A whole week you say

So it's been seven days and you've heard nothing from me. Nothing really interesting has happened. Well a few things, I guess but I'll just give the major points and then probably go into small details because that's just what I do. I didn't end up doing anything last Saturday. I know I said I would do something and then I never did. I also said I would tell you about other things but I didn't and I'm not going to now mostly because I don't remember what it was. Weird how that's the part you remember. I'll remember later and write something probably. Right now, I'll just tell you about this past week. On Sunday, I stayed home and cleaned mostly. My apartment was so clean. I even bought a giant 50L garbage bag and threw all kinds of things away. No more Pizza Ann Joy boxes laying about the place. It's kind of a funny name for a pizza company especially because it has a little chinese man on the box. I'd say Korean but you know that little man is always Chinese. Well, he's never Japanese at least. Yes, so I had a clean apartment for a day. Actually, I still need to clean 2 things. I haven't been able to bring myself to clean the fridge. I cleaned out the inside of the toilet with a scrubpad and my bare hands. That's pretty gross I must admit. Toilet water was actually one of my myths. I think I had 3 of them and I don't know where they came from but they were just things that I thought. One was that wealth brought you unhappiness. Fame made you lonely. And toilet water was actually the cleanest of waters. So the last one doesn't make that much sense. The water inside the toilet always looked cleaned to me, pre-use of course or post-flush until I had my own toilet that is. Now it never seems to look like the cleanest water. I think it was because everyone always said toilet water was so dirty but never looked that dirty so I thought it was just a myth. The dogs were really drinking the cleaner water. I never drank from the toilet. I did drink rain water once and I almost drowned in a rain barrel but those are different stories. I wonder why we even had a rain barrel. Oh, that summer of 84.

Moving on, the other unclean thing is my glass door frame but that's not that gross.

New thing entirely, Monday was normal and then Tuesday I started getting sick again. I hope I don't get sick every month. I have some vitamins now. I'm sure it's diet related or sleep related. I think you can get by without one but not both. I don't sleep or eat enough. I wish I had an oven and a wide range of easy oven-related meals. Ranges require so much more attention. So I was pretty sick for about 3 days. Maybe it started Monday. Anyways, it was cold like. It was strange though because I'd feel much healthier while I was teaching and during my breaks I'd feel awful. Sometimes it was like nothing was wrong. Then I'd start to walk home and get so tired. I even wanted to walk the long way home so I would be bathed in light the whole way. I don't know why but that's how I wanted it. Then I'd get home and collapse on my bed and hardly move for hours. Have the tv on and barely pay attention while I thought about how I should eat something but wasn't hungry. I also had stressful repetetive dreams about work. I woke up thinking Paul, Paul, Paul. I like Paul now. He's actually funny. I kept waking up but got much more sleep than usual. I actually went to bed before 11 instead of after 1 or more reecently 2-230. It's such a waste. Too bad you don't remember a full nights worth of dream. Otherwise I would love sleeping. I only like sleeping in or sleeeping when I need to wake up. Between snoozes feels so good. Weekday sleep though. The night of blackness. I only remember my dreams of the weekend or between snoozes. Back to being sick. I was probably more subdued in some classes. Especially my 402class. The one I've hated recently. May was so good on Wednesday. I had them write a sentence with 'bigger than' on the board. She cheated and used her book but that should help her anyway. Maybe the book is too hard but my melons could probably make a sentence faster than they could. Comparisons aren't that hard are they? That they just don't care is also part of it. I was worried all day about that class because I thought I would be dead and have no patience. It actually made me more patient though. I was less stressed. I went to bed early that night too. My body is a little strange I think. Days where I woke up feeling better I would feel the worst by the end and then Thursday morning I probably felt the worst and felt the best at the end.

My parents came on Thursday. I met them at the hotel. Hotel Amigo. I don't know why the Korean hotel has a Spanish either. I worked on Friday sort of. Well, watched them draw, color and play games. It wasbetter that actually teaching. Today I actually had to work. Saturday at work. It was ok in the morning, we learned new boardgames so we played them a bit. Unsatisfying though since we didn't finish a single one. Then the foreign teachers (ie me and matt and renee) gave model lessons for the open class. It wasn't that bad actually. It's fun to treat grown-ups like children. 'What's your favourite colour? Oh, you lilke blue? What's something blue?" It just ran too long. I've been leaving my parents to run around town by themselves. They;ve seen quite a bit. More than me, I'm afraid. Yesterday, we had burgers and they came to see my apartment. Tonight we went out to eat and then saw Star Wars. It was actually a really good movie. Really that's all I've done with my parents. We've walked downtown and that's really the only other thing. I should probably go to sleep though since I actually have the whole day with my parents tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll get to leave the city tomorrow.

PS I have a new keyboard now and I'm not that used to it so sometimes I leave my fingers on the keys for a bit too long and letters are doubled or spaces missed somehow. I think caught most of them but if my writing looks a bit more dutch that's probably why.

