Rubbernecking in South Korea

2007-07-12T04:38:00.000-03:00

Korea is very different in terms of liquor laws. For example, the picture. In Canada, the police would pick these guiys up right away, fine them, and send them home to get their balls busted by their wives for something they were going to do (and continue doing) anyways. In Korea, the gentlemen provide excellent photo opportunities without getting introuble with the law or getting it from the missus.

The Promised Land

2007-07-03T05:51:00.001-03:00

All you can eat meat and seafood... all you can drink beer, soju, whiskey, and vodka. Welcome to Carne Station.
Notice all the different food in the back. Yum.

Adam cannot help but gorge himself

As well as Kyle

The BBQ pit after the food. I don't know what the red thing is.

New York Fries... from Canada.

Gyeongbokgung (경복궁)

2007-05-28T02:18:00.001-03:00

The outside of the Castle. It was more like a compound than a castle, but this is a traditional Korean castle.

This place was like stepping back through time. This is the ground where soldiers would practice their martial arts in for generals just like in movies of the Forbidden City.

This type of chisel work was all over the place.

The rooves all over the country in the traditional style are pretty cool, but this was a cut above the rest.

Chimneys. I'm not sure as to their purpose, being outside buildings, or how they would be able to transfer heat inside, but they're cool looking. They line the compound.

It turns out what Ian MacIsaac has been saying all these years is correct. "Jonny, you're a rat." ... Zodiacally, of course.

This is the picture on the back of the 10 000 dollar bill in Korea. Its where the kings and queens used to sup with the special guests of the Joseon kingdom.

2007-05-28T02:14:00.001-03:00

fishing trip

2007-05-22T02:40:00.001-03:00

There are no pictures of any fish, because no one on the entire vessel caught anything. nyarr. not your regular fishing boat.
I have more pictures, but not on my camera. soontime.

I couldn't believe it either. Kyle was aboard a Tourst Cruse Ship. The Korean characters after the letters VIP make the sound "Ho."

there were advertisements for cell phones and other electronics on the unfinished bridge, of all places.

Noraebong on the boat.

here's a kid I was playing with. His parents were more scared than he was.

Korean War Museum

2007-05-14T01:59:00.000-03:00

This year for Mother's Day, I went to the War Museum. Korea is currently in one of its longest stretches without war on its own soil in its history. There has been an incredible amount of war here in the past few thousand years, usually through invasions by stronger countries, militarily and economically. It's amazing that the two Koreas are not part of either China or Japan at this point.

They consider the Korean war of 1950-1953 to be the big one of their history, most likely because its the closest of the most devastating ones in their memory. And there have been quite a few devastating ones... as far as the museum demonstrates. I felt that many displays were a tad nationalistic and propagandistic though, so the stories might be a little skewed, but that's all I'll say about that.
The statue of the two brothers. The older, stronger, victorious brother is from the South. The weaker younger, loser brother is from the North. Reunited on the battle field.

Canada's contribution to 1950-1953.

a few kiddie-poos playing on the monument. Grief and despair in behind their innocent faces. It was cool.

The main part of the monument in front of the Museum is a traditional Korean sword cut in half surrounding the "Tree of Life." It's rather large.

The building itself is also nice and big and good.

Seoul Tower overlooks the Museum. That's Christina's head I'm cutting off. I was trying to cut her out completely.

The countries that participated in 1950-1953.

The Canadian exhibit

A miniature figure of the Canadian Memorial Monument in Incheon

These are the collected dog tags of those that died in battle during the Korean War, shaped into a tear drop with the UN logo above.

Pictures from School

2007-05-11T02:39:00.000-03:00

I don't know how it worked out that these pictures are all jammed together like this. But we have various pictures of front desk staff and students. These are long overdue, but better late than never.

2007-05-06T11:37:00.000-03:00

There was this Russian guy, this Spanish guy and this Korean guy all in the same ESL class. The teacher told them to make a sentence using the word 'hostess' for homework.
So the next day the Russian guy goes "Oh I have a good sentence. The hostess was very courteous." And the teacher said "Wow that was really good!"
The Spanish guy goes, "Oh I have a better sentence. My mother is a good hostess when others come over." Then the teacher said, "Wow that was really good!"
Finally the Korean guy goes, "I have the best sentence. When my mother answers the phone, she says hostess?"

There was this Spanish guy, this Korean guy and this Russian guy all working for the same construction company. At the beginning of the day the boss comes out and says to the Spanish guy, "You're in charge of the cement."
Then he said to the Russian guy, "You're in charge of the dirt."
Then he said to the Korean guy, "You're in charge of the supplies."
Then he said, "I'm gonna be back at the end of the day to check on your work. It better be good or you're fired."
So they all go off to go get their work done.
At the end of the day, the boss comes back to check on their work. He looks at the big pile of cement and goes, "Good work," to the Spanish guy. Then he looks at the big pile of dirt and says, "Good work," to the Russian guy. Then he couldn't find the Korean guy so he asks, "Where the heck is the Korean guy??"
All of a sudden, the Korean guy jumps out from behind the big pile of dirt and yells, " SUPPLIES!"

A rabbi is sitting on an airplane next to a Korean guy. After they have been flying together in silence for a while, the rabbi leans over and says, "You know, I've never forgiven you Chinese for what you did at Pearl Harbor."
The Korean looks shocked and replies, "What the hell are you talking about?!?!? It was the Japanese the bombed Pearl Harbor, not the Chinese. And besides, I'm not Chinese or Japanese, I'm Korean!"
The rabbi says, " Korean, Japanese, Chinese, what's the difference?"
A little while later, the Korean man says, "You know, I've never forgiven you Jews for sinking the Titanic." The rabbi looks confused and mad and says, "What are you talking about? The Jews didn't have anything to do with that! An iceberg sank the Titanic!"
The Korean guy replies, "Iceberg, Goldberg, Greenberg, what's the difference?"

saturday in korea

2007-04-22T06:00:00.000-03:00

here's some recent captures. I have a problem with serious pictures

at the awesome pizzamore italian restuarant in insadong

a baby's first bday is a big deal in Korea much moreso than in Canada. everyone gets dressed up and goes for a huge meal on the parents' bankroll. I've been to two of these things in the past two weeks. Such a good time for the guests, likely a headache and a half for the parents. This was a colleague of mine, Michelle's, baby's first bday and they threw a hell of a party. Michelle, a colleague of mine, had a baby one year ago yesterday. This was his shaker. Here are so photos. Don't I look dashing? The Korean gal is Rachel, the American gal in behind us is Annabelle; both co workers of mine

it seems to me that the 'peace' sign has shown up in many pictures since I've arrived to Korea.

