Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays

My Christmas Eve was one I don't think I'll ever forget for a while.  I decided as a newly single man, that after substitute teaching for a friend, I would go to a church for the evening.  My English club friends were having a white elephant Christmas deal, but my mind was focused on the real reason for the season.

So of all places, I decided to try the Kyungbuk National University Church -- a church located outside the gate of a university with a population of about 30,000 students.  The church is more of a community for International students and people from around the campus area as well.  I was astonished to know that the assistant pastor is an African American man, who is about 6'5 or 6'6.  He's been a very successful business man in his life, but it seems as though he is a very well respected man around this city as well.   Pastor Ken, as the folks call him, has a very lovely little Korean wife as well.  She's been to seminary, but is still in the process of finishing that calling. 

The people I met hail from various countries, such as Ethiopia, Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, China, and of course Korea as well.  The Christmas Eve program consisted of some dinner, music, caroling, and even some gift giving for all of those in attendance.  I felt weird taking part in the gift giving, but I was told to do so.  

I definitely felt great about the experience, especially being the only person there who is a native speaker of English.  More to come later -- I'm putting myself to sleep!!!

Hi Again

So we meet again after a little slacking off by this author guy here.  Anyway, not a lot is going on right now.  I should have jetted home for a few days of Christmas, but I just thought that'd be a little too hard me in terms of the turn around.

At least we have Friday - Tuesday without work.  Wednesday we'll start back next week, and then the following week will be a time of intensives -- which means we start work in the mornings as well. My coworkers all departed this morning for destinations beginning with T's. Chris and Jack went to Taiwan, specifically Taipei, while Brittany and Mike went to Thailand, for the beach areas of Phuket.  They used a travel agent that I used for my short Japan trip, and they were all very satisfied with the help that she gave them.  I was definitely happy about that.

Anyway, tomorrow is Christmas Eve -- according to my computer it's 12:09 AM on Christmas Eve, but that doesn't really count in my opinion.  I've taken some time away from working and doing jiu-jitsu this week -- sort of.  I only did Thursday night and tonight.  My knee still seems a little banged up, so I may go visit the doc after Christmas, but we'll see about that.  It was nice to just sleep in a little bit, and make omelettes, french toast, roast sweet potatoes, or just be able to play catch up with folks via Facebook or Skype.

Today was a pleasant day off, but I spent wayyyyyy too much time on buses.  Sometimes those subways, or taxis are just more convenient than sitting in traffic on buses. I went to practice jiu jitsu twice, although there weren't many people there each time.  I was kind of stuck just doing weights more than anything the first time.  The second time I went was right after the Young Falcons of Korea Family Party.  I was invited to receive an award for teaching them, which was pretty cool. Anyway, I'm gonna go to sleep now.  I'm working for my co-worker Jack tomorrow at his other job, since he's out of town.   Then onto some Christmas Eve festivities tomorrow night with a church that I've never visited before. I am excited, nonetheless though!

Some of what's going on right now

I'm not sure where to start, but things are moving fast over here.  In a little over three weeks, I'll be without work -- am I worried -- a little bit, but I'll get something figured out.  This fella' I've been praying too lately seems to have a plan, though I am just not sure what it is right now.

So I've been doing quite a bit of cookin' at home these days.  Most of it just happens in the morning with some big four egg omelettes, that usually consist of chicken, tomatoes, onions, and some peppers.  I've made some salads, cooked a few different chicken dishes, and made some various pasta dishes as well.  This weekend I hope to do something with penne pasta, and duck, which should be fun. Tonight I made some chocolate covered strawberries, and did a banana as well.  I also plan to venture into some stuffed french toast soon.  By the way, peanut butter, strawberries, and banana make a good sandwich.

Besides cooking not much has gone on during the week.  I went to the doctor and got my nasal area, as well as knee checked out.  I'm on meds for both at the moment.  Hopefully the knee continues being pain free, though it still hurts in places on the side.  Fingers crossed, there's not an MRI next week.  Work has been dull as usual, for the most part.  We have five more days of work, and then get Friday, Monday and Tuesday off around Christmas.  All the coworkers are super ready to take their vacations.  Chris and Jack will go to Taipei, while Brittany and Michael will go to Phuket, in Thailand.  I'm gonna stay around here and spend time catching up with some folks.