Living it up on Saturday night

Well not exactly. I'm not really doing anything tonight. My social life isn't as active as I would like it to be. I'm hoping to be able to meet some people in July. That probably sounds strange doesn't it. The YMCA has Korean classes on Saturday and the next session starts the first Saturday of July. I would join mid-session but there was no point with my parents coming. They'll be here on Thursday and basically occupy my next 2 weekends. After that, I have 2 more weekends. Maybe I'll go somewhere cool. I hear Pohang is cool but who knows. I'll probably go to some nearby city that I didn't go to with my parents. Busan maybe. I really hope I meet some people in the Korean class though. I'm sure a lot of people do it for exactly the same reason. Maybe I should go do some post-dusk exploring. I feel like showing up at Matt and Renee's. If only I had their phone number. I'd feel like I was being obtrusive if I just showed up out of the blue. They tried to call me last Saturday but I was walking home from downtown. I should really do something though. I'll get back to this later. I actually had more interesting stuff to tell you today.

No reason

I'm writing for no reason today. I wrote just yesterday and really, not that much has happened. It was my long day. 9 classes. I have to go off the page for my daily report since there's only room for 8. It wasn't really that bad. My melons which I used to like teaching the least since they were such a handful are actually becoming one of my preferred classes. My einstein class is also completely different now. There used to be 5 and now there are only 3. Laura is taking a break, I guess. Julie, my teaching partner for that class, doesn't think she'll come back. I don't think I'll miss Laura all that much.Three is actually nice but with me not having to do as much classroom managing the work goes by faster. I guess that's good but the last five minutes I've been having to just come up with things. They usually involve stupid questions that I'm sure the children hate.

Karen told me a funny story today. It wasn't funny to me until much later in the day when I understood what she had been saying. Kids are funny. Her story was 'Today morning father bathroom DONG.' The other kids all understood and thought it was hilarious. I thought maybe he fell or something broke. It turns out that her father had farted. That was her reason for being happy. At first she told me angry and then I guess she suddenly remembered this morning. They're starting to like me a lot more. I think it might be because Julie, the other class we share, is more strict with them. There even behaving better. Even Paul! Tomorrow we're having a field trip so maybe there'll be pictures of Paul if he's there.

What else happened today? Matt did a mock presentation of a class for all the teachers. We had to pretend to be students. It was kind of fun. It ate up my lunch break though. I was assigned the next presentation. I have to do it from the All Aboard book. Matt did Phonics. You can do a lot more with the Phonics book. The All Aboard book is very structured. I like it better to teach since it requires less effort or creativity to prepare but is hard to impress anyone with. I have a month to do that. It only has to be 20 minutes. Some kids hate All Aboard. Alex who I've told you about before always tells me he hates All Aboard. One day All Aboard made him cry. I do it with them 3 times a week usually.

I was having a pretty good day today and even thought for a moment that I liked my job. My stupid ELE 402 class though. They have such low level english. I don't know how long they've studied but they are maybe 11 and their English is about the same as the 8 year olds. Actually it's probably between 7-8. Maybe I just expect it to be better so when they make mistakes I'm more likely to think they are stupid than that they just don't know. I talked to May on the phone yesterday and asked her what she ate for breakfast. To her it was like I'd just asked her the hardest question in the history of the world. She really should know this. We went over it in class or rather I went over it in class and none of them listened to me. They are my least favourite class and my last one too so I get to look forward to it all day and then leave work depressed. Lauren and May read comics all class. May at least pretended to be reading the textbook. Lauren practically flaunted it. I took it away and put it on the shelf. Then while I was helping someone, well actually forcing them to do their work, she went and took it back. David and Aidan fought and I really don't know what Bin was doing, he was fighting for a bit. Bin is such a good name for him. He's such a Bin. I think it's his Korean name. Technically his English name is supposed to be Robert I think. It's funny that he the only one in any of the classes that uses his actual name, myself included. Matt and Renee go back and forth between Shawn, oops sorry and Tyler. I wonder if I'll have trouble responding to my real name again. I still don't respond to Shawn all that well. It's more like a 'hey you' than anything like a name. Maybe that's all a name is. I don't identify with it is all I'm saying. It's not who I am.

Well this started without a point and it's ending without one. I'm going to get something to eat.

Teacher's pet and other stuff

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Originally uploaded by blueshoewhotwo.

It turns out my last night at the gym is tonight but I don't feel much like going. I'll be a bum for a few hours instead. I haven't done that since....Sunday.

Anyways, I've decided that I have a favourite student. Actually, I have a couple. There are a few I really don't like but unlike in real life, well maybe that's not true exactly, you have to pretend to like them and have to have pleasant conversations with them. I talked to one yesterday about George Michael. His favourite George Michael song was something whispers. I don't really know his music that well. He also sang 'Like a pridguh obah turahbeled wadah' telling me how much he liked the Beatles. He's alright though. Smart and listens, just annoying at times. Mostly because of how he likes to hold my arms and grab me. It's not all that cute at age 13. That actually seems old to me now. There are others I don't like because they are slow, and never listen. The comma's there because I was going to write something else but it wouldn't have been nice.

