Busan - Southern South Korea

This weekend, I took a trip to Busan with Sarah, another teacher, and Steven, the school-director. The purpose of our being there was to attend a festival, promoting the new Global Education Center which will be opening its doors in Busan in September 2009. This, of course, was pretty awesome, since I got a free trip, free accomodations, and even got paid for a day.

We left on Saturday, at 1:40 in the afternoon, from Gimpo International Airport - about a half an hour bus ride from the school. I had one tiny problem at the airport - I forgot to leave my swiss-army-knife keychain at home. As soon as they found my 'knife', I was told to follow a guard. I thought I might be in some un-fun crap for a few minutes, but as it turns out, she was just going to a counter to put it into a bag, and to check it with the regular baggage. I have a feeling that had I done that in the US, I would've been detained for a few hours.

Busan is about 45 minutes/1 hour away by plane. I'd say it's the equivalent of a plane ride from Ottawa to Toronto.. Except instead of going South into a province, we just happened to fly accross the entire country. Upon landing, the only thing that surrounds you are mountains and mountains - it's a very beautiful city. We didn't actually have to do any work on Saturday, so Steven offered to take us to two places, for sightseeing: the first being Taejongdae, the southern-most point of the City, which has a lighthouse and a spectacular view of the ocean, and the second being a local beach.

Taejongdae was very cool - We walked halfway around the mountain, until we reached stairs that reached downards to the lighthouse. Way, way down. I've never been tired from going down some stairs before. It was worth it though. As you can see pictured below, the view made up for it.













As for the beach, by the time we reached it, it was (unfortunately) night-time - very picture unfriendly. The only worthwhile picture that was taken was myself with this giant Cigarette. We stayed there for a short while, before searching for a place to eat. A small distance from the beach was a high-class Turkish restaurant. The food was a very good balance between Western-Tastiness and Eastern-Spiceyness. We then made our way to a Motel which was near the place where we'd be working on Sunday. Now, when I heard 'Motel', I have to admit that I thought the standard would be pretty low.. But as Motels go, this one was pretty awesome. King-Sized bed, regular-sized Shower and Bathroom, a TV, and a computer in the room to boot. Not to forget the complimentary packet of Coffee, Tea, toothbrush, and (for whatever reason) a condom.

After lazying around for an hour or so, myself and Sarah went to venture a bit around Busan, and found a decent place to have a few drinks. Steven, as it turns out, had already left way ahead of us to go drinking - that's one thing I don't think i've mentioned yet.. Drinking in Korea has absolutely no stigma. You'll see people drinking in the streets, getting drunk in groups, and it's all okay. When we asked Steven what had happened to him when we looked for him, he freely admitted he went and got drunk off Soju with some other people from the company. And it's really not uncommon for people to do that. My adult students have all told me that either they themselves get drunk with co-workers regularly, or don't enjoy dealing with their spouse when they come back drunk. It's quite a culture, I tell ya.

On Sunday morning, we left the Motel at 9ish to go to the festival. The work, to be honest, was fairly easy and pretty fun. Me and Sarah manned (and womanned) a booth, where we essentially acted as Teachers would. I quizzed questions to countless kids in English, while Sarah either quizzed kids as well, or told them stories in a larger group. Two of the kids I met today were absolutely impressive - almost fluent in English. While I was asking questions like 'What's your favourite color?' and 'What's your favourite Sport?', I never expected anything more than a one-word answer. Then, a kid who couldn't have been older than 10, replies 'Well, I don't really enjoy sports, but if I had to pick one I would have to say that Badminton is my favourite'. She then told me she wants to be an interpreter when she grows up - I think she could probably start tomorrow.

We took a plane back to Gimpo at 6:00, and landed right before 7:00. All in all, it was a fun trip, and a pretty awesome weekend - and it didn't cost me a thing.

Life is good.

The Neverending Celebration of Me

My 3rd (and most likely final) birthday party celebration happened tonight, as expected. This was the GEC-staff celebration of all the staff birthdays occuring this month. You'd really think that in a place of 35+ people, I wouldn't be the only September baby.

