What a wild weekend!

So start of my holiday here in Korea, right. Spent Friday playing online games at a PC bang, followed by a night of heavy drinking at an all you can drink club in my neighborhood. Met this totally drunk girl that started to call me her boyfriend all night. Next day, woke up at about 6pm and then went out to really cool reggae bar with a huge big mushroom in the middle of the bar, very trippy. Smoked some hookah and drank copious amounts of strawberry makoli, a very uniquely Korean drink. Followed that up with some live rap performances at a live hip hop club. This was really authentic shit, not Korean rap but all brothers from the hood, freestyling it. Was introduced to a cute Korean girl and we went to another huge hip hop club together, danced all night and got even more drunk. Got back at about 7am and slept until 12, cleaned my room. Went to gym only to find it already closed for the day. Went to get some food at Burger King instead. This cute Korean cashier kept smiling at me and was super friendly. When I got home i noticed she drew two hearts and a smile on one of the napkins she gave me, hehe. Only in Korea!

When in Seoul...

So its summer time, about 34c outside, perfect blue skies and most importantly its the end of the semester. Next week I start with summer camp: only about 2 hours a day of teaching a small class for the next 3 weeks. Its going to be a lot of fun. Well its the end of semester so I have to celebrate right? So my co-teacher invites me to have some lunch- boshintang in fact. What is boshintang you might ask, well a rough translation is invigorating soup but what it really is is dog meat soup. Its supposed to be good for "mens health". Ill keep you posted. Tradition holds that it should be consumed in the summer months to cool down the body. Now I know some people are going to berate me for even trying it. Its not something I will try again and in fact most Koreans don't like it either but it has always been my philosophy to try new things, to be open minded and that exactly what I did. I tried Balut and deep fried crickets in the Philippines and I tried silk worm larvae and live octopus here before. If you take out of the equation the emotional argument about eating dog meat (that its a pet and not meant for eating) and you look at the historical and practical argument of eating dog meat its really not a big deal. It taste kinda like lamb. I could not finish the whole dish because I didnt like the fatty parts but the meat was not too bad, tender and tasty. Dogs have been used as a source of protein in east asia for thousands of years. Western culture associates dogs as being pets, man best friend and although this is true and I love dogs too, a special bread of dog has always been used as food here in Korea. Before you preach to me about the ethics of eating dog meat you better take a look at your own consumption of meat and the abattoirs they come from. Do yourself a favor and watch Food Inc. I'm not advocating that you should try dog meat, but lets be open minded, there is really very little difference between eating one animal bread for it meat than eating another bread for its meat. If you are a vegetarian you might have a case. If you say to me its cruel then I agree, but so is the beef, pork, lamb and chicken industry. Anyway in the end its good to try things once. Soon your life is over, you are dust and all the material things you have gathered in a lifetime turns to dust too. You have one life to make of it what you choose and I chose not to follow the other lambs to the slaughter.

One hell of a week! Philippines and Korea

Back at home after a week away. I took a short trip to Bohol, in the Philippines. While I was there I saw an old friend of mine. It was great to get away, i must say. Bohol is really a beautiful island and the people there are super friendly. I ended up traveling to the chocolate hills, strange cone shaped outcrops, the remnants of coral reefs that once belonged at the bottom of the ocean. After that I took a trip on a boat down the Loboc river, really pretty scenery. I visited a Tashier sanctuary too. A Tashier is the worlds smallest monkey. Actually its something between a monkey, a bat and a mouse. Its super cute and so tiny. Smaller than my fist. They can only be found on the island of Bohol, and even though I would love to sneak one through customs back home with me, they are an endangered specie. The rest of my time there was spent on the beach, in the pool and in cafes eating yummy Filipino food. Was a good little break. I arrived back at my place in Seoul at 12am Wednesday morning and was out again later at about 8 on a fieldtrip to central Korea, the Mungyeong and Andong area in Gyeonsangbuk-do province. The first day we did a historic hike along a trail used by ancient Korean scholars as they traveled to Seoul to take an exam that would allow them to become civil servants in the Joseon kingdom, the ancient name for Korea. The path was scattered with beautiful scenery, a river on the one side and majestic mountains on the other, temples, resting pavilions for scholars to swap stories and drink Makoli, ancient walls and gates, the set of an t.v. drama about the ancient Joseon Kingdom. It really was spectacular. The next day was relaxed, we went rail biking, which is a bicycle that used to carry coal from the nearby coalmine, now a tourist draw card. After that we went to a mildly interesting coal museum, I mean how interesting can coal be? It was good to see though how they transformed a desperate community of out of work coal miners into entrepreneurs. The last day there we went to Hahoe village. Its an authentic Korean village over 600 years old. Its actually a world heritage site and it was really interesting, its a living village in that the decedents of the original inhabitants still live there. Very beautiful town, would love to see it in autumn. After that i returned to Seoul nursing a cold which has basically ridden me to my bed for the last few days, which i dont mind because i have been very busy this past week and needed to take a little break from everything. Such a lazy Sunday today, just feel like doing absolutely nothing.

