Buckles from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

Kites in India from Macgregor on Vimeo.

Shaving It Back: Canon 7d from Philip Bloom on Vimeo

I’m really considering buying myself a Canon EOS 500D so I can make some HD videos myself

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?…I should grow myself a beard.

The Longest Way 1.0 – one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

I still can’t post pictures directly onto my site, but I’ve found a way around the many annoyances of my site’s many html script errors.

These pictures are a collection of pictures for the last few months, some even date back to February.

I spent the first few months of my teaching job trying to save as much money as I could, so as to travel as much as possible when I completed this stint of teaching in Korea.  But, as the sun got warmer and the trees bloomed, my objectives have slightly changed.  Korea is a fun place to travel once mercury rises.  The buses are cheap, the mountains and beaches are abundant and the food is good.  Inevitably, my outlook on living in Korea became less about saving and more about living and enjoying.  I still aim to save, save, save, but ultimately, I wouldn’t be doing myself justice as a traveler and a teacher in a foreign country unless I was also trying to truly explore and experience this fine East Asian country.

I have been going on weekend excursions that are affordable and fun.  I’m not too picky about the destinations.  All I ask is that the destinations that await me host scenic vistas, cultural phenomena or historical wonders.  So far, I think I’ve seen some pretty amazing cities.

I visited Jirisan Mountain with my co-workers, Jason and Neil, and Neil’s girlfriend, Yongju.  It was a nice overnight excursion.  We stayed in a pension, the Korean equivalent of a summer cabin/cottage.  It looked like the new houses that are being built in North Whitby and Oshawa, mostly because the owner’s children go to university at York and when their parents went to visit them they bought the designs for the houses they saw to build North American-looking pensions in South Korea.  Strange.

The mountains around our pension were beautiful.  We visited in the winter and the rolling mountains were covered in barren trees, which gave them an unusual haunting quality.  We got to a late start, no thanks to the quantity of wine consumed the night before, but we still managed to do some exploring and I got a few shots of our mountainous surroundings.

There are also some pictures of my trip to Mokpo with Brad.  We went there on one of the only holidays that we weren’t shafted out of because of this unlucky calender year; Students Day–the one day Korean students dont have to go to school.  We climbed to the top of the “mountain” and took some picture of the city and harbour below.  Then Brad and I were made to feel like rock-stars when a group of blushing teen-aged girls wanted to take pictures with us.  It was a good day trip.

Also, there’s pictures from my excursion to Busan.  I went to Busan only once before, but it was in the midst of my visa application process.  On my first visit, I only stopped into the city for a few hours to get my criminal record notarized, and after 4 hours or so I was headed back to Gwangju to crash on Brad’s floor.

This time I went with Priya.  We ate some great foods unavailable to us in Gwanju (excellent Indian and Mexican food), we laid out on the beach playing Uno, and we did a little shopping for summer attire (flip-flops and polos).  Before heading home, we stopped at an amazing temple in the mountains above the city.  As we walked up the stairs to the temple we could hear the beating of a drum.  When we arrived in the main complex we watched several drummers beat on a drum the size of a Buick.  We were there for the evening prayers and we sat in awe and watched fifty or so monks chant in unison.  I have seen prayer ceremonies before at various temples throughout my journeys, but never with such a large group of monks.  The effect that the monks’ voices had on the air around them was remarkable.  They were in such perfect unison that we could feel the note reverberating through the air and resonating within our bodies, which was particularly impressive because we were standing a fair distance away while watching them.  It was an unforgettable experience.

There’s some pictures from Sinji Island too.  This was a different kind of trip.  I went with Priya, Brad, Jolean, Lauran, Beth and Kate.  We mostly bummed around on the beach, drinking Soju and Poweraid (Poju) for several hours and enjoyed the breathtaking sunset.  For some unknown reason, I was a grumpy old man that weekend and I might have said some things I shouldn’t have.  My bad.