Ah well.

We went to a Galbi (Korean BBQ) restaurant, and about 20 people came out... half of whom had already celebrated my birthday in one way or another. Galbi, of course, is where they give you the raw meat - pork, in this case - and the grill is inside your table. Add a little garlic, some light-tasting soya sauce, and mmm.. that's good. The correct way (or one of many correct ways) of eating it is to wrap it in a lettuce leaf, and add whatever other add-ons you want. I'm starting to be a big fan of Kimchi, so I made sure to add adequate portions of it.

Following the meal, Abigail (the Korean head teacher) had me pick five pieces of paper from a box. On each one, people had pledged 'Gifts' that I could use, should I pick their paper. The first two happened to be 'You get to (take me for a walk/have a conversation with me) after buying me (coffee/dinner)'! haha. Another was a coupon to 'Crush my hopes and dreams at ever winning at Mario Kart again', which of course is a damn lie - I don't lose. The last two were actual nice acts, such as buying me coffee, and giving me a ride from the school to Won Dong, our immediately-close neighbourhood.

Afterwards, I cut the cake we got at Paris Baguette, the local bakery. It was pretty great. Finally, the owner of the Galbi restaurant brought over two bottles of Bamboo Soju (that's what I heard it was, anyway).. Regular Soju is a really, really potent vodka-type of drink. This Soju actually had a decent smell - pears. I'd like to say it tasted like Pears too, but hey, Soju ain't a cooler.

With all of that said, it's been a good week. The last adult class of the month was today - they're off next week. My adults, the same ones that took me out for my birthday, bought yet another lunch yesterday. They ordered Pizza and Kimbap so that we could eat it after class, and converse a bit more. While these guys are just an Intro-leveled class, I really really enjoy teaching them four days a week. They've all made some great progress so far - they were barely at 'Hello' when they started.

The way Adult classes work, they register per-month, so I had to hand out a survey to my adult classes asking if they'd be re-registering next month. I went 9 for 9 for that class, so that's a good sign. With my second adult class, which occurs tuesdays and thursday nights, I went 3 for 4 - and that 4th guy never came after the first class anyway. If there's such a thing as a re-register-batting-average, hopefully i'm in the top-tier.

It's a bit past midnight, and we have Kindies once again tomorrow morning, so I need my rest. Hope everyone's doing well - and thanks to all of those who've taken the time to contact me. It's sincerely appreciated.

The Banner Ceremony

After a month's worth of trying, I finally managed to get my Senators blanket/banner up on the darned wall. For all the architects out there, please, for me - don't build room walls with concrete. To get around the no-pinning-in-the-wall, I found these cool stick-on hooks that do the job well.


It's starting to feel a bit more like home.

The week has gone pretty well, so far. I had my Teacher's Evaluation on Monday (where a member of Management sits in to one of your classes, and rates the quality of your teaching). Overall, it went great - Kids were mannered, and the lesson went smoothly - except for half-way through, when my computer decided to reset for no reason - glad to know Murphy's Law is applicable on all sides of the globe.

I'm not one to stress very easily, but I really wasn't looking forward to being evaluated. Just the idea of someone sitting-in on you, being a judge when any number of things beyond your control could happen.. I s'pose I like to be in complete control, when it comes to being judged. But as I said - it went well. So it's smooth-sailing ahead.

With the help of my Korean co-teacher yesterday, I also went out and joined a gym. It's about a 10 minute walk away, and I was fairly impressed with it. No one actually speaks english, but that's alright - I was never big on holding a conversation while sweating. When you get in, you hand them your gym-card, and they give you a locker-key and a towel. It seems clean, not very busy, and has a pretty decent amount of machines/activities to chose from - and it's only 40$ a month.

So here's hoping I can finally get in some good habits while i'm down here. I'm going to cut this short, as people are waiting for me to kick their asses at Mario Kart in the lobby.

Anyuong haseyo

The Weekend Blues

Contrary to appearances in the photos i've posted, I have more than one shirt.

