Sunday, March 22, 2009

Spitfires vs. Cheongju Match Report (Spring Season)

Ironically I accepted Match Report duty for Cheongju, the same team that I (think I) incorrectly labeled Chungju last time. . . here's the report as posted on the Han River forum.

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Cheongju vs. Spitfires -- Match Report

On a fine second day of spring, the Han River Spitfires hosted Cheongju at their home pitch in Apgujeong.

In the two previous match ups between these Division 2 powerhouses, each team took home a win, and, a loss. Wanting to recapture the honor of the first victory, the Spitfires started the game blazing hot. From the get-go Han River pushed Cheongju back into their defensive third where they remained until the nil-nil score was broken. This did not take long.

After a few botched attacks, the Spitfires forced a quick turnover deep in Cheongju territory. Spying an opportunity, Joseph went with the quick restart, dropping a beautiful ball right at forward Jun Ho's feet. On the subsequent touch Jun Ho delivered a squeaky clean ball into the side netting, just out of the opposing goalkeeper's reach.

Spitfires 1 Cheongju 0

Though Cheongju was given the ball at the restart, they were barley able to maintain possession long enough to string together a respectable attack. With a solid line in back, and midfielders marking up on extra men, Cheongju was lucky to simply get the ball in Spitfire territory.

Not long after the opening goal, Sun made a few adjustments to the lineup, notably, bringing the All-American Doug on to the field at a crucial time. With his first touch of the day Doug won a huge header sent well across the field by Cheongju's goalkeeper. On the following play, our Big Man, found himself buried deep in the opposing box as Joseph wound up for yet another deadly laser. With an obvious height advantage, Doug was able to field the ball and drop it delicately at the feet of Hwi Soo, who, without hesitation, blasted a rocket in between a terrified goalkeeper and a helpless near post.

Spitfires 2 Cheongju 0

Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, the Spitfires decided that two goals was a cushy enough pillow to sleep on. They couldn't have been more wrong. It didn't take long for a heated Cheongju to exploit the Spitfires obvious lethargy. Thankfully, goalkeeper Don Shin had other plans as he thwarted more than one Cheongju attack with incredible saves of what could have easily been a pair of equalizing goals. Unfortunately, in typical Spitfire fashion, what should have been an easily defended throw-in turned in to a deal breaker for the clean sheet as a loose ball ricocheted around the box and passed "HanDS's" out stretched limbs.

HALFTIME Spitfires 2 Cheongju 1. . . 'the most dangerous score in soccer'

Kicking off in the second half, the Spitfires were challenged by having both the sun and wind directly in their faces. Yet, despite the unfavorable conditions, Han River managed to come out with a ferocity needed to fend off the second ranked Cheongju. For what seemed like an eternity, both sides battled back and forth with nothing to show.

Then, out of nowhere, on what should have been a routine corner kick, an unmarked Cheongju played managed to rise from the scrum uncontested. When an opposing player goes up without a defending body with him, well, we all know how that turns out. A fine header found its way in to the back of the net, not at the fault of our dear keeper in the slightest.

Spitfires 2 Cheongju 2

Not long after Cheongju tied the match, they decided that a change of pace would be in order. While intentions are yet to be determined, a brutal collision in Spitfire territory took out star sweeper Ammar, leaving him incapacitated for the remainder of the game. Nervous but excited to fill the role, Adam dropped back from stopper to play in the land of 'the last man.'

As the clock ticked down, all efforts seemed to be on 'not losing,' rather than actually winning. Then, just when it seemed like a draw would be inevitable, Jun Ho turned on the jets that he had until that point been harboring all season. Blowing by the opposing defensive line, Cheongju was left with only one option: take him out. Half a yard earlier and it would have been a free kick but, with such speed, Jun Ho managed to get himself into the box before going down from a vicious attack.

As the sarcastic chorus of "Hey Adam, get up there and take it" died down, Joseph calmly stepped up to the plate, ready to finish off the late Cheongju. It was evident from his poised demeanor that he had put his last penalty kick, an easy save, far behind him. Even a lucky guess by the keeper to dive left couldn't stop a low corner shot that sealed the deal in Apgujeong. With the go ahead goal on the plate there was no letting up for the Spitfire defense who held off a weary Cheongju in the game's final minutes.

FINAL SCORE Spitfires 3 Cheongju 2

While the Spitfires will have to put their winning streak on hold for next week's bye, it will certainly be a well earned rest after a grueling, but exciting, Week 4!!


