The date went well, but started strangely.

We agreed to meet at my school around 10pm. She got a little lost and I went to look for her. She walked right past me, but we still met up at the school. The strange part was that she brought some guy with her and the first words out of her mouth after I said I walked right past her were "I can't see you." I actually thought,"Oh god. She's fucked me. This is going to be a 50,000 won English lesson." The three of us walked to the bar, the whole time I was trying to figure a way out of this mess. The best I could come up with was just running away, but I was afraid I'd get lost and never find my apartment again. Anyway, we reached the bar and the dude announced he was going home and gave me the second of two dead fish handshakes. So, he left and Eun Jung and I went into a very chill bar. Only problem was it was poorly lit, so we couldn't really see the various Korean/English guides that we had.

We stayed at the bar for a few hours and headed to a galbi(bbq) restaurant around 1. Things went well and we made plans for Saturday. We'll see. She's willing to hold a foreigner's hand in public. That's a good sign. Her English gets better when she gets drunk. So, she's a lot like Sellers.

Link of the day is Hassman's wedding photos.

http://www.thehassman.com/pictures.aspx?Path=/2006.09.09%20-%20Wedding

I wish I could have been there. snif.

The date went well, but started strangely.

We agreed to meet at my school around 10pm. She got a little lost and I went to look for her. She walked right past me, but we still met up at the school. The strange part was that she brought some guy with her and the first words out of her mouth after I said I walked right past her were "I can't see you." I actually thought,"Oh god. She's fucked me. This is going to be a 50,000 won English lesson." The three of us walked to the bar, the whole time I was trying to figure a way out of this mess. The best I could come up with was just running away, but I was afraid I'd get lost and never find my apartment again. Anyway, we reached the bar and the dude announced he was going home and gave me the second of two dead fish handshakes. So, he left and Eun Jung and I went into a very chill bar. Only problem was it was poorly lit, so we couldn't really see the various Korean/English guides that we had.

We stayed at the bar for a few hours and headed to a galbi(bbq) restaurant around 1. Things went well and we made plans for Saturday. We'll see. She's willing to hold a foreigner's hand in public. That's a good sign. Her English gets better when she gets drunk. So, she's a lot like Sellers.

Link of the day is Hassman's wedding photos.

http://www.thehassman.com/pictures.aspx?Path=/2006.09.09%20-%20Wedding

I wish I could have been there. snif.

Quick work update while I have a minute.

The drama classes are putting on plays this week. I can't wait. My class is doing "The Sun and The Wind." Basically, the sun challenges the wind to a contest to see who can make two travelers take their jackets off faster. I won't spoil the ending. I'll have my camera and I'll take pictures, but where have you heard that before? Actually, tomorrow I plan to get up early, around 10 and take snap some pics. I can finally walk around without getting painfully lost.

Either way, the kids love the stage or as they call it, "Stagey." The first class I had, no one told me that there was a stage. The kids were asking to go to the stage and I was terribly confused. "Yes, all the world is a stage, I suppose." "No, teacher, Stagey! Stagey!" Then, the ringleader led me to the stage. "Oh, stagey, yes, I see now." It's complete with sets and props. This should actually be not that ridiculous. I think there are five plays. I'll be on hand to offer a blow by blow recap of all of them. If its good, it will be fun, but if its bad, it could be great.

Quick update.

I worked out for the first time in three weeks. I could never bring Paul to a Korean health club. Brian and I walked into the locker room and quickly changed while trying to ignore the fully nude Korean guy splaying on the couch and the other fully nude Korean guy drying himself off. Not easy. There were a lot of glances at the ceiling and intent focus on the lockers in front of us. We lifted for maybe 15 minutes before we were told the club was closing. The sauna is 24 hours, but the gym is not. Drag. So I can see as much Korean penis as I can handle all day long, but I can only lift weights between 6am and 11pm.

I've also been trying to learn the Korean alphabet, especially since I've met this Korean girl(Eun Jung). I decided to test my knowledge by texting her in Hangul letters instead of English. I said hello and surprised the hell out of her. Then I tried my name and failed miserably, she corrected me and I was able to write back Thank You in Hangul. So, 2 out of 3 for my first try. It's hard because the font I check it against in my Korean guide is different than the font on my cell phone.

I also found out that I can write things out using the stylus on my phone. So, let's say I want to text Danny and tell him that my bedroom has flooded. I open a new message and write out the message using the stylus as a pen. It has a hard time reading n's and u's for some reason.

Link of the day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

Yes, they actually believe in this.

Very strange weekend.

