Free Hugs & a Murder.


Free Hugs Mokpo

On Saturday we organized a day of free hugs to anyone walking the streets of Mokpo. Free Hugs is a world wide phenomonon started in Sydney by a man only known as "Juan Mann" (pronounced One Man). He didn't got out to be famous or even to make something world wide, but after a friend posted what he is doing on the internet, people started to take notice. To learn more, check out Free Hugs.

So at 1pm I headed to the meeting point and was a little concerned that no one would show. My reason for the concern? Well, the heavy snow hitting my windscreen was one factor... & the lack of people out in that snow another.

Sure enough, when I arrived at the sea side boardwalk, only one of my friends and two students were there. She had just sat through a rainstorm and was soaked and very peeved off. But after a phone call, we found out everyone was at the trainstation instead.

We headed over there and all gathered together ready to go hugging. But a few people wanted coffee & I was waiting for some of my school kids (who didn't end up making it. Such a shame, it was a great day in the end.) When I headed back to the others, they were all sitting in a bakery and mumbling doubts about wether to go ahead with the hugs day. I was in too good a mood to let a little bit of bad weather get me down. In fact, coming from Australia, I still get very excited about snow. I'm like a little kid in it. So I simply said, "I'm going to get some hugs." And walked out.

It turned out to be a good idea. The others followed and for the next three hours or so, we stook out in the snow being warmed by shy, but happy Koreans giving us hugs.



The majority of people willing to hug us were the kids hanging out in the streets. They seemed to think a bunch of Waygook (foreigners) giving out hugs was a very funny think, so they hung around getting hugs off everyone.




But we also had old people, little babies... and even one soldier! It was a wonderful day and I thank Crista and Nancy for organizing it.

Maura's Murder Mystery

After the Hugs, it was time to go celebrate Maura's birthday. The lovely and wonderful Crystal and Mary had worked hard to set up a Murder Mystery party set in a "Juice Joint" of the 1920's. Everyone went all out on costumes and did a great job of staying in roll all night.

Now I was sure I had the murderer figured out before I arrived... but then I found out there was no candle stick, no library.... & they didn't even have a Butler!
Back to square one!

So the basic story....


An Evening of Murder, Mayhem & the Mob

With the passing of prohibition and organized crime on the rise, The Juice Joint, a swanky speakeasy run by Rosie Marie, has been nothing but jumping. To celebrate its success, Rosie is planning a party to remember at the exclusive nightspot… and you are invited!
However, one of the names on the guest list is also on another’s hit list…and no one is safe from the consequences.
With the murder on the menu, you are certain to find a medley of individuals to make thenight most memorable. From the major mobsters and their molls to the swanky singer with her hopes at Hollywood. The cigarette girl with a temper that sizzles to the crooked police chief withnothing to lose—no one is safe from murder…but everyone will have a chance at solving it. Will the culprit be the Mayor who is capable of murder? The blacklisted bootlegger desperateto increase his sales? Or possibly the director with a shot at making history?

For this particular night, I was Hal Hollywood, movie producer extraordinaire! From Dolls & Dames, to Stars & Fame, Hal's the Name!

Now as a movie producer who was on the look-out for the leading role of the first talking movie, I was ready to do some wheelin' & dealin' to make some money and cast the perfect dame.



Unfortunately Natorious Nic, Mob leader of the North Side, had his own ideas about who should be leading lady & I was stuck with his gal, Molly Moll.



Sure, she's a cutie, but in my mind she was no match for the talented Dina Diva.




But with the heavies breathing down my back, my hands were tied!



That was until someone put a couple of bullets in Nic & all of a sudden, I was free to choose!

Being the sly business fox I was, I was doing very well making money selling info, when I didn't have any info to be selling. It's amazing what people will spend for just a whiff of a hint of a rumour. I was up thousands... but little did I know, some of the people I was swindling, were pick-pocketing it straight back.



Imagine! Being paid with my own hard earned bribe money? What's a good (dis?)honest movie producer to do?

In the end, I was so busy giving people false info that I forgot to look for the murderer myself. Turns out it was the shifty Police Chief Carl!



Who would have thought?

Free Hugs Mokpo!

여러분 안녕하세요.

이번 주말에 목포에서 "안아주기 활동"을 할 예정입니다.

"안아주기 활동"에 대해 모르시는 분들은 아래의 사이트를 참고하세요 .

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4
(오리지날 버젼)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKILQPBcVTI
(한국 버젼)

여러분 모두 환영합니다.

그냥 간단한 글귀가 적힌 판만 준비해서 오세요. 위의 사이트를 보시면 글귀 내용을 참고하실 수 있을 거에요.

