it's come to my attention that no one cares about my blog
if you care please send me some shouts
nobody cares man
nobody cares
so here i go, here i go with everything, here's just a big word blabber of blabbiness
i'm in my educational psychology class as i write this and it's TOO DAMN BRIGHT IN THIS ROOM. i can hardly read the projector's projection. she wrote it in black with a red background. shit's an eyesore. we're learning about metacognition and the shit sucks. thinking about thinking. pretty meta, huh? actually y'know it's not all that bad, i don't know why i'm dogging on it so much. my buddy brendan next to me is playing on his crossword, and it's probably really hard and i would be really bad at it. it might not be a bad hobby to take up. perhaps better than video games? meh, i enjoy my video games. 250 words, let's see how fast i can rack this up. my girlfriend is really good at kirby. i watched her play that shit earlier today and boy did it blow me away. she knows about every level's secret and what to do to get each crystal shard on the first run through. it's kinda like me and Super Mario World or Ocarina of Time. now i wanna play these games now, but i'm in class. but i'm writing this assignment anyways so it's not like i'm doing anything productive anyways (sorry instructor, it's productive, but technically it's not because i should be focusing on the lecture i guess)
in other news, my FIFA record has been quite poor. I'm hitting a hard slump. I haven't won a game in quite some time and I got relegated to my lower division. I'm now currently in division 3 of 10, which isn't TERRIBLE. but my goal of reaching division 1 has become that much harder. I've lost my touch with this game. At one point playing FIFA 11, I was one of the top 5000 players in the world. Now, I can't even reach that top percentile where the elite players exist. Once I do though... once I do.... the world shall feel my wrath.
I guess.
Not really a wrath. As soon as I get into division one I'll probably crack open a beer and sit in division one, never to play another Seasons game again. Then I can focus on my ultimate team!
so yeah there's that
i also just found out that livepornofeeds.com is my number one visitor!
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Monday, November 12, 2012
Der Zweite Monat
Second month in Korea;
So this starts the month where I actually start doing things. My first month of being here could very well become my favorite month, because I was doing so many things and teaching was pretty easy. The weather was perfect, I was exploring my new town (Gwangyang, 광양) and found out that I have this BOMB-ASS CHINESE RESTAURANT in front of my house. Like literally, right in front of my house. I go there almost every week, sometimes multiple times per week. About a seven-minute walk from my place is the town's biggest intersection, with an incredibly large bridge for pedestrians that need to cross the road without the stress of streetlights. My friends that live near me affectionately refer to this bridge as the Spider Bridge, due to its many arms and legs, and central "hub" area to cross. Despite what sounds like a busy area of town, my town is still small enough to not have big franchise supermarkets like HomePlus, or eMart (basically Wal*Marts and Super Target). All in all, my town is about the size of Mizzou's campus, including the stadiums and the "off campus, on campus" engineering buildings on Providence. It's pretty small, but I'm enjoying every bit of it.
Taking a 40-minute bus ride to the northeast lies the small village of Jinsang and within that, my happy, joyful school known as Jinsang Elementary. Every day I come to school I see a large, beautiful mountain overlooking my school from the north, and hear nature at its finest while I work in the library. The TaLK scholars around me tend to have "English" villages at their school, an entire section of the school dedicated to learning English, while my school must use the library as the main area of English learning. Even though my school isn't as well equipped as others, the school works perfectly fine without an English village, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
i wonder how many people will even be reading this
So this starts the month where I actually start doing things. My first month of being here could very well become my favorite month, because I was doing so many things and teaching was pretty easy. The weather was perfect, I was exploring my new town (Gwangyang, 광양) and found out that I have this BOMB-ASS CHINESE RESTAURANT in front of my house. Like literally, right in front of my house. I go there almost every week, sometimes multiple times per week. About a seven-minute walk from my place is the town's biggest intersection, with an incredibly large bridge for pedestrians that need to cross the road without the stress of streetlights. My friends that live near me affectionately refer to this bridge as the Spider Bridge, due to its many arms and legs, and central "hub" area to cross. Despite what sounds like a busy area of town, my town is still small enough to not have big franchise supermarkets like HomePlus, or eMart (basically Wal*Marts and Super Target). All in all, my town is about the size of Mizzou's campus, including the stadiums and the "off campus, on campus" engineering buildings on Providence. It's pretty small, but I'm enjoying every bit of it.
