hong kong - day 1

click on the picture and follow along if you feel like it.

1 – left hsing and patrick's apartment (127 caine rd) on top of the hill at around 12:30pm
2 – ate at "the flying pan" – a brunch of a garden omelette with baked beans, grilled tomatoes, orange juice and bottomless coffee ($99HKD = $13CAD)
3 – walked past the old bailey prison and police station / it’s old, big and they’re figuring out what to do with it
4 – botanical gardens and zoo on one side of the street / I saw the government house on the other side of the street and in my guidebook it said it was free admission but the police officer told me otherwise at the gate
5 – went by the u.s. consulate while still walking down the hill but I wasn’t looking to go inside here this time
6 – my second major stop was at st. john’s cathedral / it’s the second oldest building in hong kong (est. 1849) / it was damaged in wwII and the front door was rebuilt with wood from a british warship / a fairly good size on a nice piece of land considering there are skyscrapers everywhere you look up in the sky
7 – took a wack of pictures of different skyscrapers that were all around including the bank of china tower, citibank plaza, the lippos building, murray building, hong kong and shanghai banks
8 – chater gardens / sat around and stretched / walked through a nice little tree garden which listed each species
9 – hong kong planning and infrastructure exhibition gallery / neat little place with tons of models and interactive tv screens explaining hong kong’s railways, roads and logistical networks / quite impressive
10 – edinburgh place which is where city hall is / here I saw a bit of an outdoor art gallery from artists around the world / i scored some good pictures here
11 – walked past the old post office and walked through it
12 – went through the stock exchange / millions of dollars passing hands ever second / scary stuff
13 – turned back north to queens road central / spent a good half hour in H & M / emily would be proud / emily would be disappointed I didn’t buy anything
14 – looked at a camera shop and priced digital cameras / $200 - $300 for a cheap canon or nikon from 6 – 7 megapixels
15 – walked all the way up the hill / got tired and took the escalator for the other half and got back to hsing and patrick’s around 5:30

brent's best of 2007 - awesome!

with it being the end of 2007 and me being a huge nerd by creating folders of my favourite musak of the year, i've decided what better than to share it this time with my friends. feel free to read, download and (hopefully) enjoy. after all, you're only at work and what is work if you can't enjoy it? yeah, i'm right.

01 voxtrot - introduction

voxtrot are from austin, texas even though when i first heard the lead singer's voice he sounded english. i was convinced. they've released some of my favourite poppy love songs over the last year and a bit. a few friends and i saw them at sneaky dee's in toronto back in april for canadian music week and although the place was less than hopping, they still churned out a pretty decent show considering there were maybe only about fifty people in attendance.

02 panda bear - comfy in nautica

panda bear is noah lennox of animal collective who also released "strawberry jam" this year which is on many "best of" lists this year as well. comfy in nautica is minimal with only chanting voices and a consistent drumbeat throughout. on top of that is some white noise and crackling. it's super headphone musak when you're laying in bed trying to fall asleep with the lights off.

03 los campesinos! - you! me! dancing!

are young and welsh and signed a few months ago with arts and crafts in toronto. a few friends and i saw them this summer at the horseshoe for their "new home"-coming" gig. i've listened to this song probably more than any other on this list. they're tons of fun. here's a video of them ending their set from said concert.

04 of montreal - we were born the mutants again with leafling

of montreal are from athens and they're part of the elephant 6 posse (neutral milk hotel, apples in stereo, etc.). kevin barnes is the lead man and he's known for doing crazy things on stage, for example, stripping down naked at shows, etc. here is a video of them covering "crazy" by gnarls barkley.

05 wilco - impossible germany

although i didn't make many shows this year i had to sell my tickets to their show at massey hall to make a cottage weekend. these things happen. i did catch them the year before at the same venue though. jeff tweedy is one of my favourite songwriters. he's an honest, down to earth rock and roll dude and a total family man. i recommend reading reading the interview that chuck klosterman did a few years ago before he went into rehab for painkillers, check it out. impossible germany has some pretty awesome dueling solo guitars later on.

06 the shins - sleeping lessons

i sold my tickets to this show too because emily treated me to my birthday present in montreal. she bought me tickets to the leafs-habs over the st. patrick's day weekend. crazy snow storm in march. anyway, listen to the song.

07 kings of leon - mcfearless

i did see kings of leon this year at the koolhaus. i can thank sam for these tickets. that show was with pete, tina, ivan, sam and i. the leons never missed a note and were solid. this was my favourite song from because of the times although there were many to choose from.

08 the new pornographers - my rights versus yours

the first of three canadian bands on this list, the new pornographers' album "challengers" was probably the one that i listened to most from beginning to end. this is the title track. the melodies make it the perfect little pop song.

