Guest Blogger

Just before I was ready to sit down to enjoy my lunch , I asked one of my co-teachers if they wanted me to help out with co-ordinating my lesson plans to compliment what they do in their weekly plans.I was told "that as you know" - one of the more common phrases I hear- I am an English-EE major and that I have been educated in how to teach English-EE to people".

Pretty much all I'm good for is, I was told, is to practice speaking english with people--I was just asking if I could help. Yes I know I dont have a Masters in English , but perhaps its in grad school that you learn that it is indeed English-EE.

Pirating in Action

So the other weekend we went to see the new James Bond movie and I look over and I see this guy has something in his hand and is pointing it towards the screen.

Hmmmm. His cell phone? It's very possible that he could be on it in the movie theater like the other guy was having a full conversation.

OR, could it be his hand held video camera. Yep.

He was video taping the movie!

Just right out in the open! Wasn't sitting at the back crouched in his seat or anything, just right out there for everyone to see.

It was hilarious.

What's funnier is that Darren will probably be buying that copy on the street somewhere in Mokpo.

haha

Fall Rules

In Korea it does anyway. If I was back home in Winnipeg, I would be freezing my ass off about now!

Not in Korea. We are enjoying lovely fall days with sunshine and sweaters.

There definitely has been a few days of ugliness but the nice days definitely out weigh those ugly ones.

A few weeks ago I went to a beautiful mountain a few hours away for a hike.

We only had an hour which sucked as I had never been to this mountain before and it was really beautiful.

What goes better together than sausages and coconuts!

Reluctant Poo

So these bathrooms is what I imagine prison bathrooms to look like except that they are in my school.

They are SO disgusting. They smell, there is NEVER any toilet paper and they are freezing, much like the rest of the school.

This is why I feel that my poo is reluctant to come out when I am at this school which is Mon-Fri.

My poo is scared of these bathrooms. He feels that he can't perform under these conditions and can only do so when he's back in the comfort of his own home which can be really frustrating.

As you already know, I like to talk about poo. Also farts and any other kind of gross bodily function.

Everyone can relate to a poo story. We've either had the same experience or can empathize (sp?) with the story being told.

Now my other school is the total opposite of this school. The bathroom is clean, welcoming and always stocked with toilet paper.

My poo feels at home here and doesn't get stage fright.

But at this school, because the bathroom is small, sometimes bathroom games are played with others that are visiting the bathroom as well.

We all know these games. We've all played them.

You have to fart or poo so you flush the toilet, cough or start rolling the toilet paper really loud.

Or, sometimes, if you're a Korean woman, you just fart away at will and don't give a shit (no pun intended) about anyone else in the bathroom. This is awesome at times.

Other games include out-waiting another person in the bathroom that also has to go poo. I don't like this game.

You both have to go poo but you are both thinking that the other is going to leave and you can poo in peace. No. The other person is playing the same game and is going to out-wait you!

damn it!

Just leave you're saying.

we've all been there.

Can you think of any other games??

NEW WORLD ORDER

If you don't know about this, you SHOULD!

and you NEED to start your research and take action!

If you haven't already watched these movies, get your hands on them:

* Wake Up call
* Loose Change
* Zeitgeist
* Prison Planet
* Endgame
* Infowars
* Big Brother Big Business

also check out:

alexjones.com

infowars.com

prisonplanet.com

15 Again

Last night, 4 of my former students from the small island of Docho, where I teach twice a month, came to Mokpo for a sleepover.

We were both very excited to see each other again and of course, they were VERY excited to finally meet Darren after seeing many pictures of him.

Like everyone else's response, he is very handsome and I should marry him.

"Why not married?" is a very popular question both Darren and I receive and the girls did not hesitate to ask as well.

So the night was filled with lots of pizza, the girls wearing high heels for the first time and having blisters, trying to pet me cat Pabo, eating nachos, going to the boardwalk and renting a 3 seater peddle bike, playing shooting games (where I won 2 teddy bears) and seeing a movie.

