Two Photo Updates

I just added two new albums to the photo site. The first:

1) A few weeks ago, my friend Dylan finally graduated from university. He called me on a Sunday night at about 8 pm and asked if I was free. I was just sitting around the house, so I took a bus downtown to meet him. He was with two of his friends, and we all hung around at various restaurants and bars until about 2AM. Then we went to gyung-sik's house, since he lives close to downtown, where we continued chilling, listening to music, and chatting until about 5. Then we all crashed on the floor (gyung-sik doesn't even have a bed, he just sleeps on a blanket), woke up at 9:30, and headed out to school. Some random guy gave Dylan a suit to put on, and someone else gave him his diploma. There were no deans or shakings of hands or any other official ceremonious stuff. Just guys in suits, girls in dresses, and people carrying around flowers, mortar boards, and diplomae. After taking some photos, Dylan's parents took us out for lunch. Then I grabbed a bus home, caught up a little on sleep, and went to work.

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2) About a month ago, my good friend Yuk-gi moved to Seoul. Back in March, he started taking some conversation classes at our academy, and, along with two girl students, grew to be good friends with me and George. He was in between jobs for a long time, so when he finally got a job (as a "Life Consultant" for Samsung, a pretty estimable job), we were all quite happy for him. After giving him a while to settle in to his new apartment and job and such, 3 of us (me, George, Ella) decided to go visit.

We took the train up to Seoul on Saturday afternoon, met Yuk-gi at a subway stop, and then went to dinner at the Lotte Department Store. Lotte is a huge chain in Korea, which dabbles in everything from Choco-pie snack cakes to amusement parks. Lotte, Samsung, and Hyundai combined probably account for about 60 percent of Korea's GDP. We had an awesome reunion dinner at a Bulgogi restaurant up in the department store, complete with purple rice served in golden bowls.

Next, we headed downstairs, outside, walked for 3 minutes, and found ourselves at the Lotte World Adventure Park. I had yet to visit a Korean amusement park, so I didn't know what to expect, but given that it was indoors, I imagined there wouldn't be any rollercoasters. Contrary to my expectations, it was totally gigantic. There were about 6 levels - starting with a food court and ice-skating rink at the bottom, then the entrance level, then 4 levels of rides and games and such.

We went in a bit late - about 7:30 or so - so admission was only 13 bucks. We wandered around a bit, played stupid dress up in a hat shop, and then made our way to the "French Revolution" rollercoaster. I have no idea why that was the name, but it was - again, contrary to my expectations - a decent ride. It was still disappointing, as it was much shorter and more compact than a typical american coaster, and there were some pretty cool parts where you're in a dark tunnel with no idea that a surprise drop is about to unsettle your stomach.

After that, we rode the "conquistador," one of those coasters where a viking-style ship swings back and forth, never quite going upside-down, but still freaking you out a fair bit. With all due respect, Koreans are apparently total sissies when it comes to this kind of ride. Aside from me and George, only about 5 of the 50 people on the ride took their hands of the safety bar.

Next was bumper-cars, where we split into teams and talked a bit of trash. Naturally, George and I crushed Yuk-gi and Ella, executing some super entrapment moves and just generally embarrassing them in front of their kinsfolk. Then off to "desperado," a game where about 30 people sit on mechanical horses, grab nintendo-style guns, and shoot at bad guys in the screen. The computers track your hits and score, and I wound up getting 3rd place after 4 or 5 rounds, due to the fact that I shot several rascal-varmint-scallywags in the face. We then went on one more ride, but it was pretty lame, so I'll spare you the details.

We made our way out of the amusement park, drove back to Yuk-gi's apartment, then went out for the entirely typical bar-songroom-earlymorningstroll routine, finally turning in for the night at about 4 AM. The 4 of us managed to sleep for a few hours in Yuk-gi's one-room studio apartment, then we woke up and headed over to the Hyundai department store, where Ella helped Yuk-gi shop for ties while George and I tried on 500 dollar Paul Stuart suede and velvet jackets. They also had 300 dollar umbrellas and 400 dollar suspenders. I never knew it was possible to spend 1 month's salary on a single outfit. 2 months' salary, if you want cufflinks...

After lunch at the department store Italian restaurant (extremely disappointing), we drove home. It was about a 3.5 hour drive, and I got to see lots of the Korean countryside, which I hadn't seen too much of before. It mostly consisted of mountains covered with thick, green forests. I taught the word game Ghost to the others, which we played in the car for a good while. I of course rocked everyone. Perhaps one could chalk that up to the fact that, of the other 3 players, only 1 was a native speaker, and he had never heard of the game before. Or one could chalk it up to exceeding cleverness on my part. I'll leave that for you to decide.

David Foster Wallace

apparently killed himself a few days ago. I've only sporadically read some of his stuff, but what I have read, I have really liked, and what I haven't read, I've always sort of felt like I would really like. Poking around some obituaries tonight, I've found a couple really nice pieces of his. One comes from an essay on Kafka:

"That the horrific struggle to establish a human self results in a self whose humanity is inseparable from that horrific struggle. That our endless and impossible journey toward home is in fact our home. It’s hard to put into words, up at the blackboard, believe me. You can tell [students] that maybe it’s good they don’t “get” Kafka. You can ask them to imagine his stories as all about a kind of door. To envision us approaching and pounding on this door, increasingly hard, pounding and pounding, not just wanting admission but needing it; we don’t know what it is but we can feel it, this total desperation to enter, pounding and ramming and kicking. That, finally, the door opens . . . and it opens outward–we’ve been inside what we wanted all along. Das ist komish."

