Who wants to be a millionaire ... in Korean won

Good Morning Vietnam!

I hope all is going well in America and I'm sure everyone's getting pumped to watch the Twins make their classic last minute run at the play offs.  I'm still saying that the last game at the dome will be game seven world series ... keep your fingers crossed.  Not a whole lot is new here.  My neighbor still thinks she's Celine Dion and sings at the top of her voice most days but at least I got Lauren here who will belt out "All My Life" at the top of her lungs until the chick takes a hint.  Always good for a laugh.  We went to the only dance club that lets white people in in Wonju and to be honest I wish they wouldn't have.  White people = creepy army guys and dance club = loud shitty music and a tiny dance floor.  It wasn't a total loss though because they did play "stanky leg" so I got my first opportunity to bust out my wicked dance moves.  I definitely had the stankiest leg there so that was nice.  I also got lost for the first time in Korea because I decided it was smart to try to walk home from the club.  An hour and a half later when I returned home I realized it wasn't.  

School remained typical this week except for the fact I got kicked in the shin by a little girl for giving a sticker to someone who evidently didn't deserve it.  Screw you Ashley, Silver deserved the sticker. 

Oh, we went bowling last weekend before the dance club and it was great.  It was really hard to describe my shoe size because it was in centimeters but they finally caught on to what "bigfoot" meant.  We played boys vs. girls and the boys had a very poor showing.  I won't say who won but the boys didn't not lose.   

I think we're going to try to hike a mountain this weekend and possibly make a trip to Seoul so hopefully I will have pictures and funny stories to post next week.  I miss all you crazy Americans and hope things are going swimmingly.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY KANE! I'm sorry I couldn't be there for it.

P.S.  I become a millionare (in won) tomorrow so if anyone wants a lil piece of that action you should start sucking up now.

Godlovesdeaftone

Not a whole lot has changed since my last post, however, last night Lauren and I went out for beer and chicken with friends which is always fun.  Within a minute of being there I knocked the glass holding the napkins onto the floor shattering it.  These things happen.  The food was fabulous as usual and it was even funnier when the waitress tried to talk us out of ordering buffalo wings because most Korean's don't finish the plate because it's too salty.  Little do they know that every restaurant table in the U.S. has a mandatory salt shaker to ensure our Sodium levels never drop below dangerously high.  The night ended with a three way cribbage match and squid jerky ... always a good time.  

Anyways, the real reason I posted tonight was because of the two ridiculous things I witnessed today.  First off, as I was killing time before school I did the most American thing I could think of ... sat on my ass and watched T.V.  The only show in English was VH1's "most fabulous life" and the topic was "celebrities families".  Please bear in mind Korea is probably 3 years behind in all American pop culture news so the episode I watched had Ashlee Simpson as the most promising celebrity family member.  I wish it was the early 90's so I would have had the chance to watch VH1 claim that Milly Vanilly would be the next big thing because that's the only analogy I can think of to describe that scenerio.  Thank God I have yet to see an SNL episode here because the Koreans would be crushed if they realized the next Simpson prodigy can't sing a note and even though her sister was the same way, doesn't have any sort of sex appeal to fall back on.  It's a tough world Ashlee but move to Korea and you can maybe pick up the "Pieces" of your career.

This was the first thing I witnessed today.  After coming home from work I drifted off to sleep while watching the Tommy Lee Jones smash hit "Volcano".  I awoke because though my T.V. was on, there was a much louder noise seeping its way into my room.  Naturally thinking a loud show had came on I looked at the T.V. only to realize it was an infomercial for some product I can't pronounce and this horrendous singing had to be coming from elsewhere.  I tracked the sound to my storage closet where the adjacent window had a woman sitting in front of a mirror singing her voice out.  I watched in bewilderment hoping I'd see another person emerge and laugh because this girl was trying to be such a comedian.  Unfortunately I had no such luck.  This girl was literally singing as loud as she could into the mirror with more passion then Rudy in the last minute of his feature film.  After a minute of confusion I decided the only way to send my life back into forward progress was to play Atmosphere as loud as possible hoping she would get the point.  Naturally I chose the song "Godlovesugly" (nothing against her ... well maybe her voice ... it's just my favorite song) and when the song had completed I looked outside and saw the window was shut and she was nowhere to be seen.  Only in Korea my friends, only in Korea.  I hope all is still going well and enjoy college football because pressing reload on ESPN.com doesn't compare to the real thing.

