Boom...

Luckily I don't live in a Korean village...

And I guess I'm happy Koreans are totally desensitized to this kind of stuff because everyone acts like nothing even happened.

Some video here if it will work for you...

Much more troubling are wild boars. Apparently "Wild boars are showing up on highways and in the middle of Seoul."

And it's because of climate change...

Here is the best part...

"The ministry announced a policy yesterday to let citizens capture more boars, from three to six per person, and said it would distribute traps."

Time to get my boar license I guess!

Pushy...

Yeah... Koreans aren't exactly polite.

They are hosting some G20 shit that I know nothing about, nor care about. There are police and special security guards in all the subway stations. And lots of comical ads like this that should be up all the time, not only for the G20 Summit...




And on a totally different subject...

Here is a video of an old grandma that attacked a teenage girl on the subway.
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Apparently the girl crossed her legs and got a little dirt on grannies pants, then granny got angry. Girl apologized but grandma kept mouthing off. Girl apologized again. Granny still running her mouth. So the girl got snotty and started talking back to granny in the low form of Korean (the language has different levels of respect and a young girl should speak a certain way to an older, especially much older person. The girl didn't. Very rude in Korea). Then granny went psycho.

Worst thing is that everyone around just watched. This is kinda what Koreans do.

I saw a man at the subway station pull back and slap a woman in the face. She was holding his blazer and wouldn't give it to him. Both shouting. So he slapped her again, and again.

Just like the Koreans, I didn't do anything but watch. But I can't understand what they are saying so I don't know the situation. For all I know she may have fucked his brother or best friend or something and (yup gonna say it) may have deserved a slap.

But, I don't know. But the Koreans know. And always choose to do nothing and just watch. Kinda sad.

(dunno why this shit doesn't fit... oh well...)

Jackshit...

Started jamming with the remaining members of my band so we're now a 3 piece.

Had a few names being kicked around... Buckmaster Circle... The Stinkeyes... Jackshit...

Jackshit has won the race until we think of something better... I kinda like it but a little juvenile still...

Might get back on the horse...

It's been a long time since I wrote anything here.

Guess things kinda got pretty routine and there wasn't a whole lot that seemed interesting enough to waste my time writing about.

That being said, there probably is a ton of shit I could rant on about here so I might try to get motivated to come back more often.

So what is happening now in Korea.

Some professional Korean basketball team came to my school last week and donated these awesome basketball nets to the school.

Glass backboards and all.

Too bad they are outside on a sand playground.

I went to the corner store near my school the day they were there and I went to the side which is my smoking spot. One of the pro basketball players beat me to my position and was having a smoke there. Tried to talk to the guy but ZERO english. Tallest Korean I've ever seen.

And my band...

Terry, guy in my band, is gone back to Canada today so me and the remaining band members are gonna start a new band... called either "The Stinkeyes" or "Jackshit".

Our drummer thinks Stinkeyes has some kind of anal connotation that I don't immediately pickup on. Yet, he said to me "Man I got a real good band name: 'The Black Joke'.

He was serious.

I think that has more of an overtone of 'nah man can't use that name at all.'

Dirty rock...

Playing in a band now.

Called Banco.

Here is a song.

Full...

I'm home in Newfoundland now.

Too much food all the time. I can't move right now.

Awesome weather since I've been here too.

Time to lie down and get un-full...

Oink oink oink...

I ain't even down with this whole swine flu panic.

One of my co-teachers is going to Canada for a training course and she's totally worried about 돼지 프루 (um, pig flu).

So, I showed her this just to be an asshole about it.

Media goes hog wild over swine flu: Millions die

June 18, 2009, 1:00 am · 0 comments

You cannot protect yourself from Media Flu simply by covering your mouth. You must also cover your eyes and ears.

You cannot protect yourself from Media Flu simply by covering your mouth. You must also cover your eyes and ears.

In the two months since the first case of swine flu popped up in Mexico on April 13, we’ve been inundated with media reports regarding our imminent demise.

They said we’re all going to get it. We’re all going to die. Borders were closed. People were quarantined. Trade was halted. We desperately need billions of dollars in research grants. We need a vaccine to keep us from going the way of the dinosaurs. It’s the greatest health disaster since 20,000,000 people died of the Spanish Flu of 1918. Oh, the humanity.

Let’s get back to reality now. Do you know how many people have actually died of swine flu worldwide in the last two months (according to the World Health Organization)?