Death by Cherry blossoms!

So its spring and all the cherries are all out in pink all over town, oh and the cherry blossoms too. Its a good time of the year, im not wearing 5 layers of clothes anymore and the heat of summer is a distant concern. Ive been out everywhere checking out the blossoms, Yeouido, Dongjak cemetery, and today I walked the mountain near where I stay. Its also the campus of Seoul National University. Oh and I appeared in a newspaper article, my co-teacher showed me. It was for the trip i took to see Bekje cultural heritage sites. The article also features a barcode, not sure if this is possible in South Africa, but I doubt it. You use your smartphone to scan the bar-code and then it will show you a video on your phone about the article. Well, I was featured in that video too. I sound like an idiot but hey at least not too many people will see it. The barcode thing is quite nifty though, I see it everywhere here on posters etc. So if you want extra info you just take a picture of it with your phone. I like the innovation here in Korea, little things always surprise me here. For example you get energy drink flavored gum, useful for when you missed your cup of coffee in the morning. I went to a mall called Time-square, beautiful futuristic looking place. They have a 4D cinema with the biggest screen in the world. A 4d cinema makes use of 3D movies with moving seats and other effects and even smell. I cant wait to try that. I joined a boxing gym, its just round the corner from me and a great way to get fit and learn a skill. I guess thats about all I can report today, im gonna go to bed, my legs need rest.

In seach of Baekje culture

Last weekend I went to watch a soccer game at the world cup stadium in Seoul. FC Seoul beat another team 3-1. Was an entertaining game, played at high pace and lots of shots at goal. Certainly much more exciting than any soccer I have seen in South Africa. After that we went to eat at Tacobell which was pretty cool. Then we went off to a metal gig in an abandoned building in Hongdae, the club district. Was really low key affair. The place didnt even have its own bar, but since you can buy liquor at 7-11, everyone just went next door to buy and took it inside the "club". A bunch of expats were performing: a death metal outfit with a really odd sense of humor. It was good fun. After that I went to a upmarket club in Apgujejeong, the Beverly hills of Seoul. We were on the vip list so didnt have to pay but the drinks were pretty pricy. About R60 a beer. DJ Sasha was performing there, an international DJ, apparently very popular but not that I would know. I had fun. The next day I went walking around Gangnam, a business area that reminds me a bit of walking in NYC, got a little lost, I got tired of walking and went back home to prepare for the week ahead. This weekend I decided to do the cultural thing. I went with a co-teacher of mine on a tour of Ancient Bekje culture. Bekje was an empire in Korea, part of the Three Kingdoms, and had a lifespan from 18BC-935AD. Its the lesser known of the Three Kingdoms, the more understated of the three but I was interested to go and see this part of Korean history. We went to Maae to see a trinity of Buddhas carved out of granite. As a lecturer was explaining the history of Bekje culture in Korean, all I could do was to do a little people watching. I was thinking to myself, if the audience was a bunch of expats half the group would have been missing, sitting in the bus, looking for a coffee shop, taking a smoke break or scrambling up the rocks in search of more sculptures, but the Koreans were all taking notes as the lecturer was speaking, lol. The statues are famous for the subtle smile of the Buddha which is unique to Bekje culture. I loved the scenery in the mountains. Still winter, but you could see the blossoms are coming out and spring time is only about 3 days away. This is when the country side will be transformed into beautiful color. The next stop was the ruins of an old temple, destroyed by the Joseon dynasty, the empire that tried to stamp out Buddhism from Korea in favor of Confucianism. We then went for a really great lunch near the temple of the open heart, Gaesinsa, made from the freshest veggies. Then we took a tour of the Gaesinsa temple, a temple dating from about the 9th century AD. The tour was running late, probably part to me talking so many photos and arriving last on the bus to go to the next stop, and so we had a very short time at the fortress of Haemieupseong, a huge structure build in defense of Japanese invasion probably round about the 15th century. I scrambled up and down the ramparts and expected the grounds as if I was commanding my own army of humans and elves against an army of orcs outside the walls. My imagination was interrupted by a journalist and a cameraman asking me if they could have a quick interview. Before I could say yes and swallow my bubble gum they were asking me what I thought of the fortress to which I replied "Its amazing" duh. How about giving me a heads up next time! Next stop, another temple with stone carvings of Buddha. I met another foreigner from the UK there, he had hiked up the mountain. Anyway, it was a long but interesting day and I arrived back exhausted from all the scrambling up mountains and fortress walls. Good day!