09 kanye west - flashing_lights (ft. dwele)

i'll probably get ragged on for throwing in a kanye song but you can't deny he always has pretty good production on his albums even if his lyrics verge on cheesy from time to time. case and point the following: "and the weather's so breezy / man, why can't life always be this easy / she in the mirror dancing so sleazy / i get a call like 'where are you YEEZY?'". the link goes to his blog which is mostly pictures of the latest air force ones and youtube videos of guest appearances he's done with other musicians. bigger ego than hasselhoff.

10 art brut - nag nag nag nag

art brut are another english band on my list. lead dude eddie argos writes songs about being an indie musak nerd, why it's ruined many of his relationships, and why he's accepted his fate. this is a perfect example. he also more or less talks rather than sings but it definitely works.

11 css - alcohol

even if you think you don't know css (cansei de ser sexy) you probably have in an apple commercial or in a video game. they're a really fun new-new wave band from brazil that have had huge success by touring like mad, playing summer festivals and opening for bands like primal scream and ladytron.

12 super furry animals - carbon dating

the furries are also from wales and have been around for a few years. i first listened to them when i went to england in grade 12 but i was more into the album artwork at the time. they're also a fun live band and if you're in toronto, they're playing the mod club on february 20th in the new year.

13 the weakerthans - civil twilight

reunion tour is probably my least favourite of the weakerthans four albums but it's still really good. that's how much i like them i guess. john k. samson and joel plaskett are neck and neck for best canadian songwriter. this song is about a transit bus driver, probably in winnipeg, and what he deals with each shift. this one is dedicated to my brother.

14 rihanna ft. jay-z - umbrella

another one i'll probably get slack for putting on here but i told emily that this is my "my love" song of 2007. it was on constant repeat for a couple days but they should have turned the bass up in the chorus. seriously. link goes to paparazzi shots.

15 klaxons - golden skans

any review you read of the klaxons always includes their musak being bungled into a genre called "nu rave". they're really getting creative these days. they're young, english, fun and experiment just enough to appeal to the masses. they did an awesome little cover of justin timberlake at the bbc radio 1 live lounge that you can find here.

16 jose gonzalez - down the line

introduced to me only about a month ago, jose gonzalez plays haunting acoustic songs on his classical guitar about the darkside of relationships from what i've heard. he reminds me of a more mature hayden but way less of a wuss. whatever happened to him? i saw him buying bread a couple years ago on bloor street but nothing since. how about that, he's touring. good luck buddy. godspeed.

17 the good, the bad & the queen - herculean

members from blur, the verve, the clash and fela kuti. saw them earlier this year too but don't recall that much about it. it was a bland concert but this is a nice little one on their debut album.

18 do make say think - you, you're awesome

i think this little instrumental number is the perfect way to end it. hope you enjoy it.


DOWNLOAD BRENT'S BEST OF 2007

NB: i was inspired by my good buddy ricky to compile this so check out his "best of" too. his will be kanye and rihanna-free though so be warned in advance.

http://www.panicmanual.com/?p=705
http://www.panicmanual.com/?page_id=718

a random act of sweet corn kindness and an early xmas present

perfect example of korean politness:

sometimes us co-op boys have a lonely night in. we have to do laundry and man the boxers. in this case, we go to pizza school across the street and order one up. now, we're all fans of pizza school because it's a semi-decent pizza that fills you up for about the equivalent of $5, the thing is they though put corn on their pizza. that, i am not a fan of so i make sure to tell the teenage korean girl "sweet corn opsoyo" with my arms forming an "X". the last two times i ordered from her though i came home to find it on there. i think she just forgets. so i went there tonight but while i was walking the couple hundred metres back home i was waiting at the stop lights when the owner ran up to me and started speaking korean to me. then he said "sweet corn" and i knew they messed it up again. i didn't want them to have to make me a whole new pizza let alone walk back and wait another ten minutes. but honestly, how nice was it for this man to run all the way down the street in the cold weather and tell me that they put corn on my pizza? that, my friends, is a typical korean and that's why they're awesome people.

i also came home tonight to find a nicely sized box from my lovely mom. hey mom, i'm eating a peanut butter cookie for dessert right now and i also have breakfast for the rest of the week. hope i wasn't supposed to wait for christmas to come.
i already started reading the penguin anthology of canadian humour. the first part of the book is the beginning chapter from dave bidini's tropic of hockey which i read awhile back so that's a nice start because he's a great writer and i kinda like hockey. i'll also bring the calendar of toronto to work tomorrow and i'll show it to my students. i mention it every day so it'd be a good idea to show them pictures of it as well. thanks again mom.

he was giving him the business

i haven't posted in awhile mostly because i'm settled so there's not a whole ton to write about.

here's a good video for football fans:

happy 50th birthday, heart attack in a bowl

from one of my favourite comedies of all time supertroopers:

"where you boys headed?"

"c-c-canada. we're going over the border to canada for some french fries and gravy, sir."

"poutine."