A. 1,440,000
B. 144,000
C. 14,400
D. 1440
E. 144

ANSWER: If you chose E, you are correct. A grand total of just 144 people have died of Swine Flu worldwide. In contrast, WHO says the three main strains of flu cause somewhere between 250,000 to 500,000 deaths a year globally. That’s somewhere between 685 and 1370 per day.

Obviously, it’s much easier to fall victim to Media Flu than Swine Flu. But Swine Flu is easier to cure and much less deadly.

http://www.ihatethemedia.com/media-goes-hog-wild-over-swine-flu-millions-die

Then she said "But it is a pandemic!!"

I can't find the link now but apparently the definition of pandemic used to include something like "...kills a shitload of people...", like a million or something, but now it doesn't..

Ah, found it...

The WHO Finally Gets Its Pandemic!
By Michael Fumento

For the last several years, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been claiming another flu pandemic is a "when not an if." Of course, it was talking about avian flu. But avian flu refused to comply, for reasons I've given in numerous articles beginning in 2005. So now they've seized upon swine flu to declare their pandemic.

Never mind that the mildest pandemic of the 20th century killed at least a million people worldwide and so far swine flu has killed far fewer people since it began in early April than die each day from old-fashioned seasonal flu. (144 total swine flu deaths compared to 685-1,370 daily seasonal flu deaths).

Further, in the country where the outbreak began, Mexico, swine flu peaked way back in late April. The worldwide crest can't be far behind.

So how could the WHO do it? Simple. In 2005 it rewrote the definition of "influenza pandemic," which formerly required "enormous numbers of deaths and illness." Under its new definition, a handful of cases and zero deaths can nonetheless constitute a "pandemic." And that's pretty much what we've seen. The term "influenza pandemic" has simply lost any truly useful meaning.

Thanks, WHO, for putting politics and self-interest above the interests of public health.
June 11, 2009 01:26 PM ·

http://www.fumento.com/weblog/archives/ ... nally.html

I'm not sure if it's true (read the writers bio and seems he may know what he's talking about) but I don't care. I just wanted to make her stop freaking out about it and she did, at least to me.

Hippies...

Watch this video. The last 10 seconds are amazing. Stupid hippies...



Here's another hippie video. This is what hippies are supposed to be like...

What are you looking for there, buddy...

I was on the subway heading to work as usual. I reached in my pocket to grab my mp3 player and change the song but the player slipped out of my hand.

It fell into some ladies bag that was on the floor. She was sleeping.

She was sitting and I was standing so I had to bend down and start going through her bag. My mp3 player is tiny (as seen above... please note I don't wear it on my neck because it is not a fashion accessory) so it wasn't easy to find. Everyone on the train was staring at me probably thinking I was tryna steal something out of her bag because foreigners are evil.

So, after a minute of picking through her shit I found it, held it up in the air for everyone to see, then walked to the next car, which probably made me look even guiltier of stealing her shit.

Maybe that will be my new thing. Dropping my mp3 in someones bag, only if they are sleeping, and then seeing what other shit they have in there that I can steal.

Code...

Here's the DL subway stop...

Boracay b'y...

I'm super slack writing here. So don't even know if anyone still checks this out, and well, not that concerned about it anyway.

I went to Boracay in January. It's an island in the Philippines that is pretty much paradise. Amazing beach, clear sea, coral reefs, cock fights, cheap rum...

I went with Matt, and we met Lana and Sam there, along with about 10 people from their school. So we had a good crew of East Coast Canadians, and an even better little crew of Newfs.

The only problem was Matt wouldn't stop greasing up his chest and it was kinda embarrassing for the rest of us...

So, what did I do there... Let me think.

Sat on the beach, day and night.



Ate lots of great burgers from a place called jammers.

Had some Chinese kid try to bury my sandals.

Drank a beer or two.

Didn't fuck around because there are security guys everywhere and they are serious.

Swam in the ocean.

Saw Bliss Jeffreys.

Got a retarded sunburn. Maybe one of the worst in the history of mankind.

Went on an afternoon bachelor party boat ride and drank and went scuba diving and visited another island with monkeys that a friend gave beer to and the monkey drank it and got angry when it was gone and threw the bottle back at us.

Went scuba diving for the first, and maybe last, time.

Saw lots of really funny beach kids.

Saw the future Wu-Tang Clan of the Philippines.


Went to the Witch Cafe on the end "other side" of the island. No one was there besides us and it was kinda cool. Some kids lead us there. The oldest kid was smooth. His little sister kept whispering "Ask for money" but he knew how to play his cards. I told him I could hear her and he said "Sir, you have very good ears." We gave them some money.