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P.S. We were predicted to lose, by a lot.

Biking Jungrangcheon

Sanggye Station Bicycle Rental Free Repair Center

Running today at soccer was only a bit uncomfortable as yesterday Nate and I set out on what, unintentionally, turned out to be about a 40km bike ride.

Sleeping in Saturday morning (there's a trend starting to develop here, get it yet?) we again realized that it was a bit late to head out on some distant excursion. We also noted that while the first day of spring was truly a beautiful one, we might be better off waiting until things start to green up a little before visiting Seoul's numerous palaces. Though this later excuse has a few holes in it as we previously have waited for the leaves to turn and the snow to fall before going to visit these historical landmarks. However, both events have come and gone yet we have still not visited. . .I swear though, spring time is it!

Anyways, we decided to head out for a bike ride along the Han River as Nate mentioned reading about it in the LP Seoul City Guide. The only bummer was that we had a 49 minute subway ride ahead of us just to get to Yeoinaru Station to pick up some bikes. Waiting for the bus to Sanggye Station however I realized that I had seen a building with something about bike rentals on it before. Hmmm, maybe worth looking in to.

Turns out the "Sanggye Station Bicycle Rent Free Repair Center" (as the building reads) was in fact right where I imagined it to be underneath Sanggye Station. We peeked our heads inside and were greeted by an enthusiastic bike shop attendant who did not seem to care what language we spoke but was determined to bark instructions at us in Korean. With not too much hassle we managed to cough up or Alien Resident Cards to her in exchange for two bikes and locks. We tried to fork over some cash but it was refused, so, we assumed that it must be an hourly rate type thing and we'd pay when we returned. With a bit more sign language we deciphered that the shop closed at 6:30pm so we should be back by that time.

Toy Airplane Day on the Jungrang

At about 2:00pm we set out on what we thought would be a nice relaxing cruise. While we had originally intended to ride around the Han in Seoul proper, Nate suggested riding north instead to see where we could get. Good idea. With not too much of a problem we found our way to the 'canal' along which the Dongbu Expressway runs. After a little bit of research I believe this 'canal' is actually a 'stream' known as Jungrangcheon. Though I never knew its name previously, I have run along the nice walking path that lines the stream a couple times in the past.

Under the Bridge

Setting out heading north I soon noticed a 'mile marker,' 18,700km. Well, about an hour or so later we made it to 0km. Not that we planned to but Nate was continually convinced that they end 'has to be soon.' Even after we hit the 0 kilometer mark the path kept going although the soft running/bike trail gave way to a fresh poured concrete path that clearly was added recently as an after though to Seoul's continued expansion. From our ride it's pretty evident how we live in the world's second largest metropolitan area.

A blockade!?

Even though the path extension eventually came to an end, construction crews were feverishly at work building up the stream's banks and extending the path, obviously for expectant, or already occurred, outward expansion!

The End of the Line. . .

We headed up the embankment and found ourselves in a 'small' town that, again, after a bit of research, seems to be Uijeongbu, located in Gyeonggi Province. From our ride we noticed at least two different military bases and spotted a couple soldiers, Korean and American, as well. Turns out Uijeongbu is a hot-spot for bases as it literally stands between North Korea and the South Korean capital.

Riverside Living

Ghost Rider Nate

After a rest stop at a local Buy the Way, we decided to tool around this new town for a while. While everything was still very 'Korean,' we both agreed that the area felt much. . .well, different. I noted that perhaps part of the reason was because the streets here were a) not clogged with students and their tour (meaning academy) buses and b) less than six lanes wide. The later was something that I've lived with every day since being here but never really noticed. I reside on a six lane highway. Thankfully my window faces the back. . .Nate's doesn't, ask him about the motorcycles!

This way to Seoul. . .

Riding along the railroad tracks and past a long row of outlet stores we continued to see signs pointing us in the direction of a 'Stadium.' With no particular place to go we decided that seemed like a good objective. No one told us the stadium was at the top of a hill! We eventually made it to what really is a beautiful structure located in what seems to be the middle of no where. Riding up it was evident that there was something going on as I could hear the hum of people yelling at eachother and the stadium doors were cracked open, just ever so slightly.

Back on track

We locked up our bikes and headed on in to catch the final minutes of a pretty serious soccer game. Though obviously neither of us really know anything about the situation, I'd venture to guess it was part of a Korean professional league as it seemed super serious, the teams and coaches were dressed the part, there were spectators (though not many), and, most importantly, a VIP section where 'important' people were watching the match from ornate wooden chairs while wearing business suits. Not the typical scene at my Seoul Sunday Football Club matches!

