Holiday Catch-up
Ok, so I've been on holidays and as such, have been very lazy with the blogging. I didn't really do much over the holidays of interest. I had grand plans to go to Mongolia and buy a motorbike to ride around, but that fell through, so I was left sitting in Korea in the hot summer heat... Of course this just meant I spent many days going to beaches... but more of that later.
Damyang Teachers Camp
So my last week of school and first week of holidays, I was at a camp teaching Korean English teachers how to teach English. Rather ironic considering they have had 4 years of Uni to learn how to do this and I have had none... but anyway.
The camp was a lot of fun and I got to meet a heap of great people. During the camp, we went for a trip to the ancient capital of the Shilla Dynasty in Korea, Gyongju. This place was really interested and I learned a lot about the history of Korea.
Unfortunately our supervisor for this camp thought it would be a great idea for us to get up and "enjoy to watch the beautiful sunrise". Bearing in mind it's the middle of summer and the sun rises at about 5am... and he wanted to watch it from the top of a mountain! This meant we had to get up at stupid-o-clock to get on a bus and drive up a mountain. Once there we got to see some beautiful white fog! Later that day, we were told this is the foggiest place in Korea... would have been nice to know that BEFORE we got up that morning.
Anyway, we got to see some cool things like the inside of a burial dirt mound, and an amazing temple and restaurant that was more like a museum than the museum we visited!
All in all, a great trip.
Elementary Camp
While I was at Damyang, I was informed I was required to teach at an Elementary school camp... starting the day I finished at Damyang!
I was just a little pissed to say the least. I had been asking for 2.5 months prior to going to Damyang if I had any camps and no one could give me a definite answer. Then with a whole two days notice, I was told I was, in fact, expected to teach and that I had to come up with my own lesson plans in that time. Not that I knew how many kids I would be teaching, how long the lessons would be, what level the kids were or how many lessons I was suppose to teach...
Anyway, the day before I was to start this camp, my Waygook co-teacher, Linda, asked if it would be ok for her to teach the lessons if I played with the kids for the outside activities?
GREAT!
This meant I was paid to go to the beach and play with cute little kids for 3 days. Talk about a life-saver. In the end, I had a great time swimming and playing games.
Beach Camp
So I decided to have another beach camp. If you've been following my bloggs, you will notice in my last one, I hosted a camp which was a bit of a wash-out. Well, this time only two people came along, Virginia and JP.
We headed over to the beach and spent a relaxing afternoon sitting under the trees and having a few cold ales.
For the first time since I've been here, there was actually surf worth talking about at the beach. Unfortunately there was a bit of a stiff, breeze and I didn't really feel like going in the water. Instead, we spent a couple of hours putting a tarp around a pagoda to turn it into our own private little shelter... and boy did we need it!
The wind picked up and the rain started to roll in. In the evening, a police car pulled up and made an announcement. People ran over to the car and as soon as the police stopped talking, everyone ran for their tents and within half an hour, about 100 campers had packed up and disappeared. It was about this time that we were wondering just how bad this storm was likely to get.
As it turned out, there was a typhoon out near Japan somewhere and we were copping the winds from it. Much worse than the last camp, but at the same time, our tarp walled shelter stood up to it remarkably well. With JP only having to make one minor repair in the night, we kept relatively dry and warm.
I was actually having quite a bit of fun this time. Mind you, this stormy weather when we go camping is getting a bit beyond a joke!
Motorbike ride.
Over the break, I did quite a bit of riding. As it's the middle of summer, and I refuse to ride my bike without proper protection, this means I spent a good many hours of this summer dressed in padded jacket, long padded pants and boots. A little hot to say the least, but not too bad when I'm actually moving.
I decided to take my tent and spend a couple of days working my way over to Yeosu, along the coast. Now going straight there along the highway takes about 2.5 hours (or it did on the return journey) but following the coast, the roads are so twisty and there is so much to explore, that it is quite easy to spend a couple of days.
Along these roads, I often found little side tracks that looked interesting, so I would go and explore them. Turning down one such track, I realized I couldn't actually keep going in the direction I wanted, so I decided to make my way back to the main road. In doing so, I ended up going down smaller and smaller tracks, until I was on a two wheel dirt farm track. It had rained not more than half an hour before I got to this track and by the looks of it, the rain had been fairly heavy here. This meant that the nice little dirt track had turned into a bit of a boggy, mud-pit.
I have ridden on bitumen highways, gravel roads, sandy creek beds and dirt tracks, but there is nothing I hate more than riding through mud! At one point, after being sprayed numerously with nice dirty brown mud, I decided the second track looked a bit dryer and though it might be better riding over there. Unfortunately I didn't put too much thought into the decision to change tracks and so, half way through a mud puddle, after turning my handlebars, I found the front end of my bike sliding out from under me.
Thankfully I'd slowed down to a moderate 50 or 60km's / hour by this stage, so the fall wasn't so bad. The bike went over and I went with it, only sliding for a meter or so before it landed on my leg.
Remember me talking about that hot jacket and pants and boots I was wearing? Well, this is exactly why I was wearing them! I landed on one knee and the bike landed on the back of that same knee. I would say if I wasn't wearing the padding (with excellent knee pads I might add) I most likely would not have got up to walk away. As it was, I got no more than a bit of a bruise.
I was also very impressed with the bike. Hardly a mark on it. The guards on it really are well thought out and put in the right place.
But now for the hard part... picking up a bike that weighs almost 3 times as much as I do.
To be honest, I was surprised at how easy it was. Not long ago, I'd watched a video on the internet to see how it was done, but wasn't game to put my bike on it's side just to try it. So here was my chance. Turns out, after the initial bit of effort, it comes up quite quickly and easily.
But wouldn't you believe it, not half an hour later I dropped the bike again. This time on the other side. Got to keep things even I guess.
This time it was just a gumby drop though. I'd spotted my firs snake in Korea crossing the road (I almost ran over it), and I wanted to take a photo. In my rush to jump off the bike quickly, I didn't put the stand down properly, so over she went. Thankfully, I was still holding the handle bars and was able to stop it falling hard. Of course, by the time I picked it up again, the snake had gone.
And that was basically my life for the last month or so. Nothing major or exciting... just the usual random events that happen in this country of everlasting entertainment and fun.
Till next time.
:)
(PS Photo's to come)
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Monday, July 02, 2007
Full Moon / Canada Day Party
You know that bit when I said I was gonna go camping on the beach come rain, hail or hurricane.... well I was only joking about the hurricane part.
But the rain gods weren't!
(Warning, this is an epic blog with no pictures [so far])
On Saturday a few folks from the surrounding areas decided to join me for a party on Myeongsashimni beach. I've tried to organize 2 previous events there, only to be rained out, so this time I decided I was going to go even if it was raining.
Surprisingly enough, the morning started out bright and sunny. It looked like it was going to be perfect beach weather.
I had a few friends coming over from Mokpo on their motorcycles, but they seemed to be having trouble with my directions, so I went over to meet them. We got back to Wando about mid-day and I swapped Billie for Black Betty and drove over to the beach with all the camping gear and supplies.
I decided to set up a big tarp that people could rest in the shade or sleep at night under. It was massive. We had that and a number of small tents that everyone brought along, so there was plenty of room for sleeping.
I decided I wanted to play on Billie some more, so I skipped back over to Wando and picked her up. After some riding around and playing on the beach, I decided it was time for dinner. I'd previously cooked up 3 different curries for everyone to try and we cooked up a feast.
Then for some more playing on the beach and sitting around the campfire then around midnight it was off to bed. And this is when the excitement began.
The wind started picking up and I was a bit worried about the large tarp/tent, but for a while it seemed to be holding up well. It was just making a hell of a lot of noise as the wind was flapping it like a whip being cracked...
