Pics of Me at Play

Just Catching You Up

Well, it’s been another week and I’m really having a hard time believing that I’ve been here for two months already. It just doesn’t seem like it at all. I guess I’ve been keeping really busy though…

Last week I finally went to go check out the Rocky Mountain Tavern, which is a Canadian owned and operated pub in Seoul. It was a pretty good place to sit and watch a Hockey game (they show all the NHL games for free) and they serve homemade potato chips (not fries, chips). It’s really cool because most of the ‘Western’ style pubs are just Korean Hofs (bars) that play American music and sell a few imported beers. They never seem top get the ambiance right. This place though, it was just like stepping into a pub on Whyte Ave.

I went there with a friend of a friend and we just kind of hung out and chatted. He was telling me about his experiences in the American Peace Corps (my friend was in it too, both in Mongolia) and it seems like something I’d be interested in looking into. Of course, I’d have to go with the British version because the Americans keep a pretty exclusive club, but I’m interested nonetheless. It’s not something I’ve really considered before.

The next night we went to Jay-Z at Olympic Park. It was a pretty good show and we found a bar afterward that was awesome. It’s called “Woodstock” and the DJ there will take requests for old rock and roll songs (some of which he plays on the original vinyl). When I got up in the morning I ended going to my first-ever Korean Language lesson. It didn’t totally suck… it was pretty boring though. I hope my classes aren’t that bad…

Tonight a group of us are going back to Butterfingers to try the mystery dessert, “The Grand Dragon”. There’s no real description of what this thing is, just a promise that it’s huge and has a little bit of something for every possible sweet tooth. I hope there’s chocolate in and/or on it...

I finlly got invited out by my co-workers and we went out for Pork BBQ last night (Korean Style). It was really good food, but I didn't expect tto have to drink tht much at a dinner with my principal. People kept giving me shots of Soju (rice vodka @ 20.1%apv) and saying "one shot" or "bottom up". I think they got a kick out of it because those are two of the few English phrases many of these guys know. But, I just made them keep up with me and we were soon on our way home.

I’ve also started reading my Evolutionary Psychology book and it’s a really good one. It's giving me lots of things to think about and providing some interesting perspectives from which to view certain human behaviors. One of the best things I’ve read so far is the discussion of monogamous versus polygynous pair-bonding systems and the evolutionary implications of each. There are some really counter-intuitive theories on this topic that are finding a lot of support in various studies. It's really very interesting.

Anyway, I’m still alive over here and still having a good time. Nobody’s dropping bombs yet, so I guess I’ll stay a while longer at least…

Ever Had One of These Days?

“So, I burned a CD last night to play for my kids while they cut out their damned cards and didn't even think about screening the songs before i played them. You don't even think about how dirty "My humps" is until you play it for a class of Korean 6th graders and their teacher.”
– A Friend

For those too cultured (old) to know this song, you can Google "My Humps Lyrics Black-eyed Peas" and find out just what my friend is talking about. I take no responsibility, there's a reason I'm not posting them.

All I can say to my friend, "Good one, Sunshine."

Buttons, Paintball and Coffee

Well, it was another good weekend in Seoul. I drank copious amounts of coffee and a moderate amount of beer, made buttons, ate pancakes with bacon, hashbrowns, and a sausage patty, watched movies, danced, bought books and tickets to see Jay-Z, went paintballing and just generally had a good time. Oh, and I sat on a giant finger (I’ll try and post a picture).

The paintball was good except that their course is comprised mostly of chestnut trees that have dropped those spiky casings all over the ground. Not exactly a good place to crawl around avoiding enemy fire. I’m still picking slivers out of my left palm on Tuesday afternoon.

The button making was fun. We did it at Bricx so we could hit the hookahs again and have a few drinks to lubricate our creative contraptions. I think that the favorite I walked away with is “You’ll regret that when the Messiah comes.” I made one for myself that reads, in Korean, “I’m Lost!” I figured it might come in handy at some point and, let’s face facts- it’s accurate in some sense at least half of the time.

The western stlye breakfast was sooooooo good after my steady fare of yogurt and granolas bars. The pancakes were fluffy, the syrup was maple and the bacon was cooked to exactly the right level of crisp. Oh, and free refills on coffee (never happens). Oh, and it was real coffee. Most of the time here, unless you go to a “foofy” (Sommer’s word) coffee shop like Starbucks or something, you can only get instant coffee. Sometimes I almost cry thinking about how long it will be until I can take that first sip from a Tim Horton’s Extra Large Triple Triple.

I bought a couple books in the English (foreign) section of a bookstore downtown too. I got one about evolutionary psychology called “The Moral Animal” which seeks to explain the evolutionary basis for human relationships and thought processes. I’ve talked to some of my friends about these ideas before and they’re pretty interesting to think about. Also, I got Michel Foucault’s first book. I can’t remember what the title is off hand. It’s about the creation of the concept of ‘mental illness’ and the ‘asylum’. “Madness and Civilization”, that’s the name, I just Googled it. It also leads into his book, “Discipline and Punish” which deals with the penal system and various instruments of control that have developed within our society. Basically, his philosophies deal with imprisonment, power, and knowledge.