Uijeongbu Stadium from the VIP Section

As the game ended by the time we made it into the stands I simply snapped a couple pictures and we took off to explore the area around the stadium which seemed to be a giant sports complex. Nate originally pinned it as an Olympic complex while I thought it might have been a venue for the World Cup games. In a brief search of Uijeongbu Stadium, I didn't turn up anything to support, or discredit, either theory. Though, our subsequent discovery helped to support Nate's idea of it being Olympic related.

Self Photography at it's Best. . .

Just as we were heading out I veered off to check out another low lying stadium like building where I had caught a glimpse of activity from afar. As I pulled up to the gate I couldn't quite figure out what was going on as the area where a field or track would be was nothing more than flat concrete yet there was obviously room for spectators. Some sort of temporary outdoor ice rink? Nah, never really stays cold enough here. . .hmmm. Just then, a motorcycle goes whipping beneath my followed by a man on a bike! Whoa! This is definitely worth checking out!

You ever met a team of Olympians?

We ride around the building looking for a way in and sure enough find an open gate. In the middle of this 'stadium' are a silver BMW, a utility van, and a half a dozen men dressed in biking gear sitting around on a blanket. Now, the later seems odd but seeing as how we passed dozens of people in similar biking gear on our ride, it really didn't seem that strange. Perhaps most captivating were the bike and motorcycle whipping around in circles at about 35mph (or more) on a track that had banked slopes that I'm pretty sure I couldn't even walk up! Now that looks like fun!

The guys just hanging out were eager to say hello and introduced themselves as the Korean National Team! They were extremely friendly and obviously excited to not only see foreigners but have foreigners be clearly in awe at their very specialized ability. We tooled around for a while watching the deadly game of chase going on while riding our busted little 'mountain bikes' in circles. I can only imagine how funny this scene was to the guys training for the Olympics on bikes that cost more than Nate and I have made here, combined. Not to mention that we're both somewhat of giants here and wearing blue jeans. . .a wholly unacceptable attire for sporting of any kind in Korea.

A Deadly Game of Chase!

We waited until the motorcycle gave up, though I imagined it might have been the biker who quit from breathing in exhaust fumes for an hour! Realizing what time it was we said our goodbyes then quickly shot down the hill to try and make our way back in to town to find the bike trail. With a bit of luck and some pigeon like navigation, we made it back to the 'downtown' area from where we were able to find the trail head. We did take another small detour to help a trio of young girls carry their bikes up a flight of stairs as they had followed us for some time and we all ended up coming to a dead end at a construction zone.

Time to head home. . .

Back on the path we shot home as quickly as possible along the 18,700km-plus trail! We only stopped once briefly to yell at a guy wearing a green shirt with a big 'S' on the back. Wouldn't you know he and his buddy who were kicking a soccer went to State! What an odd, odd coincidence, especially since we saw no more than a half a dozen foreigners the entire trip, and two were from East Lansing!

What's perhaps even funnier is that biking around MSU is in part what landed us in Korea in the first place. . .kinda. Having just graduated and finding ourselves 'stuck' at home for the summer (not really Mom, I loved being home, thanks for everything) Nate and I would take off on some sort of bike adventure almost every day. In part because neither one of us wanted to sit around home thinking about finding a job, in part because gas was at $4 a gallon (remember when that was the biggest economic worry) and in part because it's a lot more fun way to exercise than anything else. . .well, except for playing soccer, but I tried to do that at home once too and it didn't really work, apparently Arch still doesn't want me on the field. . .but that's another loooong story!

We did make it back in time but only barely as we got stuck in some heavy, heavy traffic in downtown Nowon! We pulled up off the stream outside of Nowon Station as I wanted to show Nate the 'downtown' area that I had discovered the other day on a run. From there we decided to follow the elevated subway line one stop down to Sanggye. Turns out this is where we made our biggest mistake. Following the line meant we had to pass by Nowon's 'Culture Street' which is the hub for nightlife in the 'Hub City of Northeast Seoul,' as Nowon refers to itself.

