidays today at school. i was remarking that its not necessarily the holiday itself that i miss but the gathering of friends and family. plus there's also that feeling one gets when they walk around their city and all the lights are out, store windows have christmas displays, and people just seem to be in a good mood. thats the feeling i miss. the anticipation of christmas coming. sammy teacher asked us if we had plans tonight. we told her we were thinking of going out to dinner but didn't have any set plans. thats when she said she wanted to treat us to a western dinner, so that we might feel a little at home. how sweet is that. of course our choices were bennigans and t.g.i fridays. she called both of them to see if they had any thanksgiving specials. they didn't. we decided on fridays since there was one in old ansan city and it was close to the subway station for sammy. yes, can you believe i actually had thanksgiving dinner at fridays. it kind of felt like that scene in "a christmas story" when ralphies family ended up going to the chinese resturant for christmas dinner. although there was no turkey to be found on the menu i settled for a nice juicy thanksgiving burger and two beers. it was the best burger i've had in a long time. while we were there enjoying the food and the company i felt like i wasn't missing anything at all. as i sit here and reflect on the evening i can't help to think how thankful i am to have a good friend here with me and for the people like sammy that i've met who are helping to make my time here all the more enjoyable. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

combat baby

"no one here wants to fight me like you do. combat baby, combat baby." this is going to be my tae kwon do fighting song. i feel really good tonight. tkd went really well expect for jenny and i injured ourselves while sparring. we had direct foot to foot contact leaving us both we bruises. i'm now icing my foot. not sure if its because i've become a yellow belt or not but i'm feeling a lot more confident in class. i'm really glad i decided to stick it out. its things like this which make me glad i came to korea. i would have never tried tae kwon do back in the states. i'm going to be one kicking, killing machine upon my return. it really strange how going so far away can help one develop as a person. although there are plenty of things i miss like friends, family, my kitty, having a drink at the eagle, etc. i wouldn't change a thing. i would definitely do it all over again.

i've actually been reading the newspaper on a regular basis which is something i haven't done since j-school. i decided to start a scrap book of all the bizarre news that i read. they obsess about the strangest things here and report even the stranger. i did read today where the hyundai company have a tour of some mountain in north korea. they are even thinking about building two golf courses. the koreans sure love to golf. every other building seems to have one. they are also a big fans of the batting cage. there's one outside of jungang station and its always crowded. anyway, i'm thinking about taking this tour. i think it would be really interesting to be able to go into north korea. especially since all the over here is about nuke talks with nk. i still have to do the dmz tour which i'm probably do after the new years. the thailand trip is making a huge dent into my bank account but it's definitely going to be worth every penny. 9 days on a tropical beach. this will be my first real vacation ever. i'm so excited. one month and counting…

post office mayhem

the simplest tasks here are never simple. at the post office today it took me forever to try to mail a package. no one understood what i was asking and finally they called someone on the telephone who spoke english that i could talk to. i thought i'd never get out of there. before i left i tried to get more mailing forms so i could have them filled out before going to the post office. of course when i asked for them the lady kept telling me one week. i tried to tell her i wasn't asking how long it would take the packages but simply wanted some extra forms. once again they went for the phone where i had to speak to someone about it. finally i was able to leave with forms in my hand. when i got back to the office i realized one of my gloves were missing. i backtracked my steps back to the post office but i didn't see it. i even asked at the post office like that was going to help and still nothing. so now i only have one glove. i'm sad.

i found out today that little brenda now likes me. it seems that playing with her and lisa in the playroom paid off. although she was still giving out 'tude in horace's class. during one of the breaks lisa asked her to play and she said no. when we were in class lisa told me "no teacher play with jenny." these two are definitely something. i can say this it will never be a dull moment with them. we watched a dora the explorer video today. it's in korean, english, and spainish but at least the girls seem to enjoy to it. although the episode we watched today was exactly the same as the yesterdays. instead of a little blue bird that was trying to find it's mother we watched a little blue train trying to win a whistle against the big green and red trains. talk about good programing. yikes. i'm not sure how many more of these i can sit through.

