hhhhmm.....

my perspective on Korea is changing... living here is a cool place to live. teaching kids english and not speaking the langauge however, is a different story... hhhmm.... this program for Taiwan looks pretty good at the moment....

All your piracy does not exist in Korea

What a beautiful weekend. Woke up to the light of the bright, bright sun today. Thank god there has been sunlight for the past few days and that it isn't dark and gloomy. I think I'm almost used to waking up at 9:30-10:30am now. Hopefully I'll be able to crank it up to 9am soon. Anyways... one thing i have to complain about my building or what seems to be like a common problem for most people is that... THE WALLS ARE SO DAM THIN.

Last night as I got tired... I lay down on my bed, close my eyes and start to relax and fall asleep when...... i hear my "young and in love" neighbours going at it -_-.

I swear to god, they are like rabbits.... this is like the 4th night in a row they've been at it... its ridiculous. Either I gotta start going to bed earlier, or I gotta get earplugs -_-.

Anyways... so, with that thought out of mind. Today! Today was a great day, first time I could wear a thin sweater and not really be cold. Well it was a little incy bit but it was bearable. Watched UFC111 on tv. Yup... just plain ol' cable. Didn't have to pay for anything. Watched the co-main event and main event. This means now... I can watch in the comfort of my own home... eat my own food, drink my own drink and do whatever I want and make myself comfortable.

However... it would be weird to drink at 10:30am though as that's when the fight starts -_- ... even though i've seen people start drinking as early as 7:30am -_-

Regardless... I'm glad I didn't have to pay to watch this event, b/c the matches were dull and boring. Whatever, let's hope the next one will be more entertaining. Now I just gotta find more people that watches the fight as well so we can chill at someone's place or something.

Update!!

Hey guys. So again, just a quick update, i'm alive and well. if i haven't informed you yet, i love the lifestyle here. i love asia's lifestyle in general actually. well... most things about asia's lifestyle. man... walking around here at night is awesome. i feel very safe when i'm walking out here at night, where as in toronto, i feel like something's going to happen to me if i don't get home asap.

anyways... met up with some friends for the weekend in Jeonju. Had a pretty fun time. Last week, with the same group of friends we went to Seoul and THAT was a great time. we shopped around, went to dinner and drank, and then we were suppose to go to another bar to drink, but we ended up at a club instead. there was no cover (sweet!) and it was one of the most fun i've had since being here. afterwards, we stayed over at a jimjjilbang (korean sauna's) for the night... had horrible sleep, woke up at 6;30am to get ready to go to the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone) basically the 2km radius of the border between North and South Korea. we went to a bunch of places, saw the tunnels where the North Koreans tried to dig to invade South Korea, saw the border where we can use telescopes to look into North Korea. Saw the infamous 'propaganda town' that NK has. basically a ghost town made of cardboard where it's suppose to show tourists at the SK border how 'Prosperous' NK is. Also saw the small SK town that's established in the NK territory, that was pretty cool. READ UP ABOUT IT IF YOU'RE INTERESTED!! it's actually pretty interesting. OOhh, also read up about the Axe Murder Incident where the American Lieutenant was killed by Soldiers with Axes.

and that was last week... then i had school, and that was a living hell, although this week passed by faster than the first week. wednesday, i took on 35 kids again... ugh, disaster.... gr.2 kids i'm slowly starting to gain control over those buggers... and with 3-4, they're still my WorsT class... and 5-6 are my good class. Friday we played games with the kids... found this website called 'Genkienglish.net' (it works either .com or .net) and it was pretty interesting. Tried out the 'line quiz' game the website demonstrated and it actually worked! so i'm going to study it more and hopefully soak up it's way of teaching.

also, we got our TaLK textbooks. It's f'n... HUGE. All 3 of them put together looks like a thick telephone book. -_-

anyways... so this weekend, thank god there are weekends. was a relaxing one, chilled with friends. SHOPPING!!!! gaaahh!!! i love shopping in Jeonju, so much cheaper than in Gunsan. We went to a place called 'Kaeksa' it's like the equivalent of ... dundas square, but not as big and not as much lights b/c it's a shopping distrct, with restaurants, and its like the place to go if you want to go get some cheap shopping done or if you're just bored and want to walk around.

so i went to my new favourite store in Jeonju, ti's so cheap. i bought a t-shirt for $4... two sweaters just under $10. they're stylish AND cheap! i love it!! xD
afterwards, went back to the hawaii sister's house (hanna and lola) went back, to their place to drink and eat chicken! it was awesome, then we just chilled around and talked. good night, good night... need the weekend to just get away from the kids.

now i'm at a cafe with some friends, attempting to make lesson plans but we're failing at it and we're playing chess right now... like acutal chess, with a board and chess pieces, hahaha... procrastination comes back to haunt me again!!

