New layout

So I have been playing with the layout of the blog, all as a form of procrastination from evaluations, and I think this might be a happier style. I mean I love dark colors as much as the next guy, but I think its time for a facelift with some bright cheery colors. I've also added a poll and some more pictures just as a way to try things out. Let me know what you think.

Will Out

Weekend in Seoul

So this past weekend I journeyed up to Seoul for my first ever conference, not a bad place to start one's career I suppose. Well now that I have undergone the rigors and mental tests of a seminar session I can fully admit that while they might prove useful I am not sure I gleaned any truly pertinent information. Now the conference I was in town for was about one of the courses I teach called ACC or the American Curriculum Course or some such nonsense. It is a course designed to have a similar curriculum for ESL students as their American counterparts, how it actually works is up for debate. Now I am not sure how they decided upon their keynote speaker but she was a winner. She thought since it was kindergarten course she would do what anyone in her position would and treat us like kindergartners. So she had us sing, she had us tell interesting facts about animals (did you know giraffes can lick their own ears?) and other amazingly fun things. Now I like being patronized as much as the next guy but I will admit after an hour it began to grate on me a bit. All I really remember of the rest of it was an internal struggle of not doing something that would jeopardize my good standing with ECC, you know like throwing a shoe or the like. Luckily I accomplished that mission!

After the seminar it was early afternoon on a beautifully hot day in Seoul, what was a boy to do? Well since my bum leg was acting up I opted out of hiking and instead ventured into the concrete canyon of the Seoul subway system. Now it's quite the sight down beneath the streets, never know exactly what you'll find, from girls with 3 inch skirts talking about how scandalously clad girls showing there shoulders are to your run of the mill screaming nut job. Oh Korea how I enjoy thee. I had this grand plan to go to the aquarium on the far side of town and it took me the better part of 4 hours to get there. While it is not only because Seoul is frickin' huge but I took a few detours on the way. I stopped at one of the few English bookstores in the entire country, a delightful place called "What the Book" located on Hooker Hill in Itaewon. Have I mentioned that Itaewon is the foreigner district of the city? Odd that a hill named for its abundance of ho's is in an area with increased foreign activity. I wonder why thats the case. Well after much deliberation I picked up One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest because I couldn't remember if I had read it or only seen the movie. Then I went to one of the highlights of the trip dinner.
My first authentic Mexican food in 3 months! (I stop here every time I come to Seoul. Don't judge me you don't know what its like.)

A delicious chorizo burrito and only 9000 bucks er won!

After dinner I continued my trek to the aquarium through the subway, and after another hour of travel, because going 20 stops with 2 transfers takes a spell. I arrived in Samseoung or something similarly sounded. Quick side note, Koreans are really evil with their neighborhood names. They have places called Sinchon and Sincheon and Dongdimun and Dongdimmun and the like, all of which sound the like and are on opposite sides of the city. It's like having Adams Morgan and Adams Morgann. Jerks. Well I finally found the site of the aquarium in a place called the Coex underground mall. Apparently it is the largest underground mall in Asia which I can attest to. I spent 2 hours searching for it and when I finally found it it had closed, which was fine by me because I was really angry with the Coex corporation and wanted nothing less than to avoid patronising their aquarium. Now I did have a lot of fun in the mall, but at the time I was dead tired, sweaty (because they don't air condition it), and really just lost. Luckily for me I found another bookstore to brighten my day. This bookstore had an even greater selection and I ended up buying 3 books, 2 old favorites, The Phantom Tollbooth, Ender's Game, and one new one Fight Club, all for a whopping deal of 40K! At the counter I was really confused when the clerk asked me if I wanted a bag. I had no idea what he was saying until he just put them into the bag for me. It was really a thrilling event, buying English books in person for such a low price is astonishing I would've paid double! Well not double but at least 60...

So it was getting late and I had nowhere to stay so I decided I should head back to where I intended to sleep. Once again on the subway to traipse across the city for what seemed like the 9th time. On the train I was taken aback by this teenager who kept on waving at me, which is a stark difference from the traditional Seoul stance, which is to ignore weygookins as if they were invisible. This girl thoroughly confused me that I got off at the wrong stop for my transfer and I realized it just as the doors closed so I had to wait for another train to come by. The wait was really beneficial as I realized I had left my new bag of books on the train. Not a great 3 minutes I'll tell you. So now the Seoul subway system has 3 books that I am fairly certain only 5% of the population could/would read so at least it didn't go to waste. Oh well ever onward!

