You what the thing about Korea is... it's the "little differences"

Just like the line John Travolta (Vincent Vega) uses in Pulp Fiction when he's talking to Samuel L. Jackson about his experiences in Amsterdam, France, etc. "You what the thing about Europe is? it's the 'lil differences'" Samuel Jackson says, "What do you mean?" Like you can drink beer, a glass of beer in a movie theater in Paris, they put mayonnaise on their French Fries in Amsterdam and in McDonald's, they don't call a Quarter Pounder with cheese a "Quarter Pounder with cheese" in Paris b/c they use the Metric system, and they wouldn't know what the heck a "1/4 lb er" is. They call it a "Royale with Cheese." Well, it's the same thing here in Korea.....It's the lil differences...
For example: no one really uses designated places to park their cars in Korea, they kinda just park along side the road somewhere where "they think" (huh is that an oxymoron, Korean's thinking??) is out of the way. My friend Lisa from the US has this "think opposite theory" that's been working well for her over the past 8 months. It goes like this...just imagine what "you" (Westerner) would think is logical and do the EXACT OPPOSITE of that thinking!!! For example, we were in a hotel room in Busan, (the same EXACT room that Kim, Dan & I stayed in a few weeks earlier) and Lisa was trying to turn the lamp on near the bed. I told her, "Yeah, I tried to figure how to work that thing last time, but I had no luck." But Lisa using her "EXACT opposite" theory figured it out. There was no switch up top, around where the light bulb & lamp shade where, so she looked in the total opposite direction and found the light switch on the floor near the power outlet. I was impressed that she found it and figured it out using her theory.
Getting back to the car parking I was mentioning earlier, what mostly all Koreans do is have their cell phone number's printed or written in some form on the dashboard of their car. Most of them have it quilted on a little pillow (pin cushion). I have a picture of this pillow I need to post on my flickr site soon. Another things Koreans do when they park is not put their car in Park or use their parking brake. The first week we were here, we saw a car slowly pull out into the middle of the street and just stay there. We then noticed that there was NO ONE in the car!!!! It had accidentally rolled back into the street b/c the owner did not put the brake on or put the car in Park.

When Koreans drive, they use their hazard "sorry" lights often when they are inadvertently pulling out into traffic trying not to cut anyone off. The way it works is that if someone puts these lights on, they are "immune" to offending or pissing anyone off my cutting them off. They also beep their horn gently to alert people in front of them that they are coming up behind them. Not in a rude, obnoxious, arrogant way, but in a rather polite, courteous way. I find there is a fine line btw. being impatient (obnoxious, road rage) and a polite, gentle reminder that there is someone coming up behind you. And that's another thing, there doesn't seem to be ANY rushed, impatient, annoyed people anywhere in the entire country. There is no such thing as Road Rage...is simply DOES NOT EXIST out here!!! They are all just going about there business rather calmly, peacefully, joyously without any rush, or need to "get" anywhere hurriedly.

Another thing I've really enjoyed observing is seeing how these little children signal cars to alert them when they want to cross the street. I've seen young (8-10yr) children raise their hand over their head clenched in a fist, then they wait for the cars to stop & they safely cross. They do this right on the main road that runs through the middle of town. I needed to cross the street this past Wednesday to get to the Multicultural Meeting, and the traffic was heavy, so instead of being patient and waiting for a lull, I took a page out of the Korean children's book my raising my fist overhead, waited for cars to stop & I crossed. This amused Lisa to no end!!! She was cracking up witnessing me do this.

More on these differences next time. - Darren your Far East connection

Hello to all my NY/NJ Peeps back home (Happy Halloween)

