Why I'm buying an iPad

I decided to buy the iPad last week.  It's probably one of the first things that I'm going to do when I get back to America.  I'm actually really excited to be getting one, but I'm sure that a ton of people are going to ask me why I'm getting one now, so here's a list:

• I need a new device.  The netbook I've been using the past year belonged to my school so I had to give that back.  Also, the laptop I actually do own is getting on in years.
• I think it's really cool.  Touch screens and all that.  It's the future, man.
• The iPad is sort of limited in what it can do, but it does everything I need it to.  All I ever do on a computer is log on to facebook, google dumb shit, and blog.
• I'm coming back to Korea and I can't wait for the 2nd generation.  If I was going to be staying back in the U.S., I would totally wait.  That's just being a smart consumer.  However, since Apple products take forever to come to Korea, I'll have to make do.
• None of the competitors have really made a big splash yet.  Sure, there are going to be ones that are going to come out later this year and 2011 that will be worth talking about, but it's going to be too long until they hit Korea, if they ever do.
• Wi-fi is going to be everywhere in Korea.  It's true.  I even read in an article that KT is supposed to be installing wi-bro egg devices in the subway cars.
• There are all these cool apps.  I even started making a list of apps that I'm going to download once I get it.  A lot of apps on the list are games, but there's some cool and useful shit like a learn Korean app.

So, that's how it is.  There's probably a few more that I can't think of at the moment, but this is the jist of it.

I'm in Seoul for the next few days.

Since I had to move out my apartment on Thursday, I moved all my stuff to my friend Alex's house in Hongdae.  It's been a lot of back and forth between Incheon because I've been taking care of some stuff but I'm finished now, so I'm just going sit back and relax for the next few days.  I might do some sight seeing and probably a bit of shopping.  I should probably buy a few souvenirs or something before I go back home on Friday.

My last post from Hyundai Officetel.

The new English teacher is supposed to move in at 5:00, so I'm technically not supposed to be here, but I left some of my stuff here and I still have the key, so whatever.  It's a little sad that I'm leaving.  The room looks so barren with all my shit gone.  Despite how small it is, the lack of hot water in the winter, and the strange smell that comes from the kitchen cabinet sometimes, this was still home for the past year and I'm going to miss it.

Packing is hard.

Really, it's tough.  I've picked up so much random shit this year that there's nowhere to put it.  There's a lot of I'll probably never use again and should probably just throw away [when will I need a horse mask again?], but I just can't put them in the trash.  It's like I'd be throwing away memories.

Also, I dropped a small mirror and it shattered.  I'm not one for superstition, but as I was taking out the trash bag it was in, I cut my leg on a piece of it that was poking through the bag.  Then some of the blood ended up on a white dress shirt.  Goddammit.

Five things I probably shouldn't have done this year as a teacher

1. Accidentally cuss in front of my students.  I've done this a few times.  The worst time I did it was when a kid ran into me from behind while I was looking at him and I ended up hitting my head against the wall.  I yelled, "Fuck."  Then I turned around and said, "You better fucking quit that shit."  I did it all without thinking.  Luckily, I said it fast enough that the kid didn't understand.  I got caught once typing out Korean cuss words on my computer though.  I was spelling them for practice and one of the students walked by and made a big deal of it.  That time, I was lucky that none of my co-teachers were in the office.
2. Play favorites.  I know that I shouldn't, but it's just too easy.
3. Mess with my kids' stuff.  Usually, I'm all up in their things.  Pencil cases, notebooks, sometimes backpacks.  It's always interesting to see what they have and mess with their stuff.  My school has a digital class.  The entire class uses laptops and e-books instead of textbooks.  Each student has their own laptop.  One time they went to go do a health check-up or something and they left their computers on their desk.  I went on all their computers, taking pictures of myself on their webcams and then putting that picture as their desktop background.
4. Chase the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders around the school.  I let them chase me sometimes.  I usually surprise them with how quick I am.  Anyway, I shouldn't do this because one time I was chasing this girl and she ran into a desk and proceeded to start crying.
5. Teach my students weird things to say in English.  I don't particularly feel bad about this.  Teaching Min Seok "ballin" was probably one of the greatest things I've done as a teacher.  I do feel a little guilty about teaching a lot of the third graders the sentence, "I like Joseph-teacher better," though.

It's my last day at work.

It's a sad day, really.  I don't have any classes today so I've been walking around just hugging kids and saying good-bye.  I've also been taking care of some shit that needs to be done, like cleaning my desk out.  I'm really going to miss my desk.  I've spent a lot of time at it and all that.  I've moved all my files over to an external harddrive.  I'm also going to clear out the browser history and delete all my shit when I'm finished.  The next English teacher doesn't need to know that I spent a lot of my time looking up k-pop lyrics, playing Super Nintendo games, and all the random shit I've googled.  I should probably change the 2NE1 screen saver to something else too.  When I'm finished cleaning up the computer, I'm only going to leave my best powerpoints.  I'll let my replacement think that I'm a good employee or something.