Last weekend, I did something really cool though.  Marina and I met up and we bought gifts for two boys that live in an orphanage here in town.  We had a limited of 20,000 won (about 18USD), so we found these cool backpacks, bought some sweets and a few cool pens for them too.  It was definitely fun giving back in some way.  There are kettle drives going on around town here too, just like with the Salvation Army back home. We checked out a few little shops around the area afterwards and then we visited the local Russian/Uzbekistan restaurant downtown. The food there is wonderful, and it helps Marina cope with being homesick sometimes, so I didn't mind it at all.  She makes for the best company, and has always been a good friend to me.  We went and visited our English Club after that, and enjoyed meeting quite a few of the new people who have been visiting these days. 

Some Japan for ya

Details about the the crazy diet

So here's what happened over a course of 13 days --- I had to bust my butt to lose about 12 lbs.  It was a little difficult, but I slept great almost every night, and still ate pretty well also.

The night before I started this craziness I ate a wonderful thanksgiving dinner with Miss Marina.  The next day the diet started.

I spent  almost every day working out at the health club -- weights and bike, or weights, running and bike, or weights, step -up thingy, running, and bike.  The weight-lifting was not very strenuous in terms of the sets that I did.  The hard part was going from exercise to exercise without stopping.  That worked my heart up a good bit for sure.  After one big set of all the weight exercises, I then ran for 5-7 minutes, biked for 5-7 minutes, did a bunch of jumping jacks, or did the step thing (which very rough).  Monday, Thursday and Friday (since the class schedule allows), I was able to get in my jiu jitsu practices.

You're probably thinking that I missed some meals in here.  Actually, on the last day I did skip dinner -- well, I snacked in small bits and ate a lot of fish at a wedding buffet.

So, I don't recommend eating the way I did.  That is, unless you really love cooking chicken breasts.  Let's just say I ate lots of chicken, and tuna with salads throughout the first week.   Around the meals I would eat a banana or an orange.  At night time I would drink a glass or two of milk as well.  The last six days or so was nothing but chicken.  Chicken and cooked vegetables mostly for all three meals.  Some of the meals included some kimchi that I cooked the chicken in -- super spicy stuff.  That pretty much explains it all right there.  I did use a sauna to cut some water weight, but that probably resulted in maybe 15% of the weight loss.

I'm happy to say that I've put six pounds back on already.  I am impressed too, that veggies can fill a person up that well!

First Jiu Jitsu tournament Result

So my two matches didn't go my way --- I lost both by a combined three points.  The first one was horrible -- in that the opponent and I didn't do much to each other at all.  Neither one of us hit the ground at all.  It looked like two guys getting ready for a match with someone else.

The second one was pretty good, considering the other guy was very close to blue belt status, and I don't have any stripes on my white belt -- he was a four stripe white belt.  He had me down and in great position to whoop me after the first 90 seconds, and somehow I got a wonderful escape and back on my feet.  Then toward the last minute or so he got me down and I couldn't escape his guard -- I definitely gained some good respect from him though, in keeping the match close.

I know I needed to be more aggressive in both matches, but it was a good experience being there with the team regardless.  Anyway, I'll post some pictures  later. I'll even share some more details about the diet that I was on for the last two weeks of training for this tournament too.

8 pounds down in one week -- about six more to go

Yeah, I'm a little crazy.  The price one pays for wanting to be in a lower weight division for his first grappling/jiu jitsu tournament.  Anyway, I'm still excited to be able to participate in something that may be a very big tournament in Seoul next weekend.

I'm still jumping around with the idea of going to Eastern Europe sometime at the beginning of next year.  It doesn't look like I'm getting any responses for the college jobs that I applied for here. I've also thought of going back to the states and getting back into that life, but I owe it to myself to spend a little time in Eastern Europe, where things are much different than Korea.  Sure Korea has been good to me in  many ways, but I think it's time to move on.

I spent a day in Fukuoka, Japan this past weekend also.  The Japanese are so much more disciplined than the Koreans.  It's great to see a large percentage of the population with manners.  Also, there are specific areas for people that smoke out in public.  In Korea, you just smoke anywhere.  In Japan, not so much.  They also seem to be much healthier as well.  They love their parks, and they love talking their animals and kids for walks at the parks too.   I'll post some pictures later, but I just wanted to actually throw an update on here before I head to sleep.