So how is life back home in the Big Apple? Still plugging away as the city that never sleeps? I'm so excited b/c I just download the Best of Frank Sinatra from the web which contains 43 AMAZING songs from Frankie Blue Eyes, or as my new friend from Scotland refers to him simply as "the voice." That's right, I was down visiting friends in Changwon this past Sat. night Oct 27th wearing a BIG Curly Blonde wig (which I borrowed from the school's teacher's lounge). Had my Hawaiian shirt on over my "Hoboken, NJ" tee shirt, wore my friend Lisa's swim goggle's, put white toothpaste on my nose, borrowed my friends beach ball & went as an 80's surfer dude!!! While we were outside hanging out on the sidewalk of the local "Family Mart" (that's really the actual name) I met this coolest Scottish lad (or is it chap) named Keith; I don't know the different terms these other English speaking folk use....but this guy blew me away with stuff he knew about my hometown. Like he KNEW that Hoboken was the birthplace of "the voice" (Sinatra). He also is a Miami Dolphins fan and he knew of the most famous shootout in Jets/Dolphins history. Yup, I'm talking about the O'Brien vs. Marino 400+ yards passing day in 1986 in the Meadowlands!!!! I was actually at that game with my dad & my brother when we left early b/c the Dolphins had such a big lead at the end of the guy & my dad wanted to beat the traffic home. To our surprise, the Jets made a MIRACULOUS comeback, tied it up at 45 - 45 and won in overtime 51-45. He even knew that Wesley Walker (who caught the game-winning pass) was blind in one eye!!!!! Needless to say, I was most impressed with the random encounter we had hanging on the sidewalk outside of a mini-mart. He even knew which Jets player was nicknamed, "the GREEN Lantern". Does anyone know who he is talking about??? I had forgotten myself because it was not very widely talked about. He was actually referring to one of my favorite Jets of ALL TIME, Wayne Chrebet!!! WOW, how impressive it that?? He told of the 2 best Westerner bars in Changwon (IP Bar & O'Brien's Bar). He informed us of the 15,000 Won, all you can drink from 9pm-12am (which they extended until 1am) b/c everyone was having such a good time!!! Many English teachers dressed up as Elvis Presley, Homer Simpson, Miss Australia, Beetlejuice, and my favorite was "Whitetrash Man" (this guy wrapped himself up in garbage bags, painted his face white, and asked everyone to stick garbage in his plastic poach. I took the liberty to use his costume and stuck my beer can in there. That's another cultural difference among North American and the Brits & Aussies. They don't call it a "costume"party when you get dressed up in silly outfits.... they call it a "fancy dress" party. Well good, huh? As my friend Kim from London would say. Needless to say, we had a blast that night!!! Spent the night at the Hotel Diana for 40,000 Won, and treated myself to another AMAZING massage at the sauna/spa at the Olympic Hotel. For 5,000 Won, I showered, bathed, used the sauna, steamroom, Hot Baths, etc. Then I went to the Barber Shop which is joined to the spa to get a shave, and I wound up enjoying the most vigorous, intense, full service massage ever. It started out with 3 Korean women massaging me at once. One on my head, neck, and shoulders....and one on each of my legs (hamstrings). I think there were probably 4-5 different women that rotated on & off for close to two hours!!! It was one of the longest shave/massages that I've ever gotten. It just kept on going & going, flipping me back & forth, front to back, with pillow, w/o pillow, with hot steam towel, etc. The best was when she finished shaving me, she pulled out these freezing cold, thinly sliced cucumber pieces and applied apprx. 10-15 strips all over my face!!! And she left it there for well over 25 minutes while another woman massaged my legs, feet, and hips for the second or third time. No joke, this massage was PHENOMENAL!!!! And it only cost $70. No tip needed either.... WOW, what a deal!!!!! That was a great end to a fun fun weekend. I treated myself to nice, juicy Bacon Cheeseburger with french fries & a LOADED baked potato at TGI Friday's for lunch earlier that day (which was such a treat b/c we don't have any of these "luxurious" Westerner restaurant in my small town. I was in super-slow motion the entire day, trying to recover from all the drinking the night before. I slept until 1pm, tried to drag, and peel myself out of bed and get moving. just slowly wandered around all day. It was great. I was so slow, in fact, that I missed all the final buses that go back to Miryang and was considering staying over night and taking the bus at 6am the next day. But I got a Taxi driver to drive me 40 minutes home for $40. It was a good deal considering it would have cost me that to stay in a hotel over night.

What do I do after School?