Watched some cock fights. Intense. The chicken fights weren't as intense as the people betting and yelling and making weird hand signals and throwing money around.

And then I came back to Seoul and went to work 8 hours after I got off the airplane...

Violence...

Here is an article from the English newspaper here in Korea.

The title is "Koreans don't rule out violence." Quite the awesome title.

The first line states "More than three out of every 10 Koreans regard violence as a more effective solution to problems than the law."

Maybe they think this because the Korean police are a joke. The culture of Korea is all about respecting your elders, so if the cop is younger than the offender, the offender doesn't feel he has to follow the police's orders.

But, that is not the point. There are some really crazy stats in the article.

"Most of the respondents (88 percent) had gone through physical punishment when growing up, and 50 percent had experienced beatings for no specific reason."

"Among those beaten for no reason during childhood, 69.1 percent said that their parents were violent toward each other."

Fifty percent were beaten for no reason? Um, seems a little high to me. Isn't that half!

There ain't much I can really say about this. I'd like to ask some Koreans if those numbers seem right, but dunno if I wanna go asking my friends or co-workers "Did you get beat up at home for no reason?"

If I do ask about it, I'll add what they say here.

Peace and Love.

Top gun...

Back from Shanghai.

Crazy tower, blimp with giant TV screen, TV boat...

Gonna post some pics on facebook soon.

It is a cool city because it's so new and modern, but so old as well. Beijing is the same, but the contrast between the old and new is much more pronounced in Shanghai.

Old Town... The harmonica: The instrument of choice for the Chinese youth.

The new is much flashier and exagerated. Pudong, the new built up business district, is kind of a crazy place. It's the new, built up part of the city that is trying to compete with Hong Kong's skyline. Although interesting, there are just a few too many tacky buildings, and the flat landscape can't really compete with the big hill/small mountain that the Hong Kong skyline is built upon.

Pudong skyline from our river boat tour.

But back to Shanghai and Beijing. I guess the older places are similar. I feel like I explored Shanghai more thoroughly because I was there about twice as long. And Matt and I were much more into checking out different parts of the city than shopping.

Beijing has the old Hutongs (sp?) but we didn't really see a lot of the older, more genuine Hutongs. Many are kind of refurbished for tourists, but in Shanghai we went to Old Town and although some of that area has been converted into a tourist shopping zone, we also spent a full afternoon cruising the back alleys.

Those small back streets made me feel like I was in China and not just any major city in any country. There is so much life and energy there and it's a shame that the whole area will likely be swallowed up by towering apartment buildings.

A shame for me anyway, but I'm curious how the people who live there feel? They'd probably prefer to move into a nice, new apartment building with their own bathrooms and sink, etc. But who really knows besides them.

We also went to Xitang. Tom Cruise was there not so long ago.

The nice, touristy area of Xitang. The old guys cell phone is better than mine...

It's a small canal town outside of Shanghai that has turned into a tourist destination. An old Japanese man I met at the bus station put it best. "It's basically a kilometer of souveneir shops." He was kind of right. Way too many shops selling the same junk, but once you get off the beaten path, it's worth the trip.

The town is well maintained because of the number of tourists that pass through, but outside of the main area of the canal town is the real canal town. Much more rundown and much less vibrant. We also left the canal town and went throught the regular town adjacent to the canal town. Again, this felt like real China.

"Real China"

I'm not even sure what I mean by saying "real China" but it's just the feeling I had. Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong are not representative of the average Chinese lifestyle. Outside of the three richest, most powerful cities people have a different standard of living and it was interesting to see that.

It's not total poverty or anything resembling that. It's just more rugged and tough than the major cities. Even Beijing is much tougher than Shanghai and Hong Kong.

But Xitang keeps it the reallest. Site of a Tom Cruise running scene in Mission Impossible:III, this place gets big props from me.

And walking the same streets as Tom Cruise was definitely the highlight of the trip.

If not the highlight of my life...

Shanghaied

Going to Shanghai next week for another Chinese Christmas...

Then back to Korea for three weeks to teach English camps...

Next stop after that is the Philipines for about a week...

Me and Matt are gonna meet Sam and Lana there...

Ju ga lay?????

Here's something that happened a few weeks ago... Below is an email I wrote to my mom about it... Rather than write about it again, I'll just post that email...

So, last week I'm teaching my last afterschool class of the day.

