Mullets and Miniskirts

Oh yeah!

2008-10-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

이번 주 제 기쁜이 아주 좋아요. 미나랑 안 싸웠고 일 조금 밖에 없고 다음 주는 시험을 많이 있어서 과자 뇌물 많이 받아요. 당신은 캐나다 사람 아니면, 이 투표가 잘 모르겠어요. 어제 새로운 미국 토론 있었고 바보 늙은 아저씨 졌어요! 그래서 오늘 시간 있으때, 그냥 인터넷 보고 이것은 찾았어요!!!!!!!!!!!! 스테판은 아주 아주 아주 기뻐요!!!!!!

Hockey Time

2008-10-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

To take my mind off of how much I despise U.S. politics, I take this moment to revel in the fact that hockey season has once more arrived. I would like to remind all youngsters out there to KEEP YOUR HEAD UP WHEN GOING OVER THE BLUE LINE or else something like this might happen:

Grr...

2008-10-01T20:16:00.000-07:00

SARAH PALIN IS A FUCKING FUCKWIT!

Anyone who votes Republican this election deserves to be shot.

The last month

2008-08-21T20:42:00.000-07:00

Wow. It's been a pretty full month.

My flight got in on Friday afternoon, and after a few hours rest and cleaning of airplane grime off of myself, I headed to Seoul to play a gig at Woodstock. Our resident percussionist Mark wasn't so pleased to give up the reigns on the set, but, it's my band, so he just had to deal with it. Matt, the other original member of the band is back in Korea for six weeks, and he came up to do a few songs with us. It worked out really well, because he and Chris gelled really well with each other. Saturday was another big day, because I was supposed to go to a work meeting, but when you sleep until 7pm, you tend to miss a lot of stuff. At night, we had Kris and 혜경 (Hye Gyung)'s wedding party to play, which was really good because it was in Ansan, so I didn't have to schlep gear all over town. We played at GTR, which used to have the worst drum set ever made, but they made a huge upgrade with a plethora of cymbals and roto toms to play with. My only problem was deciding what to do with all of it.

The next day was Kris's wedding near the war memorial in Seoul. By near I mean "in the middle of". It was nice. Beautiful thoughts surrounded by death and destruction. I found it highly appropriate. I would have many more pictures, but my battery died as the ceremony started. In true traditional Korean wedding style (well, at least the two I've been to) it started pouring in the middle of he ceremony. This wasn't as bad as when Dan got manacled, because the workers had the sense to prop up the tents and eliminate the pools of water to stop them from collapsing.

After the weekend began three weeks of camp. I had to leave the house every day by 7:45am, and I would get home at 9pm. Apart from the hours, camp went great. Everything ran smoothly, my kids were awesome, and I just recycled all of my material from the last camp, so I didn't have much prep work to do. Camp is divided into three parts. The first week we prep for the song and chant contest on Friday. The kids are always homesick the first week, and there's a lot of spontaneous crying. That coupled with the fact that all of the kids have their cell phones taken away, they can't use computers, and can't watch TV makes for some tense moments. One of the older kids ran away one night and spent the night at his friend's house. I'm not sure how he accomplished that feat, because they take their money away from them on the first day as well. I did Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps which has been done by numerous people, but I chose the Cake version, and changed it to 몰라, 몰라, 몰라 (I don't know, I don't know, I don't know). My class (the Konglish Killers) worked really hard and did well in the competition, and ended up getting 3rd place. Unfortunately, so did two other classes, and I'm crap at rock, paper, scissors, so we didn't get a prize. My class was gutted, and there were many moist eyes as the teachers left to celebrate being done with the first week.

