seltson blue

Florida: Swamps, Beaches, Gators and Poster Beds

2009-01-12T02:48:00.001-08:00

I began the new year with a week in Florida which was just what I needed to thin my blood from a few months of Canadian winter. I know I haven't posted anything since the summer mainly because I had been shoulder deep in my studies. Now that I am back in Asia and enjoying some time to regroup, I thought I should get caught up. This trip was a nice transition from the snowbound tundra of Southwestern Ontario to the neonbound coast of Southeastern Korea.

As this guy was stretching his wings and soaking up the winter sun (Floridians kept using the word winter, it was kinda weird as they said it while wearing shorts and t-shirts), I was floating down a lazy stream in a canoe and dodging all kinds of natural no no's...

On the beach, this magnificent hotel somehow didn't stand out. This is from St. Pete's and a place called Passo-Grille.

No one was swimming as the water was apparently too cold. But it was still too hot for a t-shirt! I would have gone for it, but this sign scared me off.

Expert paddling techniques courtesy of 5 summers with the YMCA camp Stephens in Kenora.

These pictures were taken from a 2 hour canoe trip through a state park 20 minutes north of Tampa.

When I was a kid, I asked for a puppy and my folks gave me a turtle. Had I any idea my little Yurtle could have grown up to be a wild untamed beast like these two here, I might have given it a more intriguing name...I think I called it Chris.

We spotted 7 gators...awesome!

All of the vultures were hanging out right at the landing where we launched our canoes. They always seem to congregate where human activity is the most frequent. There is something to be said here about that...

This is a real picture I really took at a real place. Yes, you can rent a bed, four poster no less, to lounge about in on the beach.

Korea blog: Adieux

2008-09-15T17:44:00.000-07:00

Well, thanks for the fish! I'm off but will be back (hopefully!?) in January to continue fighting the good fight.

Korea blog: parasol geometries, Haeundae, back again

2008-09-02T05:11:00.000-07:00

I am now in London On, having returned a few weeks ago and currently in my last semester at UWO. A very intense and swift transition. I took most of these photos on my last few days in Korea while staying in a small motel near the beach.
Parasols and these generic tubes can be rented for the same price...in addition to the cost of being generic. But what is really going on under this veil of parasol shaded homogeneity?
Black noodle eatin'!!
And some more black noodle eatin'!!
And some good ole' Korean style beach chillin'!!! (that is where one swims fully clothed with a swim suit on underneath) Beach blanket bingo!!

Korea blog: Abbey Load

2008-08-11T06:38:00.001-07:00

A 48 hour 6 day work week has severly limited my blogivity (new word?) and so I present a poorly timed photo of the renowned album cover with a double entendre title...work load plus a poor pronunciation of road, get it? No, move on. I have seriously been teaching mornings, eating, trying to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason for a fall course I'm taking, teaching again, returning home to a few hours of internet TV and then sleep. I find myself back in class then next morning with the suspicion that I had just been there mere moments before. I am lucky in way that my school is right across the street from where I live and so the cross walk has a particular emblemic (new word?) status in my daily life. I can even see my classroom from the window of my one room officetel apartment.

Having only a few weeks left here before returning home and beginning classes, I have found my acclimatization period to be now eclipsing my "checking out" phase. Unlike previous and more extended forays here in Asia where I would spend the last few weeks (months) making up shopping lists and planning every restaurant trip I would make upon returning home, I now find myself wondering what kind of list I had in mind when I came here. All of the Korean foods I had missed and wanted to enjoy, the bars, temples and beaches I had hoped to see one more time. It seems that the hindsight of expectations is trumped by the anticipation of nostalgia. What the hell was that all about?

I have found that it is so much easier to be critical of a country that is not my own, and that people can really be vehement about it. It seems a little transparent in light of all the discontent we feel about our own homes and the screwed up ways we go about expressing it while trying not to soil our patriotic table clothes. Don't shit where you eat. Canadians in particular can be such passive aggressive tools. Look at me, I am flying between 1st and 3rd person like a fish flopping on a beach.

When it is all over and the passport has been stamped and tucked away, clothes unpacked and Wendy's burger wrappers once again smell guilty, there is always a creeping nostalgia that seems to last a lot longer than the relief of being home again. Just as the pleasure and excitement of being somewhere new never really lasts long enough to make you miss it.

Korea blog: music, sleep, teach, immigration

2008-07-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

Day 24/63...

Immigration woes are almost at and end. I completed my comprehensive health check-up and although it felt like I was trying to get retirement health insurance, I managed to pass everything (although I found out I needed glasses, and my heart rate is higher in hospitals then it is after I run marathons).
I went to the immigration office last week to submit all of the required documents (health form, visa application, passport) and found myself waiting for 30 or so minutes for my number to be called. Then, with 5 people ahead of me, the strangest thing happened...all of the immigration officials just stood up, put these little signs on their kiosks which read "away on business", and left the room. I looked around and no one had stirred. What the hell was going on? Then I looked at the time...12:00...lunch break. Made sense I guess.

So I booked it down to Nampo Dong (the immigration is by the international ferry terminal in the harbour, nampo dong is a big open market one subway stop away) and hit the black market for some bacon and cigars, necessarycommodities which cannot be bought freely. Made it back at exactly 12:58 to see all of the officials return to their posts and call out the 5 numbers preceding mine without a response. I was out by 1:10! visa should be ready by the 30th.

On to sleep, well music is the reason I have to sleep. I stayed out until 6:00am last wednesday jamming it up in an old haunt with some old and new friends and ended up in a cut throat game of darts and...when better judgement finally took hold the sun had already come up. I don't have to be at work until 3pm... but all of that effort to align my circadiun rhythym had been undone in one eveing of debauchery. It has taken me until now to get over it...and well, who am I kidding! I'll need to get over that in 4 weeks when I go back home so, what the hell!?! sleep when I'm dead they say. Why don't they snore?

the dead that is...

Teaching, there is nothing like being a small 15/20ft room with yourself and 12 little people aged 8-11 who love nothing more than to yell your name (my name is TEACHER!!) and grab your arm/leg/shirtsleeve/whatever they can get a hold of and beckon your attention...all at once. I've been trying to work on a theme in my approach to my methodology and lesson implementation...Thomas, dark and merciless lord of his dark and merciless classdom...the airconditioning is always at maximum and a reign/rain of terror/comprehension questions pummel my students at nearly every moment of our 180(-2 five minute break)minute classes.

No one has yet to seem intimidated.

I blame video games

and Oprah

Korean Blog: Needles and X-rays

2008-07-09T23:54:00.000-07:00

This week is my second of 9 weeks over the summer vacation. I have finally been given a home of my own that was even furnished. Feeling better, settled down a bit, work is going well too...but that's another story.

Current Korean immigrations laws require that foreigners applying for work visas must submit, upon arrival, to a series of olympic events in order to obtain their ARC (Alien Resident Card) which will entitle them open bank accounts and have internet and cell phone plans. Today I underwent the first task; a medical back ground check.

I had to climb up a pretty steep road to get to the hospital from the subway station. Later, during the heartrate portion of my exam, this would later prove to be a mistake. I was fortunate to have been assigned an interpreter at the information desk who led me through each portion of the check up. See, I was told by the government website that I would have to submit a blood and urine test in order to show that I didn't have "the HIV" or what I wasn't "on the marijuana". It turned out that I was to enjoy a complete medical check-up which had me visit several different wards in the hospital.

Eyes, ears and heart was first. I run, so I am always checking my heart rate for cardio training. It is usually around 65...but I couldn't get it down below 90 because of nerves and the exertion of climbing up the mountain to get there. Oh, and I also found out I need glasses. Damn it! Blood work was done over the counter, fortunately the urine sample was not. I did have to get an x-ray which was a little freaky...are you supposed to feel an electric shock from those things?

I will need to return on monday to collect the paperwork for immigration. If they find any traces of drugs or disease I will be deported, that shouldn't happen...

Korea blog: new comer's melancholy

2008-07-06T03:53:00.000-07:00

This photo was taken from the 21st floor of an officetel where I've been squatting for the past week. The teacher whose classes I have been covering will return tomorrow, and my apartment won't be ready until tuesday so I had to go and book a room in another "love" motel for tomorrow. That was a chilling experience. I tried the Lotte Hotel which is a huge luxury deal in the center of downtown. Rates ranged from 350$ USD for the "superior" room, to 7200$ USD for the presidential suite. So, I moved on...

I tried a motel around the corner and walked into a creepy foyer with a cinema style wicket that was all blacked out. A woman removed a block of wood that was covering the half circle ticket/money exchange portal along the counter and asked what I wanted. Using my sublime grasp of Korean, I asked her "tomorrow, reservation, one room, possible?". I then made the mistake of hunching over to offer a weak smile. "Jigum optseo" she said and replaced the block. I guess they were booked up...or they rent by the hour. I ended up getting something next door in a more "family" oriented establishment for 40$.

On to the melancholy...

I think that word implies a sadness without name, a deeper confusion of bad feelings unaccounted for. It always feels better when the doctor tells you what causes the symptoms, even though they don't abate. Just the knowledge, the knowing gives some kind of control.

I have been feeling that way, I am guessing it is because I have no home yet and haven't had a chance to settle. I am also temping at a school too and have felt generally excluded. I know short termers aren't worth the effort and people are busy, but what upsets me the most is that on deeper reflection, I recall the many times I was on the other side and avoided engagement because of shyness or discomfort with new people. Lessons learned...I start at a new location on Tuesday and will try to be more understanding.

It runs much deeper than that though, I felt so happy to have a furnished apartment, car, and class schedule waiting for me in London when I return in september. To not have to reduce my life to 46kg and a carry on and put the rest in storage was such a joy. I think that was the preparatory phase and now that I have been here for a week I have this chunk of malaise that sits inside of me all the time.

Don't misunderstand me, I have had an awesome week. I've reconnected with great friends, been to parties and watched a lot live music. I've even played with old bandmates. There is no isolation or loneliness. The job is great, better than I remember it to have been. There is nothing like being in the middle of a sea of shouting elementary school children and holding their rapt attention (for 20 seconds!). I have no anxieties about work. I remember all of my Korean and have navigated my way through daily life with ease (although it did take 3 cold showers before I remembered that you have to turn the hot water on in this country).

Maybe it is the absence of anxiety and stress, and the absence of any need to connect, engage or settle down for the duration. I hoped I would have made a better nomad.

This is a long post...

Korea blog: conveyor sushi and Run DMC

2008-06-30T06:27:00.000-07:00

I took this picture from a tv in my hotel...scratch that, motel tonight. They even had the adidas on, but they were laced up...Korean rap, you should've heard it.

I've been staying in this small room for the past 3 days waiting to move into a another place and begin work. The motel is close to the beach which is nice; I did swim in the ocean today, but I'm starting to feel like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now, where he goes nuts in that hotel room in Hanoi waiting for his mission. Fortunately I move out tomorrow and begin work so I might get away without any smashed mirrors or cold showers.

The problem with motels is that you have every means of shelter with the exception of food, I had to leave 3 times a day to forage. Tonight being my last one, I wanted to get something more original than 7-11 ramen. So, I went to an automated sushi bar. This is a Japanese innovation on the traditional sushi bar...a bar you sit at and the "bartender" slices raw fish and serves it to you. The cooks placed the dishes on this conveyor belt which cycled around the restaurant. You simply pick up the dishes you wish to eat and stack them beside you afterwards.

The dishes are actually color coded so that you know which ones are the premium and which are economy. They even had bottles of booze making the rotation. Must be a Korean innovation.

I was so full....

Fly by Night

2008-06-28T01:42:00.000-07:00

9:30 am Thursday, June 28th Columbus, Ohio to Atlanta - 1:25 hrs... 3 hour layover. Atlanta to Incheon, South Korea - 14:30 hrs...2 hour layover. Incheon to Busan - 1 hour 9:05pm Friday, June 29th.

I had forgotten how excrutiatingly boring trans-pacific air travel is. They now have those on-demand style screens behind every seat where you can choose from a balanced selection of hollywood currents and classics. I think that makes it worse! By the third movie I become very much aware that it is my third movie in a row and I have no interest, concern or even reaction to Cate Blanchet's sublime portrayal of Bob Dylan (I am not there...great movie, I had to turn it off so I could actually enjoy it in the proper frame of mind).

Anyway, ... where was I going again? Oh yeah, Korea.

So, I'm on the beach at Haeundae by 10:30 having a beer and remarking on the fact that everything is completely unremarkable. Like I had never left. I mean, the honeymoon period ended before I collected my bags in the airport. By the time I got to the cab I had remembered how to give directions in Korean. By the time I got to the hotel, I had remembered how to say thank you. Today, I took the subway to the school I'll start at next tuesday without even thinking twice on how to get there. I even did all of my prep and photocopying for the week. S'like I never left.

It is for only two months, and I do have a residence and a class schedule waiting for me come autumn.

Still, despite it all I am far from indifference. I must have that fresh "new carpet" smell about me as I have noticed some odd things today. For instance, I enjoyed a sideways glance from everyone around me on the subway. Maybe that was always the case before and I had just become oblivious. Also, people here make weird noises and it smells funny. And they act super awkward around me when I need to deal with them (cell phone store, super mart, PC room...etc), and no one watches where they are going.

None of this bothers me...at all. Jet lag rules!!

This smile is for the Delta agent at the check-in counter at the Columbus, OH. (CMH). I think his name was Dave or Derek, or Dumbassed Dickhead...whatever! The guy who told me my bags would go all the way to my final destination and I wouldn't have to collect them and re-check them after clearing customs in Seoul. I even asked you twice Dave, or David...I'll just call you Dick.

