Well the clock struck midnight here in Korea just over 1 hour and 42 minutes ago. It's still about 12 hours away from 2008 in NY & 15 hours away in CA where my girlfriend Flo is right now. I spent a wonderful evening hanging out locally in Miryang. I went to the Sauna/Bath House, and enjoyed lying down in the Steam Room & Sauna as well as dipping myself in the hot and cold bath tubs. Then I went to yoga class from 7:30-8:30pm (no Judo tonight b/c of New Year's). Then I rode my bike to the DVD Bang (room) where I met Orion and his girlfriend Theresa from Minnesota. He bought a pizza, I bought french fries & apple pie from McDonald's along with some beer & Korean plum wine. YUM YUM!!!! We "rented" watched DejaVu with Denzel Washington & Val Kilmer. It was a fairly intense, mind-boggling action thriller which we enjoyed. It's fun to be able to bring in food & drinks into a semi-professional movie room to enjoy while watching the movie. After that, there was still 35 minutes left until midnight & we decided to go to the local pub for a pitcher of beer. At the bar were many Koreans there with their families (wives, children, etc) A few (of the brave) Korean said "hello" to us and "happy new year" I proceeded to grab 3 tambourines from the karaoke section of the bar and shake them vigorously to make some noise, since it was only 10 minutes till New Year's. But evidently the owner didn't appreciate that gesture & took the tambourines out of my hands. I don't know why he did that. Maybe it wasn't appropriate thing to do. I don't really know. But we did end of making friends with these very nice Korean people who came over & introduced themselves to us. Gave us some of their beer, and welcomed us to Miryang & to Korea. It was great!!! These young couples were their with their precious lil, adorable children, who were visibly tired & cranky at well past midnight. It was really fun
Then I rode my bike home to my apartment & proceeded to stare in awe at all the beautiful twinkling stars in the sky. They really do twinkle, have you noticed that?" I was standing there in the cold, dark night, in awe at the beauty of the night sky. Since Miryang is a small city, without many lights, the stars are much more visible then they are back home. It was nice to stand there and reflect on the huge vastness & magnitude of this great universe (one song) of ours. Uni = 0ne and Verse = song. And just think that the same moon I see here now is the same moon that my mom & dad will see 12 hours from now in New York & is the SAME moon that Flo will see 15 hours from now in California!!!! That is just so cool to me!!!
So the holidays have come and gone. Did everyone get what they wanted? Here in Korea the favorite items on all the children's wish list seemed to be:
Nintendo DS
MP3/mp4 Player
Play Station 3
Money
Soccer Ball/Soccer Shoes
Puppy
Cell Phone (hendapone (hand phone) in Korean
Computer
Books
toy doll
WWE (wrestling) tickets - the kids (boys) LOVE WWE wrestling out here. They always talk about John Cina, Batista, Triple H'ee', Undertaker, etc. It's actually quite amusing to talk about wrestling with them & they just love when I mention Hulk Hogan and some other names with them!!
Some kids joking asked for a car, a house, airplane, etc. BIG Thinkers, I'll give them that much.
It's simply amazing to see how curious and wonderfully fascinated the elementary school kids are by me doing, what I would consider the most simplest things. For example, it's precious to see the way they all clamor around my desk in the morning, or before class begins to peek over at my computer screen to see what I'm doing. Most times it's just writing an email or chatting with a friend in Korea or back home via IM. They just stand there for several minutes looking with wide-eyed wonderment at what I am doing. It's really quite flattering but I must admit, it can be quite annoying and bothersome as well. It gives me the chance to practice LOVE, PATIENCE, COMPASSION and UNDERSTANDING rather than anger, upset, violation, etc. Instead of looking at them as being "nosy, rude, or inconsiderate," I remind myself that they are 8, 9, 10, 11, & 12 year old Korean students who have never had this much interaction with a real, live Westerner before. They are fascinated & intrigued by me & that is exciting to them. I must also admit that it can get a bit annoying and quite old after a long while of the same old repetitious/admirable/adoring behaviour. As much as my ego LOVE the attention, after all day of constantly being bombarded with waving, hugging, bowing, saying "hello" it can get pretty old very quickly. Now I know a little bit of what celebrities go through everyday of their lives being constantly bombarded with raving fans who want to touch them, grab them, say "hi" to them, be introduced to them, etc. I really can see & feel what John Travolta, Billy Joel, Micheal Jordan, and Madonna must go through everyday of their lives. No wonder why Princess Diana's car sped away from the paparatzi the night of her fatal death. They just want to live normal, simple, quiet and peaceful lives away from all the craziness that their stardom creates. I'm not saying I'm anywhere near thew status of these people, but on a very small, microscopic scale, perhaps I am.