Week two was human bingo. The kids had gone to Everland (a theme park) on the weekend, so they were all pretty happy with camp by now. human bingo is just a glorified pub quiz, and for this week, we have to teach all of the other classes our material. I was in the younger kid half, so I had to teach the kids learning phonics as well as the better kids. I had a few moments where I almost lost it on them. For the youngest classes, I was having them color in the different continents. One moment went something like this:

Me: OK, this is Asia (pointing to map)
Student: Teacher, teacher!!!
Me: 기다려 (wait)
Student: Teacher, 질문 (question)
Me: 기다려 (wait) OK, Asia. Everybody see Asia?
Student: Teacher, teacher!!!
Me: 기다려 (wait) Asia! Everybody OK? (seeing nods of assent)
Student: Teacher, teacher!!!
Me: (trying to stay cool) OK, what's your question?
Student: Teacher, Asia where?
Me: (buries his head in his hands and tries not to cry)

At the bingo, my class got every question right, and even got a bonus question right. I wasn't taking it easy on them just because they were my class either. The young kids got questions like "How many continents are there?" My class got "What is the capital of the fifth largest country in the world?" despite getting everything right, my class tied for second place, because the youngest class (the Asia, where? class) got every question right as well, and they were younger and so were given the win. If you're keeping score, that's twice my class didn't get something they deserved. Once again, they were suitably upset. This was the most competitive group of kids I ever met.

Finally we had the play week. I did Treasure Island, only slightly modified and abbreviated in order to have 14 lead characters. My class gradually improved their "Aargh!"s as the week went on. On Friday, they did a really good job. This wasn't due to my writing skills, but rather to the amount that my TA and GA drilled them in the time that I wasn't in class. On Thursday night, we had the going away party, or "crying game" as we like to call it. Everyone gets up and does a little dance (the teachers did the chicken dance followed by celebration) Then candles get passed out and they show a slide show of everybody from camp. After that a TA gets up and delivers a speech carefully worded to get the kids bawling. Lots of "we met great friend here and you're NEVER GOING TO SEE THEM EVER AGAIN!!!" Usually, that's where the kids lose it. However, this time, for some reason (the candles play a large part, except for the little pyromaniacs) the kids started bawling when the slide show came on. It's really fun to watch (in a twisted sort of way) because you always have the nice little girls, who you expect to cry, but then you have the little boys that have been acting hard as nails all week break down. Then you always have the little kids just melting the candle onto the floor to see who can make the biggest puddle.

And that was it. Camp is done.

For the last two weeks, I've just been relaxing and settling back into regular life. The Olympics are on, which is cool, but I have to watch them on Korean TV, which sucks ass. If there isn't a Korean likely to win a medal, they will show the final minute of an event. Everything that Korea wins get replay after replay after replay. 박태환 won Korea's first ever gold medal in swimming, and he already had seven commercials on TV. I don't know where he found the time to make them all. There was one point, where instead of showing the actual Olympics, they showed 박태환 hanging out in a 노래방 (Karaoke room) with some actresses and models.

Korea's TV coverage is all due to their uber nationalism, which can lead to xenophobia. Koreans get all indignant whenever foreigners do the slightest thing wrong. Sure, sometimes things happen like when the two little girls got run over by a tank. However, they ignore problems in their own society. One big thing is that Korean delivery guys drive scooters at maximum speed swerving around traffic without wearing helmets, talking on the phone or smoking a cigarette. This is usually high school kids working these jobs. In the second week of camp, a sweet girl from my office, 이주희 (Lee Ju Hee) stepped off of a bus and got smacked by one of these idiots. After a couple of days in a coma, she finally passed away. She was 24. If a foreigner had hit her, people would be spitting at foreigners in the street. As it is, nobody cares, except those of us that knew her. Forever relegated to the past tense by utter stupidity.

Prague

2008-07-30T00:42:00.000-07:00

And then there was nothing left but Prague.

I purposefully left myself a full six days in Prague, because I wanted to have enough time to see the city properly, and do everything that I wanted to. As it turned out, I didn't quite do everything due to weather, but otherwise, Prague was everything I wanted from it.

I got there on thursday after leaving Budapest, and once again, had a hell of a time trying to find the hostel. This time, the directions were good, it's just that there are no straight roads in Prague, so you walk in one direction, hoping it is right, and it suddenly makes a 90 degree turn, and you're going somewhere else entirely. I had a few Czech beers on the train, and just hung out in the dining car, which had been enjoyable, but had a decidedly soporific effect on me by the time I finally found the hostel at 9:00, so my evening nap raged out of control and I woke up early in the morning.