The last set of pictures are from my most recent excursion to Bigeumdo, and island 2.5 hours off the coast of Korea.  This island is renowned for its more rustic natural aesthetic.  It was pretty undeveloped and in even traveling there I felt like I was leaving Korea altogether and visiting a different country.  I went with Priya again on this trip.  We had these hopes of camping out on the beach, cooking our own meals on a fire or gas range and being uninterrupted by the onslaught of curiously offensive Koreans, but unfortunately, these visions were dashed.  First, Priya lost the gas range somewhere from Mokpo to Bigeumdo.  We still haven’t told her friend who was kind enough to lend us the gas range that we lost.  Second, that tent we borrowed was without a doubt, the worst tent made by humankind.  I tried my damnedest to build it, because as every man knows, putting up a tent is a matter of male pride.  But, alas, I failed horribly.  it was a sad day in the history of men.  Luckily, there was a minbak (room-for-rent) a five minute walk away.  This worked out better, I dare say, because we got a bed, a shower and we got to hang out with the owner, who was this very generous and kind women, and her friend, who both made us feel very welcome.  We still got to cook our lunch outside.  We borrowed a gas range from the minbak owner and we cooked sausage, egg and noodles on the roof overlooking the Yellow Sea.

Other than teaching, that should fill everyone in on where I have been for the last few months.  Take care and I’ll try to make some new adventures soon!

I just finished watching the last episode of the last season of The Wire and I’m feeling rather lost–Now, how am I going to occupy my time? I haven’t been that connected to anything on television since Arrested Development. Maybe I’ll actually have to be productive for a little while.

I’m still having some problems with the website.  I can’t post my own pictures, unfortunately.  These videos and links will have to do for now.

Last Day Dream [HD] from Chris Milk on Vimeo.

The Lemon Tree from William Campbell on Vimeo.

PACOVOLUME “CookieMachine” from discograph on Vimeo.

My Wordpress has stopped working correctly. I can no longer post pictures until I figure out what’s gone wrong or I reload everything, which worries me because I just got this site how I liked it and I’d hate to mess things up now.

I have lots of pictures to post and stories to tell, but until I devote the hours to fix the problem with my website’s script, I’m afraid these video links will have to suffice.

Iran: A nation of bloggers from Mr.Aaron on Vimeo.

Sia | Soon We’ll Be Found from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

Cool.

Taking the advice from a few wise friends,

I’ve decided to look at my current state of stagnation as a fiscal test.   With all certainty, I am going to save as much money as I can in this country and see as much of the world with it as possible.  Of course, this is easier said than done, especially when considering that, as it appears to me, almost all the foreigners and local Koreans require alcohol to have any measure of fun in this country, and alcohol is surprisingly expensive in this East Asian peninsula.  Having said that, maybe inebriation is seasonal, and winter in Korea is just more bleak than that of which I’m accustomed.  It is gray and uninviting, with few outdoor activities to break the monotony of its damp and penetrating cold.  Maybe everyone gets drunk to warm their bones, and hopefully, once spring fully spreads it’s wings and the mercury rises, my possibilities will also expand.  Time will tell.

I’m currently/finally reading, Ernesto Guevara’s memoirs, “The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey,” after watching the movie adaptation time and time again.  I’ve heard former acquaintances in classes criticize the book, but to be honest, I’m absolutely spellbound by Guevara’s abilities as a writer to capture the natural spirit of traveling headlong into the unknown.  He’s adding to my landlocked blues, but it’s inspiring at the same time.  He illustrates the fear, the hunger, the excitement, the curiosity, the loneliness and the freedom that inhabits the mind of someone exploring an distant land, and at the same time, gives some pretty useful tips on ways to get out of limbo, advice I might need to use during my future exploits.

I read this on the train from Seoul and I had to close the book for a few minutes…

I now know, by an almost fatalistic conformity with the facts, that my destiny is to travel…Still, there are moments when I think with profound longing of those wonderful areas in our south.  Perhaps one day, tired of circling the world, I’ll return to Argentina and settle in the Andean lakes, if not indefinitely then at least for a pause while I shift from one understanding of the world to another.  – Ernesto Guevara – The Motorcycle Diaries

There are few words or people who could explain this better.

If you haven’t watched this movie yet, do yourself the pleasure;

I’m going to keep on keeping on.  At least time is flying by, and before I know it my year’s contract will be up.  It won’t be long before I can walk the openroad again, answer my mistress’s wayward calls, whose whispers tease my half-sleeping ears.  I can float to her somewhere humid, feel her curves beneath me and breathe in her sweet scent.  We both know we will see eachother again, when the time is right, when I can yank my roots out and shake away the soil.

Lately, I’ve been feeling rather distracted and restless in the little world I’ve carved out for myself. This doesn’t bode well for my next ten months of employment—A distracted Lucas an impulsive Lucas.

I’m planning my prison escape. I’m looking for the weak point in the wall, the gap in the fence, the handholds to climb.

