Pics of the new area at long last

Here are the links to the pics and videos for my new area. As you can clearly see, my apartment is very small and the surrounding area is very sketchy in spots. Otherwise its pretty good.

Pics: See Facebook Album "The New New New New New New Digs"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn-ZdcHcG_g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXT-SE1rnRw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgmYDdzH1gY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91uJDcmzb4A

Costco + Korea = Fun, Fun, Fun

Yes, as I mentioned in the previous post, I’ve recently begun shopping at Costco but I felt the goodies contained within that quest were too much to cram into a paragraph or two. The insanity deserves so much better.

Let me first say that I’ve not spent much time in big stores like Costco or Sam’s Club or something else of that ilk in America, so for all I really know, they could be just as bat shit insane at the Korean Costco. But, probably not. Just my opinion though.

First, we must address the noise thing. And no, I don’t mean simply that there are a billion people in these monstrous stores like Sam’s Club, cuz there are. In this instance, Koreans do things a bit differently. Somewhere along the line when Korea was developing its consumer culture and practices, its consumers decided they liked having their senses assaulted when shopping. Like how all their websites and online shopping sites are nuclear detonations of bright colors and flashing images and pop ups and colors and more flashing and more pop ups and text and more text and more text and….phhhew, I’m exhausted. Honestly, its enough to have your eyes resign in disgust. If you don’t believe me, head over to http://www.gmarket.co.kr/. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This assaulting of the senses isn’t simply reserved for your eyes. No, no, they are democratic about it, they let all the senses join in the fun. When it comes to shopping in person, there are literally hundreds of employees that stand, at least one per aisle, about the store and yell at you about sales and deals and other shit. That is really all they do. They can answer questions about shit, but primarily they just yell about sales. And this is okay. This is standard procedure. Hell, even the little ma and pa shops do it. They just have one guy or two (it gets really interesting when they have two as they have dueling mics) on microphones that consistently shout out about how the bananas are on sale today or how 2 lbs of cabbage is 1.50 dollar. Really inane shit like that, that is helpful the first time you hear it, but after listening to it on repeat for several minutes gets very old. I kid you not. I’ll stay in these small groceries stores for 10 mins and I’ll hear 5 different sentences and I’ll hear music (which plays whenever the guys actually stop talking and turn off the mics) for less than 30 seconds or so. If you want to feel what this is like, I shall accompany you to the grocery store, follow closely behind and shout things like “Most honored customer, our delicious strawberries are on sale today for just 3 dollars a package. That’s right strawberries for just 3 dollars. Did you not hear me? You can’t go wrong. Strawberries for only 3 dollars….” and so on FOR THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME you are in the grocery store. If I didn’t feel so bad for the employees who have to burn out their voices talking nonsense all day, I would seriously consider ripping out their vocal cords just for some god damn peace and quiet.

The next issue is the crowding. But this I always assume, as its Korea, and everything is crowded. Always. There are just too many damn people crammed into too damn small of a space. And for a city of 15 million people, they have 2 Costcos. So naturally navigating is difficult. Compounding this is the issue of driving carts. In this instance, Koreans drive carts like their drive their cars…..horribly. Sure the lanes are wide to allow for the monster Costco carts to pass through, but when somebody parks their cart in the absolute middle of the aisle, pointed perpendicular to the aisle, it pretty much closes down the lane to traffic. I had a few instances where I was stopped due to a poorly placed cart. I would glare at the owner for some period of time, they would eventually see that I was trying to pass, they would then look at me, then continue doing whatever the hell they were doing. They would move in time, but for someone that despises shopping as much as I do, any extra second inside a store is one second too many.

The most interesting aspects of Costco relate to the free samples, display models and the costumer reactions to them. I shall attack the free samples first. No doubt everyone is familiar and well versed in the tradition of employees giving away samples of some new product in order to foster customer interest. Generally they were never really crowded. If what they were giving away interested me, I would try one, otherwise I wouldn’t give a moment’s thought. Things operate a little differently in Korea. EVERYONE AND I MEAN EVERYONE takes EVERY sample. I do not jest. You should see the lines of people waiting for free samples of shit they can’t even see. Seriously, at the back of the lines you can’t see what they are giving away and can’t hardly smell it either, yet line up they all do. Hell, I personally witnessed a monster line waiting for ddeokbokki, the really popular rice cake treat that you can find on any street corner. I imagine most people here have eaten hundreds of pounds of those buggers in their lifetime (and rightfully so, as they are quite tasty), so why the need to try one more? Its not gonna taste any different. It would be like a grocery store in America having free samples of French fries. Not any special variety, just your normal ass French fries. I imagine most people would simply look at the fries, think “French fries? Meh…” and then move on. Not here. I’ve discussed this issue with people here and one of the postulated explanations is that the folks, having been a not so prosperous country not so long ago, where free food or even plentiful food might have been unfamiliar concepts, respond very differently than I do to free things or things given to them. That probably isn’t right though. Honestly, I don’t know. But it sure is weird.