So this picture is of Karen. Let me tell you about Karen. Puppies are her favourite animal and she likes the colour yellow, but sometimes it's pink. She has a sister and her dad is the smallest in her family and wears sunglasses. I wonder what that means psychologically. I don't imagine it says much for her father. It was a drawing of her family. Karen also likes to spell and do math. She likes to ask me how to spell random words and then writes them down. 'Teacher, how to spell apple?' which is much better than 'Teacher, apple spelling is what?' I hate the word what with a korean accent. It's awful. Karen also likes to tell others when they are misbehaving and gives them warnings. I guess the Korean teachers have talked to them. She tells Paul when he's doing something bad:'Paul, Julie teacher be angry.' Today Karen even gave me a present. I came into school and her and the boss' daughter were at the front desk. Karen comes to school so much earlier than all the other kids. I'm not sure why. I think she has connections. Once, Jupiter gave her his coat to wear when it was cold. He did nothing for the other 20 kids on the field trip. That's where I took this picture. Anyways, she opens this box. I have no idea what it is and am not sure whether to take it or not. I don't and just tell her that it's nice. I also ask if she works at the school now. She doesn't understand so I ask if she sits at the front all day now. She giggles. So smart. It turns out they were vitamin C supplements and they were all mine. I think you mix it in with your drink.

I didn't think I would like Karen at first. She was such a suck-up when I saw her being taught by Amy. Well not really a suck-up but just smart and maybe a blind follower. Someone who would definitely do well in a totalitarian society. I don't think that anymore. Maybe it's because it's my totalitarian society now except I'm not really tyranical enough. Karen would be my second in command though. Kate would be my archnemesis who I would probably have killed. She's not that bad, she just tries to wrestle power from me. Today she stole Catherine's guitar because hers wasn't perfect. It was their science experiment to make a guitar from a box. For some reason, it is really hard for them to understand that I can only help one person at a time. I always have at least 2 people shoving something at me while I'm helping someone else. Kate takes it harder than others when I tell her I'm helping someone else. She has a little tantrum and yells 'teeeeeeechhhhaaaaahhhh.' She's better than she was especially with my sticker policy. If she's bad she loses a sticker. It's hard with non-classes like science and phys ed though which is what we do on Tuesdays. They all got 5 today even though they didn't deserve it. I only gave Paul 4. He never takes the stickers and isn't sad to lose them when he's bad. I put them on his page though. It's a reward sticker page. After you fill all the squares with stickers you get some awesome prize. I'm not sure what but the kids want stickers...except Paul. Very non-materialistic. He's an artist type. A 5 year-old eccentric. Anyways, I just stuck 4 stickers on his page. I'm a little worried about him and the open house.

One month from now, well the 13th of June. The parents are coming in, well have the opportunity to come in and watch classes for the day. Luckily I only have one 1 hour class that day. Matt and Renee are observed for 3 hours. I'm glad I don't have 2 kindergarten classes. The Melons aren't the best class. Paul and Kate make the difference I think. Paul just doesn't answer which gets kind of annoying when you try to ask one question five different ways and he doesn't even look at you. Or else he'll look right at you and say 'Nothing.'
Paul, how are you? Nothing.

Paul how are you doing today? Nooothiiing.

Paaaauuuuulllll.

Paul, how are you?


Paaaauullllll.....
Nothing

Ok Paul

Everyday. So exhausting.
I wonder how he'll be with his mother there. I don't think it's a happy day when you realise your kid isn't the smartest in the class. I'm supposed to prepare a lesson plan by the end of the week. So early. Karen's parents will be happy I think.

We had a teacher's meeting last night. I didn't get to leave work until 9:30. That really isn't the worst part though. The worst part is that it started at 8 and maybe 10 minutes total was spent talking in English. The rest was pretty much just Korean. I could've left at 8:15. They also print off a schedule of the meeting and they basically just read the English part. There's no point to being there. It gives Matt and Renee and I a chance to get to know each other though. I finished my phone teaching tonight, which seems unrelated, except that yesterday they told us to finish it by that night. A little impossible seeing as how I was at work until 930. Oh well.

I feel like they are also dropping subtle hints my direction. At the meeting, they brought up classroom management stuff mentionning stuff that I let the kids get away sometimes and how bad those things were. I suppose they're right and it is less uncomfortable than a face to face meeting about the issue but uncomfortable all the same. Some of my kids have also been spoken too. Today during phys ed (I can't bring myself to call it PE) they were supposed to do jump rope or skipping as I would call it. The ropes were too long for them to do it alone and with two people holding the rope they were too scared to jump in. I tried to get them to listen to me. I even tried different things with the rope but the kids weren't having it. I tried to get them to put other toys away but they did it slowly. After class, Amy talked with them. I wasn't there. I think she peeked it when I was trying to lead them in an activity. I heard some kids say, Amy teacher angry. I didn't see her though. I guess she understands it was more a kids being bad issue than a teacher just letting them do whatever. It still makes me feel a bit incompetent though, not that I'm not.

