Pastiche`

It has been a while since I have last posted with any kind of regularity.  My journal & blog have largely gone neglected throughout this past June and for that I offer my apologies.  However, the 4th of July is upon us and this is a time to make resolutions and change the way we live our lives; that or fool about with low-powered explosives (I might be mixing up my holidays).

Reading, as it turns out, is what has kept me from consistent writing.  I've gone through some Nick Hornby, which I have really enjoyed, and I just finished up The Hobbit yesterday.  When I am not reading, I can probably be found watching "Breaking Bad" (almost done with season 3 and I'd highly recommend it to anyone).

There are three weeks left in the school calendar before the kids go on summer break.  I am trying to just enjoy my last remaining classes, which is not out of the ordinary for me,  so I guess I am trying to especially enjoy my last classes and soak it all in.  Inevitably, life abroad has had its up's and down's, but the happiness I got from my seeing my kids never wavered.  They make me smile and laugh every single day.  With their examinations coming up, even the 3rd graders are involved in some form of school and/or studying from about 6 AM - 11 PM every day with relatively few breaks.  Be thankful you grew up in the US of A -- I'd trade in the smarts for enjoying my childhood 7 days outta the week.

I, along with several rag tag individuals with a can-do attitude, started a short lived dance group coined "The Nicholas Cage Experience."  We had two practices, both held at a public train station with many-a-passerby, before we decided that this venture must be retired.  We will not sacrifice the namesake though.  I was "iced" three times last night, which has made for a lazy Saturday afternoon.  If you are not privy to "icing", worry not.



The NCE's routine -- picture 5 guys doing this at a train station in front of a mirror.  Our thoughts at the 1 minute mark (right before we gave up): "This gets really hard."

I have kept my eye on the calendar and am tackling the great adventure home (Vietnam/Cambodia/Thailand to India, to Egypt, through Italy and France, then into Spain).  Save today, I've kept myself relatively busy with all that goes with these plans.


Lastly, I've been listening to "Oh, Sweet Nothin'" by The Velvet Underground a lot lately before I go to sleep:

the WC Experience

How American am I that I can sum up my World Cup experience before it's all said and done. I'll keep an eye on the games but my rooting interest has come to its conclusion.

Both the US & Korea have been eliminated from the tournament. The only silver lining is that I don't have to watch them play each other after all. Notable places where I watched the games:

• Korea vs. Argentina - Munhak Stadium (my prior blog post)

• USA vs. England - Rio's Bar in Incheon, with an equal mix of Americans on one side of the bar and Brits on the other
• USA vs. Algeria - The Americans packed into a bar called Red Dog, or Three Dog's, or something with a "Dog" in it that was next door to Rio's where all the Brits were watching England vs. Slovenia
• Korea vs. Uruguay - Joseph, Carmine and myself watched this game at midnight or so outside a TV shop along with one Korean man who was standing by himself in the rain before we arrived. This guy was awesome and we shared our umbrella.

The rest of the games were fairly in the norm as far as where I watched them. I saw the Donovan reaction video. It was pretty exhilarating and it seems as tho we took our soccer a little bit more seriously this go around.

How intense are Koreans about the World Cup? My favorite Korean fan was at a bar, watching the game in a hospital gown, in a wheelchair, and connected to an IV. As far as I could tell he was not drinking that night

South Korea vs. Argentina

Whelp, we lost..

caught the game at Munhak Stadium with about 30 friends or so (including mothers, coteachers & Joe's students). Obviously, being in a soccer nation, things are a little crazier here than compared to the US of A. People cheer as if we scored a goal just for crossing midfield, though through the first half of the game crossing midfield happened so few times I can see the point of cheering.

I took some photos but haven't done anything with them yet. I did, however, steal a photo from Joe of my friend's, coteacher's son who came to watch the game with us -- so adorable.

Reason 1 Billion I love Elementary Schools

Walking back to my classroom, peeked into violin practice-- saw a girl playing the violin (poorly, as elementary school muscial-talents dictate) standing up with rollerblades on.  I found this awesome.

Birthday & GRE -- Jai Ho!

Mea maxima culpa for going MIA on any updates!