the Canadian gal in the rear is Christina, a chingu of mine. that green thing in front of us is a bottle of devil juice... delicious, delicious devil juice.

ill jong kim

2007-04-19T13:49:00.000-03:00

more glorious konglish

2007-04-19T13:38:00.000-03:00

Suicide

2007-04-19T05:28:00.000-03:00

I've been trying, off and on, for quite a bit of my stay here to find out information on the suicide problem gripping this country. I first heard about the seriousness of suicide in this country very early after my arrival here. It's always in the news, though in a language foreign to mine. Every other day, it seems, there is a funeral on TV, which I am later to find out at work from a colleague that it was a person who committed suicide. And not just any person, but a celebrity who has committed suicide, and is therefore being adorned the attention of the news media.

However, information of this kind is hard to come by, which is the reason for my long overdue thoughts on this topic. Its something that is just not to be talked about in Korean culture, much like the practice of eating dogs. Koreans are very conscious of their image in the international community, and don't appreciate criticism.

Whereas it is likely there are many studies in Korean being taken on this topic, there is not much in English, and so I cannot speak on this through the evidence I was looking for. It has been, however, a topic of great interest to me, so I would bring it up whenever I felt it was no longer an offensive thing to talk about when meeting a new person here. For some reason, this seems to be the best way of looking into the problem. And so this is information I've encountered from conversations with regular people in Korea, who are not experts in the field and who have likely not studied the suicide problem in their country. Rather, this is the general feeling of what's going on here, through the stuff these people may have read in the newspapers or have dealt with throughout their lives. So there may be some debatable information to follow here, but I'm not making it up, at any rate.

Suicide is a major problem in this country. There is a very high suicide rate. The celebrities that I mentioned earlier created a wave of suicides among the younger generations in this country. I read that it led to a myriad of websites promoting preferred methods of suicide. There has been either 5 or 6 Korean celebrities kill themselves just since I arrived here in November. And the kids around age 16-19, just before entrance to university, had a spike in their rate of suicide.

In Korea, a high school accepts students much like a university. Its based on grades and entrance exam scores. There is an entrance exam that the students study and study and study for. They cram as much as they can into their under-matured teenage brains. Because its just as important in Korea, what high school you attend as the university you attend. Many young students feel their academic lives may be over before they're finished high school as a result of not attending the right school. Many universities here only accept students from certain universities. As a result, right around the time of entrance exams, there is a wave of suicide and suicide attempts. There's another one corresponding to the time when the results of these exams are released. And yet another one when students find out what universities and high schools they've been admitted to. All in all, it seems students are at the highest risk to commit suicide in the country.

Korean parents seem to put an incredible amount of pressure on their children to become highly respected members of society. I teach at a private academy where students come to learn English after school. This is something that's added to their mandatory English classes they receive in school. I have to give them a arm full of homework because the academy demands it. The academy demands it because the parents demand it, and if you don't give it to them, they take their kid somewhere else that will, regardless of the quality of teaching. And its not just for English. Many students attend four or more of these after school and weekend academies outside their required schooling in many different disciplines. Many of them sound like fun, like TaeKwonDo, or piano, or art. But these things are not treating as hobbies, like they would be in other parts of the world. They're a class, just like English. Many kids once they hit about grade 3 or so, are doing school work most of the day. They're given about an hour or two a day to themselves to play soccer or computer games with their friends and devote the rest to studying.

Young girls have it even worse than the boys, as far as family pressure is concerned. It is custom in this country for an unmarried woman to live with her parents, even if she's 45 years of age. So parents of young girls spend a lot of dollars (specially when they're younger, because its cheaper the younger the student is) to make sure these girls have a lot of offer a husband in future years so that they aren't living at home for longer than they have to.

There's also a large number of Korean men who lose their desire to live for some reason, long after being students. Surely, there is a plethora of reasons as to why this is. Korea seems to be a much more depressed country than Canada, despite all the cool things I've said about the place so far (don't get me wrong, I'm having a blast here, but it seems like this is not always the case for those who've lived here their entire lives). I can marginally understand this notion. Korea is quite drab as far as everyday architecture is concerned. For example, it seems that there is only about 4 designs of apartment buildings across the country, and one of these designs is far and away the most popular. You can actually tell where the major residential districts are, because there are sometimes twelve or so of this same style of building clumped together. Aesthetically speaking, this feature of Korea is an incredible eyesore. Another example are the automobiles and subways. Korea only has 3 car makers, I believe, and two of them are using very similar designs, as they employ the same engineers and are owned by the same family (Hyundai, Kia). Subways are very similar across the country as well, no matter how far away from the central Seoul system you are.

A man who works for the subway told me that an average of 4 people per month kill themselves at his particular station. That's one station out of hundreds.

Many children who will be studying for these exams in the coming year attend my academy. Their exams this year aren't as important, but they still study like mad for them. This is their last year at my academy. Once they reach the next year, they're too old for ECC and often go to another English academy. Either way, its depressing to know that they're entering a dangerous time in their lives to be at such a high risk of something like this.

the boys

2007-04-15T11:56:00.000-03:00

found this at a spraypainting festival in hongdae.

New from The Prison Museum

2007-04-03T01:30:00.000-03:00

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but there's a memorial outside that depicts some of what we saw inside. 'Twas quite impressive. And much of it was chilling. The Japanese built the prison back in the days before WWII, and occupied Korea for quite some time, brutalizing, pillaging, and raping, as they saw fit, which feeds a contemporary hatred of all things Japanese in this country. Click on the photos to make them bigger and check out the detail.

The Hosebag

2007-03-26T02:42:00.000-03:00

Here's that miscreant mutt that's always following me around as of late. Hoser,Hosehound, or The Hosebag. El Hoserino if you aren't into the whole brevity thing.

This can't be good

2007-03-11T13:42:00.000-03:00

I'm still alive

pic from leanne's going away party

2007-03-06T03:42:00.000-04:00

b: me, britney, sally, alan. f: rachel

The Big L

2007-03-06T01:45:00.000-04:00

"Were you listening to the story, Donny?"