After all of this, everyone was pretty tired. We got home just before 2am and the girls had to wake up at 5am to catch the 6am ferry so they could be back on the island for church!

They were so thankful and lovely and they are the best kids I've ever met.

It was a great night.

Ok,

Sorry mom for not blogging more.

I would like to blog at school where I have lots of downtime but the 2 computers I have won't seem to let me access my Blogger account. Damn!

I'm expected to do this on my OWN time!

Things have been good here in Korea.

School is school. I am forever walking around clueless as to what's going on in the school.

There have been festivals which I have been expected to perform in, exam days, cancelled classes, classes that just don't show up, physical testing days and on and on.

Hey, if that means I have less classes, I'm all for it.

Yes, mom, you raised a lazy bastard. haha

So last month Darren and I went up to Seoul to se his mom and take part in the Peace Marathon.

It was great and we both had personal bests in our runs.

We ate lots of delicious food and my American friend took us out for breakfast on the base. It was really neat.

A real restaurant and a real breakfast.

She was also able to get us a lot of goodies from home at the grocery store, which is like walking into a grocery store in the States, like whole wheat bread, Luna bars and other deliciousness.

This is the costume I had to wear in yesterday's fashion show at my school.

This was all news to me and I had people frantically dressing me as if I was the next to go on stage.

Turned out I ended up waiting almost 2 hours with that thing on my head which was not very comfortable.

Next weekend we will go to Suncheon for another run.

I will write more when I have time but things have been really good here and the weather has been absolutely amazing leaving Darren and I with tan lines on October 18th.

It's great.

Until next time, which I hope is very soon!

Quit your Bitching

So the dinner I had to go to the other night turned out to be quite nice.

I was in such a funk about not wanting to go and of course it turned out to be a really nice time.

My co-teachers picked me up and offered to buy me a sandwich from Paris Baquette because we were going to duck restaurant.
Just for them to offer, was SO nice and was a first for me.

When we arrived, my co-teachers made sure that I had plenty of rice and tons of side dishes.
It was delicious and nice.

So stop your bitchin!

Teacher Dinners

Tis that time of year again. Starting the 2nd term of school, starting at a new school, teachers leaving and new teachers coming.

Last week Darren and I had the pleasure of attending the farewell dinner at Jeil. My former school.
Normally these dinners have us waygooks staring at the wallpaper or out the window or in extreme cases, actually breaking out a book or magazine.

The one at Jeil last week was an exception though. I had a great time with the teachers and it was nice to see everyone again and say good luck for the upcoming year.
It was also nice to not be by myself at one of these dinners!
It's SO much more fun when you have someone along side of you.

We ate, laughed and then watched the men get totally hammered and then sang some noraebong.
yes, the noraebong is INSIDE the restaurant. Now isn't this a concept that North America shoudl adopt.
It's pretty awesome actually.

The men got smashed and then belt out a few tunes.
This was very entertaining.

One of the male teachers, Mr. Kim, that I would try to speak with in my poor Korean and his poor English asked Darren and I to sing Surfin U.S.A.

uhhh, ok. Definitely not my first choice of songs to sing but because he was drunk and asked so nicely we sang it with Mr. Kim jumping in and singing the chorus.
I think he said Surfin U.S.A. hhaaha

So that was a good dinner.
Tonight I have another one.

A welcome dinner at my new home school.

I really don't want to go. It will be me and all of the staff from school scarfing down some raw fish in order to welcome the new teachers. Me being one of them.

I feel as if tonight's dinner will involve a lot of fake smiles and counting the tiles on the floor and explaining why I don't eat meat and trying to be fed Soju.

good times!

Must find my happy place for this one

I Love Hugs

I've learned that many Koreans are not very big on hugging like many of us waygooks are.