Then at about 2am, there was one almighty crack and all went silent. The wind was at super gale force by now. The kind of wind that takes roofs off houses and blows over full grown trees.
I jumped out of bed and scrambled out of my small tent, thinking the tarp had blown away. There were a couple of people sleeping under it and there was a lot of gear on the ground under it, so I was a bit worried. Thankfully though, only a couple of ropes had snapped and the tarp was now lying flat over everything... including the sleeping people. They seemed content enough and surprisingly, I think they may have been the ones who ended up having the best nights sleep.
With the help of one of my friends, we tied down the loose ends of the tarp and scrambled back to our tents.
Then someone's fly blew off their tent, so it was more scrambling around to tie it down as well.
As wet and miserable as it sounds, we were actually having fun with banter and jokes flying around in the pitch black from all around us.
Just after I got back into bed, there was loud ping and I realised one of the poles on my brand new tent had snapped. It was now being held up by a single pole and a wish and a prayer. I was too tired to do anything about it, so I just stayed snuggled in my cocoon. Unfortunately the snapped pole meant the fly over my tent was now loose and also flapping loudly. After a half an hour of trying to ignore it, I was once again back out and trying to tie it down.
An hour or so later the wind was gone and I can remember thinking, "finally I might be able to get some sleep!" Not two minutes later the rain started. And this wasn't a nice summer shower. It was torrential. It was the kind of rain that causes flash floods and turns cement dry land into a quagmire in seconds.
And then the lightening began. At first it was a fair distance and I enjoyed listening to the rain bucket down and the rolling thunder off in the distance, snug in the dry warmth of my crippled tent. But that distance was slowly diminishing. Eventually there was one that hit so close, the light and sound were simultaneous. I believe it couldn't have been any more than 500 meters away... and possibly much closer.
Finally about 5:30am, after no sleep, people started climbing out of their respective dwellings and surveyed the damage. Obviously the ground was drenched and covered in puddles. It had got so soft that one of the motorbikes's stand had sunk in the mud, causing the bike to fall over in a puddle about half a food deep (enough to half cover the engine) and break the clutch cable.
There were clothes and things blown away, tents broken, people taking shelter in the near-by public toilets and a lot of tired, wet, bedraggled looking people around.
We started the not so pleasant job of packing up wet stuff and the weather gods decided to help us by opening up the heavens again. Some of the crew decided to make a break for it and headed for the first bus out (which apparently came very late), while the rest of us did the best we could with cleaning up. Eventually when it started dumping down again, we took shelter under a wooden pagoda and after a quick survey, found we had all the makings of a nice hot cuppa under there with us.
After an hour of so sitting around joking and bantering about the weather gods and camping in a hurricane, I decided it was time to suit up and ride Billie back home to pick up Black Betty and come collect the camping equipment. It was a little scary riding Billie back to Wando. I don't mind riding in the rain, but when there is still lightning striking all round and on some parts of the road, I become the tallest thing around, it can be a little intimidating.
We finally got packed up and realised we still had the problem of a motorbike without a clutch and there fore unride-able. We decided the best course was to leave the bike in the town at the beach and the owner could take Black Betty back to Mokpo, then on Tuesday, I would go back, fix the bike and ride it back to Mokpo for her.
So we finally made it back to my appartment, dripping wet, dog tired and in good spirits. I realised that it was only 11am (I felt like it must be 5pm by this time... that's what you get when you wake up with the sun) and decided it was a great time to cook up breakfast.
I fried up a feast of sausages, bacon, eggs, toast and some lamb curry and we all happily chowed down.
In the end, it was a great adventure and even with the rain, wind and lack of sleep, I had a lot of fun.
I just hope next time the nasty weather gods will go pick on someone else!
You know that bit when I said I was gonna go camping on the beach come rain, hail or hurricane.... well I was only joking about the hurricane part.
But the rain gods weren't!
(Warning, this is an epic blog with no pictures [so far])
On Saturday a few folks from the surrounding areas decided to join me for a party on Myeongsashimni beach. I've tried to organize 2 previous events there, only to be rained out, so this time I decided I was going to go even if it was raining.
Surprisingly enough, the morning started out bright and sunny. It looked like it was going to be perfect beach weather.
I had a few friends coming over from Mokpo on their motorcycles, but they seemed to be having trouble with my directions, so I went over to meet them. We got back to Wando about mid-day and I swapped Billie for Black Betty and drove over to the beach with all the camping gear and supplies.
I decided to set up a big tarp that people could rest in the shade or sleep at night under. It was massive. We had that and a number of small tents that everyone brought along, so there was plenty of room for sleeping.
I decided I wanted to play on Billie some more, so I skipped back over to Wando and picked her up. After some riding around and playing on the beach, I decided it was time for dinner. I'd previously cooked up 3 different curries for everyone to try and we cooked up a feast.
Then for some more playing on the beach and sitting around the campfire then around midnight it was off to bed. And this is when the excitement began.
The wind started picking up and I was a bit worried about the large tarp/tent, but for a while it seemed to be holding up well. It was just making a hell of a lot of noise as the wind was flapping it like a whip being cracked...
Then at about 2am, there was one almighty crack and all went silent. The wind was at super gale force by now. The kind of wind that takes roofs off houses and blows over full grown trees.
I jumped out of bed and scrambled out of my small tent, thinking the tarp had blown away. There were a couple of people sleeping under it and there was a lot of gear on the ground under it, so I was a bit worried. Thankfully though, only a couple of ropes had snapped and the tarp was now lying flat over everything... including the sleeping people. They seemed content enough and surprisingly, I think they may have been the ones who ended up having the best nights sleep.
With the help of one of my friends, we tied down the loose ends of the tarp and scrambled back to our tents.
Then someone's fly blew off their tent, so it was more scrambling around to tie it down as well.
As wet and miserable as it sounds, we were actually having fun with banter and jokes flying around in the pitch black from all around us.
Just after I got back into bed, there was loud ping and I realised one of the poles on my brand new tent had snapped. It was now being held up by a single pole and a wish and a prayer. I was too tired to do anything about it, so I just stayed snuggled in my cocoon. Unfortunately the snapped pole meant the fly over my tent was now loose and also flapping loudly. After a half an hour of trying to ignore it, I was once again back out and trying to tie it down.
An hour or so later the wind was gone and I can remember thinking, "finally I might be able to get some sleep!" Not two minutes later the rain started. And this wasn't a nice summer shower. It was torrential. It was the kind of rain that causes flash floods and turns cement dry land into a quagmire in seconds.
And then the lightening began. At first it was a fair distance and I enjoyed listening to the rain bucket down and the rolling thunder off in the distance, snug in the dry warmth of my crippled tent. But that distance was slowly diminishing. Eventually there was one that hit so close, the light and sound were simultaneous. I believe it couldn't have been any more than 500 meters away... and possibly much closer.
Finally about 5:30am, after no sleep, people started climbing out of their respective dwellings and surveyed the damage. Obviously the ground was drenched and covered in puddles. It had got so soft that one of the motorbikes's stand had sunk in the mud, causing the bike to fall over in a puddle about half a food deep (enough to half cover the engine) and break the clutch cable.
There were clothes and things blown away, tents broken, people taking shelter in the near-by public toilets and a lot of tired, wet, bedraggled looking people around.
We started the not so pleasant job of packing up wet stuff and the weather gods decided to help us by opening up the heavens again. Some of the crew decided to make a break for it and headed for the first bus out (which apparently came very late), while the rest of us did the best we could with cleaning up. Eventually when it started dumping down again, we took shelter under a wooden pagoda and after a quick survey, found we had all the makings of a nice hot cuppa under there with us.
After an hour of so sitting around joking and bantering about the weather gods and camping in a hurricane, I decided it was time to suit up and ride Billie back home to pick up Black Betty and come collect the camping equipment. It was a little scary riding Billie back to Wando. I don't mind riding in the rain, but when there is still lightning striking all round and on some parts of the road, I become the tallest thing around, it can be a little intimidating.