So at long last I arrived where I intended to sleep, I was looking for a Jimjillbong which is Korean for Onsen, which is Japanese for turkish bath. The true way to save a buck in this town (and get a wonderful spa treatment) is to find a near by jimjillbong and drop 10 bucks for a night. (only 6 for members!) Now these gems are great, they have several different spas, hot tubs, and saunas, as well, fomentation rooms all designed to cure what ails you. It is a great way to relax after combing a city. So after asking two cops and petting two dogs I finally found the great Silloam Sauna house (jimjillbong) a lovely co-ed sleep house for 1000 people. I ended up spending hours there and falling asleep in the oxygen room. Really good times had by all. In the morning I woke returned my sleeping uniform (everyone must wear one) and was out to see the Gyeongbok Palace, home of the Joson emperor.

The main gate to the palace grounds, the men in Red are guards.

The outer courtyard of the central palace

Yours truly in front of the Main Palace

Throne room and reading tables, sure is colorful...

I forget the actual purpose of this building but it was on a nice little pond

I'm a sucker for Pagodas...I took like 45 pictures of this one

The Courtesan quarters.

The King and Queen of Korea in traditional attire (how lucky am I)

A small shrine in a lily-pad strewn pond.

Another shot of the pagoda, the base of which is the National Folk Museums

Some goof old fashioned head sticks designed to scare away evil spirits.

And that was basically all of my trip to Seoul, it was less eventful then I had wished but in the same token more than I was prepared for. Well I am excited to start another week at ECC it's my fourth month anniversary!

Off to Seoul again...

So I'm heading up to Seoul for a conference this weekend and think that I will stay and catch some of the sights while I'm there. It'll be the first time I head up there solo so it'll be an interesting change of pace. The cool thing is that ECC is paying for me to go on the KTX, the fastest train in Korea, so I am excited. This week has been relatively uneventful except that I finally had a successful rooftop BBQ last night and ate way too much food. Also I have taken further steps into Asian culture by undergoing Korean acupuncture on my injured right leg. It really does seem to work wonders and I recommend it to anyone that has the opportunity. Alright have a good weekend everyone. I hope you like what I have been doing with the blog, let me know what you think.

Will out

Four months and Fifty posts

For my fiftieth post, and second in as many hours I decided I would show you some of my kids so you can see all the fun I get into. I still have a bunch more pictures of them, but most of the time they are really gun shy, something I had not expected.

The woman in yellow is my co-teacher Kate and these are most of my 6 year olds, They were really confused about being at school on a Saturday.

Little Angel and I


Way to act like you know each other Taylor and Angel

Angel is in the front making a deranged face...whilst Bunnie laughs and Brian takes a picture of me.

Rina, Rachel, and Angel, they love cameras.


The classic Korean pose. From left to right Danny (the solution to our energy crisis), Max, and Anna (always struck me to be like an big bird)



Ashely trying to make Tiffany stand still for the photo.


Way to go Tiffany!

This video was the activity we were doing for Dad's day, which in this case had the children stand there and have balls thrown at them. They didn't seem to mind though.

Well that is all for now, have a lovely Father's day and a great week. Until next time pasties!

In a lot of ways Korea is like prison...

Now let me clarify, its not "pound me in the ass prison" but still a cross between some kind of detention center and good ol' Shawshank. How is Korea like prison you ask? Well here's a few similarities.

Korea like prison does not have grass. Korea has many areas that would be fantastically beautiful if they had lad down some sod or sprinkled some seeds. Now I have been told that the reason no school in this land has grass, and that parks are filled with sandlots is because of the staggeringly high costs of greens keeping. Now it's fine that there are 9 bakeries on the way to my job or that the 12 cell phone stores on my block each have 7 employees, but paying a guy to water a dirt field is indulgent.

Another way Korea is like a prison, is the high amount of times that are spent in solitary confinement. With the weather taking a turn for the ugly and my lack of understanding the lingo, I spend a fair amount of time indoors reading and whatnot. It's not exactly the same and I don't have to worry about gang violence, but I will say my kindy kids are kinda like a gang.

Finally just like Andy Dufrense I have found a hobby to keep me motivated. He built a library, and I am turning my roof access into a cool rooftop patio bbq station. Right now its got some sweet chairs a table for children even a rock garden. Its looking to be the hot spot in Jijok-dong.

Until next time guys, I've gotta work on my patio.

Will out

Cursed again!

Let me tell you a short little story...

