A few weeks ago I was invited to go to a city named Mokpo on the west coast of South Korea.  Mokpo is a beach/dock town and is actually quite beautiful.  Everyone was excited and eventually I became excited, too.  The plan was to drink on the beach all weekend.  That was the plan.
    It started this past Saturday, with most people leaving in the morning but my friend Apple and I decided to leave in the afternoon.  We figured that we would arrive around 5 o'clock or so, as we didn't know any better.  We bought tickets for a different city as the bus was leaving sooner.  We hopped on the bus and arrived at station after about an hour.  Once we got there (it was 2:30 at this point) we went to buy tickets and found out that it was a 5 hour bus ride.  5 hours, plus the extra two waiting for the bus as well.  We killed some time in a little cafe and had lunch.  Once the bus arrived (now it's 4:30) we prepared for our trip but weren't too worried as we had ipods, books and good company. 
    The trip to Mokpo was was uneventful.  Just really long.  We arrived sometime after 10 (traffic on the road) and met up with everyone on the beach.  The beach, as it turns out, was about 30 ft down from the sidewalk and roughly 50 feet wide.  And it was cold.  But, we had drinks and music and everyone was having a good time.  Kiwi Dave was trying to win some sexy panties from a claw machine (not really relevant, but pretty damn funny).  Everyone was getting a bit too cold and we decided to go to the motel.  The plan was for me and Apple to get a room, but the motel was full.  Turns out Dave hadn't got a room either.  The woman that owned the place also would not let us sleep on anyone's floor.  So Dave and I started to walk around looking for a different motel.  The first one had no one at reception.  The second was full.  And the third, too.  And fourth.  And fifth.  In fact all of the 9 we visited were booked solid.  We decided to just sneak into the motel and sleep on the floor.  That was the plan until we got back and the owner had chained the door shut.  Not very well, though, as we were able to unloop it.  The very idea that she would prevent anyone from leaving the motel after 11pm is not only absurd, but really fuckin' creepy, too.
    We tried to get in but the owner, who is a little old women who was probably around 138 years old, stepped out of her office/bedroom and foiled our clever plan.  We tried to find a way to sleep there, telling her that everywhere else was booked and that we would pay her.  She wasn't having it.  Finally, she told us to wait there and disappeared for a bit.  Dave made the comment that it felt like waiting in the principal's office.  It did.  She came back after a bit and told us to follow her.  She led us through a garage, a back alley, and steep stairwell and through some rickety walkways.  At last, we found ourselves at a door to a vacant room.  Room 102.  Nothing impressive.  Small, broken fan and part of the ceiling was coming down, but it was perfect.  We were tired it was a place to sleep.  So Dave, Apple and myself settled in and got a decent nights rest.  On the floor.
    I woke in the morning eagerly anticipating some fun in the sun.  I got up off the floor, walked to the window, threw open the curtains and...gray.  Nothing but clouds.  And it was a bit chilly.  We hoped that it would clear up once we got to the beach.  We met everyone at the ferry station and got on the ferry to some island with an good beach and few people.  No plan at this point, we were just going to get off at a place we fancied.  I should point out that even an a short ferry cruise to some of the islands of the coast still require a passport number.  Didn't know.  Didn't have it.  Turns out, though, that me and my German friend Gunther have the exact same passport number.  Weird, huh?
    The ferry was crowded and we really stood out.  I spent all of my time on deck, as the two large cabins still require you to take off your damn shoes.  We were on the water for about an hour until we spotted an island that we dug.  We disembarked and started walking.  We had been carrying a cooler that weighed roughly 40 pounds or so.  In lieu of lugging it across the island, we stashed it in and around some garbage.  Hey, pirates stashed gold, we stash booze.  The island was actually pretty cool.  At least is would be during the height of summer.  There were dozens of slides and pools, but there were all empty.  No worries.  We all went to a fairly private beach and just hung out. 
    We had been there for a few hours when it started to rain a little bit.  The sun hadn't been out all day so we were expecting this.  We started walking back to the dock and settled in to the little waiting shack.  Once we got in, the heavens opened up and the rain really came down.  At first it was alright and then other people started packing into this little shed.  It wasn't the most comfortable I had ever been, but I have experienced worse.  The ferry finally showed up after about two hours of waiting, and everyone ran onboard (it was still raining very heavily).  I bought a beer on the boat and again spent all my time on deck.  It was raining like hell and the wind was making everything wet, and the boat was tossing a bit.  It was awesome.  For some reason, I loved it.  We hung out a bit and had our pictures taken with a couple of Korean fellas (at their behest, not ours). 
    We finally arrived in port and decided that, since it was raining, we would cut our weekend short and catch a bus or train back home.   We went to the train station that took us to a place that was slightly closer to Gimhae.  I slept the entire time so I can't really say anything about that trip.  After that, we went to a very large bus station and caught a bus back to Gimhae.  We figured that we'd be home around 12 am.  We were wrong.  We spent about two hours in traffic in a bus were the driver refused to turn the AC on.  I was fortunate.  I had a window.  HA!  But we weren't moving that much so I was still pretty hot.  We all finally got home, parted ways and went to sleep.  It was an interesting weekend.  Cheers.
   