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/b/big-lebowski-script-screenplay.html

Konglishee

2007-02-28T00:23:00.000-04:00

Konglish is the dialect many Koreans adopt in their efforts to become English. In my conversations about Konglish with other foreign teachers, we realized one important thing. The majority of the world's money is controlled by native English speakers. The combined total of native English speaking countries is more than 350 million people. It seems like the rest of the world tries to speak it as best they can.

Korea is no different. Unfortunately, Koreans have an inept desire to be Western. For about the last forty years or so, there is a major wave of discontent with their own culture. They want to be English and feel inadequate about not being English. As a result, English is a multi-million industry.

As a casual observer of the Korean language, I have sympathy with the problems Koreans have learning English because the syntax is completely different. My limited Korean vocaublary, in addition to my innate attachment to English syntax, provides many laughs to Koreans. However, I think I may laugh at them more than they laugh at me, because hilarious Konglish is everywhere and they don't realize it's funny.

All over, Konglish phrases abound, so that Koreans seem more worldly, mainly to other Koreans, rather than people from other parts of the world. There are so many quasi-English advertisements on buildings, it makes my head spin. It also adds to the confusion of not understanding anything around you because of the language barrier that already exists.

The most common phrase seems to be "hwighting," or, if the sayer can pronounce the /f/ sound, "fighting." This is used by everyone istead of something like "come on!" or"go for it!"

There are also many paragraph length signs in the club districts that read rather hilariously, which I usually stumble upon when slightly inebriated. Then, upon reading the terribly incorrect translation of something likely quite eloquent in Korean, I feel much more intoxicated as a result of being completely bedazzled by what just came before my eyes.

There are several ways this sort of thing arises. People will use the first word in a dictionary rather than the correct word, such as a description commonly found on Korean jeans: "the energy of denim!"

There is also the ones that know the English word through speech, but do not know how to spell the word. These tend to be the most common, and very often quite funny. Such as the /p/ vs. /b/ sound that goes unoticed by English speaking Koreans. A seafood menu I came across once read: "Spaghetti with crap cream sauce. Sounds delicious!" Or the "Crapino" coffee shop There is also the lack of differentiation between the /r/ and /l/ sounds. There is a pretty funny advertisement for "Cigalettes" near city hall that I'm usually tickled by because of the mispelling on such an expensive looking sign.

Then there are the simply clever. There's a restaurant called "Born to Be Chicken" that I'm fond of. And Western style knock-offs like "Foot Rocker."

Here's a few more I'm fond of:

-handepone (cell phone)
-pee shee (computer)
-free size (one size fits all)
-Englishee, Konglishee (they seem to be unable to make consonant sounds without a complete vowel sound attached, so a long /e/ sound is attached to many words. "English" becomes "Englishee," "change" becomes "changey," and so on.
-dejior (desire) -- there is no /z/ sound, so they substitute with a /j/. I first came across this ditty at a Korean bar where a band covered nothing but English songs... "I have only-a one-a burning dejior... let me stand next-a to your-a fire-ey"
-"on sale please give me" (let's barter a bit here)
-"Live and Hof" -bars advertising in two languages.. they must be great! I don't know why they use live, but the german does work well.
- and the kicker of them all: "Ma-guy-ba." "What is a Maguyba" you ask? that's the closest most koreans can come to saying the word "MacGyver." Yes, the TV show from the 80s and early 90s. And what does the Konglishized version of this popular television show mean in this country? why, none other than your everyday, trusty, reliable pocket knife. Maguyba = pocket knife. pure hilarity

An-yong,

"Let's having funny times tonight. Hwighting!"

the sounds of insomnia

2007-02-25T12:21:00.000-04:00

I'm looking for a little reader participation here on this post. Working in Korea can be difficult on one's sleep pattern, as a fairly standard teaching job at a private school begins at 3 in the afternoon. So I often find myself hanging around a PC bong trying to talk to people back home on the Internet and reading whatever interesting material I can get on the screen. I'm currently quite into one of my favorite albums, De-loused in the Comatorium by The Mars Volta. It's a mindbender of an album, if you're into that sort of thing. I have the last song on repeat right now and its keeping me awake. Here it is:

Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt

You must have been phlegmatic in stature

The gates of Thanos are a spread eagle wide

You let the shutters make sackcloth and ashes

Out of a blind mans picaresque heart

You take the veil

You'll take the dive

You take the veil

It's not over till the tremulant sings

These ides of march

Are they so make believe?

How tempts the revenant

Slice up and not across

You take the veil

You'll take the dive

You take the veil

A mass of gallon sloth

As flies have walls for feet

A rapturous verbatim

-someone said but who is to know

And when you find the fringe

The one last hit that spent you

You'll find the ossuary spilling by the day

The iconoclastic had it coming for years

They know the prisons that you have yet to fear

Where thumbs hide inside of sleepingbag mouths

Ad lib your memoires by casting a drought

You take the veil

You'll take the dive

You take the veil

A mass of gallon sloth

As flies have walls for feet

A rapturous verbatim

-someone said but who is to know

And when you find the fringe

The one last hit that spent you

You'll find the ossuary spilling by the day

Knife me in -hobbling

Talking in it's sleep again

Knife me in-hobbling

Talking in it's sleep again

The one last hit that spent you

And you will find

The greatest fucking lie

Of aneurysm vespers

The ones that pile

Up the greatest fucking lies

Knife me in -hobbling

Talking in it's sleep again

Knife me in -hobbling

Talking in It's sleep again

Virulent hives- of bedpost piles

Virulent hives

Who brought me here?

Forsaken, depraved and wrought with fear

Who turned it off?

The last thing I remember now

Who brought me here?

Forsaken, depraved and wrought with fear

Who turned it off?

The last thing I remember now

Who brought me here?

An absolutely brilliant song in my mind. Very dark and depressing though, eh?

We all have our sleepless nights for whatever reason, and the soundtrack of such nights make one compelling album. My musical taste shifts, depending on the mood I'm in, which is surely similar to many people. So what keeps you up at night?

