New look, Same old Blog

I have never been the type of person to be content with the mundanity of the status quo. Erego, I have decided to bring you a fresh outlook when perusing this testimonial. You see, I have grown tired of the predictability of the background of my Korean diary. Now I am not going to promise a dazzling array of templates so as to keep one guessing each and every time one decides to enter my verbal labrythin, but I experienced a desire to alter it today.

I think I have used up about 85% of my pretentious vocabulary so I will put it into plain terminology. I got bored and changed my background today. I know, it doesn't make for the most exciting blog entry...but I've really got nothing else at this point. I had a really tame week, so changing the background on my blogspot is one of the more exciting things I did this week.

I did however go to a professional women's basketball game last night. My Korean friend ,who I met through my friend Paul back home, is the interpreter for the American player on the team and she got me 12 free tickets for the game. I was only able to round up 6 friends to come and watch the game with me, but it was actually pretty fun. The other team had their own cheering sections and at times during the game it seemed that the fans were more interestded in the chants than in the actual game. Oh, and they had these 12 year-old girls dancing in these really skimpy outfits. It's good to see that koreans like sexually exploiting their teenage girls as much as we do. All in all it was good times.

P.S. I tried to put a picture on my profile, but couldn't figure it out. So Iwill start adding pictures to each blog that I can

Happy New Year

As some of may very well know, it is the Lunar New Year's in Korea. Some of you may also know it as Chinese New Year. It just so happens to be the Year of the Pig, so I think all of us fat foreigners over here should rejoice in our people getting a whole year dedicated to us. Koreans don't celebrate New Year's quite the same way we do! We rang in the new year at one of our favorite little watering holes and did the countdown and everything, and we were the only people in the place. Apparently, Koreans celebrate the new year at home with...their family. Weird!

Another crazy Koreanism is that the holiday is always 3 days long, but this year the holiday fell on a Saturday, Sunday, Monday. You would think that the government would give the Thursday and Friday off, but Koreans ( myself included ) only received Monday off. So John and I had originally decided to go to Beijing this long weekend, but the tours were all sold out. I guess there was something going on there this weekend. Well, we didn't want to waste our lengthy holiday so we decided to just pick a random Korean city and just go...no plans made. We decided on the one big city we had both never been to and ended up taking a little trip to Daejon yesterday.

We took the bus to Daejon and got off at around 3pm. The first place we were told to go and check out was the Expo Park. Apparently Daejon was awarde the Expo in 1993. Well, it was a huge call and turned out to be one of the coolest days I've had in Korea thus far! We took a cab to the park and the first thing we saw was a huge square with people doing all sorts of activities. The first thing that caught my eye: a bunch of people roller-blading. We decided to rent a pair for an hour. It turned out to be the most facilitating of sight-seeing decision I've ever made. We got to see the whole park in about an hour and a half when it would have taken us a whole day on foot.

We saw the Expo observation tower (and went up of course), an amusement park, a science expo, a couple of ampitheatres and some crazy Koreans figure skating on roller blades. It was an amazing sight-seeing. We then walked downtown and it was like a ghost town. Not many Koreans and we did not see one foreigner all day. Since my first couple of weeks in Daegu, I think this was the first time I had gone a whole day without seeing other foreigners.

Anyways, I came back to Cheonan and celebrated New Year's night with a bunch of 22 year old teachers that I had never met before at the night club outside of my apartment. All in all, a great New Year's holiday. To be honest though, I'll take our New Year's celebrations any day!

The Hump-ty Dance

Well, I have now officially surpassed the 6 month period of my stay here in South Korea. With more than half of my contract completed, I started thinking about the first 6 months I have been here and all of the ups and downs I have been through. While I must admit that there have been plenty more ups than downs, there have been trying times to go along with my times of elation. In order to facilitate your understanding of how the first 6 months have treated me, I will supply you with a Good Times and a Bad Times list and you can decide for yourself if i am having the time of my life or not. Well...here it goes:

