(21) 90 in 90: The New King of Soccer (not really)

It's almost been an entire week since returning from the US and getting my bearings again. After waking up much earlier than necessary and going to sleep much later than recommended on a school night, it finally seems that my body is beginning to get back to its normal routine. The 9 to 5 that became a daily part of my life seems to be coming back without the mid day falling asleep at my desk routine.

It feels great to be back and in the groove again. I always hate the feeling of being out of the loop and not actively involved in my day to day life beyond just going through the motions. I may turn into a wasted pile of energy after the work day is over sometimes, but I try my hardest during the day to be a somewhat productive member of my school or at least a productive member to accomplish what needs to be done on my personal list.

What I Saw

I'm not a scientist, nor am I a sleep expert, but I am almost certain that two events in the middle of the week helped me bounce back to my normal self.

This week was my school's Foundation Day, or a holiday in which the school celebrates the day it was founded and built. Like many other schools, my school celebrated by having a ceremony where the principal and other high ranking people in the school gave a speech to the students. The actual Foundation Day was spent with a day off, a day of rest for both teachers and students.

The day of the ceremony was ended with a soccer game between the different members of the staff. Young and old participated on the field, including myself as a participant.

Now before you go thinking that this turns into a sports movie miracle and the scrappy kid from America wins the game for to roars of applause and being carried on shoulders, stop, because what actually happened couldn't be further from the truth.

What I Expected

This was the first soccer game that I have ever participated in. Sure, I've seen soccer played before and I have a slight understanding of the rules, but beyond that my knowledge of soccer is next to zero.

Soccer is huge in Korea. Now just that sentence alone is most likely a vast understatement, giving that there are schools in Korea based entirely around the game of soccer. It is an arguable fact that soccer isn't as large or as popular in the US as it is in Korea, making this guy who grew up in the Midwest all the more ignorant.

I kept telling my teachers how playing with them was not a wise choice. I kept telling them that putting me on their team would only present a large handicap and severely hinder their chances of winning. Either through wanting to be as accommodating as possible or through miss communication, it was insisted that I join their team. Swallowing my pride and accepting my fate I slowly slide on my bright blue jersey, preparing for the worst.

The game lasted less than an hour, and by the time the game finished, I felt as if my whole body had been stretched to its limit and my lungs were deflated balloons gasping for any amount of air it could.

We had lost the game, 0-1 and while my team appeared in good spirits, I felt like I had not accomplished anything constructive during the game. I ran around a lot, made attempts to steal the ball on occasion and at one time, blocked an incoming shot. While it wasn't a horrible first effort to play, in terms of being dropped in the middle of a soccer game with experienced soccer players,  it could not have been more futile.

What I got

However, the ones who seemed to get the most out of the match were my students. The entire time they kept cheering me on and clapping at any attempt made by me to do anything. Now while I'm sure much of it was an attempt at saving face or an example of laughing at someone rather than laughing with someone, I still received some kinds messages later on evening telling me that I did a good job for my first time.

Overall, it was an experience that left me beyond tired, and with sore muscles where I didn't even think I had muscles, it left me with a another unique experience in Korea, a way to wake my body up in the middle of a jet lagged week and earned me a new nickname with the students*.

That's what I love about being a foreigner working and living here. Everything is new and exciting. Things happen at random and sometimes with seemingly no reason. It's a constant and dynamic life and I am enjoying every minute of it, even if it leaves my body and my ego sore and bruised from time to time.

*for those who are curious, my nickname is The Soccer King. I strongly disagree with this nickname and its implied meaning.

(20) 90 in 90: Time Zone Fatigue

It's been awhile.

After two weeks of close friends leaving Korea, going back to a wedding in America and getting rejected from the three jobs I applied for earlier this year, I'm finally back in Korea. I'm back in my normal Korean work/teach/write mode and ready to start everything over again.

The last three weeks seem more like three years. Events came and went at such a rapid pace that they seem further away from the present than they really are. Being someone who usually likes to dwell and reminiscence about the past, the fact that the past seems further away than t is makes my time here seem that much more important.

When you're busy, when you're involved with things on a daily basis, time is something you never seem to have enough of. It leaves us in an instant and suddenly we're left looking back at the past, yesterday has become years ago.

Crossing time zones to go back to America has also made time more relevant in my life. I've learned the hard way that time zone differences, or rather 13 hour differences can play havoc with you body and end up making the day time, the time where you need to be at your most attentive and active, a time flow limbo in which your body chugs along with aching eyes and groaning muscles struggling to stay awake and active while time time left at school versus the time in your bed at home seems completely out of reach.

You can always tell when the fatigue starts to set in, even while wide awake, you can feeling it. Its a pressure that starts behind your eyes and slowly creeps to the top of your eye lids, a heavy tingling feeling that finds relief only through closing your eyes.