     I'll just jump right in.  This past Friday, some friends and I went to a charming little area of Gimhae called Samgae-dong.  It was a change, to be sure.  First we went to the batting cages, where I killed my arm by swinging at baseballs (and hitting more than a few), smacking a punching bag (where I got an arbitrary strength score of slightly below 9000), whackin' "moles" on a rigged machine, shooting basketballs and holding a beer all night.  All in the space of about 20 square feet.  After that, we all proceeded to eat dukkalbi which wasn't really all that good.
     After we had our fill, we headed over to a bar called "Long Life" where they have drinking games built into to the table, which could no doubt lead to a shortening of one's life.  Even though it was a Friday night, this place closed at 2am.  We found out that little tidbit just after a charming, little British girl declared Samgae superior to my home of Naedong.  After drinking as much as we could, with help from the built-in drinking games, we decided it would be a good idea to go to a noraebang (which is private karaoke, by the way).  At this point, the night gets a little hazy.  The one thing that does remain clear is that on my cab ride home, the driver asked me where I was from.  "Miguk" I replied.  "Oh!  America!" was his ecstatic response.  He then proceeded, in broken English, to talk to me about American politics.  Well, that's what I gleaned from his "Hilary.  Obama.  McCain."  statement.  After that, I got home and fell into bed and had decent nights rest.
    Now, you'd think that after drinking alcohol to the point of late-night amnesia would make someone disinclined to go out the next night and repeat the process.  Well, sometimes common sense gets left at the bar the night before.  In my defense, however, I didn't drink that much at all.  Guess I'm becoming more responsible.  Anyway, the same crew short a few went to a place called Injae.  What did we do there?  Drank, of course.  Well, I primarily played pool.  At first I played each one of my friends until another friend, Scott, showed up and I played him for a while.  As we played, we started hearing hooting and hollering.  Turns out, several drunk Korean women were at the end of the bar and had become our cheering section.  They cheered loudly when we made a shot and gave a consolatory "awww" whenever we missed.  That was fine.  Eventually, however, they came over and just leaned on the table and watched us play.  Scott was uncomfortable.  I thought it was hilarious. 
    A short while later, we found ourselves playing two different Korean ladies at the behest of their friend.  We played them for a while, and generally had a good time.  One of their tactics was to get very close to one of us and say "I like you" in an effort to make us miss.  After the game concluded, we exchanged contact info. (Scott gave his phone number, I, wisely, gave my email).   After hanging out at this bar for a few hours, we walked next door to another bar.  At this bar, everyone decided to play a drinking game called Titanic.  Titanic consists of placing an empty shot glass in a full mug of beer.  The goal is to pour the slightest bit of Soju (Korean vodka) in the shot glass without making it sink, hence the terribly distasteful name.  At this point I decided keep those three sheets in my pocket and not get drunk. 
   All in all, a very entertaining weekend and one I look back fondly on.  Heres to more awesome weekends.  Cheers.

A very brief update and some pictures of the cherry blossom festival.

It's been like a week since I've posted anything.  There's two reasons for this:  one, I've been cleaning my apartment from top to bottom and, two, I've been bereft of things to talk about.  Been a dry week.  But, I am finalizing some things to talk about.  Now I just need to find time to sit in front of the camera and talk.  Hopefully, that'll be soon.

   A couple weeks ago, I was at a party for a friend of mine.  At said party, I was talking to another friend of mine, Andy, about a recent invite I received.  I asked Andy if it was his birthday party or going away party.  He cocked his head and said "What?"  Turns out, the party was supposed to be a surprise.  My other friend Scott, who was standing with us, jumped to my defense and said "It (the invitation) didn't saying anything about it being a surprise."  Regardless, I kind of removed myself rather quickly and tried to forget about my faux pas.
    Fast forward to this past weekend, the party.  At the party, after Andy has arrived blindfolded things kicked off.  At little bit later, Scott called me over and wanted to know if he could ask me a question.   He asked "Can you tell everyone that you told Andy about the party?"  Turns out that everyone had been blaming him about the party leak.  People have also come to him and said "don't blame yourself.  It could happen to anyone."  Of course, Scott was pretty irked by this but I thought it was absolutely hilarious.  After a while I started to feel a bit guilty (after telling everyone about my 'perfect crime' and laughing) so I told the "key players" that it was me that told Andy.  They didn't care, they just though that it was funny as hell. 
    Next time, I'm going to keep my mouth shut about anything important.  But if I do get caught, I'll just let someone else take the fall.  I'm only kidding, but I am pretty good at it.  

    I've always been told that, when I was a kid, I showed a natural talent for drawing.  While that may be true, or not, I can't hold a candle, and doubt I ever could, to this girl named Ava.  Ava is a 10 year old in my first class on Thursdays.  Today, she brought a very large sketchbook and placed it on the table.  Being naturally curious, I took a gander.  Ava didn't mind.  The first page was a damn-near perfect sphere that was shadowed in a way it looked like a professional did it.   But she did it.  There was also a very detailed, albeit cartoony, market scene which was fully colored.  And there was a street scene that showed me this girl has perspective and dimension down. 
    Well, not wanting to outdone by a 10 year old I went out after work and bought a sketchbook and some pencils.  Do I have the skill to back it up?  Hell if I know.  I'll ask Ava for some pointers, and see if she thinks my drawings are up to snuff.  All joking aside, this girl has more artistic talent than I've seen in anyone.  I hope she continues to draw.  I'd hate to see her fall into the downward spiral of Starcraft.