"canada, huh? almost made it."



pronounced poo-tsin in qweebek. tabarnak, tu m'apprenderas pas comment cé qu'y dise poutine, criss. bon anniversaire!

the guy with the enornous head from muhan dojeon (pronounced "moo-han doo-jon" or "the funny")

yesterday, whilst walking home from poker at teacher bjorn's, jason noticed a tall korean fella with a bit of a 'fro standing in front of chungmu art hall. this famous comedian dude named jeong jun-ha, who makes up one fifth of this comedy troupe named muhan dujeon, was standing around talking to some of his friends. he is one of the stars of the hairspray musical here in seoul.
muhan dojeon have their own tv show and are spokesmen for every second company in korea. their tv show translates to "infinite challenge". each episode they go up against one another in some sort of, go figure, challenge and it sometimes involves western celebrities. it always ends up hilarious because they're not the fittest guys in the locker room and they're quirkier than sarah silverman.
plagiarizing from wikipedia, here is some info on jeung jun-ha:

"Due to the extraordinary size of his head (8kg) and huge amount of meals which he eats (in the 50th episode special-S03E50, he had a Challenge where he had to eat 50 plates of noodles in 300 seconds. The plates altogether was about 10-30 kilos. he succeeded, but he had to go straight to the lavatory and sleep at the back of the studio)."

i mean really, how awesome is that? way to entertain and take one for the team. total slugger in my books.

here is a website with two clips of the show and the only ones i've found with english subtitles. but really, it's just as funny, if not funnier, watching without them. the first clip is a freeze game where they have to put on kids clothes without getting caught moving. the second is my favourite and it's with thierry henry, one of the most well known and highest paid soccer players in the world. i also heard that paris hilton was to be on an episode last week. sadly missed that one. koreans are too nice to make fun of others so instead, the muhan dojeon-ers make asses of themselves. what a bunch of hams!
their faces are plastered all over the subway and they're all gazillionaires, or so i'm told. maybe he's the equivalent of adam sandler or even a quirky rick moranis in his hay-day. i showed the picture to my students today and i gained minor celebrity status but i'm still no jeung jun-ha. sigh.

pepero day

so today, november 11th, is pepero day. it's a corporate holiday initiated by lotte. lotte owns a lot around these parts. so do samsung, doosan, KTF, daewoo, hyundai, LG, and SK. now i'm no economist but i wouldn't doubt these companies are responsible for 99% of south korea's gdp (the other 1% being bootleg dvd stands found in various subway stations).
anyway, pepero are these chocolate sticks much like pocky that you can get back home and if a boy fancies a girl or vice versa then they'll give them the pepero sticks. how cute in a capitalist sort of way. i got a few boxes from my elementary skool girls. cute indeed.

facebalk

so a few weeks ago i caved on this whole facebook craze and i'm sort of hating myself for it. it's like going back to eating animals or something and i feel really dirty inside for doing it. not going to lie though, i've learned a lot since i've surfed around and mostly had a good/insightful time doing it. some of those insights are listed below:

1. there are any number of groups to join and feel a part of something bigger. my favourite being "People who don't believe in fan death". for those of you who are more intelligent than i and do not have a facebook account, "Fan death is the Korean belief that sleeping in a room with an electric fan will kill you. No longer shall innocent fans get the blame." it's totally true. kinda.

2. people sure let random strangers know a lot about themselves, for example, if you don't know what you're doing you can let someone know your name, what you look like, what your friends look like, where you work and other scattered info (ie. your favourite drink at the bar, or my favourite, reasons why you hate your boss)

3. updating and publishing your status is not only sometimes irritating and pointless, it's also like you're helping out big brother watch over you by letting them know your every move. and really, who cares if "steve is walking the dog" or "tommy is lovin' the new fifty cent while painting his toenails". that's wack, yo.

4. teachers on facebook should be careful. most students are ruthless little critters and whence upon they see your profile there'll never believe you have a life outside the classroom. embarrassment will ensue. you will become red-faced. their marks will drop. everyone wins.

5. "titties" is an acceptable word while playing scrabulous (sorry mom)

6. there are so many people on facebook that anytime there is a crime or someone in the news and they don't have a picture attached to the news story the first thing i do is go straight to facebook and do a search and check out what the culprit looks like, or at least what their friends do. it's great!