She left another class today to come tell my class that they should never leave the classroom. I let them go to the bathroom or for water too much. They get annoying so it's nice to have a short break from them. She was talking to the students but I could tell it was directed in large part to me. I really do appreciate the non-direct approach though. Less embarassing. It bothered me a little today though just because I let the kid go to the front because he had some kind of cut or something so he went to get a bandaid. That was Alex. Another one of my favourites. Not the smartest but cute. He has such a small voice and even when he's really angry he's cute.

I got a ride home from work today. Tuesdays aren't my favourite days. I'm the only one teaching from 630-800. It's so strange teaching only 3 students when the whole school is empty. I let them listen to a song today which I did last week. It is their listening class. Usually they just listen to boring English dialogue spoken slowly. It doesn't take them very long. I thought it would be fun since they like to sing in class. I just give them the lyrics and remove a few words that they have to fill in. Not my favourite music (today was I Drove All Night by Celine Dion, it's on my Juno's (Canadian grammy's) cd) mind you but I thought it would be good. Jupiter came by and seemed concerned. I explained what I was doing to him. He didn't seem impressed but he seemed okay with it. I asked him after class and the girls had left. He wouldn't have said anything I think but I asked so he said he'd prefer I not do it. Fine with me really, since that was the only non-textbook material I ever prepared. I don't mind but it makes me wonder what else I'm doing that he doesn't like but wouldn't tell me. Anyways, as I was leaving he offered to drive me home. I was a bit worried since I thought maybe he wanted to talk about my teaching and what a bad teacher I was. Actually, I think I'm mediocre. I could be better but I could also be a lot worse. I think he just wanted to know details about my parents trip. I also think that there might have been something he wanted to bring up but didn't have the courage too. I brought up the open house, in case there was something, a lead-in if you will to anything he might want to discuss. Nothing. Koreans can be so hard to read.

That's really all I have on my mind at the moment. Actually there was one more thing. We're having a teacher's workshop on May 28th. One of my maybe 4-5 Saturday commitments throughout the year. My parents are going to be here that weekend. I wonder if I can get out of parts of it. The want to discuss the books and the curriculum in general. I don't think 6 weeks really gives me much time to evaluate the textbooks. It's all day long to. From 1000 to 1700. So long. I'd completely forgotten about it too. My parents don't even know. That'll be disappointing I think since that really only leaves a total of 4 days that they'll get to see me. June 6th is a national holiday. Getting off work at 8 doesn't leave much time for anything. I guess I could see them at lunch which is around a time that's perfect for screwing up daily activities. Daegu doesn't have much for tourists and my 2-330 break wouldn't let them leave the city. I wonder if I should tell them to reschedule their flight. They'll probably still be jetlagged that day. Maybe it's not the worst thing. If only it weren't until 5. So that's what I've been thinking about this past few hours.

No wait, one more quick thing. Someone knocked at my door earlier. There was a Korean woman there. She looked in my apartment said something in Korean and left. I think she was lost but what if she wasn't? A little strange.

Long strange day, well not that strange

My blogging is very sporadic. No post for 2 weeks and then 2 days in a row.

I actually made it to the YMCA and took my Korean class. It went alright. I was able to follow most of it. My pure Korean numbers need some work. I don't understand why they need 2 different sets of numbers. Korean numbers only go up to 99. The other set is Sino-Korean which is Chinese. I'm much better with Sino-Korean. il, i, sam, sa, o, yuk, chil, pak, ku, ship. All the way to 10. Impressive, right? I could count higher but I don't feel like it. It seems that practically all the foreign teachers in Korea are Canadian. Strange that I'm spending more time with my people here, on the other side of the world, than I have since 2000. I decided against signing up for the classes though. There are 6 classes left in the session and I'd have to skip 2 most likely. I'll just wait. Afterwards, I decided I'd go buy some clothes. I have such unprofessional looking clothes. My pant rotation is very short. I need to do some laundry.

Everything went fine, I guess. I managed to buy a shirt and a pair of pants. The pants were so cheap. $17 US or something. I was expecting to pay $50 or something. No price tag. I only got one handsome boy there. Actually they were two separate stores but the same company. I also decided to go the bookstore and see if I could find a decent book to learn Korean. I would have to purchase a book to the take the YMCA class. I met some guy there. He was hanging out in the English section. Waiting I think. He offered to give me Korean lessons. He said for free but I don't think that's what he meant. Maybe he did and just figured he would improve his English. I really didn't want to at first but then imagined myself becoming some Korean all-star. I wouldn't even mind paying, well not some ridiculous amount. His name was Chong-Ju. I don't know why or how it happened but we ended up making dinner plans. Maybe I've become desperately lonely. Actually that's only part of it. It could be an interesting story. That guy at the gym even offered to take me to a restaurant with his family sometime and I seriously considered it. I don't think I'll be going to the gym for awhile though. With my parents coming for about 2 weeks, I know I won't be going during that time and what's the point paying for a full month to only use half. Anyways, I ended up missing him where we decided to meet. I was 10 minutes late. I don't know what the Korean take on tardiness is. Maybe it's unheard of or maybe Chong Ju has been stood up before by people he meets while pretending to look at Korean language for foreigners material. I have his number and email though. I should at least apologize. Who knows?