Apparently the German at the end means "that is amusing."

I had never thought about Kafka in quite those terms, and since Kafka is so difficult to grasp and evaluate, it's a really useful analysis, as well as striking me as fairly accurate and beautiful in and of itself.

He also did a pretty nice commencement speech at Kenyon College in '05. I don't even remember the speech or speaker from WU, but I don't think I would have forgotten this one so quickly. Does anyone else happen to remember who it was, or what he talked about? No researching!

Materliazing plans

I mentioned previously that I was considering doing some traveling on the continent - hopefully starting in Singapore, then passing through Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam - after which I would go back to Thailand to get a CELTA teaching certification. The second part of the plan is now relatively in place. After sitting on the application form for about, I don't know, three or four months, mostly because of one bizarre question written in New Zealandese, and because the Brits apparently say "referee" instead of "reference," I finally got my act together, submitted the form, did a Skype interview, and was accepted into the program, all in a period of 2-3 days.

I was actually pretty pleased with myself, since I answered all the grammar and teaching methodology questions on the application form without recourse to any of the textbooks they said would almost certainly be necessary. I suppose I have Mrs. Turner, my 9th grade Latin teacher, to thank for that. When I submitted the application, I got a foreboding email about some 50 minute interview, but when I finally skyped with "Barry," after about 2 minutes he said my application was good enough that he wouldn't take more than 10 minutes to talk to me, and after about 7 minutes, he offered me a spot in the program. Pretty sweet, eh? On the other hand, I'm paying for the course, so I'm not too surprised that they want me and my $$$$$.

Details: The course will be held in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I think I'm going to do the "deluxe program," which means you pay some money on top of the tuition fee, in return for which you get to stay at the Nugent Waterside resort, with catered Thai food thrice a day, fice a week. The course actually happens at the seminar rooms at the resort, I'm told. I'm not sure what all to expect from the course - it has a reputation for being really intense, but then again, some 98% of people pass, and, then again again, whatever, I can handle it. I mean, I sit around and study Korean grammar just for fun (I'm now nearing halfway done with the Intermediate 2 book and am starting to have a little success with newspapers. I read my horoscope at dinner most days, and have the cooks clarify anything I don't understand), so how hard can it be to think about English? Maybe this cockiness will lead to comeuppance; we'll see.

I haven't paid the deposit for the course yet, since I got verbally accepted yesterday, got some paperwork today, and the banks are all closed for Chuseok, "a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar Korean calendar." Sorry for the links, I just plagiarized that from wikipedia.

Speaking of the holiday, I have a nice 4-day weekend, but it's actually a little disappointing. Chuseok happens to fall on Sunday the 14th (so I don't know why the wiki article says 15th...), and traditionally, the days preceding and following the day are public holidays. Thus, optimally, Chuseok will fall on a Tuesday or Thursday, to maximize time off. In fact, if I ran the government, I would redefine Chuseok so that that would be the case. Unfortunately, we got boned this year and were granted holidays on...Saturday and Sunday. But the academy decided to give us Tuesday off, as well, so I can't complain too much.

What will I do during this holiday, you ask? Well, Friday night I met a friend. And Saturday (to) night, I am planning on meeting several friends. On Sunday, I will once more meet some (other) friends, who will bring some of their friends, and then, if all goes well, we will all become friends. On Monday, some other friends will come to my apartment, since I've promised to introduce them to burritos, as my local humongoid store has begun stocking tortillas and non-single cheddar cheese. (Still no cilantro, and Avocados are apprently out of season). I don't know exactly what I'll do on Tuesday, but I can guess.

The only other newsworthy item is that, for the past 3 weeks, I've been doing yoga. Or rather, I've been seated on a mat in a room while some lady does awesome yoga andsome other ladies do so-so to pretty-good yoga along with her. They are generally pretty encouraging, even though I am really terrible. They promise that I will quickly become fantastic, but...I mostly just get sweaty, which is a little embarassing, since there's no running or weightlifting involved.

Anyhow, once the banks open up next week, I'll probably send in my deposit money to the Thailand training center, after which I'll start hitting up the local travel agents and trying to get my visas for my trip all set up.

Oh yeah, the program is from February 6 (or so) to March 9th (or so). After I finish, I'll probably come back to Korea for about a week to pick up some junk (I'm planning on traveling as light as possible), and then I'll head back to the good old US of A for a bit.

A diary entry

Not from me, but from one of my students, an elementary schooler in 3rd or 4th grade. Hopefully I'm not violating any copyright or confidentiality laws by posting this....

"Mr Mike is old. He is my Eiglsh teacher. He is tells funny jokes. He is small (스마일) We are like Mike Teacher But He is sometimes boring ㅋㅋ"

What she wrote in Korean there indicates that she wanted to say "smile" but didn't know how to say it. Also, the two little doodads at the end mean laughing.

Tokyo Photos

have been posted. 100 or so. look for the accompanying stories in the next few days.