The weekend has been a bit slow, once again, but it's probably a good thing to be able to spend some time to relax before next weekend's flight to Busan.

Friday ended up being a fairly long day. As I mentioned previously, we had kindergarden kids in the morning - although it was only for an hour an a half. I was tasked, with another teacher, to take charge of the Science room. We had to teach them the wonders of volcano-eruptions with the help of Vinegar and Baking Soda. I even added in some red colorant there to make it look more lava-like. I believe they took away two things from our lesson:
1- It's cool to play with volcanoes, and
2- Vinegar and Baking Soda really smell bad (though I wouldn't be surprised if they told their friends that lava smells bad)

Afterwards, all of the teaching staff (foreign and korean) were taken out to lunch at a nearby Korean restaurant by management. We ate a variation of a soup called 'Shabu Shabu' that cooks at the table, with a plethora of side-dishes ranging from Kimchi to Crab. They even bought everyone the alcohol of their choice, between Mekju (Beer) and Soju. If there's one thing to take away from this, it's that the staff is treated very, very well. And it makes sense; heck, if someone feeds me and buys me beer, it's a recipe for me to like you. Yes, i'm easy.

Later during the day, we had a couple of hours of training, followed by the 'GEC Olympics' - a series of sporting events with the idea being to promote bonding in between all teachers. Out of 16 or 17 foreign teachers, there are about 10 of us that are new, so it helps everyone get to know each other. From what i've seen, Korea does have a very team-first mentality. I like that.

Last night, Saturday, a few of us went to a restaurant called a 'Chicken Hof'. It's a place to eat chicken and drink beer (which is pictured above). All that was missing was my hockey game (Go Sens! 3-2 win!). The person beside me is Ivy, a Korean teacher. Ivy isn't her actual name, though - it's her english name. Most adults and kids who have studied English and gone abroad usually have an English name that they go by, since their regular names are a little hard to remember and pronounce correctly. They pick that name themselves, sometimes at a young age, so it's not unusual to hear a name that may sound a little strange. I've heard of some Yoshis, Marios and Luigis (see a pattern?). My co-teacher's english name is Shine. Again, a bit strange at first, but after addressing someone for several weeks, you really don't think much about the meaning behind the name.

After the chicken hof, we all went to noraebang once again. Third trip's the charm - I finally brought my camera along. Because of the flash, you can't quite see what's written on the screen, but you get a fairly good idea of the setup. Two TV screens on the side, and the one big screen in the middle. They also have some kind of 'echo' sound effect when you're singing in the microphone, which might make you think you sound better than you actually are (which it sure does, for me.)

My camera is able to capture videos, and capture a video it did. A terribly embarassing rendition of Weezer's Buddy Holly being performed by 5 dancing-hooligans who had a wee-bit too much beer. Where can you find a copy of this video you say?

Nowhere. I'll make sure that the footage never sees the light of day.

Looking to the week ahead, it should be an interesting one. Teacher evaluations begin on Monday, so i'm a little bit nervous - but I think i'll be alright. Hope everyone has a good week back at home.. Enjoy the season premiere of Boston Legal tomorrow. One more week until Dexter 'officially' hits the airwaves. For those of us who don't wait for things to be official, i'd just like to add that the Season Premiere was excellent.

Have a good one.
(Go Sens)

Big Ball Bowling

Not a terrible lot to report; I have another week of teaching under my belt. That is, if you consider three days to be a week (which, for those who are keeping track, I do). Of course, with Monday being the Chuseok holiday, I only had classes Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so it was a very pleasant week. I really, really love my Tuesday-Thursday classes. The Monday-Wednesday classes are also good, aside from one class of kids.

If you're wondering why i'm not including Friday, it's because Friday is never really work anyway. Sure, we still go in, and sure, we still get paid. But once every couple of weeks, we have a Kindergarden class that comes in and stays for about an hour and a half - the rest of the day is either spent in preparation, training, or in some kind of staff-bonding activity. Tomorrow happens to be one of those days - Kindies from 11 to 12:30, then the afternoon spent in some sort of team-competition.

