I can't think of any better way to start this blog than to come straight out and admit I got my back-side beaten up by a 16 year-old last week.
I've been going to Taekwondo now for almost a year, and every so often we get to spar with each other. Being the only person over 5'8", and weighing twice what most everyone else does, I always have to fight the toughest kids in class. And yes, they're all in high school, though that doesn't necessarily make them any less bad-ass.
This week I took a surprisingly good beating, though to be fair, I was trying more for good technique on my part and less for avoiding kicks to the abdomen. And so, every time I put out a good, well planned kick or two, the speedy little Korean student would slip in and hammer me three or four times before I could finally step back and start over again. I got some well deserved congratulations from everyone in class for doing so well, but I also have some bruised ribs and a tennis-ball sized welt on my foot from it all.
Oh, and the time before I fought this kid, I got a minor concussion. This kid is quite good, and had to fight everyone in class one day. I was at the end, so he was pretty tired, so I was able to chase him around the room. I'm all ready to (gently) finish him off, so to speak, when with my last kick to his head, I slip. Well, I had enough momentum going for me that I threw my entire body up in the air air and came down squarely on the back of my neck/skull. If it hadn't been so painful, I'm sure it would have been quite hilarious, like a cartoon character stepping on a banana peel.
I'm off to Jeju island for a school camp on Tuesday, then when I'm back Shan and I are heading to Thailand. It's getting very very exciting here, though dealing with the dog and our friend's cat while we're gone is a hassle and a half. Yes - for anyone out there who was wondering - this is definitely a sign I'm not ready to have children. So, there will be little to no blogging for the next month, but I'll be back in March! Thanks for reading everyone, send me an email if you're ever interested in what's happening with me, or if you have a fun story to tell yourself.
Oh, and my hip/buttock is moderately better these days. Physio has helled a bit, but it seems running, exercise and being very cautious with it also helps. Cured? I don't think so. But better. Okay, type to you later.
Rich
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Hard at Work Doin' Nothin'
It's week 3.7 of winter vacation here in Korea, and I've been nice and busy doing nothing these days. Actually, I really have been keeping myself wonderfully occupied with a whole schlack of activities these past few weeks, but it's still a pain having to stick around Mokpo/Korea when if you added up all my free time, it would be nearly a whole extra month doing something more interesting than this.
I've been working about 45 minutes a day at school this week, and the work I do is literally just "listen and repeat" with the kids so they can learn some new phrases in English. Shannon's not doing anything right now, so by 11:30 each day, we turn into Hugh Grant in that movie "About a Boy" where he retires at 30 and spends his days managing small blocks of time with trivial activities. Well, I have managed to go to the gym nearly every day lately, which is pretty good, but otherwise it's lots of reading, studying Korean and platting schemes to trick my students to do what I tell them to for next semester. Any scheme plotting is always a good time.
Miso
Since there's not too much going on then, why don't I introduce you all more formally to the littlest member of our Korean household, Miso. Any regular reader of my blog here will know of our poor little mongrel, but for those unaware, here's a quick history of our new four-legged friend.
We got the little guy after a friend found him wandering the streets. After a few days trying to find his owners, she began asking around if anyone would take care of him. Since we felt it was that or have him put down,
Shannon and I took him in. 10 months later, he's still a little rough on deciding where he should and shouldn't be peeing, but he's so cute how can you get mad at him.
It's winter now, so he hasn't stopped shivering in a few months.
I think the fact that he's small, has little hair, and was meant really to be in Mexico (he is half Chihuahua) makes him not so adept at dealing with chilly temperatures. Canada may be the end of him, I think. Still, if anyone is ever interested in babysitting, he's very loving, likes to cuddle, and sleeps comfortably with you under the covers.
Oh, and we're babysitting a friends cat right now. The cat is nuts, and spends most of the day trying to break in (and subsequently, out of) the fridge. Here's a funny picture we took of him that shows off all his insanity. Well, that's all until next week, or whenever-ish. I'm a little slow on the blogs now that I have all this free time. Strange how things work that way. After next week though, it's off to Thailand! I probably won't be blogging during that stint, but feel free to email me if you need to hear an adventure or two!
