A much needed update

Apologies to all for not having written in such a long time. I could go on and on about how busy I am and I don’t have time, blah, blah, blah, but when I realized that I’ve been at my new school/apartment for nearly a month and still haven’t actually posted any pictures of my new digs, then the former excuses seem to ring a bit hollow. Pure and simple, I’m lazy.

Now, the last time I actually wrote, I had just moved in and started work, so everything was still first impressions. However, I can happily say that those first impressions have indeed held up and I am still very content with the new lifestyle.

First, the apartment. Again, happy to report it is still very, very, very big and wonderful. Still don’t have near enough stuff to fill up most of the cabinets and storage space, but I’m pretty sure that’s a good thing. The laundry machines in the basement are much better and energy efficient and, well, just better. Plus, they actually have a drying function (err, well, there are directions in English on how to use said drying function….I now realize that the old washing machine may have had that too….ooops). The workout room has been a major blessing, especially leading up to the 10K race I just ran. Sure, the boombox is broken and I have nothing but myself to occupy…myself during the 1.5 hour training runs, but I somehow managed to pull through without losing my grip on reality too terribly. Though seemingly minor and insignificant, the single gymnastics mat in the workout room may be most important feature of the of the whole setup. Rather then relying solely on capoeira class for training, I can now disfigure and damage myself through numerous moves in the comfort of my own home.

As for my fellow dorm mates, I have no idea who they are. And I like it that way. Everyone is busy with their own shit and I'm clearly not the type to bake a cake or something and then go introduce them to the neighborhood, so I have yet to really interact with them at all. I've said hello to them in the hall, but for the most part, I'm never around and I rarely see them around the complex when I am around. It really is like being back in the dorms again. Funny.

School, is in a word, wonderful. What a difference it makes when everybody in the office goes out of their way to include you in stuff. Although, that's probably unfair to the old school, as they did make an effort, but it was hard, as nobody could speak English. The atmosphere is much more relaxed, as my office only has 6 teachers in it, so everyone is much closer and friendlier. The office consists of both co-teachers, a music and art teacher who lived in the States for 2 years so her English is pretty good, the music teacher who speaks very little English and an art teacher who is now gone on maternity leave. It does get a little weird at times as the other 5 are all women, so I feel, how do I say this, out of my element in regards to some of the subjects we chat about. Primarily they discuss, surprise, surprise, men. My primary co-teacher is especially obsessed about the men as she is single and around 30, which means she is now under considerable family and societal pressure to get married. She has told me on several occasions that she is looking for Mr. Right. She is a wonderful lady, but I worry alot that she is going to settle for the first fellow that comes along and subsequently be very, very unhappy for the rest of her life and she deserves much better than that. I has been suggested that I be that Mr. Right, but I feel like that would be a very, very bad idea. End of discussion. But, as you might imagine, their conversations delve into subjects that I care very little for, but they do try to include me, to sometimes disastrous and amusing results. My personal favorite was when we were all sitting around snacking on something and the ladies were conversing when the co-teacher turned to me and asked "Eric, what is the first thing you look for in a woman?". Wow. On the spot. Careful Eric, don't say breasts and ass. Don't say cuz she's easy. "Ummmm, if she has a pretty face?" Nice save, nice save.