Even with your eyes closed, the pressure is still there. A reminder of just how exhausted your body is and the desperate need for your body to sleep.

For me its an indicator to let me know that I have still unsuccessfully managed to battle jet lag and still spend the first week coming back home, getting used to a new time zone and letting my body readjust itself. I hope that one day, I'll get used to this duel time zone thing and nip it in the bud before it becomes a problem.

Until then, its awkward sleep schedules and waking up at 5 AM until I master my sleeping habits again. I am struggling to write this simple update as I fall asleep at my keyboard. Traveling is great, the changes you have to get used to, not so much.

 

Snapshots from Teaching: Student Comics

Sometimes, giving students full unlimited access to draw and create whatever they want can yield some wonderful results. Other times, the things students come up with would send any American student to psychiatric help faster than they could finish their comic.

Out of all the classes to work on their comic project this week, these were the ones that captured my attention the most. While some of the comics and writing may seem strange and possibly offensive, remember, these are high school boys whose view of the world is still limited. This is something that will hopefully mature and change with age and wisdom.... hopefully.

Even food deals with high school pressure

Moral of the story: If you're not gay you will die in an auto accident.

Suicide is easy as pie!

Sometimes military assistance comes from some of the most unlikely sources

In this story, a fish goes back in time to swallow the nuclear bombs that would destroy Japan.

Don't eat my home!

Prostitution is a piece of cake!

Our school principal is capable of jump kicking students

It's an arm and a leg bitch!

Snapshots from Teaching: What is Love?

Sometimes my students write about being tired. Sometimes my students write about their future plans.

And sometimes, my students write about crazy fucking love. I can't blame him though. Sometimes, love is fucking crazy.

(19) 90 in 90: You're Waiting for a Train Part 1

Everything in Korea is about efficiency and running on time. From trains to subways to buses, Korea is dependent on getting to places on time and on schedule. Sure trains are a little late every now and then, but its never anything to get worried about. Outliers aside, if you're traveling in Korea, you can expect to get there in a quick and timely manner.

Except for this weekend, when everything efficient and scheduled broke down and the main system used to travel around Korea came to a screeching halt. Delays and cancellations were now in places of reliable schedules. Chaos erupted in train train stations across Korea as time tables were rendered useless, passengers had no idea when their train would arrive and Korail employees were clueless on when the problem would resolve itself.

I was (un)lucky enough to be a part of the carnage and witness the chaos as it unfolded around me. While at the time it seemed like an incredibly unpleasant experience of confusion and uncertainty on where to go and what to do.

The situation began on Saturday when a KTX train collided with a Mungungwha train on the rails. Luckily, no one was seriously injured during the collision. However the accident ended up causing massive delays for the other trains running along the same tracks and caused delays and cancellations across the country.

I first heard about the train crash through mutual friends on facebook while I was with my girlfriend in Seoul. It was during the middle of the afternoon at this time so I really didn't think too much of it. Some people were saying that the delays were only temporary and that the trains would be running by the evening and the situation would be completely fixed by tomorrow morning. I kept this in mind as I continued to enjoy my day, still sticking with my original plan of leaving at a later time in the evening.

When I arrived at the station, I saw something I had never seen before. Lines. Long lines. I wasn't new to the concept of lines at Seoul Station or any train station for that matter, however the lines that were forming when I arrived were beyond ridiculous.From the front of the ticket counter to the very back of the station stood people of all ages. As I continued to walk through the station I noticed that the schedule time table was looking different from what I was used to. Instead of a list of the various trains running in the next couple of hours, warning and cancellation lists quickly streamed across the board. At this time it finally hit me, something was still wrong.

Line at Seoul Station

I made my way to the massive line of the people waiting at the information counter. As the line slowly moved forward I could hear people's voices becoming more frantic and louder. A man in front of me was shouting loudly at the clerk behind the desk. His hands were raised and his voice became increasingly angrier as the clerk kept trying to calm him down.  Old ladies began pushing their way to the front of the line, only to quickly leave again, the look on their face telling me that they did not like the information they were told.

Once I finally got to the front, I handed my ticket to the clerk and asked if there were any delays on my train. She looked at me with a worried face and simply said that my train would come after a "very long time" and that no one at the station had any idea how long it would take for any of the trains to come.

I went next to the announcement board and waited. I wasn't exactly sure what to do or where to go. It didn't help that the messages were rapidly flashing by in Korea, making slow reading impossible. 

After waiting for nearly an hour, I noticed a large group of people running past me and towards the train tracks. I looked up at the board and saw that saw that a train was leaving in just a few minutes. It was a few minutes later than my original train but I figured that if it was going in the same direction, I could at least ask if it was the correct train.