Taking a 40-minute bus ride to the northeast lies the small village of Jinsang and within that, my happy, joyful school known as Jinsang Elementary. Every day I come to school I see a large, beautiful mountain overlooking my school from the north, and hear nature at its finest while I work in the library. The TaLK scholars around me tend to have "English" villages at their school, an entire section of the school dedicated to learning English, while my school must use the library as the main area of English learning. Even though my school isn't as well equipped as others, the school works perfectly fine without an English village, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
i wonder how many people will even be reading this
Sunday, November 4, 2012
So it turns out that I need to keep a journal due to my online class at Mizzou, and seeing as I'm in Korea, I feel that this would be a perfect opportunity to get this done. Here's to resurrecting my old blog that I created 3 years ago on my previous visit to the motherland.
LET'S BEGIN. Today is November 4th, 2012.
Putting things in a chronological perspective, I've been in Korea for exactly 3 months, and this first entry will entail the first month. August (from the 4th through 28th) entailed an orientation which my friends and I learned nothing from except for one statement: If you die in Canada, you die in real life. Keep in mind that this orientation was to prepare us for living and teaching in Korea for the next six months at the least. But I digress. It was great meeting new people, and touring around Korea was a blast. The TaLK program failed to teach me about how to turn on my heater for the winters, how to deal with the bus system, any true teaching techniques besides games, and to tell you to avoid tap water like the plague. Thankfully, I was informed by my parents with the intel to never drink Korean tap water, but a few of my friends fell "typhoidically" ill thanks to the failure to debrief the students. Other things they failed to include: how to throw out trash (as it is almost all recycling), how incessantly annoying mosquitos are, and premonitions of Korean schoolchildren and how they -will- attempt to hit you south of the belt if you are a male. The TaLK program, however, correctly emphasized the general cultural differences, highlighting the drinking culture and the importance of age in society. Overall, the orientation itself was largely uninformative, but the orientation experience was one that I'll never forget. It's truly fantastic to see how many cool people you can meet from just the simple common interest of wanting to teach in a country abroad.
Anyways, stay tuned for the next month. Where I actually start teaching!
PS: Please do not pay attention to the previous posts from the past. They're practically irrelevant. I was also a huge idiot.
LET'S BEGIN. Today is November 4th, 2012.
Putting things in a chronological perspective, I've been in Korea for exactly 3 months, and this first entry will entail the first month. August (from the 4th through 28th) entailed an orientation which my friends and I learned nothing from except for one statement: If you die in Canada, you die in real life. Keep in mind that this orientation was to prepare us for living and teaching in Korea for the next six months at the least. But I digress. It was great meeting new people, and touring around Korea was a blast. The TaLK program failed to teach me about how to turn on my heater for the winters, how to deal with the bus system, any true teaching techniques besides games, and to tell you to avoid tap water like the plague. Thankfully, I was informed by my parents with the intel to never drink Korean tap water, but a few of my friends fell "typhoidically" ill thanks to the failure to debrief the students. Other things they failed to include: how to throw out trash (as it is almost all recycling), how incessantly annoying mosquitos are, and premonitions of Korean schoolchildren and how they -will- attempt to hit you south of the belt if you are a male. The TaLK program, however, correctly emphasized the general cultural differences, highlighting the drinking culture and the importance of age in society. Overall, the orientation itself was largely uninformative, but the orientation experience was one that I'll never forget. It's truly fantastic to see how many cool people you can meet from just the simple common interest of wanting to teach in a country abroad.
Anyways, stay tuned for the next month. Where I actually start teaching!
PS: Please do not pay attention to the previous posts from the past. They're practically irrelevant. I was also a huge idiot.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Bobert.
So I've begun my teaching fiasco thing. It's a lot of fun, and I''m teaching kids that range from 1st graders to freshmen. It's really interesting to know how students brains work, to know that it's much more easier for them to attain information if the lesson is taught with Korean integrated with English, rather than full on English itself, which is what I was employed to do.
