New School Year

Today is the first day of the 2011-2012 school year here at Shinhueng Elementary School. Although, really we can just say the school year is 2011... as nothing actually happens from January-March.

There is much that is different this year from last year, for instance, I no longer work at two elementary schools- I will miss the small class size of Dong Myoung, the commute, however, I will not, miss. The punctuation in that last sentence was just as annoying as my commute to Dong Myoung.

Aside from only being at one school I have a brand new set of coteachers. My old Shinhueng teachers, Youngers and Amy, have decided that they no longer want to be associated with me due to my ever increasing demands and the fact that my good looks were a major distraction during planning. Not really... I don't have many demands. I miss them already! The good news is we're still friends and they are easily my favorite Koreans in THE WORLD.

My new coteachers seem alright thus far, though we haven't taught together yet so I bite my tongue. It looks as though I will be doing the majority of the planning and teaching when we work together, which is fine by me! I did come here to teach, after all. I recieved my new schedule today: #grade-#class-- 1 hour lunch in between 4 and 5.
Mon Tues Weds Thu Fri

1. Free 5-1 6-1 5-1 6-1
2. 3-1 5-2 6-2 5-2 6-2
3. 3-2 5-3 6-3 5-3 6-3
4. 3-3 5-4 6-4 5-4 6-4
5. 3-4 5-5 Free 5-5 Free

Notice anything missing? Grade 4, perchance? I'm guessing here... but I'm fairly certain one of my coteachers, and this is a quote of the first sentence in English I ever heard her say, who said, "I don't want to be an English Teacher, but they are making me." Well, she teaches grades 3 and 5 and has 23 classes in total- the fact that I have grade 3 and double classes for 5 means that she will really only teach 9 classes solo a week. Before my old coteacher left the new one asked her if it was alright if she left during class when I am teaching- the answer was "He will probably call the MOE (office of education) on you!" I don't think she'll abandon me, but I don't expect much assistance from her. Anywho, I just like to see all the kids and I'm a little annoyed that I won't get to see grade 4... I'm contemplating an after school club just for grade 4 students. Even then I will maybe only see 10 to 15 of them.

Anyways, I'm glad to be back in school and teaching again! I do feel a little awkward in the Lady's Teacher Room without Younglan around though... but the Guy's Room is smoker-friendly and the lack of my own office really doesn't give me other places to go. That being said, I've slowly been getting closer with other teachers at my school, it's nice to walk around and get genuine smiles and greetings! Some teachers even told me to call them "hyung" or "nuna", Korean for big brother and big sister. Part of the whole Confucian hierarchy idea, but one that I find kind of endearing if you're on the 'in'.

Also, the students are in awe of my hearty sideburns.

A Novel Quest

As of late I've gotten zealous inclinations to start writing and reading more. A result of this zeal has been my desire to find bookstores in Daejeon, more specifically, bookstores with an English section. A mission that is proving to be somewhat difficult... although Daejeon is a city with about 1.5 million people, there is not a large ex-pat community, compared to other major cities in Korea. Thus there aren't many foreigner friendly bookstores. That being said, today I had a small success!

I went to Eunhang-dong in search of a supposed bookstore, 계룡문고 (Gyea-rong-mun-go... approximate). This bookstore is actually listed on the Daejeon city website- which it turns out gave inaccurate directions, as it had moved and was no longer in the listed locale. Today I learned that the internet cannot be trusted when it comes to matters of such import as a bookstore's location.

It was disheartening to get to where the store should have been only to find it had been replaced with Noraebangs and Cafes. I wandered for a while thinking that maybe I would chance upon it- no such luck. Fortunately I have a Korean informant who's quite familiar with the happenings of Daejeon and I had the grand idea of contacting her. She informed me that the bookstore I was looking for had moved and that it wasn't that far away. Huzzah! I was given a general area to search and a typed out sentence to show people if I needed help. (계룡문고 어디로 가는지아세요? Do you know how to get to Gyearongmungo?) Thanks, Luka!

Off I went! I didn't end up having to use the sentence, my bibliophiliac sense kicked in and brought me straight to the store. It's the basement level of a building about 100 metes past the Galleria out Exit 6 from Jungangno Subway. There's a pole with the store name on it, 계룡문고, as well as a few signs on the building. Here's a map that should be mostly accurate.

View Daejeon Bookstores in a larger map

As far as the English section goes... well... small. I've recently become fascinated with Mark Twain, so I bought out the entire Twain section- all two books, Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. Total cost was 15,100 Won- not bad at all! Other than Twain, which I feel very lucky to have found, the pickings were slim. One Hemmingway novel (19,500 won paperback), Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, Johnathan Livingston Seagull (I taught this book two years ago to 7th graders in the US), Harry Potter, Twilight, Chicken Soup books, and not much more... they had a lot of abridged books with both English and Korean- think Heaney's Beowulf- which might be cool? I guess... Anyways, the "Paperback" section was a little despondent, but I still managed to find books to bring home! The best part of the experience was just being in a bookstore and browsing some English books for the first time since my arrival in Korea. There are supposedly more bookstores in Daejeon that await my discovery... I'll let you know how it goes.

