Okay... Friday and no computer yet. I've been told the word 'tomorrow' all week, meaning that I have been up early all week in addition to staying up to my regular hours (i.e. 4:30am bedtime). The weekend is almost here but today is my day to work late-- until 10:15. I went to visit the computer shop today and spoke with the guy there who speaks passable English. He has been changing everything in the computer and is now waiting for an English version of Windows ME to come from Seoul. He has Windows 2000 in English but assures me that ME is better for games. He promised he would meet me at work, when I finish, and accompany me home to deliver the computer. The street address system here is a bit complex as yet so there's no way to find someone's home unless you have a special map of building blocks like the pizzarias do. In the end, the system is better than expected though. The only used parts are the floppy drive, the power supply and the monitor. The CPU is now 800 MHz Celeron instead of 700MHz Pentium and the hard drive is 20 Gigs instead of 8.5. Oh yeah, and I found a shop that has a copy of MechWarrior 4. The aptuh suh-bees-uh or 'after service warranty' on the CPU has been expanded to 3 years. Turns out this guy is a Compaq service shop too so who knows... maybe he can fix my laptop... or maybe he'll just take it personally and cry when he sees it.
I have a few minutes to kill now so it's off to do some email and then onto a going away buffet for a couple of our teachers. One is getting married and the other is already married so I assume she's just tired of teaching. Last but not least, I guess I am starting Bible study on Wednesdays.
Friday, August 31, 2001
Sunday, August 26, 2001
Tuesday I will have my new computer. It's been a disappointing chore to try and update this blog from a PC방 so I have let the page lapse for some time. What's new in my life? Not too much. I am definite in my plans to go to Seoul for another teaching position but it looks like the spots I want won't be open until January. That's still over four months away so now I am in this wierd purgatory. I just feel it's time for something fresh-- and I could really use the excitement of a bigger city.
So about the computer. It's mostly going to be used parts with patchwork warranties, but I avoided going into debt over it and managed to pay it all off in one shot. I am hopeful that I will be online by Tuesday night (although I have plans to go out so it may be Wednesday when I confirm my acquisition on this blog).
My other plans? Friday night I went out and fell significantly under the influence and as such I'll be taking a break for a little while. Tonight I have been invited to listen to a guest speaker at Kingdom Hall in Pusan. Looks like this weekend will be a wild ride between polar opposites. He is a foreigner who has served as a missionary for 30 years in Korea. I am sure he didn't resort to over-imbibing to pass the time so maybe I can glean some insight.
Regular schedule starts again on Tuesday, allowing me to go back to my Nighthawkish ways. It will be a pleasant way to enjoy my new computer. I have been holding off my writing projects since I have nowhere to type them up. There's tonnes of ideas waiting to fill my hard drive. If I have four more months here I will make good use of them.
Time to find some food and get cleaned up.
Wednesday, August 15, 2001
Today is an important holiday in Korea. Liberation Day commemorates the expulsion of the ruthless, imperialist, expansionist, Japanese overlords from Korea (sorry... got caught up in the celebrations). This year, the day has a more serious tone in light of the Korean-Japanese textbook controversy. Seoul, especially, saw an upswing in anti-Japanese protests, including the recent case several days ago, in which 20 Koreans severed the tips of their fingers, wrote a letter in blood, and sent the package (including the partial digit) to Japan's prime minister. I've mentionned the problems with textbook distortions before (see May 22, 2001). For further information, today's Korea Herald is continuing coverage with stories on the current state of Korea-Japan relations, recent diplomatic developments, and the rise of nationalism in Japan as of late. One a positive, non-governmental front, they also report that no Japanese Middle School has yet agreed to adopt the controversial textbooks.
I spent the day at a barbecue in the mountains that was great. There was no sign of 팔일오 (Paleero) Cola though. For anyone not familiar with Korean numbers, Pal Il(r) Oh is Korean for 8-1-5. The cola is Korean made, sold in a red and white can, and commemorates this day. It's not as ubiquitous as Coke, but pretty good. Sorry... I can't find a web page. To finish the day (if I can get out of here in 10 minutes), I am going to buy a mop and a new toilet seat, as well as various cleaning agents, to get my apartment in ship shape condition. Sorry, but I can see this blog going downhill. Tomorrow I will tell you about the way I brush my teeth or something equally personal yet useless.
On a last note... Korea is also ahead/behind Japan in one recently released category, as reported by the C.B.C. In the number of cigarettes smoked per capita per person, Japan is #4 in the world for heavy smokers while Korea is sitting pretty at #5. I don't know how accurate this is since Koreans may smoke a lot of cigarettes but never actually finish one. It's a faux pas here to let it burn down anywhere nearer than about an inch from the butt. Speaking of smoke- it's time to blaze outta here and hit the hardware store.
Sunday, August 12, 2001
Now for my once-daily-turned-weekly post. The week's been good but tiring since most of my classes seemed to be higher energy after my trip to Seoul (my fault because I was in a good mood most of this week and probably provoked them). This weekend has been somewhat busy except for this afternoon. Friday night I went to the IP. Saturday I went with a friend and some of her students to see Planet of the Apes. Last night I was taken out for a light supper in 친해 (Chinhae) which is much closer to the ocean. Today I deftly managed to eschew dinner plans that were tentative on Friday night- only to have them replaced by a call a few minutes ago to go for a coffee. All I've eaten today was a bowl of cereal so somewhere along the route I must find some food. What else happened this weekend? I found a PC방 that offers Unreal Tournament. That's what I've been doing today. Koreans seem to look at it as an exceptionally violent game so its popularity is minimal. I like it though-- and it's great to relive stress. Lastly, if I can manage to come home early, I have a couple of movies rented including one that stars David Foley. I forget the title and have never heard of it anyway, but as he was a former Kids In The Hall comedian, it should be to my taste.
Sunday, August 05, 2001
What a great little trip to Seoul. The humidity was killer but I managed to mix business and pleasure-- as well as take in a couple of sights and sounds this time around. Seoul is certainly a busy place in Summer. The fun stuff was in the form of movies (like Jurassic Park III) and of course, Friday night we went to the fabulous Korean stage version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show! It was awesome and the crowd loved it. I was surprised but it was only staged in a small theatre in Hyewa, but the talent was great and everything about it was hillarious. One thing though-- there is something that as an English teacher I must confess and it is possible that our profession has done a great disservice to the Korean community. Let me explain: When a child touches his or her bottom and asks you the English word for it, most teachers get a slight bit embarrassed and what has happened is that many teachers simply say, "Uh... those are your hips", rather than of course saying bottom, or butt, or... So imagine my surprise when they began singing the Time Warp song with diagrams: "It's just a jump to the left! And a step to the right! Put your hands on your hips!..." and proceeded to display an image of someone groping their...
For anyone interested... I bought the CD so you can play along at home-- In Korean!
Wednesday, August 01, 2001
Just a quick note: Tomorrow, I am going to Seoul for my vacation. Today was supposed to be the day of the journey, but I was sick yesterday with food poisoning or something and decided to rest for one more day before taking the long bus ride. My friend, Brian from Halifax and now from Seoul, has been visiting me and we just finished a few more games of Starcraft before going home to jam on his new guitar. I took both him and the other foreign teacher (Stephen from New Zealand) out to the same shop that sold me my guitar and both made purchased. All in all, the owner was happy to do almost half a million Won in business. In gratitude, she gave me three new guitar picks. Thanks.