The English classes themselves have been all over the place. To put it simply, the classes with the primary co-teacher are wonderful and the kids are too, the classes with the other co-teacher are not and neither are the kids. First, the primary co-teacher and the classes with her. She gives me hope that someday, maybe Korea will be able to teach English properly and effectively without us (Native speakers). She speaks an amazing amount of English in the classroom, and tries to only use Korean when she must. And you know what, it works. I assumed a classroom where English is spoken was just a myth, like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, that we all desperately hope is real. We also get along and co-teach (god, I'm tearing up....its so beautiful) very well. I think this stems from several facts: 1) She sees me a human being, rather than a machine that spits out English words on command 2) She doesn't think I'm an idiot 3) She acknowledges the possibility that the book exercises might not be fun and might in fact, suck, so she is open to different ideas. As you might recall from the previous job, these 3 things were noticeably absent from the previous job. Outside of classroom, she realizes that I am not fluent in Korean, and thus am much slower on the uptake on certain goings on, so she assists when necessary. All of this leads to me not wanting to cause major physical harm to her, unlike the previous teacher. Also, she's very pretty, so even if she was a bitch to me, I probably still couldn't hate her (I have a history of this when it comes to women....cough, Maria, cough). Now, the kids. I teach 3rd grade through 5th grade with her, and the kids are wonderful. Overall, they are really well behaved and genuinely want to participate in English class and that's all I really ask. Because my area is a bit more affluent than the old school (just a bit), many of the students have really, really, really good English from having lived abroad for several years or having attended private academy classes from very early on. But really, when you ask a question and 15 out of 25 hands go up to answer and when you hit a little bell and everybody shuts the hell up, it brings a tear to your eye. Because I'm me, the students naturally loved me from the very first second. A month or so in and they are still in awe of my massive size. Some of the really, really small kids only come up to my belt, so you can imagine how huge I am to the folks. Most of the kids are just so darn small and cute and adorable that I just wanna steal one or two. Not for good mind you. I'd give them back when they got older and turned into little shits, but they should still be cute for a couple of years. To give you an idea of how quickly and strongly the little buggers got attached to me (in this case, literally attached to me), take the first day of my favorite 3rd grade class. The bell rang for the end of class and the start of lunch, and I was immediately surrounded by 27 little ones hell bent on showing me their rock/paper/scissors skills (they love that shit over here). As you can imagine, thats a lot of rock/paper/scissors games. Especially when the each kid wanted to keep playing FOREVER!! After 5 minutes or so, I realized that the mob wasn't going to disperse on its own, and feeling bad for the co-teacher who had been patiently waiting outside the room the whole time, so I told the kids I had to go. From the looks of disappointment on their faces, you would have thought I just told them their pet cat, their pet dog, and both their parents had died. As began leaving the room, several of the students ran over and grabbed my arm in an attempt to keep me there by force (I believe one or two may have attached themselves to my legs as well....I don't remember for sure). Remember, this was the very first day. I had spent a total of 40 minutes with these children. Hell, that class actually comes into the office at lunch, takes me by hand and drags me into the lunch room with them to chat.

On the flip side (man, how long has it been since I said that?), we have the 6th grade who I teach with the other co-teacher. She is an incredibly sweet, friendly and nice lady, but she has to be the most shy Korean I've ever seen (and that is saying something). She is incredibly conscious of her English ability and is always, always apologizing and freaking out when she makes a mistake. I really want to improve my Korean drastically so we can just lesson plan in Korean and save her the stress and eventual heart attack of having to speak English. This lack of communication leads to some confusion in the classroom, but there are much greater issues here. First, she, as you can imagine from the general meekness, has no authority over the kids in the classroom. They run around at times, never shut up and generally just disrespect whoever is talking, whether it be their classmates or teachers. Secondly, she is never prepared and on cue, something is never ready, giving the students even more time to talk and fall off task. The kids aren't bad, they just have hit the age where they dislike school and don't wanna be there and don't instinctively listen to the teacher anymore. They need discipline and some semblance of structure/authority, but it just isn't there, making any manner of teaching near impossible.

Apart from that stuff, I've started taking Korean classes at one of the universities in Seoul. They are good. It's a nice, small, tight knit class of 10 or so students. I had hoped that some of the students would be Chinese or Japanese or something and I would have to talk to them in Korean in order to communicate, but no dice. Everybody's American. Pretty much. An eclectic bunch to say the least. One lady is the wife of a minister/priest who works here in Korea. One guy is a Film Making professor who is employed as a visiting Film Making professor at the school we study at. One girl trained in capoeira back in the States under a Mestre who appeared in "Only The Strong". That's right. I know a person who trained with a person who played capoeira with Mark Decascos. Awesome. As for the class itself, its a bit easy for me and I had hoped to test into a higher level class, but I bombed the placement test something fierce. Guess that's what happens when you take it after being away from Korean for 2 weeks while traveling the Philippines. The class is very speaking oriented, which was what I wanted as I badly needed to get my confidence up and just simply start speaking. I'm really excited to keep going, as I've already noticed improvements.