As only a mindless blind daredevil would brave the streets in Seoul, we were forced to stick to the sidewalks. Think trying to drive a Big Wheel through the sidewalks of lower Manhattan at lunch time on Friday. This was not easy. It took us almost a half an hour to travel the mile or so to Sanggye where we finally dropped off the bikes, just before closing time. The same attendant lady took the bikes, locks and keys from us in exchange for our ID's. Never once did she ask for any sort of payment. So, either we got the super foreigner discount, or the 'Free' in the middle of Sanggye Station Bicycle Rental Free Repair Center refers to both the rental and repair! Good deal!

Free Bike Rental Here!

We washed up in the first floor bathroom of the Sanggye Station shopping center (as all public buildings over six floors have to have open public bathrooms, or so I once read). Then, outside, to refuel we split a box of strawberries on sale for 2,000won. After plowing through the top layer it became evident why they were on sale. Oh well, we ate through about half of them and I boldly continued in to the 'is this really a strawberry' category before dumping out the final third of the 'there's no way this is or even once was a fruit.'

We spent the next few hours wandering Nowon and alternating fuel stops between street food (hmmmm giant hot dogs and chicken-on-a-stick) and restaurants (samgyeopsal and galbi). We were even lucky enough to catch a bit of a performance on Culture Street that was evidently part of the Nowon Art Festival. Finally, as it began to drizzle out, I decided that a movie and comfortable chair were in order for the evening. Thus, we headed over to the Lotte Department Store where Lotte Cinema is located on floor 10.

Nowon Art Festival on Culture Street

'Frogs' in Nowon

In typical fashion we arrived just as a round of movies were starting. So, we decided to buy tickets for later and just wander until then. We ended up catching the 10:55pm "Grand Torino" with Clint Eastwood. Whoa. Now that is a powerful movie. Neither of us knew what it was about though I had seem a brief preview before, in Korean, and Nate heard something, from his family, about it being in Michigan. Well, it certainly took place in Michigan, which was somewhat, I dunno, comforting?!

Neither of us knew what to expect which made it slightly more interesting and, well, a bit surprising. The first half of the movie is simply a comedy, yet, not one of jokes. Clint Eastwood's character is a bitter old Korean War vet whose neighborhood is being 'taken over' by Asian immigrants. Thus, the majority of the 'comedy' comes in the form of absurd racial slurs and stereotyping. While it was laugh out loud funny at times, this did grow awkward, as we were sitting in a theater of Koreans. No clue how the majority of jokes, or slurs, translated but it's pretty evident that the part where he warns his Asian neighbors not to eat his dog was not that well received by our neighbors. . .or at least Nate's gut busting laughter wasn't, but hey, what do you expect! Anyways, I don't often really like movies but I thought that this was very well done and certainly worth watching, though it doesn't become, what I can only describe as, well, intense. I dunno, I don't write movie reviews, just long winded blogs.

A Ride with a View

So, that capped off my adventuresome Saturday. Where are all the beautiful pictures from this amazing bike ride you ask? Well, sometimes you're just too busy to take photos. As I mentioned to Nate, there's thousands of things that I want to photograph but to do so I'd have to stop and get off the bike, which, in a way, kind of destroys the beauty of the constantly changing scenery. The majority, if not all, of the pictures from our ride were taken in motion as I just whipped out the camera on the run. It's not that I didn't want to capture the ride but, in a sense, don't think I could have properly. I believe it was Robert Pirsig who wrote, in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," that the view from a motorcycle is infinitely times better than that from a car as a car window frames and thus limits the scenery. When on a motorcycle, which I obviously am equating to a bike, there is no such limit on one's view as the entire world rushes by at the speed of, well, however fast you want to pedal! So, I'd love to show you more of Jungrangcheon but, if you wanna know, you might as well come visit and take a ride for yourself!

See you soon!?!

Ridin'

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A Quick Buck

Wanna make a quick buck?

Become a dentist!

After a late December notice from my hometown dentist reminding me to get a six month check-up, I finally made it in to London Dental Clinic yesterday. I was greeted at the front desk by a slew of giggles as one little assistant ran off to grab the doctor, clearly the only one in the practice with any knowledge of the English language. Dr. Lee Sang Tae help me set up an appointment for the following morning and immediately went back to work, leaving the gigglers to explain the paperwork for me. With a bit of 'guess and check' I eventually filled out some sort of information form and headed out the door, giggles following down the hall.

I intentionally set an early appointment (10:00am) so that I would have a reason to actually get up and out of bed as I often have little to no motivation to do so when working late evenings. This morning I was again greeted by the two Giggles who kindly took my coat and led me to a chair that was in no way made for human beings of my size! With the head rest all the way extended it just barely came halfway up the back of my neck and my feet were only an inch or so from the floor, even while lying down!