The odd week, we have what's called 'Hello GEC' - Basically, since our private school is partially funded by the government (subsidizing tuition so that poorer families can attend), the government also has us set up activity-days in different elementary schools throughout Incheon. But again, it's not reaaaallly work.. Unless you consider doing face painting, ring toss, or dizzy-races to be work.

Anyway, this week was fairly quiet. On tuesday night, the foreign teachers went to Gimpo (a town about 15 minutes away) to play some Bowwwwling. The kind with the big balls - and the kind i've never actually done before. In a way, I find it's a little easier to predict where your ball's going to land, because the heavy weight centers gravity a lot better. And yes, I know that big-ball-bowling isn't entirely foreign, since it's freely available everywhere, but still; it was a new experience. And it was fun. I didn't do terribly well, but I somehow finished first in my team with a whopping 82 points.. although I think everyone was in the same boat as I was. I've just played too much Wii Bowling to entirely suck at it.

The bowling kind of reminded me of the last session of Wii Bowling I had, with my Grand-Maman. This was about 3 or 4 months ago. Maaaan, did she ever kick my ass. After playing all of three times, she was getting scores of 230-240. She was chuckling some well-deserved laughs at me. It's funny how the oddest things'll remind you of the people you love.

Wednesday night, myself and a few other teachers went to a Japanese restaurant. I ate a combination of things that resembled curry, but wasn't quite liquid enough to fit the bill. Still good, though. I'm really enjoying tasting not only Korean food, but all types of asian dishes. It all tastes so genuine. It's not difficult one bit to notice the differences between Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and even Thai food. I don't think I could've ever made that distinction back at home.

So aside from that, tonight was supposed to be a night out - in honour of me. See, once a month, the GEC gets together and celebrates all of the birthdays for the month. All the teachers (foreign and Korean) go out to dinner, everyone pitches in for a gift and for the meal, and the people celebrating a birthday get, well.. a meal and a gift. Except that i'm the only teacher who has a birthday in September. I'm not exactly fond of the limelight, what with me only having been here a month and all, but it's a nice gesture. Anyway, as I was saying it was supposed to be tonight - though the Korean head teacher forgot to remind the Korean teachers about it. No big deal; it's been postponed to next thursday. It at least gives me a break to update everyone on what i've been up to, and to practice that guitar a bit more. I'm really enjoying it so far - and i've managed to find a bit of time to practice every day. Switching chords with any sort of speed is still tricky, but i'm gettin' faster.

So, on that note, I hope everyone has a good week. Enjoy all of those Season Premieres (Ahh, Boston Legal & Dexter, how I miss thee), the beginning of training camp for the Sens (which began a couple of days ago) and the first exhibition game on Saturday! (vs NY).

Cheers

Life is Hard (As a giant Soccer Ball)

Due to a recent shortage of Giants, the gigantic metallic soccer-ball industry has had a few setbacks. I saw this today while I was out, taking a walk. It's been a pretty uneventful weekend so far, and there's really nothing to be done today, since Public Transportation is on a majorly reduced schedule due to Chuseok.

I went to Seoul on Friday night for some light drinking, and back again yesterday to take a teacher to a place called I-Park Mall. It's a gigantic, 9 storey mall that's centered around Electronics - there are literally seas and seas of Cameras, Laptops, Computer Parts, and yes, Video Games. Geek Heaven, really. But no, I didn't indulge in the electronic-goodies (even if I was tempted.)

Instead, I picked myself up a cheap learner's Guitar. I've always wanted to learn, and since i've got the free time, I might as well put it to good use. So far, I play a mean G-Major Chord (no autographs, no autographs). Obviously, it'll take awhile for me to actually get any good at it, but hey. I've got the time - it just remains to be seen if I have the patience. We'll see.

