greetings from my couch in Kangnam, Seoul, South Korea
well, this blog goes out to the men of chicago, with whom i lived the high life, in the city of wonders. i miss playing euchre and the random baseball games. why couldn't there have been a year long program offered there in Chicago (sure, i'd have gone broke, but i'd have been worth it). that'd be a blast....
well, this past week was absolutely amazing. for some reason, yet to figure out, God just felt like giving me a free ride for the whole week. i couldn't have asked for better weather, more sunshine, cool breezes, and the amazing ability of being able to - and try to comprehend how important this is - sleeping in until 9:00 am, and then waking up, and saying to myself, "good morning gorgoeous, you're teaching in korea, and you're here for another ten months", and NOT want to get up and bang my head into a wall. i know, isn't life grand? and sure, this monday started off brutally. not only did we have a thunderstorm on sunday evening that was a storm without rain, but it woke up nearly the entire city, all for nothing. that and my students felt like it was a good time to "ruin that "let's get off to a good week" feeling' - hence, no one having homework done, and just rampant korean speaking, at the most inoportune times.
this past weekend was also amazing. after going out for the typical friday night round at the bar with the co-workers, i went back early, and just hit the sack, falling asleep in double-time. (a short jaunt on the bar. over here, we go to this really cool bar called the ice-pirates. stupid name, but cool concept. over 2/3's of your glass is a cup of ice - you only hold onto the holder of the beer. a plastic sleeve inside the ice cup holds the beer. the ice ensures that the beer stays cold, no matter how long it takes you to finish off a pint. but the coolest part is that when you're done the pint, you get to throw your ice cup at a screen wall, and if you hit the target in the centre, you win one of ten different prizes, from a free drink, to OJ, to french fries, etc. needless to say, we've mastered the art at hitting the target with about 90% accuracy. its pretty cool).
saturday was absolutely wonderful. after waking up at 8:30am, and feeling rested, we proceeded to go biking for about three hours, all the way across the city, into Itaewon, or, the trashy part of Seoul - the fact that the US has a military outpost has NOTHING to do with the "trashy" nature of the people who "work" there........really.......you've got to believe me.......
after spending close to three hours in the saddle, my hind quarters needed a rest, so the rest of the evening was spent catching up with a good friend called Xbox.
Sunday was where the Chicago reference comes in - after going to church in the morning (where, of all the days to go, the english interpretor decided to not show up - so instead, i got to read last weeks sermon notes. i'd say it had a profound effect, but i'd be lying. something was missing. regardless, it was good to be in a church with fellow believers. something about all of Korea - they take intense pride in their choirs, and they provide amazing accompaniment with their musical ability. but the afternoon, we went to a Korean baseball game. that was fun - it reminded me of the random afternoon games we went to at White Sox stadium. the seats sucked, but we made up for it by making sure everyone around us knew that their were foreigners in the stadium. and in Korea, each team has travelling cheerleaders who really know how to get the crowd interested in between innings......i think they should bring this part over to MLB - it got us interested. on a small side note, the team we were rooting for got spanked, 10-4, outhit 18-7, and they had a whitey (read: foreigner) on the mound. not only can they not throw fast in Korea (fastest pitch we saw - the fastball, whizzed by at a startling 80mph - and they throw nothing but junk here. not the offense or home run barrage we were hoping for, but it was fun nonetheless.
well, i need to get going - its nearly 1:00am, or just nearing noon for you back home - i hope that this finds you all in good health - again, postings are welcome to initiate conversation, i just can't read em. God Bless, and i'll send something else soon....
Bryan