More and more, I spend work breaks surfing discount airline sites. They talk dirty to me. I can’t help it, really I can’t.

When I pass idling motobikes left alone as their delivery men run inside their noodle shops to pick up other deliveries, I ponder how far I could get on a single stolen tank of gas. Would anyone catch me before I got to the ocean? I doubt it. I’d make it all the way, windburnt and weightless.

I miss the ache in my neck from carrying all my worldly possessions on my back. I miss the rush of terror and the goose-bumps from crossing the street, parting the flow of all forms of vehicles, as they pass me by, only inches away. I miss buses and trains, delayed departures and cancellations. I miss sand. I miss my distrust and the way it keeps me sharp. I miss a little fear in the pit of my stomach. I miss the open road and my blistered feet to walk it.

Sorry, I got “tangled up in trite” for a moment there. Time to go teach some kids.

I just stumbled upon some new gems…give em a listen…trust me.

TV on the Radio – Dancing Choose

TV on the Radio – Shout Me Out

Erykah Badu- Soldier

High Places – Namer

Frightened Rabbit – The Twist

Frightened Rabbit – Poke

Holly Miranda – Slow Burn Treason – Ft. Kyp Malone

Check out more Holly Miranda and The Jealous Girlfriends.

Also!

My sister sent me this trailer. Maybe its because I’m still all too infatuated with Japan, or maybe it’s my film-snobbery, but whatever the reason, this trailer gave me chills…

So, I’m educating Korea’s next generation!

Yes, it still makes me laugh too.

I realize that I haven’t posted anything for quite some time. I’m a working man now, and I’ve still got to get settled into the flow of things around my workplace. I need to get my bearings still and make more time for writing and updating people back home.

To catch everyone up on what I’ve been doing with myself;

I teach very small classes of extremely intelligent 7-10 year olds for the first three hours of every workday. My favourite class has four students, one girl with a better vocabulary than most Canadian adults, another girl who I have personally molded into a confident and capable speaker in only three weeks, an ingenious and devilish 7-year-old who tries to trick me into buying him candy with almost Kantian philosophical poise, and another boy who was labeled a “trouble-child” in every other class he enters, but gives me no trouble at all because I was a hellion when I was his age and I know how to reason with his kind.

In the late afternoon I teach early teenagers, and just like teenagers everywhere, they are a handful. Little kids are so much easier to motivate. They want to learn, they are competitive and want to obliterate their fellow classmates and ridicule them mercilessly. All you have to do is mention BIO (assorted chewy fruit candies) and they straighten up in their chairs the their eyes widen, ready, in fully attention. However, the older students just want to fix their bangs and endlessly whisper gossip in their native tongue. I’ve finally gotten through with them, it just took some time.

In the evening, I teach some highschool students who are interested in reading English novels. Before I came they worked their way through several of the Harry Potter books, and currently I’m teaching them Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie. The previous teaching taught them simply by drilling them; “Who did this at what time?,” and close to thirty other questions, all of which I think were uselessly sterile. I’m working on making these kids understand what they are reading, and not just regurgitate the direct words from the novels. It’s really challenging, especially since the Korean education system stifles thought, opinion-making and individuality. I’m starting to sway some of the kids. It’s slow-going, but when one of the kids gets the meaning of some obscure passage I can barely contain my excitement.

I’ve developed a pretty good teaching-alter-ego. I try to balance somewhere between cool, funny, attentive, understanding, yet at the same time, demanding. I’m also allowed to yell at students and send them from my classroom, which I’ve only had to do twice in three weeks. One boy was cheating for his vocabulary test and then murmured Korean insults at me when I caught him, and another girl was trying to anger me by obstinately refusing to answer the assigned questions. You know how psychologists who have studied prison guards or other authoritarian jobs have concluded that power can change people and make the average compassionate person drunk on the authority of their position, making them live up to the roles of a heartless and condemning goon; Well casting a child from your room gives you a similar cold chill of excitement, not that I’m getting power-drunk on yelling at 14-year-olds, but I definitely can see how “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” so to speak. I guess I will keep this in check…but it is really fun.

I went to Seoul last weekend for Lunar New Years.

I will explain my trip in a few details;

Downed a few bottles of raspberry wine on the bullet train from Gwangju to Seoul at 10:30.

Stayed up until dawn dancing with an eccentric group of holligans.

Sang at the top of my lungs with a room full of foreign teachers.