I ended up having a few hours to kill between the meeting and the next meeting. I continued my shopping. I'd only bought the shirt by this point. I forgot to mention my stupidity. I had to take out some money and ended up taking way more than I meant to. I took out 700,000 won or about $700 US, $850 CDN. I just saw 70 and wondered why there was nothing bigger than 70,000. Turns out it was 70x10,000. So I know have this huge wad of case. 65 bills. During this time, I ended up walking around a lot and going into a few stores. It's so weird shopping here. I felt like each customer service person is assigned to you as soon as you walk into the store. One someone just followed me around the store. That wasn't so bad but I was so embarrassed at this other store. Everything was normal at first. There was one girl helping me. She didn't speak much English. Then there were 2 people helping me and all of the sudden there were like 5. They all called me handsome boy . I felt so trapped being in the store with 5 people surrounding me showing me stuff that I didn't really want. I was glad to get out of there.

I spent some time in the park and read from my Teach Yourself Korean book. I saw a few nice things. I saw the giant bell in the park. That was a nice park. I should go back there sometime. I felt very foreign there. There's something about the chaos of the street that makes you blend in but walking through a park while everyone is just relaxing on benches makes you much more visible. After spending 3 hours walking around downtown I decided to go home and drop off my bags. That's why I was late meeting that guy. Maybe it wasn't meant to be. I never really respect people who believe it signs and think it's stupid if they pay to much attention to them. Of course, the universe sends me messages because I'm that special and hypocritical.

Someone left a comment yesterday. Unless someone leaves some comment I just imagine that no one is reading this. I wonder how many other people I don't know read this. I can't imagine it's very exciting to read.

I went to the meeting place at the bookstore but no one was there. Some girls in their early teens asked for my help choosing a book. I thought they meant it was for them. All of the books they were looking at were way too advanced for them. Catcher in the Rye didn't have that complex a vocabulary so I got that for them. It's interesting right? The only word they were using. Afterwards, I realise that it was a gift for their English teacher. Oh well.

I didn't want to hop right back on the subway so I decided to walk part way home. I ended up walking all the way back home. It took me over 2 hours. I saw a few interesting things though and now I know what the world above the subway line looks like. I saw a giant temple, or pretend temple, with giant lit animals and a park with some rock supposedly shaped like a man with a hat. It was too dark and I was too close to see that though. I bought some meat on a stick and heard handsome boy again. Then while walking two early teenage girls asked me my name and I heard it again. For some reason whenever I tell anyone my name they think I've said Tiger. I figure there's no point correcting strangers since I'm not going to see them again and hardly anyone I see ever calls me by my real name. That just makes the whole experience a bit more surreal. I'm kind of proud of myself for doing it though. I got lost a few times by not turning at major intersections but I made it. I bought some chicken and came back home.

I went to the convenience store downstairs and was going to buy water. The only water they had has a really bad name. It's called 'Pocari Sweat.' That's such a bad name for water. I decided to actually buy it. It's an Ion Supply Drink so it's probably a drink for when you sweat. It's still a bad name though. There's a store downtown called Skin Food. I think it's food for your skin but that it the first thing I think of. My washing machine is called Big Wash: Human Fuzzy Washing Machine. I have no idea what that was supposed to mean. Renee has seen underwear called Big Yank. If only they'd put the e's in there would be no sexual connotation. Some kid on Friday after saying skunk just said skanky. I know he wouldn't have any idea what that meant. Language is a funny thing.

It's about time, I think

Let's see. I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks. I've done a few things since I last posted but not all that much.

My water thing is all solved now. It has a slow drip if I leave the faucet open. Not too bad but I keep it closed. Not that interesting though. I saw my neighbour when I came home from work a few days ago. He came up to me and shook my hand.

I've been out twice now and within the span of 3 days. I need to meet some more local people. On Wednesday, the first week in May whatever day it was, I went out with Matt and Renee. We went to a hamburger place that actually made pretty good hamburgers. I managed to work out no onions but it still came with a bunch of other stuff but luckily it was pretty easy to scrape off. We wondered around to find a place to drink. I don't think Matt and Renee go out all that much. I think they go downtown maybe once or twice a month. They've only been to Seoul once since they came about 5 months ago. Mind you I've been here once month and haven't left Daegu at all. I should go somewhere this weekend. Seoul or maybe Busan. Eunice said Busan is the San Francisco of Korea. That's probably true but I'm not sure what it really means. I just have to figure out how to find the bus or train station. Maybe I should look in my Lonely Planet. Novel idea.