One teacher asked what I do everyday after school. I just absent mindedly answered her by saying, "I go to the gym." That's really I lie b/c I haven't even joined a gym yet. But if I think about it, what I do is different each night. Let's see.....last Monday (after I spent an hour visiting the acupuncturist's office which I do every Mon, Wed, & Fri) I went over to my friend's Mick's (from New Zealand) apartment for Monday Night Football. It was actually the Jets pathetic showing of their Sunday game against the Eagles. Didn't you just "love" those "cool-looking" throwback uniforms? NOT!!!! Anyway, it was fun, b/c Terry, Pawn, his wife from Thailand, Warren from Canada, Patrick from USA and his wife from Peru, all went to Mick's for Pizza, Chicken, Beer and NFL football, what could be better than that? A Jets win, perhaps!!! I plugged my laptop into Mick's HUGE 42 inch flatscreen TV & we watched the entire game with picture perfect sharpness & picture quality. That was Monday. On Tuesday, I was tired and achy, so I went to the Bath House and enjoyed almost 2 hours of steam rooms, hot tubs, showers, cold pools, etc. I enjoyed switching from the steaming hot tub to the freezing COLD pool. It was so good for me b/c I need to get "out of my head" and the freezing cold water was just the trick I needed!!! I got to sit, lie down on the reclining chair and sleep, meditate, and I was able to release, to let go and FINALLY surrender all my thoughts, fears, worries, anxieties, doubts, etc. to God. This was such a HUGE miracle for me b/c ever since I've arrived in Korea, I have never really been able to be present, aware, comfortable, or conscious of actually being in Korea!!!! I was always "someplace else". I was here physically but my mind, my being, my soul, was elsewhere. Usually thinking of being back home in NJ with all my friends, my family, and esp. my girlfriend and my Men's Team. This was actually preventing me from truly enjoying Korea and really being here, fully present in the moment. But hanging out that night in the Sauna really was a miracle that created a tremendous SHIFT in my entire being. I was able to "let go" of all the fear, worry, doubt, loneliness, anxiety (all the "mind chatter") and just give it up to God and ALLOW myself to finally FULLY BE here!!!! Now I can truly say that I am just now, finally able to fully experience the joy, the passion, and the adventure of being in Korea. Before this awakening took place, I was literally counting down the days, weeks, months, minutes, etc. until my contract ends and I can go back home. This was such a DISEMPOWERING , unproductive way to live life. After I had this shift in perception, I went from "counting down" the days, to: "Oh my, I ONLY have 10 1/2 months to go out here in Korea, so I better best utilize my time & take full advantage of EVERY minute I have out here. Because before you know it, 3 months, 6 months, 1year will fly by and I would have missed an entire year my life. Being in this funky daze; this illusory world of the absent, far off, and the lost.

So needless to say, last Tuesday a big day for me!!!

On Wednesday evening, after playing badminton at school, and after acupuncture, I attended my first meeting of the Miryang Culture Club, where Terry, Mick, Lisa, and myself gathered with a bunch of native Koreans (and 1 Philipina lady) to discuss cultural issues, like movies, TV, books, jobs, hobbies, etc. It was a very nice gathering and I'm looking forward to my second meeting on Wednesday which will include a nice pork dinner, followed by a few hours spent lying in the Jin Jil Bang. "Sauna/Heat Room" I tell you, these Koreans love EVERYTHING HOT!!!! From their Hot & Spicy food to the hot saunas and Bath Houses!!! It should be a great time & I'm looking forward to it.

On Thursday I was taken out to dinner by my co-teacher along with the four 6th grade teachers. The reason we were invited to was to "celebrate." We were celebrating the luck & fortune my co-teacher had of accidently driving her car in reverse, over the curb, down the hill & nearly crashing into the school!!!! Luckily there was a metal pole in the way that she backed into, saving her from hitting the school. She is a new driver who accidently hit the gas when she meant to hit the brake and wound up giving herself a big scare. Thankfully she didn't hit anyone else & nobody got hurt. I felt so bad for her, but she was able laugh about it the next day. We also got to enjoy the most delicious "ma shi ta" in Korean, fresh whipped cream cake topped with fresh kiwis, orange, and cling peaches. UM UM Yum. This was also a treat from my co-teacher b/c of the accident she got in. I told her that the cake and the dinner is very nice and all, but she better not make it a habit f accidently putting her car in reverse and nearly smashing into the school. Definitely not a good idea. She now asked if I could drive her car down to a meeting we both have to attend about an hour away from here. I might do it if I can apply for an Intl. Driver's license in time.
After, dinner, we stopped by the batting cages by my apartment to try our luck hitting baseballs. You get 15 pitches for 50 cents, what a bargain!!!