Dick, have you any idea what re-entering a secure customs area in a foreign airport to collect your unclaimed baggage because you didn't collect because you told me it would go to my final destination involves??

Do you?

(Actually, it took me all of five minutes. I just told security that the Americans lied to me and they laughed and gave me a personal escort...but the point is that you can get bent!)

South Korean E-2 Visa: A Step by Step Guide to the New Rules

2008-06-17T16:51:00.000-07:00

I have decided to return this summer to South Korea and have spent the past month undergoing the new visa application procedure which is remarkably more tedious than the 3 visas I had acquired on previous contracts in SK. It used to be a matter of a single visit to any consulate and a 24 hour waiting period. I decided to post my personal experience with this new process

(Please note that the regulations seem to be in a state of flux and this only represents a chronology of my own efforts to obtain a visa from the South Korean Consulate in Toronto, Canada. Also, all days are business days and exclude weekends and holidays)

Day 1

Request Police background check and a vulnerable sector check.

This should be done before even thinking about anything else (what school to work for or agency to emply). The background check is easy, but the vulnerable sector check is time consuming. It must be done in person in a city you can prove your residence (driver's lisence, bell bill, or lease will do the trick). I did mine in London which took 7 days, I've heard it can take from 2 to 6 weeks depending on the city. Check the police websites.

Request transcripts (4) from university and original diploma (if necessary).

Day 6

Obtained police and vulnerable sector check. (transcripts were rushed and available on day 3)

Day 7

Arrived in the South Korean Consulate with:

notarized police/vulnerable sector background check
notarized copy of degree
sealed and signed transcript

The consulate notarized the documents with their offical seal (2.20$/doc)

(any lawyer can notarize these documents, they usually charge 20$ a doc...you can even show up at the consulate and they will give you a business card which will direct you to a lawyer's office 10 minutes down St. Clair where they'll do it on the spot...you don't need to notarize your diploma if you are willing to send the original, but it might get folded up or damaged)

This is definitely the first hurdle, but to progress any farther you will need to have found a school to work for. The school will give you a contract to sign and request that you send them the documents you had notarized (a second time!) from the consulate in addition to a signed contract, 2 sealed and signed transcripts, 2 passport signed photos (you'll need 5 total).

Day 7 (con't)

Purolated the documents to the school/agency.

Don't do it online, go to one of their offices and if you can your original diploma to fit into one of their document pouches (I couldn't hence the notarized copy), you can save a lot of time by having them officialize the package as "documents only". This will fast track the package through customs in SK.

Day 10

Purolator package arrives at the school in SK, they take it to the local immigration office. It is said to take 3-4 days to process.

Day 13

Package arrives.

Day 17

School e-mails me a confirmation number. This number belongs on the top right of the visa application form you can download from the consulate site:

http://www.koreanconsulate.on.ca/en/?b_id=77&c_id=343&mnu=a02b03&start=1

Filled in the form and affixed my 3rd passport photo to the box on the top right hand side (the other two photos will be needed upon arrival for your ID card). Arrived at the SK consulate with:

completed visa application form
passport with 6 months validity left
sealed/signed transcript
55.00$ visa process fee

At this time I was given an appointment for an interview and an interview checklist to fill out along with a receipt (Don't lose the receipt, you'll need it to retrieve you passport).

Day 21

Arrived at the consulate for my interview with my checklist completed. The interview was short and...well, I was asked 3 questions; the first two concerned my name and birthdate.

Day 22

Checked my visa status on-line and it said it was ready to be picked up!! Now I just need to make my 4th trip to consulate and I am ready for legal employment in South Korea.

Tim Horton's Race

2008-05-25T13:56:00.001-07:00

The summer sibling series continues...

Today my sister and I ran the Tim Hortons Camp race in Bronte Creek, Oakville Ontario. 2 5k circuits of dusty gravel road. I thought it was just me until I realized everyone was wheezing around me.

I had forgotten what the heat can do to you while running, I am not the a very good sweater in the best of times and while this may be a bonus on first dates and elevator rides, it does not help during strenuous activities in the outdoor heat. The knee braces were a cautionary choice, no issues but I wanted the psychological support more than the physical.

I was hoping to beat 50:00, as you might be able to see I didn't quite make it...I think that says 50:08. I swear I could not have run any faster...that was a personal best. The 10k I ran was 54:36 (http://seltsonblue.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html) so I guess I should be happy. Third place got a prize, that M'Fo' passed me at the last water station and got in with a time of 49:52... dang!

Dang!

BBQ Octopus

2008-05-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

An absolute essential for the BBQ season, throw away those T-bones and baby back ribs...go on! (Who wants to eat a baby's back anyway) Outdoor grills have finally found their soulmates; eight tentacles plus one puffy head of lemon soaked charred heaven.

You need to fly open the top side to speed up the cooking process, these things are virtually all meat...uh, with the exception of the beak and the ink pouch and of course those bony eye sockets.

You can buy them in a frozen wheel-like formation for around 4$/lbs. Don't forget the lemons.

Hamilton 'Around the Bay Race'

2008-03-30T16:32:00.000-07:00

This morning my sister and I ran the annual Around the Bay Race in Hamilton, ON. We split the 30k circuit of Hamilton harbour between us as a relay team. Yesterday we drove the course and, neither of us having a strong preference, flipped a coin to see who would start and who would finish. I ended up with the start.

What a scrum! 6000 people out of the gate at 9:30 sharp. I think I actually managed to start running freely around the 3k mark. It quite a sight, but the sound of all those expensive running shoes pattering on the pavement was hypnotic, like some tribal beat.

The scowl is for the dude who walked in front of the camera while the shot was being taken, either he was really fast or my I need to encorporate scowling into my training regiment.

This dude was my pace setter, I actually fell pretty far behind him. He finished the whole 30k in less than 3 hours. Good on ya! Alien man.
I finished at the 15k mark and handed of the time chip to my sister. My legs felt like they were replaced with stilts of agony around the 12k mark.

My big sis and I! She finished the race in Copps Coliseum and here we sat at the end of it all, fearful of staying too still lest our muscles atrophied.

When I was at the 13k mark, someone told me the leader was already at the 26k mark...that was 1:14 into the race!! We finished with a combined time of 3:04. I plan to learn how to run across water for next year, it will save much time.

South Africa IV - City Bowl and Bo-Kaap

2008-03-26T15:38:00.000-07:00

A walking tour of the Citybowl is essential to any trip to Capetown. I think it is called the Citybowl for two reasons: a) it would sound funny to say Capetown's downtown and b) it really is shaped like a bowl. Capetown has a certain beauty all around, it really lies all around its natural environment with homes and development that simply hugs the surrounding geography. As you might see, the downtown really is in the shape of a bowl

Ah, the joys of youthful education and uniforms! This picture was taken moments before they noticed me and began smiling and waving.

Bo-Kaap is a very old muslim district located up the "bowl" from downtown. There are several old mosques dating as far back as 1794. This is the Owal mosque which dates back to 1794...hey, How about that!?

The residents of Bo-Kaap painted their homes in beautiful pastel colors. I was told this was in response to the forced eviction of the residents of District 6 in the 70's. That is a long story, I did go there but there is only a museum now. I suggest looking it up as it is an important historical event in South Africa's apartheid period.

This guy! His name is John and he is a variety of busker who walks around the "bowl" getting his picture taken with tourists. I heard he is 27 years old and is trying to build the world's largest/heaviest hat made of eggs. The one he was here weighs over 30kg. He is also making a call on his "cell phone".

Street vendors! This is my favourite part, Africans are very accomodating hagglers. Unlike Asian vendors who can be indifferent (Thailand), bitter (Korea), and downright fearsome (China). I was actually looking for a traditional mask, an authentic one which would not be found in a market here. I did end up finding a store well stocked with all types of ritual masks, but I couldn't imagine having my back turned on any of them while they were hanging on my wall. So, I settled for the mass produced aesthetics of the Greenmarket square.

South Africa III - Robben Island

2008-03-15T14:25:00.000-07:00

Robben Island is named for the Dutch word for seal. It is about 12km off the harbour in Table bay and has a long history as both prison and leper colony. It was closed in 1996 and turned into a museum. To get there requires a choppy ride in mid sized ferry, followed by a bus tour of the village and grounds surrounding the prison grounds and the quarry where prisoners worked. There is also a walking tour of the prison grounds. Both are led by tour guides who were former inmates of the prison.

The grounds are desolate with little vegetation. The tour guide mentioned that this was not the case during his term of imprisonment, he said that after the prison closed in '96 some of the guards set their rabbits lose and they have since done what rabbits are good at and now the grounds are littered with rabbit warrens. (All of the tour guides were former political prisoners, they were mixed at first with the "conventional" prisoners and suffered abuse both physical and sexual abuse often at the direction of the guards. However, the political prisoners soon began to increase their influence over the other prisoners as educators and were separated).

This is the only shelter in the quarry where earlier prisoners were forced to work. The cave was their only shelter and the tour guide dubbed it the first campus of the African National Congress. It was here that Mandela and others gathered and educated each other and laid the groundwork for the leadership that would assume control of South Africa after the fall of Apartheid.

This were the beds the prisoners were afforded after the Red Cross was given access to the prison.

These were the beds the prisoners were afforded before.

This was the cell were Mandela spent most of his 27 years of imprisonment.

When the tour ended, we had about twenty minutes to wait until the ferry left. So I went back through the prison grounds on my own. It was practically deserted being between tours and I was shocked at how small it was. I came across this painted on the back of one of the prisoner's quarters, I found it strikingly ironic...on too many levels to mention here.

South Africa II - Cape Point

2008-03-12T13:53:00.000-07:00

Cape Point is one of the southern most tips of the continent and where the Atlantic meets the Indian ocean. These penquins made the trip from the Antarctic just to have their pictures taken by tourists. Note the obvious play towards the camera by that guy in the middle, terrible actors those penquins.

Bamboons on the other hand, now there is creature worth respect. I ended up taking over a dozen pictures of these guys from the car window. This was the only shot I have where you can see anything aside from their butts.

This little beach is on the Atlantic side of the point, it was totally amazing. I wouldn't recommend swimming there though, the undertow will get you.

This is the real point, there is a fake lighthouse somewhere behind where most of the conventional tour bus driven tourists only have time to see. This point was about a 20 minute walk along the cliffside. Fantastic view of the collision of two oceans.

South Africa I - Hout bay

2008-03-08T14:09:00.001-08:00

This was the sight I beheld the first morning after arriving. Hout bay a quiet collection of homes and shops on the other side of Table mountain from the main portion of the city. The clouds just roll over the top of the mountain tops, it is a fantastic effect...like a bad toupee.

Tomorrow is the Argus road race, it is 100 odd kilometers of biking involving 30 or 40,000 cyclists? Can that be right? Anyway, the road leading up to this point, called Chapman's peak, was littered with cyclists...well, the whole damn city was crawling with them the whole time I was there.

View from the road going up to the peak.

Hout bay harbour has a fish factory whose processes sometimes waft nicely over the rest of the bay. There is a small beach and many restaurants, oh yeah and a bar where they serve Vindhoek pints for 16 Rand (about 2 bucks).

South Africa - Intro

2008-03-08T14:01:00.000-08:00

I sit at my desk this Saturday afternoon, vaguely studying and watching the snow outside. We were expected to have close to 40cm over the weekend, I'm sure I cleared at least 20cm off my car this morning. The last time I drove my car was back from Pearson airport last Saturday after my trip to Capetown, SA.

I haven't really gotten around to writing, or blogging my trip (such an ugly verb!) for various reasons. But I took so many pictures I thought I would share them in the next few postings which will grouped episodically. Africa is a big place, South Africa is also a big place, Capetown is not such a big place but it is a massive mental experience to have spent a week there. The levels of exposure to the natural and civilized features, the culture, diversity, poverty and affluence are simultaneous and difficult to sift apart. I'll spare those thoughts for another venue, still I wish to thank my many hosts for being so accomodating and kind...and for protecting me from the ostriches.

Blizzard

2007-12-07T16:04:00.000-08:00

First blizzard in 3 years! It was fun until I had to clean of the car... and then while driving down the road finding my front windshield iced up so I couldn't see anything. I tried to roll down my windows (yeah, so what! I chintzed out and didn't get power windows) and found they were frozen, at that point the blizzard became really fun!
Yes, dandruff from God...
The school is getting a little sinister these days with exams in full swing and the spires of middlesex college bldg looming taller into the dark greyness above.

I wish I had more to comment on these days, it is not that I don't but all of it seems to be put into 12 point font, doubles spaced, APA formatted essays that demand me to assert myself in an argumentatively original and controversial way while relying on other people's opinion for support. Who wants to write like that?

Wizard of Oz

2007-12-02T13:47:00.000-08:00

I've been at my computer for the past few hundred hours scraping my thoughts together and trying to write my essays for the end of term, which is in 3 days. It has not been easy. I went into it confident that I would revolutionize the academic world with my highly original and ground breaking papers. The dean would call me out of class to confer and honorary Doctorate degree. I would have to hire a publicist to handle all of the ivy league universities that wanted me guest lecture at their schools...
At this point, I would be happy to have my paper returned to me without being expelled for gross incompetence or unintended plagiarism. A B please!

Anyway, one of the papers I was working on today was kinda interesting. I had this theory about the Wizard of Oz. Not the movie, that doesn't work because the whole thing is a dream, but the novel by L. Frank Baum. My idea is that the whole quest for Dorothy to get back home is a total wash, I mean completely redundant. She begins the quest with everything she needs to fulfill it. The journey to Oz, and then out to the Winkie country to kill the Wicked witch of the West is a total waste of time. No one learns anything from it.