Tomorrow will mark 4 weeks since i've left Canada. Time really does fly. I'm still happy with my decision to leave the country for a while. Adjusting to life as a foreigner is strange, fun, and challenging at the same time. I get to experience new things almost daily, and I kind of feel like i've been brought back to childhood.

At first, I couldn't get around without having someone else with me. Then, finally, the 'big day' came where I took the Bus by myself. The same thing happened with the Subway system. I have to learn how to talk again, how to read, what maneurisms are acceptable and which ones aren't. I also get to taste new things - some which I hate, some which I love, and some in between.

For example, take Canned Coffee. It's cold coffee, served in a can. You can buy it like Pop. And as strange as the concept of drinking cold-coffee seems from someone living in Tim Horton's nation, it tastes really, really great. I never drank coffee at home, but this stuff is awesome. Another example of something great you'll probably never see in Canada? Carbonated Milk. Again, you drink it like pop - It's milk, with fizz (and sugar) added to it. As disgusting as the concept sounds, it's really one of those things that you have to taste to appreciate.

One thing I will say, though, is that I miss the taste of real cheese. Cheese is hard to find, and when you find it, it's expensive as all hell. I've resorted to buying myself some Cream Cheese and spreading it on bread to get my fix. Overall though, I can't complain. It's much easier to eat healthy here - not only is the food more nutritious, but the portions they come in are smaller. You won't find a 2L bottle of coke here; the biggest size is 1.5L.

Although strangely, you can buy a 2L bottle of beer. Beer and Soju are very, very cheap sources of alcohol - so that's one thing you definitely have to be careful with in regards to preserving your liver. I'm not drinking excessively myself, though.. What's the point of a once-in-a-lifetime adventure if you can't remember large chunks of it? Heh.

Stay safe.

Alex Day in Korea - Birthtacular Edition

On September 9th, I celebrated my 23rd birthday. Truth be told, from the very beginning of the day, I started feeling very far away. It's my first Birthday away from Ottawa, so I did miss the people who I usually see 'round this time of year.

Still though, that didn't keep me from having fun. In the morning, after I had done teaching my Adult class, one of the teachers (who knew it was my birthday) caught up with my students and told them 'You know this man? It's his birthday today!', to which I heard many 'Ahhhh', 'ohhhhh', and 'Happy Birthdays'.. Followed by an invitation by all of the students to have lunch with them. Since i'd already made plans with the other teachers to go have lunch, and since many of them would be missing on Wednesday, we scheduled a lunch on Thursday.

In the evening, about 10 people came out for a birthday supper, which consisted of Korean Barbecue (Pork, this time around), followed by some good 'ol-fashioned Karaoke. As I said before, the Karaoke here (noraebang) consists of private singing rooms, so you get to sing/dance quite a bit (and if I remember my science classes, this promotes the Drinking process.) I had the chance to sing things ranging from My Way (Frank Sinatra) to Under the Sea (The Little Mermaid!), with some Weezer and Radiohead songs in between (Buddy Holly and Fake Plastic Trees - ahh). My voice was a bit exhausted come morning time, but at least the extra sleep - and recovery time - is one of the bonuses of starting work at 11am.

The following day, my adults asked me if tomorrow (Thursday) we could start class half an hour early, so that we'd have more time for lunch. I figured that was a good idea, so I agreed. Along with the quadrillion late Birthday wishes from Facebook (It was still the 9th in Ottawa, i'll admit), I got a really awesome birthday package from my mom. It included some nice clothes, a tie, socks, and a great birthday card that had recorded most of my family singing happy birthday to me. It really made me smile (thanks again!).

Thursday came along, and my students took me out to a chinese restaurant - they'd even made a reservation for all of us (9 altogether). But hey, surprise! Not only did they buy me Lunch, they also bought me some gifts - a very nice Pastel painting, an awesome birthday cake (remnants pictured above), and some 'Green-tea Aroma' socks - for man 'luxary'! The food was great, and it felt pretty cool to be appreciated like that by people who you've barely known for three weeks.