Anyhow, Funny story to tell ya'lls.
Before we begin, to the non-Korean background audiences, the word Bahp, very similar in pronunciation to the name Bob, means food.
So in my best fifth grade class (my favorite class), the students actually listen and respond, and actually study. There's this one kid in the back (whom I will refer back to very soon) who's the cutest thing on the planet, really shy, and at first I thought he was a year younger, studying up, due to how small he was. The rest of the class is fairly rowdy, but regardless, they study hard and they're smart so I let them. Anyways, we're learning about restaurant conversations and what to say when to order, etc. etc. and I'm going around the class, asking everybody what their answers were. It eventually came to the kid in the back of the class, whose name is Robert (the kids choose their own English names). When it came to Robert, I asked him what his answer was, and right after that, I proceeded to ask if I can call him Bob.
The kids in the class were in riots, they were howling and hooting, that his name sounded like Bap, so essentially, they all called him food.
Robert didn't respond for a bit and just bowed his head down, staring at his paper, no more than 2 inches away from his face.
I asked Robert what was wrong, saying "What's wrong, Bob?" Again, the class is uncontrollable. AT this point, it wasn't a joke, I didn't mean any offense at all, and he's still sitting in the position he just was.
Eventually some girl leans over, angles herself to see his face, and yells "I THINK HE'S CRYING!"
And that's exactly what Robert proceeds to do.
So now I'm freaking out, I have no idea how to handle this situation. I just made this undeserving, timid, fragile kid cry. I go over up to him and I'm saying sorry like crazy. I even offered to buy him a meal. That was pretty stupid of me because then that's just like saying a promise I can't keep. I'm so stressed out, the kids are all laughing and making fun of how I'm such a horrible person, I'm actually feeling like this horrible person, and there is poor little Robert, bawling his eyes out; his paper covered in tears.
Well, eventually Robert calms down and I'm finally able to breathe. Long story short, he forgave me and class continued as usual, but boy was this an experience for the future if I ever do end up teaching or do something of the likes.
Even though it's pretty hectic, this teaching job is sure fun, and I'm thinking about considering it after college, but for now, I'm taking things day by day. Korea just keeps getting better and better.
Anyhow, Funny story to tell ya'lls.
Before we begin, to the non-Korean background audiences, the word Bahp, very similar in pronunciation to the name Bob, means food.
So in my best fifth grade class (my favorite class), the students actually listen and respond, and actually study. There's this one kid in the back (whom I will refer back to very soon) who's the cutest thing on the planet, really shy, and at first I thought he was a year younger, studying up, due to how small he was. The rest of the class is fairly rowdy, but regardless, they study hard and they're smart so I let them. Anyways, we're learning about restaurant conversations and what to say when to order, etc. etc. and I'm going around the class, asking everybody what their answers were. It eventually came to the kid in the back of the class, whose name is Robert (the kids choose their own English names). When it came to Robert, I asked him what his answer was, and right after that, I proceeded to ask if I can call him Bob.
The kids in the class were in riots, they were howling and hooting, that his name sounded like Bap, so essentially, they all called him food.
Robert didn't respond for a bit and just bowed his head down, staring at his paper, no more than 2 inches away from his face.
I asked Robert what was wrong, saying "What's wrong, Bob?" Again, the class is uncontrollable. AT this point, it wasn't a joke, I didn't mean any offense at all, and he's still sitting in the position he just was.
Eventually some girl leans over, angles herself to see his face, and yells "I THINK HE'S CRYING!"
And that's exactly what Robert proceeds to do.
So now I'm freaking out, I have no idea how to handle this situation. I just made this undeserving, timid, fragile kid cry. I go over up to him and I'm saying sorry like crazy. I even offered to buy him a meal. That was pretty stupid of me because then that's just like saying a promise I can't keep. I'm so stressed out, the kids are all laughing and making fun of how I'm such a horrible person, I'm actually feeling like this horrible person, and there is poor little Robert, bawling his eyes out; his paper covered in tears.