In true Korean fashion, Dr. Lee got right to work pointing out all of my flaws. He was no more than 30 seconds familiar with my mouth before declaring my total cavity number (two, apparently) and the fact that my old filling had almost fallen out. No diddle daddling around like they do back home. . ."aaahhh ooooo, ya knoo, it looks lyke we might hayve a little problem here. Lemme just go gryab Dr. J reayl quick to take a looksie? You gonna be okay there for myinute?!"

Having gotten his cavity proclamation out of the way, Dr. Lee went to work on a 'routine' cleaning. First, he told me to close my eyes and raise my hand if anything went 'wrong.' Umm, okay. With my eyes close I feel something being laid across my face. Opening them, I realize that I have a large piece of cloth over my face with only a hole for the mouth. Again, this apparatus was not exactly one size fits all as my mouth fully opened did not fit through the whole. Thus, the mask was shifted such that either my top teeth, or my bottom teeth, but not both, fit through.

Dr. Lee skipped the whole scrapping, flossing, chatting thing and simply dove in with a rotating type of pick. Running over the back then the front of my bottoms before moving on to the tops. While I have always been a fan of the dentist's office, Dr. Lee changed this for me quick as he seemed to know just how deep to drill into my gums before pulling up the second before I yelped in agony. I don't know if that's the sign of a good, or evil, doctor.

After finishing with the gum drill we slapped a handful of some red compound onto my front teeth and went at them with the rubber spinner brush. I was told to rinse myself (no cool water and suction gun) then returned back to the chair, expecting the treatment to continue. This was not the case. Dr. Lee told me I did a great job and that I could come back anytime to have my cavities filled; the black fillings would be covered by insurance, the white compound is not. Well, I think I know which I'll go with but I'm not gonna make an appointment just yet, perhaps a second opinion? Jenna, are you available and qualified yet to do online examinations!?

Anyways, I checked in just before 10:00am and made it out by 10:10am, that is, out the actual door of the building. So, 50,000won for ten minutes, times six would be 300,000w an hour. . .not a bad deal! Wanna make some quick cash? Go get your DDS!


London Dental Clinic is located at Eunhaeng-sa-geori in Junggye-dong and Dr. Lee is available for contact at...

Tel. 02) 935-2226
E-mail. stl2010@empal.com

Monday, March 16, 2009

As good as it gets. . .

How do you make up for three hours of essentially uninformative 'workshops' accompanied by two hours of early morning subway travel?

With an eight percent raise of course!

Seems as though Nate and I have both been doing something right as Mr. Lee sat us down briefly this morning (following a meeting about the new middle school books, following a meeting about the new elementary school books) to let us know that we had both done well enough on our 'six month evaluation' to deserve a slight pay hike! Woo hoo!

While he mentioned the possibility of this happening months ago, I had started to question the validity of such a raise as our six month mark, February 24th, had come and gone without word of any 'evaluation.' Apparently my idea of an evaluation is slightly different than Mr. Lee's but, for the better of course! As I once expected that he would in fact show up for a class or two of mine to truly 'evaluate' me, it turns out that all I needed to do was keep my Korean Teachers happy who in turn speak to Mr. Lee on my behalf! Looks like I owe 'em all a belated White Day present. . .not that I meant to forget but come on, I finished work at 10:30pm Friday and had to report back at 8:30am the following morning. . .buying chocolate for my married Korean coworkers was not at the top of my list. McDonald's breakfast however, was.

Anyways, rousing myself this morning was anything but easy as my 8:00am alarm only barely ruffled me enough to realize that I did in fact need to get up! One would think this would not be an incredible problem having gotten to bed a bit before midnight on Sunday. The only thing is that I was still lagging on sleep from what can only be described as a remarkably bizarre Saturday. Even so, the few hours of somewhat agitated sleep that I did get couldn't stop me from getting to soccer on time.