On friday, I just wandered around looking at some of the many sights to see, went to the two St. Nicholas Cathedrals, went back to the hostel for a bit, and went out for a couple pints in a place called "The Pub" where you poured your own beer from taps at your table, and your score was shown on a big screen comparing you with the rest of the tables. It's a really cool idea that would be great for sports bars, college towns, and such. Also good for degenerate alcoholics, and people with too much competitiveness. Checked out the castle and the St. Vitus Cathedral at night (awesome) and on my way back across the Charles Bridge, ran into some Koreans that I chit-chatted with for a while (they were a little tipsy, and I startled the crap out of them) and it turned out that two of them are students at Suwon University. Go figure.

The next day, I just wandered around again, trying to see some of the places I didn't make it to previously. Eventually ended up at the hostel, and hung out with the people there trying some absinthe, and playing the most viscious game of rock, paper, scissors ever. (I lost). The highlight of the evening was when the Danish guy Jess ate the giant bug in the bottom of the bottle of Absinthe. It was like seeing a car wreck. You don't want to watch, but you can't look away.

Sunday was pouring down rain all day, so we just continued from the night before. The Danish guys left eventually, and an American girl Lara and I went with a bunch of other people to a cool pub in a cellar somewhere, which was a really cool place, but incredibly difficult to find your way out of after a little tipple. After there, Lara and I wandered around looking at Prague at night for a while before heading back.

I had to say goodbye to Lara on Monday, and did another walking tour for a bit, before having to take a break. Prague is all cobblestones, and walking over them constantly for the last few days was taking its toll on my feet. Went back to the hostel, where I had to change rooms, and took a little power nap. After that, I went out on the town with Monique, who I met in my new room. We had a really good time wandering about, and made our way back up to the castle, where we went into a fenced in area to check out the garden before I started imagining the guards with sub-machine guns, and ran like a little girl for the fences. We spotted a strange looking wall from the castle, and tried to find it, eventually finding out it was in another restricted area, but we could come back tomorrow to see it. We headed back to round up some more people, then went back to the same bar as the night before. Unfortunately, the two of us that had been there had no idea where it was, so we took a tortuously circuitous route to the pub, which turned out to be right beside the hostel John stayed at last time he was here, so could have easily taken us there if we had actually known where we were going. It was much worse for him though, since he broke his shoe shortly after leaving the hostel, and so did the entire night out with one shoe. Now there's a trooper for you!

The last day in Prague was just spent wandering about to places I didn't make it to before with Monique and John, including the Museum of Torture, which has some really hideous stuff in there. People have an amazing capacity of being incredibly cruel to those they feel are beneath them. There were lots of evil looking implements designed for being inserted into various places. Ended up the night having dinner and watching a Jazz festival in the main square, followed by a few final absinthes.

The next day, it was off to Frankfurt, home, camp and another vacation...

Budapest

2008-07-25T01:23:00.000-07:00

When last we left him, our hero was leaving Vienna for Budapest.

I got to the train station, which was genuinely, quite ugly, and exactly what you would expect from an Eastern Bloc nation. I followed the wonderful directions that my hostel provided, which read "take any bus, as they all go past the hostel" and promptly went in the complete wrong direction. Fortunately, the driver, who was encased in what I can only assume was bullet proof glass, was kind enough to inform me that the bus would eventually turn around and go back to where I wanted to go. I therefore found myself driving past said ugly train station a solid three quarters of an hour after I had left it going in the other direction.

I finally got to my hostel, gladly got rid of my bag, and headed out for food and a beer. Fortunately for me, both of these are served in mammoth portions. All Hungarian food is just meat in some sort of sauce with potatoes or bread on the side. There are many different variations of sauces/meats etc. but it never differs beyond that. Beer is also served in litre jugs. It's quite impressive when it gets to the table, but a little warm towards the end, unless you make sure to stay on top of your drinking.

Whereas Vienna was recovering from the Euro Cup, Budapest was just under construction. All of it. There were many beautiful buildings that I wanted to take pictures of, but they were all covered in scaffolding, and swarming with scary looking construction workers. Definitely not the type that you would want to meet down a dark alley. The only problem being that there are few roads in Budapest that aren't small dark alleys.

Sorry, I must clarify. Buda is all small dark alleys. I never actually made it to Pest. I was at the river and took pictures of Pest on the other side of the river, but I never actually walked across the bridge. For all I know, Pest could be broad, sun dappled avenues of the finest nature, and I was just too lazy to walk the hundred meters or so to find out.