I'm so so sorry !!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

I've been horrible about writing in this thing as you can all tell -- the two or three of you that read this thing these days.  Happy Turkey Day to everyone back in America. I miss you all, and wish I could be there right now.  I'm glad that I did have some thanksgiving food on Sunday night at a local used bookstore though.  The lady who runs the place is Korean-Canadian, and she's doing Thanksgiving dinners this weekend, and she also did them last weekend.

I went to the dinner with one of the greatest women I know -- Marina.  Marina and I dated for a small time last year.  We probably would have dated longer, but my future was uncertain to both of us.  She's the most respectful woman I've ever been around in my life (with exception of some that I am related to though).   We always enjoy our company with each other and there's never a dull moment either.   We ate the dinner with another Russian girl she knows and her boyfriend, who is from PA.

Anyway, I'm in a tough diet this week for a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament that I have next week in Seoul.  So far, I've cut about four of the ten or twelve pounds that I need to have cut in nine days.  I'm doing it the healthy way at least -- chicken or eggs and lots of veggies every day -- for dessert, I have some milk, fruit, or yogurt.  

Well, I just wanted to give a little bit of an update -- Korea and I may be breaking up soon also -- more details to come in my next post -- which I hope will be tomorrow or Saturday morning.

Take care everyone!

Loss of a coworker and the gain of a Chi-town Boy!

So over the past weekend, I was a little active as the things were just getting started.  First of all, we had a little going away party for Courtnie, who decided not to chance her work status in Korea, since her tourist visa was almost up.  She caught a plane back to San Antonio on Saturday afternoon from Seoul.  Friday night, I cleaned my apartment so I could have a bigger place with a nice table in the kitchen area, and more space too.  I moved all of my stuff out between midnight and 2 am to Courtnie's apartment. During this time I was also cleaning my apartment, because Michael, our new teacher was moving in early Saturday morning.  We were told Friday afternoon or evening, that he would be moving in.  Originally he was going to get Courtnie's apartment, but I decided to take her place, and give him mine.

I did manage to wake up at 6 am, Saturday morning and carry Courtnie's HUGE suitcase downstairs, and lugged it down the road to the taxi area in our neighborhood.  Then, I was able to fall asleep, after reading this wonderful book that I just recently finished.  I'll give a review on the book soon. Fall of Giants is the name of the book though.  Great piece of literature by Ken Follett.

 It's nice to be an even bigger apartment as well.  I've cooked dinner or breakfast probably three or four times already.  I may even cook for Annie when she comes to visit next weekend as well.  She came this weekend, but only for Saturday night.  She left Sunday morning and visited her family in a city that's near Daegu.  I spent a few hours at a Jiu Jitsu tournament watching some of the guys that I train with near my work.  The tournament was fun to watch, but the few foreigners that participated didn't do so hot.  This was just a local tournament, with almost all of the athletes from just this one city.  There were even seven or eight girls that fought as well. 

Some Random Pictures

I thought folks may enjoy some randomness over the last week.

                                           Korean Coworker Jason, along with Miss Brittany

                                           This bowl is brought to your table as soon as you walk in this restaurant

                                         Jack, yours truly, and Miss Courtney

                                         Some of this fish was alive only seconds ago

                                             My home cooked meal Chicken Spaghetti

                                        Need some candles for your birthday?? How about Roman Candles?

Middle of the week

Happy Hump Day Everyone!!! So it looks like I will be staying at my current job for much longer than I expected.  One of the girls is going home since she's had even more trouble with her paperwork than me.  Well, at least this time around she's struggled just as much.  FBI background checks evidently are taking a long time to get done these days.

Anyway, I was able to spend some good time last weekend with my coworkers. Brittany, Chris, Courtney, and I all went on a hiking trip to the local park that is pretty close to our apartments. I just didn't realize that there was an entrance right down the entrance from our apartment.  We were all pretty tired when we finished our 8 km hike, but it was enjoyable, and the scenery was great (minus a few clouds in the sky).

