Archive for August, 2004

Be One With The Squirrels


2004
08.31

Another month begins. Something nice about that. At once, time seems to move so fast and so slowly. For example it seems like I have been here for a long time, and yet it is only just yesterday that I was getting on the plane. I feel old, and yet I am so young. Its confusing. As Sally the Loony said, “pick up the pieces of the big giant bananas and be one with the squirrels.” I’m not sure what she meant, but it sure sounds deep.

A relatively quick blog this time. Just to say that Seoul is such a nice place. I wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone who needs a positive change in their life. Living here is cheap and easy and fun. Working here is as easy as 1-2-3.. you post your ad on a website and for the next week, people will be calling you with job offers. It’s just so cool like that.

Anyway, gotta run.

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My Thin Wrists


2004
08.31

Hey, its the last day of August and I’m getting paid. Cool! I had a latin dance class tonight which was fun and means that I don’t look like such a fool now. I have to learn new moves otherwise I will just be dancing from side-to-side and boring the hell out of my partner. So tonight I learnt to spin around and twist and stuff. Its a nice fun break from the routine.

I’m planning to go on a trip to another part of Korea on the weekend because I am yet to travel out of Seoul. It’s about time that I saw some of the other sights that this country has to offer and hopefully by this time next week I’ll have some lovely shots of the scenery.

I’m bothered by the fact that I can fit my hand around my wrist with more ease than before. Actually it has been about a month since I went to the gym and as I type this my protein powder is staring at me accusingly. The trouble is, here I am constantly caught between a choice and the choice is this: build and strengthen or go and have fun. Fifty cents to guess which one I have been choosing. It’s not bad though. The experiences that I have here are going to be with me forever. Better to experience a good time rather than a couple of dozen old ladies in the gym working out to Korean techno *shudder*…

Tonight, my mp3 player was on the table. It had been there for a while and I thought it was off, but then I looked at it and the words ‘You will die tonight’ flashed up on the screen. Well actually that didn’t happen. But imagine if it did! How cool would it be to get metaphysical updates on your personal appliances. One day, maybe they’ll have the technology to tap into the fabric of space/time. But for now I’ll have to make do with the ‘Hello!’ and ‘Goodbye!’ messages that I get when I turn it on and off.

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Salsa Dancing


2004
08.23

The days just fly by. Well put that in past tense because now the days will drag on. We are back to normal schedule at the school and while I get to sleep in, the days just seem much longer. For the past 4 weeks, we have been doing summer program which involved getting up at 8 for a 9 o’clock start and finishing at 5. It was good because some students left and some stayed and it just so happened that the student who stayed were by and large the smart ones. Those students I taught every day and you could really make progress. Plus, and this is the main reason, all of the temp teachers who came to the school to teach for summer have left again. Dido, Linda and Belle were great co-workers and I’m going to miss them all. We all went out last Friday for dinner and drinks and it was a great night. I really hope we can all stay friends and hang out in the future.

A great thing happened on Saturday night. I hung out with Dylan and Jee Yee in Hongdae early in the night and a couple of their friends suggested going to a salsa club. Cool we say. Of course I can’t salsa and I don’t think anyone else really could, but who really cares about that. So we went and it was wonderful. Its probably the first time I’ve really been out to dance real dancing and the whole atmosphere and vibe of the place was so cool. My first impression as I walked in and saw all of these people spinning around and twirling all over the place was to turn around and go get myself some lessons. But after a while, I just learnt some basic steps and from then on it was just a matter of trying not to step on my poor partner’s feet. They have lessons every weekday and so I went back tonight for a free lesson in the cha-cha. I think at every free chance I’ll go and practice and hopefully soon I’ll be able to spin with the best of them.

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Coffee Is The Enemy


2004
08.17

[audio:letdown.mp3]

This song ‘Let Down’ has been in my head all day. It’s so cool, I just keep listening to it over and over, especially the last minute of the song. I’m now singing it at the top of my lungs. The strange thing is, I was in first or second year uni and some british guy kept telling me about how Radiohead’s OK Computer was one of the best rock albums ever. I was like ‘yeah ok’. It never really seemed very good on my first listen so I never considered it. Six years later, here I am, walking around Seoul humming it.

I have decided that coffee is my enemy. As you may or may not know, I have been trying to put on weight due to my loss of a considerable portion since I came over here. Well I had a coffee today in Starbucks while I waited for the (torrential) rain to pass. After the coffee, I couldn’t eat anything, even though I knew that I should be hungry. Therefore, coffee must in some way simultaneously shrink the stomach and speed up the metabolism. After I get off the coffee rush and return to normal i’m usually extra hungry. The best thing to do is avoid the coffee – stick to water and eat eat eat.