Ate burritos, pizza, hamburgers, and fish n’chips.

Made the acquaintances of a delightful Korean girl named Jungsu.

Spent too much money from my first paycheck.

Graded homework the whole train ride home.

It was a great time, and the company was amazing. My friend Emily truly helped my enterage out by giving us free rein of her spare room and touring us around town. She’s coming down in two weeks and I hope to help repay the favour.

That pretty much sums things up. Teaching all day, five days a week, and then dancing the weekends away. It’s a pretty good life.

Here’s some good music;

TV on the Radio – Dreams

TV on the Radio – Family Tree

Frightened Rabbit – The Greys

Frightened Rabbit – Heads Roll Off

Erykah Badu – Honey

Crystal Castles – Courtship Dating

MGMT – Time to Pretend

Justice – Stress

Justice – No Stress

The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age of Understatement

Lightspeed Champion

Your eyes do not deceive you.  I am officially employed at 2 Months Language School!  It is about time!  I’ll tell you about my experiences later.  Right now, I have to do some marking.

Christmas away from Whitby just didn’t feel right.  Those of you who know me well know I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas, or as I like to call it, Corporate Annual Gift Exchange Day, but my resistance to the material obsessive nature of the holidays still doesn’t negate the fact that from December 24th-January 1st nothing beats being well-fed at home surrounded by my closest friends and family.

I still had a good time hanging out in Gwangju for the holidays.  I don’t quite feel like explaining my adventures, so instead I’ll sum it up in a few simple sentences.

Saw an old man fight a bus driver.

Saw a drunk driver crash a motorcycle while riding with a passenger on the back.

Ate Christmas curry while drinking Japanese sake.

Read several more books.

Warmed my frozen body with a drunk Korean groundskeeper at a temple around a blazing fire.

Fell asleep at a karaoke room.

Fell asleep in a taxi.

That pretty much sums it up alright.  It was fun.  I’ve met a whole bunch new people with similar tastes in music, movies and books.  I’m working on making some sort of book exchange for foreigners in the city who are as desperate for English reading materials as I am.

I hope everyone’s holidays were as good or better than mine, and of course, I am thinking of and missing everyone back in Canada.

Before I get to the best of the bests, here is the first installment of a little project Brad and I have been tinkering with, called Soju Socials.

Soju is Korea’s most famous contribution to the world of alcohol. It is a pillar of Korean culture and can be said that it is the cause and solution to all of Korea’s problems.

Now, without further ado, The Best Music Videos, Albums and Songs of 2008.

The Best – Music Videos

by Culture Bully.

The Best – Albums #1

by Culture Bully.

Albums #2

by Gorilla Vs. Bear.

Album #3

by Stereogum

Album #4

The Best – Songs #1

My internet is acting up.  I’ll finish this later.

     It’s strange how without warning one day tucks into another like tattered yellow-pages; how an entire week can so easily slip through one’s grasp like loose grains of sand; how another month can crawl across the cold terrain to reveal its ugly grey head.  How exactly does this happen?  Maybe its because I’ve been waiting for a visa confirmation with no set time-frame as reference.  Patiently, I always thought to myself with optimism, tomorrow will be the day that I get the call, get the email, get the telegram, smoke-signal, carrier-pigeon, bat-signal, or any form of communication that grants me the peace of mind to focus on something else but the waiting; to end my expanse of listlessness; give me the desire to get outside and explore. For almost two months, each day passed the same as before, until weeks and months had evaded my recognition and escaped appreciation—wasted and worthless.

       I realize, in the grand scheme of things, a day or two, some overlooked weeks, or even a few months is absolutely nothing, but at the same time, I can’t help but look at how I was for the first four months of travelling, and feel rather disheartened.  While travelling, I felt it painfully hard to stand still in one place for more than five days—a week stuck anywhere was unacceptable, and a month was never even a remote consideration.  I did something productive every single day—museums, temples, beaches, forests, parks, mountains, rivers, markets, festivals, anything that kept me moving, thinking, energetic and excited.   I walked places without direction, got lost, found little hidden corners and crevices of cities forgotten by the eager gaze of time; I made friends with passer-bys and was invited into strange situations, to witness someone’s daily life, maybe a family’s reality, and revelled at what I before never knew existed.  In comparison, I can’t help but feel these last two months were morally disappointing and unfulfilling, and right now, as I write this, I also think that waiting here in Korea has temporarily cheapened, if not sullied, the great times I had while on the road.  It would be different if I had come home right after Singapore, but truthfully, I didn’t yet feel ready.   If I had the resources, I would have kept going at full-force.  The travel wasn’t always easy, and in my mind I can recall the hot, damp claustrophobia of over-packed bus-rides that made my skin crawl, but I always knew that the bus had an end destination, and I never felt fatigued enough to quit my wanderings.  I came to Korea because I ran out of money, not will power, and I stayed because of my stubbornness—I needed to defeat Korea’s archaic immigration policies.  What started as a moral crusade, soon turned into a long, drawn-out, bureaucratic mess, and my zeal got tangled up in red tape and my need for frugality.