Anyways, we found a place. We got off on the wrong floor and ended up at a place called Club M2. It was a little strange. They told us Koreans only. We didn't mind because we didn't want to go there but it was just weird because they were certainly weren't acting like it was a Korean only club, meaning that all of the signs were in English and I didn't see any Hangul anywhere. All the businesses in that building were in Hangul except the 4th floor where it just said Club. We got back in the elevator and got off at the right floor. We had quite a bit of soju (korean vodka, which is made from yams I think instead of potatoes or maybe it's the other way around, I don't know much about how alcohol is made). Korea has these little drinking places that aren't really like bars at all. They are more like restaurants that just specialise in side dishes that go well with alcohol. A really respectable way to get drunk. Classier at least. I should probably mention that the Thursday was a holiday. I really like to sleep in the next day. We were there for a couple hours. We came out around 12:30 or 1 I think. It felt pretty dead when we left. We managed to find a happening street and another place to drink. More to drink and more pleasant conversation. By the time we left I was so gone. Renee's mother is French-Canadian (not Quebec though) so we ended up speaking French on the taxi ride back. We were going to make it our secret language at work but have yet to speak French at work. Matt doesn't speak much French but he was more gone than I was.

I meant to do something the next day but pretty much just spent it home. I did go downstairs though to replenish my drinking water. Have a mentionned that you can't drink the water here. Instant noodles really aren't all that instant when you have to boil the water 20 minutes before hand. It was pretty much a wasted day. It was rainy out so it was a good day to stay home with a small hangover. We really should've just stuck to either soju or beer.

I went back for work on Friday and then it was the weekend. Too bad Friday hadn't been a holiday. I think I have about one holiday a month but not many are on a Friday or Monday. Oh well. It's probably better for my bank account. As of now, I only have a single entry visa so I have to upgrade before I can go anywhere. I can pay a single reentry fee at the airport but I'd rather have it in my passport.

Next was Saturday. I slept in later than planned and went to some get together downtown with people I'd never met before. It was from some online forum for ESL teachers in Korea. I needed to meet some new people though. It's hard hanging out with couples. I met a few interesting people. I felt so young. There were a few people in their mid twenties and about 2/3 of the group was over 30. Not a bad thing but not was I expecting. We all went to some Japanese restaurant. I had some pork wrapped in cheese and fried. It was good but I really thought I'd be eating healthier food here. I'm really not though. A lot of fried foods and pizzas. There were a lot of Canadians there. Only 3 Americans I think in a group of 14 I think. One Aussie and a Brit. Everyone else was Canadian. Even another from Edmonton. He must've been at least 40. It was an okay evening I guess. A lot of them had been in Korea for quite awhile. There was a lot of gossip about different people who posted on the forum. I was pretty lost during those conversations. We headed to a bar afterwards. It was a western bar and it was so weird seeing all those white faces. I gotten used to seeing only Asian faces I guess. I stayed there for a couple hours and then caught a cab home with someone else who kind of lives in the same area. I don't think it's that close though.

I got the lowdown on some Korean classes though. I'll probably end up going tomorrow. They start at 11 though and I live 30 minutes away so that's a bit earlier than I would like but they are the only Korean classes that I know of and that's the only downside. I've also decided to work on my Korean during my lunch breaks. I figure an hour everyday just put Korean above Danish or Spanish before I leave. Not that it would be hard to top those ones. I've hardly spoken Danish since I left Denmark and my Spanish is still pretty beginner. I can manage to scrape a poorly worded sentence together though. I should definitely go tomorrow. The only problem is they are right in the middle of a session. It would be pro-rated but my parents are coming down in 2 weeks or so so I'd probably miss two of the remaining 8 classes. I get one free class to observe. It's probably worth it though. I don't know how Matt and Renee have managed so long without learning Korean. It really bothers me that I can communicate. Plus I think languages are fun. They aren't too expensive either. They're at the YMCA.

Aside from that there's not much to say. I didn't do much last weekend either. When your days are so packed it's nice to spend the weekend at home doing absolutely nothing. I'm definitely much busier than I thought I would be. I have about 3 hours free during the day but it isn't all together so it's really not worth doing anything. I did come home twice this week to take a nap during the day. It was nice. I need to start going to bed earlier though. 5 minutes later every night really adds up. I can't even tell you what I'm doing. I just end up watching Korean commercials. It's the same as Denmark. The program is pretty much uninterrupted with a huge block of commercials before and after. Actually they introduce the show and then it's about 10-15 minutes of commercials until it starts. For some unexplained reason Oprah comes on here at 1 in the morning and I end up watching the intro and then the commercials and decide to go to bed. I never have much of an intention to watch Oprah so who knows why I wait for the intro and then the program to start. Really kind of pathetic. That's such a waste of 25 minutes. I'm only half watching because I don't even understand the commercials so I don't actually know what I'm even doing during that time. I know I do complex math problems relating to the current time and the time I plan to wake up. Maybe not all that complex. I'm beginning to not like the snooze feature. I woke up before my alarm today but decided to sleep the 15 minutes until my alarm went off. My alarm goes off and I feel more tired. The next time it goes off I'm fine and could get up but I decide I can push once more. Then I wake up more tired than all the other times. More pathos.