I was nursing mosquito bites on Friday and I decided to stay in. Brian offered me Benadryl to deal with my bites. I read the label, it said you can take in six hours, so I took four right away. Brian said, "You didn't really just take four did you?" I nodded. "I hope you're ready to sleep." I stayed up for a while playing Timesplitters 3 in co-op mode with Brian and then I made my way to bed. No drunken shenanigans for me.

I woke up around 10am and went to the bathroom. This was difficult because I was locked in spaghetti mode. My limbs just wouldn't respond. I went back to bed and woke up a 3. My bites had reduced in size, but I was still groggy. I had four more pills. I took two immeadiately and went out with Brian for Indian food. I took the last two a few hours later and I woke up around 730 pm.

Other Brian invited me out to dinner. A guy that we know hosted a dinner for Korean students and American teachers. The purpose is for Korean students to interact with native English speakers on a conversational level. This is where things got weird.

I don't really trust the guy who hosts these things. He's the kind of guy that has to know everyone and hang out with everyone. Let me put it to you this way, I won't lend him money under any circumstance. I just don't trust this guy, but the dinner was free as long as I spoke English to people.

I arrived around 8 with B-dog and I was seated at a table with two terrified Koreans. One was an INSANELY adorable korean girl(I wound up getting her number , wink wink) and a typical Korean 20 year old. We hung out there until around 11 when we were rushed off to a hip hop bar called Old Skool. The adorable Korean girl had a little too much and threw up. She was a trooper though and stayed out until 4. A Korean guy challenged B-dog and Daren to a drinking contest, we placed bets on who we thought would win. I was the only one who bet on the Korean. I won. So 6000 won and a free dinner, things are coming up Matt.

We hung out at Itaewon for a little. Korean girl went home after a round or two. She sent me a good night text at 5am, awwwww. Then things got really weird. I went home. Keddie and Daren had a huge fight and aren't speaking to each other. B-Dog stayed out. He bumped into Katie and a wounded David. David was out with his Korean girlfriend and someone tried to rip him off at a noraebong. David wouldn't pay up, so they roughed him up a little. It was like all the roles were reversed. I was the sober guy hooking up with cute girls and THEY were all mutants boozing and brawling. Strange, strange night and I know it won't be my last.

Class is going well. I have one class full of brats and the rest are mostly fine.

Not much happened today. I have a gym membership. $69 American a month. It's going to be a month of man ass. I just hung out with Brian and one of his Korean friends. Great guy, speaks almost fluent English.

I'm sick and I have four NEW mosquito bites on my face. Just in time for the weekend, thanks guys. Thanks a lot.

If I ever become a mad scientist, my first target is mosquitos. These bastards have cause me more pain than they'll ever know.

My symptoms have changed each day. First, a vicious sore throat. Then, sour stomach. Followed by smoker's cough and now a nose that won't stop dripping. I know I'll be completely recovered from my illness and my bites in a few days, but today feels like an eternity.

I went to a Korean Dunkin Donuts yesterday. It's superior to ours in every way. The donuts were fresh at 3pm and the coffee, while weak, was actually okay.

I also found a fried chicken buffet called Yo! Chicken. How we don't have this in the USA I'll never know. It's exactly how you picture it, I assure you.

Quick update. I have class in ten minutes.

I have a cell phone now. I bought one used, but its as good as new. It's a slider with a MASSIVE screen and a touch screen. It comes with a small wand and I can watch TV on this thing if I wanted to. It's insanely cool and I spent what others spent for a lot less.

Pics will be coming shortly.

I also checked out a Korean gym. It has everything I want for about $60 American a month. I'm just worried I'm going to break some silly rule and get myself tossed out.

I went to a Korean Baskin & Robbins last night. They had pumpkin pie ice cream!!! It was REALLY, REALLY good.

Things are starting to fall into place and now that the mosquito bites are finally fading I can concentrate on finding a Korean girlfriend. We'll see....

Quick work update.

We had teacher workshops on Thursday and Friday. Both were helpful, but the highlight was the Friday meeting. Mr. Kim(the owner of the school) brought his guitar. He likes to teach English through song, but all of his songs sound remarkably similar. I was biting my lip the whole time. A few chuckles is okay, but the patented Matt Cackle, probably would be met with a frown.

I have to go in an hour early for lesson planning for the next few weeks. I'm fine with it. The more prep I can do the better.

The kids are starting to take to me and I'm starting to get better as a teacher. My biggest worry is that they're not learning anything from me. I find myself asking a lot of questions and typically getting the answer I want. Not sure if that means anything or not.