Well, eventually Robert calms down and I'm finally able to breathe. Long story short, he forgave me and class continued as usual, but boy was this an experience for the future if I ever do end up teaching or do something of the likes.
Even though it's pretty hectic, this teaching job is sure fun, and I'm thinking about considering it after college, but for now, I'm taking things day by day. Korea just keeps getting better and better.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
임진각
Man, I should've updated earlier. I went to this place on the 25th of June and haven't updated till this much later.
A few of you probably have no idea what ching chong business this entry title is called. It reads Im-Jin-Gak, the tourist site no less than 7km away from the Military Demarcation Line (DMZ). Surprisingly, it really wasn't entirely what I thought it'd be like. I always pictured the area, even the tourist area, to be all desolate and packed with soldiers, guarding their posts. But it's really pretty cool looking, with the tourist building itself having a fairly modernized architecture look. Basically, right after you get your ticket (which you need a passport for some strange reason), you walk into this small area before the actual DMZ itself, with a few attractions themed with unification. There's a small bridge titled The Bridge of Freedom, where at the end a fence marks the start of the DMZ. This little bit of fencing, which is probably no more than about 3 meters wide, is filled from top to bottom, side to side of ribbons, leaflets, posters, anything that relates itself to the unification between North and South Korea. We just so happened to visit on 6/25, the start of the Korean War itself, and as the 59th anniversary, they unveiled this train that was bombed on the night of the North Korean assault. Personally, I didn't really agree with them bringing the train up, they should leave a landmark like that at its original location, but oh well, too late.
Man, I should really post pictures. I wish I could but I don't have anything to upload it with (aka no usb cord)
Regardless, after the mini tour at the beginning, we take a bus into the DMZ itself. It's heavily guarded and the only things that can go inand out of th DMZ are the buses, which upon entering, need a lot of inspection by the ROK (S. Korea) soldiers. Anyhoo, after the first checkup, we went to this cave/tunnel that was dug by the DPRK (N. Korea). These tunnels were about 450meters deep and spanned a few kilometers, maybe a couple of miles. Height was about 1.9m and same goes with the width, so walking through these tunnels were a bit uncomfortable, having to be ducked over a little and walking forward. So, these tunnels were made at an attempt to infiltrate and attack the ROK, but the ROK found out what was up and went in there and blocked the area entirely. The DPRK tried covering it up, saying that they were digging a coal mine, and covered all the rocks with black paint, but of course, that clearly wasn't the intent of the situation. There are a total of four tunnels like this one found, and there are probably more to come, but hopefully they just unite both Koreas and just end all of this.
After this, we went to a little museum. It basically told you about the four tunnels, and efforts beforehand that the DPRK made to take down ROK but they were all foiled. Pictures would really capture what the bulk of the museum was all about, but unfortunately, I don't have that now. I will hopefully soon and they'll probably go on Facebook as well.
The bus then took us to this place called Dora Station, a train station that is the most northern station in the ROK. The train station is not connected to any other train station in South Korea, but rather is a symbol of future hopes that the two Koreas can unite and be peaceful together. To be blunt, I originally thought that it wouldn't be a great idea joining the two Koreas, but now I see that they truly do need help and it's pretty scary and sad knowing what general idea of the lives they live, but not knowing specifically of what poverty they are suffering.
After Dora Station, we go to this little village located in the DMZ where people obviously live. This village is extremely small; the entire population of students in the only elementary school is only 67, the middle school is even less, 54, and high school, only 72. Anyways, this place is where they make everything related with beans. Beans galore, tofu beans, red beans, soy beans, whatever the like. We visited the small restaurant and ate fresh tofu, something you can't do in America because the tofu is shipped, and that's probably extremely unhealthy for anyone to eat tofu that's that "fresh". The village smelled like cow-poop. It was pretty convenient.