We finally got packed up and realised we still had the problem of a motorbike without a clutch and there fore unride-able. We decided the best course was to leave the bike in the town at the beach and the owner could take Black Betty back to Mokpo, then on Tuesday, I would go back, fix the bike and ride it back to Mokpo for her.
So we finally made it back to my appartment, dripping wet, dog tired and in good spirits. I realised that it was only 11am (I felt like it must be 5pm by this time... that's what you get when you wake up with the sun) and decided it was a great time to cook up breakfast.
I fried up a feast of sausages, bacon, eggs, toast and some lamb curry and we all happily chowed down.
In the end, it was a great adventure and even with the rain, wind and lack of sleep, I had a lot of fun.
I just hope next time the nasty weather gods will go pick on someone else!
Friday, June 29, 2007
BBBBBBBBRRRRROOOOOOOOMMMMMMM
I love bikes!
I've been needing to do a bit of a refresher on my slow riding and there are a number of folks here who have bikes but have little or no riding experience, so I decided to head over to Mokpo and see if anyone wanted to do some motorbike exercises.
Virginia and Christa were the only two who braved the elements and came along. Actually it wasn't too bad as far as the weather went. It was just overcast and gloomy for most of the day, only deciding to bucket down on our journey home.
Anyway, the exercises were a lot of fun and I think some time soon, I'll have another day of exercises when the weather is a little nicer.
Here's some photos Christa took.
Teacher in the classroom.
On your mark, get set....
Head up, eyes forward... where you look is where you go.
Smile for the camera.
Look Mum... I can ride!
Please, please, please be careful with my baby.
I love bikes!
I've been needing to do a bit of a refresher on my slow riding and there are a number of folks here who have bikes but have little or no riding experience, so I decided to head over to Mokpo and see if anyone wanted to do some motorbike exercises.
Virginia and Christa were the only two who braved the elements and came along. Actually it wasn't too bad as far as the weather went. It was just overcast and gloomy for most of the day, only deciding to bucket down on our journey home.
Anyway, the exercises were a lot of fun and I think some time soon, I'll have another day of exercises when the weather is a little nicer.
Here's some photos Christa took.
Teacher in the classroom.
On your mark, get set....
Head up, eyes forward... where you look is where you go.
Smile for the camera.
Look Mum... I can ride!
Please, please, please be careful with my baby.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Matt's Magic Sajik Music Party
Once again, the musical brilliance that is Matt, put together another night of great music at the now famous pagoda on the top of the hill in Sajik Park. About 60 people came at different stages through the night and many new and some old faces got up to perform.
The variety of music was amazing. Rock, pop, country, classic and Korean music were just a sample of what was heard during the night and I think it's safe to say, everyone had a great time.
Here's a few photos of the event...
The organizer, MC and general funny man, "Matt the Musical Maestro"
Amazing Korean Trio with amazing harmonies.
Country never looked so fun.
I wish I could play like him!
Elton John... eat your heart out!
And yes, yours truly even had a bash.
Thanks Matt for another great event. Hope to see ya at the next one.
PS about 62000 won was raised for the Sung Bin Girl's orphanage in Gwangju! Great job everyone.
Once again, the musical brilliance that is Matt, put together another night of great music at the now famous pagoda on the top of the hill in Sajik Park. About 60 people came at different stages through the night and many new and some old faces got up to perform.
The variety of music was amazing. Rock, pop, country, classic and Korean music were just a sample of what was heard during the night and I think it's safe to say, everyone had a great time.
Here's a few photos of the event...
The organizer, MC and general funny man, "Matt the Musical Maestro"
Amazing Korean Trio with amazing harmonies.
Country never looked so fun.
I wish I could play like him!
Elton John... eat your heart out!
And yes, yours truly even had a bash.
Thanks Matt for another great event. Hope to see ya at the next one.
PS about 62000 won was raised for the Sung Bin Girl's orphanage in Gwangju! Great job everyone.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Randomness of Korean Car Washes
So I took my car for a drive to find a car wash this afternoon. It's just a tad dirty since the whole block has been turned into a construction site and the friendly workers decided to pour cement over my car and didn't bother washing it off. That plus the fact that every time it rains here, a nice (approximately inch thick) layer of dust that settles on it makes it look like I've taken it out-back for a month, means that it wasn't the cleanest car in town.
I finally find a place that has an automatic car wash and I stop to line up for it. He tells me I'm second in line. Ok... no worries I don't mind waiting. Then a lady turns up in a car and she is told to park her car and leave the keys in the door. Mind you, we are both in a spare allotment across the street and well away from the actual car wash. Anyone could come and jump in and drive away. But she seems to think this is normal and off she goes.
Well, the guy finally finishes washing the car and so I go to pull into the "next car" waiting area. As I'm pulling it, he motions for me to go to the "self service" wash area. You know... the place that bascially has a hose and a broom for you to wash your own car. I motion to the automatic wash and he just looks at my car and says NO! And points again to the self service wash.
Apparently he was afraid my car would make his car wash too dirty!
On top of this, he wouldn't show me which buttons I had to press to get the machine to work. So out of a whole minute and a half on the clock... I got a whopping 30 seconds to use the machine.
Bugger going back there again. Next time I'll get a broom and bucket and do my own bloody car!!!
So I took my car for a drive to find a car wash this afternoon. It's just a tad dirty since the whole block has been turned into a construction site and the friendly workers decided to pour cement over my car and didn't bother washing it off. That plus the fact that every time it rains here, a nice (approximately inch thick) layer of dust that settles on it makes it look like I've taken it out-back for a month, means that it wasn't the cleanest car in town.
I finally find a place that has an automatic car wash and I stop to line up for it. He tells me I'm second in line. Ok... no worries I don't mind waiting. Then a lady turns up in a car and she is told to park her car and leave the keys in the door. Mind you, we are both in a spare allotment across the street and well away from the actual car wash. Anyone could come and jump in and drive away. But she seems to think this is normal and off she goes.
Well, the guy finally finishes washing the car and so I go to pull into the "next car" waiting area. As I'm pulling it, he motions for me to go to the "self service" wash area. You know... the place that bascially has a hose and a broom for you to wash your own car. I motion to the automatic wash and he just looks at my car and says NO! And points again to the self service wash.
Apparently he was afraid my car would make his car wash too dirty!
On top of this, he wouldn't show me which buttons I had to press to get the machine to work. So out of a whole minute and a half on the clock... I got a whopping 30 seconds to use the machine.
Bugger going back there again. Next time I'll get a broom and bucket and do my own bloody car!!!
Monday, June 11, 2007
English Competitions and The Land Down Under
On Friday I had the dubious pleasure of being a judge for an English competition for the region. This means I get the whole day off school for a couple of hours work in Damyang, a beautiful place just outside Gwangju that is surrounded by mountains and amazingly beautiful scenery.
I was judging the high school students and was a little surprised to find that on average, they weren't much better than my girls middle school I taught at last year. I'm not sure if I should be sad at the low level of the schools in the region, or happy that my old school was so amazing. A little of both I think.
Anyway, for the lead up to the competition, I've been helping two of the girls at the Wando Girls Middle School. They are super cute (as is their teacher ;) and they were very thankful for the help. One of them has decided to call me "big brother".
On Saturday, I met up with them and the super cute teacher to have lunch and see how they went in the competition. Sadly they weren't to confident with the results, but we spent a fun afternoon hanging out in Gwangju. At one stage I commented that I really did feel like a big brother being dragged out shopping with his sisters... Not that I've ever done that with my real sisters. But I have done it with many adopted sisters over they years.