I found this out last year when I had come back from a nice 6 week vacation in Canada and when I gave my co-teachers hugs after not seeing them for so long, it was like hugging a lamp post.

Nothing.

They were very uncomfortable. This big waygook leaning in towards them going for the hug.
Ahhhhhhhhh

But, last Thursday, which was my last day at that school, my co-teachers and I went out for a nice lunch and chatted and I gave them some little gifts.

When we got back to school and parting ways to our offices, I got hugs from both of the teachers.

Genuine, real hugs! It was such a nice surprise and felt so nice.


Everyone loves a good hug!

Tae Kwon Do

My Master's husband is the TKD coach at a sports middle and high school just out of Mokpo.

These kids train allllll day and find time for school. They have devoted their lives to the sport and will hopefully compete for their country one day.

The schooling is paid for as many of the kids cannot afford to go to school otherwise. Hence the reason to train so much, to get better, to keep having your education paid for.

A few Saturday's ago, we drove out to their school to train with them. They have come to our club in Mokpo a few times to train with us so now it was our turn.

Their gym is a full size gym with padded flooring on top and 2 sparring rings.

It was great. We trained for a little over and hour which is nothing to these kids but something for us slow waygooks. These kids are AMAZING. So fast and so strong.

We took lots of pictures and had a great time.

We took a tour of their school and they were so excited that we came to see them.

Then we ate lots of pizza.

It was a good day!

There are some better pics on my facebook account.

Wall of Ass

This is what us waygooks call the random street smells that, well, smell like ass.

You can't quite describe it. You'll just be walking along, la la la, and BAM!

Like a punch in the face it hits you. Ohhhhhhhhh! God, what IS that!?

It's terrible. It's like rotting garbage, compost, sewage and I don't know what all rolled into one and it's terrible.

Now that it's summer time with temps constantly in the 30's and almost 100% humidity, you can just imagine how this adds to it.

The other day I walked home from school. I encountered many smells. Some were of the beautiful green trees everywhere, some were of flowers and many times I ran into the wall of ass.
Going for a run yesterday, I was attacked. Breathing through the mouth is not recommended. It's like eating the wall of ass.

This Friday I will arrive in Canada where I can breathe FRESH AIR and escape the ass. For a month anyway.

Say No!

After ranting about the smoking situation in Korea, I noticed a commercial on tv to "Say No!" to smoking.

I was amazed.

Has Korea finally realized how bad smoking is for you and that it's not cool. That it's disgusting and that not everyone wants to be around it!?

I sure hope so.

It was refreshing to at least see that the wheels are turning and awareness is being put out there.

Even if it's just one commercial. It's something!

Coming to an End

Yep. The school year will come to an end on July 18th. My last day will be the 16th.

This will also end my 2 years with my 2 schools and I must say that I am VERY excited for the change.

After being at an all boys school for 2 years, I have had enough of listening to "Sekshi" and "Baby" along with other various swear words and will go to 2 all girls middle schools. Ahhhhh, bliss!
I'm hoping so anyway.

I know that girls will pose their own challenge as well but at least they won't be trying to look down my shirt and ask me what a vulva is.
Well, hopefully not.

I will be changing apartments and Darren will hopefully be taking my job and can just move right into my old place.
I will just be moving down the street to the 300 block of my complex into an apt. that is exactly the same as mine.

I am really looking forward to the change of schools and a new year.
Having Darren here will be a completely different experience then what the past 2 years have been and I have made some really good friends here in Mokpo.

In less than a month I will be back in Winnipeg, packing up the apartment and visiting.
Then it's off to Penticton to relax with mom and dad and enjoy the beach and beautiful B.C.
I can't wait!

That's the update here in the Po.

On an unrelated note,

it's friggin hot here now. Even though it is technically the rainy season, the humidity is crazy. It makes my skin look like I'm 14 again which is just awesome!
Pabo doesn't even want to play b/c it's so warm.