Sunday started out as a beautiful day but quickly turned gray and rainy as the Spitfires took the field against a totally revamped DA-ROK (Democrat Americans in the Republic of Korea) team (they even have jerseys this season). No more than five minutes into the match Jun Ho (my German speaking heterozygous teammate of Korean descent) managed to tap a goal in to the back of the net off a beautiful throw in from center midfielder Joseph. Only a few ticks o' the ole' clock later we found ourselves in a similar position, threatening DA-ROK's goal from the sideline. Timing my run until the last second I burst up the field from my position at stopper just as Joseph let fly an absolute bomb that easily cleared the heads of the scrum waiting in the middle of the box. Catching the ball near the back post I was able to lay a solid header straight into the ground and underneath a perplexed keeper who looked as though he just had a defender run up and score on him. Well in fact, that is just what happened! Despite the lack of unspectacular play to follow, I still somehow managed to wrangle 25% of the votes for 'Man of the Match.' I will admit that this statistic is somewhat misleading however as currently only four people have voted. Though, if I learned anything in college, it's that you can use statistics to support any claim you want to make, so long as you report who and where they come from!

Up 2-0, our defense lost hold on the game for a bit as the midfield decided we were good enough to mark a six man front with out any assistance. This proved to be untrue as DA-ROK managed to bomb one past our keeper, Han D S, not too long after we had began our initial onslaught. From that point forth the game was surprisingly even matched as DA-ROK fought with a vengeance against a Spitfire team that had previously embarrassed them something along the lines of 17-2. . . A rocket off of rookie Jake's foot put us up 3-1 just before half. Despite a number of attempts by both sides, nothing more came from either offense except a great deal of ringing crossbars! Our first victory of the season! Next week, the acclaimed Cheongju makes the trip up to Apgujeong for a rematch of last seasons 1-0 victory in which I took home my first 'Man of the Match' award. I can't wait for it!

Buuuut, what I was saying is that it wasn't hard to fall asleep Sunday night. . . just not so easy to wake up again early Monday morning. To top it all off, I recently (Thursday afternoon) learned from Joseph that my 'Special Classes' were in fact set to begin this Monday, not a week later! This came as quite a surprise, especially considering that I had just professed to Anna that I knew naught of what I was doing.

I had crossed my fingers on the way to Daechi this morning, hoping that something beneficial would come of our meetings (which of course we were not told the content of until they began). Alas, nothing did. Thus, I was left with only an hour or so before class to figure out exactly what I should be doing for this new, unmanned (yes, there is no Korean teacher working with me on this one) class that students actually, gulp, have to pay extra for! Wait a minute, didn't Marx say something about the notion of employees creating surplus value for their employers while receiving no additional compensation for themselves? What was his advice?

As nothing revolutionary (ha) came to me while showering, I decided it would be best if I headed in early, picked up my new book from Joseph and at least familiarized myself with that material. Not that easy, obviously, it's Korea! Arriving at school an hour before my first class, Joseph informed me that he wasn't yet sure what book I would be using. I reminded him that my classes began today and that it would be nice to actually, oh, you know, prepare for them! He did eventually get my my book a few minutes before classes started, only to tell me a few hours later that no one had signed up for the Monday session!

Well hot damn! That's a free two hours for me all of a sudden! And to think, I spent the better part of a morning worrying to death about what these students were going to think of me as I stumbled through a 'special class' that, remarkably, resemebled my normal classes on every level. . .oh, except that I'd be less prepared! Eh, I guess that's only partially true. I spent the better part of the morning falling asleep on subways, even the one that we were on for only 15 minutes!

With only a couple minutes left to prepare I hoped on the world renowned (not true, Koreans employ the all-might NAVER) Google to look into something I had heard mentioned as this morning's meeting: Yellow Dust! Apparently this stuff ain't no joke! I guess the 'season' has officially become as today marks the first of the inevitable storms that blow in sand from the Gobi desert mixed with heavy metal particulate spewed by China's ever producing factories. Strange, but true. Here I was thinking that my sore throat this morning had something to do with playing soccer in the cold rain yesterday! If you want to stay up to date on the particulate count in the air check out the monitoring done by the USofA's 65th Medical Brigade here. (Click on the Yongsan link in the upper left for more detailed information as I believe it is the base closest to us. . .though I've heard of one just north, I'm not sure what it is. . .any clues?)

Turns out I didn't even have to use the Yellow Dust article I found as I was able to scrap together a couple lectures about the 'eminent' launch of North Korea's peaceful 'satellite' in the coming month (April 4-8 is the projected launch date, watch out Hawaii and Alaska). Furthermore, with no one showing up for my first 'special class,' I was able to finally dig in to the stack of almost 100 essays that I have accumulated in the past few months since I was scheduled without any essay time. Sure, now I've gotta obviously get down to business but there's no way you're ever talking me in to taking those things home with me, not a prayer, I'll do 'em during essay time or I won't do 'em at all.