Sunday, I stayed at Courtney's place for most of the day watching UFC, and then watching Paranormal Activity movies too.  We actually started the day off around 8:30 am, with a trip to Home Plus. That way we both had our grocery shopping for the week taken care of.  The Paranormal watching was fun, but the third one felt like a lie.  We watched the trailer and it seemed that all the good parts were missing from the actual movie itself.  Brittany came over and the three of us watched The Last House on the Left, which is a pretty good movie, done by Wes Craven.

Anyway here are some pictures from our hiking trip.

                                           Courtney with some locals

                                             Four of EFL's five foreigners

                                             The new guy -- Chris

                                               Courtney

                                           Brittany

                                               Your's truly

Almost the end of October -- yay!!!

So, at the end of next weekend, I could possibly be employed by a Taekwondo School here in the Daegu area. That, or I will be working in a different place for a month or two.  I've had paperwork troubles again, but at least people want to help me out, or at least employ me.  The owner of the health club that I use, is a very well-known Taekwondo Master Black Belt around this area.  He wants me to hang out with the kids that learn at his gymnasium, and help the, practice their English conversation skills. Apparently the people that bring their kids to this place have a good bit of money which may help me land some private jobs as well.

Work has been pretty easy for the most part.  The night classes are getting better too.  That's probably due to my energy levels increasing more and more throughout the week.  I'm trying to treat my body a little better than I have been doing.  I'm not trying to exercise too hard everyday.  Also, getting plenty of sleep during the weather change is helping out too.  My little tendon problem with my wrist has improved, although I still feel some minor pains from time to time.  Who would have thought I'd cringe in pain from time to time, just by trying to put my hand in my pocket?

Annie, and I had a rough go at it this past weekend.  Once again, neither of us communicated our plans very clearly to each other.  I was taking a bus with The Young Falcons group to the Seoul Air show, which she didn't really understand.  She thought I was just coming up to Seoul with the director of the group.  Then it turns out her brother wanted to go with her to the Air Show as well. So unexpectedly, I was to meet him.  When we did meet, (after Annie and I scrambled around the Air Show to find each other for an hour or so) he was apparently angered by my tight hand-shake.  I met his "girlfriend", who didn't really say much either though.  Annie calls her his friend, because at the moment, he's still married.  That's just a weird situation.

I'll keep things short and not go into details about the rest of the arguing, or griping we did over the weekend at one another.  We did manage to see the movie Real Steel together.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, and she at least said it was "interesting".

I'll put some pictures on here from earlier on in the month as well.

These are pictures from the Lantern Festival in the Jinju area, as well as a few from the South Sea area.

Pains getting easier to deal with -- REVISED

. . . . . Probably because the pain's not been there as much the last few days. Then again, I just started typing and felt a flash of something.  At least I'm not going 100% at Jiu Jitsu though.  I'm learning to defend myself so much better, instead of trying to over power my opponents.  Technique is almost everything in that sport.  My instincts are getting a little better, but much room for improvement is still needed.

This weekend was definitely an interesting one as well.  The owner of the health club wants me to help teach some little ones next month.  Part of the deal is working at his Taekwondo place teaching the little ones in English as they are learning the sport.  Heck, I don't even know much about it.  It could be a fun time though. 

Annie came and visited me after a rough experience of missed buses, on Saturday.  We went with two of my coworkers to the local animal shelter.  We all walked a dog to start with.  Turns out the dog I was walking had a back problem, so I carried her the whole time.  Actually she was the one that Annie picked out, so Annie walked the scruff ball that I chose instead.  She wasn't too fond of the dog part it seemed.  Then we visited the cat part of the shelter and she had a 360degree turn around.  She was ready to even take one or two of the cats home. 

I'll continue this later. My body is telling me that it's bed time right now.

So Saturday night was finished at the local sushi restaurant that's literally a hundred yards away from my apartment.  We came home and watched Transformers 2 on the TV.  Sometimes we have good movies on TV, but most of the time they are repeats.