7. i have way too many friends that i've grown up with that now either have babies (sometimes multiple) and/or are married/separated. i'm having a good time and am happy with my life. i'll hold off for a bit thank you very much.

one of the reasons why i stayed away from facebook for so long is the amount of controversy surrounding "data-mining" and facebook's funding by venture capitalists. there has also been concern that the US government was spending millions on websites like facebook, myspace, and other online communities to put individuals in databases. this has all occurred since 9/11 of course. so basically, if the US government was interested in what i'm up to they could now easily gather info on who my friends are, where i'm living, working, what my birthday is, etc. it's actually quite scary. this is a neat little flash video that sums it all down. do your own research though.

oh yeah, korea is fun too. thanks for asking!

overplayed korean-style

so this song is called "lies" by "big bang". i live in a pretty central part of seoul. shopping malls, stores everywhere and they're always noise and loud musak. this song though, i literally hear it three times a day and it's been consistent like this since i landed. i'm not talking about bryan adam's "everything i do it for you" or gnr's "november rain" or the "does that make me craaaaazy" song by what's his face from last summer-overplayed, i'm talking "we've got three songs on our playlist at the korean radio station" overplayed. they're a pop band a la 'n sync and they have the flashy clothes and the haircuts that all the boys mimic. the ladies obviously adore them too. tough life but as english teachers here we're pretty much on the same level of admiration. or not.

darts, street carts, and GS marts

this is itaewon. lots of white folk. lots of western fast food. lots of t-shirts with garfield and calvin and hobbes saying extremely inappropriate comments. yes, THIS is itaewon.

i totally understand missing the comforts of home but when you live abroad in a foreign city like seoul there is so much that is different in this culture that you can immerse yourself into. you can learn the language, eat the food, converse with the locals and read about korean history. itaewon is different in that respect. it's a relative small part of seoul where foreign english teachers live to be close to these comforts of home. many foreigners swear by. don't get me wrong, it's nice to go there and be able to eat a veggie burrito or order a pint of guinness, it's just that some people seem to be living there and not experiencing the rest of the culture. this is unfortunate but alas, i don't judge, only this person can.

there are so many different types of food there you could compare it to a really dirty bloor street in toronto where there are different restaurants next door to each other that will serve thai, greek, french, and australian food (if anyone knows what australian cuisine is, please tell me what they serve at syd and mel's). lots of craft shops and souvenir stores that sell fake merchandise with owners that are much pushier than any other part of seoul that i've visited. bah, it's itaewon. i'm still glad it exists.

hugh, jason, bob and i went to said part of town yesterday and shopped around. visited some stores that sold fake sports jerseys. i can get a ccm mats sundin leafs jersey for $20 here. i also bought a new pair of shoes as i've been wearing out my other two pairs with all this walking. they're not the same ones in the picture. they're brown like those ones except the white stuff is all orange. anyway, we went there to eat mexican food which was really tasty, followed by this little black market shop where you can buy all sorts of products from back home including campbell's thick and chunky and deodorant. heck, you could even buy tobacco chew if you're down with that. we ended up drinking and playing darts for three hours in the afternoon at a place called the alley cat pub. it's pretty much a replica of a sports bar back home. then we went to a bar called the baby guinness, hung out there for a bit and ate dinner at a thai restaurant. that was pretty much the first nice restaurant i've eaten at since being here. went home and planned to watch the liverpool-everton match at the hollywood grill and then the wolfhound. stuck around until 2am and i decided to take off because i was falling asleep. i wussed out while the others were going to pull the all-nighter and stick around for the 4am rugby world cup match between england and south africa. i slept well. i'm happy i slept well.

gone with the mean, in with the clean

so yeah, here's before and after the massacre.

amazing what some clippers will do to make you feel like a new person. anyway, it's been over a week since i last posted. nothing significant has happened. though the breeze has picked up at night, the days have been pretty exceptional. today there wasn't a cloud in the sky so the sun was quite bright. i took advantage of it and played soccer with some of the students at kwang hee for a few minutes in the afternoon. i've been down to the little gym they have here at the co-op a few times but other than that, skooling 8-year old kids in soccer is the only exercise i've been getting. that, and walking everywhere. oh, and badminton once with ben. that's all. i feel alright though and may have even lost a couple pounds but that's mostly because i'm not eating as much as i did back home. don't worry mom, i won't wither away.

been out a few times here and there for drinks and dinner with friends, shopped around the malls in the area, found a few new places to eat, went to another baseball game last week, and am saving some money. other than that, things are good.

upcoming events and such:

fc seoul is playing their final game of the regular season tomorrow so a few of us are going to go to that. it's at the world cup stadium which is still fairly new and the crowds are a lot bigger than the baseball games we've been going to so i'm really looking forward to it.

ozomatli plays a show for like 1,000 won ($1) on thursday. not sure what the promotion is there but i may go. who knows.

starsailor are playing here in about a month. not a huge fan but the concerts here are few and far between. i think i read that beyonce and ciara play the same night within walking distance. whatever.

my teacher buddy caitlin told me yesterday that the shins are rumoured to be playing a show here soon too. i checked out their website and they're definitely playing shows in japan so maybe they'll end up here too. that's pretty exciting and i'll definitely make it to that one.

i told you she was the best

i came home a few minutes ago to a nice little care package from my wonderful girlfriend emily. thanks so much for everything in it.

it contained:

-a letter from emily explaining everything
-a scorecard from when her and shannon attended the jays-red sox game in boston
-two packages of reese's pieces chocolate
-a lonely planet korean phrasebook (to replace the one that i had already lost here)
-a nice little journal with an even nicer little note inside
-a toronto star article on korean hanoks (traditional korean homes), as well as a postcard with so many sweet things to say from emily's mom
-a couple tiny craft cats that must have broken en route here but i'll keep the severed head closeby as a good luck charm - is that wrong?
-and finally, my favourite thing: a whole bunch of pictures from the fun summer of 2007

thanks again. i know what i'll have for dinner later.