The kids were most impressed with my beard. I went a few days without shaving(I had a few mosquito bites that would have hurt to run a razor across) and whenever I'd bend over they'd be touching my face or arms because of the hair. I guess Koreans are essentially hairless, strange. I also have a girl who told me that I'm Superman. Only by night. I was wearing a red shirt and blue jeans and I also had my black glasses on. I told her her new English name is "Lois."

Cell phone and gym membership tomorrow. Yay!

I had a run in with soju last night and I feel awful.

We started at a foreigner bar where we met one of my apartment mates' new Korean boyfriend. Great guy, but he took us to a Korean "bar" and kept asking me to do shots of soju with him. Then he took us to a dance club and this is where my memory gets hazy. I remember going in and leaving, but the parts in the middle is where things get spotty. All I know is, I made it back to my bedroom and it started spinning. Violently. I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.

Lesson learned: Soju is trouble.

I keep waiting for the Korean police to show up at my door to escort me out of the country. I could only imagine the news broadcasts, "AMERICAN ESL TEACHER FURTHER DISGRACES COUNTRY, SELF: Did he know John Mark Carr, Channel 5 investigates." Then they cut to a shot of my dad screaming into a camera from the porch and follow that up with video of me being forced onto a plane.

Quick update for today. CostCo was bizarre. Everything that was American was really expensive, but everything that was Asian was really cheap. I bought a 24 case of a bizarre Asian energy drink for six dollars, but the coke was $25.

We had a "dinner party" at the apartment complex last night. 7 of my fellow teachers and I made a Korean/vegan feast. We did california rolls, Korean pancakes, spicy soup(I can't remember the name) among other various condiments and vegetables. In the words of some of my little kids, it was asaa!(Awesome)

I also found a dry cleaners. It's harder here than you think. No seriously.

No one uses addresses or streets. It's really hard to adjust to. They number the houses in the order they were built and good luck finding a street sign. This has been especially hard for me because I've been sent to different schools to fill in, until they decide on what they want me to focus on. It's not easy to find a building without an address, let alone tell a cabbie where you want to go. Either way, myself and the American liason at Like School(Danny) went on a quest to find the local dry cleaners. He had trouble finding it and he reads and speaks Korean. It turns out its right around the corner from my apartment.

No real shitheads as far as students go. I had another tough guy yesterday who spent some time in the corner and then he won an all expense paid trip to Mrs. Kim's office. I've never been afraid of a 50+ year old Korean woman, but I am now.

I did make a kid cry for the first time today. He got up in the middle of class, WHILE I WAS SPEAKING, and tried to steal another kid's pencil. Some Mike DeWoskin came out and he started the lip quiver, which lead to a few tears. I slapped him and told him to act like a man. Seriously, I still feel awful. I attempted to apologize in his language, but he was too busy wailing. Kind of like Sellers after I used to beat the living shit out of him at, well, EVERY VIDEO GAME EVER.

Alright, I'm two days into teaching. I would have liked to have updated earlier, but when you the hottest "oiguk" in the country, it can be hard to find some spare time.

Yesterday didn't go that well. I did my best, but I found myself trying to hard to fill time. I had five classes and only one went well. Today was 10,000 times better. I was woken up fairly rudely at 9:30 am. One of the bosses wanted me to go to our Man Chan office for training at 10. I was told that this was happening on Tuesday and not Wednesday, but I offered little in the way of protest. I was shoved into a cab(they are INSANELY cheap here, an $8 or $10 is four here) and ordered in the direction of Man Chan. I spent a few hours watching training videos. Believe it or not they were actually helpful. After the videos, I was bullied into lunch with the rest of the Korean teachers(they have both English speakers and Koreans at Like School). It was about a 95 on the awkward scale. One guy wore the worst suit I have ever seen. 1,000 scholars writing for 1,000 years could still fail to capture how awful this joker's suit was. It was shiny silver with black pinstripes. It appeared to be made out of silk. Zwirb would have had a fit.

Like I said, class today was fine. We had plenty to work on and I had two kids that were out of hand. One was Mr. Badass. Staring me down and generally ignoring me. You've got to break that son of a bitch in two. I suggest cutting off one of his fingers. The little one and tell him that his thumb is next, after that he should behave. Seriously, I stuck one unruly kid in the corner for the last fifteen minutes of class. If I can stand for HOURS(thanks dad), he can last fifteen. Mr. Tough Guy just got a couple staredowns and me being less than cordial with him. He straightened up afterwards and actually did a decent job when it came to his excercises.