At some point during the afternoon I came across two of my friends from Mokpo; Neal and Crystal. While I was talking to them, the girls were giggling and whispering behind me so much (while looking at Neal) that finally he stopped talking mid sentence and asked them what they were giggling about. They turned bright red and one of them got up the courage to tell him that he was "soooo handsome". At which point I think Neal got a little embarrassed.
Then a minute later, two more guys that Neal knew came up and started talking. To be fair, one was very tall and both were fairly good looking, so you can imagine how the girls were now reacting. When we walked away I turned to laugh at them and they just said to me, "Stu we love you!" They weren't so much loving me... but loving the fact that hanging out with me, they got to meet all my good looking friends. Too bad these kids are only about 16 years old. They would have loved to go along to one of my get togethers.
So after all this fun in the city, I jumped on Billie and headed down to my next party. Virginia had her house warming BBQ in Mokpo. It was a fancy dress with the theme of any song title. At first I was thinking I might do "You can leave your hat on" but very quickly chickened out of this one.
Then I was thinking about dressing up like a bottle and handing out little phrases like "Be good to your mother" or "You are so cool".... can you guess? That's right: "Message in a bottle."
My next thought was to make a little boat out of cardboard and wear it around my waist & stick months of the calendar on the sides & have a bottle of water hidden in it that dripped.... "6 months in a leaking boat"
However all these were a little difficult to do last minute (except the first one I guess), so I settled on buying a white t-shirt and some pens and drew on it a tall man (6' 4"), a VW van, a woman who glowed and a beer keg that was flowing beer. There was a lightning bolt and a strange lady giving out breakfast and a guy throwing up. There was also a man running towards some shelter and a guy who was selling bread with a sign saying Brussels behind him.
Have you got it yet?
Oh and of course there was a large map of Australia drawn upside down.
You must have guessed it by now....
"Travelling in a fried out combie, On a hippie trail, full of zombie.
I met a strange lady. She made me nervous. She took me in and gave me breakfast.
How about now?
"And she said, 'Do you come from the Land Down Under? Where women glow and men plunder.....'"
You got it. "Land Down Under" by Men at Work.
Kind of appropriate I do feel.
So the BBQ was lots of fun. drinking and eating on the rooftop overlooking the see and islands off shore. Always a nice way to spend the afternoon. The party moved into the apartment and got much louder. By the time we decided to move on to a new location (p-club) I'm sure the combined association of Koreans living in that apartment were already drawing up a formal complaint and petition to get the waygook kicked out of there.
P-club was the usual bar thing. Nothing exciting. I got to spend about the last half an hour listening to the mumblings of a drunken Queenslander... you know... the kind of person you hate to meet overseas cause they give your country a bad name. Mind you, he wasn't loud and obnoxious. He just couldn't string to coherent words together.
Sunday was kind of interesting. I went to a local gym with Melisa (The Other Wando Chick) and saw a Korean sport called Gumdo. How this sport differs from Kendo, I'm not too sure. In fact, a friend here who came along and knows Kendo fairly well, said it was the same sport. But as I'd never seen either, I found it great to watch.
Everyone was dressed in big baggy pants and lots of padding, with a face mask that looked like the grill of an old MG sportster. They were in a square and faced off, then started wacking each other with swords made out of bamboo. Talk about fun.
I was watching the kids first and couldn't believe the obvious skill with a sword of these little people who probably maxed out at five foot tall. Man they could move fast.
The bigger people were fairly good too. I have to say, I'm proud of one of my students from the girls school who was there competing. She won 3 of her 4 fights. She did much better than the rest of her club.
Anyway, that's enough rambling for this week.
Till next time......
"...... where beer does flow and men chunder. Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You'd better run, you'd better take cover.........."
On Friday I had the dubious pleasure of being a judge for an English competition for the region. This means I get the whole day off school for a couple of hours work in Damyang, a beautiful place just outside Gwangju that is surrounded by mountains and amazingly beautiful scenery.
I was judging the high school students and was a little surprised to find that on average, they weren't much better than my girls middle school I taught at last year. I'm not sure if I should be sad at the low level of the schools in the region, or happy that my old school was so amazing. A little of both I think.
Anyway, for the lead up to the competition, I've been helping two of the girls at the Wando Girls Middle School. They are super cute (as is their teacher ;) and they were very thankful for the help. One of them has decided to call me "big brother".
On Saturday, I met up with them and the super cute teacher to have lunch and see how they went in the competition. Sadly they weren't to confident with the results, but we spent a fun afternoon hanging out in Gwangju. At one stage I commented that I really did feel like a big brother being dragged out shopping with his sisters... Not that I've ever done that with my real sisters. But I have done it with many adopted sisters over they years.
At some point during the afternoon I came across two of my friends from Mokpo; Neal and Crystal. While I was talking to them, the girls were giggling and whispering behind me so much (while looking at Neal) that finally he stopped talking mid sentence and asked them what they were giggling about. They turned bright red and one of them got up the courage to tell him that he was "soooo handsome". At which point I think Neal got a little embarrassed.
Then a minute later, two more guys that Neal knew came up and started talking. To be fair, one was very tall and both were fairly good looking, so you can imagine how the girls were now reacting. When we walked away I turned to laugh at them and they just said to me, "Stu we love you!" They weren't so much loving me... but loving the fact that hanging out with me, they got to meet all my good looking friends. Too bad these kids are only about 16 years old. They would have loved to go along to one of my get togethers.
So after all this fun in the city, I jumped on Billie and headed down to my next party. Virginia had her house warming BBQ in Mokpo. It was a fancy dress with the theme of any song title. At first I was thinking I might do "You can leave your hat on" but very quickly chickened out of this one.
Then I was thinking about dressing up like a bottle and handing out little phrases like "Be good to your mother" or "You are so cool".... can you guess? That's right: "Message in a bottle."
My next thought was to make a little boat out of cardboard and wear it around my waist & stick months of the calendar on the sides & have a bottle of water hidden in it that dripped.... "6 months in a leaking boat"
However all these were a little difficult to do last minute (except the first one I guess), so I settled on buying a white t-shirt and some pens and drew on it a tall man (6' 4"), a VW van, a woman who glowed and a beer keg that was flowing beer. There was a lightning bolt and a strange lady giving out breakfast and a guy throwing up. There was also a man running towards some shelter and a guy who was selling bread with a sign saying Brussels behind him.
Have you got it yet?
Oh and of course there was a large map of Australia drawn upside down.
You must have guessed it by now....
"Travelling in a fried out combie, On a hippie trail, full of zombie.
I met a strange lady. She made me nervous. She took me in and gave me breakfast.
How about now?
"And she said, 'Do you come from the Land Down Under? Where women glow and men plunder.....'"
You got it. "Land Down Under" by Men at Work.
Kind of appropriate I do feel.
So the BBQ was lots of fun. drinking and eating on the rooftop overlooking the see and islands off shore. Always a nice way to spend the afternoon. The party moved into the apartment and got much louder. By the time we decided to move on to a new location (p-club) I'm sure the combined association of Koreans living in that apartment were already drawing up a formal complaint and petition to get the waygook kicked out of there.
P-club was the usual bar thing. Nothing exciting. I got to spend about the last half an hour listening to the mumblings of a drunken Queenslander... you know... the kind of person you hate to meet overseas cause they give your country a bad name. Mind you, he wasn't loud and obnoxious. He just couldn't string to coherent words together.
Sunday was kind of interesting. I went to a local gym with Melisa (The Other Wando Chick) and saw a Korean sport called Gumdo. How this sport differs from Kendo, I'm not too sure. In fact, a friend here who came along and knows Kendo fairly well, said it was the same sport. But as I'd never seen either, I found it great to watch.
Everyone was dressed in big baggy pants and lots of padding, with a face mask that looked like the grill of an old MG sportster. They were in a square and faced off, then started wacking each other with swords made out of bamboo. Talk about fun.