I have this little kid named Lily, she is really an adorable thing who likes English with her whole heart, or so I have been led to believe. Really I should have known she was using her charm to lower my defenses all in an elaborate attempt to bewitch me! At lunch the other day I am making rounds and talking to all the kindergartners seeing whats shakin' and what not when little Lily comes running up to me. Lily tugs at my shirt so I duck down to her level. She proceeds to whisper her enchantment "Will Teacher you look old" into my ear and now her terrible spell has run its course. Not 48 hours after witch lily cursed me I have befallen a leg injury at TKD. Mid frog I fall over in rather intense pain, doesn't appear like anything is broken, and hopefully it is just an acid build-up but who knows right now.

Hopefully it is fine after a weekend of rest but if not well I'm coming for ya Lily.

Will Out

I got a new Camera!

So I went out and bought a new camera and boy is it shiny! Its the Panasonic Lumix TZ7 or (TZ3 back in the states) and it does some pretty things. Here have a gander at some of the shots I have been taking with my new best friend.

Here is John being a jerk and ruining my first photo. Stupid John.

Apparently having an IV does little to deter the standard Korean from the true national pastime of badminton. I live in a strange strange land, but hey at least I signed up for it. Which is something

A few pictures of the Daejeon scenery, would be a little bit nicer without the main road stuffed with cars. Alas, see if you can find the giant soccer ball!

Another panoramic shot of my dong (neighborhood) what up Noeun-dong!

Well as you can see it works pretty well, I will be working a lot harder to post shots of all the interesting things I run across. Until then enjoy the past!

Will "giddy and excited about new toys" Dunkel

oops...

So I just learned something about the Daejeon Metropolitan Transit system. Apparently bicycles are not allowed on the subway...that is unless its only one time. And it's raining. And you're not Korean. Wish I had known this before hand... oh well.

My crazy boss...

So my boss just came in singing "Tuesday Spaghetti! Monday Zoop!" which prompted a bunch of laughs from myself. Just thought that everyone should get some enjoyment out of my bosses good mood.

Tuesday Spaghetti!

Boryeong and Sapsido Island

So the three day weekend has come to an end sadly, but what a fantastic time it was! I unfortunately forgot my camera (part of the reason why I am investing in a new one) so I have to wait for other to give me their pictures to send them along. Like I said in a previous post it started very early on Saturday morning with me dragging my bike down to the World Cup Stadium taxi stand. There abouts I met up with some of my partners in crime, the Canadians Lindsay and Thomas (I have been told that I often refer to where my friends are from so I will keep this trend going) and we started out to the bus station. Now normally this would be a run of the mill activity catching a cab to a bus station but somehow we made it into something pretty screwed up. We couldn't find our friends that were joining us and ended up going in circles for awhile before we finally agreed to meet up at the bus station.

At the Bus station we found the rest of our crew, Lauren, Christi, and Colin my American brethren, and Scott a canuck from Ontario. Now all we were missing was our Korean accoutrement's, namely three girl teachers from my school. We had about 15 minutes before the bus was scheduled to leave and they were no where to be found. So we called them...turns out they were 20 minutes away, but they had a plan! There sure fire plan was to have us tell the bus to wait. Er what was that again? They said we should go up to the bus driver explain that our friends were tardy and ask them to hold the bus. Well that would be all well and good except none of us knew nearly enough Korean to make that a reality. So we waited. The minutes passed ever so slowly, creeping closer and closer to our scheduled departure. 10 minutes. No girls. 8 minutes, no girls and a Korean man gesturing us to get on the bus. 5 minutes, no girls! Finally with 3 minutes to spare they arrive! Kate and Hennah (who is really one of the funniest people I have met) show up and quickly buy there tickets hurray! But wait...where is the third Korean girl, Kimberly? Turns out that they were not together and we still might miss the bus. Good grief! Luckily she turns up right before we leave and we all scuttle onto the bus. Off to Boryeong and Daecheon Ferry Terminal!

The bus ride was largely uneventful, barring that while everyone was sleeping Colin and I had an extensive conversation about baseball, to the point that one of our friends asked "How long will you continue to talk? People are trying to sleep!" Not to be dismayed by the opportunity to talk shop we just talked a little more quietly.

We arrived in Boryeong with little hassle, though the Konglish (Korean English) that was written on the walls was something fantastic. My personal favorite being Manless Tourism Attractions Guide, for an automated information booth. We hopped on the city bus and were off to the ferry terminal.