Last night we went out for Galbi(Korean BBQ) and tonight it was Bibimbap(rice with vegetables and an egg cracked over it, its served HOT so the egg fries in the bowl). I like the food here, I'm still not stocked up on foodstuffs, but a trip to CostCo this weekend could take care of that.

No big plans on the horizon, except that we're going to have a ton of off days in early October and most of us are planning on going to Seoul. Can't wait.

This is actually my second post because my first was erased because I am unable to speak Korean. The keyboard may be in English, but the Browser is not, so this is very confusing.

The flight was no big deal. I was given my own row and I was generally unmolested. I was able to finally watch Tokyo Drift. It's an awful, awful movie that gets bonus points for the ending.

The adventure didn't begin until I landed in Daegue and had the problem of meeting "Mr. Kim." I found him fairly easily but he wasn't the best conversationalist in the world. He speaks ZERO English. I spent the entire car ride trying to figure out exactly where he would stop and harvest my organs.

He dropped me off at the school, which happens to be about 100 yards from the apartment complex I'm caged in. Mrs. Kim bought me some groceries and took me to the apartment. It's the most instantly depressing dwelling I have ever observed, especially after seeing how everyone else is living. To say my apartment is underfurnished wouldn't be accurate. It has no furniture other than a bed and a dresser. I have a TV, but no cable. I also have a kitchen set, all of which needed a deep cleaning before it could be used. I share a floor with three other English teachers and I live above 5 others. They've all been exceptionally helpful. Without Brian's advice and counsel this would likely be a suicide note.

I have observed classes on Thursday and Friday and I will be teaching my first class on Monday. All the kids are extremely cute, in fact adorable and fairly interested in learning English. Here's hoping things go well, I'm sure I'll be blogging again tomorrow about my experiences.

I've hit three "foreigner" bars. Itewon, Thunderbird and Hotel Ariana. Ariana was the cheapest, an all you can eat/drink buffet for roughly $15 American. Itewon was the coolest. It featured pool tables and a computer to choose music.

I was off on my own for the first time today. I had to actually speak Korean and get myself where I was going all alone. I've never been prouder. Matt 1, Korea 0.

The drinking stories I've heard here aren't exaggerated. Everyone can drink. The tiniest of Korean girls can drink me stupid. No joke. It's a national hobby.

I've been to HomePlus(think Walmart) and I'm fairly set up as far as household supplies goes. Not that there is much to take care of.

My Korean is slowly improving. Tomorrow will be a big test in class. I think I know enough to get myself through a day as an English Teacher. On of my coworkers uses a paddle. It was the creepiest thing I have ever seen.

Yeah, there has been some culture shock, some confusion and some general moodiness. I have to find a health club, the guns are starting to waste away without constant exercise. What else is going on? Snakes on a Plane premieres at the end of the month here, I'm organizing a group outing. There should be another update fairly soon, detailing me actually having to work...

The past few days, the last thing I've wanted to do is sleep. Typically, I loathe sleeping. I just don't enjoy lying in be, but it's been even worse lately. I'm not anxious. I'm not nervous. I'm not scared. Maybe I should be. I just don't feel tired.

35 hours and counting. I've got the following chores for tomorrow. Breakfast with my parents, a trip to the drug store, stop at the bank and packing everything I'm going to need for a year into two 80 lb. suitcases.

It's an interesting problem from a philosophical standpoint. How can I possibly be prepared for the next year? How can I possibly fit everything I'm going to need into two large cases? I don't think I can, but I have to try.

Things I wish I could take, but I'll have to leave behind.

My baseball glove. Life is always better when I can toss a baseball around.
My TV. Come on, I spent a freakin' ton on this set up and it gets to rot for a year.
My bed. Nothing will ever know you better than your own mattress.

The exact kind of thing I DON'T want on this blog is a message from me gushing over my friends and family and how much I'll miss them. I will miss them, but I know I'll see them all again on the long road back to middle.

This past week has been a lot of fun. I'm starting to become of the opinion that I should live every day like it was my last. I can't remember having a better time than I have during this last month.

Highlights include,

Snakes on A Plane while being 40 oz. to freedom. Stomping Rhea mercilessly at bowling. She still rocks, no matter what. Poker battles with my posse. Farewell BBQ, I wish I had more time to spend with everyone. Bobbleheads and sausage races in Milwaukee. There will always be a soft spot in my heart for that mediocre ballclub over the border and their incredibly slick throwback uni's. Powder blues with the ball and glove logo are classics.