a little brenda

at school today jk told us that we were going to change the classes with jenny and lisa. for now on i would be teaching lisa for all 3 classes, horace would have jenny, and then we'd teach a class together. how happy was i to learn that i'd no longer be teacher jenny. i'm now referring to her as "little brenda" since she has the attitude of shannon dougherty's character on 90210. during the lunch period little brenda ran back into jk's office and refused to eat with all of us. it seems that she acted up in horace's class too. i guess i'm not the evil blue-eyed devil i thought i was. after lunch lisa asked little brenda if she wanted to play and she said no. this girl has some serious tude.

the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. i found a new way to teach the three boys which made the class a whole lot better. although today one of them ran out of my class to use the bathroom. he wanted to take the entire roll of toilet paper with him but i stopped him. apparently he almost had an accident in class. now that would have been fun.

we practiced kicking in tae kwon do today. i feel like i'm getting much better which makes me happy. for the last ten minutes or so we had to spar. sparring is hard and tiring but i held my own. that is until i had to spar tb. that guy definitely has some moves. i spent most of the time trying to dodge his high kicks.

i still can't believe thursday is thanksgiving. there's absolutely no sign of the holiday at all which is strange. julie, one of teachers, belongs to a church that is having a thanksgiving dinner on saturday. she invited horace and i to go but i'm not sure if i'm up for turkey and god. the two just don't go together for me. maybe i'll have a change of heart. who knows.

chicken burger?

i took a journey to emart this morning thinking that it was open 24 hours like the other one. well i was wrong. i left early and got there at 9:15am and then found out it didn't open until 10am. of course being in ansan nothing was opened so i spent 45 mins. wondering around looking into all the vacant retail spaces waiting to be rented. i stumble upon a church. for a split second i thought about going in just to keep warm but decided against. after getting what i needed from emart i stopped home to unpack and then went to carrefour. yes today was marathon shopping. i couldn't buy alot at emart since its a 20 minute walk. at carrefour i ate at mcdonalds. i order what i thought was a chicken sandwich or chicken burger as they call it here. it actually ended up being a shanghi spicy chicken burger. it was still good though. being that this is korea it was cheaper for me to buy 30 regular size eggs as opposed to 10 big eggs. go figure. now i'll be eating eggs for the next month.

all that shopping wore me out so i decided to take a much needed nap. it felt so good to nap during the day. i haven't done that in ages. i did treat myself to a korean graphic novel that i've been eyeing. i can't read it but i'm going to use it as insentive to learn korean. i throwing away won like crazy lately. i aslo bought two more korean cds. i haven't listened to them yet but i'm sure they're going to be bad. i really need to stop this korean band obsession. i determined to find the next cutting edge korean band even if it kills me.

costco in seoul

wow, today turned out to be the longest day ever. horace and i were late in meeting christine and jane. we still haven't figured out how long it actually takes from our house to subway station to destination. we were actually 30 minutes late. which also meant we were late for the ils teacher conference. and now lets talk about that conference. SNORE! we basically sat through two hours of a one year teacher telling us how he teaches his class. the whole thing was basically useless. it would have been much for informative had they had someone from the coporate office talking to us with some actual useful information. he really didn't say anything that i hadn't already figured out.

once that was done we had to wait an hour for jane and christine to finish with their meeting. while looking around the school we noticed that all the classrooms had teachers desks. of course before leaving horace showed jane and now i think we are getting desks. yeah.

jane treated us to lunch at kahunaville resturant where their motto is "new feel, new meal". i ordered bbq pork tenderloin which came with mashed potatoes, onion rings, and veggies. all i can say is sooo good. they had a little gift shop in the resturant with i found pez. how excited was i since this has been the first time i've seen pez here. the best thing about it was that i didn't have any of them. they had a line of hello kitty pez. i bought them all. jane and christine had never seen pez before so i opened one up and showed them how it works. i've also taken one step closer to being korean by purchasing a cell phone charm. it seems that everyone and their mother has something hanging from their phones and i didn't want to be left out. i got the little anime guy with spikey purple hair. he's wearing a blue mask that covers his face completely except for his right eye. he even came with a little book.

our final destination of the day was costco. yes, it's actually just like costco back home with everything written in english first then korean. it was a little bit overwhelming because there were so many people. i didn't buy anything for myself there but we did get dictionaries, books, and other supplies. jane did buy me some pepsi to drink at school. she is so thoughtful. again i couldn't have asked to work for better people. its such a nice break.

i'm going to spend the rest of my evening doing nothing. i'm so glad to be in my apartment right now. music blarring, lights out, and my new pez. goodtimes.

