Ramblings of an under-stimulated mind

Someone once told me the hardest part of in-line skating (or roller-blading) is telling your parents you’re gay. I never have or never will have the experience of telling parents that, but i think stopping is the hardest thing. I have no recollection of it but apparently I agreed to go roller-blading with some of the teachers this afternoon. So, here’s me in the office earlier today: Every afternoon once lessons are over, I sit in my classroom browsing the net and listening to music, completely clueless to the flurry of activity going on outside. Monday = roller-blading, Tuesday = football practise, Wednesday = golf coaching, Thursday = more football and Friday is free. Technically they’re activities for the students of course, but, it’s not like the native English teacher has the stature of a proper teacher, so I shall join in. On Wednesday I will pick up a golf club for the first time in two years, dangerous things could happen.

I had dinner in a taxi last night. After a four week break in fixtures I was back in Suwon for some football. As I got in the taxi to go back to the bus terminal, I was immediately given half of the driver’s dinner, a smile, a napkin and a bottle of water. That’s hospitality. I think I’d be like that if I was a taxi driver. I spoke every Korean word I know, he laughed, I laughed, then he pointed at some guys on mopeds… no lights and no safety helmets… then he made a ‘cut-throat’ gesture and said “death”. I think he was genuinely concerned as opposed to wanting to murder them. Still, the spontaneous dinner was nice and we won the match 5-2. Top of the league, game in hand and just 5 games of the season remaining. Not too bad.

Saturday evening was spontaneous too. The evening in never happened. I received a text from my new friend, co-worker and changgoo teacher, Miss Jun Sun-Young, that stated, “come to the drum club office if you’re free”. I considered myself free so I made my way there. Within ten seconds of walking through the door I was cooking sudogae soup and sausage. Some over-enthusiastic stirring led to a potentially nasty spillage. My new puma shoes broke the fall of a large spoonful of bright red soup which I swore would stain. I found out today it didn’t, which was nice. After the meal I invited the first guests to the large cupboard I call home. Me, Mr Kim and Jun Sun had English tea, I lit candles and an incense stick and we looked through photos while listening to Damien Rice. Apparentley my dad could be my twin. I haven't worked out if that's a compliment to dad or an insult to me!?

Maybe it’s the electronic relationship, but a Faithless album and neon lighting go together very well. At the end of a sleepy bus journey home each evening, I get off the bus two stops early so I have a short walk home in the brisk autumn air. My route takes me up the main shopping street here in Icheon, buzzing with people and awash with bright & dancing lights. I had Faithless on the ipod earlier and it was a little bit magical. I couldn’t stop smiling and felt very much alive, I guess you had to be there. You should be here actually. I’m still waiting my first visitor.

Pigs feet, kidnapping & eel

Today I was up before sunrise and then nearly ruined by soup. The ridiculous 6.30am wake-up call came just 3 hours after crashing out on the floor of a hotel room with the other teachers at Songkok Elementary School. Last night was a ‘social time’, ‘for drink soju’. All the teachers out for dinner, drinks, noraebang and an after party back in the hotel room. I’m not sure why we had to be up so early but I am sure that I was a broken shell of a man as I sat in a restaurant having a rice and soup breakfast. The soup was hotter than the sun (temperature-wise) and wouldn’t cool down, now I can’t taste anything. I would have gladly given my right arm for a breakfast meal at Buddies this morning. Those lush, lush waffles drenched in maple syrup, bacon, fried potato slices, nice coffee… mmm, I’m not gonna lie to you, I’m dribbling right now.

Last night was good-ish. I’ve come to the conclusion that about 60% of the time here, I haven’t got a clue what’s going on and I kinda like that. The last 24hours have felt like a bizarre kidnapping. On Thursday afternoon I was told to bring an overnight bag to school the next day. Then after classes yesterday I was put into a car, driven to Anseong, stopped at every eel restaurant in Anseong as a co-teacher collected a business card from each establishment, lead to a conference room at a hotel, listened to 30mins of discussion about something to do with school, driven to a restaurant (it was eel), fed copious amounts of soju, watched my colleagues get absolutely smashed, then led a noraebang singing room, somehow upset the vice-principal by singing (!?), driven back to the hotel, sat in my PJ’s with the teachers snacking and drinking. At 9am today I was dropped back home with a headache, a bewildered smile and a box full of leftover snacks & beers.