Now, for all the stuff you actually wanted to hear about…the weekend exploits. As there have been a couple of weekends to report on, this might get kinda long (not like the rest of the piece isn’t an unseemly long bugger already). I haven’t been traveling too much, so much of the action centers around the alcohol-fueled misdeeds of our fair group. The first weekend at the new digs saw most of the group coming to my neck of the woods to break in the new massive apartment. The merriment commenced with dinner and drinks with a side of vacation stories and general catching up, as we hadn’t seen each other for about a month and a half. We continued drinking for a period of time, when suddenly the group took to making out with one another. And it wasn’t who you would think. Naturally, I wasn’t involved, but I was plenty shocked when I saw (The following material has been deemed unsuitable for Internet consumption. That is all). Eventually all the excitement died down, and the group moved back to my house to crash for the night. Now, I was worried about this curfew they had warned me about with the dorm. Seeing as how they asked the residents to be back by midnight, I thought perhaps we would be locked out. Not so, which was good, given how big of a disaster it would have been trying to get the other folks to climb the fence in their present states. In true Wallin pushover fashion, I ended up sleeping on the couch in my own apartment while my damn comfy double bed was occupied by not me.

The next weekend saw the group wander around the Han for lack of anything better to do. For photographic proof, find Amy’s photo album “Biking the Han”. I arrived late to the party, despite only living 20 minutes away (ooops), so I missed out on the biking, but I made it just in time for the flower/meadow photoshoot. Chris and I will most definitely be using those shots as the album cover for our Christian rock, folk, or indie record coming never to a store near you. Or else we could use them to pick up Korean chicks by convincing them we are sensitive, gentle and in touch with our feelings and shit. Hell, most women seem to like that stuff. After the biking we wandered around the nearby area where we grabbed some pizza and tried to cheer up the sad looking Korean guy making pizzas. Never underestimate the power of a young, white female to lift the spirits (and perhaps other things) of Korean men. We eventually found a small little wine bar and settled down for 3 bottles of wine and lots of songs by Sting. I, being of large, gangly arms and little coordination, accidentally knocked my full wine glass over during a later part of the evening and would have made a large mess had I not reacted quickly enough and caught it. In saving my glass I knocked over Amy’s and spilled red wine on her shorts, thus ruining them. But at least I didn’t spill my wine, which would have really been bad.

The next weekend we all headed to Suwon for Jenna’s “Hey, I live in Suwon, come visit me and drink here, instead of in Seoul for once” gathering. And we did just that. We also met some of Jenna’s Suwon friends and realized why we don’t normally stretch outside our little group for social interaction, as the other folks were, to put it simply, not interesting or worth talking to. Ohhh, and they also skipped out on the large bill, leaving us, who drank considerably less, to foot most of it. Maybe my math was bad, but I don’t think 1 beer at that place costs 40 bucks, cuz that’s what I paid, to help cover the bill. Assholes. Other highlights were people falling out of their chairs at the bar, and nearly getting into a fight at the last bar. Now the fall was probably equal parts alcohol, a chair positioned precariously close to the ledge, and a house band that made you want to do awful things to yourself to distract from the pain of hearing them play. Add them together and you are just begging for a wipeout. She did have the wherewithal to roll out of it, so massive respect points for that. Hell, had it been me, I probably would have stayed down on the floor and cried for my mommy for several minutes. At the next bar, Chris (and probably also me, for association with him) came close to getting into a fight. Chris and I had stuck around after everyone had gone home, with the intention of trying to pick up the very lovely waitresses (okay, so Chris tried and I observed, whatever). After a short while of chatting with the owner, also quite lovely, a terribly drunk male friend of hers began ranting in English about how we shouldn’t be doing what we were doing or something of that nature. We managed to calm him down, but it was a bit dicey for a few minutes. Given the Korean police’s predilection for busting foreigners for everything and anything (they recently busted a group of foreigners’ home poker game under the pretenses of illegal gambling….yeah, they really have nothing better to do), I’d just assume stay out of their crosshairs.