Survived one more day...

Mar. 11 Thursday - took on gr. 2, and gr.3-4 today by myself. The gr.2's were alright, sometimes they would act up, but they are just being kids for their age.... where as the gr.3-4.... yikes.... need some attitude adjustments.... well, they weren't really snapping at me but still... this is a hard bunch to deal with. I read them a book they've already heard me read one more time and then I gave them a crossword with some major words in the book and they were struggling. Heiii.... i read them 'Mrs. Wishy-Washy' and 'It's a Wishy-Washy Day' .... GAAARHHH!!!

So after the day was finally done... i went home to cook some comfort food for the distress. Ramen and luncheon meat! lol... ate that and then me, my co-teacher (Ju-Hyeong) and his friend, Dan o, who we newly met and is also Bryce's co-teacher... we went to Mr. Pizza. Apparently in Korea, pizza is luxury dining -_-. so when you're out eating pizza, you use a knife and fork... O_o ... but eating at home or somewhere else aside from the restaurant you just eat with your hands. lol... weird.

Then we went to Dunkin' donuts, chilled for a bit and then headed up to a bar called 'Garten Bier'... the ones where you can chill the beer in these pod-shape like coolers that will always keep the beer cold at the table. Met up with Bryce, the canadian teacher that teaches at his school, Lindsay, and their friends. A bunch of foreigners, some from Toronto some from California, SOuth Africa, etc., etc. Anyways, so we went there, chilled for a bit and then headed over to the bar 'Thursdays' a pretty chill place to hangout, and i think newfound game is Darts and Pool, haha...

so we played a dart game called 'Killer'. Everybody first take turns hitting the board and getting a number, and once everybody has a number, you start from the beginning again and everybody gets 3 chances. You start off with 5 points. You hit someone's number, you take off a point, you hit your own number, you add a point. Objective of the game is to eliminate everybody and be the last one standing.

TOTAL CHAOS...

Mar. 10, Wednesday – omg… today I had to teach gr.3,4,5,6 altogether at once in one class!!! I HAD 35 KIDS ALL BY MYSELF!! WITH 97% OF THEM NOT SPEAKING ENGLISH AND NOT UNDERSTANDING AT ALL!!!! It was TOTAL CHAOS!!! Really, without the gr.5-6 there… I would have drowned… luckily they took on a leadership role, cuz I told them to, and they tried their best to keep the kids down…. Gr.3-4, worst grade I have…. Gr.2, alright, decent… gr.5-6… best grade so far, although sometimes hard to get them to understand what I’m trying to say... *sigh*… but whatever... at least they listen.... Afterwards the teachers were playing volleyball in the gym… or rather they were playing already when I was teaching… so I watched for a bit and then after the game, the Principal asked if I play volleyball and I said I can’t play b/c I get off when they’re about done… so he said he might change my schedule for me, hahaha... tonight i was so bored too... I was watching this old cantonese movie, that takes place in the ancient eras... its called "笑傲江湖 II: 東方不敗" ... for those that can read Chinese... you would know this is an old Jet Li film and a classic... for those that don't... search it up on youtube and maybe you'll know what it is!!

but yeah... quiet evening... made rice, ate the leftovers of chicken and cooked up some 'choi'... 菜... alright... stayed up long enough for tonight... goodnights!!!

March posts!!

Alright... so now I'll be posting what I have been doing here for the past 2 weeks in my city, GUNSAN! If you want to know where it is, you can copy and paste the following:

Gunsan, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea.