Another ‘what’s going on’ moment came on Thursday and my first open class. It’s like an evaluation where other teachers and officials (!?) come to watch a lesson. The lesson opened with my co-teacher singing an operatic version of ‘honesty’ by Billy Joel. It came from nowhere. After the lesson everyone is invited to sit and discuss the events and teaching styles. It’s all completely pointless. It felt more like a theatrical production than a lesson but everyone left happy, so I guess it’s all ok. We’re in Korea now, we don’t question authority. After the lesson we had a few bottles of celebratory soju and ate pigs’ feet, as you do.

I’m off to have an evening in, a rarity this week. Guitar & online lessons, Korean textbook or freshly downloaded Extras season one…???

Changgoo like buses

It turns out that musical instruments are like buses, you spend ages waiting for one and then two come along at once. Actually, i've never experienced that with buses. The only time two have came at the same time, they have been heading in opposite directions, which kind of renders one of them useless to the potential customer. Anyway, it's not important.

Last week, i spent an evening with these people:

The beautiful lady to my right (as you look at the picture) is a teacher i work with. The rest of the shiny happy people are the members of her Korean drumming club. I am their newest and only ever foreign member. The drum is called a 'changgoo' and is illustrated below. It looks rather simple but the speed at which it's played and the sticks to be used produce a crazy amount of sound. So it's now the guitar and the changgoo. I start lessons on Thursday and i'll have two a week. In the words of the teacher, "we eat dinner after class, also drinking alot and alot of happy". Good times ahead. Could this week be the birth of the worlds most random one-man-band!? I sure hope so.

G major

The beginners mind is a wonderful place.

I bought a guitar this week. As most of you will know, I am not really all that musical. I think I have rhythm (if I do say so myself) but I cannot read music and have little experience of playing any instruments. Inspiration for this brand new hobby has come from two sources this week. Firstly, I received an e-mail from the granddad of one of my pupils. He’s 79 years young, lives in a small village near Icheon, has never left Korea and he’s studying conversational English at a Korean version of an old person’s home. If that’s not inspiration I don’t know what is.

The second source was and is Jason Mraz. Having seen him at Rockwerchter this summer I have been a little bit addicted to his music and myspace blogs ever since. Apart from having a great sound and producing some wonderful music, he is cool, really cool. Dutch cool. He’s actually American though.

I don’t think this will be one of those things I lose interest in after a week. The early signs are good. Two sittings on a comfortable chair with no arms, and I have mastered ‘g major’ and‘d major’. The free online lesson says just one more chord and I’ll be able to play ‘Leaving on a jet plane’ by John Denver. I’m looking forward to that. However, I’m not gonna mention this subject for a while again (just in case it is a 5min hobby)

Red = danger

I want to tell you about kancho. It’s the reason I have felt physically violated for a couple of days while at school. Kancho is actually a Japanese word for this rather unusual and playful act perfected by children all over Asia. In Korean, it is called ‘ttong-chim’ and to give you a faint idea of what I’m talking about, the phrase ttong-chim translates roughly to ‘excrement needle’. Don’t like where this is heading? Me neither. Wikipedia has just backed up my experience by stating that, ‘ttong-chim is performed by clasping ones hands together so the index fingers are pointing out and attempting to insert them sharply into someone's anal region when the victim is not looking’. This is seen as a hilarious gag due to the shocked facial expression and audible reaction of the victim. I can vouch for this. I did feel violated though. Apparently an adult can get arrested for doing it, but for a child… its all fun and games. Yet another one of Korea’s beautiful contrasts.

How have you been doing then? It’s ‘two down and three to go’ of another week for Mr Glenn. This week seems to be flying past though. Hopefully it’ll continue that way. I’m sorry to say I am still finding teaching to be something I can’t feel passionate about. I do my lesson plans, teach the lesson but teaching an elementary level isn’t stimulating. There are not many challenges. This is a nice thing in many ways, yet frustrating in others. I mean, this week my biggest worry has been farting on the bus. Yes. Pumping. I have my iPod on quite loud so I never know if my farts are loud, quiet, full of stench or odor-less. That is the single aspect of this week which has caused most concern for me. I need something new to occupy my brain. I might try and lean an instrument.

I have only just regained full brain power today, this after a weekend inspired by Cass Red. Cass is a lager over here and red definitely means danger. Cass Red is a lethal 6.9% lager which tastes nice but kills brain cells at a fair old rate of knots. Friday night was a lot of fun though. Who’s seen the movie ‘Lost in Translation’ before? It’s way cool. I felt like a scene from that movie on Friday evening. You know the one where Bill Murray is in the Japanese singing room with several strangers, but loving it and having a blast. We found a modern and rather suave noraebang singing room, filled it with fifteen or so beautiful people who are still getting to know each other and PAR-TAY-ED.

So, Friday night (drinks at someone’s house) + noraebang + 6am bedime = Saturday cancelled.