test day

all day today i've been trying to pump myself up for the belt test. i pretty much know the form and have the basic kicks down. now i had to psych myself up and not worry about people watching me. i have a tendency to choke when i know i'm being watched. school went pretty well. little jenny is still afraid to enter the BLUE-EYED DEVIL'S class but at least she's looking at me now. jk did confirm what i thought from the beginning and thats that she doesn't know as much as she should. its definitely going to be a challenge but one that i'm ready for.

there's one girl at our school joy who i think is crushed out on me. yesterday she gave me a coin for a present. a couple of days ago she brought me some bread. and today in between classes she was hanging out in my room. she told jk that she wanted me to teach her. at least someone isn't afraid of BLUE-EYED DEVIL.

after school i tried to power nap. that lasted all of 20 minutes. i got up and did some tae kwon do practice. only 20 minutes left before i had to go to class. we spent the majority of the class doing warmup exercises, kicks, and then practiced our forms. then we all had to sit along the back wall so we could watch the testing. first up were the white belts. i felt a little better knowing we were going to do this together. we started off showing him various punches. next we had to do a side split. yeah, i'm not so good at that. from there we moved up and down the mats doing various kicks: frontkick, sidekick, roundhouse, backkick, etc. once the kicking was done we did form 1. heather and i got it right the first try. scrappy had to do it again by himself. as a little extra bonus but not really part of the test we tried breaking boards. let's just say that not a complete success for me. i volunteered to go first. the board that tb was holding was quite small. i was more concerned about not hitting his hand even though he had on gloves that is was hard to concentrate. both of my attempts to break the board failed but at least i was successful in not hitting tb's hand. scrappy went after me. his first kick landed on tb's hand. tb then changed boards which was twice as big as the one i tried to kick. scrappy failed on his second attempt too. thank god. i didn't want to be the only one. heather on the other hand broke it on her second try. now that we were done we returned to the wall to watch the others.

once everyone was done we took our position and were awarded with new belts. YES. I MADE IT TO YELLOW BELT. YEAH!!!! i was actually quite excited. after class we went out for beers. the one thing about going out with the koreans is one beer equals many and you never go hungry. while we were sitting around drinking someone had order some hotdog type things and then two plates of fried chicken which was actually really good. to top it off though they brought out a plate of french fries and tator tots. yummy. so that was my evening. pretty good if i must say so myself. and now i'm one step closer to being a black belt.

blue-eyed devil

it's official. after years of joking about being the blue-eyed devil it's finally come true. little jenny again did not want to partake in my class. instead she hid in jk's office and cried. earlier in the day her friend lisa told me that jenny didn't like my class. i asked if she was scared of me and lisa said no. then i asked if jenny thought the class was too easy and she said no. was it too hard i ask. again lisa said no. then she said "teacher look at jenny". i didn't quite understand what she meant. lisa then went to the chalkboard and drew a picture of me with big shoes and big eyes. jenny was drawn sitting at a table reading and i was looking down at her. again lisa repeated teacher look at jenny. jenny scared. jenny cry.

jk tried talking to jenny but still nothing. jenny's mom did tell jk that jenny said i had big blue eyes. apparently for some strange reason she's afraid of me. and it seems that alot of koreans get wigged out over the big round blue eyes. even jk said something the other night at dinner. have i really become the blue-eyed devil. do these people see something deep within me. i feel so bad that this little girl won't attend my class. i've never had a child be afraid of me. the more i think about it the more comical it becomes. after all "that is my hagwon". anytime she sees me whether its in the lunchroom or in the hallway she quickly turns away. you would think that once she saw me and lisa interacting she'd open up too. but no. jk thinks it might be because her pride is hurt. i guess jenny asked lisa what i was teacher her and found out that it was a little more advance. now they think that jenny is jealous and feels slighted by this. who would have thought teaching would be so complicated. it's definitely going to be interesting to see how this all pans out. i'm trying to think of a different approach with jenny. i'll break through somehow. even if it does take forever.

so i was reading the korean herald this morning. yesterday was the big college entrance exams for the students. well apparently in korea this is a huge deal. people were camping out to get a good spot to wish those taking the exam good luck. yes you read correctly. they were camping out. mothers were praying at temples. some of the students arrived via fire trucks because they were running late. one even came by ambulance. traffic was diverted, trains were running more frequently all to make sure that students got there on time. the best part was that both korean airlines and asiania airlines stopped flying over a certain area where test were being given between 12 and 1 because that was the time that students were taking the english part of the exam. i seriously could not believe this as i was reading it. no wonder these kids are so stressed out. when was the last time you saw a vigil set up for s.a.t test. never!