I've been working about 45 minutes a day at school this week, and the work I do is literally just "listen and repeat" with the kids so they can learn some new phrases in English. Shannon's not doing anything right now, so by 11:30 each day, we turn into Hugh Grant in that movie "About a Boy" where he retires at 30 and spends his days managing small blocks of time with trivial activities. Well, I have managed to go to the gym nearly every day lately, which is pretty good, but otherwise it's lots of reading, studying Korean and platting schemes to trick my students to do what I tell them to for next semester. Any scheme plotting is always a good time.
Miso
Since there's not too much going on then, why don't I introduce you all more formally to the littlest member of our Korean household, Miso. Any regular reader of my blog here will know of our poor little mongrel, but for those unaware, here's a quick history of our new four-legged friend.
We got the little guy after a friend found him wandering the streets. After a few days trying to find his owners, she began asking around if anyone would take care of him. Since we felt it was that or have him put down,
Shannon and I took him in. 10 months later, he's still a little rough on deciding where he should and shouldn't be peeing, but he's so cute how can you get mad at him.It's winter now, so he hasn't stopped shivering in a few months.
I think the fact that he's small, has little hair, and was meant really to be in Mexico (he is half Chihuahua) makes him not so adept at dealing with chilly temperatures. Canada may be the end of him, I think. Still, if anyone is ever interested in babysitting, he's very loving, likes to cuddle, and sleeps comfortably with you under the covers.
Oh, and we're babysitting a friends cat right now. The cat is nuts, and spends most of the day trying to break in (and subsequently, out of) the fridge. Here's a funny picture we took of him that shows off all his insanity. Well, that's all until next week, or whenever-ish. I'm a little slow on the blogs now that I have all this free time. Strange how things work that way. After next week though, it's off to Thailand! I probably won't be blogging during that stint, but feel free to email me if you need to hear an adventure or two!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Blame It On the Rain
The lack of foaming agents in Korea has started to come to my attention these last few weeks. It's by no means a serious issue, or even something that bothers me at all, but it's a strange thing to continually come across - go wash your hair, and you get no suds. Brush your teeth, and your mouth never gets as foamed up. The body wash we have, rather than getting all sudsy, just coats your body with a "silicone gel" that's put into it.
On the other hand, when given beer the locals just can't seem to give me enough foamy head whenever they pour me a drink, so I suppose it all balances out in one fashion or another. All right, enough meandering for now.
I number of months ago I went into some details on a pain in my hip that had come up and brought about a number of trips to the doctor, including my local "herb" doctor. Well, the pain has come back again, and I'm onto Round 2 of trying to sort it out here in Korea. I'm starting to think perhaps it's a pinched nerve or something up with my back, but my self-daignosis is by no means the interesting part of this story.
I've been going to physiotherapy for a few weeks now, which I think is pretty similar to Canadian standards. My doctor however is a little out there for my liking. He doesn't speak much English, so we get by in a mixture of our two languages to figure out what's going on. The other day though, his English came through just fine.
I was having a rather painful day yesterday (which has carried over to today), so I went in to try and see if we could better diagnose my problem. I told him that my leg and buttock was getting quite painful, and I was even having some difficulty walking today.
"Ah, yes," he says, "that's because of the rain."
The rain? I'm in a great deal of pain and you're blaming it on the weather? Ridiculous. Anyway, I did my physiotherapy, and things still aren't any better. Today I'm going to a new doctor, and if he can't help I may end up going to the hospital to get some much more in-depth testing. I'll keep you appraised on my progress, since I'm sure there are a few people or family members who are concerned for my health and well-being.
On a more fun and bizarre note, I got a new haircut this week. Normally this wouldn't be noteworthy, but since we've moved houses, I decided to try someone closer to home, and went with the nearby "stylist". Well, what an experience that was!