Orientation week in Daejeon

So I'm off to Daejeon for a week of teacher training, im on the bus, listening to accents and hear a loud South African behind me, suddenly the guy next to me starts speaking to him and he has a South African accent too. I'm thinking to myself, oh its so cool to be sitting next to fellow South Africans. Well turns out the guy behind me is a rather obnoxious childish guy that cant stop swearing and the guy next to me is a little nuts to say the least. Way to hold our South African reputation high! Well turns out this guy next to me is a bible freak, more correctly, he is a nut that hides under a thin vale of religious justification, he thinks that God speaks directly to him, and has given him a prophetic gift, I call that a schizoid. I should have seen the warning signs when I asked him if he had taught before and he responded "only the gospel". Later on the bus he responded to my story of how I got in a bike accident in Taiwan by saying that I probably hugged a girl and got turned on by it and that it was Gods way of punishing me. He told me that I must not be lead into temptation by the Korean woman. At that point i started to stare out of the window to avoid anymore conversation with this guy. But unfortunately as we got to the orientation location and we were about to check into our rooms he said to me, why dont we share and against my better judgment I accepted. Well as for the orientation itself, i really did learn a lot and I made some good connections. It was the best orientation program I have attended and I must thank the EPIK staff for an awesome time. We had a competition for best lesson plan presentation and my team, 2 other teachers from the US won our class' prize, W10 000 call cards. Thats nice, but I would prefer the cash since I can skype family and friends for free anyway. Well, so more about my roommate from hell. Firstly, he does not eat during the day at all cause he says he is fasting, the guy is really skinny and kinda scary looking. He never attended classes, not sure what he did all day, he talks to himself, he recites verses from the bible to himself and starts praying out of the blue, even in the middle of the night when i'm trying to sleep, that freaked me out. He complains non-stop and is particularly anti-American. I could just feel the negativity as I entered the room, i could feel this guy is bad news. He woke up at 2am to brush his teeth, floss and clear his throat. He doesn't do it quietly, he makes a lot of noise. I was furious with him for keeping me awake at night either by loudly clearing his throat or talking loudly to himself. Absolutely no consideration. He left his garbage scattered in the room after we checked out which just shows how inconsiderate he is, and he is like a leach, there he was keeping a seat for me next to him, for the journey back to Seoul. I wonder why it seems I seem to attract the freaks at orientation. Same thing happened to me at orientation in Taiwan when I also had to room with another bible nut. Anyway I feel sorry for the school he has to teach at. I cringe when I think of all the decent and good teachers from South Africa who's reputation will be dragged down by a few negative kooks that should not be here. Anyway I had a good time on the field trip out on a farm in the country side. I find the country side really beautiful and I can see that this country is really a stunning place for hiking. Its still winter but starting to change into spring so I hope to do some hiking soon. It was good to be back at my school today although i was a bit under prepared for my lessons. I picked up some really useful stuff at orientation that I cant wait to use. Tonight Im just going to take it easy, have a beer and relax and finally get a decent nights rest. Saw this really pretty girl today in the elevator of my apartment building. She smiled and greeted me in Korean as she got off. Wow, I wish I can speak Korean now. I seriously got to get a tutor. That made my day. Tomorrow im off to watch a local soccer game and then off to Hongdae (the club area) to see some rock bands. Should be a ball.

Day out to Wolmido island.