The other point of interest was the display models of furniture and stuff like that. When I entered Costco, I was immediately placed within the patio/lawn furniture section. Now, at first glance I was dumbfounded as to the existence of this section, as I’m in Seoul, where everyone lives in apts and has no patio or yard whatsoever. Hell, I couldn’t even fit those patio tables inside my current apt, let alone actually have a deck to place them on. Sure there are super rich Koreans that have regular houses with yards, and yes those fabulously rich people have plenty of disposal income to spend on patio furniture like these, but really are there enough of people like that to actually make the patio furniture section profitable??? I wonder. Even more interesting was how the customers responded to the area. Every single patio table chair and bench were filled with people. And I don’t mean they were testing the chairs to see if they were comfy. These families had settled down and were there to stay a long time. The kids had set down and were playing game boys or reading books, while many of the parents were reading the newspaper or eating some food or something. Did they want to take the family out to relax in the backyard on the patio, but not having one, just settle for what was available? If so, then I have much more respect for the people. They are going to enjoy themselves no matter the circumstances. I could not find a single table or LazEboy or couch unoccupied. And nobody else seemed to think this was weird, so it must be the status quo. If that is the case, then what actually goes down if they have toilets on display? Do people actually sit down and take a shit on those toilets? And what if they have mattresses set up? Do people really sleep on them? What about having sex on them, in the middle of a huge store? If any of the answers to those questions is yes, then I must humbly bow down to Korea and its enormous balls, for their pair is most certainly bigger than mine.

잘 생겼어! (God, I hate when old women say that to me)

For those who don't speak Korean, it means "You are handsome". As a beautiful ivory skinned giant in this land of little people, I get told this quite regularly. The speakers range from male elementary students (weird) to middle aged men (more than a little awkward) to female middle aged coworkers (which takes on a sort of motherly tone, which is really weird in itself). But they've got nothing on middle aged, sorta manly but super scary female waitresses at restaurants. But that story comes a bit later....

First things first, school life. I've now have a full week of classes, and all appears to be quite good. Class sizes aren't anything overwhelming in size and the kids are really well behaved. But that good behavior might have something to do with the co-teacher being up on the naughty ones like a horny dog on, well, anything. She keeps them under control at all times. Plus the rules and punishment system is well explained and known by the students. Fuck, I sure as hell wouldn't want to have to write one of the class rules 50 times in a foreign language if I acted up twice. Being as this school is in a much less affluent area of town, the students' levels are much lower than the old school, but they seem to be willing to do the work, which is all I really ask of them. The co-teacher and I are still trying to figure out how to work together, but I don't have too many worries about that, so all seems to be good.

Being as it was the first week interacting with the kids, I naturally had to do my introduction to the classes. Sadly, I didn't get too many really off the wall questions like I was expecting. I really didn't get many questions at all. Poor buggers were too scared to ask questions in English. That's not to say there wasn't highlight moments. Like one student raised her hand and said "You look like Harry Potter". Obviously not a question but amusing none the less. My gut reaction is to think that they say that about any white fellow with glasses and hair similar to mine, but again, they don't see many white folk, so they can be forgiven. Methinks i should take advantage of this. People seem to really like Harry Potter and some people are in fact women (but not all women are people.....let that one sink in for a little bit), so it can't hurt my chances with the ladies to play up that angle. And it leads so easily into talking about one's "wand". I think I like where this is going. The other highlight was when one boy raised his hand and asked (I shit you not) "Did you dye your hair?". More than the shock over the absurdity of such a question was the realization that this 4th grader asked, in perfect English, a question using absolutely useless and random English vocabulary. What 4th grader in their right mind knows the word "dye" in English? Why? Why????? But then I remembered how much Koreans, of either gender, love their freaking hair and how Korean moms get their elementary children (boys too) f'n perms. Then it all makes sense. In answer to his question, I calmly explained that, no my hair looks this awful all by itself. Au naturale.