So at this point, i'm already having a pretty awesome day. Then, after a meeting (which was right after lunch), i'm asked by Kay, the HR manager, if i'd be interested in working in a couple of weeks during a weekend again. They're opening a new GEC in a town called Busan, in southern Korea. Now, Busan is (from what I hear) a very beautiful town - a place that i'll want to go visit anyway. So for Promotion purposes, they want to send me down with another teacher - they'll essentially pay for our flight, our accomodations, and we'll get paid. Coooooooool.

Speaking of promotions, those who've tuned in lately to Hot 89.9 (In Ottawa) will hear a new promotion: Listen More, Win More, Give More. This promotion was developped by yours truly, along with three team members, as part of a Promotional Planning Practicum class at the University of Ottawa. NewCap essentially sponsored the class/competition, and in return, they got a load of Promotional ideas from fourth-year Marketing students. While we didn't win the competition, our Promotion appears to be the first that is used by the station.

Anyway, today marks the beginning of a long-weekend for me (we have Monday off) - it's the Korean Thanksgiving, Chuseok. They let us go at 2pm, instead of 6:30, gave us our pay for August, and gave all of us Chuseok Gifts: some kind of Jelly that comes from roots. I was told by another foreign teacher that it's to make you 'Randy', but, er. I haven't felt it yet. I'll keep you updated on that, though, have no fears.

Cheers!

No Yelling.

As previously mentioned, I had to work this weekend, on Saturday. It was the 2nd Incheon English Festival (yet no one remembers when the first one was), and they needed some English Speakers to do various complicated tasks. Let me elaborate.

All day yesterday, while dressed in a Spanish Bullfighter costume, I had to pose for pictures and play Connect-4. But hey, if anyone's going to pay me 200$ for one day of work, you can dress me up to be a Barbie, for all I care*. Sadly, our booth read 'Poto Shop' instead of 'Photo Shop'.. Probably not good for a private english school.

*(offer only valid in countries where I won't be recognized and photographed to be facebooked)

This morning, I finally took a bus on my own - I know, i'm growing up too quickly - to go to Home Plus (the Korean equivalent of a Wal-Mart type of superstore). I picked up a few things I needed, and made my way back. Later in the afternoon, I went to Seoul Central station, to meet up with my friend Chris.

Chris has been in Korea for three years now. Ever since he arrived, he'd been giving me his impressions, and answered dozens and dozens of questions. To the point where he probably dreaded seeing a new e-mail from me with a new slew of questions - but he's always been sporting about it, and he was definitely the main drive behind helping me make the choice of teaching in Korea, over any other country.

Anyhoo, we met up, and took the Subway down a couple of stations. We went to a tea-house that was a bit hidden. When I saw a sentence at the entrance saying something along the lines of 'Tea house where birds fly', I thought it was just another example of a silly english mistake. Nope! This tea-house had flying birds in it.

No, they didn't poo in our tea, although having had a Budgie for 13 years, I know that that shit can fly (har-har, see what I did there?) pretty fast. I kept a pretty good eye on my Ginger tea, though.. I think.

Afterwards, Chris introduced me to something i'd never had before: Korean Barbecue. It's pretty cool - They bring you some meat, which you cook yourself at the table, and you eat it with all different sorts of veggies/sauces. I'd definitely recommend it.

Finally, Chris was kind enough to show me back to Seoul Central Station, so that I could find my way back to Incheon. On that Subway was a sign that I couldn't not take a picture of:

Notice the chic-looking-man pinching the passenger. The passenger yells. I can only gather that the sign says 'No Yelling' on the subway. As well as 'No Anger' while people are on top of each other, while in the midst of making out.

The Colonel ain't Breakdancing

It's been an eventful few days. Continuing our adventure where we left off, lets break down the happenings by days:

Tuesday, I found out that I had the same load of classes as I do on monday (7 classes). Since the Monday-Wednesday and Tuesday-Thursday schedule is the same, it means that i've got a guaranteed hour's pay of overtime 4 days a week. I'm thankful for the extra money; it should go a long towards paying for some long-awaited trips.