In fact, Dorothy herself..that little whiney midwestern hussy, doesn't really do anything to help the quest. She assembles her team; the Lion, Tin Woodsman, and the Scarecrow, and then lets them do all the work for her. Well, she does kill that other witch, but just like the first one it was a total fluke. And the wizard, that lying sack of filth who is from Omaha of all places, doesn't even cough up the payback. "You have it all along" he says to the party. Well, why did they even bother in the first place?

Winter at Western

2007-11-18T15:22:00.000-08:00

This is my first winter back in North America in over two years. I was just starting to get used to the fact daylight "savings", which kicked in a few weeks ago, meant the sun disappearing at 4:30 in the afternoon when I woke up friday morning to the year's first snowfall.

These are just some pictures I took around campus in between classes. It is strange to be so involved in academic pursuits (I have some very heady classes this term) that the world outside can pass by unnoticed.

The leaves on most the trees still had their colours which was a neat contrast.

Yeah, this is just a bunch of pictures...no compelling narrative thread.

University college, the flagship building on campus which houses admin and the humanities department (go H!), can seem a little ominous, like the lair of some mediocre b-movie villain.

Ohio State Football

2007-11-13T17:51:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I had the grand pleasure of attending Ohio State university's last home game of the season. It was a tremendous experience to stand on the fringe of so much focused attention. I deplore tedious details and think they should play no part in honest blogging, but I must supply a few here now or the true impact this event had on me might be lost:

- OSU is the largest campus in the states right now followed by Texas A&M with one hundred thousand students..give or take

- The OSU Buckeyes (a poisonous nut) was 10-0 going into the game, number one their league.

- Buckeye fans, which include every single last resident in Columbus Ohio (even those recently deceased who are bening buried that day), all where red and grey on game days.

-The drinking age in the U.S. is 21

- Many signs on the freeways, interstate highways, and local roads around Columbus have the word 'football' written on them

- Half of the students are not 21

Needful to say, the walk to the stadium was hectic. Fortunately I had visited a local department store earlier that day and bought a red and grey Buckeye shirt and fit into the sea of other people who seemed to have also visited that store at some earlier point. Drunken freshman, tipsy sorority sisters, sleazy scalpers...it was an epic walk through campus.

These vehicles started appearing the closer we got. It was a luxury, corporate sponsered tailgate party. The Rv's must have costed 50 grand each with satelites and flat screen Tv's set up on their side panels under their felxi-awnings.

It became super funny as we got closer to the stadium and the tailgaters and the drunkie froshers starting mixing. "No, none of this food is for sale!" cried one woman to some guy drooling over her tinfoil steamdishes of mac and cheese and sausages.

We didn't have tickets, never intended to anyway, so we just walked across the main row and settled in a lovely beer tent. Crushing tin under our feet at every step, I made it to the beer ticket counter and got to again present my Ontario ID to the lady. Getting carded in the states is very unusual for me. I get a different reaction all the time, mostly indifferent, but still different. This one was alright and chatty. 16oz. can in hand, I proceeded towards the big screen.

The stadium was right behind me.... how was this possible...

Ah ha!Thank God for cell phone cameras.

Well, it got cold so we left at the half. Buckeyes lost 24-21 or something. I think they were playing Illinois.

Go nuts!

Sinkhole

2007-11-04T17:13:00.000-08:00

"Did you hear about that sinkhole?"

"What sinkhole?...wait? What's a sinkhole?"

"That intersection in the middle of the city you live in that got turned into a gaping 20ft diameter passage to the nether regions...that sinkhole!"

So went (approximately) a conversation I had with my sister last thursday regarding this yawning expanse that appeared early tuesday morning. (how something like an expanse, which is a lack of something, can appear is beyond me)

Work crews have been at it 24/7 trying to fill in the void and repair and replace the burst watermain pipes that caused the sudden lack of intersection early tues. morning. They had to shut off power to most of the downtown core and close businesses and schools in the area.

These are some pipes they had waiting a few blocks up to be installed (somehow) in the ground (somewhere). Being the ever vigilent-needing-to-keep-on-top-of-local-goings-on kinda guy that I am, I was out first thing Sunday morning (noon) on the scene to appraise the damage.

"Don't lean your f#*$'in bike against that transformer!" was the official comment from the worker closest to the fence I was taking the pictures from.

Trick Dart Shot?

2007-11-01T19:23:00.000-07:00

What is this? I mean, is it a feat of skill...and ultimate dart combo? Or, do I get to shoot that dangling again? Or does it rack up to nothing?

This a serious shot, I just took it a few minutes ago. Here I am at home studying for a logic midterm and I break off the books for a little while to clear my head. There the dart board is, what not better distraction I could not have presently envisioned. As I cued up at the ever-so-small pencil nick on the baseboard of my wall that designated the 7ft 9 and a quarter inches from the bullseye, I figured to go for gold, or red, and fired off this mess.

The thing I'm thinkin' is the retry value, no one could do this on purpose. I challenge you!

e-mail yours to ijustthrewthewierdestdart@hotmail.com

April, 1933

2007-10-31T18:24:00.000-07:00

This is from a National Geographic magazine from april of 1933. I don't want to read too much into this, but it is astounding that manufacturers were courting laziness at such an early date, and not even trying to conceal it by naming this thing the lazy-x. I wonder what the 'x' is all about (and where did those lazy-boy chairs go anyway?) I mean, this is a remote control for radio! This is 1933, the western world is in the grip of the Great Depression! Almost every other person is out of work and you can still adjust the volume and tone of the Rin Tin Tin and friends adventure hour (...brought to you by the makers of heinz 57 tomato sauce, always uniform, always the finest) from the comfort of your chair!

Why move? why care?

I was also struck by this ad too. It is, after all, a National Geographic magazine.

Round the world for 500$ eh? not bad... considering the average Canadian household made about that amount in a year if they were lucky enough to be working.

One class ships too...I wonder if that was because everyone was still talking about that Titanic movie.

....and WTF is up with those swastikas!!!

Prison...

2007-10-29T13:12:00.000-07:00

I have a new thesis on life.

Here it is, the best prison is the one in which the prisoner does not want to escape.

Of course there have been many variations on that theme in literature, especially sci-fi (where all of life's truths can be found), where the prison in question is surrounded by inhospitable and unsurvivable climates (ice-Star Trek V, Fire-Crematoria from Chronicles of Riddick, inhuman and desolated wastelands-Australia). However, the prisons I had in mind were a little more close to home.

There are no wardens and the prisoners lock the doors from the inside. They even get to fill their cells with contraband and the lucky ones can choose their cell mates. The exercise yard is pretty big with lots of interesting stuff to do, but work needs to be done to get any at any of it.

Alright, this metaphor is getting painful...but by thesis is this is no metaphor. The last free human died hundreds of thousands of years ago. Not once then, in all existence has anyone lived completely unfettered by any restraint. This is rudimentary social philosophy, we all need some contract or agreement to ensure mutual social benefits. This must entail some forfeit or limitation of freedom. But what has arisen from this is something few if any will acknowledge. That we have physically imprisoned ourselves within prisons that we have not only worked and paid for, but that we continue to provide to others for the right to be there.

In other words, we are continually supporting a system that makes us fear the outside of our prison walls.

But what do I mean by all of this?

more cereal and coffee are required before i am able to illustrate

under

2007-10-17T17:44:00.000-07:00

The doctor stood back, admiring his office around him. There were pictures and certificates that lined the walls and filled the cracks of dark wood paneling. The desk against which he leaned was neat and contained few items that were need for deskwork, few items at all. The doctor looked every where but at the patient who sat in front of him. He reached behind him and pushed a button on his intercom. Moments later, a woman entered and handed him a thin manila folder. The doctor opened it and leafed through it absently. He seemed happier to have something to focus on. The patient looked at the ground near the doctor’s feet. He was young, thin and scruffy. He seemed to be in his late twenties but when he looked up, his eyes seemed like those of one twice his age, but with half the experience. A dark line appeared between his eyes and furrowed in worry and concern.

“There seems to be nothing here that explains it.” The doctor said with some cheer. As if the absence of bad news was good news in and of itself.

Moments later, the patient was standing on the roof of the clinic. The tips of his shoes hung over the edge of the red brick precipice that bordered the rooftop. The terrified murmurs and calm, too calm, urgings of the doctor and the small group of on-lookers behind made up for a small chorus. Like white noise from a late night TV left on, whose white static snow cast shadows on the sleeping face on a sofa, the chorus washed over the patient’s shoulders and fell unheard eight stories to the street below.

It was like plunging into a cold swimming pool. The air rushing to splash his face and beat his hair and clothes back. The chorus died in a rush of wind as his heart leapt to the top of his head and pulled him up. He rose higher and faster as the ground dashed towards him.

It was soon only cool and dark.

“Wake up”, a damp breath whispered.

Love Anachronisms

2007-10-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

“All I ever learned from love was how to shoot at someone who out drew me”

“you think I only think about you when we’re both in the same room, you think I only here to witness the remains of loving you, you think we’re only here to play the game of who loves more than who.”

“Here I stand, head in hand, turn my face to the wall. If she’s gone, I can’t go on, feeling two feet small.”

“If you don’t want him to cheat you have to be there … where? … There! Every time he’s thinking about fucking. And even then …”

“People who are in love can’t write anything.”

"At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet. "

"Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence."

"Like the measles, love is most dangerous when it comes late in life. "

"Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care, but for another gives its ease, and builds a Heaven in Hell's despair. "

"The hottest love has the coldest end. "

Aw, for God @%*'in sakes!!

2007-09-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

...were my words as I crossed the finish line of the London Hospice 10k marathon this morning. My admonition was not a result of pain or exhaustion, although I was experiencing an abundance of both. Nor was it caused by my disappointment with my finishing time being lower than my last race. Actually, I was swearing not because it was higher...but because of how much higher it was.

The last race I competed in was in Busan, South Korea on March the 25th of this year. Same distance as before and I was only interested in finishing the race in one piece..wait,..

Uh, ok..so there is undeniable evidence that I did indeed finish that race. But look at this:

It was my first 10km and I was happy to have finished in an hour. And if you really don't believe it check this one http://seltsonblue.blogspot.com/2007/03/spring-marathon-busan.html

Alright, since that race I have not been idle. I began cross training (swimming and bike riding) in addition to running. At least something happens 5 days a week. Now, I'll be honest in that I have not been pushing the envelope hard enough to watch it bend, but still I should be in pretty good shape. Well, good enough to beat that 0:55:06. Even the last two weeks I got into race mode, went on a special diet, cut out the beer (whew! that was hard). Last night I ate 800 ounces of pasta. I mean, it was all there.

During the race, I kept a really brisk pace an stayed ahead of the pack always passing and only was passed twice. I even cued my iPod (which was loaded with heavy..heavy music) on at the 5km mark and stepped up. Man, the last k I was almost full out! So why the expletive upon crossing the line? As I said, I did beat my old time. Both were chip races so the numbers are accurate.

0:54:36...

I beat my time by 30 f#&*'in seconds. Why the angst? Technically I have nothing to be disappointed about . I achieved my goal... by 30 lousy seconds.

At this rate of progress, my great-grandchildren have a sure chance at the provincials!

the Life Academic

2007-09-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

Since I started school two weeks ago, things have gotten a little strange. First of all, my phone stopped ringing. Then I realized that I have stopped calling people, this mean explain that...along with the internet being my sole means of communication with the outside world. Second, I am constantly distracted...my waking hours are like trying to watch two TV shows at once. This can be fun unless you're driving a car, then it is hilarious. I have a pretty big place now, 900 square feet which is a lot, nay, too much for one guy, but I spend all of my time here:

In this corner, I am actually sitting there on that stool right now. My God, I just blew my own mind.
So anyway, what is it like for a thirty two year old unmarried-yet-in-a-commited-international-relationship(she lives in Ohio) man who has jumped out of a 7 year teaching English as a second language career and gone back to university?

Bitterly sweet, like on of those nutty granola bars with the sweetened yogurt junk on one side.

Bitter: Bubble gum clacking, cell phone in the middle of class answering, lap top toting, Old Navy poster kids.

Sweet: studying philosophy

Bitter: Major financial losses

Sweet: major tax write off!

Bitter: (a few) starchy professors and poignantly pointless tutorials.

Sweet: I am not teaching the class

I refuse to make any comparative statements on how much school has changed since "back in my day", or to comment on how many new buildings have sprung up on campus, or even to tell my tutorial group that "back in '97 I had a gothic lit course in this very same room, 'cept back then all of the chairs and desks were nailed together in rows with old boards..." and so on.

I am not age consious, I was trying to be...but in every class there are at least several people who are much older than me. On the other hand, there is a much larger number of people who are younger. That's ok, I'll kick their asses on the midterms.

August in Flight

2007-08-27T17:19:00.001-07:00

Sincere apologies to all for being so tardy. Wait! ... to whom am I apologizing?? I thought I wrote this blog for myself, as a more un-intrusive alternative to the group e-mail (please stop those things, if you are still doing them...they are only warranted with regards to change of addresses and contact info...or if something/body is going to/has died), yet I find among the meager blogging community that I have associated myself with that consistency is important and people may come to rely on current updates and pictures.

So, to my three fans I apologize and harken to you the following...

Don't buy sliced deli cheese. It is tempting and comes in flavours you would not normally consider. But it is bad, it does not last and its flavour has been smeared across the deli slicer and sucked up by the plasticine wrap. You get nothing but heartache in your sandwich.

Go to Winnipeg in August! It kicks ass!

You can...

See Canadian Flags flutter in Canadian breezes!

Take pictures of your fishing rod after you get bored of not catching any fish!!

Play your banjo to exciting local crowds...

Get your picture taken!!