And if you were wondering how long it took before I was challenged to my first paper-rock-scissors throwdown vs a student....it was about 5 minutes. One 6th grade girl in particular wanted to cut the new guy down to size. And cut me down she did. She played by hardcore Korean rules, meaning that every time you lose, you get flicked in the forehead. Think the same flick motion used to knock a paper football around. Sure, it doesn't draw blood or anything, but it does kinda smart. And being the big, tough man I am, I didn't want to admit that it hurt, but darn, those things, sniffle, sniffle, really hurt. And of course, I lose a lot, so the shots to the head pile up.

The most interesting student, at least to me, would have to be the boy who lived in Ireland for 6 years. And he's in 4th grade, which means I've just about lived in Korea as long as he has. Poor bastard's gotta be dealing with some serious culture shock, as Ireland and Korea aren't super similar in anything. But at least he didn't like Ireland or miss it, so that helps. Probably the weather and all the Irish. Yeeeesh.

As for interacting with those kooky co-workers, times are still good. I went to my first badminton lesson last week and I was mildly disappointed. See, I was under the impression that all the office ladies were doing the badminton thing. Meaning I would get a chance to show off my athletic prowess in front of the young teacher my age (step 1 of the DENNIS system: Demonstrate worth). Plus, I'd get to see how she handles a racket (giggety). Sadly, I was mistaken. Just the older lady teachers would be doing it. Shit. Well, I guess there's nothing left but to use these lessons to become the greatest badminton player ever and break Asia's stranglehold on the badminton world. I was hoping I'd just get to play, cuz running around and whacking the hell out of the shuttlecock is a lot more fun then learning proper footwork and swings. But they weren't kidding when they said it was a lesson. But I caught on quickly and earned the ladies praise. "Wow, you're really good Eric." Geee, thanks ladies but given I'm competing against middle aged women who get winded walking up a flight of stairs, it doesn't take too much to look super coordinated and athletic. My only qualm with badminton: It is incredibly difficult to spike it at someone, let alone cause serious harm to them. Take volleyball for instance. It doesn't get any better than getting ready to serve and searching out/locking in on the weakest player on the opposing team and making them your bitch till you tire of scoring points. And headhunting when spiking? God, I miss gym class.

So the badminton will be taking up Monday, Wednesday and Fridays every week. I wouldn't be so into it if not for the fact that they are during work time. I'm getting paid to play badminton. I can handle that. Also, I've been told that we'll be starting yoga on Tuesday and Thursday at the same time. I like, I like.

Now on to the creepy waitress. So Friday the whole staff headed out for dinner at school ended. Well, almost everybody. We were missing 2 English teachers, but I certainly wasn't lacking in people to talk to as I still had 2 English teachers, the young teacher who speaks pretty well, and the one older lady that really seems to like talking to me. I don't really understand why she likes talking to me so much. I mean, its just me. Not freaking Harry Potter or something. Or is it? No. It isn't. Anyways, when we sat down, as I was closest to the communal pot, the waitress leaned down right near me to distribute the goodies. While placing the goods on the table, she turns back towards me, looks me in the eye, makes some sort of facial expression (a wink? licking of the lips? gnashing of teeth? I'm not too sure, as I was paralyzed with fear) towards me and then says the words in the title. I don't think she knew I could understand some Korean, but she certainly didn't back away from it once she found out. She made sure I had a fork, in case I couldn't use chopsticks, and even served the food for me. Which would be flattering and wonderful had it not come for a middle aged women who physical appearance frightened me. At this point I should just admit defeat, give up on the young ladies and resign myself to the mothers and grandmothers that find me irresistible. Either that or dudes, as I seem to pull them pretty well here too. Le sigh. The rest of the meal didn't get much less weird, as some of the ladies inquired into my dating history (wait, I have a dating history???? since when???) and then the whole group of 8 or so debated my goofy haircut. "I don't like it". "Well, I think its cute". Ohhh, don't mind me ladies, I'll just be zoning out so I don't have to deal with this conversation. I felt so dirty, like a piece of meat, getting passed around and critiqued on its cut, texture, flavor, etc.....sob, sob. So yeah, that was a weird dinner.