Here goes! (btw, it's a continuation from the previous post)


Feb. 27 / Saturday – woke up around 11…. Picked up Justin Lee went back to our place, chilled for a bit and then walked around for a while till we finally had lunch… we ate a ta chicken place….. kinda like the one we went to before we left Jeonju. Anyways, after that we walked around some more… found the movie theatre around here…. then we went to a café and just chilled there… tous les jours….. it was called…. And then we went back home….then we chilled for a bit…. i had ramen for dinner…. And then we went out to a bar called ‘TLC’… however, the place was full of G.I.’s and yeah, it was a bit too rowdy. Full of idiots… and then we went to antoher bar, called the Garsten or something.. german bar, but owned by Koreans I believe…. Anyways… we had a pitcher there and hten we went home



Feb. 28, Sunday – we made our way to Namwon, where Trent was living, b/c he said he was bored out of his mind and he misses us a lot. So off to Namwon we go. Justin couldn’t go with us b/c he had some things he had to do with his mentor teacher. Lola and Hanna were with their aunt and they happened to be in Jeonju, and offered us a ride to Namwon. It was a very nice thing their aunt did for us. It was over an hour drive! Or about an hour… and they came all the way from Seoul too!!! That’s like driving from my house to York University (approx. 40 mins), on Steeles, and then driving another hour West, soo…. That would be….. uumm… wherever an hour West will take you, lol…

Anyways, we get to his place, his place is huge, as he’s living in a one bedroom apartment… yes, apartment, not a studio or bachelor’s, an apartment. All to himself… what a lucky guy… after settling down we just chill and talk, then we went to this bar called ‘Wabar’ with his mentor teacher who lives 2 rooms away from him. Her name is Jennifer… she speaks English pretty well and she even drew a map of the area they were in. A very detailed map with every store name listed, where to go buy things, where to go to if Trent was sick, etc., etc., it was amazing! Anyways, so this Wabar, it has like all the beers of the world. Well, most beer anyways, so if I’m ever craving for a Heineken or some other non-korean beer, I go to this bar. But, the nightlife here ain’t cheap, so I don’t think I’ll be going out that often… hhmm…=/



Mar. 1, Monday – woke up, we were suppose to go walking around and go to some garden to check out it’s beauty, however… it was raining and it was just one of those gloomy days and so we decided to call it off and go again some other time when its spring and hopefully the weather would be nicer. We go walking around E-Mart… okay, side lesson here on Korea. Three biggest places they have here… E-mart, Lotte Mart and Homeplus. (They have Costco here somewhere, but it’s only in the bigger cities) and basically, you can find any of the first two Mart’s almost anywhere in any city. They are like the wal-marts of Korea…. Okay back on topic. So… we walked around some more, window shopped and went home. There’s nothing to do in Korea when its raining, that’s one of the downsides. So went back home, went to Lotte mart to buy my new bed, as the old one is disgusting and went home, lazed around and tis the end to another day.



Mar. 2, Tuesday – first day of school! Woke up, walked to school, got lost, had to call and see where I was going and finally made it to school for lunch. Went to the cafeteria, sat beside the teachers. Now, I dunno if they don’t like me or its just b/c I don’t speak Korean hence they don’t really talk to me, but some of these teachers seem pretty cold. They don’t bother saying ‘Hi’ (안녕하세요) at all… I dunno… it just bothers me. Whatever… I have other teachers I can chill with. So awkwardly just sat there eating lunch, once that was over with, I went on a lil’ tour with this other teacher who used to be my mentor teacher and then I met the native English speaker teacher, Connie. She’s Canadian, from Brampton, and was originally from Newfoundland. GEOFF!!!! If you’re reading this… which you should be… cheers to you for the Newfies!!!

Anyways… so we talked until it was time to go… oh, yeah, another thing… I have to stay here until 4:30pm everyday, even though I don’t have any kids to teach, just b/c I have to. What a big waste of time!!! I’ve seen my classroom and I know where the supplies are… anyways… back onto topic… talked, school was done, went home, then we met up with the other ppl that were also teaching in Gunsan and is with the TaLK program, we had dinner and then went to a bar for a few drinks and then went to play pool. And my gosh, my co-teacher (Kim), he’s a good drinker! There was this drink called ‘Bbyong Gah Ri’ (뽕가리) there’s a whole bunch of stuff in it. Midori, Bacardi, beer, coconut, banana, and basically, if you want a quick drunk, you drink this and within 10 mins you’ll be buzzed off your mind, lol. Ask Justin Lee, he got a good buzz out of it, hahaha… sorry Justin :P

I think I’ll be picking up on darts and pool. Those seem to be the only things you can do around here. Watch out Jerry :P



Mar. 3, Wednesday – went to school again, talked until end of classes again with Connie, as we both have nothing to do until next week. Went with my mentor teacher to the Immigration Office to pick up my passport, just to find out that its not ready until Friday actually. And I need to exchange money, and I don’t have my passport =(

So I gave the money to my mentor, as her friend works at a bank and her friend will transfer the money into my account, which I hopefully remember the PIN to… yeah I know, fail -_-…