And enjoy the stunning miracle that occurs everytime the sun rises and sets on this God's country we call the Great Plains, the prairies, the Canadian midwest, or that area where Neil Young went to school.

Islendingadagurinn

2007-08-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

Two Weekends ago, I attended the annual Icelandic festival in Gimli, Manitoba with my Mother, Aumma (Icelandic for Grandmother), and my Aunt and cousin. It was a really good chance to reach back through a couple of generations and feel some roots beneath our feet and a strong heritage behind our years.

A brief genealogical history of how I came to be zealously guarding lawn chairs along a major thoroughfare in the Icelandic capital of N. America with my cousin Ben:

My great-grandfather, Arinbjorn Sigurgeirsson Bardal, arrived in Canada in 1886. He began working as an undertaker and eventually established a funeral home (which is open to this day and bears the family name, although it is run by some jackass who bought it out). My Amma was the youngest daughter of 11 and grew up in Winnipeg. Somewhere between 1921 and 1975, I, her eldest and most brilliant grandson, was born. And there you have it, we're all up to speed.

Most cities in N. America celebrate their military heritages by enshrining old tanks with new coats of paint and lovely plaques. Manitoba, on the other hand, likes to put planes on poles. I think it has something to do with the fact the entire province, due to its near perfect geometric flatness, made for one giant airfield during the war(s).

So the parade (which was one of the highlights of the festival) was soon underway and my cousin Ben and my vigilence was paid off by the return of my Aumma, Mom and Aunt with coffee and cinnamon rolls.

Bag pipes and drummers... now that is an essential way to kick of a good parade!

More Bag pipers...always good to have'em around a parade...

And here is the Prime Minister of Iceland...well, his wife actually. He is sitting beside her, and that is my uncle Neil driving the car. Now, if your wondering about the Icelandic secret service...

Yeah, those vikings were a lot scarier in person. No grassy knolls out of the range of their spears!
Oh no! Shriners... nothing but trouble.

See, exactly what I was talking about! Those Khartum Komedians are always trying suck the dignity right out of these sombre events. Where are the bag pipers!!

ed. note - Shriners are wonderful people who do tremendous work for the community and contribute their time and compassion to many charitable endeavors.

...they also drive kick-ass vintage hot rods

Cleaning out the camera...

2007-08-09T06:37:00.000-07:00

Although I've now been home for over 2 months now, I still keep coming across little remnants of my stay overseas. For example, I cannot, for the life of me, cross any sort of crosswalk or walkway or even parking lot road without checking for cars both ways, half a dozen times. Another less traumatizing example would be my camera which I "cleaned" out the other day. I guess cleaning out is an appropriate term as my card seems to get clogged up with musty old pictures that had little to do with any file folder I would normally dump them in. So, they've been sitting, collecting dust, in the corner.

Tell me of one Westerner who has visited Asia with a camera, and I'll guarantee they'll have taken at least a picture of a toilet. This is a squatter. Good for muscle tone I've been told. I used one for about a year when I first came to Korea in 2000. Since then, the number of Western toilets has increased.

There it is, home sweet home. A sure sign of available seating.

I had an old girlfriend who used to work in an East side Mario's in Niagara falls. She told me that after large parties of Asian tourists had passed through, they would have to go into the washrooms and wash the footprints off the toilet seats. Who is grossing out whom?

Speaking of gross, this is exactly what is looks like. This picture was actually taken by my girlfriend Amity, who ordered this in a restaurant in Fukuoka, Japan. We had nothing but the pictures in the menu to guide our choices and this looked pretty good on paper. It is seared, raw chicken.

This was taken from my window the day before I left. This is what I originally expected from Asia; children practicing martial arts on roof tops, monks meditating under ice cold waterfalls, scarred burly men beheading chickens in back alley kitchens. You know, like the movies...

July 16th, 2007

2007-07-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

I've been home from South Korea for 7 weeks now. During this time I have done much and very little at the same time. I heard that any big life decision can be broken down into a series of smaller and easily envisioned choices that all lead towards a larger goal. At this point I feel as if the series of smaller choices I have made over the past couple of months are leading me only into a larger and less easily perceived series of moves. Like a chess player whose every victory allows him to make but one move on a much larger board.

Since I've been home, I've decided to go back to undergrad and work my GPA up to something that'll not make noses wrinkle up. I registered as a full time student. I also bought a car, got an apartment settled into which I'll move in a few weeks. in between these moves, I've done a lot of smaller things such as buying furniture and supplies, moving around old stuff in storage, re-packing dishes, borrowing a roof rack from my dad, buying bungee chords and taking the chicken salad over the egg.

It's all closely tied together.

Where is this all going? This question both exhilarates and terrifies me. From a broader perspective, I can see that I have set myself to live in London and go to school for at least the next 2 - ? years. What am I going to do in school? I doing the coursework to get into Teacher's College and to get into graduate program with the philosophy department. One direction will lead me back into a teaching career here in Ontario, the other will be a longer road to possible post graduate work and then...

I like those "and then..."s

There is something about going after a Phd that is intoxicating to me, it is the pinnacle of our education system and the farthest one can go in terms of knowledge acquisition in an institutionalized sense. I imagine upon achieving this chalice, I will face an even greater chess board, full of freedom and endless moves to be made in the pursuit of knowledge.

Anyway, back from the deep end. Teacher's college is also very appealing to. Teaching is what I do, it is not a matter of how well I do it or whether I like it or not. It is just something I have done for long enough that it is a part of me.

"Ends" and "means"; these words are beginning to sink into unintelligible ambiguity. There is not "end", using these "means" to get yourself somewhere? Isn't that "somewhere", that "end", just another means to something else. Aren't the two intrinsically the same?

You have time climb the mountain to get to the top

Isn't the mountain a means to itself here?

Maybe I had better get the egg salad next time.

Rock of Ages

2007-07-12T17:20:00.000-07:00

This is the next big thing right here. The viruosity of Vai and the tempered range of a young Jeff Beck mixed in with a stage presence that makes even Gene Simmons's jaw drop.

Finally, the guitar world has a new hero to look up to. No more half assed punk hacks who are afraid of the treble pick-up, no more fringe shredders who have to hide under fried chicken buckets.

At last, notes that cut through crowded ampitheaters like a fine ginsu knife slices through pickled cabbages. Riffs that rumble the sternums of the tone deaf! Can I hear a OH YEAH!

he's also my nephew...ain't he cute?

11 King Kongs

2007-07-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

There they are, my iBT2 class... the KK11 or the 11 king kongs as they called themselves. Possibly the greatest class in the universe. There were times when I would just sit and watch them go at it...bantering back and forth to each other, gossiping about their schools and other students, or arguing about something or other. The weird thing was that would do it entirely in English.

They are (clockwise from the top) Kayla, Joo Hyun, Lucy, Vivien, Tomato, Su Kyung (ASK), Yu Jin, Soo Kyung (KSK), Anne (Soo Hyun), Zacharias, Jake, and Charlie. Each one of them a hardened veteran of the TOEFL test, a crack squat of iBT commandos ready to mercilessly destroy any and all essay questions they encounter, and still have time to sleep off the remaining 10 minutes of the alloted time.

Shameless...

2007-07-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy month! I returned from Korea almost 4 weeks ago. Since then, I have travelled around Ontario and the US and visited friends and family. I have enrolled for full time studies at Western with the aim of getting into grad school or teacher's college. But more importantly... I own a car

Yes, a new car...

One that is timely, stylish, graceful... ready to pounce like a tiger, yet soft and yielding like a nerf ball.

A car that is colored "phantom" grey, that has 16' alloy rims and mud guards. A car that has four seats... and a steering wheel.

A car that lets me get into and go! Anywhere!

The car owner's laziness is already becoming a battle for me. I found myself in a strip mall parking lot the other week; driving to different spots close the stores I needed to hit. I parked three times!!

Shameless.

What the hell is that?!?

2007-06-16T16:13:00.001-07:00

Alright.. it's a game.

What hell is that anyway??

It's looking right at me, which means it is living thing. With eyes... maybe a rare mongolian purple princess tiger???

Furry insect?

With golden palm leaves for eyebrows??

Messed up.. what am I even try to blog here???

Fenton! You're a genius...

Way to crop out a freaky bug you spent 20 minutes trying to take pictures of....

Unemployment is great!

Oh Canada!

2007-06-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

I've been home for about 2 weeks now and I'm feeling pretty damn good about it. I mean, really...look at that! Patios and lakes with trees that have living things in and around them that haven't all been eaten.

There are downsides of course to being back home.

Taxes are a little weird. I find something that should cost 9.99 ends up swallowing a whole 20 dollar bill and spitting out a kilogram of change. I hate change...it goes in bucket in my closet. So, I'm out twenty for the 9.99 buy, but I have about 200 bucks in change saved up after only about 2 weeks.

Back to the upsides...

I haven't heard a car horn in 2 weeks. I get woken up every morning to the sounds of birds singing. I can run everyday on dirt paths, without having to wait for any traffic lights, or dodge any weaving taxis or delivery scooters driving on the sidewalk. Actually, I see no one at all when I run.

I can buy beef...a lot of beef...and beer too!

This is Ash cave in Ohio, I was there two weeks ago. This was an easy shot...I didn't have to hold off 200 North Face shrouded "mountaineers" to get a clear picture.

This is a special time when the joys and benefits of my home culture are all around me and the grim realities of life are held back for a brief while. Life in Asia was not bad, but it makes a comforting contrast.

Beer Ad

2007-06-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

What else is there to say about this?

I found it this morning in the Hamilton Spectator. And I just stared at it for about 5 minutes before managing to convince myself that it was really happening. Sadly, I too am living in my parents basement at the moment. Well, to be honest I am in their basement right now and this poster is hanging on the wall beside me as a testament. A testament to the belief, nay the conviction that I too can move out of my parent's basement if I drink enough cheap beer.

SUPPORT MY MALT LIQUOR CHOICE!!

The Great Escape

2007-05-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

Last week I finally escaped Busan and returned home for good. I call it an escape not so much because I felt I had broken free from a confining situation, but more as a comment on the nature of my flight. More on that in a bit. Korea had become a little, nay a lot, tedious place to be for me over the last few months. Those little things I had enjoyed or endured with such good humor had become amplified in their aggravation. In any country where no one speaks your language(well?), even little everyday things are a little harder, a little more complicated.

Considering that my last few weeks involved a lot errands that required the closing down of accounts and cancellation of services, it was especially trying. So, I was overjoyed to see the tail of this airplane waiting for me at the gate in Narita airport in Tokyo. People say the Japanese are overly bureaucratic.. I might agree after experiencing this airport. I had to show my boarding pass 3 times and sign 2 clipboards just to get bused to my terminal. But more important is the story of how I barely got there in the first place.

This monstrosity is the result of two guitars, a roll of saran wrap and two rolls of duct tape. I had tried to get one of them shipped home but the cheapest and safest way was going to cost more than the guitar itself. So I hauled this green nightmare to the airport Sunday morning with nightmare visions of some airport official asking me to open it up to check something in it.

Bags checked without incident! I was down to to two carry on. The big one gave me trouble. I was pulled out of the line by an agent who told me that it wouldn't fit and I would have to check it. When she learned I had already checked two bags, she got ready to pull out the credit card charge slip. I wasn't having any of it. So, I went to the default position.. the one where I had been travelling for 10 years with this bag and had traveled with me on every major Asian airline without issue. And did she feel that the particular airline that she was representing have carry one baggage containment defiencies in comparison to every other major airline in Asia... she did not in fact feel that way.
Sunrise over the Pacific, as seen through the fog that permeates horizon at 10,000 feet and the numbed senses of a mind travelling against the time zone currents.

Touch down in Toronto some 23 hours after entombing the guitars in in a green coffin.

Good bye Asia, it's been fun and thanks for all the fish.

HK's last show...

2007-05-23T02:41:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was the Hermit King's last show in Busan. Kevin (drums), Mike (vox/acoustic), and myself (acupuncture needle mngt./eye candy) are all heading back home after this weekend. It was a real pleasure pretending to play guitar with these guys. We never had any drama, never trashed talked one another and genuinely enjoyed hanging out before and after the shows; at which time we never talked about our own music. It is totally rare to have 4.5 supremely talented musicians band together for almost a year with barely two egos to rub together.

This was Sunday morning at around 2am. We'd just been kicked off as the cops were threatening noise complaints. As you can see, I am the last to go. It should be noted that this was the only time I had ever broken a smile on stage.

Gino, Travis, Kevin, Mike, and T-bone. I have to go on record to say that we hadn't learned a new song since halloween (werewolves of London). It was not that we didn't feel the need to keep our show fresh, it's just that ESL teacher audiences tend to rotate themselves rather frequently. It was like we were a brand new band every other weekend.

This was our new year's show at Interplay. Nice stage it was, for some reason Kevin didn't make into the picture.

Oh wait...there he is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYX6AmBAg7M

Here are a few videos from Kevin's youtube of last Saturday's show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hm5XafodYQ

The Lemon Party

2007-05-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

Last week I was going over some taste vocab with one of my elementary classes and describing the difference between bitter and sour. So, I asked them to make a face as if they were sucking on a lemon. They all became very excited and yelled out "Teacher! Oh, lemon is delicious." .... Ok then, challenge accepted.

So I made a deal with them. I told them that I would bring in a bag full of lemons for them to eat next week and that they would have to eat them all. If you're reading this, well... you'd have to be... you can imagine my perspective. Eating a bag of lemons sounds like the losing end of a bet.

"Lemon Party!!" they cried. We than made a deal that they would all have to eat a bag of lemons in return for them letting me take their pictures. Here are the results:

This is Robin, he took down at least 2 whole lemons without blinking.

Susan, she was really disappointed when we ran out.

Had to get that last drop. Where are the sour faces???