Here's a strange story I haven't shared on here yet. A few weeks ago I went to E-Mart like I always do. I saw some man pointing at me and at first I thought maybe the little girls he was with were my students or something but then I realised he was just pointing me out as a curiosity. "Look girls, a Caucasian!" The girls didn't really care. They were maybe 2 and 4 or something. I don't think I've ever felt like such a freak. I didn't feel humiliated or anything just really strange. It makes me appreciate what it would be like for an Indian-Australian travelling in South America though I never felt odd travelling with one. Everything felt perfectly normal to me. Sometimes I like that I look different and then there are times when I wish I looked like everyone else. I'm sure I'll feel a lot less self-conscious when I go back. If I go back. I'm sure I won't stay here but you never know. Some come for a 6 months and stay 15 years. As of this moment, I can't imagine staying another year. It has crossed my mind though. It would have to be a lot better schedule though.

I got back on Tuesday. I haven't checked my account but this slip I signed said I made over 1.1 million won. Lots of deductions for insurance, taxes, and other deposits. Plus I didn't work a full month. For some reason if you want something for the year, like internet, you make a huge initial deposit and then the monthly fee is much smaller. Strange system but I suppose it all averages out the same. I think the first payment is equal to one half of the total. Something like that. I'm glad I don't have to take more money from my Canadian bank account. I somehow need to deposit $1000 CDN into my account by the end of June to avoid a monthly fee. I think it's $8.95 a month. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I had the minimum balance a few months ago. Then there's my Wells Fargo account that I can't access at the moment. I lost my card and will have to call and ask for a new one. I don't know my card number either so that might be a problem. Everything is so much harder when 1-800 numbers are technically no longer free. I called my parents a week after I got here and a 45 minute conversation managed to end up costing $85. It's a good thing I didn't manage to get a hold of anyone on my drunken night in Korea. I'm still amazed at how I manage to do difficult things like dialing maybe 20 numbers in the right sequence while barely being able to stand.

There are a few things about school I could tell you about. My bad classes are getting a little bit better and my good classes are getting a bit worse. Then some of my bad classes are getting worse too. That's all I really care to say about that.

I suppose I should be heading to bed now. Hopefully I'll make it to Korean class tomorrow for my free sit-in.

Some photos

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Originally uploaded by blueshoewhotwo.

I decided it was time to post a few pictures. I don't know how to do it all in one go so they are all seperate. Anyways, here's my building, the way I see it on my way back from school.

Another view

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Originally uploaded by blueshoewhotwo.

Here's my building coming from the subway. I'm on the middle floor on the right side.

Out my window

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Originally uploaded by blueshoewhotwo.

Here's the view from my window. The station is right behind this FineBank. Yes, that is a church.

Kitchen corner

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Originally uploaded by blueshoewhotwo.

Here's the corner in my kitchen. Can you spot the missing faucet? The picture is a bit too religious for me but it's in the corner and I won't see it much. That white box is usually hidden by the fridge.

Close up of the missing tap

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Originally uploaded by blueshoewhotwo.

I thought that I might feel like writing but it took me forever to get my camera connected. I have a new faucet now and I figured out how the hose was connected. It was a very avoidable accident, let's take off very to make myself feel better. They had to cut through the cement to get to work and I can't use the water until tomorrow, which is unfortunate because I need to do some laundry. Also, they didn't come at nine. They said nine and they meant nine. (Nine fingers). Came at eight though. A new guy. I wonder who will come tomorrow or when. I don't know what they need to do. Test it maybe. They patched up my wall, maybe they're going to paint it. I don't even know if I'll be getting billed. So confusing.

And the day began so uneventfully...

My day today just kep getting more and more exciting. I woke up at maybe 11. I barely moved for a few hours and finally left the house around 3. I went downtown and just walked around to try and find a poster shop. I walked around and got lost. I ended up walking by city hall and found the river. I'm glad I found the river. Sometimes the streets all just look the same. Well, there are only a few different types of streets and those of the same type are virtually indistinguishable sometimes. Somehow I managed to find my way back.

I bought a poster at the only place I knew that I'd been to 2 weeks ago. I had a giant selection of about 25 posters. Some weren't too bad. Then I decided I'd get artsy. I bought 2 canvasses and a little jar of paint. I painted one blue and left the other one blank. I thought I could hang my poster with some tacks so I got some of those. I tried to push it into the wall but now I'm pretty sure my walls are just wallpapered concrete walls. I bought some double-sided tape and then hung them all up. It's funny how a place feels much more lived in when there's something hanging on the wall. I've already had some 'guests' come look at them. More on that later.

There was an old poster in the couple. It's not really my style but I decided I'd throw it up in the kitchen. It's some peasant couple praying with a potato. Well being thankful for potatoes or something. They're in a field. Anyways, after I hung it up I decided I would clean underneath the fridge and washing machine. Everything was going fine until I had this 'great' idea. The washer is connected to a faucet in the wall with this hose right. There's a drain in the floor where the hose from the washer goes. I'd been filling up this container and throwing water on the ground so get rid of all this crap on the floor. I'd washed and scrubbed it was just little particles and dirty water. I thought I could take the hose and better direct the water. I'd already taken the hose off and turned the water off so I could move the washer. I had to put the hose back in though. I put it back and opened the tap. The hose wasn't completely back on so I tried to push it back on. I don't know how I even got it off to begin with since there was really no rotating involved. Anyways, I ended up pusing just a bit too hard and the entire faucet ripped off the wall. Literally, fell right off the wall. Now there's just this hole in the wall with water streaming out of it. So much water.