Well it's good to be able to update everyone back home as to what my most recent thoughts and feelings are. It's been a long while since I've consistently had the chance to update my Blog. That's mainly due to this long and arduous manuscript that I had to write and hand in on December 8th. My paper ended up being 58 pages long and took an enormous amount of time for me to complete. I wrote this manuscript b/c I have been assigned (along with 7 other English teachers) to train approx. 50 Korean Middle School English teachers. The main purpose of the 5 week Winter Camp is to help enable these teachers to gain confidence and practical skills with their English speaking ability. We will be training with them from 9am-8/9pm Mon-Fri in Changwon (the capitol of my Province). They put all of us up in a dormitory, feed us, and pay us an extremely nice salary above & beyond what we are currently getting paid to teach English regularly. So all the is work and preparation is definitely worth it.
Stay tuned for more updates from Winter Camp in Changwon which starts on Wednesday January 2nd and runs until January 31st.
Good Night & God Bless one & all with the BEST & BRIGHTEST year ever!!!
With Purpose & Passion,
Darren
Monday, December 31, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Today it Rained in Miryang - Thank Goodness!!
I don't think I've ever been so happy to see rain as I was today when I walked outside my apartment. It's been so extremely dry here that I had to go out and buy a humidifier. During the past two plus months, it's rained all of two days. I get so happy now when it's cloudy, overcast, and rainy. It's a much welcomed change from the bright sun, clear blue skies and puffy white clouds. Like Bijan (another mentor of mine) says: "I like the rain on rainy days and I like the sun on sunny days." That way you are ensured to have an enjoyable, great day everyday regardless of what the weather is like; pretty cool huh?
I had a great evening tonight. I left school early (3:15pm) because we did not have our weekly volleyball game. We had a very fun volleyball competition between 4 different elementary schools last Wednesday. Our school held "emergency" practice on Monday & Tuesday in preparation for the big tournament!! Our school did not do so well, both our women's and men's team lost the Best 2 out of 3 match. I went to accunpuncturist from 3:30-4:30, went to Judo class (which is actually starting to get fun now). After the first 4-6 weeks of getting my ass kicked all over the place by these really big & strong Korean men, trying to learn "how to fall safely" and trying to learn how to do this one particular flip/throw that, if landed properly would automatically win the match in one shot. I'm just now finally starting to enjoy practice only because I'm engaging in "live" action with these younger, smaller middle school students (who are a lot easier to throw than these 220+lbs. men). I was actually able to land some effective takedowns/throwdowns; I was excited to be able to successful land a few headlock throws, armbar flips, etc. Then my Judo teacher asked to spar with me. He is a Black Belt Judo Master who is a very quick, powerful, middleweight guy. It was my first time in live action with him. I am very pleased to report that he was not able to easily throw me around like a rag doll (like my previous partners have). I was able to get some throws and takedowns in against him. I put up a good fight and was very pleased with the results I produced against him. It kinda feels like it did when I used to wrestle in high school and college. I was a very good workout!
After Judo, I rode my bike to another elementary school where I had the absolute pleasure of enjoying an amazing performance of Yerim Elementary school wind orchestra. I must tell you that ever since they played the first note, I was blown away with how AMAZING they sounded!! I must tell you how brilliant, how robust, how moving and how professional they were!!! I mean these kids consisted of 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th grades. They all came out with white shirts with red vests & bow ties, and just dazzled the audience with their song selections. they played somewhere over..... you were very good "i know"
I had a great evening tonight. I left school early (3:15pm) because we did not have our weekly volleyball game. We had a very fun volleyball competition between 4 different elementary schools last Wednesday. Our school held "emergency" practice on Monday & Tuesday in preparation for the big tournament!! Our school did not do so well, both our women's and men's team lost the Best 2 out of 3 match. I went to accunpuncturist from 3:30-4:30, went to Judo class (which is actually starting to get fun now). After the first 4-6 weeks of getting my ass kicked all over the place by these really big & strong Korean men, trying to learn "how to fall safely" and trying to learn how to do this one particular flip/throw that, if landed properly would automatically win the match in one shot. I'm just now finally starting to enjoy practice only because I'm engaging in "live" action with these younger, smaller middle school students (who are a lot easier to throw than these 220+lbs. men). I was actually able to land some effective takedowns/throwdowns; I was excited to be able to successful land a few headlock throws, armbar flips, etc. Then my Judo teacher asked to spar with me. He is a Black Belt Judo Master who is a very quick, powerful, middleweight guy. It was my first time in live action with him. I am very pleased to report that he was not able to easily throw me around like a rag doll (like my previous partners have). I was able to get some throws and takedowns in against him. I put up a good fight and was very pleased with the results I produced against him. It kinda feels like it did when I used to wrestle in high school and college. I was a very good workout!
