Let the rain fall down!

Last night I went to a bar in Masan called Joyce's. What a party!

I heard about his place last weekend and just had to check it out. I was told that lots of foreigners go there on Friday and Saturday night. I met my American friend, Ross and we took the bus to Masan together. We had lunch at McDonald's and then went to see the new 'X-Men' movie (not a very good movie by the way) and then we wandered around trying to find Joyce's. I knew what neighbourhood it was in, and thought it would be pretty easy to find, but no. We walked around for a while and then luckily bumped into a couple of foreigners who gave us directions.

I was told they had good finger food at this place and I was looking forward to having some buffalo wings, or nachos with a draft or 6. As we neared the bar we could here live music. What I wasn't told is that the place doesn't open really till about 7pm and that no one shows up till at least 10:00pm. But, the band was practicing and there were a couple of other people there, friends of peole in the band. They didn't mind us staying.

I really wanted to see this place when it was busy and wanted to see who would show up. Ross wasn't so keen, so we had a beer together, and then parted company.

The place is small but they have a band who call themselves the 'Kimchee Sojus'. For a while I was their only audience as they warmed up. I met all the band members, played pool with a guy named Chris from Ohio. Then, the owner of the bar, a guy named Matt, showed up. He's quite a character! Tall, shaved head, and fortyish. He still teaches English, but somehow finds time to own and run a bar and is in the process of opening a health club in Thailand. The guy must live on about 2 hours sleep a day.

Lots of people did show up...Canadians, Americans, a German guy, and lots of Koreans too. I spent most of the night talking to a guy named John, an X-ray technician from Toronto who was originally from Korea. He was back on vacation to visit family and watch World Cup games with his friends.

I stayed there till just after 1am and since the buses stop running around 11pm, I took a cab home. I had quite a few beers and a shot of something, but wasn't really drunk. I think it was because I was in this new place alone and wasn't sure how I was going to get home. I had never done this here before. When I've gone out drinking here it's always been with friends or at the local bar in Chilwon by myself for a draft or two.

On a completely different topic... a little over a month ago my co-teacher at Chilwon Elementary told me that I'd be having an open class. At the time she said it was no big deal, and only an opportunity for other teachers to see how I teach and maybe learn something, and for me to benefit from their feedback. Nevertheless, I was nervous. Then, about a week before the big day she tells me "We have a problem!'' The head of Haman education would attend my open class...he had never come to Chilwon Elementary School before. All of a sudden it was a very big deal to a lot of people.

At the next staff meeting the principal told all the teachers to make themselves available to us, and to help us however they could to prepare for the open class.

My co-teacher, Jon Su Yong, did a lot of preparation for it. I picked the topic, came up with some ideas and wrote some dialogues. She fixed up the classroom, prepared the materials and helped me get the students primed for the big day - June 5.

I was nervous before the open class, even more so when I saw all the people at the back of the class, i.e. the head of Haman education, the chief shool inspector, their assistants, all 9 of my co-teachers and about 10 Chilwon teachers. But, once I focused on the students, I was fine.

I began by pulling out my guitar and singing "You are my sunshine" with the students. Suprisingly my fingers managed to find the chords and I sang okay I guess. Once I just focused on the kids and stopped seeing all the spectators, I was fine. At the end they all clapped. I did all right I guess...the principal, vice-principal, and chief inspector all said, "Very Good job!".

It's a relief to have that behind me!

The World Cup is again upon us. As you probably know soccer is a much bigger deal in Korea than it is in Canada. Hell, it's a bigger deal just everywhere else in the world than it is in Canada or the U.S. Korea beat Togo, and then tied France this Monday. Most of the matches are on here at 4:00am. I like soccer, but not enough to watch it at 4:00am. Surprising to me that many of my teacher friends and the kids got up at 4am to watch. I had dinner with one of my teacher friends and her family on Sunday night and the whole family was going to get up to watch. Geez!

Okay, here's my sports diatribe...for God's sake Canada let's give up baseball. It tops the list along with golf and bingo in the running for games of the dead and nearly dead. Let's face it, if you're playing bingo on a regular basis, you should really check your pulse. Baseball isn't far behind and it's largely an American thing. Canadians aren't particularly good at it, or into it, and our teams are mostly composed of American rejects. While we're at it we should also drop football. Although more exciting than baseball, it's also mostly an American thing that we do to try to keep up with them. Well, sort of, CFL football is somewhat different, but again most players on Canadian teams are American rejects.

Hockey? Stanley Cup playoffs that go into the middle of June! Holy crap! That's riduculous!! Let's go back to the original six teams, simplify, and get back to basics. Hockey is our game and we should stop pandering to American tastes. Most of the expansion teams should be dropped. Start by removing the teams from places that don't even get any snow in the winter. If something drastic isn't done soon our national game is done for and that would be a shame.

Finally, all the money saved by dropping football and baseball should be put into beefing up our soccer program. Now that's a game! It has worldwide appeal, is fast paced and requires an amazing level of fitness and skill.

I almost went horseback riding a couple of weekends ago. There's a private riding club about an hour from me. But, I think they do some renting. However, we didn't make an appointment and the owner wasn't there. They got in touch with him but he was reluctant to let us ride without him being there. Insurance issues, I guess? Or, he simply may have wanted to check us out before letting us go. Whatever. I'll go back but will call first. Because of the high temperatures and humidity at this time of year they generally only ride at night. I had expected the horses to be scrawny and maybe even not well taken care of, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it's a very clean place with some very beautiful animals who look very well taken care of.

Hey gorgeous!

Me brushing a very pregnant mare

We left the riding stable and went to a charming little traditional tea shop. It was just a little cottage type thing by a river. The owner, a middle aged woman also played guitar and sang some traditional Korean folk songs beautifully.

The little teashop

Our day ended with a wonderful lunch at a really nice restaurant. We ate something called 'Kalby' (ribs), and had just finished eating when I heard something fall in the wok on our table. I looked and it was a large millipede. It was reddish coloured and really kind of revolting. The women with me screamed and pushed themselves quickly away from the table. We called the waitress over and she was just as scared. So, I took the fly swatter from her and managed to get the little critter on it and put him outside. My friend told me that this thing was very poisonous.

The rainy season began here on June 14th. It'll last about a month. So far it hasn't rained that much, but apparently next week it's supposed to rain three days, be sunny for two and then rain for two more.

Many, perhaps most budhist temples are located in the mountains of Korea. And most, if not all temples are blessed with the best water you've ever tasted. Clear, clean and cold, pure mountain water.

Ancient temple drinking fountain

Did I mention that here instead of dialing 911 in an emergency, you're supposed to dial 119.

Finally, anybody ever wonder about the Korean flag. I love the design, and the meaning of it.

Perfect balance and harmony.

Well, that's it for this month. Take care y'all!

Pierre