Went up to the castle at night, which was gorgeous. It was all lit up and none of my pictures do it any justice. Apparently the homeless population agrees with me, because as I was walking around the back side of the building, I heard some definite snoring coming from amongst the bushes. Either that, or some workaholic gardener was sawing logs in the deep brush in the middle of the night.

I came back and played some poker with some guys in the hostel, taking great pleasure winning money from the French guys. I have nothing against the French, but my sax player keeps busting my chops, so any kind of dig I can get against the French feels good.

The next day was more wandering around, and went out at night with a few kids from the hostel, and had a really good time. Made it to two different pubs, both of which were quite strange. The first one was down an alley, past the dumpsters, and through a bicycle parking lot before actually finding yourself in the place. It had a big open square with a random car sitting in the middle. The second place was tricky to find, but it had a rooftop to hang out on, which was awesome as the sun came up (yeah we stayed up pretty late that night). At the table next to us, cool as a cucumber, some guy just chopped out lines of coke and tossed them back. It was quite surreal in the middle of a bar for someone to just be so nonchalant about something like that.

I had a blast in Budapest, and wanted to stay another day, but my reservation was set for Prague, so it was time to move on.

To be continued...

Austria

2008-07-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back from my travels, and working again. two days of camp gone, thirteen to go. I already have everything prepped from last time though, so it's not too bad. My T.A. speaks English very well, and is very nice as well, which always helps.

As for my travels, I arrived in Munich at 11:00pm on June 25th, which was a half an hour after Germany won their semi-final match against Turkey. The people in the streets were suitably elated. Lots of flag waving, honking and shouting. Met my family at the train station, and drove to Steinbach am Attersee where my Aunt's house is.

The next day, after having a leisurly breakfast with the Grandma, I went for a swim with Nick, and then headed for Steyrling to visit Onkel Roman. Roman has done very well for himself, and has a large tract of land (aka mountain) that he uses for hunting. We had some nice wine, and sat around chit-chatting for a few hours. We were considering staying for the night to go hunting, but decided to head back, which turned out to be an excellent idea, since the heavens opened up and released a torrential downpour as soon as we left.

The next day I went climbing up Hochlecken, which is the mountain behind the house, but after a few hours, gave up just a little way from the top since the thunder kept getting closer. We got a little way down the mountain before getting caught on the top of a mountain, under trees in a thunderstorm. Not the best of places to be. When we finally got back down, I was completely soaked and needing of a good rest. My cousin Axl came later in the day as well, which was nice.

Had my Grandmother's 90th birthday party the next day, which she enjoyed immensely. Probably half of the town including the mayor showed up (although half of the town consists of about 30 people).

Dropped Nick off in Munich the following day and headed to Berchtesgaden to see Hitler's Eagle's Nest. If you ever have the opportunity, I highly recommend it. The bus ride alone, driving right along the edge of the cliff was worth the journey.

Unfortunately, my pictures of the Kehlsteinhaus just don't do it justice. You can actually see Salzburg from Salzberg, which is where the Kehlsteinhaus is.

For the next couple of days I just went around the Attersee looking at different things, took a short trip to Voecklabruck, and a day trip to Graz, which is extremely overooked as a tourist destination in my opinion. They have a giant new museum in the middle of the town that looks like an alien landed in the city amongst all of the old buildings.

We also took a trip to Hallstatt, which is very possibly the most picturesque town that has ever been created. However, there's nothing but tourists there now, so it's a bit cheesy after a few hours with all of the chintzy stuff being sold.

We went to Salzburg the day after Hallstatt to have a wander around, and on my last day with the family, we went to Onkel Roman's house for lunch again, and had some amazing wine, and really good venison steaks. Had a really good time chatting, and was quite sorry when it was time to go.

After saying goodbye to the family, I went to Vienna for two days, and just wandered around the city looking at all of the beautiful buildings. I had a really hard time taking any good pictures of anything though, because they were still cleaning up after the Euro Cup, and all of the really beautiful things had stacks of porta-potties and cranes and such in front of them. Not really lending itself to great memorable pictures.