Sunday, we went downtown and met my friend Greer, who went to high school with me back in Memphis.  We had to straighten a phone deal out which ended up getting taken care of on Monday morning instead.  So, Annie and I went to a park and had a long talk about the future, jobs, and life.  I told her I had this crazy idea about living in Bulgaria sometime in the near future. She was somewhat accepting of it.  I said we go live there and write books about her experiences, being two foreigners together in a foreign country figure out how to live.  I think it'd be a cool thing.   She also thinks we could do great having our own academy together in Korea.  As long as she'd give me time to see my family during the year, I'd be fine with that idea.  Personally, Bulgaria would be much more exciting in my opinion.  I'm getting a little tired of Korea these days. If I didn't have her or Jiu Jitsu, I wouldn't be here.

Then we decided Annie should go back to Gongju (where I lived in the Spring), so she could fix the phone problem for me before work.  Well, as it turns out, she couldn't get a bus ticket or a train ticket for the next few hours, so she was stuck with me in Daegu.  Then I recommended that she take the KTX (fast train), instead of take a two hour Monday morning bus ride. The bus station isn't far away from the bus station where she needed to be anyway.  She finally accepted my recommendation, though she can't sleep on the trains well.    Turns out, she was very impressed with my recommendation -- "Why didn't I try this before?" Let's not answer that one! Anyway, things are good between us for now.  Maybe I can even get her to go live with my in Bulgaria.  I'm not sure what we'll do, but I'll touch some lives there somehow.

In pain again -- a little worse this time

So I'm enduring a messed up hand or wrist to type this at the moment. I messed up some tendons, maybe, through lifting weights or not "tapping out" in Jiu Jitsu early enough.  My week has been a pretty good one though.  My classes have gone really well.  We have a new teacher named Chris, who has replaced Sean, whose last day was yesterday.  Sean is from Canada and is going to spend some time in Australia after his year in Korea.  Chris comes from Stockton, California, and is a recent graduate of St. Louis University.

"Cultural Differences"
This always gets me in Korea.  So my teammate gives me a ride home last night.  We talk about hobbies, and so forth. We talk about our girlfriends and share some pictures.  Then we talk about drinking.  I explained that I don't really care to drink much.  When I do drink, I tend to favor some Korean rice wine, or just a glass or two of beer.  Well, then the conversation goes to how much can you drink.  I have some problems with this.  I've been asked this several times in the last few years -- How much can you drink? Really, I'm not in college anymore where I did have a few big nights.  The thing is Koreans don't usually practice self-control at all.  They just drink, and drink, and drink some more.  I was asked how many bottles of the rice wine, or how many bottles of beer.  I wanted to just say one or two drinks is fine with me.  I'm not looking to get cirrhosis of my liver anytime soon.

Anyway, I'm off to the gym. My thoughts are with Grandpa Tower right now, as he's recovering from some  extensive surgery at Baylor Medical Center there in Dallas. Thanks Dad for the updates!!

Bummed knees, Some Good/Bad News, and Hello Weekend

Stretching is a good thing to do!!! Stretching is an even better thing to do, when you really care to do it.  Stretching for five minutes doesn't cut it.  Stretching for ten minutes, hopefully cuts it.  I'm saying this, because that may be the reason part of my left knee is purple from my Thursday night sparring at Jiu Jitsu.  Gotta have a way to blow off steam after standing for almost seven hours straight -- with ten minute breaks every hour, but that doesn't always help.

Tonight, I then went to my usual place for some sparring with one of the guys that is a blue belt.  Well, I did much better with him on Monday night than I did tonight.  I think I tapped out about ten times, at least.  Finally, towards the end though, I got him in side control, and managed to try out a new choke on him and it really worked well.

Yeah, I lost plenty of times to my boy, but at least I got one good one in.  I'm in some great shape these days, and I'd really love to get a blue belt, but I need a different job to do that.  What I mean is, I need a job that will let me train every day for a few hours. Training two or three times a week for a grand total of five hours doesn't quite cut it, though I've made some good improvements.

Be back in the morning for more!!

Happy October

Well it's October 1st here on the other side of the world at least.  I'm sitting here wishing my girlfriend and I can actually plan things sometimes and have set times when we do plan those things.  I'm just one that like a little certainty in life and right now I don't have much of that.  The only thing certain is the Jiu Jitsu that I practice a few times a week.  Due to some rejected paperwork, my job may not be so certain in a month or so.