Helena was cool as ice, she seemed to eat lemons like that french fry kid from those Heinz commercials. She probably eats her oreos in three phases too.

There we go!

This is Han, he was one of the strongest advocates for the Lemon party.

Oh yeah, not so tough after all, are you?!?

Looks like I lost the bet.

The "Leaving Korea in 3 weeks" to do list

2007-05-06T23:53:00.000-07:00

So, I have 3 weeks left in Korea before returning to Canada. Many things need to be done in order complete this chapter in my life. Some items on this list will require painful separation from treasured items and dear friends. Others will entail a concerted effort and close attention to detail in order to make sure that all loose ends are tied up, or down...

Here is my Leaving Korea to do list:

1) Reveal my secret identity in a text message to every number in my cell phone 2 minutes before I have service cut off.

2) Find a home for my plants

3) Be "real" with my students

4) Pack a suitcase full of soju and airplane kimchi

5) In the last 5 days I will take it upon myself to engage in a full dialogue with every single kid who yells "hello" at me and then turns away to giggle with their 20 friends who were leering on.

6) Be "unreal" with my students

7) Kick every car or scooter that cuts me off while crossing a crosswalk.

8) Start practicing how to say "excuse me" again, oh yeah, and re-learn how to eat silently with my mouth closed.

9) Give away the 300 business cards my company gave me.

10) Make my last day at work one that, despite countless hours of therapy, will never be forgotten by anyone who comes in contact with me.

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

2007-05-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

They're the kind of crew that makes me wonder, "Was I that big of a goofball when I was in the 5th grade?", to which I get the immediate response "You were worse". Yep, that's my Tuesday and Thursday Bridge level class. 6 hours a week with them. They alternately drive me nuts and leave me completely cracked up.

I think I learned a valuable lesson from this class, for this is the first group of students in front of whom I completely lost my marbles. Enraged! Anger pouring out into a litany, a mindless lecture within which every alternate word was holding back an F-bomb (or the word "fuck" for those of you out of the "know"). Afterwards, I think we all felt genuine regret, I had a sit down with them, very solemnly talking about why I had gotten so angry and how it made me feel bad to yell. We came to some kind of agreement to avoid that in the future. Lesson learned! Don't say fuck in front of your students!

Anyway, this class is really funny to teach. They usually come up with some kind of priceless line or song or dance every hour. I'll miss'em!

Run Rabbit...run

2007-04-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

The Critical Period of Language Study

2007-04-08T08:19:00.000-07:00

Brought to you by Milhouse

Warning: Side effects may include bed wetting

Cherry Blossoms

2007-04-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

The end of March and the start of April provide a brief window of time in which the cherry trees ignite the landscape of Korea with pink flames. They are really quite brilliant to see and hard to miss, even for those hearts (such as mine) who are the most hardened towards horticulture and flora.

I took a whole series of pictures yesterday on a walk up Dalmaji hill near my apartment in Busan. The flowers only bloom for about two weeks and then they all die and are blown away in clowds of faded pink leaves, much like a surreal tickertape parade.

It still is a nice sight to see while it lasts. It my last term here in Korea and I have been busy packing up life here and mailing it home one box at a time, over the ocean by surface to save money.

I'm sure there is some analogy at work here, but I wouldn't want to burden anyone with it at the moment.

the Seminar

2007-03-28T07:32:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wanted to become one with the wall paper behind you? To just disappear into the background so fluidly that no one would notice? Maybe, everyone was trying so hard not to notice you that you just felt like it was happening anyway. That is how I felt today.

It all started with Tony Jeong.

Tony was my old boss in Toronto, and he taught me a valuable lesson about loyalty. See, Tony would do anything for me, and he never let me down when I asked him for something. And I never let him down either. I also tried to be that way with all of the staff at the school the Tony owned (I was the director). Things went the way they would and I left the school on good terms. So Tony calls me up a few weeks ago and asks me to participate in a couple of marketing seminars here in Korea with some new agent he signed on. I figure; "I'm here" and I think "he's not"... why shouldn't I help out? Never dream of refusing, not in a million years.

So, it's Wednesday and I take the KTX (Korea train X) to Seoul early in the morning. I've done a few of these marketing deals in the past; a crowd of skeptical parents who want to send their children to Canada to study English or a crowd of youngish ex-ESL students-come-entrepreneurs who are interested in making money off of parents who want to send their children to Canada to study English. I tag along, stand up and tell a few jokes about Toronto, state a few good things about my school and sit down. Piece of cake... piece of cake...

Made it into Seoul Station at 11:43, 2.5 hours on the high speed train from Busan, Seoul is always raining and I always leave behind blue skies and sunshine in Busan. I meet Andy in the station, he is a very well organized and efficient man who resembles Jet lee and speaks fluent and enthusiastic English. We get into a mini-van; myself in the shotgun seat and Andy in the back, and off we go. The minivan contains two women and a driver who where later introduced as regional managers. They weren't as enthusiastic as Andy. Actually, I believe I had 5 or 6 seconds of eye contact with each over the next 5 hours.

12:00 noon, on the road in Seoul and I hate the traffic. We spend the next hour driving at a snail's pace through downtown Seoul. It is raining and there is nothing interesting to see out the windows. 1:00pm - we arrive at the school where the seminars is to be held, we got lost and backtracked for 20 minutes to make a u-turn... left turns aren't popular in Korea. After much waiting the seminar begins in a fair sized classroom with about 20 people. Most seem to be students of the school who were cajoled into attending by their teachers, the rest are the moms.
Andy plays an promotional video for my old school in Toronto, and then I am on... I walk up to the front of the class and say hi....

I've been teaching elementary kids for the last two years, I don't like to be misunderstood nor be disregared by a group whom I am addressing.

Sometime after the "hi"and before the "My name is.." I realize that none of them understand a damn word I am saying. I know this for a fact, I have finely honed instincts especially calibrated for Koreans, that indicate to me whether my words, each one as I go, are understand... none are.

Let us just say I was brief...I even made fun of some of the students in the video they had just watched....

only Andy laughed.

So, poor Andy carried on after and delivered a rousing seminar about Canada and studying and something or other. The whole thing was in Korean and I understood very little. This led me to really understand how little I know about the Korean language after all the time I've been here. I did hear the word "student" (Hak Sang) about 20,000 times however. I also heard my own name on a several occasions and looked up just in time to meet the whole room's gaze. After Andy's presentation, the students in the room were offered a chance to have their English level checked by yours truly. About a dozen students miled around for around 20 minutes after this offer was made. I was set up in the corner of the room at one side of a desk with an empty chair ready on the other side, like a palm reader, or a carnie working some deadbeat booth, no one seemed interested ...

...and I found myself trying to blend in with the wall paper

Spring Marathon - Busan

2007-03-25T03:17:00.000-07:00

Just a quick blog about my first 10k marathon. It was really hard to train for, and it ended very quickly without me having to dream up tortuous memories to carry me through the last few kilometers.

It is a milestone for me, I feel so happy for having finished every Goddamn step.. .

This is a little finish line action, I am just really happy I finished the damn thing without stopping.

Final time was 55:06

Jangsan (Mountain)

2007-03-18T03:35:00.000-07:00

So there we were, Kevin O'Shea and I, a little ripe from last evening's St. Patrick's day festivities and seeking some fresh mountain air to slake our parched livers. We had played at u2 the night before and had a good show, aside from a collapsed mic stand, a collapsed guitar amp (grrrrrr!) and an audience member collapsing onto the stage. Unfortunately, by the morning our laurels had become wilted and so we quested on towards the mighty peaks of Jang mountain...

Yep, rising 1200 meters above the ground, Jangsan is a behemoth for the quads and lungs alike with a total of 3.6 km of trail to cover before achieving the apex...

But what a view!!

So many little lives... from above it all looks so tiny and type casted. Yet, those are homes and lifetimes of work down there. The blocky leggo thingy's are highrise condos for the rich and upper middle classes, the nicer ones go for half a million USD.

Haeundae New Town, my home away from home... a giant's set of dominoes.

The Beijing Circus - Video

2007-03-15T22:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have a youtube account now.

Big deal!

So what!

I've joined the online sensation enjoyed by millions. People with a single shared desire...to upload, upload, and upload some more. To give back a little to one from whom we have taken so much.

Anyway, this is from the Beijing Circus and is set to the music of the Apostles of Hustle.

The last two acts were really to much for the eyes to believe.

Music Video

2007-03-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

So my digital camera takes video without any audio. No fear! No task is too daunting for Windows Movie Maker.

My first music video....

The footage is from Shanghai and the MagLev train which rockets back and forth from downtown to the airport in Pukong.
The music is something I recorded over top of the first 7 minutes of George Lucas's THX 1138.

Full Moon Fever

2007-03-07T01:31:00.000-08:00

Sunday, March 4th The first full moon of the lunar new year marks a special tradition in Korea. People gather around a large cone of dead wood and bramble and then line it with banners and packages containing wishes for prosperity, health and high test scores. Around 7pm the large pile was set ablaze. The fire started out slowly but soon billowed into a major blaze, despite the driving rain, with smoke and cinders pouring over the heads of the several hundred or so spectators who braved the wet conditions to witness the spectacle.

Construction of the "pyre".
(photo courtesy of http://kevinoshea.blogspot.com/)

The completed burning thingy,

and an anxious crowd of umbrellas.

The smoldering hunk of burning...ah, whatever...
That's a spotlight and the TV in the beside it was playing
commercials for booze.

Eventually the fire kicked up and cooked up everyone's new year wishes real good!!

Fire at night is very hard to take clear pictures of...

Bejing V - Temples, Palaces and Acrobatics

2007-03-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

As per any tour, there are high points and low points. Considering all you are able to see in a limited time with the aid of an experienced tour guide and tour bus, sometimes it is worth a pearl factory or two.

Despite my own misgivings, the night time shows in Beijing are really outstanding. The first evening we attended an acrobatic show. Which was composed of around a half dozen mind boggling acts of physical inhumanity. It began with the two man dragons balancing on large (yoga?) balls and ended up with 15 girls in peacock dresses riding around the stage on one bicycle.
The Kung Fu show was a bit strange however. I had seen the show in 2002 and it was really good. The Shaolin monk show back then included a relatively bare stage and a series of demonstrations of their abilities and fighting styles; smashing bamboo staffs and rocks over body parts, balancing, leaning necks on sword blades to name a few.

This time around someone had decided to revamp and modernize the show. There was lights, music, a storyline and lots of modern dancing...even a love interest!!

At least they still served beer.

The Summer Palace was the residence of the emperor during the...well, the summer and is dominated the man-made Kunming Lake. Making a lake by hand seems a little extreme, but the emperor or empress needed to keep cool. There is an expression that the Chinese have about this, or at least that our tour guide has about this; "The people are the water and the emperor is the ship...the people must keep the emperor from sinking by hoisting him afloat, without a ship, the water has no meaning".

There is the really long walkway that runs along the length of the shore line where the main residence lies. This was for walking...for the emperor to take walks along. The whole thing is hand painted and every inscription and image an original. On the far side of the palace are some gardens and a stone boat which serves and an ironic comment on the fact the the empress Cixi (not a very nice woman...killed her son to keep power) diverted 30 million taels of silver(about 80mil. USD on today's market) to restore the palace for her retirement. The money was diverted from funds that were designated for the Chinese navy.

The Temple of Heaven and Earth is another example of the emperor's power and prestige.

The temple's main function was to offer the emperor a place to come once a year and pray for the harvest. The emperor was considered by the population to be the "son of heaven" and a god in his own right. The singular head of state was also responsible for rain too. On the day the emperor would visit the temple, the royal guard cleared all of the streets of Beijing

and strict silence was enforced.

These days, the grounds outside the temple have been taken over by card players. They are unusually quiet though...

Beijing IV - The Great Wall

2007-03-03T21:21:00.000-08:00

On the Second day of our trip we went to Juyongguan Pass which is section of the Great Wall which connects two mountain ranges. This section of the wall is known as the Badaling pass of and is located about 50km north of Beijing.

On the wall '07

It was roughly 6,352km long when it was in its various stages of completion. These days it is has fallen into disrepair and has only been restored in small sections where tourists visit. Ironically, the wall deteriorated as a result of people from local villages vandalizing it and removing the stones in order to repair older homes and construct new ones.

On the wall '02

It was my second trip to the wall and the first time I had the chance to climb it (the first time there was a cable car to take us to the top). The climb as hard, steep, and impossibly crowded neat the base. However, it thinned out dramatically the closer we got to the summit and we were able to get some good pictures. Getting a shot of anything in China without someone else in it is a major task.

The hardest thing about the climb was the fact that the wall twisted and turned its way up the mountain and that the steps were uneven and completely irregular and random in their spacing. It was explained to us that this was to slow down invaders who had breached the wall and were attempting to use it to move troops unharassed through the mountains.

It works...

Tiananmen Square - Revisited

2007-03-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

My first visit to China was in July of 2002. I was teaching in Daegu, South Korea at the time and this trip represented a lot for me. I had always held a fascination with China and many of its cultural symbols and icons. I was mainly intent on seeing the great wall, which was a life long ambition of mine, and the Forbidden city.

Despite my expectations it was Tiananmen Square that had the most resounding impact, the effects of which echoed long after

I had returned to Korea and eventually to Canada. So, there I was two weeks ago when I returned to the square, armed with watching a few hours of Frontline documentaries and a digital camera. I got the same sense I had of the sqaure the first time. We entered from the South end which is lined with giant red flags and a tall square stone statue. The East side of the square is flanked by the Great hall of the People and on the west side there is the Chinese National Museum, curiously no one ever talks about visiting that one. On the northern end of the square is the entrance to the Forbidden city.

