Party Like Thieves

To anyone who stumbles across this blog, I have a new band back home in Denver. A bunch of the songs I wrote are directly in reference to the experience that I had in Daegu.

Check it out at http://partylikethieves.bandcamp.com.

;-D

AAAAAAAAHHHH! -lmost there!

Whenever you are looking forward to something it always takes longer to get there. It's like what my step-mom Kelly said one time when Jordan and I were making banana bread about two years ago, "A watched cake never bakes". Well, let's just say that I am waiting for my trip to Europe ('the cake' at the end of this 14 months of teaching) to finally come to fruition ('bake'). Weird metaphors aside I am ready to finish working. The level of disrespect that I have been receiving from some of my students has forced me find solace in the thought of leaving.

However, there is this part of me (the part that wants to accept any challenge that teaching brings me) that wants to take control of these classes and provide a fruitful learning environment. Although I truly believe that it is not possible in some cases. For the sake of the argument, put yourself in the place of one of the older students in my lower level classes. He comes to my academy after a full day of REAL school (KOREAN school [Talk about difficult!]). Then, when he gets to the academy, his friends of the same age go into higher level classes as he walks into my lower level class (feeling humiliated). Next he sits down and chats with his friend only to have some foreign man yell at him ordering to speak a different language (English). So now we have a tired, pubescent and humiliated student sitting in a class designed for younger students.

That's the recipe for success right? No wonder I get smacked by the brunt of their frustration with bad words, defiant awkward standing, and the dirtiest of scowls. Oh, now multiply that one student by about 10. There are 10 of these kids going through the same situation in one class. Oh well. At least I get to go home and get away from this situation while the students have to stay here and deal with it. Then, they will subsequently go on to run the world. I mean that is what they are studying so hard for right?

Here's a list:
31 = Days til I am done with work.
14 = Days til my birthday.
9 = Days til Mom comes to Korea.
4 = Days til Halloween (awesome couple costume with Emma (Not really couple costume [we are more just two of something]).
3 = Months til I visit everybody east of Denver with Amtrak. (Chicago friends, Justin and Kelcie, Rob, Jojo, and Emma!)

Full Circle

This last weekend we celebrated another friend's birthday. We have been on a little birthday bender over here. Everyone in our group seems to have autumn birthdays. That usually leads to spending the next day (Sunday) in town or in the mountains close to town. That is what has happened these last couple of weekends.

This past Sunday, we went hiking up the same route that I did about a year ago on my first hike in Korea. We took a leisurely stroll this time instead of a determined charge toward the peak. It was nice to have a day out on the mountains as well as being not too far from home (the trail head is about a 15 minute walk from my apartment).

My time to write has been kind of cut short lately due to running, laziness, getting ready to leave, spending more time with Emma, and an ever changing work schedule. However, I will try to keep this thing updated until my trip to Europe with Brent on November 30th.

P.S. Anyone have any suggestions for things to do and places to see in the Black Forest area of Germany, Tuscany area of Italy and Valencia area of Spain?? If you do, send me a message!

Tandem Bikes and Flyin' Kites

Sometimes it seems as if working just gets more and more stressful. Maybe it is because I am working Saturdays now and I have only one full day to not think about teaching. Maybe I am just getting exhausted. Meh, only 7.5 more weeks!

This last Sunday, Emma and I went to Gyeongju with only one goal in mind for the full day: riding a tandem bike. We got to the bus station and walked right out to find a bunch of rental bikes ready to go. We paid the man 14,000 Won for one tandem bike for the day. Since we have become practically locals of Gyeongju, we knew where we wanted to go first: food place! We went to Sampo Ssambap. It is the best ssambap place that we have tried (Ssambap is one meal with about 1001 dishes).

After lunch, we had a great day just riding around and seeing how far we could go in different directions. Here is a pointer to anyone who wants to ride a tandem bike with Emma in the future: don't let her ride in front (that was a hilarious disaster). We stopped a couple times to hang out and walk around. One time was when we bought a kite and hung out in a park for about an hour. I never knew how completely amazing I am at flying kites. I am definitely up there with the other Franklin's who have made it famous flying kites (history joke...anybody?). The other time we stopped was when we decided that we had made it into the ghetto. We were (as it seemed) hopelessly lost. Luckily, since Korea is the most connected country in the world, I was able to whip out my iPod and look up where we were on Goggle maps (right there in the ghetto!!!I love Goggle!).

Well, needless to say, we made it back home and then built the best blanket fort this country has ever seen. I have pictures coming soon!

P.S. Here are the pictures from last week's adventure: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.680073690149.2171547.43804181&l=d49fe0998f&type=1

Seoul! in 24 hours!

My training friend, Joe, is heading out this weekend. We have been here a year now and he is finished with his contract (I still have til the end of November). So after work on Saturday at 8:30pm, I ran down to the subway station, rode to the Daegu KTX (bullet train) station, met Emma there and managed to get tickets to Seoul. We arrived at 11:30pm and met up with Joe, Jojo and the others. Man we had fun, but it was needless to say, a late night.