"male!!!"

a little over a week ago i received a few unexpected gifts from a grade 6 student. yes, i teach in korea as well. sometimes.

during art class, the students were to make little plasticine korean masks and then glue them on to a piece of construction paper. some of them were amazing but i strayed from the rest and made a little stewie griffin. they don't have family guy on tv here and that's probably for the best since only a small minority would understand the type of humour as well as the cultural references. so yeah, i gave this student, whose english name is austin (it's taken from a bad teen romantic comedy that i can't recall at this point) a little stewie griffin in the form of plasticine. two days later, i was more than surprised to have him give me four different mini gifts. one was a little bun in a plastic package. cool, that's nice of him. second was a short little letter that i'll translate in two seconds. third, a four-page question and answer about himself that i've attached above. and fourth, a pretty decent drawing of stewie and brian the dog.

so if you can't read the letter in the picture, here is an accurate transcript of what austin wrote to me:

From: Austin
To: Teacher Brent

Dear Teacher Brent.
Hello! Teacher Brent ~
I'm Austin., frist of all...
Thank you for your present!
I'm happy when you give it to me.
Um, sooth to say I think you are scar
ed. Because, when we met last week
you was cynical.
So, I think that. But and now.
I don't think so. When art class,
you help our team. that time, you seem
very nice! Sooth to say I'd like to
get with you.
So!!! I show.
about my profile
you.

aww. if that's not the coolest thing ever, i don't know what is. he also showed me that he downloaded an episode of family guy on to his cellphone. that scared me because it's a bit of a risque show compared to what they've got on tv around here, especially for a kid in grade six. did i mention he's the student body president? maybe he's just using me to get ahead but my gut tells me no since he wants to get with me and all.

"that macgyver sure is a handy fellow" or something like that

yesterday ben, bjorn, jason and i went to the k-1 world grand prix final 16 kickboxing at olympic gymnasium-1. we almost didn't make it though. we ended up at the only olympic park we knew and at the gymnasium there was a ping pong tournament. i mean, i'm a big fan of the game but i was looking for some blood and not a bunch of old ladies sipping green tea. we went to the olympic stadium next door and found yet more disappointment. it was cool to actually check out the place because it's a pretty awesome sight to see but on the field was not a bunch of muscle-bound giants but the opposite, a bunch of kids running around. there was apparently a tug-of-war going on.

anyway, an old man spoke to us in korean and we understood him when he said "k-1" and after about five minutes of trying to understand him, he led us to the taxi queue and told us it was at another olympic park further down the street (about two subway stops).

we finally made it and it wasn't sold out. it was 22,000 won or $25 cad which was decent when we were willing to pay about double that. there were some shady scalpers advertising half-price discounts but that would have been a last resort.

inside, the place was pretty packed and we had decent enough seats with a fairly good view. probably seated about 5,000(?) or so. the crowd was mostly korean but i hadn't seen that many foreigners in one place at one time since i got here. we missed the first couple fights but there were still like eight more. there were some decent competitive fights most of which only lasted a couple minutes. my favourite match was between glaube feitosa and chalid "die faust (the fist)". it lasted all three rounds and what was good about this one was that the german, guess which one, got knocked down a bunch of times and just kept getting back up. talk about persistance. he ended up losing on the judges' decision anyway.

the main event was between these two characters: one, a large american dude named mighty mo and the largest korean i've ever seen, choi hong man. he's 7'2 and 350lbs. in their previous fight mighty mo knocked him out. go figure. this time it was given to choi by decision. you can view the part where choi delivers mighty mo a low-blow here. awesome.

my favourite fighter of the night is this guy from holland that i've seen on the tv box before. remy bonjasky is a muay thai fighter and that means he throws flying knees everywhere. he beat this other dude pretty bad and pretty quickly. i got a really poor picture of him too. i swear that's him.

these are the official results of the matches.

i just got home from poker night. i lost about $3 in a little more than three hours. not bad, but i was up a few dollars about ten minutes before we called it quits which kinda sucks. these things happen. you live, you learn, you lose $3.

holidays are here again

today is chuseok. it's a national holiday for koreans, which means it's also a one-day (or for some two) work week. it's tuesday now and i've been off from skool since friday, duh. since then i've been busy for parts of the day and not so busy for other parts.