My toilet paper is moist due to the air in the apt., the edges of my passport have curled and laundry takes forever to dry.

The scary thing is, is that this is nothing compared to the heat and humidity that you feel come July, August and Sept. where you just want to die basically. haha

anyone wanna come for a visit!?

Everyone Smoke!

Everyone in Korea smokes.

So it seems anyway. Kids are getting busted for smoking, only to be scolded by teachers who smoke AT school. Women smoke in the bathroom stalls like teenagers in order to not be seen as a "slut" or a "bad girl" by others.

You can barely walk down the street without having someone bellow out a big puff of smoke near you for you to breathe in. It's lovely.

My beef is with the smoking rooms that exist in schools. Yes, IN SCHOOLS!
This blows my mind.

At my boys school, the photocopy room, where the crusty old man makes photocopies for you, is also where the male teachers smoke. I have posted a picture of the huge jar that serves as their ashtray before.
You go in to get your copies and get slapped in the face by smoke. Disgusting.

What's worse, is that those same teachers are the ones beating the students and making them write lines b/c they were caught smoking!!!!

Well. What a GREAT example you are setting for them when they see you smoking at school! And see every other male in the country smoking.

It also doesn't help that cigarettes are super cheap here. About $2 dollars.

At my second school which is nice and new, there is also a smoking room. This one at least has windows but you can smell the smoke as you walk by the room.

Again, disgusting.


This is my rant about smoking.

I hate it. It's gross.

Another one I like is how the soccer coaches smoke AT practice. This is a good example.

Jeju Marathon

On June 1st, our running group took part in what looks like to be our last run together. Monique is heading to Masadonia to study and then do her Masters and Jessica will head back to the States and get a real job and life!

We went to Jeju island to take part in the 10k. We had all originaly planned to do the half marathon but then realised that none of us had put in enough training to do so.

Sooooo, we did the 10. It was a lovely day. Not too hot, but hot enough. The course is still along the coastline and is beautiful.

We had rented a car which is always interesting in Korea. We drove around Jeju with the help of our friend who took us to see some cool spots.

We caught the Jeju woman divers who wear these old school wet suits and dive down to the bottom and fish for whatever crustations lie at the bottom. I have always wanted to see them so it was great to finally catch them in action.

Then we checked out some lava tubes. Apparently this is one of the largest lava caves in the world??

I might be wrong but the lava column is definitely the largest in the world which formed by lava dripping down from the top and then just gradually making it's way to the bottom forming this big column thing. It basically looks like a big pile of poo but was pretty damn cool.

I imagined lava flowing through this huge tunnel years and years ago. It must have been amazing.

The hotel we were staying at is the kind of hotels that rents rooms by the hour we think as we saw many "working girls" coming through.

My roomate Vanessa and I, who ran her first 10k and kicked ass, woke up to little red bites on us.

At first she thought mosquito bites but I had searched and destroyed the one mos. the night before we went to bed and there is no way we could have had that many mos's. in the room and not realise it!

Soooo, we had bed bugs I'm guessing. yum. What do you want for 30 bucks a night I guess.

Other activities included an ANTM like photo shoot on the beach and eating lots and lots of delicious Indian food.

It was a fantastic weekend. What made it even more fantastic is that we splurged for the more expensive ferry tickets which gives you your own private room with a bed, tv and a sink and separates you from the scads of people beyond the doors who are drinking beer and soju and getting right pissed!

On a Sunday night of course.
We felt all uppity in our private room, separated from the commoners.

There's no going back!

MAY

May has been filled with lots of fun and little work.

I like both of those things.

I'll keep it short.

Boseong:

Some friends and I made a trip to Boseong to see the green tea fields which produce most of the tea in Korea, take part in another 10km run and go to a Tibetan-Buddhist temple on Buddha's birthday.

It was a great weekend with fresh air and great friends.