Went with a bud of mine, his friend from Yemen and his girlfriend to a place on the coast called Wolmido island today. It's in the satellite city of Incheon. We took the subway there and arrived at the last stop on the Incheon line in about an hour. Outside the station was China town, a small area of Incheon filled with Chinese restaurants and shops. We had some lunch, I had Jajangmyeon, which is a famous Chinese dish here-noodles in a black bean sauce. It was actually really good. Then we took a bus to Wolmido which is like a small theme park with a seafront and lots of restaurants serving seafood. We skipped the seafood part and went straight for a restaurant serving raw seafood of all kinds. I ate the strangest things, like raw squirming baby octopus, raw abalone, raw sea cucumber, this one sea creature that looks rather like a penis, and some other really odd stuff, then we had a full fish served sashimi style and finished it off with some spicy fish soup plus copious amounts of soju. Drinking is somewhat of a lifestyle here, the Koreans apparently are only second to the Russians in terms of alcohol intake per capita as can be witnessed by the amount of vomit on sidewalks in the mornings when walking to work. In Korea, if you work for a big company you are basically forced to go out drinking with your boss almost every night of the week. I get invited to dinners with teachers all the time. I think i have 2 next week alone. Anyway, South Africa has nothing on this place when it comes to drinking and bars. After the meal we walked back, stopped at a food vendor and bought the most vile thing they had on offer as a dare, it happened to be silk worm larvae, and I bought a cup for W2000 (about R12) and the three men each tried one. I went first, I put it in my mouth, ignoring what I was actually eating and chewed on it a bit. I think my response was something like: "its not that bad, taste like shriveled broccoli". The next guy tried and said its the worst thing he had ever tasted, the third guy tried it and threw up on the pavement near the vendor. I discarded the rest of the silk worm larvae and we headed back to Seoul on the train. That night we went out in a unvivesity area where I have never been before, met another South African from Pinelands, drank a lot of Soju and beer, met some Korean university students (some cute girls) and started singing drinking songs and playing drinking games with them. After that we took a cab back as my American friend was covering the streets of Seoul with more vomit. Good night out but the hangover! Spent the day in bed recovering :(. I didn't think I would come to Korea to get drunk every weekend but it seems to be the norm here.

2 weeks in Korea

So its been quite an exciting time for me since arriving in Korea. I had to get used to a lot of new things since I have been here. I stay in a tiny apartment in an area of Seoul called Boramae. Its south of the Han river, the river that splits the city in two. The neighborhood is mixed between working class and middle class families so its not the best part of Seoul but near me I have a little CBD with a big park where I can go jog or cycle. Seoul itself is absolutely huge! Its surrounded with hills and mountains. There is a subway station near me so its easy to get around in Seoul. My school is a middle school, that means teenagers. Its about 10min walk from my place. The students are super friendly, I cant keep up with all the greetings when I walk down the passages. Sometimes the girls will say "You so handsome!", good for my ego, so I say "Ah, thank you very much!". Then its usually followed by "Your face so small, very good!", then i'm like "Er, thank you, I think." The teachers are really friendly too and keen to chat with me, very polite people. I get rice cake gifts on my desk all the time, some of them are nice, others are rather inedible. In my room I have underfloor heating, so its a nice escape from the chilly Korean winter outside. Now the weather is heating up as we heading into Spring. I also have cable TV (watching the Tsunami in Japan on CNN at the moment) and I have high speed internet, so cool. I can download a gig of info in like 30min. There are some interesting things about Korea. There traffic lights are like super computers, they give you the exact time you have to cross and if you try crossing when its red, the traffic light barks something at you in Korean. So no one here J-walks. The food is great, the love their BBQ and I went with some fellow expats in my neighborhood to a BBQ joint where you cook your own meat on a heated grid in the middle of the table. They let me try Soju, the local favorite brew, it tastes like a light vodka, which is a dangerous thing because Koreans tend to down bottles of the stuff in one sitting, as did I. They have these buzzers on the side of the table to call the waiters. I didnt realize this and kept on resting my elbow on the buzzer. Eventually the people at the table had to ask the waiters not to come if the buzzer goes off. There are shops and restaurants everywhere. There is a Lotte Department store about 500meters from my appartment. Its like a Sogo's or a Woolworths. Its expensive but some nice shopping there. I get nice school lunches so Im not too worried about what I eat, Korean food is really healthy and very tasty. Anyway Im off to Costco, so see what they have there. Cheers!