Anyway I’m going to get into these books as soon as I finish the one I’m on now. It’s some thriller called “Vampires”. Guess what it’s about.

An Accurate Conception of Distance

Last night I had one of those seemingly rare lucid moments when the everyday filters open up and I realized, “Holy f\ck man, I’m in Korea!”.

No joke. It’s not so different here that you can’t lull yourself into forgetting that you are, in fact, one full third of the way around the world from where you were born and have lived the vast majority of your life.

The proportions of that are difficult to conceive. To aid in understanding I offer the following…

If it were possible to walk directly from Seoul to Edmonton (I’m well aware that it’s not possible), assuming an average walking speed of 4.7 km/h (an accurate pace) and 12 hours of travel per day (you’d have to be a superhero), it would take 147.78 days to get there. That’s a long time.

Anyway, it is highly gratifying when I experience these moments of clarity and I thought I would share the experience. The exhilaration they bring on, when my chest tightens, my heart races and I laugh giddily (my head spinning with accurate conceptions of distance) is unreal. I fondly remember experiencing the same thing with Gyn in NZ.

I love being here. Even if most of the time I forget that I am.

Pics From Friends

The Best Advice

"Just tuck it away. You don't need to forget it or leave it behind. Just put it away in a good place."
- A good friend.

Thank you.

Quote From An American Friend

"I really wish I had some faith in my president, but I lost that long ago. Now I am just hoping that he chokes on another pretzel before he does any more damage." - R.H.

My Holiday by Clayton Dean

Well, tomorrow (Monday) is the last day of my Chusok holiday and it has been a great time. It started on Friday night with a violin recital at the Seoul Arts Centre with Tracy, one of my new Seoul friends. One of the other teachers at the school was nice enough to give me free tickets and, although classical music is not my supreme favorite, it was an enjoyable evening.
We woke up the next day at five thirty and headed off for a free trip to the bamboo forests of Damyang where we attended a traditional music festival and got to do a tour of the area. The bus ride was really long but I slept almost the entire way so it was fine. The bamboo forests were really beautiful and made a lovely sound whenever the breeze stirred in the leaves overhead. Coupled with the scent of green tea, which is often grown in these forests, the atmosphere was quite serene. Later in the evening we also got to do a short tour of an old garden where we were treated to another traditional music performance. Unfortunately, I was unable to take my camera with me on this trip, so I’ll have to steal some pictures from Michael and Tracy to put up for you guys.
On Tuesday I joined a group of SMOE teachers on a walk through one of the larger palace complexes in Seoul. It was a good group and the palace was pretty amazing with old traditional style buildings, watercourses, beautiful trees, and a lovely greenhouse. There are pictures of this available on my Flickr site.
The following day a bunch of us went out to the Korean Folk Village in Suwon, about a two hour subway ride away from where I live. We spent the day checking out a traditional Korean village and watching performances by acrobats, dancers, musicians, and trick riders. The scenery at the village was really beautiful. There was also a World Museum on site that was pretty odd in that the perception of certain cultures is much different here than it is at home. Oh, and I rode a dinosaur.
Thursday was a caffiene-fueled full day of rides, games and food-on-a-stick at Lotte World, apparently the largest indoor amusement park in the world. It was wild. I haven’t been on any rides like that in a long time and many of these surpassed my limited experiences of WEM’s Galaxyland and the odd county fair. One of my favorites was the Gyro Swing which was (you could probably guess by the name) a huge swinging and spinning contraption to which are fastened approximately forty willing individuals. At apex you’re probably a good eighty feet off the ground and moving sideways. Too much fun! I missed out on the mechanical bull though and was thoroughly disappointed. We got there at about 11:00 am and almost shut the park down, leaving at 10:30 p.m. What a day!
I took Friday to relax and watch some downloaded movies, play some guitar and just generally recover from all the excitement. Then, last night, we went to Skunk Hell, a punk bar down in Hangdae where a bunch of local bands were putting on a show. We stayed for three or four of the bands and then headed off to Brix where we just relaxed, ate hummus, and smoked a hookah (mmmm, strawberry smoke). The night ended with a slumber party at Tracy’s apartment where we watched a break dancing competition until the wee hours of the morning before finally going to sleep.
It’s been a great week and I’ve already got more plans lined up for weekends later on. Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving back home,
Me.

A Quote From Gottfried Keller

"Everything in it's time. A little passion today, a little rest and reflection tomorrow - each is good in it's way. This prison is not so bad at all, and certainly something useful can be thought up in it." - Title Character from Spiegel the Cat