I was watching the kids first and couldn't believe the obvious skill with a sword of these little people who probably maxed out at five foot tall. Man they could move fast.
The bigger people were fairly good too. I have to say, I'm proud of one of my students from the girls school who was there competing. She won 3 of her 4 fights. She did much better than the rest of her club.
Anyway, that's enough rambling for this week.
Till next time......
"...... where beer does flow and men chunder. Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You'd better run, you'd better take cover.........."
Monday, June 04, 2007
A post for the sake of posting...
Had another busy weekend. Went to Suncheon on Friday arvo to take Virginia over to collect her cat and hamster and take them to their new home in Mokpo.
Went out Friday night to Julianna's and didn't get in till the sun was coming up. Then got up 2 hours later with a massive hangover to drive Virginia, cat and rodent back to Mokpo via Gwangju. Possibly the worst I've felt since arriving in Korea. Urg!
Got back home Sat evening and crashed very early.
Yesterday was a much nicer day. I jumped on Billie and took her for a ride, island hopping from Wando across to the mainland, up to Gangjin and back down to Wando. About a 150km ride including some exploring on the islands.
I found the most beautiful hill with nice views and some goats. There were black goats all over the place. So of course you can guess what that island is "most famous" for in the food department. I'll have to go back there and try some.
A really beautiful day topped off in the evening by going out to dinner with one of my (also beautiful) co-teachers and two students from the all girls school, who are competing in an English competition. We had an "English only" meal so that the students could practice speaking in English. A lovely meal with three lovely ladies.
:)
The end... I'm going home now... work's over.
See ya.
Had another busy weekend. Went to Suncheon on Friday arvo to take Virginia over to collect her cat and hamster and take them to their new home in Mokpo.
Went out Friday night to Julianna's and didn't get in till the sun was coming up. Then got up 2 hours later with a massive hangover to drive Virginia, cat and rodent back to Mokpo via Gwangju. Possibly the worst I've felt since arriving in Korea. Urg!
Got back home Sat evening and crashed very early.
Yesterday was a much nicer day. I jumped on Billie and took her for a ride, island hopping from Wando across to the mainland, up to Gangjin and back down to Wando. About a 150km ride including some exploring on the islands.
I found the most beautiful hill with nice views and some goats. There were black goats all over the place. So of course you can guess what that island is "most famous" for in the food department. I'll have to go back there and try some.
A really beautiful day topped off in the evening by going out to dinner with one of my (also beautiful) co-teachers and two students from the all girls school, who are competing in an English competition. We had an "English only" meal so that the students could practice speaking in English. A lovely meal with three lovely ladies.
:)
The end... I'm going home now... work's over.
See ya.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Four days of Fun and Frivolity
For all the photos, check out my flickr site.
So I got back from Japan, only to find out on Monday that I had a 4 day weekend coming up. Thursday the 24th was Buddha's birthday so we were given that day off. I think my school decided that since we had Thursday off, we might as well make it worthwhile and take Friday off as well!
I love working in this country.
So on Thursday, I got up and went over to Miji and Tony's place for a massive feast of seafood. Miji's Mum owns two fishing boats on Jindo island and cooked up a massive meal for us to celebrate Buddha's birthday.
After this massive chow-down, I jumped in the car and drove over to Gwangju to catch up with Virginia. She went back to Canada for three weeks and had just arrived back in S. Korea that morning. I stayed in her hotel over night and got to hang out with her and JP, a guy that use to work in Wando but left soon after I arrived. He's back for another year and he and Virginia will both be placed in Mokpo. I think with all my friends now in Mokpo, I'll be spending a lot more time there.
The next day the real adventure started. I dropped off Black Betty for the weekend and hired a minivan for three days.
"Why would he do that?", I hear you ask.
For the first Jeollanamdo Photography Roadtrip of course!
Myself and a group of 7 friends jumped in the car and spent two days driving around the provence taking photos. I'd spent days planning a route that would take in some beautiful scenery and some interesting stops.
We went first over to a little town near Jirisan to see a steam train that runs 10km's between two stations.
The patriotic train.
Locomotion; Old and New
Unfortunately we didn't have time to wait for the next departure and have a ride, but it was cool looking at the old locomotives and playing around at the theme park there.
The driving force.
All aboard...
Then we meandered our way down a valley to Jirisan and the Korean Black Bear rehab program. There use to be many bears in South Korea but sadly they were almost wiped out. Now they are starting a breading program to try to build up the population and re-introduce them into the wild. They believe there are about 20 bears roaming around Jirisan, with another eight at the breeding center, including two cubs.
One of thirty-odd bears left in Korea.
From here, we went down another amazing valley. The whole way I was thinking I would have to come back there on my motor bike. As I was having this thought for the thousandth time, we came around the corner and lo and behold, on the side of the road was a motorcycle gang.
Hells Angles? ... No, it's Club Shadow.
This looked like the Korean version of the Hells Angles. Of course we had to pull over and take photographs with them.
Very cool bikies.
Far from being the scary type gangs we often associate with these kinds of groups, these guys were super friendly and posed for numerous photos with us. After telling them I had a bike, one of them gave me a business card with the groups website address on it. Not exactly the sort of thing you expect from a "Hells Angles" type group.
Here's the link if you wanna go check it out...
Club Shadow (since 2002)
After our stop here, we skipped over to Suncheon to watch a Korean National sport, Gumdo. This is a martial art based around the use of a sword. It was great to watch. Both graceful and deadly.
Looks dangerous.
That night it was onto Boseong and a hotel for some well earned rest.
The next day we were up and travelling again. Not as many stops on Sunday.
The first stop was just outside Boseong at the most famous tea plantation in Jeollanamdo... and possibly all of Korea.
And not a teabag in site...
We followed the coast down to a small town called Maryang and did two short ferry rides across to Shinji island for a play on the beach. Unfortunately it was a bit windy for a good swim, although Richard managed a quick dip.
From Shinji it was a quick lunch and long drive back to Gwangju to return the car, pick up Black Betty and do a U-turn back down to Wando.
Yet another amazing weekend!
For all the photos, check out my flickr site.
So I got back from Japan, only to find out on Monday that I had a 4 day weekend coming up. Thursday the 24th was Buddha's birthday so we were given that day off. I think my school decided that since we had Thursday off, we might as well make it worthwhile and take Friday off as well!
I love working in this country.
So on Thursday, I got up and went over to Miji and Tony's place for a massive feast of seafood. Miji's Mum owns two fishing boats on Jindo island and cooked up a massive meal for us to celebrate Buddha's birthday.
After this massive chow-down, I jumped in the car and drove over to Gwangju to catch up with Virginia. She went back to Canada for three weeks and had just arrived back in S. Korea that morning. I stayed in her hotel over night and got to hang out with her and JP, a guy that use to work in Wando but left soon after I arrived. He's back for another year and he and Virginia will both be placed in Mokpo. I think with all my friends now in Mokpo, I'll be spending a lot more time there.
The next day the real adventure started. I dropped off Black Betty for the weekend and hired a minivan for three days.
"Why would he do that?", I hear you ask.
For the first Jeollanamdo Photography Roadtrip of course!
Myself and a group of 7 friends jumped in the car and spent two days driving around the provence taking photos. I'd spent days planning a route that would take in some beautiful scenery and some interesting stops.
We went first over to a little town near Jirisan to see a steam train that runs 10km's between two stations.
The patriotic train.
Locomotion; Old and New
Unfortunately we didn't have time to wait for the next departure and have a ride, but it was cool looking at the old locomotives and playing around at the theme park there.
The driving force.
All aboard...
Then we meandered our way down a valley to Jirisan and the Korean Black Bear rehab program. There use to be many bears in South Korea but sadly they were almost wiped out. Now they are starting a breading program to try to build up the population and re-introduce them into the wild. They believe there are about 20 bears roaming around Jirisan, with another eight at the breeding center, including two cubs.