I really would’ve liked to capture a few shots of the storm today. It was really pretty in an ugly sort of way. The streets were so dark and dreary due to the heavy dark clouds coming in, but on the horizon the bright sky poked through giving a great contrast. Trouble was, my camera battery is worn out and I can’t plug the charger in. That was why I was out, stuck in the rain. I was looking for an adaptor. I didn’t find one. So no pics tomorrow either.

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And On The Seventh Day…


2004
08.15

I did it again. I fell asleep on Saturday night. It was 11pm, I was just taking a little nap while waiting for Keith. Before I knew it I woke and it was 5am. Another potential partying night wasted. Some good rest though. Later on, Keith and I decided it would be a good idea to go and play some video games, so we went to the local arcade and played shooting, fighting, drumming and singing games until we used up 2 or 3 dollars. Actually this doesn’t sound like much, but it can go a long way here. Each game is the equivalent of 20 cents and so you can just keep playing and playing for ages. I went into the little singing booth and knocked out the Beatles ‘Michelle’, while Keith busied himself with some weird robot fighting game.

After all that fun, we had some food at the usual place and then caught a bus to Yongsan to check out the cinema. ‘Chronicles of Riddick’ was the only thing that I wanted to see, so after buying tickets and having an hour or so to spare, we decided to walk around the electronics. I have been planning to buy a new digital camera for a long time now, as I wanted something with higher resolution and a smaller case. The current camera, a Canon Powershot A40 is a good camera, but a little bulky. I walked around and decided upon a Canon IXUS 500, the compact 5 megapixel. Compared to the old one, which was 2 megapixel, this is definitely a step up. Anyway, I bought it. It cost 400,000 won, which is about 440 Australian dollars, which is a very good price. Having a bit more time, we headed back to the cinema complex and hung out in the Samsung and Sony store where we surfed the net and played Playstation for a while. Keith was totally into Smackdown and after whipping my ass a few times, I grew tired and left him to get beaten by the computer.

We then proceeded to our movie, which turned out to be alright as far as action movies go, but I was struggling to stay awake through some of the dull bits. Actually, most of the dull bits. Actually, most of the movie. After it finished, we had a good time laughing about all the improbable aspects of the movie and mused on just how much of an antihero Riddick is meant to be. Just how does one become an antihero? We agreed that Riddick just didn’t cut it. He helped too many people. I don’t think antiheros are meant to do that.

After the movie, we decided that what with all the sleeping and general lack of action this weekend has had thus far, we should go and have a drink at Bricx. We went there and got roped into a drinking game with a group of crazy westerners. They were mostly couples, but definitely were the craziest bunch that I have seen in a long time. We were playing some kind of game which if I remember correctly involved mostly drinking, a lot of swearing, geographical trivia and some lesbian kissing. The last part was probably my favorite. Strangely enough one of the guys even took his penis out on three occasions, although this wasn’t part of the game. I don’t really know why he did, but on each occasion it seemed to get bigger. I guess it was his thing. You will be glad to know, I didn’t take the new camera out for some happy snaps on this occasion. All in all I think I recovered from a pretty uneventful weekend, to make it into a relaxing yet fun break from the usual grind.

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Love for $1.50


2004
08.14

I almost went out last night, but fell asleep before I could do so. It was quite annoying. When I woke up at 3am to turn the air conditioner off, I knew it was too late – the night was over. Now, I’m not a party animal or anything, but it seems to me that the more one does on the weekend the longer that weekend seems to be. So while I guess I needed sleep, I’m sure I can do that later. Well it seems that my body didn’t think so. That’s ok, I’ll look forward to tonight. I’ll make it two nights in one.

No one has commented yet on my beautiful pencil case. That’s it, I’m going to give some of my students this website. Maybe they’ll appreciate it. Lately I’ve been eating too much sugar and so I had a few pimples. The kids asked if I have chicken pox. Ah, you have to love them. The great thing about kids is that they’re honest. Also, they’re easily bribed. I spent $1.50 on snacks and I got them all to love me. Who said you can’t buy love?

I went out for dinner by the Han River. Took a little walk through Yeouido park and saw the sun set. It was very nice.

Overall it was a very nice evening out. There were plenty of people just sitting around on the grass, eating and drinking until I left at 11. I’m guessing they stay there all night.

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