"무료로 안아드립니다" 혹은 "공짜로 안아드려요~" 혹은 "최고의 포옹 을 선사합니다"등등 내용은 자유롭게 쓰세요.

관심이 있으신 분들은 글귀가 적힌 판자를 들고, 12월 2일 토요일 1시까지 목포역으로 나오세요.

많이들 참여하셔서 그날 뵐 수 있기를 기대할께요.

Stu 선생님이.

(추신: 만약 더 알고 싶은 내용이 있으면 전화하세요. 010-5542-0675)

And in English....

Hi Everyone,

This weekend, in Mokpo, there will be a free hugs campaign. If you don't know what this is, check out:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4
(original version)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKILQPBcVTI
(Korean version)

Everyone is invited to join in the fun. Just bring a sign saying:

안 아 드 립 니 다
Free Hugs

(or something like it) and your best hug!

Meet at Mokpo Train Station, December 2nd at 1pm.

I hope to see you there.
Stu Teacher.

(PS if you want more info, call me: 010 5542 0675)

School Festival

Last week, my school held its festival. This comprised of a whole day of students performing on-stage. It was a lot of fun and showed some real tallent, expecially in dancing and music.

Here's some photos...
















For more photos, check out my flickr site.

Videos coming soon....

The Things Kids Wear


I am constantly amazed by the clothes I see in Korea, but it's not often that one like this comes along...





This was worn to school by one of the 13 year old girls. She has no idea what it means, and I'm fairly sure the other kids and teachers haven't noticed it either.

Over here, ANY English is cool.

Wolchulsan in Autumn



Went to Wolchulsan again.

I'll let the photos do the talking....

Beautiful hey?

Once again, a great time was had by all.

Youtube Pick of the Day.


Check out this kid... He's only 4 years old!
So tallented... and so CUTE!


falecki igor- 4 years [ drummer ]

Bogildo Camp

It's raining outside, the temperature is about 15 degrees and it's the weekend... What's a guy suppose to do?

Pack up Black Betty and go camping of course!

Last week plans were thrown around for the last camping trip of the season. It's quickly been cooling down round here and we decided we had to get one more trip in before it got too cold.

After some ums and ahhs about where to go, we finally decided on an island called Bogildo. I'd been to this island once when I first arrived and was lucky enough to be driven around by a friendly korean guy and his family. I vaguely remembered there was a sand beach there, but couldn't remember much more than that.

So after sending out the usual group e-mail, we only got 4 takers for this trip. The Beautiful Mary, Lovely Crystal and the Handsom Neal as well as my charming self. Down a bit from our usual 20 or so. I guess the others decided winter had already come.

Saturday morning certainlly looked like it was proving them right. It was cold and raining but we decided it wasn't going to deter us. We spent a bit of time cramming enough camping gear into black betty for a platoon of people and hit the road.

Packed in tight.

By the time we got to Wando, the rain had stopped and things were starting to dry out.

Onto the ferry and an hour and a half later, we were on Bogildo. I was able to find the beach and we quickly picked out a great little camping spot. I was actually surprised and impressed with the beach. It was much better than I had expected. We set up our tents (some of us a little more quickly that others... Which way do we want that door facing Neal?)


Keep goin Neal... You'll get there.

and got onto the important task of making dinner.

Now for those of you who haven't been camping with me before, I'm usually a fairly plain eating kind of guy when out in the bush. A tin of baked beans and some toast usually does me well for a couple of meals. Not this time... Ohhh no! It was a meal... nay, a feast... A banquet I say!


Mmmmm Teriyaki Chicken with a Spicy Stir-fry.

Well, ok. Maybe not that great. But it was damned good even if I do say so myself.

After dinner it was time to get the fire a-burning, the guitar a-playin and the quiet drinks a-drunk. It was a wonderful relaxed evening. We even managed to fit in a swim. Although I think we were in the water for a grand total of about 2 minutes.


Latest fashion in winter swimwear... and still lookin cute!

Next morning we were up at the crack of 9:30 to yet another wonderful, blustery, grey day.


Oh what a beautiful day!

It had actually blown a gale the night before and made us glad we had pegged down the tents. Despite the looks of the weather, it wasn't that cold and was actually quite nice moody weather. Reminded me a bit of the few trips to the beach I made while I lived in Scotland. I think it reminded Mary of her home a bit as well.


Bit of a breeze today?

By the end of breakfast, the blustery weather had blown itself out and we packed up and headed off to see what the island had to offer.

First stop was the pebble beach, Yesong-ri. This beach is famous in Korea for the sounds that the pebbles make as the waves wash over them. It's very relaxing, but we descovered they were much better used as skimming stones than musical instruments.


Show us how it's done Neal.