the best part of today was watching the anna nicole smith video from her ama appearance. umm. hello. what has she been smoking. she made farrah's letterman appearance look good. they also had a snippet from an interview with et where she said "one day. i was walking in the park and it felt like i was on stilts". horace and i were laughing so hard. you gotta love her. she is 100% trash.

i found out today that horace, jane, christine, and i have to attend some macgraw hill [that's our school program] convention on saturday. we get to meet other teachers and listen to lectures. oh joy. and here i thought i was going to have a nice peaceful weekend at home. i guess not.

riots + monitors

here are snapshots of the riot police in insadong and video camera from various subway stations. yes i was entertaining myself on my long journey home.

Links

• www.snapfish.com/share/p=927171100705978018/l=37222423/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

coex + kiss club photos

here are snapshots from my trip to the coex and the kiss club.

Links

• www.snapfish.com/share/p=803171100703986591/l=37220766/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

cableless in korea

it's getting cold here. i love that crisp cold air that comes with winter. it makes one feel alive. i felt really good after tae kwon do this evening. my knee is about 95% better and my kicks are getting good. i actually made it through class without falling. yeah me. on friday we get tested. hopefully i get that yellow belt.

my new student jenny is one tough cookie. she completely wears me out. trying to get her to talk is like pulling teeth. the two classes i have with her are like an interity. i tried to get her to say the abc's today and she started crying. i felt so bad. i had to have princess and jk come in to she what was the matter. of course she wouldn't talk to them either. in the second part of class we read and did exercises. its brutal i tell you. having a student that just stares at you is quite nerve racking.

i beginning to feel at home here. i'm starting to really enjoy what i'm doing. we finally started getting the korean herald at work which is an english newspaper. it great because now i can keep up with whats happening in the world. there was an article in it today about some beavers in louisiana that built a damn out of money. apparently their was a robery where 70,000-75,000 was stolen and i guess they tossed the bags. the beavers found it and built a damn out of it. the money was still intacted when it was found. how great is that. beavers.

i must confess. last week i mentioned how i was starting to work out again. of course i probably shouldn't have said anything because i only did it one day. lazy much. i'm going to try to get back into it this week. at least i still have tkd so i don't feel like a complete bum. on a sad note, i lost my free cable. no more "sex and the city". now i have to be more productive. oh well i should have known that it wouldn't last. it was a good run. the weeks are definitely going by much faster these days. i can't believe that thanksgiving is next week. thats definitely going to be strange. i don't think they have turkeys here. misty is going to have to somersize without me this year.

christmas comes early to korea

have you ever received something that struck such a nerve within you that it almost made you cry. not a bad cry but a good kind of cry because it was very sentimental? if so then you'll know how i felt when i opened my mom's package. after pulling out the pieces of paper used for cushioning i uncovered my childhood christmas stocking. i was shocked. it never dawned on me that i would be receiving a christmas shocking let alone the one i used ever since i was a child. seeing that green crochet stocking with a fuzzy bearded santa made me realize i won't be home this year. i knew there would come a time when i wouldn't make it home for christmas. i always thought that i was prepared for that. i never imagined that seeing that stocking would provoke such feelings of home, but it does. it's funny because i've asked my mom for that stocking before when i was living in sf. instead she sent me a new. i never thought she'd part with it but i guess she too realized that i won't be home and that there was no use in keeping an empty stocking. it's for that reason i will cherish it even more. getting that stocking would have been enough for me. most people enjoy receiving gifts. my sister and i like the stockings the best. we always opened them last trying to be the first one done. even though i won't have her by my side this year i'll definitely be thining of her and my family as i uncover all the little treasures inside. thanks mom. you've totally made my christmas. i love you.

the christmas stocking, being too heavy to hang, is now resting on a shelf with the rest of my christmas booty. its going to take a lot of will power to try to wait until december 24. i'm actually surprised it didn't bust into it yet. besides the christmas stuff my mom also sent a variety of food like mac and cheese, instant potatoes, noodles, pudding (i love pudding), cookies, etc. all of which i can enjoy now. i probably have enough stuff to last me to christmas.

