Saturday, April 26, 2008

Sunday morning


It definitely turned out to be a good weekend. Friday I had tonkatsu(a popular Japanese dish, fried pork) and had a nice walk looking for a coffee shop with my friend Mikyung. It started raining so we ended up just going to the coffee shop in front of Homeplus(a Korean walmart-type place)

Saturday morning I got up a little early(9am) to go to Lottemart and pick up some stuff. I was able to find most of what I needed, but I ended up with this toothpaste that taste like hospitals. Then I got my hair cut and my shoes shined and headed up to Gangnam(Seoul). The free Korean lesson was... challenging, as usual. Then I met up with the English club for dinner, we had some different kinds of maki (Japanese california rolls).

I was a little disappointed nobody was up for drinks, but I headed back to Suwon to have some drinks with Namu. As soon as I got there, we got back on the subway and headed back up to Seoul... long story... but we met up with some of his co-workers for drinks and a noraebang(karaoke room). We stayed out until morning, when Namu and his crew had to start their 4 hour ride down to Busan to do some filming. I got to meet a popular Korean TV star, and she gave me some bottled water that has her picture on it. Then they dropped me off in Suwon and I took about an hour on buses to figure out how to get back to my apartment. It was about 7am by the time I got to sleep, so I had a nice sleep until about 2. Today will be pretty lazy, my students have exams this week so I don't have to prepare a lecture (assa!)

Sunday, April 20, 2008

tak-gu = ping-pong

Pretty eventful weekend, no good pictures though.

Friday I went to a swanky 'naitu'(Korean night club). It was pretty fun, and the music was ok. Saturday I played takgu with my coworker and some of the students, which was pretty embarrassing but still fun. Then I went up to Seoul for a Korean lesson and met up with the English club briefly. Sunday I went back up to Gangnam for lunch at a nice sushi restaurant then to a movie. We saw Taken, which was pretty good, exciting even though it was an old guy doing all kinds of James Bond stuff. Then I came back into Suwon and had dinner at a nice traditional Korean restaurant I'd been meaning to go to. It's on my way to work, so every morning I stare across the street at it, but I never had a chance to go in.

Today I'll go to Muay Thai practice, and then supposedly there's a nice jimjilbang(public bath) nearby that I should go to. I may just end up napping... Classes have been pretty rough. Between not understanding and general noisiness. It's the week before midterms though, so I shouldn't expect much.

Friday, April 18, 2008

08 - week8s2

That's how I title my file folders on my computer, in an attempt to keep organized. After next week I have a nice bit of a break, the students start midterms April 28th. Couldn't have come too soon, since I've been given a few extra tasks this week. On top of my extra class, I have to prepare 20 posters to decorate the school with English. I'll also need to prepare a 50 question quiz, as some students will be selected to take part in a city wide English competition in May.

Outside of school has been pretty successful this week, so it should be a pretty busy weekend. Tomorrow morning I'll be playing ping-pong with some of my co-workers, which will potentially be pretty embarrassing, but fun. Then the usual Korean lesson and meeting with the English club in Seoul. Sunday I may try out another Korean lesson offered at a Buddhist temple nearby. Fortunately I got most of my lesson for next week planned out already, which is unusual, so I wont have to worry about getting things together so much Sunday night.

I've had a couple good chats with some Korean friends on the Korean messenger service NateON. Occasionally I can manage to speak in Korean, which is pretty fun.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Woot

I haven't written for a while, mainly because at school my internet connection was blocking this site. But I'll try and give a quick update on the past... 4 months?

January - Philippines - dirty, lovely, romantic, confusing...
February - Japan - Expensive
March - New classes - 1st grade fun and loud, 2nd grade fun, 3rd grade uninterested.
April - Extra class - Amazing. Only 22 students, most of them interested, no real troublemakers.

That pretty much sums up the big events for each month.
Some underlying events:

Meeting with my Korean friend Namu's English club, making new friends and getting perspectives on Korean politics and sociology from natives.
Weekend jam sessions that have gone really well and fairly regularly.
A few dates...
Talking with Koreans in Korean a little more regularly.
Started Muay Thai last month, still pretty exhausting but I can tell I'm getting a little better.

Last weekend I had a lot of fun with the English club. We went on a retreat (they use the Konglish MT - Member Training) to Gapyeong, at a lot of food and played a lot of drinking games. Korean drinking games are pretty unique. Most of them require timing and reflexes, and a certain level of pain tolerance. Things get pretty crazy, I don't really know any American equivalents.

We had the day off yesterday, so I got to spend some time with my Korean friends, which is rare during the week because of their schedules. Korean work hours are typically 8am-8 or 9pm. But we went out for some naengmyeong(I had bulgogi instead), saw a movie "The Other Boleyn Girl", and went a fancy Italian restaurant for some wine afterwards. As for the day itself I got a lot done, some cleaning, some practice(Korean, bass, drawing, etc), and some extra sleep.