My tastes in music are evolving. Being here and having been through English Camp where after class some girls would stay around and listen to music on the computer I got to here alot of heartthrob boy band stuff. I can say very easily that in America I hated boy bands, but I think Justin Timberlake is great. Maybe it's the SNL stuff and him not being to great to try and occasionally suck at acting but I find him and his music way more tolerable now than I did when he was in N'Sync or the other one. So anyway I was at an open mic night here with one of my fellow Okcheonian teachers who was playing and we were talking about the music scene here.
I don't know he mentioned how at a dinner with some of my co-teachers they talked about music and how it was for them in school or should I say University and the name Park Jin-Young came up. I was like "holy crap I know that guy" I knew him not as a singer but as a producer cause he does some of the bigger acts of Korea including one of the girls favorite groups, 2 P.M.. His entertainment company is actually called JYP Entertainment. He chooses the Western way of doing that and also goes by those initials as opposed to you know, PJY. I guess JYP flows better. Anyway apparenly this guy was a sex symbol back in the day. When he was in his mid to late 20's now he's 38 and still going and I'm listening to his music and other Korean things as well.
-I went to a Korean Punk concert a few weeks ago. Let's just say it was interesting. First thing it made me appriciate English language music. I may think it's trash but it's only cause I understand what they are saying. GRRRRR, If I would have stayed up front I would have know but I was a wuss on so many levels. This band was interesting though they used accordian and flute. I'd go again and I would stand near the front.
-Went to Seoul last week and saw an art exhibit of Andy Worhal's work and I don't mean to be an art critic or overly critical but a bit of the stuff there was like "C'mon, what were people doing back then? Oh, right lots of acid, lsd and pot, carry on then"
-We were supposed to go to the Kimchi Museum in Seoul but we were too late. It's on the south side of the city. So now I'm going to lead an expidition of at least 2 and probably more back to Seoul for the sole purpose of seeing the museum. I have some other plans after that but that weekend is oh, 6 weeks away. Why in Gods name would I plan something so far ahead you ask??? Am I a control freak?? Is there someone I'm trying to impress?? Do I have some sinister plan???? Yes. Yes. No. And mostly because for the next 5 weeks stuff is going on. Friday-Saturday I get to do something where I'm hanging out with Koreans, FINALLY. All it took was a church retreat and their desperation to have me do things. The next weekend might be spent skiing. Then the next weekend is Korean New Years and I might end up in Busan. Then I go on vacation and am gone for 2 Sundays then I get back work a week and WOOOO Kimchi Museum and more.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Ready for Vacation
So here I am. January 26 about 22 days from my vacation. Today I bought my ticket to Bangkok. But the actual vacation is in Cambodia cause I don't want to be some weirdo wandering around Thailand by myself. Also I don't want to think while I'm on vacation so I'm basically going to let others think for me. If I could just switch off my brain and sleep for 10 days I would but this seems like a good alternative.
I'm not sure of how the school calender works here so I don't know when Summer Break is but I do know that by taking vacation in February at the last possible moment I open myself up to a shorter second half of the year. My vacation will fall one day before exactly 6 months after departure from the States (if that makes sense). Other people were taking vacation in December which kind of blew my mind. The job can be rough but unless you were in some sort of hellish situation all you've been doin this winter is Winter Camp, which is funner than regular school in just about every situation, sitting at your desk 8 hours a day and surfing the internet or sitting in your apartment for 11 working days. It should be noted that those day aren'counting against the vacation if they let you have them and you can travel the country if you want to. Speaking of which I think I might have lost my co-teacher. I sent her a text with a question about my vacation and she hasn't responded which leads me to believe shes outta here. I probably should have asked her. Anyway I'm going to meet 3people in Siem Reap, Cambodia on like the 18th or 19th.
So since I've started why don't I just start from the "top". Feb. 17, I go to Incheon to catch a plane that leaves at 9:25pm. It should arrive in Bangkok at 1:20am. I'll stumble around the Bangkok airport for an hour or two then go to the train station to catch the 5:55am train to the Cambodian border. That arrives around 1pm and then I have to get a visa, if choose not to get the online one, and cross on foot or bus I'm not really sure. Either way cross take a taxi to the first town then take another taxi or a bus for a 3-5 hour bus ride to Siem Reap from there I pass out and stop thinking let the thinkers think and plan just follow.
Of course before any of this I have 2 weeks of school including the graduation of my 6th graders which will be a sad event. I will miss them alot.
I'm not sure of how the school calender works here so I don't know when Summer Break is but I do know that by taking vacation in February at the last possible moment I open myself up to a shorter second half of the year. My vacation will fall one day before exactly 6 months after departure from the States (if that makes sense). Other people were taking vacation in December which kind of blew my mind. The job can be rough but unless you were in some sort of hellish situation all you've been doin this winter is Winter Camp, which is funner than regular school in just about every situation, sitting at your desk 8 hours a day and surfing the internet or sitting in your apartment for 11 working days. It should be noted that those day aren'counting against the vacation if they let you have them and you can travel the country if you want to. Speaking of which I think I might have lost my co-teacher. I sent her a text with a question about my vacation and she hasn't responded which leads me to believe shes outta here. I probably should have asked her. Anyway I'm going to meet 3people in Siem Reap, Cambodia on like the 18th or 19th.