tonight we had dinner with jk and princess. he wanted to tell us some news which we already knew. sammy teacher quit today. what's it been two months and two teachers. three if you count the one that quit beofre i got there. it should be an interesting for weeks. but as we say here, "that's my hogwon."

tension makes a tangle

tension was so thick in ils this morning it felt like being in the haight watching the fog ascend. not really sure what was happening nor did i bother to ask anyone. there was just a lot of silence and no sammy teacher until after lunch. we have yet another new school attending for 5 classes everyday. i now have classes from 10 to lunch time and then two after that. i think this is why sammy teacher is mad. my feeling is that this is what we're here for. yeah for two months is was nice having nothing to do in the morning except plan for classes but even that was getting kind of dull. at least this when the day goes by much faster.

i'm about to kill my orange b class. i can't get them to do their homework. i had to spend 15 mins. at the beginning of class telling them how important it is to do it. they just don't care. the biggest excuse they give me is "i was tired". i collected journals today. a vast majority turned however only two of them wrote every day. well they best get use to writing because they are doing this for the rest of the year. the little devil in my orange a class was actually very well behaved today. a lot of that had to do with the fact that i moved his partner in crime to horace's class. he's teaching a higher level and i felt that he should be in that class because he was looking a bit bored. hence his goofing off. i'm not sure who's placing these kids but someone's a bit off.

i got a package from my mom today. she wanted to be sure i got my christmas present on time. its not even thanksgiving and i've got christmas presents. yeah!! i haven't even opened the box yet because i wanted to make sure that the gifts were wrapped. i just got off the phone with my mom. they are. guess what i'm doing tonight. openning the box of goodies sinces there are other things besides the gifts. getting boxes of stuff is fun.

earlier today i was talking to jk about a holiday party. we were trying to find out if (a.) we were having on (b.) when would it be and (c.) are we doing a gift swap. i still don't really know what were doing. he has to check with princess. during this conversation he asked if we were leaving the country for christmas. i told him we were going to thailand. then he ask if i was going to the united states after korea. he took me a second to figure out what he was getting at. basically he was wondering if i'm going to return to the u.s. after my contract is done. i told him it depended on what was offered to me and also that i haven't really thought much about it. afterall i'm only two months into this contract. it got me thinking about it. at this point i'm not really sure what i plan to do. of course there are days where i just to get out of here then there are the times when is so peaceful and relaxing and i'm really enjoying myself. i've got a while until i make any final decisions. until then i'll keep riding the see saw.

the dream police

today we headed off to insadong to finish up with our christmas shopping. when will it end. i feel like i've done more shopping in the last past two days than i ever did before. upon exiting the subway station there were lines of riot police along the sidewalk. it was very bizarre. apparently some kind of demonstration was happening. i'm not really sure what since i couldn't understand what was being said, nor could i read any of the signs. we walked around for a couple of hours buying this and buying that. had some lunch then decided to call it quits.

on our way back to the station we noticed all the riot police again so we decided to go a different way. not like it really matter because we didn't get ten steps until two large groups of them came running by was. once we made it to the main street it looked all hazy. as we got closer we noticed that the street had pile of ashes and the haze was smoke. further down the street there were fires still blazing. it was so surreal. especially since we had no clue as to what was going on. the street was littered with burning piles of paper and people.

not sure if i mentioned this before but the guys in korea are rockin the mullet. everywhere you look someone is sporting a mullet. and the scary thing is that they actually look cool. its not the good old redneck or lesbian mullet we've become so accostumed to seeing. these are hip alternative mullets. i gotta give them props. if i had straight hair like theirs i too would have a mullet.

it also seems that fur coats are big too. both the men and women are sporting all kinds of furs. there are coats lined with fur, full of fur coats, etc. i might just have to get me one of them too. not sure if they are real or not but they are definitely way cool.