here's a breakdown of what's been going on:

friday: at skool we were to have a meeting with one of the heads of the english language program. she was a couple hours late and this is not of character here. for us though, it's just not done. you don't leave someone hanging when it comes to business back home. but here, it's commonplace because work is looked upon way different. work is life here and everything else is secondary while i'm figuring out that's the opposite, for most anyway myself included, back home. it's a cultural thing for them but more of a respect thing for us. our skool seems pretty disorganized when it comes to this new english language experiment and they're throwing out money like it's falling off trees. for example, the seven english language teachers are getting laptops. however, it hasn't been planned very well and it's making a lot of us upset. there is also constant miscommunication between the english speakers and the korean admin. this is obviously due to language barriers. we found out on friday that they want us to work an extra hour every day and that's not what is in our contract. in exchange they want to give us a two hour lunch break, which is not cool with me and a few others. that's basically a split-shift. on top of that, they messed up my pay on friday so i've no money in my korean account and i won't be able to get it fixed until i get back on friday so i'm forced to dip into the account back home and pay exorbitant bank feeds.

it's tough but we're working through the glitches.

oh, and at night we got quite ridiculous, because it was after all, pay day (for most of us). started by bbq, then soju, then a couple bars and then it got blurry. by the end of the night (ie. 4:30am) we were taking pictures with everyone that would talk to us. i even got a picture of a cop and i but that's not him waving, he just didn't want his picture taken. silly foreigners.

saturday: went to the doosan bears game with nine other english teachers. it may have been the last game of the season. it dragged on and on. it lasted from 5:10 until 10:26pm and it was only eleven innings. each at bat lasted ten minutes. brutal to sit through and i stayed totally sober. possibly the first time in who knows how long that i haven't had a beer. embarrassing.
i also met derek's friend ryan who is also here teaching. he's a good boy from toronto so it was nice to meet him too. after that we walked to the seven luck casino. i didn't gamble but was able to eat quesadillas and drink gin and tonic for free. unbelievable. my boy jason won 120,000 won playing 5,000 won minimum black jack. so he's da man.

sunday: ended up going to itaewon and ate turkish food at the top of hooker hill. lovely name. as well, there's a nice little mosque up there and a whole other community of muslim people as well as nigerians. go figure, smack dab in the middle of seoul. i don't get it but why ask questions. after that we ended up at "what the book" which apparently has the largest selection of english language books in the country. it's a small store and owned by a canuck who's a local celebrity. after that we had a couple at the wolf hound and cabbed it home.

monday: slept in, didn't do a whole lot. went to dinner with bob and jason at fresco's. i had the salad bar. one stop salad bar for 7,900 so i piled it up high. at that point everything ends up tasting the same. i won't be getting that again. after that jason and i headed to bjorn's place, another teacher at my skool and played poker. i lost twice. first buy-in was 5,000, the second was double. i was not happy. i usually don't lose that bad but these things happen. i'll get it back next time. jason and i walked home through outdoor markets where they sold everything from crappy adidas t-shirts to street food.

tuesday (today): today is chuesok so i celebrated by doing some laundry, and then met up with ryan and walked around our area for a whole lot of hours. took some awesome pictures of random "engrish" t-shirts that made no sense and just came back from a bar in our area. there's got to be some type of uzbekistani convention going on behind our residence. they're everywhere but i don't ask questions. it's best that way. now i'm home and that's that.

korean survival essentials

cass red (bareable beer)












soju (less than a dollar, scary)









air conditioner/heater (unbelievable technology)












emergency beeping flashlight (to protect us from kim jong-il?)









pizza school (extremely essential for your cheese diet)









t-money card (for subway travel)












sweet phone

typhoon-tastic

when it rains, it pours here. no joke. days on end. fortunately, we've been lucky this week until the first night of the weekend of course. it kept coming down straight for probably twelve hours. we were supposed to hit up the doosan bears baseball game last night but there was no way they were playing ball in those conditions. typhoons kind of put a damper on things when you're trying to unwind from that looooong stressful week of not doing a whole lot at skool. a few friends and i did eat a decent indian restaurant not too far from here so that was definitely a place i'll return to in the near future.

it was a good week though so no complaints. played some games, taught some lessons, hung out with the kwanghee english teacher posse and ate some good food. i'm getting more comfortable when ordering food in a proper korean restaurant (pizza school not included) but still i've a long way to go. found a grocery store not too far from here and it's kind of in a random spot but it's got everything you need. sure, it's no loblaws superstore but it does have your essentials: bean paste, mushrooms you've probably never eaten, banana milk, and microwave rice. what more do you need? am i right? RIGHT?!

anyway, the weekend is pretty wide open right now so i'll probably do some more exploring of the city today. tomorrow morning is our annual yahoo hockey fantasy pool online draft so i'm pretty excited about that. can't take hockey out of the boy and, well, you know the rest.
good day to you.

