Mindless Bludgeoning and Insightful Travel Advice

I'm not sure what took hold of me this weekend, but for some reason I took lots of video footage of our messcapades. You will see some here, but don't be fooled. This is not all; I probably took at least twice as much as I think you could bear watching. All of it happened on Friday night. After a very quick week of school, we found ourselves reuining with Ryan, Shannon, David and Duck in Seomyeon. We beered and dined before seeking out a photo booth that makes everyone look like they're from 90210, or in other words, makes you look like you're wearing make up. Shannon's in charge of getting those pictures out, so I'll post them later.

Next stop was the Seomyeon arcade in Judies Taewa. The following video is our approach on the arcade, which happened to be flanked by go go dancers for some store or restaurant opening. This is a very common, almost compulsory phenomenon for the opening of a new business. But these dancers didn't appreciate Brian's video taking, and they sent their mascot minions to put an end to it.

Inside the arcade I proceeded to win many suckers for everyone on the rock paper scissors machine, my favorite arcade game. I used to love the drum game too, but I was shamed away from it after watching this guy. For those of you who haven't seen this game in action before, normally one person plays one drum and another person competes on the other.

But after we had done all we could do inside we snuck out the back way to avoid the minions, and there we found the rest of our night waiting for us in the form of a test of strength hammer game. This was fantastic. We quickly drew a crowd, which I doubt was so much due to this following performance as it was due to the novelty of giants like David, Duck, and Brian swinging away at it. However I include this next video because it is a very important precursor to the next one. Watch my score closely.

Next Brian tries it. You'd think a strapping young fellow such as himself might have a pretty good shot at beating a little Jess like me... but I don't want to give anything away.

Yeah! 765 to 703! Poor Brian, loses to me and then gets heckled most mercilessly for it. Not that I'm still gloating. But things heated up when a Korean challenger came along.

The footage of the Korean guy's swing was long and uneventful without editing, so I left it out, but unfortunately, David lost also, and both Laggises were defeated that night. Neither one of them liked the taste of it either.

That's right, everyone's trying to justify the loss to S. Korea, which now reigns victorious in the S. Korea vs. USA hammer swing competition. Everyone except for Duck, who at some point starts looking for an imaginary cat in David's shirt. Googles isn't there Duck! He's gone! Let him go!

It was a grand night, but eventually we had to head our separate ways. But we left with our dignity in tact, as evidenced by the following video.

Unfortunately, this last, best video was taken in a lower quality setting by accident, but there's no mistaking what happened in it.

Saturday we went to Haeundae where the jet ski gang was in full effect. The jet ski gang is this group of 40+ uber tanned idiots who ride their jet skis backwards and in donuts in the designated swimming area within a couple of feet of young children's bobbing head targets. They mostly wear speedos, but their ring leader wears a g-string, and a whistle, which he blows incessantly. He blows this whistle to tell his gang it's time to set up their plastic chairs and tables. Then it's TWEET TWEET again and now it's time to play frisbee. Once more and they're oiling each other up for a session of sunbathing. TWEET! and they're giving rides to all the girls on the beach on their melon smashers. I don't know why the others let Mr. Whistles boss them around, but I also don't know why THIS guy wears a speedo.

It is a cute print though. Here's a close up so you can see for yourself.

It was a beautiful beach day though, which was extra lucky because it is now monsoon season in Busan. This means the hot muggy weather is being staved off a bit longer, but it also means that the hole in my galoshas is becoming a nuisance.

Saturday night we went to Dongnae near David and Duck's apartment to that of other friends for a rooftop party.

This did eventually get monsooned into an indoor party, but it is notable because one of the girls who came was hosting a couch surfer. The couch surfer was Charlotte, a 19 year old German who has been traveling round the world for about a year now. How is this possible you wonder? Well, her grandparents are helping her out, but traveling does not have to be as expensive as you might think as long as you're willing to sacrifice a little cush and have an adventure or two. Here's a link I filched from a friend that has some good information if you're a first time budget traveler, and if you're seasoned, it's got some great links to lesser known work stay and budget travel sites. http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/cheap-travel/ Check it out and get moving.

Sunday we watched the Cave of the Yellow Dog with Ryan and Shannon to convince them to come to Mongolia with us this summer, but the results are still processing. We've honed in on our travel plans now and it looks like we'll be flying into Beijing for 2.5 days, then taking the Mongolian leg of the Trans-Siberian Railway up to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital. From there we will hopefully find some travel partners (even if Ryan and Shannon come) to make it cheap, and then we'll do a 14 day jeep and camel or horse trek through central and southern Mongolia, including the Gobi. In fact, if you are a potential travel partner reading this blog, we will be ready for the trek August 13th but could postpone until the 15th at the latest. Just comment your details on this post.