Got home, then went out to dinner with Connie and her family. Met the husband Troy and their daughter Meghan… Troy is a minister and also teaches at a high school here in Gunsan and I met the daughter already the first day I met Connie, she’s more comfortable speaking Korean than she is speaking English and she’s 8. She’s gonna have lots of stories to tell when she goes abroad =)

We went to Pizza Hut… yes, Pizza Hut, it was pretty good and a taste of Home I guess you can say and we got the one with the crust that has the cheese/sweet potato inside and you take it off and you can dip it into this fondue and eat it. It was pretty cool :P



Mar. 4, Thursday – the mattresses arrive today!! Well, the ones that me and Bryce ordered… so got up, made instant noodles, cooked some veggies that look like spinach, not sure if it is and boiled two eggs, b/c I don’t have a frying pan yet to actually cook them. I’ll need to start cooking the rice soon so I can start making curry rice and other stuff. I’m craving rice again =(

The mattresses arrive and now I have a new bed! No more disgusting bed for me to sleep on… hopefully this bed will give me some comfort as I haven’t been getting quality sleep lately. I keep waking up, so I’m pretty tired during the mornings. Anyways… I just typed out the last few days of what I’ve done b/c ppl have been complaining about me not updating my blog. I’m at school right now as I’m typing this on Word… ti’s 3pm!! 1.5hr to go before I’m done today and start again tomorrow. Monday I’ll start to actually teach, I think they have some kind of interview/test here where they interview the kids and if the kids pass, that’s how they get into the afterschool program. Its kinda sad, that only the smarter ones get in but not the not-as-fast or not-as-smart ones. Regardless, I have no control over this, and I’m new to it, so I’ll just play the game as it comes I guess.


Okay… so after school I went to sleep b/c I was feeling sick. I wake up an hour or two later feeling like crap, then I had projectiles coming out of me orally and it wasn’t nice at all.



Mar. 5, Friday – suppose to go to Jeonju this weekend, but since I wasn’t really confirmed and Trent was sick, the girls went up to Seoul to see their aunt and we just stayed in our cities and chilled.


Mar. 6, Saturday – Me, Bryce and Justin Lee we went to have lunch at Lotteria.. its like Korea’s own version of fastfood…. So yes you can find corn as a side here and you can find a bulgogi burger here, just like you can at mcdonalds. Afterwards, we walked around and we found the local market that Bryce have seen while riding on the bus to go to school. We walked around in there for a while, it was kinda interesting, lots of spice peppers, fish/stingrays layed out, vegetables, and oh yeah…. DOG… after that we went to CGV… the newer theatre that’s very close by of Lotte Cinema… whoever owns the chain products of Lotte… is a very rich person. Anyways… so we saw ‘Alice in Wonderland’… it was interesting… but I wasn’t impressed or liked it a lot… it was just…. Okay, lol. Afterwards, we went to eat dinner at this chain store that I’ve seen around often… we also found a Jimjilbang place… hopefully I can go soon, and if nobody goes with me then I might go myself… check it out and see how it is.



Mar. 7, Sunday – went to Lotte mart and shopped for appliances with my mentor, bought my rice cooker, electric tea kettle and microwave! Bought a pan, some bread and a wooden spatula… now I can actually start cooking… sweeet



Mar. 8, Monday – first day of actual teaching! Holy crap was it hectic… I didn’t know the schedule, or rather I wasn’t given anything… the kids all spoke Korean and not even a little English…. They spoke like words and maybe phrases… only a few knew very basic English. Luckily, Connie, the native English speaking teacher that works at my school was still there and doesn’t leave till 4:30pm (when I’m done work) helped me out… I was drowning and luckily she saved me.



Mar. 9, Tuesday – today was slightly better as my co-teacher, JuHyeong, was there and he helped translate a little bit to the kids to explain what’s happening and we continued on. Although, maybe we did a little bit too much translating because the kids weren’t really listening to me, but rather to him. The TV STILL doesn’t work yet… and until they get that problem fixed, I can’t do ANYTHING with the kids in terms of actual teaching and games, etc. as I have them all on the computer…. GAAAAHHH!!!!!!! We’ll see how it goes… oh and yeah… my internet hasn’t been working the whole night before same with all of today!!! Wtf?! Technician coming in tmr, so hopefully that goes well. Justin’s birthday today as well, we went out to a place called ‘The Galbi’… the food was awesome, but it was quite expensive there… friggin’ everything in Korea seems pretty expensive… hopefully we can find another place somewhere next time and it won’t be as expensive. Afterwards, we went to a bar called ‘Page’, a quiet cozy bar. I like it… maybe I’ll start going there… if I can find ppl -_-… but its also expensive, so I might want to start finding different alternatives.