2007-02-22T01:10:00.000-04:00

steph and I went to a museum of modern art. they only let me take a picture of one thing and it was the tv tower shown below. 50 feet tall, over 20 000 tvs. all of them playing dribble. I think it's meant to show that tv has kind of taken over our lives in a way... but I can't really remember. years of watching tv have left me with only a few second memory. Hey, what are we laughing at? That puppy has a poofy tail!

here's the spam. tis a delicacy here. "Nyarr... I got nothing against ya Spammy, but I hear 'dere be gold inside yer belly"

Be patient. I'm working on the tidbit about konglish, and it should be quite funny to anyone at all experienced in this delicate dialect. should be funny tho others as well. I'll tell y'all about the surprising suicide rates in this country after that and try to explain possible reasons from an outsiders point of view.

solnal

2007-02-16T04:18:00.000-04:00

this weekend is korean new year. solnal. 5 days off work. uh thank you.

its a major gift giving ceremony. mr wu gave everyone on his staff a korean delicacy... spam. that's right, spam. a good 10 tins of the stuff and a spam satchel to carry it all in. they're like 60 bucks each for all that spam here. he was shocked when I told him how much the stuff goes for back home.

hilarious pictures of the spam and the little spam men I created to follow.

lack of blog participation

2007-02-14T11:40:00.000-04:00

my fault, my fault.

I haven't been keeping up my end of the blog here other than the pictures. it seems like every time I have a chance to write a blog article, I'm pressed for time and the pressure makes the ideas about what I want to write about slip my mind...

So I made a list:
- suicide in korea
- dogs
- racism
- plastic surgery
- the actual obsession with the west
- the language barrier
- weather
- the korean family
- hockey
- bagpipes
- teaching

I know I've already touched on several of these topics in previous posts, but stay tuned to more in depth comments on all of them in the coming weeks.

new new years pics

2007-02-10T02:14:00.000-04:00

courtesy of bradstronach.com

three of the boys in mokpo. twas a good reunion indeed. jonny, jordan, stronach.
we are celebrities. they just wanna have their pictures taken with us.
stfx crew. jonny, jordan, stronach, varlo, kelli, heather
noraebong... korea is full of these personalized kareoke rooms. they're not only hilarious, but fun as well.

xaverian article

2007-02-05T01:18:00.000-04:00

Xaverian article. (http://theu.ca/comm/xw/ pg 11)

Thinking about working overseas?

When I graduated last year, it seems like my fellow grads were doing one of four things: a) getting a job; b) going back to school; c) traveling; or d) nothing. I would recommend staying away from the latter, but the first three seem quite popular and productive.
I, being the adventurous type, decided traveling was the best option. Money and school can wait. Likely choices for traveling were backpacking through Europe, driving across America, humanitarianism in Africa, or setting up shop in Australia or New Zealand. And then there’s also the choice of combining traveling and getting a job in another option that is becoming more and more popular: teaching overseas.
There are many non-English speaking countries with ESL (English as a Second Language) schools looking to hire Canadian graduates at just about any month of the year. Considering the cost of living in many of these countries, the pay is quite good. When choosing a country, it really depends on what you’re looking for: South Korea pays much better than the other countries in the region, but Thailand is tropical. There’s also many countries in between that provide a myriad of cultural opportunities. Perhaps you are completely intrigued by the Chinese culture, for instance. Then the best place to find a job would obviously be China. The best place to find job postings, information, and links to such jobs is Dave’s ESL Café, which is updated regularly (www.eslcafe.com).
I picked South Korea. The extra money pays the bills that come with a student loan and its somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit since my grandfather took part in the Korean War.

Finding a job
There are many things to consider when looking for a job overseas, whatever it may be. Labor laws are different everywhere in the world and you are used to the ones in North America. Therefore, DO YOUR RESEARCH. Whenever you decide you want to leave the country for an extended period of time, there will be horror story after horror story coming your way from every relative and friend who knows someone from somewhere who’s done the same thing you want to do and got burned. When it was my time, all of a sudden everyone I knew was an overnight expert on everything there was to know about teaching English in Korea, and knew a ton of people who were either in Korean jail or miserable in a faraway place or whatever. And no doubt, these stories are all true. There are many foreigners in Korean jail and many people who come here and have a terrible time. They are the ones who did not research what they were getting themselves into. Do not accept a job on a whim in a foreign country.
Korea is pushing really hard to become westernized, and so laws here are actually quite similar to the West, The major differences are in customs though. This makes things a lot worse for Koreans working in Korea than for Westerners working in Korea, as wayguks (“foreigners” in Korean) are not expected to know these customs and do not comply to the ones we do not wish to comply to. However, these customs are quite apparent and fairly harsh. For example, for a Korean, your boss owns you. You are his property and you will do whatever it is he tells you. Until he is no longer you boss, anything you create belongs to him. Most bosses are quite lenient with this practice, especially the ones hiring foreigners, but it does exist. There’s also some pleasant customs. For example, it is expected that a boss takes his staff out for dinner and drinks around once a month. As you may have already assumed, I do not comply with the first of these customs, but comply unreservedly with the second. Gambae! (“Cheers!” in Korean).
Be sure to tinker with your C.V. when applying to a teaching job overseas. Break the standard format and go into paragraphed detail if you have any experience working with children or with teaching. Korean employers may have reservations about your time with children otherwise, so highlight your experience.
You also have to send a photo. This may seem a little strange, but it’s a standard practice with ESL jobs. Koreans take appearance much more serious than Canadians do, so send a nice photo, like your grad photo. Don’t send the photo of you shot-gunning in your Halloween costume on Braemore St.
When you get to the phone interview, be as jovial as possible. Almost every student will have a Korean teacher who speaks a bit of English who is handing out assignment after assignment. Schools hire foreign teachers to be fun with the kids. Having foreign teachers on staff makes the schools appear more respectable in the eyes of parents when choosing a school. Your employer wants you to make learning English fun so the students stay at the school, rather than going somewhere else. So if you appear to be a person who won’t have fun with the kids, you won’t get the job.
You will also need to show a high interest level. You should be asking questions about all parts of life in the country, as you will be uprooting. Ask about your living quarters, distance to work, about your coworkers, size of the school, age of children, wages, proximity to subway/major city, etc. You will likely be interviewed by a Korean, so try to talk to a foreign teacher who is not responsible for hiring you after the interview part. This way you can speak to someone without any language problems and speak in a down-to-earth manner about the place.
The most important advice I can give about finding an overseas job: don’t trust anybody. If something seems off, back away from the deal. Koreans feel uncomfortable talking about business. They want to get it out of the way as soon as possible. So they want you to sign right away. The schools in Korea that hire Canadians right out of university, ninety-nine percent of the time, are private schools, and their first intension is making money, education is second. For the most part, the schools treat foreigners very well, but are still very different than dealing with a school that puts education first. The schools in Korea that have education in mind first are the public schools that are free to attend, but the generally don’t hire foreigners with zero teaching experience.
There’s also the issue of recruiters. These folks are usually of the scum-of-the-earth variety who will do anything to make a buck. They are not taking your interests to heart. There are a few goods one out there though. Try and find a Canadian recruiter, perhaps even my pal Kristopher: http://www.asia-pacific-connections.com. He’s a trustworthy guy in a line of work that doesn’t have many of them. Despite their nature, recruiters are the ones who will get you job interviews though, so you be nice to them. There’s also the possibility of applying directly to a school through a classifieds ad on Dave’s ESL Café that I mentioned earlier. I got my job by applying directly and it worked out great: no middle man.