Gwangju:

The next weekend I met up with my friend Jocelyn in Gwangju for a night out. We had a yummy dinner to carb ourselves up for the night of dancing ahead.

I have missed going out dancing and we had been told about a great club that played hop hop.

It was awesome and we danced for hours. It felt like we were in the live version of the movie Step Up. Some people had actual routines to certain songs. Koreans can dance!

The next day we did some shopping and then caught a baseball game.

Ultimate in Mokpo:

The next weekend was spent in Mokpo. A friend had put on an Ultimate Tournament for the weekend which turned out really well.

Before this weekend, I had only played one pick up game of Ultimate. So many friends had said how awesome it was but I never really had much of an interest in it.

Until now. After that weekend, I am definitely a fan of the game and hope to play it as much as I can.

After the 3 games we played on Saturday my body was finished. Having not played hard like that in quite some time and with SO MUCH RUNNING! uhhhhh

I took an ice bath that night!

Then it was back at it on Sunday. I slathered on the A535 and hoped my legs would move as fast as my brain was telling them to!

We ended up leading in the final only to let it slip away.

It was a great weekend.

I

Jindo Moses Festival

The Moses Parting of the Sea Festival happens every year in May where the sea parts far enough between 2 islands that you can walk across.

It's super neat and since it fell on a holiday, many were able to make the short trip to Jindo and enjoy this phenomenom.

There was lots of drumming, sea weed, fish, performances and booze. I tried the local alcohol called Hongju which is 40%. Whoa!

I went with my friends Joan and Jocelyn. Joan has a car so it was lovely to not be crammed in a smelly bus with lots of other people.

We walked around, ran into friends, drank Hongju, took lots of pictures and finally walked across the water to the other island.

Well, we didn't quite make it to the other island as the water was starting to come back in but we were pretty close.

It was super cool and great time.

Beer and Stuff

So this week, I have drank more beer than I have in the entire time I have been in Korea!

In total, it only amounted to about 1 full can of beer but for me, that's a lot!

As I already mentioned, I had a beer with my principal on sports day and the other beer I consumed was today, with my masters father.

A side story to the beer is the heavy bag at our do-jang. Initially, we had it bolted to the wall with this big contraption and it was great.
But, the people upstairs were complaining and that there are now cracks in the wall from our awesome kicking power!

Soooooo, master's dad, the handy man, and who also looks like a Korean version of Morgan Freeman, my favorite actor, had to come up with another way to put up the sand bag.
Let's call her dad Morgan from now on.

He has 4 steel pieces about knee height placed in a square and plans to pour concrete into it and this will be the base for the other contraption to be placed on and then bolted to the wall again!!?

We're all not sure and are very curious as to how this is going to pan out.

I have never seen such a procedure just to hang a sand bag. At other clubs and gyms I've been to, the bags have just been bolted to a beam or whatever and are hanging nicely from the ceiling. No cracked walls and no angry neighbours. Hmmmm

Anyway, today I went to lunch class with fellow waygooks Glen and Erin and of course, Morgan is hard at work planning his structure.

Master decided to actually take care of her new born baby and was unable to make it to class so we did our own thing and then had to help Morgan carry up a bunch of 40kg bags of cement!!!

Definitely not something I saw myself doing when I woke up this morning.

The guys were able to carry them up the 3 flights of stairs on their shoulder so I decided to do the same.
Yeah, no. I made it up one time and one time only. It nearly killed me!

So Erin and I had to be sissy girls and carry one bag up together.

Soooo after the cement carrying and quick vaccuuming afterwards, Morgan brings up a bunch of beer.
Having just trained, beer is not really what I want right now.

Erin and Glen had to leave so I was left with Morgan who also went out and bought some Pringles. Again, not exactly what I want to eat after a workout! Where's my foofy protein shake a fruit!

So he calls me over and opens a bottle and we had some beer and Pringles together.
Morgan shot his glass of beer immediately and I nursed mine. The Pringles however, were surprisingly delicious after a workout!
salt salt salt.