I guess the most important thing I did today was put in to play the single piece of advice that Steve Jung, DYB's sole R&D employee, offered us at today's middle school workshop. According to Steve, the most important thing for any teacher is not how 'good' or 'bad' they are but, at the end of the day, what kind of relationship they have with the students. If a teacher can connect to the students and create a trusting, meaningful relationship then it doesn't matter how good or bad they are at 'teaching' per say; so says the man in charge!

Well I sure didn't accomplish a lot of 'learning' today, but I'd be darned if my kids didn't have a fun time in class. . .and that's about as good as it gets over here!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Special Classes

Apparently, beginning in two weeks, I will start teaching a series of 'special classes.' This is about all that I know on the subject.

After a short trip to DYB's Main Branch in Daechi a few weeks ago, I learned that the classes are known as R&D, or, Reading and Debate Class. This was somewhat of a relief to hear as I at first thought R&D stood for Research and Development meaning that I would literally be testing out a totally new concept of a class. . . turns out I wasn't too far off!

What I gained from a brief meeting with Rene, a DYB FT who has been teaching only R&D classes for about a month now, is that the classes are meant to provide the students with something above and beyond that which they learn from 'the book,' whichever book that may be. To be honest, that's kind of what I've been trying to do all along here. Not that I spend countless hours lesson planning at home to come up with interesting and invigorating ways to learn English, in fact, I really haven't done anything like that ever, but I do try and inject as much 'humanity' as I can into my lessons. Whether this is allowing the kids to talk to me freely about how much they despise their president, Lee Myung Bak, or simply educating them about Mardi Gras traditions, I feel like I have done a decent job of bringing class to life.

Now apparently families will be shelling out extra money to sign their kids up for an extra class with me to get some sort of 'special' education above and beyond that I already provide. Uh oh. . .

All Rene really told us is that we by no means need to stick to the book that will be assigned to the kids but rather just figure out some-thing that we want to teach, and teach it. Now this sounds alright except that I've never really taught before and have no concept of the things that one would teach to a student of the English language. For example, Rene gave us a worksheet on the different ending sounds of words that end in -ed. Did you know that -ed can be pronounced three different ways and it's determined by the letter, or sound, preceding this ending? Neither did I. . .but apparently, that's 'teachable' material. Not quite a Mardi Gras trivia class. . . .

Up until today I didn't really think much about the classes as they don't start for a whole week 'n a half. . .hmmm. Anna however decided to ask me during class today what I planned on doing for the Oxford and Cambridge classes, as they are known, I guess. I told her that honestly I hadn't put much thought into it but that Rene had given me some material to get me on my feet. She then inquired as to whether or now I would be teaching writing as a big chunk of the class. With no clue as to what I'm expected to do, I went with my instinct and told her that I'd do some but probably focus on speaking as the class is called Reading and Debate.

In response to this Anna asked if I was aware of what parents expected from the class.

Um, why yes Anna, I've actually spent a great deal of time discussing with them over the phone in the past few weeks. . .in Korean.

Anna then informed me that the flyer used to advertise the class informs parents that their students will receive special education in the areas of speaking and writing. Hmmm, news to me. She then asked if I was familiar with the flyer that was being sent home. I told her that I had seen it but had no idea what it said (as it's entirely in Korean). Apparently the intent of the flyer is to sell kids, and their parents, on the merits of this special class which Nate and I will both be teaching. Unfortunately, we have yet to be informed of what exactly these merits are that we have to offer.

In turn, DYB is using our names to sell kids and parents on a class that we have yet to been instructed on. Expectations? None yet conveyed. Goals? Not that I'm aware of. Purpose? I think to generate extra revenue for DYB during this crunch time but, can I be sure, no, not of anything here in the Land of the Morning Calm.

So, now you know about as much as I do, wanna teach my class for me.

Oh, one good aspect of these classes is that they are set aside in a two hour block but are only supposed to last one 'n a half hours. Oooohhh yeeeah, 30 minutes of free time for each class taught! Now that, I can deal with.

More from Junggye when I figure out exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. . .not that I expect to anytime soon!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Late for Work

I did it. My first six day week.

Though, to be honest, it's really like a five day week with a guest appearance for two hours on a sixth day. Although I spent all of Saturday (yep, six hours of in class time) complaining to my students about my first 'working weekend', I realized that at my previous job (which I had almost four years ago now) I used to work Saturdays all the time. The only difference is that I would walk out of work with a couple hundred dollars of cash in my pocket to go spend on milkshakes by the beach the next day. . .the rewards were a bit more, well, tangible I guess.

