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.