I’m not drinking this coming weekend.

By the time I felt human again it was Sunday. I took a bus into Seoul for a Couchsurfing meet-up. The website is www.couchsurfing.com/ and that’ll explain what it is for anyone who doesn’t know. Basically, it’s a travel site where you make contacts where you’re going to be heading, and crash at their place rather than pay for hotels etc. It’s like an online utopia for mobile, trusting and faithful peoples. Anyway, each big city has a group and this past Sunday was the Seoul monthly meet-up. Really cool people. A nice end to a weekend is a roof-top party in the centre of Seoul in the warm glow of an autumn sun. There were backpackers, hosts, life-long Seoul-ites and a mini-gang of three of us from Icheon. Good times.

End of summer

I’ve been in South Korea for nearly 6 weeks and this week has been the first full 5-day working week, that’s not too bad is it? A combination of national holidays, teacher training and trips to the Suwon immigration office are to thank for this. A straight 5-day stint at work seemed a daunting prospect on Monday morning… but I think that had more to do with a slight hangover and a weekend that included some unorthodox sleeping patterns.

After a rather epic evening out last Friday, Glenn struggled to find a jjimjilbang for some sleep. However, Glenn did manage to find a cosy jazz bar open late enough to cover the hour before the subway opened again. Glenn is enjoying referring to himself in the third person, but didn’t enjoy falling asleep on the subway at 6am and missing his stop twice. This resulted in a nice 2 hour journey on a subway train, should have been 20mins. Lessons learnt. Saturday and Sunday last week were spent at the Oneworld Music Festival here in Icheon. Wow. Our little agricultural city was transformed into an international music mecca. The air filled with beats, the ground full of empty paper beer cups and the people were covered in smiles. Hips swayed and shook too.

So… yes. The full week at school wasn’t too bad, tiring of course, frustrating at times... of course. Just get on with it. I only teach till 1.30pm so it’s all about getting through the mornings. At 1.30pm today I kicked back, relaxed, drank coffee, ate sweet potatoes with the other teachers and then listened to ‘Mr Curiosity’ by Jason Mraz. I had it on repeat as I want to learn the words. It’s a beautiful song.

I slept really good last night. The best night’s sleep since I’ve been here, easily. Last night I slept naked for the first time since I’ve been here. I usually do at home, but when I first arrived here I didn’t have bed sheets for 2 nights so I wore PJ’s. The habit stuck till last night. Hmm, I have no idea why I’m sharing that with you. Well, it’s my blog I can write what I want. I’ll sleep well tonight too. I found and joined a gym this evening and am currently very tired and aching like… well, something that aches a lot. The gym will be a good thing to do. The darkness of night is starting earlier and the temperature is changing. I think summer officially ended on Sunday night. I walked home from the music festival and felt cold for the first time in a long while. Coupled with saying ‘goodbye’ to the high of a festival and ‘hello’ the low of a looming Monday, it felt like the end of something anyway. Here is a selection of photo’s from this week:

1) Mr. Glenn and Mr. Kim (the principle/big boss man)
2) Getting closer to a full English breakfast
3) Korean language classes
4) One last music festival of summer 2007

Little things

You know... if you have good music, good people and a few beers... you have alot, and nothing else seems to matter. Afrocelt Sound System, a totally unique and beautiful sound. Los Van Van, a latin entourage of hip-swaying and heart-warming beats. Loved it. Thank-you Icheon city council and Seolbong Park, you made my weekend.

"and dance like no-one's watching..."

A day in the life

Today was a pretty average working day for Mr.Glenn, so i thought that as i sit here sipping on a can of Hite beer of this Thursday evening at 10.45, i'd take this opportunity to share with you... a day in the life of 'Glenn teacher'.

Alarm number one sounds at 06.30am in the morning and acts as a warning that the day is close. I have 3 alarms and today i actually got up on the second alarm at 06.45. This meant that by the time the third alarm had sounded, i was pouring coffee and almost ready to eat some eggs and bacon on toast. Nice. I'm the kind of person who likes to shower last thing before bed rather than in the morning, i've aways been like that. So... after breakfast, coffee, coming to terms with the next 10 hours and selecting which 'smart/casual' attire i'll adopt for the day, it's a 5min walk to the bus stop. Icheon Songgok Elementary is a 35min bus journey out of town through scenic countryside and various villages which time seems to have forgotten. For company, i have my ipod and today it was Amy Winehouse. She really is special, her sound is amazing. I arrive at school at approx. 08.30, change into my school slippers (they have a 1inch heel), greet the teachers with a bow and a polite 'anneyong haseyo', take another coffee and make my way to the English zone.