When I was walking through the center of all of this, I felt a strong nagging pull; a sense of gravity or weight. This square is the political and cultural power center for a huge nation of billion(s). Not only that, but it is a power that follows rules other that ours. A power that has grown since I had last visited. Standing in the middle of the square is like standing in the middle of the audience chamber of panel of stone and iron giants.

Then I shook it off and started trying to sneak pictures of the soldiers like all of the other tourists were doing.

Coming into the back of the Square from the south east.

The Chinese National Museum

The North end of the Square and the entrance to the Forbidden city.

Gotcha!!

Well, Soldier's don't like to have their pictures taken and will threateningly warn off cameras, which makes them enviable targets. There is a lot of apprehension amongst visitors here with regards to the massacre in 1989 and the police controls. There is definitely a strong police and military presence in the square and, since '89, it has been shut down every night at 7pm.

An infamous image...

The hotel from where it was taken.

Beijing - The Night the Sky Broke

2007-02-28T19:55:00.000-08:00

Spring Festival is heralded in by the Lunar New Year which is celebrated all across Asia. We arrived in Beijing on Saturday which was the eve of New Year's day. There is a tradition in China where people make dumplings and then go out and light off fireworks. The dumplings are to ease Family strife and tension; pounding and grinding pork, flattening dough, and carefully mending and sealing the ingredients together in a lovely little pouch. The fireworks are for scaring away evil spirits in order to ensure a prosperous new year. The Chinese have never struck me as a particularily supersitious people, but they do know a thing or two about fireworks.

They did invent them after all.

It began around 8pm Saturday evening. Loud pops could be heard from our tour bus and flashes of light reflecting off of the windows from roman candles that people were firing off of their balconies. It seems that fireworks in China are crafted not only for their luminous qualities, but also for their audible power. These things were loud, louder than anything, so loud that your stomach jumps up into your throat only to find your heart beat it there...so loud that your girlfriend's thumb and fingernails meet each other in the center of your arm.

We went out walking about the city around 10pm, there was already a reddish haze cast over the city from the light of the fireworks and the red lanterns that were lit everywhere. People were lighting off strings of firecrackers every few meters or so.

They were really loud and the men who were lighting them seemed to have an almost juvenile mischief about them. We later learned that this was probably due to the fact that it was the first time that the government had allowed people to light them off in the streets. Previously, fireworks were limited to the city limits or parks.

A small shop illuminated by the light of the fireworks.

The fireworks grew in intensity until, around midnight, they reached their crescendo. By this time we had found a vantage point along the embankment of a river along the Second Ring round near the center of the city. The explosions reached a fever pitch the likes of which I have never and will never experience again. Every degree we turned was layered with light and explosion, my senses could not keep up with it all. The noise was so deafening that it was an effort to deny my body's instinct to duck and run for cover.

In silence we walked back towards the hotel. Although the fireworks continued, we felt full, overwhelmed and ready for shelter. The noise and the smoke was becoming oppressive and we still had to constantly jump and forth to avoid exploding things.

By this time, the streets were littered with the red paper of countless firecrackers. China Central Television in Beijing reported 260 injuries related to firework misuse.

...at least they took care of those evil spirits

Beijing - Spring Festival

2007-02-28T00:11:00.000-08:00

Beijing, the capitol of China and the center of production for a new globally minded economy of dollar stores and shoe retail outlets. Spring festival, three days and two nights of firework illuminated, Holiday Inn accomodated, and greasy duck and malty beer fueled mayhem.

Our tour consisted of 34 Canadian, English, American, and Australian English Teachers from South Korea and was led by Charlie. A man of many insightful comments and a Buddha belly.

It was my second trip to Beijing and my third trip to China overall and I was really amazed at how much more modern the city had become since 2002 when I had last visited. The whole country is gearing up for the 2008 summer games and has invested untold fortunes into modernizing their transportation, upgrading their tourist facilities, repainting the temples and palaces, and teaching people how to que up or lines. (no, seriously! The second of every month is line etiquette day and patrols of volunteers run around the city enforcing line "kindness")

The countdown is on!! The sign outside of the People's hall counting down the seconds to the opening of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

Surrealist Subway Etiquette

2006-12-20T01:54:00.000-08:00

These pictures were taken from posters in subway stations all over Busan. They had been staring me in the face for months and I had not gleamed their true meaning until recently. Now, I wish to share my revelations...

This one is a little deceptive, the English is a little too straightforward. The Korean script translates as "Hand Be Careful". So, I guess this means that English readers aren't supposed to touch the sign, and Koreans should just be careful when they do.

No grooving or lounging allowed on the stairs!!

Interesting causation going on here. From what I can gather, the cessation of spread-leg, full page newspaper reading can actually result in new hairstyles for your neighbors. I also think there is some punctuation things going on too, but that is beyond my humble deductive faculties.

Pandas...Giraffes ... elderly pink rabbits with plaid mufflers .... ... Smiley faces!! It is clear what's going on here.

Translation: "What in the hell are you doing crawling out of my TV?!?"

...???

You fool, you're supposed to jump over the turnstyle, not crawl under it! (But really, aren't those some evil looking grins!)

Again with the evil faces! Resultingly, I feel this one is also a bit of mixed message. Should we not block the people disembarking, or should we not man-handle the people that do.

Experience tells me the latter is correct.

Christmas in Korea

2006-12-11T20:31:00.000-08:00

I've never been much of a crusader, I think crusades create a momentum that blur and dull the causes that spurned them. People just get caught up in the blood and iron. Operation Enduring Freedom as it may now be called (I heard they stopped calling them wars in the 90's to save money on pensions...unconfirmed rumour of course) was originally called operation Holy Crusade. That lasted about 6 hours until the one guy in the white house who actually had a history degree (I think he maintains the fixtures in the east wing) mentioned the potential misconstrutions with a name containing "crusade".

So, back to Christmas and my angst over having to work Christmas day. Oh yeah, I have to work Christmas day. Everyone in my company does. It is a statuatory holiday in Korea, replete with deparment store music and seasonal kitch. There is no real family element to it though. Those sentiments get taken care of on other holidays. Yet still, it is a day off for all, except those in my company. My company...ahh, what to say. They pay well, but they don't really believe in acknowledging holidays. Now, I know that they have in past year made some exceptions in the Busan chapter and granted some extra days off around Korean thanksgiving.

So, I approached the branch manager and inquired as to the possibility of calling Christmas, which falls on a Monday, off. He said no. Then he got one of the office staff to arrange invitations to a "christmas tree decorating party" at 12 freakin'3o this friday afternoon. Clearly the point was missed, nay, it was all together dodged. It would be like throwing a Korean a pack of go-stop cards and a cup of green tea and then saying "Happy Lunar NewYear M#*&'er F#*^'er, now get back to work!"

Ah, blogs are fun. I had no idea I could rant like this. I was going to go all out and make a big issue. I mean raise shit tactically. I've read a lot about social agitation and the promotion of subversive political agendas. The Soviets were pretty good at it, I even wrote a paper on the Comintern in University. I decided against it though, it would more than likely just cause a lot of malaise and bitterness in people who didn't already feel that way about the company. I've been there long enough now to know that will come naturally.

I'll guess I pin a piece of plastic on a fake plastic tree and then choke back another slice of pepporoni and crab pizza covered in corn.

Children are the dardest things...

2006-12-02T00:15:00.000-08:00

It is another week in December. The first week of a new term coming on to my umpteenth Christmas away from home. This week I have been plagued by recurring students, some of whom I have had in class for almost a year now. This is good in that I can really direct their progress over a concerted amount of time and I can also enjoy watching how far they have come along. It is bad in that they know all of my tricks and jokes nd I have had to, much like madonna, continually re-invent myself. Unfortunately, I do not have the assistance of makeup or hair support staff so I have to rely on cheap gimmicks.

As strange as I may seem to them, they are just as freaky to me. For example, I have always wondered why, whenever I say hello or wave to them, they shake their heads at me. I find it mildly offensive but never really acted on it until this week when I asked them; "Why are you negating my greetings", or in teacherspeak..."why are you so wierd when I say hello, why do you do that?!? Huh!? Speak I say you!".

After the chorus of giggles and mockery subsided, it was impatiently explained to me that it was their way of saying hi back. They were shaking their heads instead of their hands. "So, you're all just too lazy to say hi then" I asked. "Yes!" was the resounding answer.

Maybe this term I will also learn why the students cover their pencil cases with meaningless stickers (full cases, and they still have to borrow pencils and erasers off of me), and why they like to make mini sculptors out of eraser bits, and why the word "poo" is so damn funny!

A Mountain Tale

2006-11-12T05:08:00.000-08:00

Long, long ago, a peasant wandered the mountains with a heavy heart. His dreams of love and prosperity had been recently been crushed. You see, he had been in love with a girl. Not just in love, but completely in love. The kind that makes a man plan his life around every single detail of the object of his affection. The sun would rise, and so would the peasant boy. His waking thoughts would unfold like a beautiful dream of how he and the object of his heart's desire would pass their time together. Then as reality crept in to his waking mind as the sunlight crawled into the corners of his small hut, his disappointment at the dream's end would be replaced with the elation of the chance of meeting her that day and he would fantasize about their future together. You see, he had already won her love and they stole every minute of each day that they could to be together on the mountain where he wandered. The only place they could be alone and in love.

The peasant was young and he knew to win the respect of her father, a local magistrate, he needed to achieve a title of honor. The only way he knew how to do this was to pass the provincial exams and enter into the Emperor's service. And so, the boy studied every day and every night. For years he toiled over the characters and charters and memorized them all. His mind was quick to learn and within his heart was the passion to translate the old scripts into meaningful precepts which would benefit the people of his prefecture.

After ten years of study, all the while working the meager fields of his family's plot, the peasant boy went to the capitol to write the royal exams. He passed with some acclaim and returned the following month proudly riding a pigmy horse and wearing the tunic of the civil servant class.

His love was overjoyed to see him, after so many years of secret hope and yearning they had a chance to be together openly. She told him of a banquet her father was holding that night in honor of the local militia and urged him to attend and request her hand in marriage publicly. That night the boy, now a man draped in the garb of official office, arrived at the magistrate's home and was seated and the table far from the guests of honor and his love, who sat silently beside her father. After the banquet had progressed for some time, the boy rose and addressed the table;

"I have recently achieved the most humble rank of civil servant of the provincial prefecture of his royal Emperor's magistrate. I wish to, and with great respect, request the honor of the local magistrate's daughter's hand in marriage", he said with dignity.

The table fell still and the guests all looked towards the head of the table where the magistrate sat with his daughter and the militia leaders.

"You know, my daughter is of age and would make a fantastic wife" the magistrate said to the handsome militia leader who sat beside him.

"I would most certainly agree", said the militia leader. The daughter all the while had kept her head bowed respectfully.

"Your Honor!" said the boy exclaimed with some authority. "I wish to marry your daughter, we have been in love for the past ten years!"

"I would greatly like to build an estate to the north of the village and begin a family", said the young militia leader. "I've been fighting for a year and have killed many invaders, my family used to work the books for the emperor but I never had the heart for such dry and dull work." The militia leader stood as he finished and the magistrate stood with him.

"Good show, I would be honored to provide you the land and the construction crew. Let's have the wedding...uhm tomorrow?" the Magistrate queried.

"Oh, why not," the militia leader replied.

"Sir! I have an official title! I am a member of the court of the emperor! I am not a peasant any more. My love for your daughter is such that it grows painful with every beat of my heart that does not echo against hers!" The boy shouted. But the table had cleared and all had left, including his love with her new husband to be. Not a glance she had spared his way.

The boy was left alone.

That night the boy made a decision. He knew he had been scorned, but his love was unabated and he climbed the mountain once more and sat atop it and decided to die. He knew that the militia leader planned to build his estate on this ground and that if he managed to keep his love stronger than his body, his spirit would always occupy this space and he would be close to her. It was a painful choice, but his humble peasant heart knew not how to fight the militia leader and the magistrate. He knew only how much he wanted to be close to his love. So, he sat on the peak of the mountain and prepared to pass away slowly.

That night, invaders crept into the valley and razed the village. The militia was caught off guard and was overwhelmed. As the magistrate and his guard were being slaughtered, the girl managed to escape and ran for the mountain where her and her love had once met every day. She was cut down by the invaders arrows as she ran up the hill. Her love had since died atop the mountain, his heart had given up on the terrible task his mind had put unto it and his spirit was then left forever shackled to mountain top.

And so they were left apart, to wait for time to breathe its wind and rain down upon the mountain's back and bring them together.

Where their bodies had lain, strange totems grew both facing each other in frozen longing, growing closer as the mountain slowly flattened, knowing they would reunite once again.

Jang-San Mountain

2006-10-29T21:23:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday a group of us hiked up Jang-San, or Jang-Mountain. Mountain hiking, or climbing as the locals call it, is a pretty big deal in Korea. (we established that climbing require the use of all four limbs, whereas hiking was just the legs)

South Koreans take a lot of pride in their mountains and it is a great family outing.

They also, stereotypically, tend to over do the gear. The walk up was fun, although a little crowded. We still got to see some of the local citizens in their natural mountainous environments.

There is a surprising amount of alcohol involved as well. (Note the pack of cigarettes and bottle of rice wine this gentleman's left hand)

There are usually dong-dong-ju (rice wine with a kick!!) huts scattered across the to pf the mountain. This one is a little rustic, and the maitre'd told us there would be a twenty minute wait for a table. Something about changing the linen??

Walking along the ridge was nice, less people and a very beautiful view of the sea and coastline. It was a little misty so most of the pictures didn't turn out. However...

This sign raised a few of our eyebrows!! (There was a radar station at the top of this ridge)

Ah, the sleepy suburb of Haeundae New Town. My house is the 346th building from the left.