There's no off switch or any kind of valve. It must be behind the concrete somewhere. It was maybe 10pm. I have no idea what to do. There's no way I could wait until the next day let alone Monday. I don't even think I have my bosses number. I have some number but I don't know what it is exactly. I don't even know where I put it. I've never met any one who works at the building. I've never met anyone in my building. So, I decide I'll knock on my neighbour's door. Eventually he opened the door and I brought him to my apartment. He tries to tell me something. My Korean is non-existent. I catch one word. Isseoyo. Do I have? Do I have what? He leaves. Comes back with some stuff. I had tried to put the faucet back on. I don't know what I was doing. I just managed to get water everywhere. We tried different things but nothing worked. He leaves and comes back. He makes a telephone motion. Either I have to call someone or he has already done so. He has. He gets a plastic bag over the hole so that I don't have this jet coming out of the wall. Just a lot of water falling out of the bag. His wife/girlfriend comes. This is the party couple.

They've called someone. She's on her cellphone. Eventually the water stopped. She speaks some English. 9 o'clock tomorrow they'll turn my water back on. I feels so strange just standing in your apartment after you've done something stupid. (Actually, my idea was fine and would've worked if not for that stupid hose and faucet. Ok a lot of it is my fault). Especially when you can't even speak to each other. I felt so bad. He got all wet trying to help me. He tried to ask a few questions. I actually understood one. Well, actually he repeated a word a few times and I looked it up in my dictionary. Place of work. Ahh. My place is so messy too. I have clothes and all this garbage everywhere. My fridge and washer are also not where they're meant to be. My mop is in a sink full of black water. Pizza boxes and plastic bottles all over. They have these strict garbage rules and I don't know them or even where to take my garbage. My makeshift garbage bag (you need official ones) is getting pretty full. Good thing it was a huge bag. How embarassing! I decide I'm wipe down the back of the washer. Suddenly the water starts again. What is going on? What happened to 9am? I decide I'll wait a few minutes before I go to my neighbours. I don't know whether he yelled something but all the sudden I see my neighbour out the window making these motions. I make a motion that water is coming out of wall again. He goes away. Comes back. Makes an X with his arms. The water has stopped. I make an X with my arms. Sometimes it really is incredible what you can communicate without words. They come back to my place and make sleep motions. Ok, the morning. I was going to make some pasta for tonight but I don't have water anymore. God I hope my pizza place is still open. I go to leave my apartment. I meet someone in the hall. She says 'Excuse me,' and then knocks on my neighbour's door. This is all about me. Someone else is with her. So these 4 Koreans are all talking in the hallway and I know what the subject is. I haven't been so embarrassed in such a long time. They come into my apartment and go to the source of the problem. More Korean, I thought this woman spoke English (Excuse Me Lady). Why isn't she telling me anything? Eventually they go out into the hall and continue the conversation. They didn't close the door all the way so I don't know if they are coming back. I'm so confused.

My door opens. I sitting on the bed watching TV while I wait for more movement or something. The second man looks at me and closes the door. He comes back in a few minutes and tells me in better English than I am used to tells me he will come back in the morning. Okay, I can relax until tomorrow. I go to the pizza place. It's after 11. God I hope they are open. Hmm, my shirt is on backwards. It's just a plain white shirt. I didn't want to go meet my neighbour in a soaking wet shirt. They are open. They're happy to see me. The pizza couple are some of best friends. They are nice. Don't speak English but we have good rapport. Last time I went, which sadly was 2 days ago. I eat too much pizza. Of course, tonight wasn't planned. (Those were some half-thoughts and a fragment sentence, ready for the main clause?). I learned some words just for the occasion. They put onions or mushrooms with my pepperoni. I'm going to tell them pepperoni only tonight. I learn the word for onion and mushroom and only. That was so helpful. I didn't even have to tell them anything. I go in. They know I want pepperoni and all the sudden I hear the word for onions. Aniyo yangpa. Pepperoni-man. Yes, just pepperoni. They even brought me a coke. I like my pizza man. No coke tonight but I was so glad they were open. They have a little dog that likes to bark at me. It must think I'm a funny looking person since I'm not Asian. Oh well.

I get home and wait for my pizza. The bell rings. My pizza is here. Nope, it's my neighbours. They have a beer for me. Koreans are so nice. I break something in my apartment, bother them and they are giving me a beer. They tell me it was nice to meet me and that they'll see me around. They ask me my age. He's 35. I don't know their names though. Strange.

Well, that's pretty much been my day. I cleaned up a little for my 9 am appointment. I probably should a bit more. I need to try and show that my place is livable. I hate feeling like I represent the living style of a whole nation of people, maybe even a race of people. Edmonton is the only place where I don't feel I represent anyone. It can be stressful sometimes. Is that a Canadian thing or just a Tyler thing? In Edmonton, they know the answer. I wonder if I should set my alarm for tomorrow.

I guess that means that's all for now. I write again tomorrow because Friday was an interesting day too and I can finally post pictures. I now have internet at home. So nice.