I hate being sick.  When you're sick, everything seems to be that much more irritating.  Take the events surrounding my refrigerator.  Now, my fridge has never been great.  Mostly kept things chilled as opposed to cold.  During the winter, though, I suppose that's okay.  But we're moving into spring now and my food is now being kept at "luke-cold," if that's a proper phrase.  There's dripping water in my fridge and a pool of ice in freezer and ice-stalactites.  Both of those mean running water in a place that should be below freezing.  I told my boss about it, and he said I should set everything to medium.  Why?  Hell if I know.  He said he would come by between 9 and 10 that night to look at it.  He never showed up, or called me.  So by the technical definition, I was stood up.  Bastard.  Well, he came by this afternoon and looked at it.  He said it was fine and the water was caused by my food.  He didn't explain how.  My assumption is that he's a repository of appliance knowledge and directs a small private school "just because." 
But sarcasm aside, he said he would call someone and if it's busted, he'll either have it fixed or replace it.  So, cool.

Here ya go.

Here's why I haven't been online in the past few weeks.  Turn down your speakers.  This is pretty loud.

This past weekend saw the celebration of the two birthdays.  It was decided that both parties would be celebrated at the same time because they fell so close together.  We spent a few hours in the park, drinking and generally carrying on.  While we were drinking, several people's students came up (including two of my own) and stuck around for a few minutes.  Now, I should point out that most of like our students.  It's just that we like our free time too. 
The weather is getting a bit warmer, pushing the mid-sixties during the day, though the wind is still a bit chilly.  I'm also sick again, which I'm blaming on the yellow dust.  As the name implies, it's yellow dust that apparently comes in from China and makes people sick.  Man, does China suck. 
This coming week is also when a friend is leaving to go back home.  Usually every week or two sees someone leave and someone else arrive.  It happens all the time, but it still sucks.
I also shaved my head again.  I did it for various reasons, but I tell people that the women couldn't speak English and I could only mime a buzz cut.  She looked horrified, for some reason.  Not sure why.  Some of the kids treat me as a monk now.  I'm thinking of asking for alms so I can have extra beer money.

Before anyone points it out, I see that I wrote "we're are" in the post below.  Yes, yes it's redundant.  That's right.  I'm teaching English.

Howdy.  It's been a while since I posted anything.  Yeah, I know, I'm a loser.  Well, this video is of me singing because I promised some people that I would.  Hopefully this will do until I actually post something relevant to Korea.  The song is Rootless Tree by Damien Rice.  At the moment, I'm transitioning from the overly raspy voice to me actually singing so it may sound awkward right now.  Also, the quality of the sound is crap anyway but I don't know if that actually made much of a difference.  And because I enjoyed myself while doing it, I'll probably post more of the same, although next time I might be on stage.  Don't know at this point.  I've been talking with another Dawg who happens to be living near me and who is also a performer and we've been discussing the possibility of collaborating on...stuff. 
    We're trying to start a trend at the bar we frequent that would let people come in and perform, al la  open mic.  That's the problem right now.  The music scene in my area is woefully underdeveloped.  We're are trying to change that.  Outside of that, nothing much has changed here.  It's still Korea. 

Okay, the video problem is sorted out so I actually post.  I'll post a few in the next couple of hours.   Scouts honor.

It's 2 am the day of.  I'm leaving in 3 and half hours to jump on a plane to South Korea (well, first Michigan and then to Tokyo but after that).  I'm looking around at all the familiar things around me.  My couch, TV, bed, guitar etc.  It's weird to know that It'll be another year before I see this stuff again.  I got home about an hour ago from a bar hanging out with my friends for the last time for the next while.  I've never liked goodbyes and part of me would have preferred to to leave with no fanfare.  But it's all good.  I'll be in Korea tomorrow morning and begin a very long experience.  Cheers.

At some point, I plan to actually create a website where I have free reign on what is posted.  But for now, this'll have to do.  The school wants me to be there on the 30th.  I'm pretty sure that over this coming weekend I'll be give a tour, attend orientation and other newbie stuff.  To be honest, I'm incredibly irritated right now.  For the past month I've been told different things and have changed schools three times.  At first I was supposed to be in Seoul, which would have been nice but I'm not really a city guy so maybe it's for the best.  After that, I was supposed to be in Bucheon but that fell through as well.  I was also told to pay extra because Korean Immigration recently updated their policies to include a background check and drug test.  That was extra money that I hadn't budgeted for.  To top it all off, I've been given four days notice to wrap up all my affairs which is quite a chore.  But at least I'll be in Korea within a week.  My plan is to give weekly video updates and more or less daily blog updates.  I'll try to post more soon.