sans titre

well hi. This is an update because it's been a little while. It's not the day in the life thing I had planned-- not yet. The kids' final presentation assembly thing is next Thursday or something and I plan on making some videos of that. I just finished watching a movie called "Once", on a wonderful recommendation. It's good, check it out.

Things here have been fun. Last night a few fellow teachers and I scoured the area looking for a place where other foreigners hang out and it took us to a variety of very different and creepy places. Some of them were 2 floors underground with eerie neon lights and zebra striped walls, very strange. We found a place with full stage set up and about 6 people inside (2 of whom owned the place, 2 were there to play the instruments, 1 was the waiter and one was an actual patron) the instruments on stage seemed, initially, to be for show, perhaps to sucker unsuspecting foreigners into the bar. The guy who owned the place sang all the great Korean classics with a midi accompaniment. It's a kind of open-mic meets karaoke...terrible. So we stayed a little longer and yadda yadda yadda, I was somehow coerced into getting on stage to sing Hotel California.

It was surreal (the bar not my performance), it had a kind of blue neon glow and the mic was set to super-echo (I believe that's the technical term, I won't dumb it down just for my audience) and my fans (the 3 patrons and various staff) were really into it regardless of quality, it seemed like a weird movie scene.

Anyways, I had temporarily forgotten how high that song is, and unfortunately how unhigh my voice goes. Needless to say, I did not receive a record deal for my performance.
So we stayed there and made friends with some more Korean business men who came into the bar later on. I later tried my hand at crowd-pleasing on the drum kit. I accompanied a guitarist and a bassist; it was okay but again-- no record deal. The night ended late, many hours and won later, good times had by all.

I'm not sure what else to talk about. It's been a pretty quiet week. Our schedules are in the midst of a big shift as this is the beginning of new school year so I get new classes. I am now officially a kindergarten teacher which just means I have to eat lunch with the kiddies; I'm not overly excited about that, but whatever, no big deal.
So this was just a little one til I get a better pile of stories. Hope everyone's well and your things all work (electronics and cars and whatnot) life seems to be better when that's the case; easier, rather.

anyways, we'll talk more (I'll talk more) later.

evan

post script: album recommendation is in accordance with my movie tip at the beginning. It's an Irish - Czech duo with guy called Glen Hansard and a girl called Marketa Irglova. They have an album called the Swell Season and a lot of it is quite nice, take a listen- thank me later.

아싸!

real update time. About an hour ago I was minutes from going to bed then I turned on the TV to an Shopping Channel-esque station selling the jiggley machines I have been telling some people about. To those who are not familiar, they are often used in 1950s footage of gyms where the person straps him or herself to a machine that jiggles the fat off your body whilst you stand. What a concept. Anyways, I filmed a small portion of the channel for your enjoyment. Note the music...

So I thought that in addition to my witty commentary, you might enjoy.

Things are good, speaking of the gym, I was in there yesterday pumping iron when an older gentleman came up to me, and asked if I was American. I said, "no, Canadian". He thought that was better. He proceeded to ask me what the difference between a pot and a jar was. I was able to tell him with dizzying insight that a jar has a lid and a pot often does not (the cooking variety excluded). I thought it was an odd question but he seemed rather satisfied with my answer. Rightly so.

Lunar New Year was interesting. It is nothing like Western New Year. It is a very family oriented holiday, and nothing is open. It was sometimes hard to find things (ie. minutes for my cell phone) that were sort of important for about 4 days. I didn't really do anything productive or culturally enlightening. I went into Seoul a few times (see preceding video) and it was buckets of fun.

You may have heard that the historic sight called Namdaemun gate was destroyed in a fire the other day. It was a pretty big deal as it was one of Korea's oldest monuments that survived the various wars and conflicts of the last hundred-or-so years. I may go to see it soon. It'll likely be busy with people doing the same.

I intend on taking my camera to school so you can see what a day in this life is like. That'll likely be the topic of next day's post. I think I just heard your anticipation...it's okay, I'm excited too.

Send me an email or MSN or facebook or carrier pigeon, I like to know what's going down on that side of the planet.

Valentines was today, I received much chocolate. I see it as a physical manifestation of my skill. I have much skill, by this logic.

peace out

evan

post script: the kids say 아싸 (assah) when they are happy about a situation. try it, it works.

My solitary journey home

The subways close at 12:00am and reopen at 6:00am which leaves you with two, almost equally unrealistic times to get home for cheap from a night out in Seoul. I chose the latter option. It was eerily empty, so I decided to chronicle my journey.

I added subtitles as it's difficult to hear over the subway noise and my droning, near-sleep voice. enjoy.

The train was out of service so I had to get off and wait at that stop for another 15 or so minutes. It was less entertaining than the ride to the station so I chose not to show it.