Halloween Party

2006-10-29T02:46:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday was the big Halloween party at U2 club near Haeundae beach. It was a great night, a lot of people showed up and most of them were dressed up. Halloween doesn't really exist here, so most of the expats tend to really do it up.

We didn't really coordinate on our costumes as you can see but it..whatever! We're no chorus line. Travis the bassist was some kind of mad science guy. Gino was dracula, "the prince of goddamn darkness" as he put it.

I wimped out and just wore a suit. I was supposed to be Agent Smith from the matrix movies. But only about two people got it. Most people thought I was Kevin Costner from the bodyguard, or an FBI or secret service agent.

Kevin was Michael Bolton...sorry Kevin, had to publish this picture. Nice sounding cymbal!!

Mike, our singer, was supposed to be some kind of grungy Skeletor/He-man hybrid. I think it was a good party, I'm not sure as I spent most of the night on stage but we did keep the dance floor full all night.

South Korean students..

2006-10-26T19:17:00.000-07:00

Half of my students are elementary 4-6. Originally I was pretty bad at controlling them. I relied on trying to placate them and nurture their various needs and wants. I maintained control only by sudden volume swells of my voice and hollow threats which the kids would start seeing through after about 20 minutes.

I've been through all kinds of different approaches since then and I undoubtably will be through many more, however; I am particularily enjoying my current strategy. It involves an inner struggle between two polar opposites within me. This dichotomy, the "Snape/Dumbledorf" or the Evil Thomas/Angel Thomas as I refer to it in front of the kids (...oh yeah, I fully keep them involved), is a daily, even hourly struggle between unfairness/cruelty and kindness/compassion.

In the class, it would go something like; "Oh no, the power of evil Thomas is rising...I must fight it, but I am not strong enough." And so the kids will rally with all kinds of support and cheers to keep Angel Thomas in control. Basically, they stop screwing around for ten minutes so I can get on with a lesson. At least once a class "Evil" Thomas does in fact take over quite suddenly, and he usually is pretty mean. He takes aways test points for no reason, doubles up homework, and makes the students act out CNN dialogues.

Anyway.. enough of my schizoid teaching practices (they'll only be effective with this bunch for another week or so anyway). It is really about the kids. I think I have a reasonable straight relationship with them. They are really responsive to reason and often give very sincere and untainted opinions. (Quite unlike adults) Here is an example of some writing my students did for me last week. The topic was "One Korea" and they had to discuss what it would be like if the North and South unified.

One student named Anne wrote about how wonderfull it would be for South korean students to visit the North and the Northerners to come south to exchange ideas and learn each others dialects.

Another kid, Ricky, wrote "Of course there must be confusion but after 5 years it will be good and our country will be strong. We have an advantage over other sides in that we have skills, money, and many peoples. I want no one became a dominant form of our life."

Allen writes "...these days more and more countries says that the North Korea is not our alliance and the North Korea did experiment of Newclear, So world and North Korea is now more and more far...if the situation is worst, unfortunately we should fight for the North Korean citizen and our future."

The last one is from Brad who is a little younger. He wrote, "South dominated all parts of democracy and North dominated all parts of communism. And ideology is still a powerful facter in Koreas. We can be one by persuading if we be one. We will be often worse off than before IMF and we will be can found it difficult to escape from low money. But we're same people. So we have to be one, not separating two country. And they may have nuclear, so no country will attack our country too."

Clearly Brad has had his hands in the ole' cookie jar of Historical Materialism. Still, quite remarkable for a young man of 9. They are all quite brilliant.

The week before, their assignment was to imagine they had kidnapped me and had to write a ransom letter to our school. I have never had kids stay after the bell on their own to finish something. Let's just say that bombs were implanted in my brain, my body parts were mailed out one at a time after the deadline wasn't met, my life is worth an average of about 50$US, and whatever you do...DO NOT contact the police.

(In)Significance

2006-10-20T23:05:00.000-07:00

I always keep a copy of this picture on my computer at work. It is of Jupiter taken by one of the Pioneer missions. The great red spot on the left is roughly the size of the earth and the moon Io is 105% the size of our moon.

Why am putting this picture on my blog?? Two reasons; I need to draw attention away from that horrible id photo below and nothing else significant has happened to me recently, and well...this picture always gets me somehow. Especially when I feel this overwhelming sense of blah...melancholy, or just an inert vapid feeling that the days are walking past me one by one. One by one I try to come up with different reasons to be happy...one by one I try to convince myself about why I shouldn't be sad.

I feel this way and I come across a picture like this. It doesn't cheer me up, I am not that big of a dork. But it strikes me as small. The smallness of the image, look at it...it is the biggest planet in our solar system, yet the picture looks the size of beach ball. Maybe it is the shadow of Io, it is just too regular to be something so huge. There it is, this massive ball of immense swirling gas commanding an armada of moons, and I am not impressed!!

Screw you universe! My problems are way more important!!

Terry Fox Marathon Busan

2006-10-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 15th - The first annual Terry Fox marathon was held in Busan. The race has been held for several years in Seoul and there were over a thousand participants. Unfortunately few of those were Canadians.

We had a gig in PNU the night before so I woke up at 6:40 with about 4 hours of sleep. However, I was pretty excited as this was my first marathon of any kind since I began running around a year ago. A group of us met at around 7am and jumped into taxis to get to the start line and register. The course started near Olympic park (a glorified parking lot) and went out along the yacht club to Dong Baek point and then looped back.

We were supposed to get started at 8am. but we ended up standing around for almost an hour listening to speeches in Korean (with the exception of the ambassador who gave a brief and relatively unimpressive pep talk), watching some very bad cheerleader routines and then listening to the Korean anthem. I guess it is not a nationalistic event so I was not really bothered by the lack of the Canadian anthem. It was the group warm-up that really drove me nuts. Everyone in a crowd dancing to Korean soccer music! Well, it wasn't that bad, I was just really frustrated that they delayed the start for so long. I was ready to run at 8!!

The run itself was good, it is neat to have roads closed off and police re-directing traffic around us. I relished the anger of those impatient drivers who were yelling at the police because the wouldn't let them cut across the path of the racers. Kevin(pictured), Raphael and I ran together along with most of my co-workers and staff from the school. It was a lot of fun but I have immediately set my sites on a 10k somewhere in the near future.

I should say, there was some tragic irony/hyposcrisy/plain ignorance that occured at the end of the race.Some people who had finished before us (and we ran pretty hard!) were lounging under the tents and puffing away on cigarettes. At first, I thought it was so weird that these runners celebrated the completion of a marathon with a cigarette. But then it occurred to me that the whole point of this marathon was to fight cancer and that cigarettes are leading the fight against the fight against cancer (wordy?).

In otherwords, it's like firing off an AK-47 at a peace rally.

Mi Casa

2006-10-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

A few pictures of my home in Busan. Although it seems small, it is actually rather small. Ideal for one person. The bed functions as both sleeping receptacle, couch, recliner, and trampoline. I live on the 22nd floor so I have decent view of Dalmaji mountain and can see a sliver of the ocean which is about a 10min walk to the left.

The kitchen is a miracle of ergonomics. Some where in this picture is a full fridge and freezer, washing machine, gas range, full bathroom, garborator, and make up counter/mirror. All of which I make full use of.

A twilight view from the terrace on the 20th floor

Shanghai V - Museums

2006-10-13T00:20:00.000-07:00

More pictures, these ones were taken at several of the museums and galleries in Shanghai. They range from world class excellence to run down and downright bad. The photo pictured above is from the sculpture section of the Shanghai museum which was one of my favourites.

It has some amazing stone work, jade and ancient calligraphy galleries. The Shanghai Propoganda museum on the other hand was not so world class but oddly enough my favourite one. It was located in the basement of a tenement apartment block in a rundown neighborhood in the Frence Concession. I had to get the guard at the gate to give me a map and then wander around until I found building C. In the basement I had to bang on the door to wake up the curator who opened the door to the "gallery" and then left me to it. Some amazing posters showing Mao era propoganda mostly telling people to work harder, produce more, support international comrades in the struggle against imperialism and to kick the hell out of America.

The Shanghai Museum of Modern Art was also very cool, although not very Chinese. I guess that goes without saying though.

The Shanghai Museum of Urban planning was also kind of cool as it had a full scale model of the city that took up the entire 4th floor. Very impressive!

Shanghai IV - Old Town

2006-10-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share some more pictures from the Shanghai trip. I have been back in Korea for one week now and working again, so my memories of the trip are starting to lose their vividness. Not much text, just a quick photo show.

There is a big bazaar in Old Town, a old run down district in the south central region of the city, which has a lot of tacky and underpriced souvenirs. My friend Kevin and I ended up following a walking tour we found in our lonely planet guides which led us through all kinds of narrow alleyways. Guidebooks in hand, we marched on with sopping wet laundry dripping on us from above.

There were a lot of people hanging around. Some had shirts, some did not but all of them seemed pretty unphased by foreigners walking through their neighborhood.

Yes, McDonald's... fits in nicely doesn't it?

Tom's World

2006-10-09T20:55:00.000-07:00

Pardon this little bit of self indulgence, I couldn't help getting all of these pictures of me with my name in the background. Kinda cheeky I know, but it is still a little weird to see your own name on all of these strange signs.

One of the popular purchases for tourists in China is a personalized stamp which has your name in chinese characters carved into the end of an ornate wooden or stone tube. This is then rubbed into red dye and used as a signature. It is unique as the carvings of Chinese characters are very intricate and difficult to duplicate the same way twice. So people use these in lieu of real signature when signing important documents or contracts. My name in Chinese (or the simplest characters I could find that almost sounded like my name) means To (Dirt/soil) - Ma (horse) - and Shway/Su (water).

So in China, I am know as Dirty - Horse - Water.

Shanghai III - Renmin People's Square

2006-10-08T20:32:00.000-07:00

Well, it is actually more like a botanical garden. At one point this park held over 100,000 people who were attending a rally in the 50's to celebrate Mao's return to power.

I was up early every morning and the park was just a few minutes from my hotel, so I would often wander around and watch the old people practice Tai Chi, sword and flower dances, and a whole other variety of exercises. Everyone in the park was doing something. In some areas you would see old men gathered around stone tables playing checkers with a crowd avidly looking on and commentating. Other large groups of people would be performing their Tai Chi in large groups while I would also find a solitary man or woman practicing alone in some shady corner.

It is a very graceful and slow ballet. I have heard it is really quite difficult and requires a lot of muscle control and balance. No wonder these old woman are so good at shoving people out of the way in lines. The whole show would all begin around 6am and abruptly cut off at 7:30.

Shanghai II - The Bund

2006-10-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

The Bund (pr. bunned) is an very old financial district that sits on the shore of the Huangpo in central Shanghai, it is where all of the old aristocrats, foreign businesses, and bankers hung out. The east shore is lined with old european style banks atop which you can find many posh patio bars and cafes where you can enjoy the view.
Across the river is Pudong free economic zone (pictured). It is an area that was built up over the last decade and has brought in billions USD of foreign investment. The best thing to do after a long day of walking around and sightseeing is to get a good seat in one of the roof top patios, help yourself to two for one Tiger pints and watch the sun set and the other side of the river light up. Absolutely breathtaking!!

The bund itself is named after for the Persian word band which means damn or embankment. It is basically a mile or so walkway along the east side of the river and is usually swarming with tourists. It is really weird to see the contrast between both shores. The modern almost Jetson family-like architecture of the Pearl TV tower which looks like it is about to take off into space on the west bank and the stone pillars and baroque buildings flanked by dark side roads on the west.

Considering PRC ideology which condemns the evil "running dog" capitalists of the West and praises the integrity and strength of the common peasantry, it is a little out of place. China is a land of definite contrasts.

Shanghai I

2006-10-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

I have at last, after six weeks of travel, settled back home in Korea. Tomorrow I will start work again which is something I have mixed feelings about... Anyway, I returned from Shanghai last Wednesday and had a phenomenal experience. I had purchased a digital camera for the trip and took many, many pictures. I am going to try to get as much of the trip out as possible and the best way to do this would be geographically and not chronologically. This is Shanghai...

Well, this doesn't really give you a good perspective on the city itself. However, most of the action is along the east shore of the river which is called the Huangpo and feeds into the Yangtze to the North. After landing in Pudong airport, I took the Maglev (magnetic levitation) train into the city. This train is one of only two in the world and the ride is about 7 minutes long. The train starts to slow down after 4 or 5 minutes. It is funny because everyone is busy watching the speedometer above the door in the front of the car and ignoring the scenery flying past.

From the train, it was across the street into one of the nicest subway systems I have ever been in. I actually took one taxi the whole time I was in Shanghai, and that was with a Chinese friend I had made. Mainly, I relied on the subway and my feet to get around.

I popped up in Nanjing rd East which is a long rod filled with hotels, cafes, bars and department stores. This road is blocked of to traffic and is a mecca for tourists.

It took me a long time to find the hotel as they are all on the upper floors of these department stores, frankly I was completely starstruck by all of the sights, signs and sounds of this road. Everyday I walked along it, I noticed new things, places and features. It was like a puzzle whose pieces started to fit together the more I looked at. Of course, this road is a fishing pond for touters, prostitutes and panhandlers. The longer I stayed, the less the seemed to bother me though.

Igidae

2006-09-25T00:04:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures from yesterday's hike along the coast. There is a great path that runs along the opposite end of the bay where I live.

This is the "Gwangan Dae Gyo" or the Gwangan "Great" Bridge. It couldn't be just called the Gwangan Bridge because that would make it the "Gwangan Gyo" and everybody knows that is just silly talk.