So since I've started why don't I just start from the "top". Feb. 17, I go to Incheon to catch a plane that leaves at 9:25pm. It should arrive in Bangkok at 1:20am. I'll stumble around the Bangkok airport for an hour or two then go to the train station to catch the 5:55am train to the Cambodian border. That arrives around 1pm and then I have to get a visa, if choose not to get the online one, and cross on foot or bus I'm not really sure. Either way cross take a taxi to the first town then take another taxi or a bus for a 3-5 hour bus ride to Siem Reap from there I pass out and stop thinking let the thinkers think and plan just follow.
Of course before any of this I have 2 weeks of school including the graduation of my 6th graders which will be a sad event. I will miss them alot.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Camp is done...
... and I am having a good time. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I'm not sure how I went this long, thought I had posted more recently but apparently not. I am in the middle of getting ready to buy my ticket to Thailand from where I will take a train and bus to Cambodia. Meet up with a couple people and kick around Cambodia for a week until it's time to head back.
Camp was fun here are some pictures. I got to meet and talk to many awesome kids, the best part I actually got to learn some of my sixth graders names and then I really got to learn some of my future kids names. The rising sixth graders are awesome.
This is outside on our soccer field. We are lucky to have what appears to be a new gym and very new-ish soccer field and track at the school. Several days we went outside and played "Pigu" which is Korean dodgeball. It's different from American dodgeball in that when you are hit you just go to the other side and throw at the other team from there back so basically it's more active. The 2 girls in the forground are 6th graders the boy they are taking aim at is a 4th grader.
This picture is interesting because I am a tourist attraction in it. It should be noted that I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 pictures from this 4 week event and I probably only took half of them. The kid were good and I think they did take some very nice pictures.
These 5th grade girls were particularly hard to crack. I'm not sure how they made it into my class, the top class in the cause they did almost nothing. I look forward to bribing them to be active with candy and punishment in the future.
No real point of this picture I just like this kids shirt.
This is from our cooking class day. I wanted to make rice krispie treats but my co-teacher told me she couldn't find marshmellows. Me and the other teachers went out and found them in a local grocery store. We ended up making cookies it was fun.
Anyway I've got one week to spend as little money as possible in an effort to save as much as possible so I can pay my bills and still run to Cambodia with $300 or so. I'll probably make it easily but it'll be nice to push myself this week. Also I should mention that I'm not actually going to work now, there is nothing for me to do and they said I can stay home until Feb 1 the only thing they said was I couldn't leave the country. Easy enough
Camp was fun here are some pictures. I got to meet and talk to many awesome kids, the best part I actually got to learn some of my sixth graders names and then I really got to learn some of my future kids names. The rising sixth graders are awesome.
This is outside on our soccer field. We are lucky to have what appears to be a new gym and very new-ish soccer field and track at the school. Several days we went outside and played "Pigu" which is Korean dodgeball. It's different from American dodgeball in that when you are hit you just go to the other side and throw at the other team from there back so basically it's more active. The 2 girls in the forground are 6th graders the boy they are taking aim at is a 4th grader.
This picture is interesting because I am a tourist attraction in it. It should be noted that I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 pictures from this 4 week event and I probably only took half of them. The kid were good and I think they did take some very nice pictures.
These 5th grade girls were particularly hard to crack. I'm not sure how they made it into my class, the top class in the cause they did almost nothing. I look forward to bribing them to be active with candy and punishment in the future.
No real point of this picture I just like this kids shirt.
This is from our cooking class day. I wanted to make rice krispie treats but my co-teacher told me she couldn't find marshmellows. Me and the other teachers went out and found them in a local grocery store. We ended up making cookies it was fun.
Anyway I've got one week to spend as little money as possible in an effort to save as much as possible so I can pay my bills and still run to Cambodia with $300 or so. I'll probably make it easily but it'll be nice to push myself this week. Also I should mention that I'm not actually going to work now, there is nothing for me to do and they said I can stay home until Feb 1 the only thing they said was I couldn't leave the country. Easy enough
Friday, January 1, 2010
Happy New Year!!
Happy New Year to you and yours! While many people went up to Seoul last night I went with the other locals to Daejeon to party with other locals. It was fun. So much fun that I took like 200 pictures. Too bad facebook is being kind of a dick and not letting me upload them except one at a time and it's taking forever. So we got back to Okcheon at apparently 5-5:30. Mind you that's not anything special here cause bars and clubs are always open and beers and soju is always flowing. Anyway I feel like crap I've been inside most of the day but I'm going back out in 2 hours because tomorrow is Saturday and we don't exactly get a bunch of 3 day weekends thrown at us so you gotta take advantage.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)