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.