On Friday, the fifth night, I rested. I was at home on my computer, blogging, emailing and trying to stay warm b/c the temperature was down around 34 degrees and was very windy. My apartment was shaking b/c the town was shooting off fireworks by City Hall which is right near my apartment. So, I guess I didn't do myself justice when I answered: "I go to the gym" when asked what I do after school, huh?

What do you do after work?

It feels like Halloween Has Come Early!!!

Last week was so so much fun in school. I got teach every 5th & 6th grade class my own lesson. This is a new change that will allow me to create my own lesson plan each week and teach 120 students in each grade anything I feel like teaching. So this was a great opportunity for me to implement some more bribery...um um YES!!! I began with a lesson on common greetings. I wanted to break them out of the robotic: "Hi, How are you? I'm fine thank you & you?" So, I told them, if they say: "How's it going? How are things? How's life? or What's up/happening" I will give them a candy. Well I taught this lesson 2 weeks ago, and they were all out in full force last Thursday & Friday. I just love having random students come up to me in the hallway, in the bathroom, while walking through the quad in the morning, etc. Say, "Hello Teacher, How's life?" I say: "Excellent and you?" If they respond with any of the following: "I'm wonderful, I'm fantastic, I'm great, I'm not bad." I will give them a candy. But if they say, "I'm fine." NO CANDY!!! Last week was so great b/c once one students take to initiative to come up and ask me "How's it going?" He/she then whispers it to their friend and it starts this BIG snowball affect. I really love it though, I'm constantly running to my desk to pull out more candies to stash in my pockets. It seriously felt like Halloween last week. Or I feel like Santa Claus giving out treats and goodies, or sometimes I feel like a trainer at Sea World throwing out fish (candies) to the dolphins (students) in class. Some students don't get the concept of how to get candy, so they grovel & beg with their hand out saying: "Teachuh, Teachuh, candy, candy please".... and usually they mumble something else in Korean. They don't get that that will not get them a candy. Now I have over 240 students that I've incentivized to say these new greetings in order to get candy. Needless to say, I'm running to the store to buy candy a lot. I think I will also start to use stickers as a reward also. I also told them to say: "a piece of cake" if something is EASY and to say, "a pain in the neck" if something is HARD. Its really great b/c t take almost an entire 40 minute lesson just to teach these 2 phrases. I have promised to give any student who correctly uses these phrases candy as well.

Going Strong in Miryang South Korea

Good Evening from Miryang, South Korea, population approx. 130,000. Did you know they actually made a movie about this city? It's called: Milyang "Secret Sunshine" I'd be curious to see if anybody could find out any info. on this movie. Please let me know if you do. Well things have been settling down quite nicely for me over the past 2 weeks. Starting with last Friday's 4th grade school field trip to Gyeongu, the country's oldest and probably most famous cultural city, known as an open air museum, literally a museum w/o walls. It's Korea's ancient cultural capital city of the once great Silla Kingdom dating back to 600 A.D. In 1979 it was named one of the world's 10 most important ancient cultural cities during the UNESCO meeting in Thailand. To me it was just a bunch of really really old stuff. The best part of the trip for me was being on the bus (one of 3 buses total carrying over 120 4th graders) and enjoying the movies, food, drinks and snacks they all shared with me. We watched Ice Age cartoon movie in Korean of course, and Tom & Jerry which I have not watched in a very long time (at least since I've moved out of Hoboken over 3 months ago.) The Korean students (people) are so so extremely generous and shared all sorts of drinks, juices, crackers, cookies, chocolates, candy, etc. It was a really treat and pleasure to be treated so warmly. One of the other English teachers said that the children try to 'out do' each other by giving the most (the best) snacks. What a crazed culture, but I certainly didn't mind it at all. We went to Bulguk-Sa Temple, one of the most frequented and well known temples in all of Korea. There were tons & tons of people there at 10am on a Friday, mostly young grade school students enjoying their class trip. It was extremely fun being there with all the kids and the four teachers. One of the teachers, "Kenny" was explaining to me th difference btw. a Temple and a Church. Do you want to know what the difference is???? He said that a temple is located up in the mountains, and a church is usually just located down on the ground. WOW, I thought that was some deep, thought-provoking information that you cannot learn anywhere else but in Korea. I was actually waiting to learn some profound, insightful distinction from him, but I guess not. We had a delicious Gim Bap (sushi-like rice roll, with ham, egg, radish, and other veggies) picnic outside on the grass. Again the children came up to me and gave me many many goodies. After the Temple, we drove to Ulsan to see where the Hyundai Motor Corp headquarters in located. We drove by the shipyards where they are manufacturing these ENORMOUS ocean liner cargo ships and transportation vessels. It was so massive to see how much steel and heavy equipment they had there. Then we got out and were able to walk through the Hyundai Motor Corp factory. There we got to see the thousands of cars being pumped out on the enormous assembly line. It was clean, efficient, and quite impressive looking. But I just couldn't imagine sitting there all day with a drill bolting down the same thing all day everyday. Does anyone know if the workers actually shift stations periodically, or do they stay at the same post all the time? That would really stink and be extremely monotonous. But that is the life for many people. Ulsan is a big port city of 1 million similar to that of Detroit. After our tour, we drove to the Soccer stadium where Korea & Japan co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup soccer matches. I believe Brazil won first place that year and Korea actually reached the semi-final round which was the first time an Asian country has ever advanced so far. After this we headed home back to Miryang. That evening I stopped by the acupuncturist's clinic where I got to lay down and relax for an hour on this wonderful heated table where they put a hot heat pad on my legs along with placing this got red heat lamp over my body. It was a wonderful way to end a long day of sightseeing.