Longshan Temple

Doing normal shit makes me feel accomplished.

Today I did a bunch of random stuff that I need to take care of before I move out.  I had to go get my pension, take some things to the dry cleaner, and buy a bunch of random shit.  It's not that I just do these things and I feel good about myself, but it's that I do these all and speak to everyone in Korean.  I was able to ask for where shit was, get to places, read signs, and tell people when I needed shit done by.  I remember when I got here, doing all this would have been a major hassle.  Even though it's been a year and I feel like I could have studied a lot more, it just feels good to know that I've accomplished something, no matter how small, in terms of speaking this language.

I learned about my replacement.

Yesterday when I went into work my co-teacher told me about the new English teacher that's taking my position.  From what I learned the new teacher is going to be a woman, which is what I was hoping for.  For some reason, I just didn't want to be compared to the new teacher and that a woman would be harder to compare me too.  Either way, it's not like the students are going to like her more than they love me.  The new teacher is also from America and she's probably straight out of college.  I'm only guessing about that since she's a year younger than me.  Since I'm going to be in Korea still, I told my co-teacher that I would show her around the first day she gets here since I know how hard it is to just move into Korea.  I figure I'd show her which way to take the buses and how to turn on the hot water.

Phone problems

Well, it now looks like I can't make outgoing calls on my cell phone now.  Something to do with my visa expiring and my whole one year contract thing.  I'm still able to receive calls, I just can't make any outgoing ones.  It's going to be like my first month in Korea when I'll be stuck using pay phones.  These last two weeks are going to be hectic.

MC Mong is finally facing his allegations.

According to this article in the Korea Times, he showed up yesterday to be interrogated by the authorities regarding the rumors that he purposely pulled some of his teeth to avoid military service.  

I got caught.

I really thought I had a free day off work today.  Before I left for vacation, I remember signing the paper that I wouldn't be at school for this entire week because of the camp I was working at.  The camp ended up being four days, while my school thought it was five, giving me a free day off work.  However, I got a phone call from my co-teacher that woke me up this morning.  All she did was ask where I was and I told her that I didn't know I had to go into work today.  So, it probably wasn't a good idea to go out last night thinking I didn't have work today.  It was probably a bad idea to go to Hongdae last night.  It was probably a worse idea to get back at 5AM.  Here I am now though, sitting at my desk doing nothing with the air conditioner on.  

A statue in Taroko Gorge

It must be something I ate.

Triple cheeseburger combo from a McDonald's in Taiwan

That’s right.  It’s a mother fucking triple cheeseburger.  I’m not even ashamed to say that I’ve had more than one of these on my trip.

I booked my flight home.

I will be flying out of Incheon airport on Friday, September 3rd at 11:30AM.  I'll be back in October, maybe November at the latest, but it feels like a chapter of my life is ending.  It's probably true though.  When I come back to Korea, it's going to be pretty different.  I'll be living in Seoul, working at a new job, and taking ping-pong at a new place.  I am excited to go back home though.  I'm currently writing up a list of things that I'm going to eat in my first two weeks back home.  I can't decide if I want my first meal to be a large bacon ultimate cheeseburger combo with buttermilk sauce from Jack-in-the-Box or a chicken taco and California burrito from Albertacos.  It's a tough call.

Best camp ever!?

I don't know why I ever complained, but this camp is seriously turning out to be one of the best camps I've ever worked at.  The camp seems to have an unlimited budget, which translates into tons of cool things for me, including:

• Having Domino's Pizza yesterday for lunch
• Having McDonald's for lunch today
• Watching Toy Story 3 for free at CGV
• Getting free popcorn and soda at CGV
• There's ice cream in the teachers' lounge whenever I want it
• There's a magician coming to the school tomorrow

Seriously, best camp ever.

Scooters in Taiwan

Scooters are everywhere in Taiwan.  It's pretty ridiculous.  You see everyone riding them, women, the elderly, even entire families of four crammed onto one scooter.  While in Hualien, Evan and I tried to rent one so we could take it up to Taroko Gorge.  This might not have been the smartest idea, since neither of us has ever driven one, but it's not like it's rocket science.  Anyway, the manager of the hostel was a nice dude and took us to the only place that rents scooters to foreigners without international driver's licenses in Hualien.  When we got there, the lady was willing to rent them to us, but she wanted to test if we could ride them first.  Evan, still hungover from the night before, pointed to me and said that I'd take the test.  Of course, I calmly strapped on a helmet and acted like it ain't no thang, while the guy from the hostel was telling me how to brake (which I already knew).  So I hop on the scooter and the rental lady says something to me in Chinese.  I just nodded and said, "Around the block?"  Then I start to pull out of the garage and she just starts yelling in Chinese.  I stop and all she said was, "No."  It was a pretty sad experience because I didn't even get onto the street.  The day turned out alright though.  We ended up renting regular bicycles instead.