Next, it was off to Budapest...

연주

2008-06-22T00:36:00.000-07:00

주말에 우리 밴드는 연주했어요. 비디오 많이했지만 패트릭은 그냥 계속 줄리의 가슴 직었어요. 이 비디오 밖에없어요:
Sunshine of Your Love
Hard to Handle
Ease Back

Tests

2008-06-19T18:50:00.000-07:00

Recent answers given on my exams:

Speaking Test:

Q: What do you love to do?
A: I love to do my boyfriend.

Q: I think North Korea is the best country in the world. Do you agree with me?
A: Yes, I agree with me.

Q: What don't you like to eat?
A: I don't like crap food.

Q: How are they creative?
A: My family trust is me.

Q: What do you plan to do tomorrow?
A: I drink my friend.

Writing test vocabulary usage sentences:

This pen of qualify is very good.

Your action makes me ironic.

카메라

2008-06-18T02:32:00.000-07:00

다음 주 수요일 저는 여행 가요!!! 오랫 동안 카메라 없었으니까 오늘 용산 전자제품 시장에 갔고 새로운 카메라 쌌어요. 겨울 방학때 미나의 친구 혜선의 카메라 썼는데 어떻게 쓴지 잘 모르겠어요. 그래서 다 사진에 날짜와 시간 있어요. 그것을 아주 싫어해요. 다음 주 부터 아주 많이 예쁜 사진 직을 수 있어요!

젓번주 마지막 시험 있었고 오늘은 점수를 끝났어서 아주 기뻐요. 그리고, 금요일과 토요일 서울에서 연주할 거에요. 우리는 아주 열심히 준비했으니까 내 생각의 잘 칠 거에요.

일요일 콘서트 비디오 업로드 할 거에요.

사진

2008-06-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

Random pictures from the last few months:

Korean Laws

2008-05-30T19:46:00.000-07:00

A recent Korean law has been approved by president 이명박 to alleviate pressure placed on him by the recent FTA agreement reached with the USA which has sparked massive protests over beef imports. In order for Koreans to get their aggression out of their system, Thursday has been officially renamed "미친놈 운전하는 날" or "drive like an asshole day". All problem driving is requesed to be limited to Thursday, and drive like a normal human being for the rest of the week. Some of the rules are as follows;

1. All buses are based on race technology, and should be driven as if they were a super sports car.
2. The use of turn signals is banned.
3. Driving on the sidewalk is permitted until 6pm, or until you have killed 3 pedestrians.
4. Motorcycles do not exist. If you see one, ignore it completely. If you happen to hit one, it was probably their fault anyways.
5. If you drive a motorcycle, you must do so without the use of safety gear, and be driven while smoking a cigarette, talking on the phone, carrying a delivery box and weaving through traffic. Or just be as cool as this guy.
6. Every few minutes, you must make sudden unexpected lane changes for no reason.
7. You must drive as slowly as possible in the left lane (unless you are a bus/sports car).
8. Honking at everything is required.

The president has initiated this law with his popularity plummeting with the recent bird flu outbreak and mad cow scare. He is hoping this will generate the same favorable media attention as some of his previous laws. Since taking office at the start of the year, President Lee has taken initiative in school reform, stating that Middle School students must now go to school until midnight, figuring that High School students have to do it, so if Middle School students are forced to as well, the Korean education system has to improve by brute force. Also, taking side against foreigners, since that is always popular, it was made official during the Olympic torch relay that any foreigner throwing kimchi at the torch bearer was to be instantly deported.

His canal plans have had reactions similar to the FTA, as people suddenly realized that building a canal lengthwise through a peninsula was a really stupid idea.

술

2008-05-11T20:59:00.000-07:00

1919년때 이 포스터 보면 술 안 마셔??!?!! 아니! 보면 술 많이 마셔!!! 미국 사람은 아주 바보야.

저는 6개월 동안 일본 만화 봤어요. Bleach과 Cowboy Bebop 많이 봐요. Cowboy Bebop 때문에 제 제일 좋은 음악 찾았어요. 일본 재즈 펀크 아주 좋아해요. tomoyasu hotei 보다 The Seatbelts은 더 좋아해요

미안해요 뉴스 없어요. 오늘 석가탄신일 때문에 푹 쉬어요.