After Judo, I rode my bike to another elementary school where I had the absolute pleasure of enjoying an amazing performance of Yerim Elementary school wind orchestra. I must tell you that ever since they played the first note, I was blown away with how AMAZING they sounded!! I must tell you how brilliant, how robust, how moving and how professional they were!!! I mean these kids consisted of 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th grades. They all came out with white shirts with red vests & bow ties, and just dazzled the audience with their song selections. they played somewhere over..... you were very good "i know"
I am TRULY BLESSED!!!!
I feel as if I am so so lucky, fortunate, & truly blessed with so many of the things that I have going on for me here in Korea. First of all I teach at a really great elementary school which is only a 10 minute bus ride (15-20 min by bike). I teach at the SAME school 5 days a week, I have 1 main co-teacher who is the greatest!!! She is so nice; very warm, sweet, helpful, supportive, and is very active (hands-on) with me in the classroom. We have so much fun teaching together in the classroom. I've learned to become comfortable with the basic, simple, monotonous, (in my mind boring) routine of the English text book lessons and have decided to "go with the flow" and add my own little bits of creativity in the beginning of each class for warm up. I have the kids put the hands in the air, clap 5 times, touch their head, shoulders, knees and toes, etc. My co-teacher usually pulls up this song and other cute kids songs from the Internet & will play this song, all with "If you're Happy and you Know it, Clap Your Hands!" on the TV screen. I have 4 other co-teachers that I teach 4th grade with and they are all so fun and great as well. I have a great relationship with many of the other faculty members here as well as with the Vice-Principal (we are on the same volleyball team) "B TEAM, B TEAM Pieting!!!" (fighting). He is the most enthusiastic, supportive & encouraging guy you will ever meet. It's so much fun to see many of these teachers playing FULL OUT on the volleyball court. We usually have food & drinks in the gym afterwards!!!!
I love Miryang, the town I'm living in, it's small, quiet, quaint and centrally located in btw. 2 major cities. I am especially thankful & most grateful for the 15 other English teachers that live here as well. We all keep in touch weekly to plan activities together. Whether it be bowling, dinner, hiking, traveling, rugby, or going to the bar for drinks, etc. everyone treats each other like one big family. There is a great sense of community here and is no wonder that many of these teachers here are re-newing their contracts and will be staying an extra year. I have a nice, new, clean apt. with 2 great neighbors who live next door to me. I feel as if I have been truly blessed by the grace of God, and I know that He has been looking over me, and taking care of me ever since I left NY on August 28th. I knew it was a good omen when we left on the day of the Full Moon of Virgo.
Unfortunately I can not say that about many of my other teacher friends. Many teachers teach at 3, 4 or 5 different schools, having to drive 30 min to each school. Some of them have co-teachers that do not even stay in the room, and who leave them alone with the students in class. Some of my other friends teach in schools where the children are wild, loud, and very disrespectful. They scream, curse, and say all kinds of rude, nasty things to these teachers; and they are challenged with how to elicit help from the teachers or from people at the school. One guy teaches in most rural town where he has to walk 2 miles just to get to the nearest store & their are no taxis available either. It baffles me has to the crazy and absurd conditions some of them have to go through. I feel as if I'm living in a dream world compared to them!!!
I am especially excited that I've booked my ticket for Bangkok, Thailand and will be spend 6 nights down there enjoying the beautiful warm weather and gorgeous beaches at the end of Feb. for my winter break. Then from Bangkok, I fly directly to Seoul where I will be picking Flo up at the airport that evening as she will be flying in from NJ!!!!! She will be in Korea with me for 14 days and will travel all around the country during that time. I am so so excited!!!! My first visitor!!! Yipeee!!!!!! My mom wants to visit here as well, but my dad doesn't seem to have any interest. Anyone else wanna come visit me? I picked up a used sofa from Dan & Kim that you can use to sleep if you choose. Just a thought.