  Enough melodrama.  The day I officially start teaching is January 5^th.  I could have started earlier, but to show my director’s good nature, she informed me that if I started earlier I would be shafted out of a paid vacation.  Seeing how I only get two in a year, I figured it be best to wait a little while longer (Dun* Dun* Dun*) and start instead, in early January.  Hot damn.

Here’s some music videos I like to watch…

Here’s a video recap of my misadventures;

Now that I have my laptop and a movie editing program, I hope to make a lot more videos to post up here. Stay tuned to see what antics I’ll get myself into next.

Staying couped up inside while patiently awaiting my visa approval is slowly driving me crazy. I have cabin fever. I don’t have enough money to go on adventures, but conserving my resources by waiting is making me crawl in my own skin. I’m planning a prison escape. Don’t tell the guards.

On another note, I’ve decided to do a…

***Public Service Announcement for Any English Teacher Hopefuls***

I admit, I should have done more research before wandering into this country with the expectation of easily getting a working visa and starting a job teaching. I was naive. I really expected it to be a simple process. I assumed I’d have a few weeks of waiting time and before I knew it I’d be at the helms of an English class. Little did I know, I had an arduous process I’d have to undergo and numerous hoops to jump through to get this silly piece of paper that states I’m qualified to legally teach English in Korea. For everyone who has ever considered the possibility of coming to Korea in the near future to teach, I hope my simple advice will save you some hassles and headaches.

The Korean immigration process is incredibly archaic, and in recent times, they have tightened the regulations making it even more difficult to ascertain a working visa. Don’t get me wrong, they have some legitimate reasons for tightening up their standards. Interpol did an investigation of the native English teachers in Korea and discovered that a large amount of these people had criminal records in their home countries, many of which were arrested in sexually-related or drug-related crimes, or had histories of violence. The most publicized story revolves around Christopher Neil, who was a Canadian pedophile, teaching children in Gwangju, Korea. You can read about the story here. I understand that ultimately, the education of Korean children and their safety is at stake, and it is essential that the teachers who are coming into this country should not pose a threat. However, having acknowledged that their is a need for regulations, I think they have a foolishly strict policy for preventing people from getting a working visa who are already inside Korea. You’d think they would be more interested in hiring someone who they could meet in person to interview, over someone who applies from their home country via an emailed resume with a photo attachment.    Strangely enough, this is not the case. I have had a harder time than most because I’ve had to wait for documents to be sent to me from home, just to send signed copies back to Canada to be approved, and then wait for them to be returned to me once again in Korea. In the technological era, it just seems strangely outdated.  If you are traveling and hope to stop in Korea to get a job, think twice.  It is very difficult and the process will drive you crazy.  Go home and apply from there.  Trust me.

So, for those of you who have considered someday teaching in Korea, I can make the following suggestions;

• Firstly, consider applying for a public school position. In theory, the pay is a little less than private institutes, but the working hours are better day-by-day and these jobs offer 90 days of paid vacation time per yearly contract. In my opinion, this is well worth a little less pay. Also, these teachers have nights off, and though it is technically illegal, you can easily teach private lessons on the side in your evenings and make enough to survive off your private earnings while completely banking your public school earnings. Because you are hired by the government, the hiring process takes longer. I’ve been told the hiring of public school teachers takes at least three months. Overall, most of the people I’ve heard speak about their jobs in public school, have nothing but positive things to say.

• If you want more immediate money, you should consider private institutes. They have worst working hours, usually 1PM-9PM, or 2PM-10PM, five days a week, with split shifts over the summer and winter vacation with hours ranging from 8AM-11AM and then again from 5PM-9PM. Private institutes only offer 10 days a year off for vacation time. Also, something to consider, private institutes are businesses, often with no governing body to regulate labour rights and quality of education. But ultimately, they pay better salaries, which for many people with mounting student debts, is the most important perk.