As for other excitement at the dinner, when the subject turned to my weekend plans and I spilled that I had a date that weekend (a date? Yeah, surprised me too), the ladies got so excited they nearly shat themselves (actually, maybe I’m the only one that happens to when they get excited. Hmm….). Within approximately .0007 nanoseconds of the words “I have a date this weekend” leaving my mouth, the entire table had turned its attention towards yours truly and had begun the grilling. The co-teacher even got a little offended. “Eric, you told me you didn’t have a girlfriend.” I politely explained to everyone that this was the first date and that I barely knew the girl. They weren’t having any of that. “Eric, where is your girlfriend from?” “Where did you meet her?” “What’s her favorite type of rice cake?” “How many children does she want to have?” (those last 2 questions weren’t asked, as far as I know). So many people here really seem to treat not being coupled with someone else as a tear in the space time continuum or something that threatens to wipe out all life as we know it. Shit be serious.

Now, I imagine all of you out there just had your heads explode from the idea of me on a date, but fear not, it didn’t end up happening. Too bad about those exploded brain bits everywhere though. Who is she? Well, she’s a fellow member of the capoeira group here. Is she Korean? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, that’s rich. Next question. How did you manage to fuck it up? A very good question which I shall now delve into.

Yes, despite the magical and mystical powers of Collin’s good luck in love charm (that I received during New Years), shit didn’t pan out. Can’t really blame it on a faulty love charm. There is only so much mystical power a little charm can wield and apparently said power is not enough to counter whatever I’ve already got working against me. Maybe next year he’ll get me 10 or 20 (hint, hint). That should do the trick.

Anyways, the female in question had been coming to capoeira for the last few months or so and I wanted to ask her out from the beginning, but being the big floppy wiener that I am, I didn’t manage it for quite some time. Not like it was all my fault, as she disappeared from class for a few weeks at one point. Whatever the excuse or reason, I didn’t muster the stones till last week. But when I actually did, things went very well. I asked, she said yes, and we would figure out the details after capoeira class on Saturday. Well, capoeira class rolled around and she laid on the bad news. First, she was busy today so she couldn’t make it today. No big deal. We’ll just reschedule it, or so I thought. Turns out she had misunderstood my intentions. If I simply wanted to grab food and such, then okay, but if I had intended the meal to be a date, well, then no. At least she was straight, clear and concise with her answer.

As for weekend plans the last few weeks………….umm, yeah. Zero. Nothing. However you wanna say it, there was nothing going on. 2 weekends ago saw me moving my shit from apt to apt all weekend, so that was hella fun. Last weekend wasn’t much better. After missing capoeira due to the aforementioned teacher’s dinner, I got called out to Hongdae by drunk Carrie and Jenna (which if you haven’t been priviledged enough to experience firsthand, I highly recommend), only to have them skitter off home after one hour. Which wouldn’t have been so bad if it didn’t take me 40 minutes to get to Hongdae, then another 40 back.

The rest of the weekend wasn’t even that enjoyable. After capoeira on Saturday I did nothing, as I had made no plans, you know, cuz I was supposed to be on a date. What did I do with my newly acquired free time? I went to Costco (the oddity of which deserves its own post), bought groceries and cleaned my apartment. Fuck yeah, I’m such a badass. On Sunday, I tried to get together a capoeira practice in the park to practice music or anything, but the weather ended up being shit, so barely anybody showed. Then I went home and cleaned some more. Then I found 10,000 won (which is only 8.83 dollars, so not even as impressive as finding 10 bucks).

I do have reason to believe that this weekend will be much more enjoyable, as the crew is getting together for some sort of club party/concert thing on Friday night and then reconvening for a big St. Pattie’s Day party on Saturday night. I’m confident there will be sizable portions of fun to be sussed out of the whole thing.

That’s all for now and I promise pictures next time.

P.S. The miniature horse came back again just the other day. I was so excited. Next time he rematerializes I will be sure to snap a picture of him.

I hate moving

Yup, absolutely hate it. And given that I've now had to do it 4 times in the last 1.5 years, I think I know what I'm talking about. Well, one of those times was only carrying my shit a block to Jethro's apt, but still. I promised the longer version of the last crazy week, and here it is.