Anyway, I better get on a bus for Jinju soon.  I'm meeting Annie in a few hours (maybe) to go to a Lantern Festival in this little city called Jinju.

Have a nice weekend

Update

So my Grandpa had some pretty important surgery yesterday --- seems to be recovering well for now.  I think I have strep throat -- combination of too much talking when teaching, sick kids, and weather change.  One more thing, not sure how much longer I will be at my current job, due to me legal status here in this country. At least I'm not chompin' at the bit to be at work every day.  I do the job, but goodness, it's wearing me out.  I hit the repeat button every day it seems.  I thought teaching was supposed to be a challenge or at least you could do some fun things.  I guess this place has to be different though.

Good luck to my team at their Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament in Seoul today.

Here's an interesting slideshow to look at. Surprisingly, two theme parks in S. Korea are on here as well.
http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/worlds-most-visited-tourist-attractions/1

The Daily Grind

So I can't really say there is a whole lot of excitement to my days at work. I arrive there at 1:20, stack up all my books and then find out if there is a question for the day.  Some days we give tests -- orally, then the other few minutes in class are spent grading them.  Other days we do some reading, or we spend time turning the kids into robots.  Each unit in our books comes with a few questions (lower level usually get one or two).  I seriously spend three days working on these questions.  Seriously all I feel I can do is teach the kids to memorize.  There are some times when I can help with pronunciation.  The classes begin at 2:20, and they last for thirty minutes a piece.  10-15 minutes is spent teaching the question or doing a reading activity (probably one done two or three days in a row).  Then the other 15-20 minutes is spent doing a game that reviews the questions.  Games usually should be fun, but we still have to keep the kids quiet at all times, or the Korean teacher that is in the room will usually yell at them.

So, every hour we get ten minute breaks.  Then at 8pm, we have a fifteen minute break for our two night classes.  My Monday nights end at 8.  Tuesdays, I have a break from 8 - 9:10, then I teach a night class from 9:10-10pm.  Those classes aren't as boring and I actually feel like I make a difference.  Wednesdays, I do both night classes 8:15- 9:05, 9:10-10.  Thursdays and Fridays, I do a night class from 8:15-9:05, and that's it.

I'll do my best to post a few more times this week.  It's 11:55 pm, and I'm heading to sleep.

Long Time No See

. . . . At least it seems that way here.  I hardly ever go a week without updates, but lately that's been the case.  It's 11:19 am on Tuesday, the 13th of September.  Yesterday was known as Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving holiday. It also has something to do with the eighth full moon of the year on the Lunar Calendar.  I kind of feel like I've done nothing but sleep during this holiday.

Let's start with Friday night.  After a long week of being repetitive (what this new job requires =( ), I had dinner with the ladies from work, Courtney, and Brittany.  Trace, Courtney's fiance joined us as well for a fun meal at one of the restaurants near our apartments. I declined an invitation after wards to go downtown, and instead took on a little project with my washing machine.

Ever since I had moved in to the apartment, the washing machine hose had been leaking whenever I turned the washer on.  So, I decided to take the hose apart and fix it. . . . and the one tool I had to rely on was a kitchen knife. The stupidity on my part was that I wasn't paying attention the whole time, and didn't put the pieces back the way they were supposed to go.  After taking a long break, I finally got the darn thing fixed at 2:15 in the morning, so I was able to finish the small load I had been working on.

Saturday morning, I sluggishly woke up to get to the bus station and travel to where Annie lives.  That was a little bit of a task being that it was a holiday weekend.  There was a ton of people traveling on Saturday at least, but traffic flowed pretty consistently. I arrived in Gongju (where I used to live) about 12:55pm (traffic slowed us down by about 15 minutes).  Annie and I some kind of full course meal for lunch which was alright.  It was raw fish, but not raw fish at its best.

We finished our lunch and took a 40 minute bus ride to a Buddhist temple.  Usually Buddhist temples are pretty cool sites to see in South Korea.  On this day, not so much.  It was raining off and on, and then the rain would get heavy at times.  The scenery around this place wasn't much to see, but it was quality time together.