Hualien

Hualien is a city on the east coast of Taiwan.  It depends on which train you take, but it's about two to four hours from Taipei.  Initially, Evan and I only planned on staying two days, but we liked the city so much and we were just lazy to go somewhere else, we ended up staying four days.  During the four days, we did quite a bit of random stuff.  The first day we ended up renting bikes and just exploring the city.

Here are the two bikes we rented poorly locked to a bench in the middle of nowhere.  Since it is on the coast, Hualien has access to beaches, although none of them extraordinary.  We even managed to find the ocean while riding our bikes around Hualien.

This is the view from Jici Beach, which is a 90 minute bus ride away from the city of Hualien.  It's alright.  The travel book said that it was one of the few swimmable beaches in Taiwan.  However, it is in the middle of nowhere and doesn't have a place to eat.  You could take surf lessons though.

This is an entrance to Taroko Gorge.  There's a free shuttle to different destinations within the gorge that's offered by the city, but we hired a cab to take us and drive us to all the spots.  It was a great choice since we saw a whole lot in a shorter amount of time and it cost about $12 USD.

In general, Hualien is nice small city.  Even though I'm not particularly fond of nature things, the natural attractions surrounding the city were impressive.

Here's the game plan.

Lately, I've been getting a lot of questions about what I'm going to be doing and I haven't really answered them.  It's probably because I didn't really know myself.  I've been thinking about what I should do for a really long time now.  I know that I have been saying that I'm staying in Korea but I haven't really been looking too hard for a job.  There's no one to blame except myself for not having another job by now, but whatever.  I'm not too worried about it.  However, I just decided what I'm going to do and I really think that it'll work out the best for me.

First, I'm going to finish my contract at Yeonhak Elementary School, which ends August 26th.  Here's the most exciting news though, I'll be going back home to California, but only for a month.  I haven't booked the ticket yet, but I'm looking to be back home the first week of September.  Between the 26th and my flight, I'll be staying at my buddy's place in Seoul.  When I do get back home, I;m going to really start applying for more jobs in Korea.  I'm really excited to go back home for a bit.  It's going to be a nice break.  It will also give me enough time to get my head on straight for another year in Korea.  That's the other big part of my news, that I'll be staying an entire year instead of six months like I was saying before.  This was a tough decision for me to make, but there's seriously nothing I can do back home.  There's still part of me that wants to travel while I still can.  Also, I really do enjoy my life here in Korea and I think it' wouldn't be right for me to give it up now.

So, I'll be in Korea most likely from October 2010 to October 2011.  During that time I'll take the GRE's and do some other shit for my future.  When I eventually do go back home in 2011, I'll go back to school for a bit, find a job to tide me over, and then apply for grad school.  I think.  Things can change between now and then, but for now, this is what I think it's going to be.

The Taipei Zoo

First of all, I'm going to have to say that I love zoos.  I really do.  Going to the Taipei Zoo might be the most memorable part of the trip.  There's nothing in the world that makes me feel like a human being than seeing animals in captivity.  Nothing.  The fact that the Taipei Zoo is the largest in Asia also helps.

These are the signs for the zoo right off the conveniently located Taipei Zoo subway stop.

The zoo has animals from all over the world, including this zebra.  A nice surprise was seeing American animals, like the brown bear and the otter.

One of the coolest exhibits in the zoo was the butterfly exhibit.  The entire thing was a greenhouse that you could walk through and butterflies were everywhere you looked.

However, the coolest thing to see in the zoo was the pandas.  I've never seen any before.  In person, they sort of look artificial, like they were animatronic.  However, they were fucking badasses.  For one thing, all they did was sit and eat shit.  After that, they took a nap while hundreds of people were watching them.

The zoo's so big and it was a pretty hot day when we went, so we didn't make it around to seeing every animal, but I would definitely recommend the zoo to anyone visiting Taiwan.

Camera woes.

On my trip to Taiwan, I brought two camera lenses with me, my 28-200mm that I use for everything and my wide angle lens.  Unfortunately, the 28-200mm started freaking out.  It'll take a few pictures and then go straight to an error screen.  It's sad really, since it's the lens I use the most.  It also means that all my pictures on the second half of the trip are wide angle.  It should be repairable.  I'm really hoping that it is since I can't afford a new lens at the moment either.  I'll probably try and take it somewhere in Seoul next week and see how it goes.

The Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial

The first thing we did in when we got to Taipei was go to this memorial.  Sadly, I don't really know anything about Chiang Kai-Shek but this is his memorial.