And that was it. The tour lasts for about 3 1/2 hours and it was a hell of an experience. The pictures here are absolutely powerful, and I really want to upload some but that probably won't happen soon ;__;
A few of you probably have no idea what ching chong business this entry title is called. It reads Im-Jin-Gak, the tourist site no less than 7km away from the Military Demarcation Line (DMZ). Surprisingly, it really wasn't entirely what I thought it'd be like. I always pictured the area, even the tourist area, to be all desolate and packed with soldiers, guarding their posts. But it's really pretty cool looking, with the tourist building itself having a fairly modernized architecture look. Basically, right after you get your ticket (which you need a passport for some strange reason), you walk into this small area before the actual DMZ itself, with a few attractions themed with unification. There's a small bridge titled The Bridge of Freedom, where at the end a fence marks the start of the DMZ. This little bit of fencing, which is probably no more than about 3 meters wide, is filled from top to bottom, side to side of ribbons, leaflets, posters, anything that relates itself to the unification between North and South Korea. We just so happened to visit on 6/25, the start of the Korean War itself, and as the 59th anniversary, they unveiled this train that was bombed on the night of the North Korean assault. Personally, I didn't really agree with them bringing the train up, they should leave a landmark like that at its original location, but oh well, too late.
Man, I should really post pictures. I wish I could but I don't have anything to upload it with (aka no usb cord)
Regardless, after the mini tour at the beginning, we take a bus into the DMZ itself. It's heavily guarded and the only things that can go inand out of th DMZ are the buses, which upon entering, need a lot of inspection by the ROK (S. Korea) soldiers. Anyhoo, after the first checkup, we went to this cave/tunnel that was dug by the DPRK (N. Korea). These tunnels were about 450meters deep and spanned a few kilometers, maybe a couple of miles. Height was about 1.9m and same goes with the width, so walking through these tunnels were a bit uncomfortable, having to be ducked over a little and walking forward. So, these tunnels were made at an attempt to infiltrate and attack the ROK, but the ROK found out what was up and went in there and blocked the area entirely. The DPRK tried covering it up, saying that they were digging a coal mine, and covered all the rocks with black paint, but of course, that clearly wasn't the intent of the situation. There are a total of four tunnels like this one found, and there are probably more to come, but hopefully they just unite both Koreas and just end all of this.
After this, we went to a little museum. It basically told you about the four tunnels, and efforts beforehand that the DPRK made to take down ROK but they were all foiled. Pictures would really capture what the bulk of the museum was all about, but unfortunately, I don't have that now. I will hopefully soon and they'll probably go on Facebook as well.
The bus then took us to this place called Dora Station, a train station that is the most northern station in the ROK. The train station is not connected to any other train station in South Korea, but rather is a symbol of future hopes that the two Koreas can unite and be peaceful together. To be blunt, I originally thought that it wouldn't be a great idea joining the two Koreas, but now I see that they truly do need help and it's pretty scary and sad knowing what general idea of the lives they live, but not knowing specifically of what poverty they are suffering.
After Dora Station, we go to this little village located in the DMZ where people obviously live. This village is extremely small; the entire population of students in the only elementary school is only 67, the middle school is even less, 54, and high school, only 72. Anyways, this place is where they make everything related with beans. Beans galore, tofu beans, red beans, soy beans, whatever the like. We visited the small restaurant and ate fresh tofu, something you can't do in America because the tofu is shipped, and that's probably extremely unhealthy for anyone to eat tofu that's that "fresh". The village smelled like cow-poop. It was pretty convenient.
And that was it. The tour lasts for about 3 1/2 hours and it was a hell of an experience. The pictures here are absolutely powerful, and I really want to upload some but that probably won't happen soon ;__;
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Gas Prices are cheap....?
So, I noticed that gas prices here are about 1600won, roughly $1.50. I asked my older cousin what was up with the gas prices, and I told him how cheap USA's were compared to that. Turns out, gas prices there go by the liter, not by the gallon. There are about four liters per gallon, which means they're paying about $6.00 per gallon. Amazing. Good thing all the cars there are basically all hybrids. 50mpg city is the USA's 30mpg city.
So yeah, a cousin of mine around my age took me out for a nice, healthy drink and beef. Boy was it tasty. I had an amazing time, and if this is just the beginning, then I know Korea will be so awesome.
So yeah, a cousin of mine around my age took me out for a nice, healthy drink and beef. Boy was it tasty. I had an amazing time, and if this is just the beginning, then I know Korea will be so awesome.
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