As you may be able to see, the stylist, a young guy who I was hoping could speak English, spent very little time actually "cutting" my hair, and styled it instead. And not to my liking. When he did cut, he would jump around me, waving his hands, thrashing though my hair, sliding his leg out to one side to crouch low and cut juuuuussssst the right piece of hair to make it look right. I asked him three or four times to cut it shorter, but he just kept saying "No, no - Wax!" The final product is like no hair style I'll ever wear, but when not styled that way, it doesn't look so bad on me.
All right, that's all for this week I think. I'm not working for another week or two now, so I don't expect much to happen here besides reading books and relaxing. Bye for now.
On the other hand, when given beer the locals just can't seem to give me enough foamy head whenever they pour me a drink, so I suppose it all balances out in one fashion or another. All right, enough meandering for now.
I number of months ago I went into some details on a pain in my hip that had come up and brought about a number of trips to the doctor, including my local "herb" doctor. Well, the pain has come back again, and I'm onto Round 2 of trying to sort it out here in Korea. I'm starting to think perhaps it's a pinched nerve or something up with my back, but my self-daignosis is by no means the interesting part of this story.
I've been going to physiotherapy for a few weeks now, which I think is pretty similar to Canadian standards. My doctor however is a little out there for my liking. He doesn't speak much English, so we get by in a mixture of our two languages to figure out what's going on. The other day though, his English came through just fine.
I was having a rather painful day yesterday (which has carried over to today), so I went in to try and see if we could better diagnose my problem. I told him that my leg and buttock was getting quite painful, and I was even having some difficulty walking today.
"Ah, yes," he says, "that's because of the rain."
The rain? I'm in a great deal of pain and you're blaming it on the weather? Ridiculous. Anyway, I did my physiotherapy, and things still aren't any better. Today I'm going to a new doctor, and if he can't help I may end up going to the hospital to get some much more in-depth testing. I'll keep you appraised on my progress, since I'm sure there are a few people or family members who are concerned for my health and well-being.
On a more fun and bizarre note, I got a new haircut this week. Normally this wouldn't be noteworthy, but since we've moved houses, I decided to try someone closer to home, and went with the nearby "stylist". Well, what an experience that was!
As you may be able to see, the stylist, a young guy who I was hoping could speak English, spent very little time actually "cutting" my hair, and styled it instead. And not to my liking. When he did cut, he would jump around me, waving his hands, thrashing though my hair, sliding his leg out to one side to crouch low and cut juuuuussssst the right piece of hair to make it look right. I asked him three or four times to cut it shorter, but he just kept saying "No, no - Wax!" The final product is like no hair style I'll ever wear, but when not styled that way, it doesn't look so bad on me.
All right, that's all for this week I think. I'm not working for another week or two now, so I don't expect much to happen here besides reading books and relaxing. Bye for now.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Matters of Miscommunication
Well, I was at school working today. Up until about 8:50 this morning I wasn't expecting to be at all, so you can imagine my surprise when I got a phone call while just getting out of bed asking me where I was (yes, I am getting up late these days while on vacation). Somehow it seems no one let me know what day I was supposed to come in and work our school's winter camp, or they did let me know but in a way that made absolutely no sense to me. Either way, I was under the impression that I wasn't supposed to work until next week. Ha!
Of course, getting to school I had nothing at all prepared, and my classroom is being torn up to have new flooring done, so my options for getting anything ready at school were pretty limited. Fortunately I'm working with another teacher who happened to put together enough stuff to get through the day.
These little problems of never properly knowing times or dates of events, or even knowing of the events at all, has always been a bit of a problem while working here, and today was one of the best examples of it. It's even stranger when I'm asked what I'm "choosing" to do about something, when I never knew I had an option. For example, this winter camp - after weeks of deliberation, talking about when the camp will be, who will work it, how much the pay will be, I was asked at the end of school whether I would come and what day I would be coming on.
"Uuuh, yes, I'm going to come, and I'm going to come when I was told I should come (which was the 14th of January, not today, the 7th)."
Lunch today was also another "what option would you like, though we haven't given you any" situation. I was told that, since most of the students coming to this camp were poor, something would have to be done about meals for them. Maybe an outside group, maybe the cafeteria, no one knew the details yet. Today, as I'm packing up to go home, I'm asked what I wanted to do for lunch.