심심해

2008-04-30T22:04:00.000-07:00

지금 두시간 쉬는 시간 있어서 심심해요. 중간고사 고쳐야돼지만 하기싫어서 안해요.

이번주 기쁜이 별로 안좋아요. 금요인날 한양대학교 인터뷰 있었어요. 저는 열심히 준비했고 일찍 갔어요. 인문대 잘 못 찾으니까 스트레스 많아요. 마지막 인문대 찾았지만 사람 없었어요. 인터뷰는 서울 한양대학교. 저는 안산 한양대학교에 갔어요. 진짜 바보야!

월요일 다시 인터뷰 있었어요. 15분 수업 준비했어요. 내 생각의 그것은 괜찮지만, 인터뷰 하는 사람들 아주 싫었어요. 스테판한테 나쁜 얘기했고 빨리 끝났어요. 끝는후 기쁜이 되게 안 좋았어요. 지금까지 생각해요. 이번주 가르칠때 항상 생각 영어 못 가르쳐요.

그리고 아이스 하키 안좋아요. 다 싫어한 팀 익이고 있어요. 나쁜주 있었어요.

아야!

2008-04-15T20:55:00.000-07:00

이주 있다가 서울에서 연주회 준비했지만 오늘 우리의 기타를 치는 사람 그만뒀어요. 우리는 한번만 연주했어요. 우리의 친구 말했어요 "서울에서 보고싶어요", 그래서 스테판이 아주 흥미러웠지만 지금 그냥 슬퍼요. 헤이든은 새로운 기타 치는 사람 찾았지만 다시 노래 배우고 6월에 크레이그 (트럼펫 불는 사람) 캐나다에 이사해서 도 새로운 사람 찾야돼요! ARGH!!!

다른 뉴스는, 형이 푸에르토리코 가봤어요. 재미있게 놀았어요.

스테판은 여름 방학때 오스트리아하고 체코하고 독일하고 스위스에 가볼 거예요. 미나는 일해야되서 같이 못 가요. 같이가면 재미잇어요, 왜냐하면 가족 만날 수 있지만 다음에 할 수 있어요. 스테판의 할머니 90살 생일 때문에 오스트리아에 가요. 그것 때문에 가족 다 갈 거예요.

재미없어요

2008-04-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

다음주는 시험 주야돼서 재미있는 이야기 없어요. 미안해요.

그러나 재미있는것 보고싶으면 이렇게 가세요.

공연

2008-03-30T05:33:00.000-07:00

어제 우리는 공연 아주 잘했어요. 노래:
Chameleon - Herbie Hancock
Bra - Cymande:

You Know I'm No Good - Amy Winehouse
Hey Joe - Jimi Hendrix
You Don't Love Me (No No No) - Dawn Penn
I'm Tore Down - Sonny Thompson
The Boss - James Brown
Bitch - The Rolling Stones

노래 더할수있었지만 관리인 말했어 "40분만 노래할수있어요" 그것은 미친 생각 있었어요. 왜냐하면 외국 사람 많이 갔고 우리 밴드만 보고싶었어요. 한국사람 노래불때 많이 손님 갔어요. 그리고, 돈 안 주고 술 서비스 안주었어요. 우리의 밴드 때문에 손님 엄정 많이 갔어서 스테판 화났어요.

재미있는 것

2008-03-29T02:02:00.000-07:00

한국에 살아면 이것은 아주 재미있어요. 한국은 몰으면 그냥 귀찮아요:

황사 (다시)

2008-03-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

봄이 왔어요, 그래서 황사 많이 왔어요. 매년 봄에서 스테판의 눈이 엄청 아프고 숨 못 쉬고 코감기 걸리고 그냥 불편해요. 수요일날 아주 바쁘고 어제 많이 아파요. 일직 자고시펐지만 1시반 까지 숨 때문에 못 잤어요. 오늘도 바빠요, 그래서 지금 아주 피곤해요. 생각 잘 못해서 수업 준비 안해요. 황사 끝나면 아주 기뻐요.

이건 학기 이상해요 왜냐하면 일 많이하지만 항상 돈 없어요. 일주 27시간 일하지만 항상 돈을 못 모여요.