The only downfall of not having my own transportation in this country is sometimes you have to wait for a bus, and sometimes that bus may not come for an hour (according to its schedule).  So we waited and waited and the bus arrived to take us back in town about an hour after we were finished with our tour of the Magoksa.  Sorry, but I didn't even get any pictures -- I'm kind of burned out by the similarities with most of the places -- though there are a few good ones, that I may have to revisit.

I'll return to finish this soon!!!  Soon shouldn't mean a week later, but that's the way it goes sometimes.  That weekend went over well, since last week we celebrated Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving).  I celebrated with my Korean family and watched the Ancestral Rites, something that I had seen previously during the Lunar New Year holiday.  I didn't feast like I normally do, but I enjoyed being around the Korean family (big and small people).

A Dead Person's Email Address

Really?? Now I find out that my school gave me a dead person's email address to use for a reference email before I came back to South Korea.  It really sucks that teachers at this school train kids to talk like robots as well.  At least this place will be helping me get a visa.  Then I'll give them 45 days notice or whatever, and actually find a decent job, or hope that Canadian place that all the Koreans want me to work for will be hiring again soon.

I need a melatonin and some sleep now.

Seriously???

The girl who I replaced left a folder in the apartment where I am now living.  It contains her birth certificate, social security card, copies of her passport, and diploma too.  First of all, one doesn't need their social security or birth certificate to teach in Korea (just a bunch of other stuff).  I would not have found this stuff, had Brittany (one of my co-workers) not been over here picking out books from what was left behind.  Anyway, this girl left all kinds of stuff behind to say the least.  There are a few boxes of clothes, plenty of shampoo and conditioner to last me a few months, laundry detergent, and numerous other things as well.

I was going to be meeting Miss Annie's parents for this coming Korean Thanksgiving holiday (Sep. 11-13), but it seems that her mom and dad are now taking a trip to some island instead.  So I have a few days off, after only being back at work for ten, which is fine with me .

Happy Labor Day back home folks.

One of the coolest parts about teaching

. . . . naming the kids.

What I mean is, sometimes you have kids in your class that do not have English names. So what happens when you have this occurrence? Well, you get to name the kids yourself.  One of my new co-workers, Sean, named one of his students Conway, as in Mr. Twitty.  I've named some Rhett, and Scarlett.  There have been some family names such as Scarlett, Michael, Nora, and Anna. Others I have named good after friends like Tim, or Jeff, or even Hollywood stars, such as Leo, or Keira (Miss Knightley).  I may have even named a few after country singers, like Garth, or Willie.  I do recall having a Tony, Dale, and Richard, in one of my classes also.

I'll keep you all posted if I get to name some kids sometime soon.  The best I could think of yesterday was an Alvin (like Alvin and the Chipmunks).

Have a good Friday.

So many stories

. . . . but, we'll have to do them post by post, and probably not finish them today, since I am at the family's house in another part of town.  I am living in a motel for a few days, and there isn't even any internet there.  Tomorrow though, I will move into my apartment at 9:30 am.

 Observation Day
Yesterday, (Tuesday), was observation day for me.  Well, half of it was at least observation day. Every other class I observed one of two teacher, and the other classes I taught, while being observed. Let's just say that all that hard work I put into getting a teaching certificate through a tough online course, will not be used so much this year.  I was totally confused and a little uninformed when I was trying to prepare at first for the classes yesterday. The Korean teacher that helps us plan the days, decided to tell the manager I had a poor attitude, and that I was doing other things instead of planning for the classes. Sadly enough, I was informed by this same lady to take in the observations and after watching them I could plan better.

Today the manager told me how unprofessional I was, though she lets her foreign employees wear t-shirts and shorts to work.  That's one thing I will never do, unless it is at a camp job.  If I'm passionate about something, you bet that I am going to be professional.  One teacher that observed me said that I had no control of the students and that I was not able to keep them quiet.  What the heck lady? That's one thing that my girlfriend really liked about me when we worked together, was how I commanded respect from the students.  Then again when you bring a lot of energy into a classroom, the students need to be loud, and excited (according to my energy levels they should!!).

I am sitting in the house right now, waiting for Little Sis (as I call her), to come home so we can have a family dinner, before my official first day of work tomorrow.  My school is  a good thirty minutes (by subway) from where I used to live in this city. I have already had a wonderful Korean style home cooked meal this morning.  This afternoon I worked out at my old fitness club, where the owner's daughter told me to just come and go as I please without paying.