Not even 4 days later, despite my best efforts, I found myself back at the bars. It was unavoidable though, as a certain former Badger and friend were in town visiting from Japan for a limited time engagement, so adequate sleep would have to take a back seat. The girls also chose a hostel in Hongdae, so there really was no way I was gonna avoid the bars. I met Lauren and Maria at some beef restaurant in Hongdae and they told me about their drunken ear piercings from the night before, while I explained which of the Korean side dishes were worth eating and which should be sealed in a stone pot and allowed to ferment for all eternity. We later moved to “the cave bar”, as some folks have called it, and discovered that they actually had the rivers turned on and running through the premises for once. Not surprising really, given that it was a Tuesday night and the number of drunk customers liable to slip and fall and kill themselves is drastically lower than on a Friday or Saturday. I had to say my farewells eventually, although not before the obligatory stop at one of the thousand or so Ho Bars, and arrived home and settled in for a respectable 4 hours of sleep. Ugggg.

That weekend saw a much needed respite from drinking in the form of the Hoengseong Healthy Living (or something like that, I kid you not) Marathon Festival. I had signed up 3 or so weeks before to run the 10Km race portion with Amy, Jenna, and Amy’s co-teacher and had been training ever since. I must give a considerable thank you to Amy’s co-teacher, who made it all possible, as the town of Hoengseong is not overly easy to reach, being 1 hour by car from Amy’s house, which is 1.5 hours from Seoul already. Hoengseong is located in the Gangwon province, directly east of Seoul and Gyeonggi province, where I used to live. Gangwon can be summed up best by its tourism slogan, “Come for the Natural Beauty, Stay for….um….stay for…ahhhh hell, just go home” (not really its slogan, but it’s a hell of a lot more accurate and truthful than “Heavenly Blessed Land”, which is a total crock). Gangwon is quite pretty with its mountains and coastal areas and forests, but when it comes to people, things, cities, stuff to do…..not so much. Anyways, after an hour of listening to Stevie Wonder and “Thriller” to pump us up for the run, we arrived and realized this thing was a lot bigger than we had expected. Now, I had seen the list of participants in the parcel of items sent to each of the runners (shirt, number, timer, etc), but having never run one of these things before, it was a bit overwhelming. Overall the race went well and was exactly like a similar event held in the states, for the most part. I can guarantee, however, that no American event has attractive young women on stage in tiny tops and mini skirts helping lead a group stretch for the runners. Man, they love scantily clad young women here maybe more than in the US, which is saying something. Good on ya, Korea, good on ya. Other highlights were the guy who had to stop for piss on the back end of the 10K race, and the free booze afterwards. I understand that you sometimes have to take a leak during these long runs, but he was running the 10K just like me. You’re telling me that you can’t hold it for 1 hour, or that you forgot to go before the race? Amateur. I didn’t mind much, as it just made it that much easier to pass him. They also offered free Hite beer afterwards, which was perfect for the situation, as it gets you drunk (eventually) to help dull the pain and since its basically just water, it hydrates you too. Ohh, and since you are already tired, the horrible taste doesn’t bother you. Final results: 44 minutes and 39 seconds. A pretty respectable time for me, having never run this distance before. I just found out yesterday that I took 15th place out of a bunch of people when a package arrived in the mail to school. The contents? A cool certificate thing to show off to folks and a 4Kg bag of rice. You know you are in Asia when……