This past weekend was a Blast

I decided to stay home in Miryang this weekend instead of venturing off to the Busan Film Festival with Kim, Dan & 3 other English teachers. I exercised a lot, read, did laundry hiked, etc. On Saturday night I rode my bike to the Health Center and jogged around the track several times; I stopped at watched people playing tennis on these clay courts underneath the lights, and as I was walking back, these 4 young Korean children invited me to play baseball with them. I became the designated pitcher, some of them could hit the ball well, others just swung and missed. I got a chance to bat and was able to crank some balls deep in the outfield for a home run ( I had to run the bases of course b/c there was no fence). After playing baseball, we switched to soccer. Now it has to be well over 20 years since I've played soccer, so I was kinda worried that these kids were going to smoke me!!!! It was three on two and I spent the whole time running up & down the field like a maniac trying to kick the ball in the goal. I scored several times and our team won by a score of 5 - 4. It was very very fun and was excellent exercise. The next day I was supposed to meet some teachers from my school to take a bus ride to a nearby famous Temple for a vigorous hike, but I was too late for the bus (what else is new) so I decided to walk along the river on my own. I crossed over this huge cement dam that runs across the river where people can swim during the summer time. I went up these steeps stairs to a small Buddhist Temple were I walked around and went inside to meditate for approx.. 30 min. After my meditation, I was invited by one of the monks to have lunch with them. There were about 15 people gathering around this long table, where we all sat on the floor and helped ourselves to this lovely (mainly vegetarian) Korean feast. We ate, eggplant, string beans, carrots, potatoes, etc. It was so delicious. One of the monks showed me a magazine from the Oct 2007 issue of CEO magazine in which there was a picture of him & the Temple community. This man was a very warm, friendly, loving and caring person who opened his arms to me in a most sincere and heartfelt way. I really enjoyed myself there and got to take a picture with them. It's been a while since I've uploaded pics onto my Flickr site, and I have lots of new great pictures to upload soon. It was a great, quite, and peacefully weekend here in Miryang.
On Monday I invited my friend Terry from California over to watch some on the football games from Sunday. We woefully watched the Jets lose once again, this time to the Giants. I'm glad I'm not missing much of an exciting football season at least as far as being a Jets fan goes.
Wednesday after the weekly volleyball game, I went out to dinner with 5 other teachers from my school. They took me out for a traditional Korean style restaurant where we once again sat on the floor with these little table close to the ground. We had Delicious Bu Chim Kay, a vegetable patty with lees, green onions, squid, shrimp and light egg batter yum yum; We also enjoy Bi Bim Bap; Rice, noodle, veggie, egg, spicy dish, and this awesome soup with homemade dough, green pumpkin, red peppers, etc,,,,,it was DELICIOUS !!! I also had traditional Korean Rice wine for the first time tonight!!! It was very nice, a lil sweet tasting; I learned a lot about the animosity and hatred the Koreans have for the Japanese because of them annexing Korea and colonizing Korea for a period of 35 years from 1910 until August 15th 1945 (Korean Liberation Day-another national holiday & a day off from school). The Koreans are a very proud, nationalistic, resilient, extreme, intense, fiery & aggressive group of people. I'm reading a great book called "Korea Unmasked" that explains the history, politics, religious beliefs,values & temperament of Korea and it's people. A very fascinating read. Did you know that Koreans have the highest rate of stomach cancer in the world b/c of all the hot, spicy food they eat?? Talk about being fiery, and intense...it shows up literally everywhere in their culture.
Until next time.