I walked to the platform, still noticing that people were quickly running past and and getting on the train in front of me. I noticed an older man wearing a Korail uniform speaking quickly to people as they got on board. I asked him if my ticket was the matching one that I needed to get on board. He quickly looked at it and gently shoved me towards the train.

"Everyone go," he said to me. "Everyone go on now."

Taking it as a sign, I quickly boarded and noticed how crowded the train was. I have traveled during peak travel times before so a crowded train was usually no big deal to me. However on this train, it seemed much more congested and full than normal. I looked at my ticket, car 8 seat 30 and made my way towards the car.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that there was no car 8, with the train only going up to car 7. I stood dumbfounded that a train was missing an entire car that it needed and stood in place, frozen as the car got progressively more crowded. 

I began to make my way back to the door. I now had my self doubts that I was on the right train and thought about getting off before it left. Making my way through provided to be a challenge worthy of Olympic sport as the car was filled with people sitting or standing in nearly every free space the car had.

By the time I reached the exit, the doors had already closed. The train hadn't started moving yet but I knew at this point it was too late to get off. I was going to be stuck on this train for a very long time.

(18) 90 in 90: The Plan that Came Together

Confession time: I'm pretty bad at planning events. I've always been bad at planning them. I've been planning them or rather wanting to plan them since a young age but always faltered when it came time to step up and claim responsibility. Never wanting to give up, I continued to try and be the party planner, always trying to schedule big meet ups or events, having visions of events running without a hitch in my mind, yet in reality, the result was always far from the desired vision.

So you could imagine my nervousness when I began planning my girlfriend's birthday party. This wasn't something that belonged to me, it wasn't just my enjoyment that was at stake this time, it was hers as well.

That's not to say she would have complained or protested if something went wrong, she's not that type of person. She would have appreciated anything as long as my thought and sincerity was there, but for me, it was something I wanted to go well. In my mind she deserved it. She deserved it for all the long hours she worked everyday, working insane nighttime hours. She deserved it for the endless amount of time she spent studying and preparing for her future jobs. I knew her life was full of stress and I wanted her to have a relaxed and happy day, even if it was just for one day.

So I started to pay attention, started to listen and take note of the things she said, the things that she wanted. While this may sound like an obvious thing to do, it takes a good memory and power of recollection to remember every detail months away, something that I usually am pretty bad at.

Happily, everything went incredibly well and according to my plan. It was almost too scary how well things went and how well each activity lead into the other one. We started with dinner at Namsan Tower at a restaurant called The Place, a nice Italian restaurant with a spectacular view of the entire Seoul area below Namsan. When we first arrived, the look of surprise on her face said it all. I had done something that I had rarely done before, I had genuinely surprised her.

It didn't stop there, I had a whole list of things to do the next day, including brunch at a nice breakfast place in Itaewon called The Flying Pan and the main event, tickets to watch the musical Chicago, which at the time, was its last day of production for the remainder of the year at the National Theater of Korea.

At the end of the day, I ended up spending more time with her than expected (this is another story for another day) and was able to spend the night at her family's house and enjoy her birthday breakfast in the morning (consisting of galbi and seaweed soup), a tradition that she had told me about and I had finally had the chance to participate in.

My girlfriend is a very calm and rational person, showing extreme amounts of emotions of gushing with joy are two things that do not commonly happen with her. The few days spent celebrating her birthday were filled with smiles and laughter. With emotional gushing and squeals of delight. With "Oh My God" and "Ahh, so excited" heard throughout the day.

If it sounds like I'm writing this to show off how awesome of a boyfriend I am, its not. Rather, its more of a feeling of joy and relief that I had finally put together a great plan for someone who really mattered to me. There was no regrets or do it better next times, but rather a great plan that surprised and made someone close to me very happy.

To go back to a previous post, I'm much better at participating and having energy at someone else's party rather than my own, and this is no exception . Hannibal from the A-Team was right, I love it when a plan comes together.

Website for Namsan Tower
Website for The Flying Pan
Website The National Theater of Korea 
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Snapshots from Teaching in Korea: (Mis)Translations

It goes without saying that English and Korean are not a perfect match for one another. There are many times different words and phrases don't translate completely, much of the original message is lost or the new message is far and away from the original. Sometimes it causes a small inconvenience. Sometimes it takes more than a double take and passing knowledge of Korean to figure it out.

And sometimes, sometimes you get this and you really have no idea what it means. I can only have a vague understanding of the original message, but I'm almost certain that it had nothing to do with a "sexual system".

Translation: "Hello ... is songhuigyeong sexual system.

Reflects the percentage of scores that can raise room has two semesters mode has changed. * ^ ^ *

Now you can type per subject. * ^ ^ *"