So yeah, these little things are what make me laugh and are moments that I will remember always.
Having a beer with my principal at 1130 in the morning and having a beer with Masters dad after carrying cement up 3 flights of stairs!

good times.

Busted

The other day my friends Carol-Ann and Vanessa came to Mokpo in a car they rented and we had a great saturday together which included a nice run along the sea wall, (even nicer that it was +30!), went for Vietnamese food, then some ice cream, some norae-bonging, some pool and then home. It was great.

Sunday included strong coffee with breakfast and watching America's Next Top Model.

On their way to their next destination, I asked Carol if she could drop me off at Homeplus so I could pick up some more tortilla wraps.
After getting out of the car, I had to wait a while to J-walk across the street. Instead of walking the whole 150 meters to the overpass crosswalk.

When I finally crossed, there were these 2 cops blowing their whistles for the entire time it took me to cross.

Opps. Busted for J-walking in Korea.

I played dumb foreigner and just kept walking and didn't even look at them.

What am I going to do? stop in the middle of the very busy road I was illegally crossing and go over to them?

Then what? We can look at each other and not understand what the other one is saying?

Note to self, don't J-walk. Not when there are cops around anyway!

Sports Day

After a great long weekend, we have sports days at my boys school.
They play soccer, Tee ball, traditional Korean wrestling which is similar to Sumo wrestiling and other games.
For me, this means I get to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful day and work on my ever so important tan for the summer.

While wondering around the grounds, I pass my principal who is sitting underneath the tent at the front of the school eating dried squid, chicken wings and drinking beer.

He waves me over and offers me a beer.
It's 11:30 in the morning.

ok. I sat down and had a Hite (uh) with my principal and had a tiny conversation.

It was nice.

Funny Kids

Yesterday while I was waiting at the light with all the rest of the munchkins from my school, this one little grade 1 boy (grade 7) was just staring at me like he does in class too.

I really wonder what is going through his mind when he is in stare at the waygook mode.

So I'm waiting. He's staring. I say hi. And he musters up "are you my English teacher?"

Inside I'm thinking, DUH I'm your English teacher! but just tell him yes I am. He's so little and cute.

Just now, the boy who is on garbage can duty in our teachers office gave me a "don't mention it" when I said thank you to him.

Asa!

Don't mention it!? Where did you learn that!?

I'm pretty sure you didn't learn it from the grade one teacher because I'm pretty sure HE doesn't even know that.

They are SO funny sometimes.

Gross

In the elevator tonight with my bike, coming home from work I smelled a foul, foul odour.

It was aweful.

There was another dude in the elevator with me but it was bigger than body odour.

Uh! I can't stand it! It's aweful!

I get out of the elevator and it seems to be following me. What!?

I rode through a fresh pile of poo apparently on the way home and now it's sitting comfortably on my bike tire. Uh! GROSS!

So now, the entire hallway of the 5th floor smells like shit!
hahhahhaa

sorry neighbours

Weekend in Pusan

Pusan is my new favorite place in Korea.

Since arriving here I have always wanted to go there. Why?

Because of Haeundae beach. Being a Pisces, a water sign, I crave

to be near water and feel so great when I am.

And I also heard it was a really neat city. Good food, good people, just good.

And it is.

The beach is amazing, the food was amazing, everything was just great.

I was there to participate in a 10k run with my friends, we call ourselves Waygooks on the Run, for breast cancer. Or as some like to call it, "running for titties". I'll stick with breast cancer.

Having not run a full 10k since our last race together which was in October I think, I was pretty nervous.

As were the rest of the girls.

But as per usual, we all did great and had a good run.

I have come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter whether or not I actually train for a 10k, I always seem to come in at the same time.

Aside from the 5 hour bus ride to get to Pusan, everything else was wicked.

I might have to move there.

I think this entry is boring. sorry