First of all, thank you to anyone who had me in their thoughts on my birthday!! I was quite the facebook celebrity yesterday, and enjoyed opening my email to find 38 unread messages or something like that. The celebration was relatively muted considering that tomorrow morning (the 12th) I take the verbal/math portion of the GRE. It was a good day though and I am happy I got to spend a great portion of it at school around the kids I love. I was able to eat Indian with Steve & Nara too which made me quite happy!!

So now I find myself going to sleep at 8:30 on a Friday night so I can get to Seoul by 8:30 AM.

I am really hoping, almost expecting in fact, that my GRE test-taking experience will mirror that of Jamal Malik's in Slumdog Millionaire. I'll get a perfect score by being asked questions that each link to a poignant story in my past.

Hope that my test results will be described as "a buoyant hymn to life."

The PC Bang Marathon

I, along with my friends Joe & Carmine, ran a PC Bang marathon last night that lasted from 8 PM - 8 AM. I could lie and say this was to keep with Korean culture but it was mostly because ideas like this fit our personality too well. It was a rousing success, though difficult in stretches. Oh!-- We were able to do this because today local elections were held so we all had off work, in case you were wondering why a 12-hour computer game marathon would be held on a Tuesday night through Wednesday morning.

Because Joseph so aptly broke down the night, the rest will be courtesy of his blog post -- my changes in turquoise::
The PC Bang Marathon
by Joseph Gutierrez

• 7:15PM - I met up with Carmine and Evan at Burger King. Carmine had originally wanted to eat at the kimbap place to get something healthy, but Evan and I out-voted him.
• 8:00PM - We checked our phones exactly at the moment we turned on the computers, and it was eight, so the most daunting task of our lives was made with a cigarette in [Joe's] hand and my belly full of bacon double cheeseburger (the burger doubles for both Joe & I).
• 8:10PM - The first thing I did was install Google Chrome. There was no way I was going to put up with Internet Explorer for the whole night. I quickly got to checking my e-mail, blogging, and deciding my character build for Borderlands.
• 8:30PM - We got started playing Borderlands. If you know nothing about the game, you should check it out. It’s a first-person shooter with MMORPG elements.
• 9:15PM - I bought a cherry coke. (I went with Dr. Pepper)
  
• 12:00AM - Originally we had planned to take a break at midnight to get something to eat downstairs and meet up with some friends really quick. That never happened. We played straight through it.
• 2:00AM - This was the halfway point. None of us seemed tired, but Plans to meet up with anyone have gone out the window.
• 3:00AM - I started to actually start to get bored of the game, but since there’s nothing else I really felt like playing there, I keep on. It’s around this time that I notice that there aren’t as many people in the PC bang as I’m used to.
• 4:00AM - Someone in the PC bang had been playing [crappy] music the entire night. The bands on the playlist included Nickleback, Lee Hyori, and Hoobastank (go figure). It was at this point that the music started to get annoying.
• 5:30AM - This is where it starts getting hard to stay awake. I bought another cherry cola (DP) to help me stay awake. Despite being so tired and how comfortable the chairs are at Tera PC, it’s getting hard to stay sitting down.
• 6:30AM - It was at this point I realized that the girl behind us has been sitting there the entire time and has been on cyworld for most of it. It was getting harder and harder to stay awake.
• 8:00AM - We were all glad to see eight come around. The sad part was when we stepped outside and the sun was out.
• 8:10AM - I was in McDonald’s buying a bacon egg mcmuffin.

Completing the marathon was a success and I probably won’t be going back to a PC bang for a while. To be honest, I could probably do it again and it’s not like I’m boasting about it. The hardest part was just staying awake. If it went from noon to midnight, it wouldn’t have even been a problem. You might ask why I did this, but even I don’t really know why I set arbitrary goals and then feel accomplished when I complete them.

New Camera

Went to Namdaemun (in Seoul, a technology market) and finagled a new Canon 450D. Although I'm photographically illiterate, I'm an eager student. Joe & I will be going to practice soon but I have already taken a few shots that I've put on facebook here.

Because I got it on the gray market (meaning it was shipped in from Hong Kong), it came at a steal deal combined with said finagling.

looks exactly like this but says kissx2 since it's Japanese