Late Post - Feb. Update - Last few days at Jeonju University

Hey guys!!!! I'm still alive!!!! I know I've been REALLY REALLY lazy... but i' updating now... so I hope you guys can take on two weeks' worth of updates!!!!! Well... maybe 3 :P.... I'm gonna post about Here it goes!!!




Feb. 20 / Sunday - EXPLORATION DAY! so today we climbed the roof of the University. Took pictures, but i'll have to post them up later. I'm still selecting which ones I can post up and which ones i can't :P... it was a nice view up there, but i think just being able to go up there and discovering that the doors weren't locked were more amazing... it was awesome , lol

Feb. 22/ Tuesday – Lectures, walked to the bank to exchange money, but only to find out that the bank doesn’t do exchanges b/c it’s a small bank -_- …. performance from elementary school kids…. Skipped class for volleyball… chilled and then watched ‘the ugly truth’ with ppl


Feb. 23/ Wednesday – woke up to go to the gym at 7;30am, breakfast, lectures, finally learned something useful in class like how to play games with the kids, went to the bank to get money, worked this time… took the bus too! Afterwards, we went to the gym, saw the university ppl practicing TKD, they were pretty good… then dinner, rested up a bit, then went to Kaeksa? I dunno how to spell it but it’s like one of the places to be in Jeonju city. Took the bus again, went there for a couple of hours, I bought a sweater for $11 and then came home, … then we went up to nghi and sujin’s room and we just chilled, took turns giving out psychology personality tests and jokes. Good end to the night

Feb. 24/ Thursday – woke up, did not go to the gym… coughing and wheezing like a sick person… but I refuse to believe I’m sick… skipped breakfast… went to lecture, turns out the lecturer was late…. Went back to our rooms, then went back to class again, had a short time on how to tell stories and then next lecture on singing/chants with the kids. Went to lunch…. I’m coughing up and wheezing like mad… don’t think I’ll be able to do much for the next few days… went to go meet our mentor teachers… turns out I have a new mentor teacher now, and I also saw my co-teacher too. Well, one of them anyways…. He’s 18, but 20 in Korean…. And my mentor is 25, 27 in korean, so that was pretty cool. Then packed a bit, then went out for dinner… chicken and pizza!! Drank a bit in there, and then when we went out, Donald and pretty much everybody that was there with us in Jeonju was in the restaurant beside us, and Donald told us to have a shot with him and so we all went in for a shot and then we went back… but then decided that we should go to noraebang…. Hanna and Nghi were battling to see if we stayed or go… they used rock, paper, scissors. Hanna won, hence us going to noraebang, lol… so we went, and the rest of the TaLK ppl went to the same place as well… nearby…. Downstairs…. Ghetto looking but whatever, it was still fun b/c we were all enjoying it. Took a gazillion pictures and some videos…. Will have to go through those later. Then when we the night was done with noraebang, we went back to club211, or bryce’s room… and we woke up Justin lee…. Crashed there for a bit and talked… I passed out for a bit… then they all left, I slept some more and hten went back to my room to sleep


Feb. 25/ Friday – woke up by the stupid alarm they were giving over the p.a. system… so I woke up …. Showered…. Started packing… took forever… but I took out my duffle bag and packed the dirty clothes in there…. And finally I had to rush a little bit, but this time I was more prepared… took everything downstairs and then into the bus. Waited on the bus for like 30+ mins, turns out there were still a few ppl that were still packing, so we were waiting on them. Finally when we got everybody, we went to the office of education and had a closing ceremony…. This was retarded b/c… when we got there…. 5 mins later, the ceremony began…. And when the guest speaker was up…. He spoke for literally not even a minute and htat was it and then our POE declared the ceremony was done and that took….. 5 mins literally…. Stupid -_-

So then we went downstairs to get our stuff, and packed it into this other teacher’s car. She live sin Jeonju but teaches at the same place as mine, her name is Ms. Park. She’s also the same age as my new mentor teacher, Ms. Lee.

So they drove me back here, along with my co-teacher, then we went to the school…. I met the principal, along with the vice principal…. In the teachers office, they were all busy writing away on papers, trying to come up with the school schedule I guess… regardless, they were just busy