"Uuuuh, I'm going to eat lunch at home. Is that okay?" Yes, yes, that's good. Bye!
Now, most of these issues can all be chalked up to matters of miscommunication - everything was talked about with everyone involved, it just happens that I don't understand Korean and someone along the line forgot to let me know in a way I could understand what was going on. At least, I'm assuming that's the problem, though it might also be the people involved in organizing this. See, Shannon's now working a winter camp too, one that was setup so she could be working while I was and make some money/not be bored. Her co-teacher ran into my co-teacher for this camp and tried to get details on when the camp would be, how long each day, and when I would be working it. She had about as much success speaking Korean as I did in English.
Anyway, it's over and done now. I'm working this week and next (and maybe the week after?), and I'm 90% sure of what they're paying me (though that was a debacle too, requiring the services of a nice teacher not involved in the process to "point out" that maybe I was entitled to more than they were giving me), so I think I've got it all under control.
Once this is all done, it's off to Thailand for Shannon and me. We're going to be there from the 6th of Feb until the 29th, and I'm very much looking forward to a nice few weeks hiking mountains, sitting on beaches and taking it easy. My last blog I mentioned how it had been unseasonably warm here - well the next day a blizzard blew in shutting down the nearby airport and dropping as much as 40 cm of snow in places. Mokpo only got a few centimetres, but it was some pretty wild weather to see. Though maybe I just haven't seen a good Canadian winter in a long time. Anyway, happy New Year everyone.
Of course, getting to school I had nothing at all prepared, and my classroom is being torn up to have new flooring done, so my options for getting anything ready at school were pretty limited. Fortunately I'm working with another teacher who happened to put together enough stuff to get through the day.
These little problems of never properly knowing times or dates of events, or even knowing of the events at all, has always been a bit of a problem while working here, and today was one of the best examples of it. It's even stranger when I'm asked what I'm "choosing" to do about something, when I never knew I had an option. For example, this winter camp - after weeks of deliberation, talking about when the camp will be, who will work it, how much the pay will be, I was asked at the end of school whether I would come and what day I would be coming on.
"Uuuh, yes, I'm going to come, and I'm going to come when I was told I should come (which was the 14th of January, not today, the 7th)."
Lunch today was also another "what option would you like, though we haven't given you any" situation. I was told that, since most of the students coming to this camp were poor, something would have to be done about meals for them. Maybe an outside group, maybe the cafeteria, no one knew the details yet. Today, as I'm packing up to go home, I'm asked what I wanted to do for lunch.
"Uuuuh, I'm going to eat lunch at home. Is that okay?" Yes, yes, that's good. Bye!
Now, most of these issues can all be chalked up to matters of miscommunication - everything was talked about with everyone involved, it just happens that I don't understand Korean and someone along the line forgot to let me know in a way I could understand what was going on. At least, I'm assuming that's the problem, though it might also be the people involved in organizing this. See, Shannon's now working a winter camp too, one that was setup so she could be working while I was and make some money/not be bored. Her co-teacher ran into my co-teacher for this camp and tried to get details on when the camp would be, how long each day, and when I would be working it. She had about as much success speaking Korean as I did in English.
Anyway, it's over and done now. I'm working this week and next (and maybe the week after?), and I'm 90% sure of what they're paying me (though that was a debacle too, requiring the services of a nice teacher not involved in the process to "point out" that maybe I was entitled to more than they were giving me), so I think I've got it all under control.
Once this is all done, it's off to Thailand for Shannon and me. We're going to be there from the 6th of Feb until the 29th, and I'm very much looking forward to a nice few weeks hiking mountains, sitting on beaches and taking it easy. My last blog I mentioned how it had been unseasonably warm here - well the next day a blizzard blew in shutting down the nearby airport and dropping as much as 40 cm of snow in places. Mokpo only got a few centimetres, but it was some pretty wild weather to see. Though maybe I just haven't seen a good Canadian winter in a long time. Anyway, happy New Year everyone.
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