In the evening, I went to a restaurant i'd never been to before. It's of the take-of-your-shoes and sit-on-your-bum variety, which was fine by me. I ended up sharing a meal with 4 teachers. Essentially, a giant bowl is brought out (we had picked a seafood soup), which then boils in front of you. Tons of variety in the bowl as well, ranging from crab, shrimp, scallops, octopus and fish paste. It was very good, but very, very spicy. To the point where 75% of the people eating this soup were sweating (excluding the Korean teacher of course).

Wednesday was great. After school, about 6 or 7 of us went to a different restaurant. Myself and Aaron, another teacher, ordered some Cheesy Eggrolls. The eggrolls are really, really excellent for a simple reason: They're actual eggrolls. You know those things we call eggrolls in North America? Their name doesn't make sense. Fancy this: An eggroll here will actually be about 5 or 6 eggs all rolled around one another - ours having cheese in the middle.

I didn't have my camera, but i'll make sure to take a picture of it next time.

After this, we went to a bar called Jack's. It's a small, underpopulated bar that seems to target a more luxury-crowd than most bars. There's a pool table (free!) and an electronic Dart game that costs 1$. And if you get 500 points or more, you get free tequilla shots. (Of course, I could only manage to get 455 points.)

Now, most people would call it a night at this point, but a few other teachers decided that it was about time to show the noobies noraebang... the most popular format of Karaoke in Korea! It's essentially a private singing room for a group of people. Inside, you have a couple of restaurant-style benches with a table, along with three TVs. The TVs show the lyrics to the song, along with some really, really weird Korean drama in the background. I was told that it picks a video based on the lyrics and rythm of the song, but altogether, it was pretty random. I really enjoy Karaoke, so this was the highlight of my week. The great thing about noraebang is that you're not stuck waiting for a rotation of people before you're up to sing. Everyone can sing at once, or one can go at a time. Who can complain?!

Thursday night, a group of us went to the Western Dome in Ilsan. The Alex-Blog-Devotees will remember (yea right) that this is where I went to eat, my first night in Korea. I was dissapointed the first time that I hadn't brought my Camera, so I didn't make that mistake again. The western dome is a really cool outdoor/indoor mall, with several fountains outside. It also has quite a few excellent restaurants. We went back to the Thai restaurant, and this time around I had some Thai Green Curry - spicy, but excellent.

Oh, and on my way out, I ran into Colonel Sanders.

Finally, today. Today being Friday, I thought it would make perfect sense to finally have a night-in, relax, and do some laundry. I really didn't have the energy to go out again, but it's for the best, since i'm working tomorrow. It's an extra-gig through the school, for which i'll get about 200$. Hip Hip, Hourrah.

Happy weekend, kids.

No, there ain't such thing as Labour Day

Unfortunately, my long weekend isn't coming for another two weeks (the Korean equivalent of thanksgiving).

I don't get Labour Day. Shouldn't a day named after Labour actually involve, you know, going to work? doing some labour? It's like naming a day 'Rest Day' and going to work. Anyway, instead of lazying around for one more day, I went to school.

I found out last Friday that I was going to be teaching Adult Classes, but I didn't have my full schedule until today. In total, i'm teaching 7 Classes Monday & Wednesday. While that's not exactly ideal, it does have a positive: since my contract says that i'll have 6 classes maximum, i'm getting guaranteed overtime pay two days a week (which is nice, since technically i'm still into work from the same hours). I also have 6 classes Tuesday-Thursday, so if I have to sub in that one, that's extra as well.

Hourrah!

The adult class I had this morning, though, was fun. Obviously, discipline's not an issue, as everyone's there to learn - So about half the class is bookwork, while the last half is just free conversation. For example, today I had each person (there are 10 people) introduce themselves, tell us a bit about themselves, and ask me a question about myself. They seemed a little surprised at my age (they're between 28 and 37), but were very respectful about it. My goal is to open a good dialogue - if they're looking forward to discussing something with me (in English), they're looking forward to learning.

Education is best enjoyed when served fun.