The Here and Now

I am sitting on campus, on our "Main Street."
I have my computer on my lap and am getting a tan from the crazy intense humid sun.
It's a pretty kick ass way to spend part of my work day.

Except,

Ocassionally, (read "freaking often") marauding groups of children come rampaging past.

Shouting things liike "Hello!"
"Nice to meet you!"
"I'm fine thank you and you!"

The usual "English" of little Korean children.

Then came one little boy.
Maybe 7 years old.
A smile spreading across his face as he tore up to me.
Waving like a crazy person.

"I am a very handsome boy!" he shouted.

Yes, yes he is...

I recently got back from a trip to the Philippines. A full week away from work.
Away from responsibility.
Away from jackets.

A full week in the sun and surf.

I wrote a story while at work today all about my trip. Or at least the first few days of it.
It is currently on my gig stick, ready to be uploaded.
However, there is a bit of a problem. The computer it was written on had a lack of Internet. (Hence the lack of story at that time.)

My gig stick is positively full of viruses. (Hence the lack of story now.)

Once I hit a computer tomorrow with Internet access that does not actually belong to me, I will tell you much more about my week of beaches.

The following is a story I should have told long ago.
A story I avoided telling for the sake of my mother. I would not want her to have a heart attack on account of me.

So I put off this story, waiting till the learning curve had subsided.
Waiting to be in the comfort zone.
Now I feel confident that I all the learning type incidents are far in the past.

Now I can tell you my news.

I am now the proud owner of a motorcycle.

I have been riding quite a bit lately. Never very far, never very fast (motorcycles can be dangerous, you know).
But riding none-the-less.

I go up to the store every few days to pick up fresh veggies.
I wander the back streets seeing the sites.
I make Kimbop runs during lunch.

I throw on my leather jacket, a backpack, and, of course, my silver bowl shaped helmet that is ever so helpful in making me look cool, and hit the open road.

I get stares.
I get honks.
I get children laughing and pointing.

Seeing a blonde, as I have mentioned before, is a rarity in this country.
Seeing a woman on a bike is a rarity in this country.
Seeing a blonde woman on a bike is a flat out once in a lifetime occurrence.

So I get craning necks.

At least I know that the cars on the road know I’m there. At least they are paying attention to the bitch on a bike.

With my new found freedom I have learned something interesting about the area in which I have lived for the past 8 months.
It’s rather pretty in these parts.

Every time I have been out and about I have seen some new bit of countryside. Some new rice patty. A lake with the sun glinting off in crazy patterns.
Cow pies littering the road.

Cow pies clinging to my bike wheels.
Cow pies splattering on my jeans.

Frickin cow pies.

Oooh, here is something else to entertain you.

At the village there are many talented people. They have talents in all types of areas.
We have lawyers.
We have artists.
We have singers and dancers.

We even have a damn good knitter. (Freaking knitter)

A few of these crazy kids banded together to make a music video of thier very own.
The video debuted a few weeks ago and since then it has taken the internet by storm. The Boyz have gigs lined up in Soeul in upcoming weeks.

The song, "Kickin It in Geumchon" is about the nearest town. It is not nearly as cool as the song makes it seem.

So please, follow the link to see the boy band craze that is sweeping South Korea.

Kickin it in Geumchon

Once again it’s military week.
Soldiers of all shapes and sizes are wandering campus all clad in camouflage.

Day 1

On the first day of the week we had a fairly typical opening ceremony. The opening ceremony takes place in our concert hall. Most of the teachers and all 450 soldiers are in attendance. They sit, they listen, and they learn a few rules and regulations.

There were some slight modifications to the normal Monday game plan, owing to the fact that these were adults and members of the Korean military.

We started with the national anthem. Everyone stood up, saluted the flag, and felt a surge of patriotism.
This left me with a dilemma. What do you do when another countries National Anthem is played?
You can’t just stand there with your hands in your pockets. (Mostly because there are die hard patriots all around you that have been trained to kill with just two fingers.)
You can’t salute. (Just tacky, particularly when you are not military.)
You can’t really do the whole “hand over heart” thing. (For obvious reasons pertaining to pledges and allegiance.)
The only thing you really can do is stand there like a jackass and hope no one notices. (This is what I chose to do, and I did it well.)

Then there was a speech about the pride of being a soldier and the importance of learning English to make the Korean Military the strongest in the world.
A sediment I think we all can agree with.


Day 2

A no alcohol policy was set down.
The problem with a no alcohol policy is that the higher you are ranked, the less likely you are to pay attention to rules.
Something reasonable, like a curfew is easy to enforce. Even a 20 something teacher can tell the “boys” when it’s time to go home.

However, attempting to tell a 50 year-old Major, who does not speak your language, and could kick your booty without thinking twice, that they are not allowed to drink is a bit difficult.
And by difficult, I mean damn near impossible.

Needless to say, there was drinking.

I, however did not partake.
It might have been due to my brand new pledge to clean living.
Either that or that fact that I enjoy my job and am not willing to risk it for a few pints.
Does that mean that I’m growing up? Does it mean that I’m losing that devil may care, anarchist attitude?
What is happening to me?

Freaking age.
Freaking ageing.


Day 3 and 4

Little to report.
The soldiers are great.

We are making crepes in cooking.
They are delicious.


The drinking continues, though much more secretly due to a stronger ban on the booze.
The stronger ban came after several hung over soldiers missed classes in the morning.


Maybe Day 5 will be more interesting.