So here's something new

The revolution that's occurring in Egypt at the moment is a very serious and real thing. I wrote this song to submit it to a song contest on a website- the topic of the contest is Egypt. No, I don't plan on winning. If you don't know what's happening in Egypt at the moment then allow yourself some time to browse these news links.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12357891

http://english.aljazeera.net/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/03/egypt-protests-live-updates

and this blog

http://blogs.colgate.edu/khanegyptprimer.pdf

Of course there are plenty of more sites out there- this should get you started!

Probably shouldn't take the musicianship or songwriting too seriously here...

Something really sphinx here

A pyramid scheme turned upside down

Me mummy and me dad raised me right

Ankh if you want Mubarak out of town

The tootin' common people gather

Cause we all cairo about the future

You can scare some but you can't scarab all

Living in fear~ oh is no way to live at all

He gypts us of our natural rights

More lethal than a cobra bite

Cleopatra was less of a pain in the asp

A khopesh is all I need to end this regime

Isis peaceful revolution though

We don't want tombs to appear in the ro

Mubarak just doesn't want them to show

We've delta lethal blow

From Alexandria down to Aswan

We're ready for a new dune- I mean dawn

So grab your qoran or bible or whatever others use

And let's start everything anew

Something really sphinx here

A pyramid scheme turned upside down

Me mummy and me dad raised me right

Ankh if you want Mubarak out of town

겨울 Happenings

I made it to the Busan Aquarium a couple weeks back. It was my first time in Busan and probably not the last. The city was wonderful, I wish I had spent some more time there, I'm thinking I should have spent the night but decided against it at the last minute and just got a train home. While in Busan I also went to the Museum of Modern Art- they had some pretty cool exhibits, most notable was the Henry Miller exhibit. Eventually I made my way to Busan Tower; I arrived just as the sun was setting which afforded me a wonderful panoramic view of a city gone dark coming to light. Other than photographs and memories I only took one thing back from Busan, a seashell.

I had a week of camp after my week of vacation. Perhaps some of the most fun that I've had in school in Korea. The kids were genuinely amazing- the camp was for less fortunate children, low income, low level, orphan type- you know the lot. I also made some new friends at camp! Other Korean and Native teachers.

Insert a Saturday trip to Lotte World here. I went with a couple Korean friends, Anna and Luka- the ones that Brian and I meet for language exchange. Ou

r weekly meetings have been less about language lately and more about just hanging out with friends, totally ok with me. So we went to Lotte world, the three of us- Brian is currently soaking up sun and avoiding clock spiders in the Land Down Under with his lovely lady, so he wasn't present. The day was AWESOME. I freakin' love amusement parks- the rides, the food, the atmosphere- totally dig it. The queues were a bit long, but most of the waits were worth it. My reaction to the rides was a bit different from all the Koreans around me... laughter. Instead of screaming, I laugh. I don't remember a time that I've laughed

as much and as genuinely as I did during some of the rides. SO much fun. We plan on going to Everland during spring break- a weekday this time.

Last Tuesday I met up with some Korean teachers and we went skiing at Muju Resort. It had been maybe two years since I skied, but it comes back pretty quick when you're flying down a mountain and need to remember how to slow down. We only spent three hours there- the total damage to my wallet was roughly 70,000 won, which isn't too bad considering I had to rent everything... even ski clothes. That night I met up with a cohort that I had met during camp the week prior.

The Groove Gate is near Jungangno Station; had I not been

led there then I would have undoubtedly failed to find it. The interior is something akin to the Ethnic Bar in Dunsan-dong, though a bit more open and sans hookahs. The owner is an ex-music producer named James (english name) who's really quite enjoyable to talk with. He's one of those guys that you just want to succeed- reminds me a bit of the owner at House Grill. We drank some beers while waiting for one more compatriot to arrive. Once she arrived and introductions were issued we ordered food, Pad Thai- only thing on the menu that night. I guess there's normally a cook that can do all sorts of Thai food, but he wasn't around that night so our host, James, offered us a dish that he would cook himself. Yes, it was delicious! I really want to make it back when the cook is around so I can try some other delicacies, I'm told the red curry is choice. James found out that I play banjo and I've been asked to return sometime in the future with the banj, I get nervous when I play in front of people, so

I've been practicing a bit more since Tuesday- I've even managed to get two new songs in my repertoire, 'Crazy' by Patsy Cline and 'Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps' originally by Osvaldo Farres. I should also mention that after a day of skiing with Koreans, a night drinking with two well-spoken Brits was just what I needed.

I suppose this is sufficient for now. I'd like to start writing more- not just blogging... fiction too. Here's a picture of Hemingway boxing in Africa. (Current desktop background)

I can do a pretty rad Tom Waits impersonation.

Just made French Toast in a pot with a spoon.

A Week Off!

A short vacation has begun! I don't have a plan- other than to get out of my apartment on a series of day trips, or overnight trips... or multi-day trips... really depends on the wind I guess.

Some things I want to do.

-Visit aquarium and fish market in Busan

-Sit on the beach at Busan

-Return to Seoul and purchase some sort of travel instrument at the Nagwon Arcade

-Give Heather a high-five in Bucheon

-Put myself out there for adventure

-Find an art museum and feign pretension

-Drink with Koreans in a strange city

-Go to the movies (I love the movies)

What else should I do? Where else should I go? Do you have a couch?