Good Times

• My trip to Osaka, Japan to get my Visa. It was fantastic, but ultimately too short (1 day and 1 night).
• Haeinse temple in Daegu. The directors of the school I worked at there took me and it was a slice of culture heaven.
• My first trip to Busan on Korean Thanksgiving. The beach, a monster hotel room, and Wndball Extreme 2006. Need I say more?
• Many drunken nights in Seoul. Espescially the night we got a hotel room on Hooker Hil. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like.
• Going to TaeJo San to see the 60 foot Buddha with Jaime and Kelly. It just happens to be on a mountain by my work.
• My trip to Thailand. I'm sorry it's still too early to re-open the wound that I had to actually leave heaven after haven tasted it.
• Bowling on Mondays, Pool on Wednesdays, Poker on Fridays. Although they sometimes get redundant, they really give me a sense of normality in a strange country.
• My second trip to Busan. Hanging out with Erin again, House Party 2007, seeing the whole city of Busan from the top of a mountain, and the beach again. I can't wait to live there!
• Just hanging around with people that would probably be my best of friends back home. Our little group does have its little squabbles, but we tight.
• Hanging out with John. He's turned out to be a pretty good roommate. Just more proof that you don't have to know people well to know if they're good peeps.
• My kids that I teach. They are really starting to surprise me and grow on me. They're such cute little buggers too.

Bad Times

• The first week I spent in Daegu. I didn't know any Korean, I didn't know any foreigners, and I lived in a tiny box of an apartment. That was definitely the make-it or break-it era.
• Being sick for 80% of the time I've been in Korea. I just can't seem to shake it!
• How cold my apartment is (see above statement). It costs an arm and a leg to heat the floors and our heaters keep burning out.
• When John was in the hospital with pneumonia. That was pretty scary and shitty for John.
• Seeing really good friends leave and having to say goodbye. Definitely the hardest part of this gig. I have 3 really good friends leaving in the next month and a half.

So as you can see, the good times definitely outweigh the bad times. Of course, this is not taking into account how much I miss my awesome friends and family back home. Oh well, at least I know that I'm over the six month hump and I'll be seeing y'all soon enough.

Birth Day in Korea

So I just spent my first birthday away from my friends and family here in Korea. Although it could never be as good as it would have been back home, I actually had a really good time with my Cheonan friends.

The day started off really early as I had a 7am class to teach a half an hour away from my apartment...Ouch! I taught the class (6 businessmen that work at an automotive plant) and then headed back home. I got to work and was immediately greeted by my kindergarten students who wished me a happy birthday and gave me presents. Hells Yeah! I got 2 pairs of socks, a Kelly Hrudey-esque bandana, and some face towels. Then at lunch I had a pizza party with my students. After lunch I got a birthday cake and song from the Korean teachers at my school.

In the afternoon I got more presents and another cake from my elementary students. I never thought I could have too much cake but its possible I did that day. After work I went out for Sam-Yup-Sal (barbecued back bacon) and some Soju (IE> Death Juice) and beer. After that I went to Outback Steakhouse with about 10 loyal and awesome friends from Cheonan. We followed that up with a trip to MBar for some more beer and Soju.

All in all, it was about as good as a birthday can get when the best of friends are a million miles away. It also helped that so many people from back home sent me birthday wishes via email and Skype. I don't care what some people say, it is always nice when people make a fuss over your birthday. I guess now I have to wait a whole nother year for my next birthday...

Technical difficulties

I am sorry for the delay between blogs; I am obviously not a mental giant when it comes to computers. While trying to insert an entry about some cool things that have happened recently, my account told me that I have to create a google account to update my blog. Long story short, I couldn't figure out how to get to the bottom of the signup page on account of there was no scroll bar. That is until my coworker showed me the marvellous world of the TAB button.

So, what we are left with is a new and improved blogspot with all sorts of new functions, that I have no idea how to access. Therefore, I may go days and days without blogging due to my lack of desire to spend 5-10 minutes trying to access my posting page.

But since I'm in I think I will tell you about one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life! I was in Busan this weekend visiting my friend Erin, and we decided to go see the oldest fortress in Korea. When we got to the fortress (after a very sketchy bus ride up the mountain; this driver was driving as if he got paid by the scream) we found out that it was pretty much some stairs and a gate. We decided since we at least survived the death ride up, we should at least hike up the mountain. Well we got to a high point and carrumed off past a roped off area. What a huge decision that was! We got up to the top where there were these massive rocks and when we climbed on top of them we could see all of Busan. That is no small feat let me tell you, Busan is HUGE! It looked as if we were staring at a huge Lego Town there were so many huge buildings.

Anyway, it was cool and I hope I get the opportunity to share cool moments like that with you on a regular basis. It all depends on if I can figure out this whole computer dealie.

Ronnie