I'm learning to speak Korean a lil more each day, and I can pretty much read everything I see in Korean. The alphabet is really cool and easy in the sense that each vowel (letter) only has ONE sound. Not like in English where a letter like "o" "e" "a" "g" can have a different sound based on the word. Like George & gum. Or like all the difficult and different sounds vowels make in English.Vowels like "a" and "u" can sound several different ways such as "uniform" "umbrella" "put" etc. But in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, each vowel only has ONE distinct sound and it never changes. So once you memorize the sound of each letter, (vowel or consonant) you can easily start to read signs, menus, cities, etc in Korean. It took me a while to actually get the 'correct' pronunciation of some of the unique Korean sounds, but after listening to them over and over, I finally got it correct. I was pleased to get a nice compliment from a few of the native Korean teachers here. When they asked me where I lived and told them the name of my apt in Korean (Haeng bok Villa) they, replied: "Darren, this is not your first time in Korea, right? You have been here before haven't you?" I was proud to say, "No actually, this is my first time, I've nearly been here 3 months now." They just assumed that b/c my pronunciation was so good, that I had been here before. I was very flattered to receive such a nice compliment from them because it made me feel good and helped boost my confidence that I'm actually learning more than I think. It has been several weeks since I've actually listened to one of my Korean Language lessons I have on my iPod and this compliment, has actually encouraged me to continue listening to more lessons this past week.
I'm also starting to realize how much I doubt myself and "beat myself up" for "not being good enough" not preparing lessons well enough, not doing enough (as much as I know I can do), etc. But what I'm also getting, is that I am a pretty darn great guy, person, teacher, friend, etc. And I'm also finally starting to realize that I can very easily use my good looks, charming personality, and my GREAT attitude and outlook on life to take me pretty far in life, and especially far here in Korea. This could be looked at as both a good and a bad thing. I guess it is good for now because I don't have to try so hard to do well here, and I can just relax, take it easy and enjoy the "easy" life here. This can be looked at as a bad thing if I allow myself to get lazy, complacent, and just rest on my laurels instead of challenging myself to STEP UP and demand more of myself. For now I look at it as a good thing. It's nice knowing that I'm liked, respected and well-received just because of my great attitude, my humble & grateful personality, and my thirst, passion and curiosity to learn about the Korean language and Korean culture.
If you come to Korea with the right attitude, you will no doubt find yourself having the time of your life here. If you come to Korea expecting things (the way they run/handle business) to be exactly the same as it is back home, you are undoubtedly setting yourself up for failure. I just can't understand understand some of the ridiculous and petty little things some of the English teachers here complain about. YOU are the one who voluntarily chose to come to Korea... don't expect them(Koreans) to change the way they do business just because you come from a country with different standards and a different set of values. So what I think I'm trying to say is that maybe the reason that I've been BLESSED with the fortunate situation in which I've been placed is because of my open, humble, grateful attitude in which I've approached this whole trip. Even when I was first told that we were being assigned to a 'rural town' in a 'rural province' in southern Korea, I was like, "OK, I guess that is where I'm "supposed to" be teaching English." By totally being open & trusting God, I have created lots of good karma that has been coming back to me ever since. Maybe that's why I get these most beautiful, adorable, and precious children running up to me at school with their arms wide open, wrapping around my leg saying, "Darren, teacha, Darren teacha, I love you!" My heart just melts when I see this beautiful expression of love and gratitude towards me. As Tony Robbins, one of my first mentors always reminds us:
"Live everyday with an ATTITUDE of GRATITUDE!"
I love Miryang, the town I'm living in, it's small, quiet, quaint and centrally located in btw. 2 major cities. I am especially thankful & most grateful for the 15 other English teachers that live here as well. We all keep in touch weekly to plan activities together. Whether it be bowling, dinner, hiking, traveling, rugby, or going to the bar for drinks, etc. everyone treats each other like one big family. There is a great sense of community here and is no wonder that many of these teachers here are re-newing their contracts and will be staying an extra year. I have a nice, new, clean apt. with 2 great neighbors who live next door to me. I feel as if I have been truly blessed by the grace of God, and I know that He has been looking over me, and taking care of me ever since I left NY on August 28th. I knew it was a good omen when we left on the day of the Full Moon of Virgo.
Unfortunately I can not say that about many of my other teacher friends. Many teachers teach at 3, 4 or 5 different schools, having to drive 30 min to each school. Some of them have co-teachers that do not even stay in the room, and who leave them alone with the students in class. Some of my other friends teach in schools where the children are wild, loud, and very disrespectful. They scream, curse, and say all kinds of rude, nasty things to these teachers; and they are challenged with how to elicit help from the teachers or from people at the school. One guy teaches in most rural town where he has to walk 2 miles just to get to the nearest store & their are no taxis available either. It baffles me has to the crazy and absurd conditions some of them have to go through. I feel as if I'm living in a dream world compared to them!!!