One of thirty-odd bears left in Korea.
From here, we went down another amazing valley. The whole way I was thinking I would have to come back there on my motor bike. As I was having this thought for the thousandth time, we came around the corner and lo and behold, on the side of the road was a motorcycle gang.
Hells Angles? ... No, it's Club Shadow.
This looked like the Korean version of the Hells Angles. Of course we had to pull over and take photographs with them.
Very cool bikies.
Far from being the scary type gangs we often associate with these kinds of groups, these guys were super friendly and posed for numerous photos with us. After telling them I had a bike, one of them gave me a business card with the groups website address on it. Not exactly the sort of thing you expect from a "Hells Angles" type group.
Here's the link if you wanna go check it out...
Club Shadow (since 2002)
After our stop here, we skipped over to Suncheon to watch a Korean National sport, Gumdo. This is a martial art based around the use of a sword. It was great to watch. Both graceful and deadly.
Looks dangerous.
That night it was onto Boseong and a hotel for some well earned rest.
The next day we were up and travelling again. Not as many stops on Sunday.
The first stop was just outside Boseong at the most famous tea plantation in Jeollanamdo... and possibly all of Korea.
And not a teabag in site...
We followed the coast down to a small town called Maryang and did two short ferry rides across to Shinji island for a play on the beach. Unfortunately it was a bit windy for a good swim, although Richard managed a quick dip.
From Shinji it was a quick lunch and long drive back to Gwangju to return the car, pick up Black Betty and do a U-turn back down to Wando.
Yet another amazing weekend!
Catch up time...
It's been a busy few weeks. I believe I left you with my last blog about four weeks ago with the Hampyeong Butterfly festival. Wow, how time flies!
Ok, so the weekend after was suppose to be my big first year beach party, but as commonly happens, the weather gods decided to be funny buggers and made it rain for one day that week. you can guess what day can't you? Saturday! The day we were suppose to be camping on the beach, enjoying the sun and having fun. Instead it was bucketing down from the skies above.
So I decided to ride over to Mokpo and have some indoor fun with friends over there. I went to Crystals and with a group of friends, we had a night of board-games. Wow, have they changed since I was a kid. These days, board games seem to involve little electronic devices that throw words at you which you have to make others guess (without using that word) and DVD's that throw questions at you from the TV.
What ever happened to a board on the floor with some dice?
Am I getting old?
Sadly over this weekend, I also found out that a good friend, Nick Hamilton, passed away. Nick was one of my best friends in Japan and he was the guy who introduced me to Canadian Connections here in Korea. It was a big shock to learn of his death. Especially as he was exactly the same age as me... to the day.
So on the Monday, I went to work and asked if I would be able to get leave to go to a service being held for him in Japan. Thanks to my great co-teacher and caring school, I was on a plane the next day and heading back to my old stomping ground, Osaka.
I was very apprehensive returning to Japan because most of you know, I didn't really leave under the best circumstances. I had an old grandma trying to sue me because she ran into me on her bicycle and hurt herself, and I had quite a large tax debt that hadn't been paid. I was expecting to be grabbed at customs and locked away in a Japanese prison, never to be heard from again... or something to that effect.
As it turned out, I was let into the country with no questions asked. So I'm not a wanted man in a foreign country after all... Sweet!
I went over with one of my friends from Oz, living in Korea, Tony. He had to go over for a visa run and I said I'd help him find his way around. While we were in Osaka, we did a bit of site seeing... more for his benefit than mine.
Tony at the Osaka Castle
The Silver Ball. Where all the wanna be break dancers come to practice.
I stayed with a friend in Osaka and had the chance to catch up with most of my friends over there. I have to say, the 2 days I spent in Osaka only confirmed the idea that I'm much better off where I am now. I had a great time seeing my friends, but I'm very glad I'm not living in that city working for that evil corporation anymore.
I did a quick trip down to Hiroshima for the service and spent a day looking around the city. I was surprised at how clean and beautiful Hiroshima is. I didn't get to go to the museum but I looked through peace square and saw the Atom monument. Amazing to look at.
One of the monuments in Peace Park.
The Atomic Dome. This was virtually under the Atomic bomb when it went off in Hiroshima. Ironically, it was one of the least affected buildings.
In the park, there were thousands of kids (possibly no exaggeration) who were interviewing people for school projects. I think about half a dozen groups came up to me while I was there. They were sooo cute!
That night I went to the service and spent the evening with Nicks friends and workmates remembering the good times we had with Nick. He was one amazing guy. One of the most optimistic people I've ever known.
He will be missed.
The beautiful sunset from the KTX on the way home.
It's been a busy few weeks. I believe I left you with my last blog about four weeks ago with the Hampyeong Butterfly festival. Wow, how time flies!
Ok, so the weekend after was suppose to be my big first year beach party, but as commonly happens, the weather gods decided to be funny buggers and made it rain for one day that week. you can guess what day can't you? Saturday! The day we were suppose to be camping on the beach, enjoying the sun and having fun. Instead it was bucketing down from the skies above.
So I decided to ride over to Mokpo and have some indoor fun with friends over there. I went to Crystals and with a group of friends, we had a night of board-games. Wow, have they changed since I was a kid. These days, board games seem to involve little electronic devices that throw words at you which you have to make others guess (without using that word) and DVD's that throw questions at you from the TV.
What ever happened to a board on the floor with some dice?
Am I getting old?
Sadly over this weekend, I also found out that a good friend, Nick Hamilton, passed away. Nick was one of my best friends in Japan and he was the guy who introduced me to Canadian Connections here in Korea. It was a big shock to learn of his death. Especially as he was exactly the same age as me... to the day.
So on the Monday, I went to work and asked if I would be able to get leave to go to a service being held for him in Japan. Thanks to my great co-teacher and caring school, I was on a plane the next day and heading back to my old stomping ground, Osaka.
I was very apprehensive returning to Japan because most of you know, I didn't really leave under the best circumstances. I had an old grandma trying to sue me because she ran into me on her bicycle and hurt herself, and I had quite a large tax debt that hadn't been paid. I was expecting to be grabbed at customs and locked away in a Japanese prison, never to be heard from again... or something to that effect.
As it turned out, I was let into the country with no questions asked. So I'm not a wanted man in a foreign country after all... Sweet!
I went over with one of my friends from Oz, living in Korea, Tony. He had to go over for a visa run and I said I'd help him find his way around. While we were in Osaka, we did a bit of site seeing... more for his benefit than mine.
Tony at the Osaka Castle
The Silver Ball. Where all the wanna be break dancers come to practice.
I stayed with a friend in Osaka and had the chance to catch up with most of my friends over there. I have to say, the 2 days I spent in Osaka only confirmed the idea that I'm much better off where I am now. I had a great time seeing my friends, but I'm very glad I'm not living in that city working for that evil corporation anymore.
I did a quick trip down to Hiroshima for the service and spent a day looking around the city. I was surprised at how clean and beautiful Hiroshima is. I didn't get to go to the museum but I looked through peace square and saw the Atom monument. Amazing to look at.
One of the monuments in Peace Park.
The Atomic Dome. This was virtually under the Atomic bomb when it went off in Hiroshima. Ironically, it was one of the least affected buildings.
In the park, there were thousands of kids (possibly no exaggeration) who were interviewing people for school projects. I think about half a dozen groups came up to me while I was there. They were sooo cute!
That night I went to the service and spent the evening with Nicks friends and workmates remembering the good times we had with Nick. He was one amazing guy. One of the most optimistic people I've ever known.
He will be missed.
The beautiful sunset from the KTX on the way home.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Butterflies and Barbecues.
I went to the butterfly festival in Hampyeong last weekend with my friend Miji.