Now it turns out that there are only 3 ferry trips out the island everyday and all of them were booked solid. So we had to arrange for an alternate method of travel. What we came up with was paying a local fisherman to drag us out there on his rinky dink boat. Unfortunately for us it was going to be a tad expensive (23k won) and wouldn't arrive for hours, but hey we had to get out to the island right? So we spent the afternoon on the beach swimming and making a sand castle, my additions to it were lacking style and largely unimaginative, until completion when I came up with a brilliant idea for a flag. After we had finished building the sand castle Hennah found a large piece of seaweed that she proclaimed to be a monster attacking the keep. I told you she was funny, among the other things that she has done was attempted to feed a fly because it was begging by rubbing its hands together. Oh Hennah...

So we had finished our beach escapades and went back to find our fisherman friend, after getting lost several times on the wharf we found the lovely old chap. Turns out we had to have a little bit of subterfuge and claim that we were chartering his boat to go fishing so the Coast Guard wouldn't arrest him. After signing the waiver and seeing off Johny Law we were on our way to Sapsido. Really the private vessel was a fantastic way to head out to the island and was a good start for what turned out to be a great adventure.

On the island we were picked up and driven to our pension building, where we would be staying in the Pension commissioners suite er... ondal suite. Apparently there was a snafu with the arrangements and we argued down the price but we had a place to stay. So it was off to another beach for the rest of the evening!

This beach was far from sandy but had a bevy of sea creatures and animals to see. We played in the mud and tried digging for shells before realizing we could go clam hunting at no charge. All you had to do was dig a small hole, look for water spots in the sand and pour some salt and then watch as a clam came shooting up to be snagged. Some of them put in a good fight but we captured a bucket full of what we lovingly referred to as tube slugs, thanks to there distinct tubular shells, and slug like appearance. Now this had to have been one of the most exciting things I have ever done before, all twelve of us were running up and down the beach with shovels and screeching with delight upon every successful capture of a tube slug. Lots of fun. I highly recommend it.

After tube sluggin, the sun had set and we were getting a tad peckish, so we went to one of the few restaurants on the island and had some good ol' samgyupsal. It was on the walk back through rice paddies and treacherous confined streets that we were accosted! It turns out that the island folks spray some type of pesticide to keep the insects down, unfortunately for us we happened to be outside when they came around with the evil white cloud of death. We had to run through the mist and luckily no one was hurt but it was a little scary. It was night time and the agenda called for a waterside campfire filled with singing and drinking. I will say that my musical likings are a bit different than others here so I was largely quiet for the rest of the night.

Well the trip home was less eventful, with us buying tickets on the ferry. Except that apparently a car had fallen into the ocean while we were there, and we were shooed away from seats like birds, complete with ticking sounds. Now I am back home and excited to begin the work again as June appears to have lots of interesting events. I am trying to plan a trip to Japan for July and we will see how that goes. Until then I will surely find someway to keep myself occupied.

See ya Pasties!

Hooray Three day weekend!

So I am excited that this is one of the rare occasions that I have a three day weekend! While I toiled away wondering what I should do with it I decided that I should just be lazy for once and let others do all the planning. So it with great excitement that I am off to the small island of Sapsido? Samsapsido? Samgyupsal (delicious pig dinner)? I don't remember...but it is off the small city of Boryeong. So I will be out of touch for the next few days, so if I must be reached because of some terrible global pandemic like Mutant Swine Flu or North Korea invading, it would probably be good for you to just think good thoughts. Whatever happens don't panic, there will be plenty of time for that later. OK its 6:50 in the morning and I have to run...it is funny how all of my vacations start with me getting up at the crack of dawn, oh well. You can sleep when you're dead I say. Hope everyone has a great sunny weekend!

Will "Getting to go swimming for the first time in two years:) " Dunkel

My daily reminder that I live in Korea...

So today's reminder occurred when I was biking to school. As I was on the bike path I saw this middle aged woman sprinting with a ping pong paddle and balls in her hand. I really wish I knew where she was off too, because it must've been on fire. Also the best example of my being in Korea this weekend involved a year old. The little girl had just returned from her last ballet class and had received a gift from the school. As she opened her gift her face lit up and a grin cracked her face. "Panties!" she squealed in obvious delight, and proceeded to parade about with her new found unmentionables. Oh Korea...

Will "trying to make shorter more frequent posts about the ongoing hilarity that is my life" Dunkel

p.s. Anyone else think its strange that North Korea says the truce is off and the rest of the world is just like "Oh North Korea...what trouble will you cause next?" while just nodding and shrugging it off.