Live With Passion - Darren

The BEST Day Ever!!!! (Friday)

Well I must say that my day at school on Friday was one of the best days EVER!!!! First of all, Fridays are a very easy for b/c I only have 2 classes in the mornings, then I'm free until 3pm when I teach my final class before I go home. I love hanging out a the couches in the teacher's lounge, reading my books, listening to music or Korean language programs on my iPod, or sometimes I just meditate or sleep. I'm usually in there all alone b/c the other teachers all have class to teach. I teach the 4th grade on Tuesdays & Fridays. I was in rare form to say the least.... first off I grabbed a BIG, BRIGHT, CURLY, YELLOW Wig from the teacher's lounge and wore it for a skit in front of my first class. They all laughed hysterically. Then the second class (after tea time) was a riot!!! We sang songs, danced, played, laughed, etc. The teacher had picked a few boys to do a dance routine to the song & I joined in at the front of the room. I was jumping, twisting, turning, kicking my legs, etc. The girls were so embarrassed for me that they had to cover the faces with their hands b/c they were laughing so much. I was really enjoying myself immensely. Then the best thing happened; they were playing this game where they had to write down their friend's name is the book when all of a sudden, one student says to me: "Teacha teacha, sign sign!!" So I signed his book; then EVERYONE (all 25 kids) proceeded to run over to me & shove pieces of paper, their books, notepads, etc in my face for me to sign. They literally MOBBED me. They were out of control excited for me to sign (autograph) their books for them; You would think that I was Madonna, Micheal Jordon, or some other famous celebrity!!! I wish I could have taken a picture to show you what it was like. I've been carrying my camera around with me a lot lately and I have many pictures I need to upload on my flickr site. Please stay tuned for the updates. I have pictures of the teachers and students in the bathrooms brushing their teeth, kids playing soccer, cute kids walking in the hallways, the funniest was seeing an ENTIRE class of 30 kids all sitting on their knees on top of their desks, way up in the air. There was no teacher in the room (apparently he told them to sit/kneel in that position until he came back) It's so funny to see the punishments/requests that the teachers gives their children. You never quite know when you are going to have that perfect Kodak moment. I have pics of me eating in the cafeteria and many other interesting shots.
Friday night we went to "Mix Bar" the ONLY bar in Miryang that serves cocktails. (how sad is that?) I had a few Jack & Cokes, some beer and tasted many other drinks from my English Teach friends. It is Kim's 23rd birthday this Sunday so we went out celebrating with her.
Before going to the bar, I went to a furniture store & bought myself a beautiful, comfortable computer chair. The store owner was so nice ( a lil buzzed off of Soju, the Korean vodka) he invited me to sit down, meet his sister and one of his employees; He offered me a glass of tomato juice; I sat down and chatted with him for 10 minutes; He welcomed me with open arms and said that I am welcome there anytime. Then I went in the truck with the other guy to deliver the chair to my apt. But before we went to my apt, I asked them where I could find a decent "Kim Bap" (a delicious sushi-like rice & seaweed roll with egg, radish, ham, etc) He drove me to a restaurant downtown where I order some food to go & then jumped back in the truck to drive me & my new computer chair home. It was so great & I'm having such a blast meeting & making friends with so many Koreans. Hope you are all enjoying the beautiful weather back home in NY. Bye for now.