"Kindergarten Cop" is called "The Man Who Went to Kindergarten" in Korea

Oofta, I didn't realize it's been so long since my last post but I promise to get on a better schedule.  I can't say my life has been that hectic this last week but it's been an experience.  On Friday (the 28th) we had my welcoming dinner at my school.  I received a bouquet of flowers which made me feel like Ms. America (they forgot to give me a crown but that probably comes later in the mail or something).  After this, all of the teachers and I went out to dinner.  School dinners here differ greatly from any dinner I've previously had with co-workers in the sense that drinking is mandatory.  I'm not just saying that, you have a shot glass with your meal and it is constantly full of SoJu which luckily is starting to taste SoSo and I can tolerate it.  Most teachers were intimidated to talk to me at first but after a little liquid courage everyone wanted to test their English on me.  I received invitations to go rock climbing, play tennis, play billiards, and eat soup with various drunk teachers but when the morning came most were scared to talk to me again.  I'll just wait for the next school function for them to not be scared again.  

Unfortunately my co-teacher Heebok could not make it to the dinner but we did get to go out with a big group of TaLK scholars and their co-teachers on Monday.  Heebok and I finished our lesson planning early so we returned to my apartment to wait for dinner where we were pleasantly surprised by a legendary Arnold movie on.  In Korea they call it "The Man Who Went to Kindergarten" but we all know it as the one and only "Kindergarten Cop".  I have never seen someone become so engulfed in the plot as Heebok was.  We had to leave 20 minutes before the climactic ending and at one point during the night Heebok turned to me and said that he really wished he knew how that movie ended.  Looks like I know what he's getting in his stocking this Christmas.  I'm sure they sell that in a two pack with "Jingle all the Way" so it'll work out perfectly.  It was fun to see everyone and the night ended with Nareybong (I don't know how to spell it but it means Kareoke).  For the second time I felt compelled to rap "Forgot about Dre" just because I know all of Eminem's lines.  I don't do so well during Dre's parts.  Lauren and I also received a perfect score for our "Barbie Girl" duet which proves to all you haters that all the time we spent listening to that Aqua CD on cabin trips paid off.

I'm beginning to get a good feel for the layout of the city I'm living in.  There's a movie theater right down the street and a fire station which serves as a good landmark to tell taxi drivers to take me to.  Eventually they are going to think I either keep getting my cat stuck in a tree or have a fetish for little asian men in uniform.  Either way it belittles my manhood.  There's a nice outlet center near my place which has an English book store but I don't really trust their credentials.  They have a "speacial" way of spelling things and their. punction. isn't. always. the. best.  

I finally began teaching on Tuesday and I love it.  I teach a fourth, fifth, and sixth grade class and have around 30 students total.  The small classes are easy to control and my kids are much smarter than I thought.  I was dissapointed that most already had English names but there were some kids in my fourth grade class that got the pleasure of choosing from the list of my friends names.  Congrats Kevin, John, Dan, Tom, and Kane ... you all have a Korean prodigy.  Everyday I start my classes by showing them a clip from something from America.  So far the Anamaniac's nations song and Kermit the Frogs brilliant melody "rainbow connection" have made it here to Korea but I would love more suggestions.  I can't think of anything too comical that's happened in class but during passing time a little girl introduced herself to me and a student from my class (Steve) came up and told me not to talk to her because she is bad to which she raised her middle finger at him and yelled "Fuck you!" and started chasing him down the hall.  Good job little girl, you sure proved Steve wrong with your lady like behavior.  I need to prepare lesson plans for the week so I'm going to cut this short and I'll try to post again later this week but I end this post with my warmest wishes to all of you in America and a big salute to the red, white, and blue.