So as might have read in the brief synopsis last week, I was just going along, minding my own business, having not heard from SMOE in any capacity in 2 weeks, thus leading me to assume that I was sticking around at the same school for the next year. I mean, the new semester starts in 3 days? There is no way they could possibly make the move now....I mean, they'd have to give me some heads-up on this, right? WRONG. As usual. As I was randomly checking my email Friday afternoon, I found the cursed thing lurking in my inbox. Yep, they notified me of the decision via email. Super professional. Especially after they promised me they would call me....2 weeks ago. The email left quite a bit to be desired. Here, see for yourself:

Dear Eric,



This is Rachel with SMOE.

Your new school is decided and it's 상봉초등학교 (Sang-bong Elementary School / tel. XX-XXX-XXXX).

My supervisor will send your current school an official letter regarding your transfer and they will tell you what to do.

You will have to go to the new school from the 2nd of March.



I wish you good luck with your new school.



Regards,



Rachel with SMOE



Short, isn't it? It seems like something was missing, right? Maybe directions or information on my new school? Hell, I mean, if I received this thing Friday afternoon, who the hell knows when my new school will receive the notice saying I'm coming. Will they even know who I am when I show up on Tuesday??? (As I found out later, the new school got word about me on Saturday....3 days before I showed up). So much for saying goodbye to my old school or anything. I feel like a douche now, having just walked out casually on Friday and I'll never see any of them again and the office mates were so, so friendly and helpful, but the email came at 5pm. A whole 5 hours after I left the office. Not much that could have been done. Thankfully, I didn't leave anything behind, well besides my old, beat up sandals that I got when I started college (yeah, pretty old). It's too bad the notice was so sudden. I didn't even get to leave a flaming bag of shit on the vice-principal's desk like I wanted to. Darn.

As you might expect, this sudden notice set off a lot of aggression, frustration, and hysteria in yours truly. This was only compounded after I used Google maps to locate the school and found out it was in the only area of Seoul I didn't wanna live in, namely the Northeast, as its a hella distance from Korean class and capoeira. Also, it was near Cheongnangni Station, which I knew to be a pretty dumpy area, so that didn't exactly thrill me either. I freaked out originally, as I may be forgiven for given the circumstances, but slowly I mellowed about the whole thing. The heavy doses of cool motherfuckers and alcohol probably helped.

Saturday saw the gang getting together at Tomatillos for some quasi Mexican food and tales of the most recent absurd school related shit that's befallen us. The girls had already downed a bottle of wine and Jamie and I are kinda strange to begin with, so the conversation got pretty goofy. From the there we moved to Oktoberfest, one of the vaguely German themed bars that offer actual beers (hooray!!). Someone had the genius idea that if we start drinking real early, we can sober up and be home and in bed by a reasonable hour. GREATEST. IDEA. EVER. Sure we started drinking at 5pm, but we were home and sober by midnight. Sure, its a grandpa move, but I don't mind.

On Sunday, Jamie insisted that we check out the new school, just so he could laugh at me about how shitty is might be. I would have been more pissed about him being an ass that takes enjoyment in the suffering of others, but I can't say this is a new thing when it comes to my friends. Anyways, we wandered around the area and, much to Jamie's chagrin, the school looked very respectable and new and the surrounding area, while very, very quiet, looked okay. Jamie was crushed. His mood improved when we played screen golf and he won by 30 something strokes. It would have been much closer had I not had to golf opposite handed. More lefty prejudice. Somebody should do something about this discrimination. No lefty clubs to use, no machines set up for lefties??? Awful. Although, I didn't play too bad for going righty.

Well, this whole weekend I was hoping to hear from my new school and maybe find out what is going on, but I did not. Not surprising, given they only found out about me a day or so ago. I decided to just show up to the school on Tuesday and hope for the best. I mean whats the worst that could happen? They could have no idea who I am, call the cops to deal with the "creepy foreigner lurking around the halls", then have me put in awful foreigner jail where I'm forced to wear hanboks and learn about traditional Korean culture (I'm not making the last part up...they really do that). Wow, that actually sounds pretty awful, now that I think about it.....gulp.

