Happy Holidays, Sistar!

Korean Pop.  I haven't formed a solid opinion yet, but I'm going to assume it will consume me down to the marrow by November and I will no longer be who I am today.  I will miss me, but it's what I have to do.  At least, that's my assumption.

Right now, I feel pretty Dog damn good.  I just taught my first day of classes today (albeit with the sturdy training wheels of Rebecca guiding me forward confidently) and we are now on a 5-day holiday.  Chuseok, yo.  A giving of thanks.  You might even call it a thanks giving.  But then you'd sound like a dumb-ass Westerner, and nobody wants that.  My strong sense of tradition tells me to get a beer and crack open the festivities by sluggin' back some suds, but my guts aren't terribly interested in that.  There is, however, a complete lack of open container laws here, so I could conceivably grab some makali and head to a video arcade.  If I knew where one was.  Jesus, that'd be some real fun...

"Love your life. It makes everything better when you make a point to do that." Lucas Ventura just threw that out there into the cybersphere and I think it's a right proper way to operate. Of course some people are 10 types of oppressed, damaged, put upon and persecuted far worse than I can imagine, so I won't fault them for feeling a bit shit on and maybe not appreciating my Disney advice, but I'm'a take it and run with it. Until I run out of pineapple juice (I have about 3/4 of a pint left). Then I'll be in absolute despair from which I don't believe I'll ever rebound.

Juice aside, I'm feeling great.  It's drizzling outside which always puts me in a good mood.  I met a shit ton of people last night, each cooler than the last (depending on the order in which they line up for such an appraisal) and my blueberries arrived in the mail today.  I now have plenty of blueberries.  Plenty.  Shit, man, come and get it.

Now I'm hungry.  One-and-a-half meals a day is not what I'm used to, though my fat ass could stand to scale back a bit.  It's nice to be gone from The Land o' Plenty o' Sandwiches.  If left to my own devices and lack of discipline, I would probably eat 14 square meals a day, all sandwich based.

Now I'm definitely hungry.

If this were a private blog, it'd be a much longer post, but that's the thing about blogs: they aint private.  What the hell would be the point? There are a lot more naked bodies and intricate aliens-versus-heavily-armed-children scenarios bouncing around in my noggin right now that I choose not to share with all y'all.  That's J material.  So we'll end things there, and I'll see you on the other side of whatever we're going through. With a little luck and a lotta finesse, we'll both be a lot studlier when we get there. So let's get to gettin'.

Much love, Sistar.

-LS^2

Rolling Life

맥주

You know what that says?  I do because it's written in Hangul which I'm learning very slowly because I can't do anything without it.  It says maekju, which is "beer," which is written at the top of my makeshift translation notebook right above "Hello."

Yesterday was the first day of training at the school.  A couple of hours of How Things Work Around Here explanation followed by 6 hours wherein I sat in the back of the classes and watched Rebecca do her magic.  I'm stoked for Day 2.  Upon first glance of Lucas the New, the li'l muppets were quick to revert to semi-maniacal giggle and instantly engaged me in unofficial staring contests.  This will be a good year.

Watching the children, I couldn't help but want to apologize to all the teachers in the past for whom I would never shut up.  What a 7 year-old thinks is charming might not translate to a poor teacher just trying to hold on 'til Happy Hour.  On that same note, I think all the boring classmates I had should feel the same sense of shame.  Put some life into it, Sister!  But all in all, just do your thing my Golden Children of Tomorrow.  We're not there to see eye-to-eye.  Except the kid in the afternoon class who chose "Rolling Life" as his English name.  He and I are probably going to start an indie band or an underwater fight club.

The real killer right now is jet lag.  I've always scoffed it off as something you cry about because nobody can really refute it unless they burrow into yo' brain, but it's biting my eyeballs in the ass right now.  I get tired at about 2pm (which is right when I start work), go to bed around 9 and wake up around 3 or 4.  I'm working to sharpen this, but I guess I've only been here about 60 hours, so get off my back.

And with that, it's off to the showers!  Then I gotta send a couple boxes of unneeded supplies back to Canada and figure out how to get a train ticket to Busan to meet a wonderful stranger.  It's about time I shared a maekju with someone.

Things I Need

• A serrated knife
• The two-week waiting period until I get my phone to go by
• A Ren & Stimpy tattoo

-LS^2

Pullin' no punches at the jewelry store.

Time to roll out my über trite self-directed
120-minute one man show subversively about abuse!

Ballin' (if you don't know the exchange rate).

Gwate!

"You dress good."

As requested, here I am.

By "here", of course, I mean in a 2-room APT on top of the school where I'll be teaching.  Yup yup, I'm living every kid's nightmare: I'm living at school.
Two planes and two busses were all that separated one hard mattress in Iowa to another in Mungyeong, South Korea.  The flights were painless enough: 15 combined hours of forced naps and studying.  There was even in-flight Tetris, but the controller was conspiring against me and severely hindered my score.  After that, an airport shuttle scooted me off to the most confusing leg of the trip where I got thoroughly lost and expelled an impressive amount of sweat trying to navigate the bustling streets and transpo stations.  But resourcefulness (ie help) got me to the terminal and my principal and his wife (Mr. Hyun and Ms. Kim) met me at the station.  The first thing Ms. Kim said to me:

"You dress good."

Thank you very much.  And with that, we were on our way home.

Home.  Awesome.

I got up this morning and did what I do every morning: took a cold shower and decided where I should store my shoes for the upcoming school year.  Around 8, Mr. Hyun and Ms. Kim prepared for me and subsequently watched me eat a breakfast of pork and vegetables.  I made the bold move to tell them that I don't eat meat very often as this is the time to make such gear shifts in life.  So boom.

I'm feeling studly and ready after a walk around the neighborhood.  True, I'm inside talking about what I've done so far rather than actually doing anything, but I felt my public must be fed their alloted dose of Lucas, so here I am, vomiting into your mouths the stuff of which dreams are made.

That's it for now.  It's only 10:30am but I do believe it's time to continue mapping out this new world so as to eventually govern it.  From space.  Which is where I think I'll teach next.

Things I Need

• A swift and firm grasp of the Korean language
• Hangers

Be well, everyone.  I'll do the same.

-LS^2

Blanket waiting for me upon arrival.  It's like they know me already.

View from my balcony.

Other view from my balcony.

My apartment's very own Self Destruct button.