I am especially excited that I've booked my ticket for Bangkok, Thailand and will be spend 6 nights down there enjoying the beautiful warm weather and gorgeous beaches at the end of Feb. for my winter break. Then from Bangkok, I fly directly to Seoul where I will be picking Flo up at the airport that evening as she will be flying in from NJ!!!!! She will be in Korea with me for 14 days and will travel all around the country during that time. I am so so excited!!!! My first visitor!!! Yipeee!!!!!! My mom wants to visit here as well, but my dad doesn't seem to have any interest. Anyone else wanna come visit me? I picked up a used sofa from Dan & Kim that you can use to sleep if you choose. Just a thought.
I'm learning to speak Korean a lil more each day, and I can pretty much read everything I see in Korean. The alphabet is really cool and easy in the sense that each vowel (letter) only has ONE sound. Not like in English where a letter like "o" "e" "a" "g" can have a different sound based on the word. Like George & gum. Or like all the difficult and different sounds vowels make in English.Vowels like "a" and "u" can sound several different ways such as "uniform" "umbrella" "put" etc. But in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, each vowel only has ONE distinct sound and it never changes. So once you memorize the sound of each letter, (vowel or consonant) you can easily start to read signs, menus, cities, etc in Korean. It took me a while to actually get the 'correct' pronunciation of some of the unique Korean sounds, but after listening to them over and over, I finally got it correct. I was pleased to get a nice compliment from a few of the native Korean teachers here. When they asked me where I lived and told them the name of my apt in Korean (Haeng bok Villa) they, replied: "Darren, this is not your first time in Korea, right? You have been here before haven't you?" I was proud to say, "No actually, this is my first time, I've nearly been here 3 months now." They just assumed that b/c my pronunciation was so good, that I had been here before. I was very flattered to receive such a nice compliment from them because it made me feel good and helped boost my confidence that I'm actually learning more than I think. It has been several weeks since I've actually listened to one of my Korean Language lessons I have on my iPod and this compliment, has actually encouraged me to continue listening to more lessons this past week.
I'm also starting to realize how much I doubt myself and "beat myself up" for "not being good enough" not preparing lessons well enough, not doing enough (as much as I know I can do), etc. But what I'm also getting, is that I am a pretty darn great guy, person, teacher, friend, etc. And I'm also finally starting to realize that I can very easily use my good looks, charming personality, and my GREAT attitude and outlook on life to take me pretty far in life, and especially far here in Korea. This could be looked at as both a good and a bad thing. I guess it is good for now because I don't have to try so hard to do well here, and I can just relax, take it easy and enjoy the "easy" life here. This can be looked at as a bad thing if I allow myself to get lazy, complacent, and just rest on my laurels instead of challenging myself to STEP UP and demand more of myself. For now I look at it as a good thing. It's nice knowing that I'm liked, respected and well-received just because of my great attitude, my humble & grateful personality, and my thirst, passion and curiosity to learn about the Korean language and Korean culture.
If you come to Korea with the right attitude, you will no doubt find yourself having the time of your life here. If you come to Korea expecting things (the way they run/handle business) to be exactly the same as it is back home, you are undoubtedly setting yourself up for failure. I just can't understand understand some of the ridiculous and petty little things some of the English teachers here complain about. YOU are the one who voluntarily chose to come to Korea... don't expect them(Koreans) to change the way they do business just because you come from a country with different standards and a different set of values. So what I think I'm trying to say is that maybe the reason that I've been BLESSED with the fortunate situation in which I've been placed is because of my open, humble, grateful attitude in which I've approached this whole trip. Even when I was first told that we were being assigned to a 'rural town' in a 'rural province' in southern Korea, I was like, "OK, I guess that is where I'm "supposed to" be teaching English." By totally being open & trusting God, I have created lots of good karma that has been coming back to me ever since. Maybe that's why I get these most beautiful, adorable, and precious children running up to me at school with their arms wide open, wrapping around my leg saying, "Darren, teacha, Darren teacha, I love you!" My heart just melts when I see this beautiful expression of love and gratitude towards me. As Tony Robbins, one of my first mentors always reminds us:
"Live everyday with an ATTITUDE of GRATITUDE!"
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