Open Class

So most public school teachers in South Korea have had to experience/endure an open class. It is the school systems way of checking up on the quality of thier teachers and ensuring that thier students get the best education possible. Basically what happens is anywhere from 3 to 35 people come and observe your class, evaluate it and give you constructive feedback. I think its also a way for the school system to weed out bad teachers. I'm not positive of this, but juding by the anxiety level of the teachers having to put on an open class this seems to be the case. So this process seems like a good idea, right? On the one hand it gives teachers a chance to show off thier stuff, ensurure quality education and give new ideas to those attending. On the other hand teachers typically spend hours/days preparing materials and practicing new techniques in class to design the "perfect" class - which is pretty unrealistic. We've even heard some teachers rehearse the class multiple times with students to gaurantee little Minsu and Sulim know every answer when they are called on. So I guess it's more of a show than a genuine example of what goes on everyday, but it does force you to try new things. I think you gain more from the process than from the actual class.
Anyway, there were lots of pictures taken and the entire thing was taped. As you can see from the pictures there were about 35 people there other than the kids. I really thought the students would be nervous in front of the camera/observers, so scared they wouldn't open thier mouths, but I was pleasently surprised. They were amazing. There were some points when every hand was raised. I'm so happy to put it behind me. My co-teacher is so much more relaxed now - both in and out of class, which is really nice. The pictures taken will also give everyone a chance to see me in action in the new english classroom (it was built last winter).

It's a good news Monday

Before this weekend we had a pretty slow week, but it was stressful. Arguably the worst thing about EPIK (English Program In Korea) is the one thing that is not nationally regulated - camps and vacation during breaks. The good news about this being up to the individual schools is that during both breaks we've been allowed much more than our gauranteed 7 days plus weekends of vacation. The bad news is that we never know how much time we'll have or when we'll have it because the schools decide pretty late by someone anxious to buy a plane ticket's standards. This is made additionally stressful by the fact that our co-teachers don't want to force the issue with the principles, so they tell us what they think will happen as if it were what the principle has already set in stone. Example: last week Sun Ja told me on Wednesday that I definitely (go home and buy a plane ticket now definitely) would have only 1 week of camp and could travel the whole month of August. But then Friday she said I only had 7 days of vacation and would have 3 weeks of camp and would have to come to school for 8 hours a day when I didn't have vacation or camp, or any other teachers or students around either. That was devastating, but now it's Monday, and the story is I've got 2 weeks of camp and can travel for 3 weeks in August - a compromise I am more than elated with. Such a good news Monday!

So during that slow, ants in my pants week I experimented with the macro on my camera.
Hooters.

Party time.

These are my Philippines jewels.

But, the stamp pad is my favorite.

Luckily, things picked up on the weekend. Thursday was Soo Jeong's last day of teaching with Brian, so we all went to a Giants' baseball game to say farewell. Much to our surprise we saw David and Duck there too. Though it was a full stadium, two 6 foot foreigners were easy enough to spot in a sea of Koreans. And the Giants won! It was a great game and we had a lot of fun. Observe.

Friday David came down to our side of town. We kicked off with a trip to see the fountains at the park near the apartment. The fountains themselves were nice enough to see, but the best part was all the the kim baps running around in the water.

The little guy in the rain jacket was my favorite. Turns out those things don't work so well when the water is coming from the ground.

Once the fountains finally died out we ventured onward. We found ourselves at a Japanese restaurant for dinner and drinks where I was excited to find out I could recognise some of the hiragana written there. Hiragana is one of the 3 different kinds of Japanese scripts, which I've been studying recently because I had all this nervous energy pent up that I desparately wanted to spend on planning trips but was thwarted by the lack of information about when and how much time I would have for said trips. I had to do something, so I started studying Japanese in case we find ourselves teaching there next year.

After Japanese time we went to Keno Eye for a lively round of darts. And the boys, believing themselves to be beautiful people, wanted to see and be seen. Here they are striking a pose fit for magazines. Check that mustache action.

Saturday was bright and sunny at our apartment, so we pulled ourselves together and struggled over to Haeundae where the weather was very strangey. It was hot and somewhat sunny, but mostly there was a very dense, very local fog that may or may not have been man made.

We found out the next day that it had been nakey time on the beach day, an event sponsored by Busan to increase foreign tourism. I find it doubtful, but within the realm of possibility, that the fog was created to engulf the nudity, which we never saw, so perhaps this scheme was effective.

Saturday night Brian and I took it easy, but we still acompanied David to the convenient store for a sit and some people watching. This plan allowed us to get up early on Sunday and go for a hike. We went out in search of a temple called Seokbulsa, but we did not find it. Instead we found an amazing obstacle course and a ropes course. It was also the first time I'd seen the town within the valley up on Geumjeong Mountain.

We spotted this old couple having a Sunday picnic in their garden. I love this bit of rural Korea in the center of Busan.

We never found what we came for, but what we got was better than what we'd planned on anyway. We found a bee keeper selling honey on the mountain. We even found an explosion of pheasant feather souvenirs on the overgrown trail we bushwhacked.

And now it's good news Monday. I don't have my after school classes this week because Sun Ja has a conference to attend, so I'll have time on my hands to plan our Mongolia trip. I can't wait for two humped camels, fermented mare's milk, and nomad nights in gers. We're going to the Gobi!

New Videos

We recently got some new video software. Here are a few videos I made whilst playing around with it.