It's 4:30 and I'm about to start class when this crazy woman and her ajumma friend bust into my classroom. The woman starts yelling at the boys and then slaps 1 boys in the face REALLY hard. I run back to try to stop her but before I get there she slaps another boy just as hard. These boys are only in grade 4.

I really just didn't know what to do. I don't know the rules in Korea. I dont' know if I can push this lady out of the room, etc... So I just room to find the Mrs Park (my Korean co-teacher was still in the classroom but she was stunned).

So, the Mrs Park and a few other teachers run back to my classroom and take control. It was unbelievable! She was an expert. She was telling the crazy mom to shut up and she just commanded everyones respect.

By now, 5 or 6 kids are crying because they are so afraid of this mother of this girl Angela. Angela is also in this class. Her mom said the boys tease her daughter and sometimes steal her shoes after class. But, Angela never told any teachers about this she just told her mom. So her mom came to school to kick some ass or something.

Mrs Park tells her to apologize to everyone and if she leaves right now, it will all be over. So, she apologizes to the boys, to my co-teacher, and to me. But I didn't really want her apology and I just ignored her when she was speaking to me.

Anyway, Angela quit that class so that shouldn't happen again....

The only thing I heard from the mom that I understood was Jew-ga-lay...

It means "Do you want to die?"...

Told you so...

Here's some clips of some financial guy. They are from a year or two ago and he pretty much predicted what was gonna happen to the US economy, but all the other "experts" just mock the guy.



Not that I know anything about any of this, but interesting video none the less...

Rocktigers...

I went to Club DGBD (AKA Club Drug) with a friend and we watched a Korean rockabilly band called the Rocktigers.

Not really my style, but they are a really fun band to watch live, and the singer is super sexy. There were a lot of foreign guys at the show and I think half of them were there just to watch her. Definitely not a bad idea.

Thankfully my friend is a cute Korean girl so I didn't feel like a big loser there just to watch that girl singing!

Sleeze...

A couple weekends ago I met some friends near the foreign language university. The area is called Waedae and it's not far from my home. There were people from China, Poland, Belarus, Uraguay, America, Canada, Germany, and maybe a few more countries but I can't remember...

So, when the party was over we walked around looking for a good bar. We walked for a good while and didn't really find an interesting bar, but we did find something interesting.

We came to Cheongnyangni Station and thought we saw a place that may have some bars, but what we found was a giant red light district. I looked it up online and it's called "Cheongnyangni 588." Prostitution used to be legal here, but supposedly it's illegal now. Well, you would never guess it's illegal if you came across this place.

This place has five or six intersecting roads and on both sides of the streets are buildings with windowed walls, pink lights, and scantily clad girls sitting inside the windows.

The crazy thing is that this is so wide open, right next to a subway station. We walked around there and even found a police station right next to it. Apparently it's ok for Koreans to get service there, but not foreigners (and that is backed up by the link above).

I really wanted to take some pictures, but I was too chicken. So I took this picture for a sketchy alley in between the main streets. You can see the pink glow.

I went to Google and this was the best picture I could find. That's it right there I think. And if it isn't, it's exactly like that anyway.

I like this picture. That guy looks so sad. Shouldn't it be the girl who looks sad?

Scammin'

Neither of us were overly excited about seeing that band and then we found out the tickets we 60,000 Won (about $60 give or take). That was a bit much to see a band we didn't really care to see.

So as we were walking away from the ticket counter with no tickets some old Korean man came up to us and said "I can get you in 30,000 Won." After a little consideration you said no and walked around outside the festival grounds.

The concert was in Olympic Park so there was a nice hill where it was possible to see the stage (without going in to pay the 60 bucks). We went to get something to eat and planned on watching the show from the hill. $60 was just too much.

As we walked around we decided to go check out that $30 old man again. We were kind of afraid of getting ripped off so we made a plan. We would bargain with him and get him down to $20. Then, one of us would go with him and if the scam didn't work, we'd split the loss. I could deal with losing ten bucks.

So, we approached the man and got him down to $20 each. He reaches in his pocket and takes out some plastic armbands. Once we knew how he planned on getting us in, we just went for it. He put the plastic button on armbands on our wrists and then put one on himself. He said "inside you give back."

This guy had a pretty decent scam. Although the real armbands were just paper, the people at the door aren't gonna look that hard to notice the fakes.

We walked in with the guy with zero problems, gave his fake armabands back, then met our friends who all paid 60 each to get in.

Suckers...

Don't mess around...

Somehow I ended up watching videos of the LA Riots and came across these... Don't mess with the Koreans...