Life in Korea:
Information is available all over the place about Korea. Check out Wikipedia or one of the websites above to find out things about climate, food, history, and such. I’ll try and tell you stuff these websites won’t tell you though.
Korea is cheap, cheap, cheap! The cost of living is ridiculously low compared to home. For example, I eat out almost every meal because it costs the same as making your own food at home. Some of my coworkers go shopping seemingly every weekend and come home with a new wardrobe of clothes. A bottle of Soju (Korean liquor, which is a lot like moonshine, but not as strong) costs less than $2 at corner stores, and you can also buy these in bulk to save money if that price is too high for you. And things like this are the same price everywhere in Korea. Prices are standardized. There’s also no sales tax.
There are incredible shopping districts in Seoul. Huge underground malls that stretch farther than you can imagine, titanic outdoor markets selling everything you could ever dream of, from illegal DVDs to dogs to produce to knick knacks and everything else in between. It’s a lot of fun just walking around looking at these types of things because they seem so strange to me and other foreigners but just so natural to Koreans.
This country is a real mindjob. Many, many strangely curious things go on right in front of you all the time. Here’s just a few:

1. "Video killed the radio/outdoor/athletic star".... Video/Computer games rule all here. They have computer rooms here every block or so, which is like a school computer lab on steroids, and is designed specifically to play games. After consulting with classes, my suspicions were confirmed that they spend every minute of their free time here. This is a way of life over here. There are 3 channels on normal cable dedicated to 24 hour coverage of video game tournaments and leagues. The really good gamers are celebrities here, with their own magazine covers and security details.

2. Made to order doesn’t exist. If you order a meal without something, or want something added, you will deal with the most dumbfounded looks you've ever seen. It is actually impossible to get any ingredient or garnish removed or added to a dish. The simple task of not putting it in as you make it cannot be explained regardless of what language you use.

3. Money and age. A middle aged business man that bumps you out of the way as he steps in line to pay for his butter probably didn't even see you. If you’re not rich or old he gets to go first. There are numerous extra tenses in the Korean language geared around talking to people in a different notch of the social hierarchy. An older man will toss a younger police officer to the ground for being disrespectful, and there isn't really anything the cop will do. I've seen it. If two young friends are a few months apart in age, the older person decides what they will do, what they will eat, who can say what, and pretty much runs the whole show. The young person also has to speak with special polite words and gestures.

4. Clothing. Korean women are out of their minds. Its -6 outside right now, and the girls around me are all wearing huge winter coats, hats, mitts, boots, and a tiny mini skirt..... Also, the skirts are about the size of your average piece of kleenex, and don’t exactly cover the important stuff, but to show your shoulders or upper back in public is blasphemy.

5. Gender roles and marriage. Women are extremely subservient here. As late as the 70's it was still arranged marriages. The man was the sole provider and the woman was the housewife and servant. There was very little marital crossover between the social classes, since the marriage was decided in childhood by the parents. This is still unofficially the way it works here. Many matches are made through business partners or the like, and one of the early questions a Korean girl will ask is what your father does. If you're not married, you're living at home and disgracing your family by not being married. My coworkers are mostly around age 30. The unmarried ones live at home, and usually have 12 oclock curfews.

6. Seasons. At midnight on September 23, summer is over, and fall begins. A friend of mine walked out of his apartment one day in September to a 30 degree breeze in a T-shirt. He quickly noticed that everyone was wearing sweaters and pants. He got to work and found the same was true with the kids and teachers. He was told that summer was now over, and it was fall. A few days later he and some others went to the beach, which was deserted except for a few fully clothed people (including high heals in the sand) walking along the beach. We were the only people in the water, or even with a shirt off. Because, although it would have been impossible to find a 6 foot piece of beach to yourself four days earlier, summer was now over, and only lunatics go to the beach in the fall.

7. Mad about Cell phones. There are more cell phone subscriptions than there are people over the age of 9 in this country. I saw one gal today on the subway with two brand new phones. And they're playing with them constantly. When I take a cell phone away from a student in class, it’s like I just removed one of their limbs. When the plane landed and the pilot said that people can turn their phones back on, everyone was on the phone. Before I got my cell phone, I'd meet people and they'd want my number, at which time I would have to explain I didn't have one. Treat yourself to telling a Korean that you don't have a cell phone. What happens next is nothing short of hilarious.

8. The Land of the Morning Calm. Nothing is open until about 10 or so in the morning, which makes breakfast quite difficult. Breakfast is also difficult due to the fact that Koreans don't eat the same type of breakfast us Canadians eat. They eat the same type of food at each meal. So things are incredibly spicy at every meal. The food is delicious though. But the coffee is terrible. There's no Timmy's.

9. There is no crime here. Once I saw a delivery guy get hit by a car and someone picked his food and ran off with it. But no one said anything to him about it. That's because he was delivering the food for his fallen comrade. In the market districts, when its time to close up, they simply pull a tarp down over their booth and leave. Their merchandise is unguarded; because they know no one will steal anything and it's less work that moving everything. It's a very good thing, but it's quite penoptical.

10. FANDEATH. There are many scientific discrepancies between here and the west. For example... People here won't drink anything when they eat, since it dilutes their stomach acids and prevents them from digesting their food. Names cannot be written in red or that person will die. When I got here I noticed that my fan had a timer on it, and then that ALL fans had timers on them. Why you ask? It is a "scientific fact" that a fan left on in a room with the windows and doors closed will kill the occupants of the room by hypothermia or lack of oxygen. How they figure that a fan blowing air around actually cools the air, or takes the friggin oxygen out of the room I don’t know, but several cases of fandeath are always reported on the news, and confirmed by scientists. They don’t seem to know or care that this lethal killer strikes absolutely nowhere but Korea. Many arguments have occurred between the Koreans and foreigners about this, with one side telling the story about their roommate who passed out in a snow bank in his boxers in college, and didn’t succumb to hypothermia, and the other talking about their sister's boyfriend's mother's friend's father, who happened to pass away with a fan running the room, confirming that the dreaded FANDEATH is real. BE VERY AFRAID!!!!