time for me to go chill and relax. now that i have class at 10am i'm going to start having to go to bed earlier. until next time…

to market we shall go

i rolled out of bed this morning around noon. last night i went out with my tae kwon do class [see friday's blog "kiss club" which i just publish and should be after this one] and didn't get home until 4:30am. it was definitely a crazy night. i was suppose to meet horace at noon but had to push it back until 1pm. we headed to namdaemum market for more christmas shopping. it was like a giant flea market with clothes, food, and little gifts everywhere. even though it was cold out it didn't stop all the people. this is where one goes to find bargins. all the knockoff brands one could possible want fill the streets. i saw numerous men carry boxes on their backs with wooden-like backpacks. men were bringing in loads of fur coats dropping them off at the seller and the women were going through them like hungry wolves. it was crazy but definitely a sight. there alway various christmas shops which really put us in the mood. it funny that normally i hate christmas shopping with every store playing the same damn songs over and over again. however, it was actually nice to see fake christmas trees, giant santas dancing, and lights.

feeling slightly overwhelmed we left the market for awhile and walked to myeong-dong to get something to eat and then a vanilla latte. the latte was so tastey. the last time we were in myeong-dong i wouldn't even taste horace's vanilla latte because i didn't drink coffee and now i'm a latte junky. go figure. we stopped in a record store where i finally broke down and bought my first "flower handsome" [korean pop band] cd by tvfxq!. this is the same band that i mentioned before. i actually just finished listening to it. granted i wouldn't say it's the best thing ever but it's kind of like my new guilty pleasure. i mean come on. how could you not like a band where the members names are hero, micky, max, xiah, u-know. they sure beat the boy bands from the u.s. i can't actually believe i'm admitting all this but what the hell.

feeling we had enough of myeong-dong we heading back to namdaemum market. upon our return there were even more clothing booths filling the center of the street. it was like being in a whole new place with all these new booths. how great is that. we went down one alley which was filled with all these food booths. they had just about everything you could imagine. hamhocks, blood, live octopus, chicken, vegetebles, kimchee it was all there staring at us. one lady tried to grab my arm and bring me into the food text that had the live octopus and various other seafood to eat. i politely told her no thanks. horace had to people yell chicken at him and pointed to their food text. this is why i love korea. we also found a little black market area where horace spent $9 for a giant tub of oatmeal. then there was another underground shopping center that had a bunch of cool knit knats.

on the train heading home this little boy came walking up to me grunting and holding out his hand. i thought he wanted to shake my hand so i did. once i released it he stood there still holding out his hand grunted and motioned to my pocket. the little brat wanted money. i looked at horace who said "what are we in mexico or something". i told the boy no and he stood there a little longer grunted then left. that was first experience with begging in korea.

until next time… korean pop rules!!

kiss club

where to even begin. this day was like a bad flashback to the days at haf. when petty gossip and jealous women feel the need to create office gossip and mayham. it was also the first day of my 10am class with lisa. she's about 5 and she's so smart and cute. she's fast becoming my new favorite. it was during class with her that i heard all this yelling out in the hallway. i opened my door to see what was up. sammy and princess [i've changed ferrets name to princess since she admitted that's her nickname] were at it like alexis and krystal from dynasty. if there had been a pool or mud they would have definitely been in there rolling around pulling each others hair. i told them to be quiet and shut my door. the yelling continued so i went back out and noticed horace had popped his head out too. i told him i had asked them to keep it down once already. he walked out and told them to be quiet. meanwhile lisa is at my legs listen to what's going on too. i went back into class and continued my lesson.

during the break between classes i went into horace's room to see what was up. now to go back in time a little. one day horace and i were joking around with sammy and asked if something was going on between jk and princess. unfortunately with all the lost in translation i'm not sure if she knew we were kidding around. at the time it seemed that she did. anyway back to the present. i'm in horace's class and he told me that this morning sammy came up to him and told him that jk and princess had gone out the other night and wondered what she should do about. he told he to do nothing. of course she didn't listen. instead she confronted princess and the whole blowout occurred. it really doesn't matter where one lives be it san francisco or korea office gossip is always lurking around the corner.

i decided to ask sammy directly what that was about and also to tell her that if this should happen again please take it outside or into a room with the door closed. her story consisted of the following details. she asked princess if we could be informed in the future of when a new student arrives if they have their books or not. this came about because half way through my class i realized that lisa didn't have a workbook and i had to leave class to copy 8 pages. princess replied by saying she's too busy dating jk to worry about actual school business. and that's when the fight broke out. sammy told her that horace and i thought somewhere was up. princess replied by saying she didn't care what us "foreigners" thought and made some other comment about us. this is what sammy told me but knowing that we only get half of the story i'm taking it all with a grain of salt. my feeling is that if its not said to me directly i'm not going to assume anything. princess apparently called jk and left the school for a period of time.