Every year, when the flowers come out and things are looking beautiful, they have a festival in this little town in the middle of nowhere. There are fields of flowers and pavilions selling all sorts of food and drinks.
Our first stop was to try some prime bbq beef. I don't know how anyone can be a vegetarian. This simple meal of beef, kimchi and garlic tasted so good!
Unfortunately it was "Children's day", so it seemed like every child and their family in Korea were visiting Hampyeong all on the same day. Just walking around was difficult, as the milling crowds were covering every bit of open space there.
Lucky the children are so cute in Korea.
Miji and I decided the best way to have a breather would be to go out on the little creek on a paddle boat. Now I'm not talking about a big paddle steamer or anything. This was one of those little boats that you have to peddle with your feet to get it to move around. It was fun, but also hard work. Miji was a crazy driver, she kept accidentally (on purpose) running into other boats. oops :)
After this, we decided to go for a stroll through the flower fields and have a break from the heat.
On our way to a nice shady pavilion, I got to watch some kids chase some piglets around a pen and saw others playing in mud, trying to catch little fish with their hands.
It looked like lots of fun.
Eventually, after resting for a while, we caught up with to more friends, Cathy and Monique, and headed over to the main attraction, the butterfly pavilion.
Inside were many different types of flowers and some butterflies fluttering around.
This one had just emerged from its cocoon and was drying its wings.
I'm not sure if our timing was out, but there mainly seemed to be one type of butterfly (which looked more like a moth) in abundance. In the whole pavilion, I only saw 3 types of butterfly.
This was the nicest butterfly I found there.
Still, it was nice to look around.
After all this fun in Hampyeong, we decided to leave the crowds and head back to Mokpo for a BBQ at a friends place. Kristen and Hyn-joong had been lucky enough to be given the use of Hyun-joon's cousin's house, with a large back yard, to host the party.
Quite amazing considering the Korean owners weren't there and they let a bunch of foreigners have the run of the place.
It was a great night with nice burgers provided by Kristen and Hyun-joong, some music provided by Matt Amond, David (?) and myself, and great company provided by all who came. I was able to meet some of the latest newbie crowd to come to Korea and we were also graced with the pressence of Alex's mother.
Not even the rain bucketing down put a dampner on the event.
In fact it helped provide some entertainment later in the evening...
You go girls!
Yet another great weekend in Korea.
I went to the butterfly festival in Hampyeong last weekend with my friend Miji.
Every year, when the flowers come out and things are looking beautiful, they have a festival in this little town in the middle of nowhere. There are fields of flowers and pavilions selling all sorts of food and drinks.
Our first stop was to try some prime bbq beef. I don't know how anyone can be a vegetarian. This simple meal of beef, kimchi and garlic tasted so good!
Unfortunately it was "Children's day", so it seemed like every child and their family in Korea were visiting Hampyeong all on the same day. Just walking around was difficult, as the milling crowds were covering every bit of open space there.
Lucky the children are so cute in Korea.
Miji and I decided the best way to have a breather would be to go out on the little creek on a paddle boat. Now I'm not talking about a big paddle steamer or anything. This was one of those little boats that you have to peddle with your feet to get it to move around. It was fun, but also hard work. Miji was a crazy driver, she kept accidentally (on purpose) running into other boats. oops :)
After this, we decided to go for a stroll through the flower fields and have a break from the heat.
On our way to a nice shady pavilion, I got to watch some kids chase some piglets around a pen and saw others playing in mud, trying to catch little fish with their hands.
It looked like lots of fun.
Eventually, after resting for a while, we caught up with to more friends, Cathy and Monique, and headed over to the main attraction, the butterfly pavilion.
Inside were many different types of flowers and some butterflies fluttering around.
This one had just emerged from its cocoon and was drying its wings.
I'm not sure if our timing was out, but there mainly seemed to be one type of butterfly (which looked more like a moth) in abundance. In the whole pavilion, I only saw 3 types of butterfly.
This was the nicest butterfly I found there.
Still, it was nice to look around.
After all this fun in Hampyeong, we decided to leave the crowds and head back to Mokpo for a BBQ at a friends place. Kristen and Hyn-joong had been lucky enough to be given the use of Hyun-joon's cousin's house, with a large back yard, to host the party.
Quite amazing considering the Korean owners weren't there and they let a bunch of foreigners have the run of the place.
It was a great night with nice burgers provided by Kristen and Hyun-joong, some music provided by Matt Amond, David (?) and myself, and great company provided by all who came. I was able to meet some of the latest newbie crowd to come to Korea and we were also graced with the pressence of Alex's mother.
Not even the rain bucketing down put a dampner on the event.
In fact it helped provide some entertainment later in the evening...
You go girls!
Yet another great weekend in Korea.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wandoville....
So I've just moved to Wando. Island of Jung Bo Go the Emperor of the sea, place of great beaches and lots of fish!
It's been a hectic week. I had a crazy Friday, finishing at my old school with a picnic day. It was a great way to end my year at Yeongsanpo. I got to hang out with the kids outside the classroom and have some fun with them. I'm really going to miss those kids. They were wonderful!
After school finished, I went out to dinner with my workshop teachers and then on to a bar to meet the newbies. Not that many of then were new. Half of the teachers there were people who've lived in Korea before and are returning for another stint. Got home about 11pm and in bed by midnight.
Up early the next morning and went down to Wando with most of my gear. I basically dumped it in Nicola's / my apartment and went straight around to meet my new co-teachers. I can't believe how many young, english speaking teachers there are here. It's great! As long as the kids don't run rough-shod over me, I think I'll enjoy teaching here.
So from the school, I jumped in my car and headed over to Mokpo for Carol's B'day party. (Photo's coming soon)
It started as a BBQ in the park, then I headed over to a Tony and Miji's place to have a couple of drinks and get ready for the 80's party. I've gotta say, those pair are CRAZY... but in a good way.
:)
On to P-Club and the night finished at a rather late hour.
Up again early the next day and I did a mad dash back to Wando (about 1.5 hours), picked up Chad and Nicola and drove up to Yeongsanpo (2 hours) to pick up my motorbike. Then I rode the bike and Chad drove back down to Wando (2 hours).
Five and a half hours driving and little sleep is wearing this guy down a bit.
Next morning I turned up at my new school and started teaching straight away, finishing mid afternoon and jumping back on my bike to do the round trip to Wando again, for some administrative stuff.
I think if things remain this hectic for long, I'm gonna have to clone myself to get everything done!
(Oh yeah, I don't have internet at home yet, so blogs might be updated a little less often, till I do. )
So I've just moved to Wando. Island of Jung Bo Go the Emperor of the sea, place of great beaches and lots of fish!
It's been a hectic week. I had a crazy Friday, finishing at my old school with a picnic day. It was a great way to end my year at Yeongsanpo. I got to hang out with the kids outside the classroom and have some fun with them. I'm really going to miss those kids. They were wonderful!
After school finished, I went out to dinner with my workshop teachers and then on to a bar to meet the newbies. Not that many of then were new. Half of the teachers there were people who've lived in Korea before and are returning for another stint. Got home about 11pm and in bed by midnight.
Up early the next morning and went down to Wando with most of my gear. I basically dumped it in Nicola's / my apartment and went straight around to meet my new co-teachers. I can't believe how many young, english speaking teachers there are here. It's great! As long as the kids don't run rough-shod over me, I think I'll enjoy teaching here.
So from the school, I jumped in my car and headed over to Mokpo for Carol's B'day party. (Photo's coming soon)
It started as a BBQ in the park, then I headed over to a Tony and Miji's place to have a couple of drinks and get ready for the 80's party. I've gotta say, those pair are CRAZY... but in a good way.
:)
On to P-Club and the night finished at a rather late hour.