On Sunday, we went and had some Mexican food for breakfast (when I am in Seoul, I need to fill my desire for restaurant mexican food because Daegu is lacking). Then we went to the country-famous 63 tower. They have a mall and an aquarium inside. Providing that this was the only functioning aquarium in the nation that Emma and I had not been to, it was imperative that we made the short journey there. We had a good time! They had a great penguin exhibit (they even had emperor penguins!). Then we spent the rest of the beautiful day at a park by the Han river. We eventually decided to check out the river boats that were running. The boat we were on took us around just before sunset for about an hour. It was (as mentioned before) a beautiful day, so this ride was excellent.

When evening came, Brent and I decided it would be a great idea to run to the top of the famous (small) mountain in Seoul: Namsan. We then noticed that Brent did not have good shoes for running, so we decided to run up the mountain barefoot. There are paths and stairs, so it was not an extreme move. After making it to the top passing many curious onlookers, we made it back down to the bottom. When we reached the bottom we attempted to find our shoes that we left under a bush, only to discover that they were not there. We heard a couple old ladies yelling at us, so we decided to yell back. I looked up the Korean word for shoe in my phone dictionary and started asking them to help find our shoes. They came up to us and pointed us in the direction of a bunch of sleeping bums. Brent jumped the fence and ran over to check out the bum situation and found our shoes next to a sleeping bum. Lucky us!

After making it back to Daegu catching up on sleep for a couple days, I have decided to give my body a break for two weeks. I am still going to continue my running training, but I will cut out beer until October 1st. Let the ole body breathe for a bit.

Thanks for checking in! Hope everyone out there is alright!

One Year Ago

What were you doing one year ago? Does it matter? Not really. Either way, I was on a road trip through Montana and Canada with Jordan McChesney one year ago. I was also getting prepared to spend a year working in the mystical far east. One year later, I am getting myself ready to return back to the miraculous far west. I have 10.5 weeks remaining on my contract. Plans are in order for returning to home. First, of course, a camping trip in southern Italy. Then, I will be home for Christmas (insha'allah). However, I need to also deal with, and enjoy, the present (namely spending time with my girlfriend before our month or so apart).

Today, I worked an early day after a long weekend. This last weekend was one of the biggest holidays in Korea. It was Chuseok and everything was closed (still is). On Saturday night, we all went out to celebrate the beginning of our two day weekend (!). It actually seemed like the majority of us were partied out by Sunday morning, resulting in a really lazy and low key Sunday and Monday. On Sunday, we attempted to get everyone together, but exhaustion took hold and everyone did their own thing. Emma and I walked around and played in a playground. On Monday, Emma and I walked around downtown visiting some temples and parks. We eventually got too hot and spent a couple hours in the movie theater watching the new 'Planet of the Apes'. Then, went home so I could get some rest for my early classes today.

That was the extent of the cRaZy two day weekend. Now, I have a lot of work on my plate (student reports) and I have to return to the dentist next Thursday to get a filling refilled (one of those metal fillings that they did 15 years ago). So, I got a couple great things to look forward to. Let's make this happen!

Emma and I on Chuseok (9-11-2011). Her foot is better now.

Some Sunny-ness and Some Now-ness

Today, I went for a run in the wetlands area that is pretty close to my apartment. It was awesome! The land just opened up and I could see all the mountains that surround Daegu. The wetlands birds (cranes, I think) were flying around. It's a beautiful sunny day with a nice cool breeze. Safe to say I had a great morning so far, which is good because I was feeling down about losing my wallet this weekend.

On Sunday morning, as Emma and I were getting dropped off on her side of town, I must have dropped my wallet. We looked everywhere for it. Luckily (I guess), Emma was becoming a veteran at sorting things out after losing a wallet (she had lost her wallet twice within the last month). We had made plans to go to Gyeongju to ride tandem bikes, but instead we needed to head to my side of town and pick up my passport and my bank book from my apartment. We spent all day walking around my side of town and actually had a great day doing this. After reporting my missing wallet and ARC (Alien Registration Card) to the police, we walked up to Hwasong Waterside Park. The park is on one of my running routes that I do every week, but I have not spent anytime walking around in it. We grabbed some drinks at the entrance of the park, sat on benches and watched the synchronized fountains over the lake. It was relaxing. I have started to enjoy the area that I live in the more that I explore it. Living right on the edge of the city is a nice contrast. It's easy to get out and see some open sky.

Last night my dad and I were talking about the importance of solitude. He was referring to an interview on NPR with this lady who has studied social networks and technology for the last 15 years. She was saying that social networks have destroyed our ability to experience solitude. Every minute of everyday we are surrounded by e-mail, text messages and facebook. This is obviously becoming more true everyday with the new developments of 3G networks and smartphones. While studying this stuff, the lady started to understand the importance of oneness and solitude.

She recommended turning off your computer and smart phones (if at all possible) for the majority of the day. Then at night, you should spend a chunk of time doing what you need to do on the internet and with text messages. Now, obviously, many people's careers depend on the internet and text messaging. This is only a suggestion to try to do what you can. When you do have everything off, you tend to spend more time in the present with yourself or the people that are immediately around you. This will allow you to connect with what is 'right here, right now'. I think this is a great idea and I will try to do this myself. Maybe I finally get some reading done (I am still working through 'The Master and Margarita' [I was cruising through books before this one]).

We get Monday off next week! We will probably end up staying in town because intercity travel is supposed to be a nightmare.