Many things do not apply in Korea. But a lot of stuff is similar. You should not fry bacon, or Vienna sausage, without a shirt on. And Koreans would much prefer the sausage. Green still means go, red means stop... Though there's a weird green/red combination light that also means stop. But drivers don't worry about traffic lights anyhow. Bus drivers and taxi drivers run reds like it’s their job.

All in all, it is a very cool place to be. There's fun around every corner. More and more foreigners are coming here every year making things easier and easier for the city's English speaking population. It's a great way to learn a new culture and make some easy bankroll after graduating.

Jonathan Grady
http://rubbernecker-in-soko.blogspot.com/

2007-01-22T23:54:00.000-04:00

sorry I haven't posted lately. january is incredibly busy and I'll be back to my talkative (...typative?) self in february. here's a cartoon

2007-01-12T05:11:00.000-04:00

its crazy how fast you can learn a language when you are immersed in it. I mean, this is way more than any French immersion I recieved when I was younger. Today I was at the bank and had a conversation with a banker who didn't speak Korean and all I had to do was tell him to slow down. I couldn't believe myself. 'Tis an ugly sounding language, however. I'd much rather be learning one of those pretty languages like Italian or Spanish.

Things I miss, in no particular order:
-eavesdropping
-dentyne ice
-real peanut butter
-real butter
-real milk
-English signage (Ican't read Korean despite having been able to speak to the banker today)
-mcdonald's breakfast
-my books
-easily accessible personal computer
-changing my iPod
-Olands
-poker
-band practice
-north river road
-family and friends go without saying
-etc.

randoms

2007-01-05T05:04:00.000-04:00

a few photos from my time in seoul. I updated a lot of the other posts as well. ciao
snow in janggak
waBar
waBar
skating in the rink they want to have the olympics figure skating championship in 2014

soju tent bbq. that scruffy looking fella is varley

there's he again scruffing around with dawn and leanne

same party in ilsan

party in ilsan

TinPan.. a fun korean bar. cheap beer and tequila. not a lot of korean booze. good times

2007-01-02T23:37:00.000-04:00

january is intensive month. that means lots more work and less time to email folks and update blogs. I have to teach more classes every day so no breaks unfortunately. but I'll do what I can.

new years was grrrrreat. reunion in mokpo with a bunch of xaverians. black jack and noraebong. good times. and I was tackled... cut up my hand a little bit.... yup... tackled by a guard rail. here's some x alum and some other waygooks in mokpo.

2006-12-27T01:39:00.000-04:00

agh, back to work on boxing day. the kids don't even know what boxing day is. the ones who do decorate for christmas throw out their decorations rather than boxing them for the following year.

twas a good weekend with varlo tho. definetly a highlight of being here so far, despite the homesickness. probly spending new years with that creep as well.

korean christmas

2006-12-26T01:00:00.000-04:00

there's almost no ovens in korea. in fact, the group I teach with only knew of one that might be at our disposal, but alas, it was being used for christmas. as a result, we had to deep fried a 20 lbs turkey (an object that's terribly difficult to find in korea) in a garbage can (a new and clean one, but a garbage can nonetheless), in the parking lot (an act korean look down upon). it took only about 2 hours to cook. surprisingly, only one person got sick from this project.

obviously, every outdoor parking lot turkey frying extravaganza needs beer and machismo posing

koreans don't celebrate really. everything was open. it was just a regular monday here for the most part. we got together with all the english folk and had a secret santa day tho. twas fun.

merry christmas to all and to all a good night

pbf

2006-12-20T05:38:00.000-04:00

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

2006-12-19T23:21:00.000-04:00

These pictures are from Gwanghamun... a business and shoppinmg district in Seoul. I have more, but again, not on my cam. I'll get them soon.

Korean Mountain

2006-12-19T01:39:00.000-04:00

The boss got us up (the ones who volunteered to go on the trip anyhow) at about 9 on saturday morning to go hiking. Korea is called the "land of the morning calm" so getting up at 9 is not always the easiest thing to do. There's nothing open yet, and there's no real point in buying groceries, so I'm having a hard time getting breakfast on the go, but whatevs. There's about ten of us (3 who speak english, and a couple more who speak enough to get by) pile onto the shortbus and drive for about an hour towards North Korea to mount Manni, which is just on the border of the DMZ.

There is sort of two spiritualities in Korea. One is whatever religious beliefs one may choose, usually Buddhist or Christian, and the other is to Korea. They look at their nationality in a very spiritual way. Ands this mountain is the center of that faith. I'm not sure of the names, and this is certainly a crude version of the myth, but essentially they believe a great man back in the day made love to a bear disguised as a woman and their children became the first Korean people and it all happened on this mountain. He was also the Prometheus of the Korean peninsula, having brought fire to his people from the gods and was punished for it. Or something like that... I'll find out more correctly, but its close to that. It is a major attraction to them. There were thousands of people there over the weekend, and there are just as many people there every weekend.

Thousands of people hiking sounds like an oxymoron where I come from. Hiking is something thousands of people cannot do all at the same time in Canada. Not so here. They pave a path up to the top of the mountain so everyone can walk up to the top. That didn't stop everyone from dressing up in the best hiking gear they could find. There were many walking sticks and brand new hiking boots out there. There were even a few lads with coils of rope attached to their attire. It was comedy.

a little seoul

2006-12-15T00:26:00.000-04:00

the hammering man... this titanic sculpture stands five storeys tall and hammers away in Gwangwhamun. Very cool.

this gate was originally built to protect against tigers way back when seoul was really small. there are three more just like it and you can walk around them in about two hours. they used to border all of seoul. now they don't even border the neighborhood they're in.