This last weekend (yeah, this bloated post is finally coming to a close) has been interesting to say the least. It was an extended one, thanks to Korea’s major fall holiday of Chuseok, where traditionally they gather with family and give thanks to their ancestors and what have you. The Koreans always refer to it as the “Korean Thanksgiving” to help us grasp it, but really, its nothing like Thanksgiving, outside of the fact that they are both fall harvest festivals. Whatever they call it, it means a 4 day weekend. The action began Wednesday night after capoeira, when a bunch of folk from class went out for cheap beer and fried chicken. The group consisted of several Americans, a few Koreans, one French guy teaching French in Seoul, and a Japanese girl in Seoul for a few days on vacation. Somewhere between discussing the best French wines with the native, to learning random French and Japanese words, to having the French guy and the Japanese girl order the food and drinks…in Korean while the Koreans sat and watched, I realized “Hey, this is why I decided to leave the States”. It was nothing crazy or monumental, but all the same, it was something that I doubt I would have experienced back home. Made me really glad about my decision to get out and live a little.

The next evening saw me meeting a Korean celebrity (albeit not a superstar, but a famous person nonetheless) while out for drinks with the Korean class. It turns out that one of the students in the Korean class, a Film Making professor teaching several Film Making classes at a university in Seoul, has a Korean actress girlfriend. The women apparently was a quite well known newscaster/reporter who quit to pursue acting, and has a small supporting part in the #1 number movie at the Korean box office right now. She spoke very good English and was a lot of fun to talk to about other celebrities, as she had met many or shared agents with, etc. Alas, she didn’t have the private cell phone numbers of all my favorite celebs, so that was a bit of a letdown, but otherwise, really, really, cool.

On Friday, our little group was supposed to go and try to find the French village that is in Seoul somewhere. I was curious to see just how pathetic it would be , given how big of a laugher Chinatown in Busan was. Sadly, it was not to be as several of the group members had to take a pass because they were under the weather (cough, cough...hangover..cough, cough). Left all by our lonesomes, Jenna and I wandered around the Han River Park, taking plenty of pictures like the good Koreans we are. We met a cute little girl and her grandfather who were out "walking the dog". In actuality, the little girl was carrying the pup the whole time. Anyways, they stopped to talk with us, as she and her brother live in Vancouver and are just here in Seoul visiting Grandpa. I especially enjoyed when she nonchalantly said, "Ohhh, grandpa don't know English." Just the tone, almost dismissive of the guy, really convinced me that she was from the Western world. Lack of reverence/respect/regard for elders? Check. Almost like I'm back home. After parting from the family, we wandered around the park, before heading off to the same little wine bar from a couple weeks back. A bottle of wine later, we headed off to Hongdae to meet up with Chris (eventually). While back at the "cave bar" again (I really like it there), I was dragged out on the dance floor to dance to the Latin beats (thank god it wasn't hip hop....I really, really can't dance to that stuff). Much to my dismay, I was informed that I'm a decent dancer, and as such, will have to dance whenever we go out in the future. Crap, crap, crap. From there, home, sleep, rest. Saturday was much the same, with the added addition of our formerly sickly friends (they were also sick on Sunday....take a guess what from?). After several hours, several locales, and some hookah mixed in with the beers, I found myself uncomfortably talking with a group of Korean men at the bar. If you've followed any of my previous adventures in Japan and Korea, you would know that Asian men really seem to like me....a lot. So you can understand my displeasure when I found myself alone at the bar table with 4 Korean men, being bought beer after beer, and watching them slowly move closer and closer. Near the end of the night I was on the receiving end of a very intense and very long stare down from one of the guys. I felt like he was eye raping me something fierce. Course, he could have just been staring really intently at the wall behind me, but I kinda doubt it. Again, I got home nice and early, just in time to see the sun come up.

We have finally arrived at the present. Anyways, the near future looks very interesting as well, as the Busan International Film Festival is this weekend, so I may be going and the stories will then follow. The following weekend is the Jarasum International Jazz Festival, so I plan on heading out there to satisfy my inner music elitist. Hopefully I'll be more on the ball with posts, but I can't really make any guarantees. Till next time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZcrDIVPhI4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAGWrJSlQDk

Pics: "Living in Seoul (FINALLY)" Album