Up again early the next day and I did a mad dash back to Wando (about 1.5 hours), picked up Chad and Nicola and drove up to Yeongsanpo (2 hours) to pick up my motorbike. Then I rode the bike and Chad drove back down to Wando (2 hours).
Five and a half hours driving and little sleep is wearing this guy down a bit.
Next morning I turned up at my new school and started teaching straight away, finishing mid afternoon and jumping back on my bike to do the round trip to Wando again, for some administrative stuff.
I think if things remain this hectic for long, I'm gonna have to clone myself to get everything done!
(Oh yeah, I don't have internet at home yet, so blogs might be updated a little less often, till I do. )
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Now where are these toilets when you're in a small town in the middle of Korea?
Toto has been a pioneer in high-tech toilets fitted with pressurized water sprayers...
The popular Z series features a pulsating massage spray, a power dryer, built-in-the-bowl deodorizing filter, the "Tornado Wash" flush and a lid that opens and closes automatically. Prices range from $1,680 to $2,600).
(Thanks Monique for the article with this in it... worth a read: Beware the toilet :)Monday, April 09, 2007
Wow. What a weekend!
For the first time in many months, I actually spent Friday at home this weekend. It was nice just to sit back and chill and then sleep in the next morning. On Saturday, I got up, did some cleaning and went down to give Billie her first wash. There's something very relaxing about washing a vehicle in the warm sun. It makes me feel very content.
After this very domestic morning, my weekend got on track to its usual fun and games. I jumped on my bike and went for a slow ride, meandering my way in the general direction of Gwangju. Of course, now that my bike was nice and clean, I just had to find the only road in all of Korea that was washed out with mud!
I was looking for the perfect place for my PhotoChallenge picture, but it didn't present itself. The ride however was great. Following cherry blossom lined roads, beside streams and through fields. It really was the perfect day for being on my bike.
I finally got to the G by about 2:00pm and met up with my friends Carol and Mel. We went to the wonderful department store called Kumho World and Carol made Mel and myself extremely jealous by buying a brand new Nikon SLR digital camera. (WANT ONE!!!)
After this bit of fun, we headed into town and had a nice dinner followed by a stint at Speakeasy. It was a very quiet night, but still fun to hang out with friends. Unfortunately one of our friends, Lana wasn't feeling so well. I get the feeling she and her boyfriend are allergic to me or something... cause every time we plan to meet up, one or both of them get sick.
The next day, we had a nice relaxed day in town, then in the afternoon, we went to a beautiful park in the middle of town. Matt has made friends with some locals and is allowed to use this amazing, multi-storied pagoda building to host music nights and get togethers. We had a pot-luck lunch here and admired the amazing views from this hilltop building. Then after lunch, Matt and I played a few tunes on the guitars and Bryce joined in on the drums. For never having played practised together, I don't think we sounded too bad.
Following the late lunch, I jumped back on Billie and rode down to Mokpo. This time it was to meet up with my new friend Miji and to meet her Aussie boyfriend Tony. Unfortunately they weren't feeling so well either. I get the feeling something is going around. They went home fairly early, but that was ok, as I found out I had another friend who was sick and in hospital in Mokpo. Chad, one of the greatest guys in Korea, had caught pnumonia and has been admitted to hospital for a six day stint while he recovers.
After a quick visit to make sure he wasn't about to keel over and cark it right there, I finally jumped on my bike and rode, in the rather chilly night air, back to my apartment and a nice warm bed.
(PS... I'm crap... wrote this on Monday and forgot to post it. Was gonna do it when I had the photos uploaded. That can come later.)
For the first time in many months, I actually spent Friday at home this weekend. It was nice just to sit back and chill and then sleep in the next morning. On Saturday, I got up, did some cleaning and went down to give Billie her first wash. There's something very relaxing about washing a vehicle in the warm sun. It makes me feel very content.
After this very domestic morning, my weekend got on track to its usual fun and games. I jumped on my bike and went for a slow ride, meandering my way in the general direction of Gwangju. Of course, now that my bike was nice and clean, I just had to find the only road in all of Korea that was washed out with mud!
I was looking for the perfect place for my PhotoChallenge picture, but it didn't present itself. The ride however was great. Following cherry blossom lined roads, beside streams and through fields. It really was the perfect day for being on my bike.
I finally got to the G by about 2:00pm and met up with my friends Carol and Mel. We went to the wonderful department store called Kumho World and Carol made Mel and myself extremely jealous by buying a brand new Nikon SLR digital camera. (WANT ONE!!!)
After this bit of fun, we headed into town and had a nice dinner followed by a stint at Speakeasy. It was a very quiet night, but still fun to hang out with friends. Unfortunately one of our friends, Lana wasn't feeling so well. I get the feeling she and her boyfriend are allergic to me or something... cause every time we plan to meet up, one or both of them get sick.
The next day, we had a nice relaxed day in town, then in the afternoon, we went to a beautiful park in the middle of town. Matt has made friends with some locals and is allowed to use this amazing, multi-storied pagoda building to host music nights and get togethers. We had a pot-luck lunch here and admired the amazing views from this hilltop building. Then after lunch, Matt and I played a few tunes on the guitars and Bryce joined in on the drums. For never having played practised together, I don't think we sounded too bad.
Following the late lunch, I jumped back on Billie and rode down to Mokpo. This time it was to meet up with my new friend Miji and to meet her Aussie boyfriend Tony. Unfortunately they weren't feeling so well either. I get the feeling something is going around. They went home fairly early, but that was ok, as I found out I had another friend who was sick and in hospital in Mokpo. Chad, one of the greatest guys in Korea, had caught pnumonia and has been admitted to hospital for a six day stint while he recovers.
After a quick visit to make sure he wasn't about to keel over and cark it right there, I finally jumped on my bike and rode, in the rather chilly night air, back to my apartment and a nice warm bed.
(PS... I'm crap... wrote this on Monday and forgot to post it. Was gonna do it when I had the photos uploaded. That can come later.)
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Oops
Up until about an hour ago, there were three motorbikes over 600cc in Naju...
Now there are two.
This is how I first saw it after it had just gone whizzing by.
I arrived 2 minutes after it happened. Actually saw the bike go past at about 100km/hr. And he hit hard!
Front view. This is what hit the ground first.
From another angle.
Rear view. This is what hit the ground second.
Objects in the mirror probably really are A LOT CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR!
How to take home a bike that until a few minutes ago, was worth thousands of dollars and now might be worth thousands of won... if your lucky!
Apparently he was riding up the road when a lady decided to pull out of a driveway on the opposite side of the road and crossed straight in front of him, without looking to see if there was any traffic anywhere on the road. He had nowhere to go except down a 20 food embankment. He was sitting on his helmet on the side of the road when I arrived. He seemed ok except for the hole as round as a watch face in the side of his knee, and lots of bruises around the leg. He's gonna be sore tomorrow though.
PhotoChallengers, please check out the site for your first mini-task.
Up until about an hour ago, there were three motorbikes over 600cc in Naju...
Now there are two.
This is how I first saw it after it had just gone whizzing by.
I arrived 2 minutes after it happened. Actually saw the bike go past at about 100km/hr. And he hit hard!
Front view. This is what hit the ground first.
From another angle.
Rear view. This is what hit the ground second.
Objects in the mirror probably really are A LOT CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR!
How to take home a bike that until a few minutes ago, was worth thousands of dollars and now might be worth thousands of won... if your lucky!
Apparently he was riding up the road when a lady decided to pull out of a driveway on the opposite side of the road and crossed straight in front of him, without looking to see if there was any traffic anywhere on the road. He had nowhere to go except down a 20 food embankment. He was sitting on his helmet on the side of the road when I arrived. He seemed ok except for the hole as round as a watch face in the side of his knee, and lots of bruises around the leg. He's gonna be sore tomorrow though.
PhotoChallengers, please check out the site for your first mini-task.
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