after lunch i got called into jk's office. princess had told him everything that went down with her and sammy. he brought up the "relationship" thing and asked me if i believe what he tells me. i said yes. he went on to tell me that there is no relationship going on with him and princess. he brought up the whole "i feel like we are family" and that he wants me to trust him. i told him i did and that whatever happens in his personal life is his own business. i mentioned how unfortunate it was that we even have to have this conversation because this was the last thing i wanted to have happen. i went to explain that i've already worked in an office environment where people were constanstly putting words in other peoples mouths and that horace and i were doing our best to stay out of it. but we have these people who are telling us half stories and mentioning are names when we really aren't involved and that gets frustrating. i told him that i'm here to do a job and that's teaching the children. having two women screaming at each other isn't good for business and is definitely something that the children don't need to hear. he told that he'd like both horace and i to come to him in the future if we needed to say anything. he also said that in the future he would let us know about any new student and other vital information we need to do our jobs. and then before leaving he asked me to tell horace everything we talked about. didn't we just have a whole conversation about talking directly to the person. i asked him if he thought it might be best if he told horace himself and he said he was too busy. welcome to korea.

i was a little pissed about being dragged into this mess. granted i realize that some of its our own fault for joking about princess and jk in the first place. at least now we realize we can only joke with each other. i kind of felt like he should have spoken to us directly. i went for a walk to clear my head. when i returned i told horace what went down. he went in to talk to jk anyway. he wanted to clear the air about some other gossip going around about horace and i not wanting jane, his wife, in the office. horace told me that jk realizes that we joke around and he mentioned how korean woman like to gossip and it was basically written off like that. no hard feelings on anyone's part except for the fact that princess has been ignoring us. oh well.

towards the end of the day things seemed to mellow out alot. i actually spent the last 40 minutes talking with both jk and princess. my new work method is now pretend that everything is all right. that's my hogwan afterall.

all day long i was trying to figure out an excuse to get of going out with the tae kwon do class. i couldn't think of anything. finally around 9:30 i decided to join them. what the hell i thought. one thing i did realize from the outing is that new student now known as scrappy doo drives me crazy. the whole car ride to over to ryan's apartment is was non-stop talking. he's goal in life is to find a rich wife so he can shop, watch tv, and do nothing. i wanted to push him out of the car.

from ryan's we walked over to emart to meet heather and her boyfriend. the whole gang was there even dr. no [frodo] as ryan refers to him. we went to this club called kiss. when we got out of the elevator we were greeted by korean men in gray suits. they spoke to tb and the other korean girl who works with heathere and then lead us to a table. this place was unbelievable. there were all these table and booths, a dance floor, and a stage. when we arrived there was a dj on stage. they have all these various performances throughout the night. djs, bands, dancers who strip down to bra and underwear, russian go-go dancers in cages. it was crazy. the table next to ours kept coming over pouring us more and more drinks. there was definitely lots of dancing and drinking happening with our group. the best part of the club is the uniforms. on the back of the coats they have "kiss" in big yellow letters just like how the band spells it with the lighten bolt like "ss". i want one. next time i'm going to try to steal one.

from the kiss club we made our way to a singing room. you know how i love those. there i did my rendition of "love hurts", sang "beautiful" with jenny, and then "white room" with ryan. it was pretty cool evening. master shin was actualy very low key the whole time. on our ride back to ansan tb had someone drive his car. in korea that have a service where someone will come out to drive your car if you had too much to drink. how great is that. since we had an extra person i got stuck riding in the hatch batch. on the way home scrappy was again non-stop talking. at one point the master asks him to be quiet. that was priceless. when we got to ansan i looked at my watch and it was 4:30 am. yikes. dr. no, the master, scrappy, and tb were going for hang-over soup although not the blood kind and tried to get me to go. i told them i needed to sleep. we said goodbye and off i went to find my bed. i slept so well.

pepero day

happy pepero day everyone. it seems 11/11 in korea is pepero day. much like valentine's day kids in korea give out peperos to their friends and loved ones. just what is pepero you ask. well, peperos are those long, thin biscuits dipped in chocolate. i'm sure anyone who has been to japantown in san francisco or has visited a candy store or asian shop has seen these tastey little treats. last weekend while at the coex i saw tons of people buying these things and i couldn't figure out way. now i know. for those of you who love a little history here's a story i found online about pepero.