첫번주 부터 다시 한국어 수업 시작했어요. 화요일하고 수요일 밤 제 집에서 새로운 영어 선생님은 한국어를 가르쳐요. 그것 재미있어요 왜냐하면 가르칠때 느낌이 아주 똑똑해요.

미나는 아직도 직업 없어요. 저는 관심없지만 돈 때문에 스테판 조금 걱정해요.

이번주 토요일, 우리의 밴드 "The Studs Lonigan Experience" 초음 연주 있어요. 그냥 중앙동에 있지만 우리는 잘하면 서울에서 연주할 거예요.

Hallowed Antiquity

2008-03-19T21:48:00.000-07:00

With the Leafs season quickly coming to a close despite the best efforts of Pavel Kubina and Mats Sundin, I couldn't help but recall a time when the Leafs weren't missing the post season continuously. This was obviously post Harold Ballard. I found this tribute to my favorite Leaf of all time, Wendel "Captain Crunch" Clark:

Ah!

2008-03-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

Life is beautiful.

Google Earth

2008-03-12T07:24:00.000-07:00

Google Earth is so cool. I can spy on my parents and see that my dad didn't leave the office that day:

See where I used to live in Canada:

Or look at the Suwon University campus:

All of which is done while I should be getting on with my studies.

Justice

2008-03-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

At least some justice can be salvaged from this wreck of a season.

이번주

2008-03-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

방학 끝나서 다시 일해야돼요 (ㅠ.ㅠ) 처음 있는것 아주 쉬어지만 사장님 때문에 스트레스 아주 많아요. 그러나 새로운 학생 좋아해서 괜찮아요.

일요일날 마지막 스노보딩 했어요. 날씨가 되게 좋아서 눈이 아주 부드러워졌어요. 그래서 어려운것하고 빠른것 했어요. 조금 잘했지만 3번 큰 사고됐어서 지금 목과 등이 아파요.

스노보드 가는후 밴드 연습 했어요. 두 달 안했어서 잘못했고 노래 기억안했어요. 빨리 기억해야해요, 왜냐하면 3월 29일 연주할 거에요.

한국말 도 공부 해야해요. 오늘밤 부터 다시 시작해요.

Taiwan

2008-02-29T00:16:00.000-08:00

So our foray into South East Asia ended with a one day stopover in Taipei.

Taipei is very similar to Seoul, or rather, Taipei is what Seoul should be. It is much smaller, but it's very clean, the subways run every two minutes instead of every fifteen, and it had interesting architecture, not just the same building built thousands of times.

We arrived in the evening and went out to Taipei 101. The sun had set by the time we got there, and no matter how many times I tried, I just could not get a good picture of the damn building. I had to use a slow shutter speed, and there was nothing appropriate to place the camera on that wasn't behind a tree or in the middle of the road. I therefore have many shaky blurry pictures of the building.

The elevator ride up was pretty cool, since it took less than 30 seconds to go up 84 floors, and the view from the top was awesome. However, we were surrounded by Korean tourists, and all of them kept talking about how the 63 building and Namseong Tower were more impressive. I got some strange looks from people as they were talking about it and I just started laughing. Korean nationalism is wonderfully obtuse at times that it just has to make you laugh. Finally, one woman caught on that I understood what they were saying (in Korean naturally) and gave me a dirty look as she walked away.

After the Taipei 101, we made our way over to the nigt market, which was pretty cool, and had cool gizmos that made you say "ooh, I want that!" before realizing that you had absolutely no need for it whatsoever. It was also quite exciting, because every 10 minutes or so, all of the street vendors in the middle of the aisle would VERY RAPIDLY pack up their goods and run away or hide in another store to avoid the policemen walking around. After that, it was simply hotel, airport, back to the apartment. Upon our arrival, we found that Mina's mom had bought us a new large coffee table, filled our fridge with food, and bought an electric blanket. Very nice way to come back. It's nice to sleep in my own bed again as well. Too bad I have to start working again though.

That's it, that's the entirety of the trip. I was out of Korea for a month, so there was no way they can blame me for burning down Namdaemun, which might have happened had I been here. Koreans like blaming anything bad that happens on foreigners.