Okay, so I'm lying even further. I didn't quite put in a six hour day Saturday as I showed up half 'n hour late for work. Oops!

At around quarter to two on a beautiful Saturday afternoon Nate and I headed off to the Bagel Shop to grab breakfast. Dressed in my sleepwear, I figured I could have a bite to eat then take a short 'nature walk' before heading into work. Who knew my plans would fall through so quickly.

Immediately after I placed my order, I received a frantic call from David, Junggye's other FT who is also supposedly our 'Team Leader.' Here's how it went. . .

Yo, Adam, like, where are you dude!?

Um, at the bagel shop getting breakfast. Why?

You know you have a class right now, right?

Um, no? What time is it.

It's two o'clock.

Yeah, okay, I don't have class until 4:30.

No dude, you have class right now, you gotta come in.

Uh, okay, I just ordered food though and I'm in sweat pants so it'll take me a bit.

Well, hurry up I guess.

Okay? See you in fifteen or twenty.

Alright. Wait, do you know where Nathan is?

Yeah, right next to me, I'll tell him, don't worry.

Oh yeah, okay, good, he has class.

Yep.


Though we ate more quickly than usual, I didn't exactly make any attempts to fly in to work that minute, figuring that I'd be then when I got there. What doesn't quite make sense is that we are supposed to report to work half 'n hour early yet nobody decided to call until class had actually begun and we were still absent. . . welcome to Korea.

Scarfed down a bagel sandwich, burned my mouth on a cup of coffee (not true, since living in Korea I can practically eat fire without it having any negative effects on the condition of my mouth), and headed back towards Doota. I decided that I'd stick with the 'hurried' in to work theme leaving on my Tulane sweatshirt and simply sliding into a pair of jeans (and brushing my teeth) before heading back out the door.

Got to work around 2:30pm after double checking that I was correct in reading my schedule that says Saturday I have class from 4:30-10:30pm. . . it's amazing that I would assume I had work at that time. Silly me.

Anna caught us coming in and apologized for any confusion. As I suspected we were reprimanded at all, partly because we dodged the front office but also because our tardiness honestly had nothing to do with anything other than a lack of foresight by everyone except for us!

Not sure if classes themselves are actually more relaxed or if it was my 'Saturday' mentality but anyways I managed to make it through three, two hour classes with out a whole lot of problems. By this I mean I was left alone for the good majority of the time and simply allowed the students to talk and ask me silly questions rather than force them to 'do' their unproductive workbook that accomplishes nothing more than boring every involved party to near death.

My biggest problem now is that for my Monday and Tuesday classes we have finished the Superb books and have no set material for class. This is exciting in one sense because the Superb books are simply anything but. This is also extremely frustrating as now I have to come up with some sort of 'lesson' to pass six hours of class time (or, three classes of two hours each). I have done debate articles and simple side lessons (such as Mardi Gras Trivia) but nothing along the lines of taking up a full two hour class period. So what am I going to do? Well, that remains to be seen. Today is my one day of rest a week and as a devote student of Judaic principles I feel that it is my obligation to observe the Sabbath by resting. . .aside from my soccer game.

On that note, SSFL's Spring Season has started up and we're already two weeks under way with a revamped Spitfire squad. Last week we allowed a fluke goal in the last few seconds that sealed our defeat against the number one ranked Jokers (final score 2-1). Not a bad showing for our first day out however as we were predicted to lose by double digits on the league's forum. Today's game was almost as disappointing as 90 minutes of incredible soccer yielded nothing but a 0-0 draw against the International Storm. Again playing a topped ranked team in our league, coming out with a clean sheet on the defense end says something for those of us in the back (*cough cough*). Now it's just time for our forwards to start sealing the deal.

That's it for now, only two more weeks of this random spring 'intensive.' Then our 'special' R&D classes begin. Not entirely sure what these are really except that students have to pay extra for them and that our names our actually on the sign up forms. This means students, and their parents, have to actually make a conscious effort to pay DYB extra to take 'my' class. Exciting but also nerve racking as I again face the problem of what the heck am I supposed to do.

Oh, all that and as of today (Sunday) I've been in Korea 200 days. . . .as one of my students keenly pointed out, that means only 165 to go. Not that I'm counting. . . .