Fortunately for me, it all worked out very, very well. I showed up to school while everybody was in a teacher's meeting, so I waited for everybody to pile out and then stumbled into another white person. WHAT??? Turns out the school has some new really nice new facilities (gymnasium, etc) that feature some high tech English lab that staffs a foreigner to teach different kids from all over the district that come to take part in some special program there. The guy was Canadian and seemed pretty cool and was able to direct me to the co-teacher, who also seems like a wonderful lady. From there on, it was your standard first week at a new school. Lots of bowing and introductions and running around taking care of logistics stuff (contract issues, lesson planning, apartment stuff, etc) and lots of sitting around doing nothing after the lesson planning finishes. The highlights from the crazy week:

Co-teacher: This lady seems super cool. Let that be said first. The last co-teach was really nice as well, so it would appear that after my lousy first year, I've been rewarded by the gods for my suffering. She's an older lady, but doesn't seem to have any of the "I'm the person in charge, so you better fucking do what I say" attitude, like the teacher from last year did. Plus, she's the head teacher, so very good to be on good terms with her. She was super friendly from the start and we hit it off and were chatting within no time. The young teacher at the last school was really nice, but nowhere as outgoing and friendly as this lady. We chatted and got along really well, but we never had times where we sat around and talked about the weather or other various chit chat, like I've done with the new co-teacher already in my first week. I think the office environment really helps with that, as everybody eats together and gets rather energetic and lively, as opposed to the last school, where the office mates all ate at their desks while surfing the internet.

The Rest of the Office: These ladies rock. Even better than the last office, which is saying something. The office squad is, I believe, 10 people, including me. One is the previously mentioned co-teacher. There is one, slightly younger English teacher who I won't be working with, but damn is her pronunciation good. Hell, sounded native speaker-ish. Also, caught her on friday watching American talk shows on her computer and reading English language sites, so she knows her shit. She is a
cool cat as well, laughing it up with the rest of the ladies. Then there's the 23 year old female teacher. Yep, my age. And attractive. And seemingly not vacuous like many young ladies. And speaks pretty decent English. And isn't so freakishly skinny that I just wanna go over and feed her (no, that is certainly not a turn on). And isn't so terrified of a male in her presence that she runs away. All very good things. Then there's the two ladies who don't speak much English, but try their damnedest. First, we have Mrs. "Jolie" Jo. Why the nickname? Well, in order to help me remember their names, since there are a few Mrs. Jos and Mrs. Lees, she decided to take a nickname. She settled on "Jolie" since her lips are big, like miss Angelinas. Or in her own words, "Lips...like Angelina Jolie. Body....NOOOOOOOOO. Just lips. Only lips." Priceless. The other woman speaks more English and is (noticing a trend here?) super friendly. The few other ladies that don't speak too much English still seem to have a good, laid back time with all the rest. My kind of people. Also, their work habits? Wonderful. Starting next week we will be taking badminton lessons together...on the schools time. That's right. Rather than sit at our desks in the afternoon doing nothing or pretending to do work, we'll be playing badminton. Awesome. Also on Friday, I got invited to "skip out on work" as they called it, to walk over to Costco and buy some snacks for the office, while on company time. The ladies were even kind enough to wade through the big long lines for free samples for me (something interesting to note about Korea...people go fucking crazy for the free samples. Hell, some of the lines for free samples were 20 or so deep. Not sure why they feel the need to take every free sample. Maybe the recent past where food was not always plentiful? Really don't know. Funny as hell to watch though). The office also has lots of snack breaks, which is mathematically impossible to not be a fan of. And lastly, of course, they constantly inflate my ego by talking about how handsome I am, or how in awe they are of my height or how impressed they are with my Korean. I'm a fan.

English classes: Truthfully, they haven't started yet, but I'm confident that they'll turn out okay. Firstly, I have a sweet new English lab to work in. I guess this is the standard policy now, to build a fancy English lab to conduct classes in. I'm certainly not complaining as the class comes with a high tech touch screen multimedia board, 6 computer stations for the kids to use during class, lots of english language story books, tons of vocabulary magnets and cards to put on the board, and lots of other materials for role playing scenarios. So I have a few resources at my disposal. Perhaps most importantly, is that the previous teacher, an Australian bloke that stuck around for 2 years, was a very experienced teacher who put together a very thorough program for the English classes. So now the co-teacher and I have the luxury of reusing the things that worked well and modifying and adding to what didn't work. Not having to start from scratch is a wonderful thing.