Pepero Day sweet for food retailers

November 06, 2004 ㅡ Stores are stocking up on Pepero, a popular snack, and driving up the cookie maker's sales as Nov. 11, Pepero Day, draws near. Lotte Confectionary Co., which owns the Pepero brand, said yesterday that last month, it sold 13 billion won's ($11.7 million) worth of the snack to food retailers."As a single product, this is the highest sales we've seen, second only to Xylitol gum. Sales of Pepero have seen double-digit growth since 2000," said PR official Ahn Sung-keun.

The Pepero snack is a replica of Pocky, the Japanese treat of chocolate-dipped cookie sticks. The 11th of November is known as Pepero Day, because "11/11" looks like four sticks.Pepero Day supposedly started in 1994 at a girls' middle school in Busan, where students exchanged Pepero sticks, wishing each other to become as tall and slender as a Pepero. But some suspect that Pepero Day was actually dreamed up by Lotte's marketing team.

Today, it is an unofficial holiday celebrated mostly by children and couples, like Valentine's Day (another "holiday" some cynics say was created by a marketing team). Pepero Day became so popular that Japan had a similar day for Pocky in 1999.
Meanwhile, vendors, who are not so interested in the origin of the holiday as they are in promoting it, are beefing up on promotional events.

Pepero costs between 500 to 700 won a box, but for Pepero Day, retailers combine the choco-covered sticks with other goodies. Interpark, a large online shopping mall, has come up with special gift packages that include various flavors of Pepero and other sweets that range from 10,000 won to 30,000 won.

Minigold, a jewelry chain, is selling necklaces and earrings with Pepero-shaped charms, and the bakery Tous les Jour is featuring a chocolate-coated Pepero Baguette. Film promoters are also using the day to attract the young customers. "Hana and Alice," a teen film from Japan, is holding a special Pepero Day screening. The romantic comedy "Laws of Attraction" also has a Pepero Day screening and dinner event for couples.

you got to love a holiday that wishes young teenage girls to be tall and slender like the pepero. so if any of you know where to buy these tastey snacks i highly recommend you buy a box or two and give them to friends and loved ones. i know that once i return to the states i'll continue this new found holiday. forget valentine's day folks its all about the pepero.

two of my students today gave me some peperos. well actually i had to quilt sally into giving me one but my new student kevin gave both sammy and myself a box. looks like he'll receive an "a" this month. sometimes being a teacher is so great.

this morning i started my workout. i walked up and down 12 flights of stairs for a half hour. i not sure but i think there are at least 100 steps. i'm going to count them tomorrow. it was hard. and i think the cleaning ladies who i passed four times thought i was crazy. afterwards i walked around the roof for 10 minutes. it actually felt good to be exercising in the morning once again although it so hard getting up that early.

i transwired money into my american bank account this morning. how international does that sound. sammy came with since this was my first time doing it. some things are such a chore. i had to have my passport, pay stub, foreign card, bank address, etc. the whole process took about a half hour. hopefully everything will work out. i guess i'll know in a couple of days whether or not the funds end up in my account or if i accidentally sent them to someone else. wouldn't that be great. next time i'm going to try it on my own. that should be fun. the teller told me that i had to get some kind of special tax thing. i'm not really sure what she's talking about and trying to ask the people at work and getting a straignt answer is like talking to the door. but at least i got pepero. that makes everything worth it.

i literally got my ass kicked today in tae kwon do. for the last twenty minutes of class we spent it sparring. my first opponent was ryan who's a purple belt. he managed to hit me in the face three times. i don't think i made contact with him once. my next sparring partner was master shin. talk about an uneven match. i was too busy blocking and protecting myself the whole time i didn't even throw one punch or kick. that was tough. the best part of class however was when i fell on my ass twice while practicing kicking. i've got so much coordination it kills me. after class everyone was talking about going to the night club on friday. i tried my hardest to get out of it but somehow found myself agreeing to go. god help me. the last thing i want to do on friday is hang out with the master and classmates. the new student is driving me crazy. he's constanstly running his trap yet he has nothing interesting to say. as ryan said, "good thing he's not american."

i'll be sure to take my camera for friday nights outing with the tae kwon do group. i'm sure there will be plenty of good photo ops. time for this white belter to go to bed. until next time…