Week 5 Coming to a Close

Good Evening,
I'm comfortably sitting on my a pillow on my kitchen floor, I have my laptop on top of another pillow resting on my thighs and I'm watching Tom Selleck being interviewed by Jay Leno on the Tonight Show. Ahhh, all the amenities of home; He also has an an actor named Carlos Mencia starring in a movie called The Heartbreak Kid; Is that a current movie that is out now? By the way, I want to let people know & encourage everyone reading my blog to write a comment based on anything you read here. I want to thank Jerry & Dave N. for posting the first two comments on my Sept. 28th Blog entry. My parents have been telling me how much people enjoy reading my blog back home and I would love to hear people's comments, feedback, questions, insights, etc. Please feel free to post a comment at any time. I really enjoy watching this Armed Forces Network TV channel, which comes in live from Osan Air Force base, Camp Casey, Seoul & Daegu. It has all kinds of news for American service men, and their families living here; I found out of some bowling competition they have going on in Daegu that I might want to check out. I enjoyed watching ER, CSI Miami & Everyone Loves Raymond tonight. Shows that I never watched at home, but I'm watching now.

I forgot to tell everyone that two weeks ago, when I received my first paycheck, I went out and purchased a brand new 21 speed mountain bike with dual suspension; It cost me a whopping 80,000 WON approx $80; I love it and have enjoyed riding it all around town, around the river, thorough town, into the mountains, etc.

After I got back from Busan during Chusok vacation, we (about 15 of us) gathered along the river on an absolutely gorgeous day to relax, play cards, drink beer, and cook an amazing samyeopsal (Korean BBQ) with two grills that other English teachers brought with them. We stayed there from 2pm until 8pm when I left to go home, and they continued on the a Norebang (singing/Karaoke room). Very popular here in Korea. We only taught 2 days that week.

This week has been decent; I've been feeling kinda tired, drained and a bit stressed out this week. Mainly due to the fact that I haven't been sleeping well at all this entire week; I've been staying up way too late & have had trouble falling asleep mainly due to these annoying mosquitoes that fly around my room constantly. I constantly have the fly swatter in my hands looking to kill several mosquitoes per night; but they keep on coming in again from somewhere else. I will have to go buy myself a mosquito net which a lot of other teachers use here. I bought a nice new, pink pillow this week for $5.00 and I enjoy have a second pillow to prop my computer on and to use as a mock couch. I have no really comfortable piece of furniture to lounge out on in my apt. I'm probably going to buy a nice new computer chair tomorrow b/c the kitchen chair I'm using starts to hurt after a while. I've been going back & forth up & down all week long amongst a wide range of feelings and emotions; Being a lil scared, lonely, tired, achy, etc. I went to receive acupuncture 3x this week which relaxed me and calmed me down a bit. I'm missing a lot of my friends back home and especially miss my girlfriend Flo. Then I have days when I just absolutely love being all the way out here in Korea. This kids are all so wonderful, cute, and still very excited to see me every time I walk down the hall (and walk down the street for that matter). I would say that 70% of the kids who see me on the street wave to me, smile, and say hi. They even wave & shout to me from moving buses & vans. It's really quite exciting and makes me feel very loved & appreciated. You really do get a small sense of what is like to be a mini-celebrity. The biggest thing that I learned about myself this week is that I'm always so worried with keeping busy, having things to do, instead of just staying home once in a while & relaxing. Slowing down, relaxing, breathing, meditating, reading the bible, etc These are ALL things I did here on Wednesday during my day off from school. It was so so great, relaxing and peaceful. I was so excited b/c I got to speak with Flo on Wednesday via Skype and actually got to see her sitting at home in her apt. via webcam and she got to see me on my webcam; it was so so great great to see her live after a long 5 weeks of not seeing her at all. That day I started re-reading a book called "The Power of NOW", I read a book on Korean culture and history, worked out with this new exercise/pilates ball a friend here gave me; Finally at 8pm that night I left the house for the first time & went for a bike ride in along in the dark back windy roads along side the mountains. During my ride back, I stopped off and dropped $.50 in to the machine by the batting cages and took about 10 hits with a bat they had there; it was very cool; I think they might actually be open 24 hours there b/c the machine takes coins just like an arcade machine; So I might have a new fun activity available to me to relieve stress, let off some stream, while at the same time improving my batting swing; All for the low price of $.50, what a deal!!!! On the way back I stopped off to buy a beer & I ran across and new flavored Ice Cream I've never seen before. It said, "Cheese & Raspberry" To my amazement, I turned out to be the most delicious, creamiest, cheesecake flavored ice cream with raspberry swirls!!! yum yum!!!!!
That basically highlights week 4 & week 5. Until next time, I look forward to hearing & reading some comments from people reading my blog. Have a Great Friday everyone (Thurs for those of you in back in the US).