It is an impressive bridge and lends some validity to Busan's claim to be the San Fransisco of Asia...

The path hugs the shore and often goes right along the rocks using suspension bridges and wooden catwalks. All along the rocks near the water you can see sport fisherman. I call them "sport" fisherman because they are all well dressed in new gear and seem to be just enjoying the surf and keeping every minnow they catch. Not as much interested in feeding their families as they are being outdoors.

The rocks are very cool with lots of huge waves crashing over and that really visceral feeling that the ocean always seems to give. I feeling of power and depth, a sense of vastness... you know when you look out across the water that it goes half way around the world.

Next time I travel back home, I might take the boat.

A few words concerning trans-Pacific air travel...

2006-09-24T23:47:00.000-07:00

So I arrived in Busan on Saturday night around 10pm, it was a confusing and surreal arrival as I had embarked the previous Friday morning at 10am from Toronto.

I think what makes traveling to Asia so confusing is the time change. Coming back to Canada was a cinch. Leave Thursday at 7:30pm and arrive the same Thursday at 7:45pm. Love that date line, it creates a hole in time in which you had spent 14 hours sitting in a semi-comfortable chair, breathing recycled air and marveling at a projection screen, over the heads of several dozen people ahead of you, which is indicating that you are currently 10,300m over Siberia. (I've always wanted to go there!)
This hole in time is easy to reconcile. You haven't lost anything and you can pretend it didn't happen by just stopping your watch as soon as you sit down on the plane before take off and starting it again when you land-pause and unpause.

However, when I flew back. I had all this missing time to deal with, I mean the actual travel time was only around 23 hours or so. The missing 13... the made me feel really tired. Deep down. Even as I write this on Monday I feel like my blood is thick porridge and my eyelids are made of lead. Everything is just dragging.

Better get over it. Off to Shanghai the day after tomorrow.

Home for a Rest

2006-09-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

I have been back home in Canada for about two weeks now, it has been a fantastic break from the grind in Busan and I finally feel completely rested and aclimatized. I did learn a few tricks as to how to opitmize the adjustment to the 12 hour time zone gap and the counter culture shock:

1) As soon as you sit down on the plane and before you even buckle your seat belt, change your watch to the time at your destination and start thinking in that time.

2) Upon disembarking, get in a car and head to the nearest lake. You will need 1 inflatable tube and 1 motorboat with at least 75hp.

3) Proceed to have someone drag you across the lake and top speed (I recommend at least 30mph) and then when you reach the center of the lake engage the surface of the water with your face.

4) Upon the recovery of your senses and the realization that your are floating prostrate in the middle some lake in western Ontario, you can consider your yourself fully de-planed.

For further illustration, you can consult the enlargement below.

As you can clearly see, I am exhibiting none of the signs of jet lag or cross-cultural anxiety.

It is not as strange to be back as I had anticipated it would be. I found it a little bizarre at first to see all of these familiar faces around me. I felt that everyone was an old classmate or teacher that I had forgotten. I mean everyone around me looked like someone I used to know. This is probably because I have been surrounded by seas of Asian faces for 15 months and it is the first time I have been surrounded with people of similiar feature.

Aside from the other tangible elements of being back home; the food, beer, cheese, cable TV, masculine clothes, english speaking cashiers, clerks not following you around stores, the complete absence of car horns, no one yelling at you to come into their store, jay walking, buses that run once an hour, having to call for a taxi, the lack of megaphones being used to sell things, and comforting presence of family and loved ones, it hasn't been much of change. Happy to be here and also will be happy to be back in two weeks.

I guess the trick is to not let your expectations dictate your impressions. The less to expect the more to impress (bubble gum phil. quote 2376#g, patent pending)

Incoming!

2006-08-18T00:40:00.000-07:00

This is the latest Typhoon to set its sights on Korea. It is named WuKong which is a fairly menacing title for a storm. At this point, it is set to reach land on Sunday and is been classified a "TD" or tropical depression (insert bad pun here). Already we're having some wonky weather with sideways rain and really strong winds. It is a little unnerving to wait for a storm to hit you especially considering all of the damage that one did to China's east coast last week. Inverted umbrellas will abound!

More Band Pictures

2006-08-11T08:55:00.000-07:00

More band pictures, I guess that is all that I have been doing. I am coming home soon, 13 days in fact. Hence my lack of introspection and embrasure (is this even a word?) of shameless self promotions.

Let me introduce my band, it'll make me feel less guilty about just posting pictures and not having anything to say about them...

This is Mike and Gino. Our singer and bass player. Mike is from Windsor and has been singing and playing in bands for years. He has a very dynamic vocal range and does Jim Morrison and Robert Plant in the same set with ease. In this picture he seems to be either a) lamenting the retreat of his hairline b) struggling with 3rd verse-itis, or c) wondering what the hell Gino is trying to play.

So there is Gino, definitely a man of many seasons. Heis actually a great guitarist who took the ultimate silver bullet in the heart, the final sacrifice any six string web slinger could make...he agreed to play bass in order to get into a band. You would never know by listening though, he makes it look easy. He also one of those guys who has somehow found the time to have learned 675% more songs than I have ever heard of.

And then there is this guy, Kevin...Kevin O'Shea. The rare drummer who actually listens while he is drumming. The funny thing I have learned is that musicians all do wierd things when they are nervous. And every musician gets nervous, if they don't they are either dead inside or they are too drunk to feel anything. Most musicians just get sweaty, I get clammy and rigid. I couldn't smile to save my life. With drummers though, they have a lot of work to do and they generally tend to slow down the tempo (or drop their sticks on the ground, maybe vomit all over the high hat...it happens) BUT Kevin speeds things up. The first two songs of our first set fly by.

It kind of helps me loosen up in fact.

Haeundae

2006-08-04T00:11:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken at Haeundae beach last Sunday. It was the first dry weekend we've had here in a month and the crowds hit this beach with a vengeance. All the yellow tubes and parasols are rentals that literally coat the entire beach in coordinated rows of corporately sponsored shade.

The news reported almost 700,000 people had visited the beach over the weekend. We arrived around 11 in the morning and had some relative space around us, but these parasols went up like trees all around us and within an hour we were surrounded.

The funny thing is that there were these guys all over the beaches selling stuff. Just about anything, but the majority of them were selling fried chicken out of a box. They love their fried chicken here. They were also selling beer, coffee, hot dogs and hamburgers (The Korean equivalent, which is disappointing if you've been a hambuger junkie for most of your life)

The same beach in January

So there are all the parents, under their parasols eating fried chicken and drinking beer. And the kids are loving life in the water and getting knocked around in the surf and dumped off their yellow tubes by their older sisters.

Where was I? Eating chicken and drinking beer on my yellow tube of course!!

The Hermit Kings

2006-08-02T20:24:00.000-07:00

This is the name of the band I have been playing with for the past month or so. We usually play Saturday and Wednesdays in a couple of local clubs. I'm not crazy about the name, but it is an improvement over the name we had last week which was "Heyday". Man, that was a crappy name. Naming bands is really difficult, maybe harder than putting an actual group of likeminded musicians together. It has to be memorable, simple, not too pretentious or contrived yet not overly cliched or original.

I was in a Jazz band in the spring. We had a great name! We all sat around one night drinking wine and "rehearsing". (this is where musicians just get drunk and talk about what they want to or should play, it is quite important for stage morale) We all wrote down 2 words on pieces of paper and then put them into a bowl. We took turns taking out new ones and the most interesting combo was "Shady" and "Playtoys"..."The Shadey Playtoys"! It was too bad there were only 2 bandmembers knew actually how to play Jazz.

Anyway, back to my new and less aptly named band. It is way more fun than Jazz, although I miss the prestige I felt when telling people I was a "Jazz musician"..."Reaaallly, what do play?...."Oh, ..strings". Great fun, but it involved hours of studying chords and writing out cheat sheets to tape to the back of my guitar. The new band plays almost all classic rock and 90's grunge. Loud and simple! No rehearsals, no arguments over key changes, just free beer and ringing ear drums.

What really gets me about this band is that I have to keep reminding myself that every guy involved, including myself, is a teacher. Our main mode of subsistence involves standing (or sitting for you lazy, lazy teachers) in front of a room filled with children and trying to either a) make them like you, or b) share something you yourself have studied for a long time.

wait a moment.....

For the Engineer in all of us

2006-07-13T09:26:00.001-07:00

This is a fine example of road side Korean construction techniques, brought to you again by the excellent photographical skills of Amity. We stopped about 247 times along this highway to take pictures of rice paddies and flowers and this was the only thing I asked her take a pictue of along the way ( if you do want to see her work with flora and fauna... which is phenomenal...check out her award winning photos at http://www.eyefetch.com/contest.aspx?contest=80 ).

It was very interesting to see how they laid out these planks of wood to form the traditional Korean/Asian slanting roof top. I believe this particular site is intended to be a gas station.

Potty-centrism

2006-07-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

Amity found this sign in Gyeongju a few weekends past. As plentiful as toilets are here, sometimes they are a little less than inviting. Often bars and restaurants will have shared accomodations with a single urinal and stall, and a "eyes front and center" code of etiquette. There still are some "squatter's" around which consist of a porcelin hole in the middle of the stall. This picture was taken in a train station washroom and I guess there was an actual toilet behind this door.

There are too many jokes to be made here, so I won't bother.

Near Miss

2006-07-10T06:44:00.000-07:00

It is monsoon season and the picture above is of Typhoon Ewiniar. This one is currently raging its way up the west coast and missed Pusan by a peninsula. The rain today was still unreal, probably the worst I have ever experienced, and just poured down blankets all day. An umbrelly was useful only for keeping dry above the neckline as everything else just soaked in minutes. Fingers crossed on the next one!

Jejudo

2006-07-09T21:38:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago we managed to actually get 3 days off of work. This was the most time I'd had off since coming here in June '05. So, we packed up and headed for Jeju island.
Jeju is a sub tropical island in the south, it is a popular honeymoon destination and only takes 45min. by plane... or 9 hours by ship. The choice was clear.

We luckily got ourselves booked into a nice luxury hotel in the luxury hotel district along the southern coast. It was beatiful, palm trees and lush foliage line the roads. There was a gorgeous beach a few minutes walk from the hotel which was virtually empty of people. In fact, there was hardly anyone around. We did see a sign for a "Hooters" bar, optimism got the best of me as we entered and instead of buxom babes slinging chicken wings and beer, there were two dudes serving octopus soup and cold noodles. Oh well, at least they had beer.

The fact that it rained the entire time we were there was not all that disappointing. We still managed to see a lot around the area we were in. There is a beautiful botanical garden. A gorgeous tropical gully with a walkway leading down to a waterfall. We managed to visit a local folk village and also hit every luxury bar in every luxury hotel within crawling distance. Out favorite was the Hyatt which had a huge Goya fish pond surrounding the bar.

We did have a bit of an ordeal at our last dinner, the restaurant we went to was beautiful and designed like a royal palace. Most of the main dishes were horse meat. Now, horse meat doesn't really raise any ethical issues with me, but there is something just not right about it. So we had the pork.

War Memorial

2006-07-08T23:28:00.000-07:00

War Memorial...

Okay, so I'm playing a little catch up. These pictures are from the war memorial in Seoul. The Korean war claimed many lives on many sides. It was the first UN military engagement and included over 15 participant nations. There were nearly 300,000 South Korean casualites and 60,000 American soldiers killed or MIA. This is a fact that I am often reminding my students of whenever the express anti-American sentiments, that these Americans died "defending the freedom of people they had never met, in a nation they had never heard of". In all honesty, the Memorial is full of propoganda such is that statement which is inscribed above the names of the UN casualties. Inside, the memorial is huge and contains military artifacts from far back in history, from swords and spears to MIG's and M-60's. It is outside on the grounds to the left of the memorial that you find a junk yard of planes, tanks, missiles, and guns. It left us with a very weary feeling after and we were anxious to leave all of the implements of death. All in all, I feel this memorial was more about glorifying war and war technology, than it was honoring those whose lives had been claimed by it.

GyeongJu

2006-07-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

GyeongJu

Walking off the train into Gyeongju is like stepping through a portal. Both time and space are transformed and opened. The air is hushed, the sky is open, and there is a big fat green horizon all around. This was quite a contrast from the present day capitol of Seoul. Especially after spending a night in Itaewon, which is a seedy bar district famous for indian food and something know locally as "hooker hill". Gyeongju is the old Capitol of Korea and was the ruling seat of a unified Korea. Nowadays it is called the museum without walls as the city has seemingly integrated itself around dozens of historical outdoor sights.

We walked about 15 minutes from the train to our hotel which was quite nice compared to room we rented in Itaewon. It was late afternoon, so we relaxed for awhile and then taxied to some ruins and then walked back through a royal cemetary and past an ancient observatory.

The next day was full of adventure and intrigue. We rented bicycles from a shop across the road from the hotel and headed south of the city. There are clearly marked bicycle routes that run around the southern end of the city where most of the cultural sites can be found.

The ride out was really interesting as both sides of the road were lined withrice paddies and farmers wading knee deep and harvesting the rice by hand. It was very surreal, right out of movie. As we kept stopping to take pictures, I had this image of Korean family pulling their rental car over on the side of some rural Iowa road and taking pictures of some overall-clad, John Deer potato farmer. Our main destination was Bulguksa Temple which was about 22km from our hotel. It was a hard ride but definitely worth it. The temple is huge, it was built in the 9th century and burned down by Japanese invaders in the 14th century. It has since been restored and is one of the finest examples of traditional Korean architecture.

After wandering around and a few exciting rounds of hide and seek, we took off and headed back towards the city. It was mostly down hill and much easier than the way out. It was a great trip and definitely worthwhile for anyone.