2011 IAAF World Championships
This week is a very big week for this city.  Daegu is hosting the World Track and Field Championships this year.  Besides the World Cup back in 2002, it's probably the biggest event ever held in this city.  It's great to see all the people here taking in the culture, and supporting their respective countries as well. One of my friends has been an interpreter for the Jamaican track and field team. She said Usain Bolt (World's fastest man, so they say), is a very selfish and arrogant man.  He was even DQ'ed from his event, due to a false start. Another Jamaican ended up winning and Sue said he's a very friendly fellow.

I'll add a few more things sometime tomorrow. I miss my little lady, and my old job a little bit too.  I'll just walk into work tomorrow energized, with a big grin, just raring to go.  As I like to say "kill 'em with kindness". 

One Reason

My hometown is problems with racism -- Certain people wreaking of booze at a gas station on a Sunday morning, praising the LORD with lies about having no gasoline in their vehicles (that don't exist), with kids, and the wife, and an uncle (that all don't exist), begging you for money.  Sure I watched part a movie called The Grace Card yesterday with my boy Jeff and his mom.  Still, I sometimes can't help but develop certain opinions about people after my morning starts like that.  Anyway, I have to quit my bitchin' and get in a first class seat in a few minutes.  The joys of flying so many times in one year with Delta and their friends.  Sky Priority here fools. See ya on the other side of the world. 

Back to that place called Daegu

So my girlfriend doesn't even know that I am getting on a plane tomorrow morning to head back to Korea.  All she knows is that next weekend, she might be seeing me.  Well, I arrive in Seoul on Monday afternoon, and then take a bus to Daegu from the airport.  Tuesday, I have observations (not cool).Wednesday, I have a full day to play, and then Thursday it's back to work again, only to find that Friday means the weekend.  At least I am coming back with a few holidays coming up in the next five weeks.

Anyway, I'll update this a little more in the next 10 hours or so.

Hello from Dallas

Yeah, Summer time has made me a slacker right now.  It's 12:17 am, but I'm rockin' with some CSI NY for now at Grandpa's place.  I've been nervously playing online for the last few hours because I've had some issues with paperwork that controls me getting back to my woman (and getting another job).  Now, I know where the paperwork is headed, so I am much more content.

Now, last week I finished Summer Camp at Hyundai, and I was a little sad to leave. I really bonded well with a bunch of the kids there.  I even owe at least one of them a visit when I return, and I need to respond to an email that one of the girls sent me as well. The email started with "Hi John Teacher, how do you do?". That was from Heather who was definitely my smartest kid for week four.

Grandpa celebrated birthday number 99 this past weekend.  I was pretty excited to come back here and celebrate.  Grandpa has taught me a lot about being a gentleman.  I may not be a great gentleman as he is, but I do my best to at least bring smiles to people's lives daily. I'll leave here tomorrow, and meet up with my dad in Little Rock, and then come back to Memphis for a short time -- hopefully for a short time.  

Family Camp (from Aug 6th and 7th)

just a few pictures from Family Camp with the Young Falcons -- just the elementary ages kids, which was super fun.

                                        Sunday morning -- making breakfast, known as kimbap

                                 Eating a wonderful dinner -- Samgyetang - traditional summer meal

                   The kids were practicing their English and I was guessing the words in Korean

                                          Brother Kim Sang Moon in the orange shirt

                                              Making breakfast once again here

Awesome weekend

Though I was too tired to enjoy part of it on an island that I'd never heard of before last week.  I will fill in the details later, but I haven't checked in on this thing for a while.  Tomorrow starts the last week of camp though.  Annie sort of overcame her fear of deep water as well. We ate one of my favorite Korean dishes, with some octopus thrown in there was well.

A little too tired to type much more, so I'll sign back on later and fill you all on in details soon.

A few pictures from camp (week 2 at least)

                                            Some of my boys doing some work last week

                                           getting ready to shop at the "flea market"

                                             the Korean staff checking things out

                                           Some of my fellow coworkers

                                            A few of the other Koreans that I work with

                                            My beautiful group