I found this handsome belt in dondaemun. eeyarrr. tis a fine pantaloon holder, indeed

uncle kim

2006-12-15T00:18:00.000-04:00

bagpipes

2006-12-13T00:51:00.000-04:00

So I hadn't broke out the Hendersons since I've been here until today. I was playing small pipes and lots of chanter to pass the time, but I was a little worrisome about taking the big ones out in a new climate before oiling them really well. Not to mention its tough to find a place to practice where the population is so dense, and with such a small apartment, and any number of variables that would prevent me from playing in a foreign country with absolutely no interest in the Scottish performing arts. But today was the day. I oiled em up good for a few days, made sure the hemp was good on all the joints and headed er up to the roof of the building, as its a fairly nice day out there, similar to a September day on the island, at which time I certainly played quite a bit in the backyard.

And did they ever sound great. I was well out of shape, so I didn't play too long, which was probably nice for the 15,000 or so folks I was forcing a listen upon. But the reed sounding vibrant and was tuned really well; I didn't touch the tape at all. I knew the neighbors weren't going to say anything directly to me, as we speak little of the same language, but I thought the agecie (a man who runs something, whether its a building or restaurant or bus; as opposed to the female equivalent, "ajumma") might have something to say. But whenever I was finished and packed up, no one had come up to the roof or anything like that. I opened the door to go back to my place and get ready for work, and who was just inside the door but the agecie himself listening contently. I guess he didn't want to scare me or something, by coming out in the open and letting me know he was listening, but he left his post down on the ground floor and came up all the way to the roof to hang out behind the door. And he was a little embarrassed, as Koreans are prone to being in such a situation, and gave me a little bow for provided him with a few moments entertainment.

If the weather keeps up I'll be able to play outside for quite a while. Its so warm here all the time. Bonus!

2006-12-08T05:34:00.000-04:00

So I was just out having dinner, eh, and this lady comes into the restaurant with a two of her own pots. I was quite perplexed initially, but then realized that she wanted the cook to use her pots for her meal. She appeared to want to sit down and eat whatever the cook was about to prepare, since she took off her jacket and sat down (most in Korea will stand patiently by the door should they want take out). But no, she asked the cook to put their food in her pots so she could take them home and make it seem to her dinner guests that she had cooked the meal. The cook wrapped up the pots in saran wrap and everything when she was leaving. It was a first for me. I would assume a cook back home would be offended by such a gesture. But not here, I was told they'll even deliver your own cookware back to you if you want to drop them off, and as always, at no extra charge. You only pay for the thing you ordered and get all the extras, such as side dishes, drink, and delivery, for free.

krazy korea

2006-12-05T01:24:00.000-04:00

so I experienced my first Korean wedding the other day. it was nuts. weddings in this country usually take place in a Vegas style chapel. this one was no different. the chapel had about 10 weddings halls and was probably servicing upwards of 80 weddings that day. the reception was nothing more than a buffet meal that was used by each wedding taking place. most of the people invited to the wedding didn't even bother going to see the actual ceremony. rather, they simply stayed and ate the free food. The bride's parents, or whoever was paying for the wedding, mailed a meal ticket with the invitations and so you presented your wee meal slip and were able to have all the food and booze you wanted. As I said, most people didn't see the ceremony, and with good reason, as it only lasts about 10 or 15 minutes anyhow. and as soon as they're out of there, they clean the place up and have the next one. There is never really a time after the wedding to talk to either the bride or the groom. though you may get your picture with them beforehand. that's right, they're able to see one another in their tux and dress before the wedding takes place. it was wacky.

and another lovely feature of Korea... the bath houses. I went to a "ginjabong" last night for the first time. I'm sure they have these things in Canada, but not where I come from, and likely not like this. for 5 bucks, i was admitted to a 3 storey spa with hot tubs at 4 different temps, 7 saunas at different temps, a workout room, a place for haircuts, a restaurant, massage parlor, a sleeping room, a theater room, etc. it was gold. when you buy a pack of ten admissions, its only 3 bucks to get in. I think its so cheap because so many people do not have full bathrooms in their apartments, so just about everyone goes to a bath house regularly just for the grooming.

JAPANAMANIA

2006-11-28T08:37:00.000-04:00

Japanese Travel Journal
(thanks to Thea for the moleskine)

Nov 27
Off to Japan. This is my first time on Korean buses without someone guiding me. Luckily, the airport is an easy enough destination to find. It's the one at the end of the line with all the planes. The bus drivers in Korea are crazy. Dudes are always running reds. At least five of them on the way to the Airport.

The flight to Osaka brought a whole new meaning to the word "turbulent." It was delayed to begin with, and since I'm on a short leash as far as time goes once I get there, a delay stirs at my nerves before I'm even in the air. The flight was rocky right from the start, so the pilot was trying to find an altitude where we could fly smoothly . But there was no smooth flying to be found, so it was up and down and side to side the whole way.

The Osaka airport is about as bland as buildings get from an arrival standpoint. The Canadian ones on the way to Korea were quite nice, and Incheon airport in Seoul is spectacular. Kansai in Osaka on the other hand is uglier than Charlottetown and I don't know if anyone outside PEI even really considers that an airport.

Japan
--they're still farming. this is a picture from the train on the way to the Korean consulate where I'm to get my work visa.

It seems like the folks are packed in just as tight as in Korea (which is similar to the way sardines are packed into tin cans). Although there are many more houses here, compared to almost no houses in Seoul. But of course, there is still a great many apartment buildings. The Japanese are seemingly less concerned with their appearance than Koreans. Appearance is everything is Korea. As my pal Jeff says, in Korea "it's more important to have all the hiking gear and look like you're going to go than to go and hike without any of the gear." In Japan, they have their whites hanging off the patios of their flats to dry, which I've yet to see in Korea. And it does kind of give Osaka a sullied look as compared to Seoul. The Japanese are still much more concerned with appearance than Maritimes though. They're very concerned with fashion (just as in Korea), but it seems that Koreans care more about the appearance of everything rather than the personal appearance the Japanese take so seriously.

Edit:

Japanese Casinos are about as common as elbows and are almost completely slot machines. There are a few tables here and there, but no poker-- and so I don't sit down. I couldn't find any chips at the department store or games store either. I think its just totally frowned upon in this continent.
my lovely hotel room. That protrusion ciming out of the ceiling is a television.

Doug Boyd was right-- stay away from the Sake, Jonathan! I had a glass with my dinner after I checked into the cubby hold hotel and it was FUCKIN SICK (pardon my french, but I cannot overemphasize the sickness... I couldn't even finish it). The octopus pasta was very tasty, however. Good thing I learned how to use chopsticks in Korea, because pasta and no experience with the oversized toothpicks would mean a hungry night alone in a small hole.