oh wait, here are two other blogs from friends in the co-op. alison's and will's. they're from north carolina and tennessee respectively. a different point of view, only similar. i'm sure they appreciate the hits.

korean shopping

i live in dongdaemun and we're the capital of shopping for the city. there are pretty much a zillion department stores and vendors. it's also pretty neat to see all sorts of different independent designers that set up their spaces and sell all of their custom-made clothing. mind you, i'd never wear anything they make because it's all very extravagant and full of weird sayings and of course, i probably would struggle with sizing too.
i went to the yongsan electronics market yesterday and that was the same deal. it was ten floors of electronics vendors (computers on one floor, video games on another, appliances, phones, etc.). i got a used phone that i'm pretty happy with. it's pretty sweet and i got it for about $100. you could get used phones for as little as about 30,000 krw to upwards of 500,000. i wanted something half decent though because i'm a bit of a gadget whore. it's pay-as-you-go so with a 10,000 krw card you can get about 300 texts or 27 minutes of talk time. incoming calls are free luckily but it definitely pays to text which fortunately, i'm used to. to get a contract here you have to be korean. i guess too many foreigners have skipped out on their contracts in the past. damn them all.

at night i went to insadong with other english teachers from my residence. bob, jason, alison and nicole (who lives out near hongdae but we don't judge). we walked through insadong and stumbled upon a batting cage, stumbled out of a couple bars, and ended our night at noribong (korean karaoke). although hesitant, it was actually a lot of fun. i'll do it again, not going to lie. more pictures here.

korean kids and korean skool

the above image is from a student's pencil case. correct me if i'm wrong but i'm pretty sure it's from a kylie minogue song. they think us white folk are such a novelty. everyday at skool i have fifty kids run up and yell to me "hi!" or "hello!" and then they giggle and run off. the advanced ones know how to ask for your name but that's about it. they're mostly hilarious and the sweetest kids in the world.

our skool is building this english education centre for immersion students. parents have to pay for their students to attend it in the afternoon on tuesday and thursday. it doesn't open until october 8th though so we'll only be teaching english in the mornings until then. the class that i will be teaching is Culture so i'll be preparing lessons on everything from national symbols of the world to landmarks of the world to the geographies of europe, north america, south america, etc. it should be pretty cool because, even though i have a korean dude who is giving me ideas for lessons, i'll be developing most of the curriculum myself so i have loads of freedom to do what i want. also, i'll have this insane classroom with a mock bedroom, kitchen and a couple other random rooms so i can use them for demonstrations while teaching. it should definitely be something.
it's also weird because our skool is not the newest and, therefore, nicest and most up to date but they have room to build this english language centre so they've chosen kwanghee.

there are seven of us native english teachers there. more than any other skool probably in all of the seoul metropolitan office of education. we all get along pretty well which makes for a decent working environment because we have been spending a lot of time together in the first week.

korean food

the picture is of a kimchi pancake bought from a street vendor along side dongdaemun stadium.

i'm not going to lie, i've eaten beef by accident once (possibly more), fish cake soup by accident (pretty much exactly like thin tofu and with no fishy taste at all), and fish oil is in pretty much everything including kimchi. korea is the exact opposite of a veggie-friendly place. bibimbap is the main dish here and basically it's a little hot pot. inside they stick rice, a couple root vegetables, cucumber, shredded carrots and an egg. you can ask for it without the beef but they look all confused as to why not.
they also have kimbap, which is a sushi-type roll but they don't give you soya sauce with it. that's for the japanese and they're evil. you have to ask for it without the little ham thing though or just pick it out on your own.
this is a pretty helpful and accurate korean food guide that goes over everything on a typical korean menu: http://maryeats.com/category/korean-food-guide/ check it out.

i'm still really struggling here in that department. a lot of soups and not a whole lot of variety. i'm right downtown so there are TONS of places to eat but not a whole lot of variety. if you like seafood and beef you're in heaven, otherwise you have to improvise. even if you ask for it without meat you'll probably find small chunks of ham or seafood in it. no joke. they don't get it. but whatever, there are other vegetarians that i know here that i'm suffering with.

first week (revised ed.)

howdy. it's been a couple days. the two pictures above are seoul's version of american street meat. on both hot dog and hamburger they already have on them pre-squeezed mustard and ketchup. they don't give you a choice but they sure do put it on in perfect zig-zags. the fried concoction to the right is basically a pogo with embedded french fries. yes, i bought one out of desperating and ate most of it. i obviously threw out the hot dog (and wooden stick). just awful.
did i mention it's next to impossible to eat vegetarian in korea? i'll either slowly wither away on bananas and vitamin pills or gain thirty pounds because i end up gorging myself on awful pizza (with sweet corn) and beer. i won't say which of the two is more probable.
the other picture is a bar in sinchon. it's either the judas or sabbath bar. they can't decide. there are a few foreign hangouts around there and that night a buddy i teach with named adam played host. another english teacher named alison and i tagged along and drank outside a 7-11 with about ten other friends of adam's. more pictures can be found here.