Today I ate Pig's Feet!!!!

It was actually the second time that I ate pig's feet. Both times were at school, after our weekly volleyball game. I wondered if they do it after the first game of each month, because we had a similar feast after the very first volleyball of the new semester; but one teacher said they usually do for special occasions, i.e. after holidays or vacations. They have the entire faculty gather in the main meeting room which is also the vice-principal's office. They serve beer, juice, soda, pig's feet (sliced of course) that you wrap in these little lettuce leaves, add a slice of raw garlic clove, hot sauce, onion, radish, etc. wrap it up in a ball and pop the whole leaf in your mouth. YUM YUM good. The entire table is loaded with tons of food & drink; we sit at a long table with approx. 25-30 chairs lined up on both sides of the table. The vice-principal served me a few glasses of beer, (in a very small lil dixie cup sized glass) and I returned the favor to him. In Korea, you never pour your own drink, traditionally someone else pours it for you. It was spicy, garlicy and good. I stayed away from the HOT green peppers b/c they burn like crazy. We actually switched the volleyball game to Monday this week, because this Wednesday is another Korean holiday & they evidently can't let all these holidays cut into our volleyball playing time!! Heavens forbid, right?? Priorities right? I'm glad the Koreans place their priorities in the right areas!!! On my way home from school, I stopped by the Acupuncture Clinic for my second visit (I went on Saturday afternoon with Lisa, another English teacher from the States). They put me in this room with many other beds covered by a wrap around curtain; I laid down, rolled up my pants and sleeves and they stuck several needles in my arms, scalp, forehead, hands, legs, and feet. I am going there to help relieve the slight numbness (pins & needly tingling) that I get from leaning the wrong way for too long or sitting cross legged. They place this bright red heat lamp & heating pad on my legs and added this herbal medicine called Moxa or Mugwort on my body. It's this incense-like herb that they burn and put on top of your skin. It has this really funky marijuana-like smell to it that is supposed to relieve the pain. It's a very very relaxing procedure that I enjoyed immensely both on Sat & today. After they removed the needles that were stuck in me & took of the Mugwort, they put me on this massage table where I slid my legs into the long sock-like device with all these tubes attached to it; then it fills up with air, squeezing & pressurizing (constricting) my legs, feet, and ankles. It reminded my of those blood pressure bands that wrap around your arm. That lasted 10 minutes, then I was free to leave. I had to pay a "copay" of 4,500WON ($4.50) Which is such a bargain. It cost more on Saturday. Lisa paid a copay of $5.00 and I had to pay b/c it was my initial visit & the doctor met with me to diagnose my condition. He said that he would concentrate on my heart, lungs, stomach and kidneys to treat my symptoms of poor circulation in my extremities. He is a very nice doctor, with a decent grasp of English. Everyone at the clinic is very polite, warm, friendly and very accommodating. You get the feeling that they really enjoy the work they are doing there. So, b/c the doctor met with me for 15 min, my copay was a WHOPPING $5.50 on Saturday. I don't even have my Health Insurance card yet that I get provided by the school. I pay $53 and the school matches $53 per month to pay for this plan. I was shocked the first time I bought aspirin here. He gave me a box and asked for 500 WON ($.50). I hardly could believe it was that cheap... I thought maybe there was only one tablet in the box, but I found out there were 10 tablets of 500mg each. I heard about how cheap medicine & medical procedures are in other countries from watching Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko" and now I'm actually experiencing what he was talking about. I will go back again tomorrow (Tues) b/c Wednesday is another National Holiday in Korea. We (lots of English teachers) are planning to go bowling tomorrow night and then head out for drinks afterwards). Wednesday we are thinking of taking a drive out to a famous Buddhist Temple to hike in the mountains, by the river for the day. There is a lantern festival in Jinju some people are going to & the Pusan Intl Film Festival that we may go to as well.
Lots and lots of things to do these in the Southeast corner of the South Korean peninsula these days. Stayed tuned for more updates soon.