Lessons start at 09.30 so i usually have around 50mins for facebook, e-mails and attempting half-hearted lesson plans for the day. I teach 3 lessons every morning, each lasting 40mins with a 10min break in-between. To be honest, the teaching is draining, a little frustrating and can be mind-numbing, but more about that at a later date. Lunch begins at 11.50 and is traditional Korean foods served in the school hall. Teachers and students alike have silver trays filled with rice, kimchi, a soup, boiled vegetabes and a meat or noodle dish. Mr.Glenn sits with the school admnistrators and senior teachers while making patient broken English conversation with some of the teachers. Today i was asked when will i get married. I didn't have an answer. Hopefully one day though. After lunch see's another coffee, some staff-room chit-chat and the cleaning of teeth before a 20min chill-out session prior to my one afternoon lesson. That lesson starts at 12.50 and finishes at 1.30. The contract states my working hours are 08.30-4.30 so i have to be in school till 4.30. Those three hours are usually spent on facebook, travel websites, sipping more coffee, Korean flute lessons, football coaching or lesson planning. Today i had my first teachers class though. For an hour all the teachers come to me for conversational English. I am sure this wll be my favourite class. We sit and talk about anything and everything with myself making points about grammar etc. as they arise. It's nice.

4.45 usually sees the return bus jouney to Icheon city and back home. Today however i got a lift as we had a social time planned. We had a meal, sat & talked, went through all the pictures on my camera and then went to noraebong (kareoke room). Sober kareoke is a difficult one for me. It's really popular here. There are bars which have private rooms for singing and they hold 5-15 people depending on the place. Tonight i sang the following, completly sober, solo:

Vertigo - U2
Help - The Beatles
You're Beautiful - James Blunt
Smooth - Santana
Yesterday- The Beatles

I arrived home at about 8.45, saw my Canadian neighbours door open, had a coffee and a chat with him and now i'm sat here typing away. Now i'll go take a shower, log in to arrowjazz.nl and the Dutch radio station will send me to sleep. Throughout each day i go through regular feelings of happiness, self-achievement, frustration, breif despair, loneliness, contentment, independance, confusion, accomplishment and alot of self-reflection. I believe the following quote to be very true:

"to find yourself, first you must lose yourself..."

I think i'm slowly getting lost.

This what i am looking at... and how i look today...

Don't be a stranger y'all :) x

Jjimjilbang debut

I’ve found my favourite Korean cultural pastime. Jjimjilbang maybe difficult to spell but it’s a great way to spend time. They are large 24-hour public bathhouses with saunas, spas, steam rooms, hot & cold baths, sleeping areas, DVD rooms, singing rooms and some have outside gardens. For the Koreans, they represent a means of spending time with friends and family over a weekend or an evening. However, for Mr.Glenn they are a great way of killing time when I miss the last bus home and have to wait till 7am to get another one! All for under £5. Not too shabby.

The actual bath and spa areas are gender-segregated and nudity is a must. After showers, ice-baths, hot baths, spa’s, steam room, more showers and getting used to the starring at the westerner with a hairy chest, you get changed into your pre-issued orange t-shirt and shorts (think prison summer-wear and you have a good idea) and it’s off to the unisex area. Here you’ll find a large warm floor with mats for sleeping, widescreen tv’s, dvd rooms, singing rooms, snack bars, mini bars and some have small restaurants attached. Everything is open 24hrs. It’s bizarre. It’s different. It’s wonderful. Where else at 3am can you sit in a natural outside steam room with a 3-year-old Korean girl and her parents giving an impromptu English lesson while wearing prison attire and sipping on a beer. I certainly don’t think I’ll be booking anymore hotels or hostels over here.

All of that technically on a school night too. Not really, as this Wednesday is Korean Foundation Day which is another national holiday here. I did need a break from school after 2 straight days of work. It can be mind-numbing and frustrating and it makes me tired. The curriculum is poor but we have to stick to it and we haven’t got a great deal of freedom. So I’m going to fill the evenings with as much as I can, enjoy my weekends and go from there.

The jjimjilbang debut coincided with a Camp Horizons reunion on Tuesday evening. In the summer of 2004, Heather and Iggy worked at a special needs summer camp in Connecticut, USA. Then in summer 2005, Iggy was still an Camp Horizons employee after signing a year-long contract, and myself & Dash were there for our first summer. Since April 2007 the four of us have been e-mailing each other after me and Heather knew we would be teaching in South Korea, making connections across continents and 3 years. That’s kinda cool.

Stay safe and keep in touch xxx