the last couple of days involved hanging around our new skool: kwanghee elementary school, going to take care of various tasks, eating lunch out at really decent restaurants for dirt cheap, etc.
the two other veggies and i from our skool found a really decent rare vegetarian restaurant yesterday. it's in insadong so i can't forget that.
last night i also went to jamsil sports complex, where the 1988 olympic games were held, and saw a baseball game between the doosan bears and the kia tigers with four other dudes from my co-op residence. baseball definitely ain't the same as back home. it's quite bizarre actually. on the third base line is one supporting section and on the first base line are the fans from the other team. they have all sorts of crazy cheers that they all do in unison using these blow-up balloon sticks. they've also each got a little stage where an enthusiastic dude with a whistle leads the cheers. of course they had four cheerleaders too. oh yeah, the bears whipped the tigers 10-3. none of these guys will make the majors back home let alone be a bat boy. ouch.
tata.

M-ill-E

hi there. this is my girlfriend emily and our two summer cats affectionately known as grey one and black one. you figure out which is which.

emily is not only my girlfriend, she is my best friend, my partner in crime, someone who is always there for me, extremely supportive and, on top of that, she's gorgeous. i'm very lucky that i've got her in my life and don't know what i would do without her, especially at times like this. what other girlfriend would be cool with their boyfriend packing up and leaving the country for upwards of a year? not many. she was understanding in my decision to take off at this point in my life and i'm looking forward to the time when i can see her again, most probably at incheon international airport in a few months when her contract is up with the city.

it's difficult for a relationship to function properly when the two people are so far apart, however, emily is always at my fingertips whether it's online or by phone. any time i need to talk to her to ease into this adjustment i can find her. that's pretty awesome i'd say. that's why i love her i guess. awwww.

anyway, she's in boston right now with her other best bud shannon. they went out last night and some dude, probably ben affleck, was hitting on her. she seemed pretty strong and obviously refused his advances. she came home and was a bit upset but told me how much she missed me because of this. far out. these are situations that we're going to have to deal with in the future i guess.

she's so great and i miss her.

lots of koreans in korea

so yeah, i've been here a week to the day and suffered through an orientation at the hyundai learning centre and met a few people that are pretty awesome. i've mostly kept to myself because, i don't know, i didn't feel like making the effort to make decent friends. the ones that i did befriend (ie. chris, mike, caitlin, allison and paul) i enjoyed their company and their experiences. they'll be good buddies in the future. it was a whole lot of learning about the korean culture, eating the food (who knew kimchi had fish oil in it?), lots of presentations and bonding and stuff. overall, my favourite part of the week was walking down the hill and into town and hanging out there with mike and paul and just observing small town korean culture. so yeah, now i'm here in seoul as of yesterday and it's overwhelmed me like nothing else. i'll post a video of my new place right here if i can figure out how things work.
as well, here is a link to pictures of the last day at orientation and first day in seoul. this blogging thing is a joke.

cne 2007

as corny as blogs are and even though bloggers are constantly the butt of numerous jokes, i've decided to start this as a journal for my time here in seoul. i don't plan on rambling and writing 1000-word diatribes on how koreans are extremely nice, giving and friendly, however, i will update it when i see fit to share something i find interesting or eventful or take a good picture, etc. who knows, maybe no one will ever read this but atleast i'll have an outlet to share things and i'll be able to look back on it someday way into the future. maybe my kids will read this as i don't see google going out of business anytime soon.

so this is my first post. yes, this is nerdy but whatever, i don't want to be one of "those" people that send out lengthy email updates. if you want to know what's up and you're bored at work, here i am. that's it. i hope i can be somewhat entertaining to your otherwise more interesting life. i love you.

so my mom and i go to the ex every year without fail and this year we went on the first day. the first day is always exciting because they have the parade to open it. so i met my mom at the dufferin gates (the big-ass rainbow) after i locked up my bike. i was talking to my dad on the phone for a bit, at 10am on a friday mind you, and then i locked up my bike, felt guilty for hanging up and headed in. to our surprise the parade was just passing through behind bmo field where toronto fc was practising. it was interesting to see about a hundred kids in cadets with the canadian forces pass by us clearly focused on their responsibilities without paying attention to the two people walking along them. such troopers and oh so innocent.
my mom and i spent the next six hours staring at extremely cute pets, eating cheap food, visiting different products from various countries around the world (including dr. ho's muscle stimulators that are a product of china apparently) and various other things. above is a picture of evil knievel. it was part of the ex's photo archives which might be my very favourite part of the ex. check out the video. crushed pelvis and femur, fractures to his hip, wrist and both ankles and a concussion that kept him in a coma for 29 days. awesome.