You might not be able to tell from the picture, but it's four stories up from the base to the entrance.  It was a bitch to walk up in the heat and it was sad when we found out there was an elevator that we could have taken.

This is the statue that sits inside the structure.  I think it's weird that he's smiling.

This summer camp thing isn't too bad.

I went to the meeting today and I found out a lot of things that make this camp a lot better:

• It starts at 10AM so I can wake a little later.
• The camp is only four days long.
• My school think it's five days long, so I get a free three day weekend.
• I'M GETTING PAID.
• I also get to work with one of the coolest Korean ladies I've ever met.  She introduced herself as "Janice," and she said that she named herself after Janice Joplin.  We also started talking and I learned that she goes to India all the time and that she's a tour guide there.

I'm pretty sure that I have a crush on her.  I'm also glad that it's the fucking weekend.

Back in my bed.

I got back from Taiwan a few hours ago and I've just been sitting in my bed.  It feels good to be back in my apartment.  It'd be perfect right now if I was eating a microwavable hamburger from the convenience store, but I'm lazy and it's raining.  I'm currently organizing all my photos from the trip, but I'll get to posting about it tomorrow.

I'm leaving Taiwan tomorrow.

It's currently my last night in Taiwan.  I've really enjoyed my time here but I'm excited to be getting back home.  There's currently a lot of shit that I need to take care of, like summer camp and FINDING A FUCKING JOB(!).  For now though, I'll just enjoy my last night.

I probably shouldn't have signed up for this.

I'll be working next week at a different school for their summer camp program.  I signed up last month because it's a lot of money for one week of work, but I wasn't thinking about how I'll be just getting back from vacation and that I would have just liked to just sit and desk warm at my school for a week.  Anyway, I told the director of the summer program that I wouldn't be able to make it to the meetings until Friday because I'm on vacation.  I just checked my e-mail right now though and it says that I have to design a lesson plan for the camp.  Since I haven't gone to the meetings, I don't even know what the lesson is supposed to be about, how long the class is, or what grades I'll be teaching.  The worst part is, that it's fucking due by noon tomorrow.  God damn.

I like to do Korean things in Taiwan.

I just ate 2 sandwiches and a bag of chips from a Family Mart, which is what I eat when I'm in Korea when I'm too lazy to walk down to the kimbap shop.  The best part though is, that I'm currently updating from a PC bang with Evan sitting right next to me.  It's pretty much the same deal except there aren't any people playing Starcraft.  Seriously, I could have saved myself the plane ticket and spent this week sitting in my apartment.  Tomorrow I'm probably going to get drunk and have McDonald's.

Taiwan's cool.

I'm updating from my hostel in Taipei right now.  I've done tons of shit in the two days that I've been here.  I've even seen some fucking pandas.  Tomorrow I'm leaving Taipei for a few days in another city.  I'm not actually sure which one, but Evan knows, so it's alright.  Not sure if the next hostel will have a computer that I can use, but I'll try to update when I can.

I'm leaving for Taiwan.

It's a little past 1AM and I've just finished packing.  I'm going to grab what sleep I can before I have to wake up in five hours to leave for the airport.  I just looked over a bunch of shit about Taiwan and I'm pretty excited.  I don't really have an exact idea what I'll be doing there, but it'll be alright.  I'm not bringing my laptop and I probably won't have much time in front of a computer, but I'll see what I can do.  If anything, see you next week.

Instead of packing...

I spent three hours at a multi-bang playing NewSuper Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Wii.  It's the 4-player one.  It's really fucking fun.  I also bought a sweet new pair of shoes that were on sale.

There's still a lot to take care of.

In less than 24 hours I'll be headed to Taiwan for vacation.  There's still a ton of shit I have to take care of before I go though:

• Download a portable web browser because I lost my flash drive.
• Fucking pack.
• Buy some travel size shit.
• Clean my apartment.
• Book a hostel.
• Transfer some more money home.
• Change all my coins into bills
• Buy a pack of socks
• Make a list of things I shoudl eat in Taiwan

At least I have the day off of work so I can take care of most of this shit.

Native English teachers in Korean comics.

So I've been reading a lot of manhwa [Korean comics] lately.  The latest one I've just started is Unbalancex2, by Im Dal Young.  It's a pretty standard high school harem love story.  I'm sorry if that doesn't make any sense to you.  Anyway, the protagonist's main love interest is his high school homeroom teacher, which also isn't really surprising.  What does surprise me though is:

That's right.  A native English teacher in a Korean comic.  Fucking ridiculous.  

So there she is, Caroline sunsengnim.  I don't want to ruin too much of the story if anyone decides to read it, but her father is Korean.  It's not entirely clear if her mother is from America or England.  Both countries have been mentioned and I'm not sure if it's the translator's fault or if it's a mistake by the author.

I didn't know I could make learning English so sexy.