Apartment: This one took me a little time to come around to, but I'm okay with it now. Obviously, the place was gonna be a disappointment after the relative luxury I've been living in for the past 6 months. Not compared to what I've been living in for the past 6 months, though, I'd have to say I did pretty well. For the apt's location, its very, very convenient. Much more so than the current one, where I'm a 20 minute walk away from any subway stations. Here I'm 2 minutes away max from the major subway line that cuts through all of Seoul. As such, the trees and greenspace and quiet will all be gone, but I think it might be nice for a while to feel like I'm actually in a city. That's not to say there won't be other sights. As I'm located right near some major universities, there will be plenty of young people, which is never a bad thing, plentiful English speakers and foreigners (probably students, many of which live in my building), and shit is generally cheaper as nobody has any money. Couple that with some of the dumper areas around the apt and you get for some near constant entertainment. I mean, a miniature horse tied up to a gymnasium in the middle of Seoul? He didn't seem too confused by the whole thing, but man did that blow my mind. If this is the level absurdity I can look forward to in the future, then count me the hell in. Plus, I'm only a very short bus ride away from school and Costco, where I can finally shop like a really human again, getting to make decisions on what I actually want, rather than acting like a scavenger at these smaller grocery stores, having to pick and choose from what meager choices are available.

As for the apt itself, yeah its small. But luckily it doesn't feel small, as I have a loft, which means the ceiling is about 20 or so feet tall. Also, did I mention I have a loft????? The novelty of the thing will wear off, I'm sure, but for now the idea of having one is so fucking cool. Also, I have one of those attic pull down ladders to get up there. The kitchen? Tiny, with minimal counter space, cabinets, and a little mini fridge. Not cool. I'll have to modify my purchasing habits, but since I certainly wasn't packing the old monster fridge full of food, it really shouldn't be a problem. Cabinet space? Minimal, but there should be enough to hold all my stuff, especially after I buy some cheapy plastic storage containers and toss them up in the loft to hold stuff I don't really use (winter clothes during summer, etc). The desk seems to be workable and the desk chair is not as lousy and broken as the old one, so plus there. The bathroom is very compact but should do the job. The only squabble there is that the door is only glazed opaque glass, so not the most privacy (only becomes an issue when I have guests and really when am I ever going to have callers??? exactly). Plus having the stinking pot of excrement all of 2 inches or so from your living room is never ideal. The apt does include a little TV screen with cable already functioning. Hoorah!! cept all the stations are the shitty Korean ones I never watch. No ESPN channels for sports, none of the channels that often feature american movies (or movies at all), and no music stations. In conclusion, I don't figure to watch too much TV. Also disappointing is the fact that the TV doesn't seem to have access for AV cables, meaning I'll have to get another one to play video games or watch movies. Boo. The bed, as anticipated, was a major disappointment. A tiny not so comfortable little thing. Perhaps I will look into getting a bigger and better mattress. Perhaps. However, there are more pressing issues to attend to, like cleaning. Yet again it appears that I'm to follow a dirty, dirty female tenant. Why must women be so disgusting? I have no idea, but this lady left her hair all over the place. In an even more disturbing moment, while cleaning out the present apt, I found, on a top shelf, no anywhere near the bathroom, in a little used closet....a tampon wrapper. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Not sure why in the world it would be there, but it just speaks to the depraved nature of the apt's former tenant.

Beyond cleaning, I have considerable redesigning to do, as I've decided, thanks to the helpful suggestions I've received, to move the bed up to the loft and set up the living room with a couch. This of course means I have to procure a couch along with a small TV and possibly a mattress. And given Korea's disgusting lack of thrift stores and used item stores (everything must be brand new and name brand...frankly their level of consumerism would make America very, very proud to see what monsters they've helped create worldwide), that task may be much more difficult and expensive than preferred.

All in all, not a bad switch. Course, I finally just heard from the supervisor that runs this current apt complex/dorm thingy and she isn't super pleased. I guess policy states that I'm supposed to give them 30 days notice I'm leaving, which was impossible as I had only 4 days notice. I had hoped nobody would ask any questions and I might be able to keep this place as a vacation cottage in the woods or something, but it appears my replacement at the old school showed up and caused considerable confusion. Oooooooooooops. Hopefully, I don't have pay the 50,000 won per day charge they supposedly ask for if you stay here past your contract. I mean, what did they want of me? The old contract ended on Feb 28th and I didn't meet the new school and get a new apt till March 2 and I certainly wasn't living on the street for a few days. They can send my bill to SMOE for fucking around and waiting to make a decision and for just generally being incompetent. I mean, I'll already have to pay some sort of fee for having to cancel my 1 year internet contract at 6 months. Again, thanks vice-prin and SMOE. Love you guys. Sadly, tonight figures to be my last night at the big apt, so I gotta say my final goodbyes before heading up north.

Pictures and videos will follow as soon as I get the chance.