Just arrived in Korea

Arrived in Korea last night, was a bit nippy, 4c outside, didnt feel much different from a typical Cape Town winters day. First thing i noticed as I was traveling from the airport to the hotel was all the smart black cars, they all look like mercs and limos with black tinted windows but they all Kias or Hyundais. We drove past the longest bridge I have ever seen, its 21km long and connects Incheon International Airport to Songdo International City. I hope I get the chance to travel on it. I stayed in a small town outside the airport. Its built very vertically and has shops and restaurants everywhere. There must be like 10 restaurants just in the small block where the hotel was. It reminded me of Hong Kong. The hotel itself was really nice. They upgraded my room, so I got a nice spa bath, one of those toilets that looks more like a robot. It had a heated seat and instead of toilet paper spays a heated stream of water from below. Its got a million other buttons that I have no idea about, wasn't going to test them out since I have been waiting to use a clean toilet since i left Cape Town. I watched a bit of TV, but they had so many channels and not much I could understand so I ended up watching the Games channel, some match-up of Starcraft being played, Terran vs Zerg. I might be a nerd in South Africa but here im just an average joe. I had a walk outside and despite all the restaurants and the great smell of grilled meats emanating from them, i settled on the hotel restaurant where the menu was in English, one thing is for sure though, im not going to starve in Korea. I had a nice long sleep and woke up in the morning, opened up the curtains and noticed everything was covered with a light coat of snow. It was still snowing outside so I went for my first walk in snow since I was a kid. I felt so excited, I suppose just like i did when I first saw snow as a kid.

Leaving Cape Town!

Tomorrow im off to a new world, leaving behind friends and family here in Cape Town. Spent the last few days getting my fix of South African food, had Nando's periperi chicken the other day, that was disappointing, dry as carpet, had 800g ribs at Brads, gonna find some biltong and droewors today and have sushi with the family tonight (not that sushi is very South African but hey, dont over think it). Been a great summer here in Cape Town, but all great things must come to an end, and it does seem to be the end of an era to be honest. This city has just become to small for an wide eyed coach adventurer like me. Time to put on my hiking boots and start walking. Suddenly my time in South Africa is starting to run out and im starting to count every minute, every second, still got a lot of packing to do, so see you on the flip side.

U2 @ Cape Town Stadium 18th Feb 2011

Take a more than 70 000 awesome Capetonians and send them off on a victory march through the streets of the Mother city towards the amazing spectacle of the Cape Town stadium and you have yourself a U2 concert. Perhaps by U2 standards this is small, it happens in every city they tour, they been doing it since the 70s but i tell you what, Cape Town has never seen a site like that before, streets filled with drunk hot U2 fans, everyone in the best mood of their lives, walking in anticipation towards the great mother ship, the claw (thats they giant rig that U2 use, which sits in the middle of the stadium giving people a 360 degree view, hence the name of the tour). Well the fan walk was open and totally packed. Every sidewalk cafe and bar was filled to the brim. We ended up finding a liquor store and buying some beers which we threw back in copious amounts outside on of the bars on the way,  cheap solution to the problem huh. At this point I better apologize for the quality of this post, serious hangover! My brain function is seriously low today, yes even lower than it normally is. I digress, back to U2. Great show, great seats, actually they were standing only, but right up on the stage, in the VIP area, i was 1 meter away from Bono, dont think he saw me though, although Allan Clayton did give me a huge smile. Gary Teighman, the former Springbok Rugby Captain was just behind us. Well U2 certainly put on an big show, that rig was incredible. The show was rather political but you know thats U2 for you. Viva Aung San Suu Kyi! Democracy for Burma now!

Rammstein in Cape Town 9th of February 2011

We'll I went with bunch of buddies of mine to see one of my favorite bands, Rammstein perform live at Grand West Arena in Cape Town. First thing people always say is "Who the **** is Rammstein?". This is usually followed by a thought bubble in my head filled with fire and brimstone. Well, if you don't know it a German Metal band, and happens to be totally awesome in every possible way! Now some of you might prefer to go to Roxette or to see Celine Dion live. Not me! I like to ROCK! Thats exactly what I did. The show was filled with pyrotechnics, lighting effects, and crazy shit the likes of which Cape Town has never seen before. Christian 'Flake' Lorenz, the keyboard player for Rammstein came crowd surfing over me in an inflatable boat, how cool is that! They set this poor gimp on fire during the show, lucky he was wearing protective clothing. They kept firing off those flame throwers, the heat of them hit our faces like walking into a furnace and when they started playing my favorite song 'Du reich so gut' I was going crazy, hopping around like a mad rabbit surrounded by an orgy of thousands, dark jumping mad rabbits. Man! these guys are hardcore! Some label them as Neo-Nazi Satanic Evil delinquents, and if you one of them I feel sorry for you because you will never get what Rammstein is really about, one of the most intellectual minded and thought provoking acts ever. It brought out all the dregs from the sewers of Cape Town, the lost generations, the dead, the ones you never see when you walk along the boardwalks of the Waterfront in the day time, and it made them feel alive again. All my best friends were present :) Thanks Rammstein for that wonderful show.