• Whatever job you decide to take, read the contract inside and out. You will hear bosses tell you things like, “In Korea contracts are not important because here in the ‘East’ the employee/employer relationship is based on trust and mutual respect.” With these sorts of sentiments, employers justify forcing employees to work tasks outside of their contracted services, often without overtime pay. This is mostly a problem with private institutes because as I said before, they are businesses that want to capitalize on their gains. Be wary, and don’t let employers bully or guilt-trip you into working above and beyond the duties listed in your contract.

• Take your time deciding what position to take. If sometime doesn’t sound right, it probably isn’t. Ask your employer or recruiter about the aspects of the contract that don’t sit well with you. If they clarify or verbally refute parts of the contract, ask them to put it in writing for you. From what I understand, Korean employers will go out of their way to avoid shame and disrespect. If you feel you’re rights are being infringed on, confront your employer in private. If things still persist, stand strong and even make a scene if you have to. They will concede for the sake of their business and their reputation.

• Come to Korea with enough money to survive for at least a month and a half–approximately $700 CAD. It is common in the industry for teachers to work for more than 45 days without receiving any pay. This is hard for people who’ve come to Korea to make immediate money.

Below is a site that is particularly helpful for those who are planning on teaching in Korea and also many other world destinations.  Give the site a read, or email me any questions you might have.  I’m no authority, but I learn more an more about teaching in Korea each day and I’ve spent the better part of two months discussing teaching with foreign teachers to know what the deal is.

• Dave’s ESL Cafe

It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it.

Jon Krakauer – Into The Wild

So, I might have neglected to mention to you, my readers, that I am now a teacher of English Literature at Two Months Academy in Gwangju City, Jeollanam-do province, in the great Republic of Korea.

All my paperwork is yet to be completely finalized, but tomorrow I’m going in to do a demo class to get accustomed to standing at the front of a class room teaching Korean children the finer points of the English language. I’m experiencing a mixture of excitement and nervousness…mostly excitement, especially after waiting so long to get my documents in order to be granted a working visa within South Korea’s incredibly archaic application process.

The pictures above came from this weekend. Brad and I met some British teachers who just started teaching in the Gwangju area. Vikki is the blond-haired young woman and Bradley is the sharply-dressed bloke beside me in the pictures. They are a lot of fun. Gwangju is a great little city and I’m happy to finally settle down and have a bed to call my own–I’m looking forward to anything softer than a hardwood floor, which is all I’ve know as a bed for the last two weeks.

Funny story; Brad’s apartment is down the street from two of Korea’s most prevalent yet contradictory establishments. There is at least ten churches stationed beside or nearby a very active red-light district. This is not uncommon to anyone who has visited South Korea before. Almost every city in Korea has a skyline dotted with neon signs flashing advertisements for sex-motels, “VIP business clubs” and sexy-massage parlours. For those who are planning on visiting South Korea, a little pointer–if you need a haircut, make sure you go to a shop has a single spinning barber shop pole, not a shop with two spinning poles, because from what I gather, the “service” at a double pole shops doesn’t extend to anything above the waste.

Below is a video of Brad and I doing a walking tour of his entertaining neighbourhood…

The more novels I read the more I realize what I constitute as a great author.  To me, a novel should have a defined voice, a personality, almost as if the pages make up the features of a living human being, a wise storyteller who sits beside you and tells you, and only you, a tale you’ve never heard before.  A great novel should envelop you with it’s warmth in the moments of heartfelt, grab you by the throat when it is angry, wrench your heart when it’s upsetting, bring you into places you have never been and awakening you to perspectives you’ve never had.  What’s more, it should offer its reader some simple words of wisdom.  It shouldn’t preach per say, rather, it should offer a sentence or two that directly speaks to you as a reader.  I have encountered this repeatedly over my travels, and I think this is the best sign of excellent authorship.  Certain writers have the ability to offer me, an anonymous and distant reader in which they have never met, some tangible advice for my own life and my own character.  As I said, I’ve found this over and over again in some of the best novels I’ve read in the last few months…

• “Scared money can’t win and a worried man can’t love.”  Cormac McCarthy – All the Pretty Horses

• “It is not good to want a thing too much. You must want it just enough, and you must be very tactful with God or the gods.” John Steinbeck – The Pearl

• Haruki Murakami’s novel, Wind-up Bird Chronicles, showed me the perspective of person who is driven by an unexplainable need to cheat on their significant other.

• Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible illustrated to me the simple dignity in poverty and how asking for aid is not a shameful act.  There is no shame in asking those who have excess to give up what they can easily survive without.

Now, if only I could get a job reading novels all day long.  I’d be damn good at it.  I am getting close to being employed.  I have a few more hoops to jump through.  My criminal record check is in the mail.  Then after that, I have to do a visa run in Tokyo, and then, and only then, will I be an English teacher in South Korea.

I NEED A JOB!

While patiently waiting for my criminal record check to be processed and a solid employment oportunity to arise, I have been keeping as busy and active as possible. I have been endlessly reading and listening to music, studying Korean and I’ve been trying to stay informed on the American elections.  I will admit, I am more engaged in American politics than those in Canada, mostly because I feel that who ever becomes the next president in America has a greater effect on the world than any candidate present in Canada.  Basically, American politics are the politics of the world, and therefore deserves my attention.  I spend a lot of my time talking to people from different countries with differing viewpoints, and from what I noticed, almost everyone I’ve had political discussions with hopes to see Obama in office, if for no other reason that they hope for less negative American presence in the world arena.  This made me think, and then a few days ago I stumbled upon an interesting website, IF THE WORLD COULD VOTE, which asks people from around the world who they would vote for if they had a say in the election process in America.  Obviously, it is not a scientific survey, nor is it perfectly accurate and the results have no real impact on America’s ultimate decision, however, as a simple benchmark for the world’s political leanings, it is worth a look.   Check out the voting results from Macedonia; they aint fans of Mr. Obama.

If anyone is remotely interested in American politics and wants to have a laugh or two, Brad showed me a hilarious website that pokes fun at the electorial process.  It’s called 23/6.  It is totally biased towards Obama, but so are most media outlets outside of Foxnews coverage and those of the Bible-belt.  There is a series of videos called Get Your War On.  They are pretty much the best political cartoons I’ve ever seen.

 Here’s one that’s particularly funny,

Other news…

Koreans have a very interesting take on North American popular culture.  Today Brad and I translated some American songs for our friend (and Brad’s superior at his institute).  Most of the songs were a couple years old rap songs.  It was hilarious to explain the different meanings of popular expressions in American culture.

One of the songs was 50 Cent’s Candy Shop.  Alysia thought this was a perfectly harmless song about a young man wanting to take a young woman to a candy shop.  She didn’t understand the references to “lick my lollipop” or any of the other sexually suggestive references.  After listening to all of the English pop songs while stuck in traffic, we were sad to inform her that almost everything she didn’t understand in her music collection revolved around sex.  She now thinks all North Americans are a bunch of sex-addicted perverts.  Thanks a lot 50! 

Also…

If anyone is looking for a good read I’d recommend Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles.  The general plot revolves around a stay-at-home husband who expects to live a very simple and boring domestic existence after quiting his job.  Instead, he loses his cat and subsequently, is swept away from his quiet life, taken on a strange journey by the most random and mysterious of characters in Tokyo.  It’s a great read for a rainy afternoon or a long bus ride.

I hope to have some pictures worth posting for you next time.  Until then…

I received a serendipitous invitation to Samcheok, a coastal city on the eastern side of Korea, by the delightful, Anna Lee, and I eagerly accepted her offer and boarded a four hour bus to Samcheok Saturday morning. She took me on a bicycle tour of her humble city, I took countless pictures of the sleepy seaside and we ate sushi and drank lots of beer.  The next day we eventually boarded a bus for Gangneong, hoping to have time to climb a mountain, maybe witness the magisty of the changing colours, but instead, we enjoyed a leisurely stroll along the seashore and a chilly walk around the city’s lake.  I met a fellow Trent-grads and a former Whitby resident who are currently teaching in Gangneong, shot roman candles, lit tons of sparklers on the beach and I ate some mind-blowingly good Korean BBQ. 

Anna’s new, possibly asthmatic Pomeranian, Saja, loved me so much it tried to sleep on top of my stomach in the night and then settled for the small space on the pillow beside my own head.  I’m not going to lie to you, the dog got a little fresh with me when I was sleeping.  I feel little violated.

It was a great weekend, and exactly what I needed after spending too many oppressive days in the go-go-go city of Seoul. 

Thank you Anna.