After the pebble beach we headed to a garden that was created by a famous poet, Gosan Yun Seon-do. He lived on the island for 13 years after getting blown here in a typhoon.

From here it was on to the far side of the island where we found another rocky beach. It was fun to build our own little cairn of rocks there. Of course ours had to be the biggest, but I think it was the most colourful as well.


The Biggest... The Brightest...

All tuckered out but feeling very happy the weekend came to an end.


It was a hard weekend lazing on the beach.

As the sun was setting over the beautiful islands, we sailed back to Wando and made our way home.

As the sun sinks in the West....

Halloween Highlander

Yet another great weekend has come and gone! This place is made for weekends.

Friday afternoon I jumped in Black Betty and cruised on over to Suncheon, city of beautiful people and current home of my friend Virginia (among others). The afternoon was a blast, as we jumped on Virginia's little red scooter and zipped off into the country side. Virginia even let me ride, with her on the back. Oh to be behind the handle-bars of something a bit faster than a bycicle.

As most of you people of the North American persuasion (and some from other parts) know, October 31st is Halloween. As most of my friends here are Canadian (or American) I thought I should probably get into the spirit and see what all this Halloween fuss was about.

So after a ride on a scooter, Virginia introduced me to the fun that is pumpkin carving. I'm not really sure if my pumpkin designs were quite up to Jack-O-Lantern standards, but I had fun.


Jakob checking out my Jack-o-lantern



That night we were joined by a motley crew of folks from Mokpo, Wando, Gwangyang, and of course other Suncheon-ites. We headed off to the first Halloween party of the weekend at Julianna's. Now I should mention, this is not the party I came for... it was just a taster for the big party later to come. But it was fun to see some of the costumes people had come up with for this event.



The next day I was up early and went for another spin on Virginia's scooter. This time I was by myself and got to see some beautiful scenery as the sun was rising up in the valley. Beautiful.





After some shopping, looking around, a test ride on a motorbike (FUN!) and eating amazing Indian curries (thanks Virginia) we were finally ready to head off to the main event of the weekend:

The World Famous 6th Yeosu Halloween Party Extravaganza!

This thing is talked about in every town and country.... well... in Jeollanamdo at least. Each year it is apparently bigger and better, and people go all out on their costumes.

Now I thought long and hard about my costume and went through a few different ideas, including Dharma Stu, the bug-eyed buddha dud from one of my previous posts. But after a long and fruitless search, no Buddhist surplus clothing store was to be found, so I fell back on a tried and tested costume.

The Highlander.

Some of you may have seen me dressed like this before. If not, go check out my walkabout wombat website.

This time however, I'm not living in Scottland, so it was a little more difficult to walk down to the nearest kilt shop and buy a kilt, sporran, long socks and all the other bits and pieces needed to look the part. Instead, I headed to the nearest school uniform making shop and bought 3 meters of tartan there. Now here's the amazing thing. In Scotland I paid about 150 Pounds Stirling for my tartan. That's about $300. Over here, I paid about 32,000 Korean Won. That's about $32. And it's only a tad lighter than the original material I bought in Scotland. Where do you think I'll be going next time I want a Kilt made?



Ok. I now have my material. All I need to do is hem the edge so it doesnt frey on me. Oh wait... I don't have a sewing machine. But the school does. Would you believe, when I explained to my co-teacher I was trying to make a halloween costume, not only did she organise for me to be able to use the sewing machine, she also gave me the day off to make my costume. How cool is that?

Now my 3 meters of material has a seam. Not bad considering I've not used a sewing machine since I was 13 (and even then I failed my class). Now for the hard part. Where do I get a sporran? After a trip into Gwangju to look for some leather, and finding out it costs almost as much as buying a whole cow back in Australia, I resorted to my second option of trying to find an old lounge chair that I could cut up. In the end I found a vinal seat that I was able to cut up and make into a sporran.



I didn't do a bad job either, if I do say so myself.

After a number of hours spent happily cutting and stitching leather, putting on face paint and making jewelry, I was finally set. My Highlander Costume complete.



We arrived in Yeosu booked into our hotel and headed off to the party. Well, it was a sight to behold. People from every part of Jeollanamdo and in every kind of costume you could think of... and some you probably wouldn't. Who was that in the Milk carton?

Nicola even managed to win 2nd prize for best costume with her rendition of "Fan Death".


"Fan Death" For those of you who don't know,
Koreans believe that if you sleep with a
fan on and the windows closed, you will die.
This is not a superstition. They truely believe it!

It was another amazing night of meeting new friends,



catching up with old friends,



drinking



and the obligatory end of the night Nori bang.



What fun to be had.

Anyway, enough of my ranting, go check out my flickr site for all the pics.