This country is much more difficult than Korea, for me. The language barrier was never really a problem in Korea as I had learned some before I left Canada and obtained a phrase book for reference. Not to mention the wonderful guides who picked me up right from the airport. But I wasn't about to go out and buy a Japanese phrase book for a one-day trip. And the language barrier is rediculous as a result. There seems to be much more English speakers in Korea as well. The Korean script is much easier to understand. It is simple compared to the complexity of the Japanese script.

My hotel room is a closet. Not even a closet, its a tube about 4 feet off the ground you have to climb into. Cheap though-- I'm spending less on the room than I spent on a Jim Morrison tshirt I picked up. The chaps working at the front desk don't speak a word of English. And so I thought they were the perfect folks to use my limited, but valuable, Japanese language skills: "Domo Araigato, Mister Roboto."

Speaking of the Morrison shirt, there is some pretty bad ass stuff in this country. I'm staying in a fashion district of Osaka, which I have to assume is one of the main parts of the entire city, as there is a 6-lane one-way boulevard, the end of the train line is very near by, and a picture of the district is on a postcard I found. But I didn't have a chance to explore, so I cannot be sure.

About the size of a walk-in closet, this one store carried only Western popular music parefenalia, mostly tshirts. The owner of the store was one of the only fluid English speakers I came across, and in looking for directions around the city, I asked lots of folks.

The funny thing about no one speaking English is that the only music I heard playing out of shops as I waslked by was American or British Pop Music, and each store was blaring it. So they either had no idea what they ere listening to, or were all just lying to me about it. It was bad English music, too.

This British fella I met on the train from the airport to Namba Station and I had an Amazing race to the Korean consulate. We got in late because of the flight delay from Korea and then got on the wrong train from the Airport, so we were really hurting. There were two trains going to Namba Stn from the Airport: a speed train that would give us plenty of time, and a subwau type train that stopped at every station alond the way and took far too mucho minutos. Obviously, we took the slow one, otherwise the race would not have been amazing at all. The internet said the consulate closed at 4PM, meaning we had to book it once we got off this train. So off we went, following a fairly crude internet map and trying to find an English speaker with directions. It was much more complicated than it needed to be, as we walked right by it, but didn't care to noticeas we were on the wrong side of the busy 6-lane boulevard. When we doubled-back, still not knowing that we walked right by it, we took a wrong turn, and got lost. We finally found it by asking a ton of people. It was raining like mad, so the ink on that crude map ran, rendering it useless. We arrived at 10 to 4, but it actually closed at 430, so really we had time.

a lovely site to see. a little bit of back home in Osaka.

I'm big in Japan. Notice the leaves still on the trees. It was 25 degrees that day. Sorry Calgary.

Yaaarrr. There be a pirate ship in that land vessel, Yar
Sushi.... The sushi bar at in the Airport had some good jazz on the radio, so I hung around for a bit, finishing my beer and listening contently. An old man sits at the table across from me and keeps giving me the evil eye. Living in Korea I got used to this very quickly and realized that I was not eating according to a certain custom, whether it be leaving my utensils in my bowl or on my plate or not passing out the food to older people at the table or whatever. But here I was dining alone in a place with many foreigners for this chap to send distastful looks at. I guess in Japan, sitting at a table with no food is rude, because this is when I started noticing the looks, whenever I was finished eating and just sitting, drinking, and listening. He on the other hand, gluttonously ordered several courses one after the other, drank more than any man would need to drink before boarding a plane, smoke about seven cigarettes at the table when no one around him was smoking, and farted loudly numerous times throughout his meal. He also sweats profusely and wipes himself down every few minutes. I don't care much for Japanese eating customs, certainly not by this fella's example.

Here's another odd Japanese thing... I ordered a coffee and it was given to me ICE CU-HOLD! It was gross.

The inflight Budweiser, I'm sad to say (and I cannot stress my despair enough that I'm about to say what I'm about to say, so I won't even bother trying) is the best beer I've had since Canada. Sorry Olands.

(I just have another picture to upload and that's the end of my japanemia)

2006-11-24T05:11:00.000-04:00

there's a major public urination problem in the city because the majority of the country gets drunk after work. this one is from the elevator in my building.

2006-11-23T00:45:00.000-04:00

Korean kitkats: wafer on the outside, choco on the inside. keeps hands clean and tastes the same. they have a different name for it tho.

the neighborhood

2006-11-23T00:18:00.000-04:00

where i live

the local watering hole, located conveniently... only a 10 second walk from my front door. the waitresses know what we want by our hand motions... a small glass means soju, a big one means a monster beer.

the school, located conveniently... a twenty second walk from the WABar

what I eat... this is called pibimbap, served with kimchi and tchigae. The pibimbap is in the bowl, the other stuff is in the other dishes behind. It's a rice salad with a catch. In stead of dressing they use liquid fire-- rediculously spicy. I had to get some ice cream to douse the flames. Its very good tho. The same place, Kimbap Heaven, also makes this stuff called kimbap, which is a lot like the rolled kind of sushi, but it doesn't have to have any fish in it. That's the stuff I learned to use chopsticks with. very good.

2006-11-22T00:02:00.000-04:00

my apartment (very nice by korean standards...the korean standard is a closet, I believe)

i've gotten very good at the chopstick thing. there are no forks they use chopsticks for everything here. even cereal.

and for using spoons...

soju!! essentially, weakend moonshine. made the same way but only 30% in stead of however strong you can make it. that bottle was 8 bucks. it'll likely last a month

sorry I don't have more just yet... having trouble uploading. i can't read the korean computer prompts.

2006-11-17T23:24:00.000-04:00

well, I'm here.

this place is messed. its like this whole 'nother country. I already started yelling at kids. I bring my practice chanter to class and smack it on the table to quiet them down and play them a tune if they good. pictures to follow.

its finally happening

2006-11-09T21:58:00.000-04:00

so my passport got lost application got lost for a while and I lost my first job. so I'm still here. but they assure me it will be in my hands in soontime. I took a job at the ECC Gimpo. Gimpo is a burb of Seoul. so I'll be right in the thick of it. here's the school: http://www.ybmecc.com/kimpo. looks like a happening spot. I will begin documenting this endeavour of mine much closer as it unravels for anyone thinking of maybe attempting the same venture. so stay tuned.

about to set off

2006-10-17T18:36:00.000-03:00

of course i would have a hat line and half closed eyes in my visa application photo