New Music and New Videos

Here's some new music I've made recently with some video I took here in Ulsan.

Safe and Sound

It's been a damn long time since I wrote anything here. I've been meaning to... really. I just didn't get around to it.

First off, I got to Ulsan after a 5 hour drive, 3 plane rides (2hr domestic, 8 hour international and a 6 hour international) and then a 5 hour but from Incheon Airport to Ulsan. And yeah, after all that, I was tired, and in need of a shower. I got to my new place, and was surprised as to how big it is (well, compared to the last box I was living in) but was immediately hit by the "someone used to smoke in this place" smell. The teacher I replaced didn't smoke, but the one before her apparently did... a lot!

Ulsan is a nice place. In a way, it kinda feels like Gwangju. It has roughly the same population, the street pavement feels and looks the same, and stuff just seems to look similar. But, that's just Korea, I think - if you've been to one large provincial city, you've been to them all (Busan excluded ^^).

The location of my place isn't too bad as well. I'm within walking distance of a lot of stuff: bus terminals, train station, shopping, downtowns (new and old) and a river with an awesome walking/biking track. Plus, the bus system is pretty much what you'd expect for a Korean city this size.

I have a lot of friends in this area and I've met up with a lot of them already, and it's only been two weeks. I'm only an hour and a half-ish out of Busan, which means day trips on weekends are possible. Other places, like Jinhae, Changwon, Masan and Daegu are close too, so it's not too bad.

It's been cloudy and rainy since I've been here, but the weather from last weekend has been a bit better, with a lot of sun, but still quite humid. I got sunburnt on Sunday, but not that much, so it actually felt good XD

Work is okay too.  A (hell of a) lot better than my previous job. The timetable is a bit packed, but I do like having every morning off to do stuff. The people I work with are nice too.

I'm only 2 weeks in to my 1 year contract, but I've got a good feeling about it. Obviously, I'll have less doubt when I get paid, which is early next month. With all the "hagwon horror stories" out there, and how I found a good hagwon back in 2005 and stayed there for three years, it would be nice if this job worked out the same as that one.

As of yesterday afternoon, I've got my "welcome to korea" cold. Yeah, a cold in summer. It's happened every time I've got to Korea. Just a "welcoming present" as I like to call it - You need to get used to our cold XD

3 weeks and counting

Got my visa in the mail yesterday morning. Took about 2 weeks, including postage time.  Also booked flights to get to South Korea. From leaving my house, to getting to where I need to be in South Korea, will be: 5 hour drive, 1 domestic flight, 2 international flights and 1 or 2 buses.

Yep, will be super tired after all that, but am looking forward to it. With the way the flights are, I've got a longer stop-over in Australia than overseas so I don't have to exchange any money.

Now that the visa and tickets are all sorted, just gotta figure out what I'm taking with me and make the time to catch up with friends before I go.

Should I start counting down?

I haven't blogged in a while. Mainly because not much has been happening.

Other than the whole going back to Korea thing.

I got my visa number, and sent off documents to the Korean embassy this week, and hopefully will get the visa some time next week. I'm looking forward to getting back there. Not only will my boredom be delayed, but the excitement of a new job, in a new city should be a good feeling. Also, I'll be back in a hagwon, which is nice. Will have my mornings free to do stuff. I won't have to deal with the bureaucratic bullshit that I had to deal with at my last job.

With a month to go, I've been going through all my crap here. Throwing stuff out, burning some stuff... Today I burnt all the notes I made at uni about 10 years ago - that I never looked as since. It felt good - very therapeutic. Have also got a fair few old Macs to get rid of, a couple of Mac Classics, a Mac Plus, even an ImageWriter printer. I'll be keeping my Mac 512ke (because its awesome, old-school style), and my PowerMac 5500/250, since its got all my pre Mac OS X stuff.

Am looking forward to the next chapter. Am hoping that this job, will be as good, or even better than my first job in Korea.

Out with the annoying...

For the past year, Facebook has slowly been annoying the hell out of me more and more. I've reached the point where I've deleted almost everything off facebook, including photos, some posts, and some "friends".  If you are someone I know/knew and were in one of the photos I had up on facebook, if I have a copy of that photo and you want it, just let me know - I'll send it to you.

I got sick of all the applications that people were using, and then all the invites they'd send. I got sick of all the photos people would upload. I got sick of allt he pages people liked, and all the groups people joined.

 I got sick of all the CRAP PEOPLE DO ON FACEBOOK!

In retrospect, Facebook was one of the reasons why I was not liking my previous job/location in Korea. Everyone was on facebook, and therefore, up with everyone's business, if they liked it or not. Basically, everyone was in everyone else's business - even in an indirect manner. It was like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. It was one of those situations where you had to be careful with what you said everywhere, because it had the potential to come back and bite you on the ass. Maybe that reflects the people who were living there, rather than their use of facebook. Facebook just helped speed up the process.

And yeah, I was part of that, too. The "foreigner group" in the place were I lived was just too much. Once I left that place I felt a sigh of relief. It was like there a separate bubble, in which the "foreign teacher group" lived in. I met a few nice people there, with one that I am in contact with on a regular basis, even after we both left that hell hole.

I've learnt from my 2nd Korean experience and don't want to forget it, since I don't want to forget the lessons live learned from it. That experience is also the reason why I'm going back to hagwons, moving closer to Busan, and will not be using facebook like I did when I moved to Anseong.

End rant.

Short Update

I have been home for a bit over a month now and things have been up and down. But up and down is good. Leaving that terrible job in Anseong and coming home has helped me get a more balanced perspective about Korea and about my future direction.

Things about my past job have been affecting me more than I thought, especially when I started to look at Jobs in Korea online again, and even more so when sending emails to recruiters and posting information online. Korea is a wonderful place, and I don't want one bad experience to mess everything up.

I had one recruiter call me yesterday and one of the first questions he asked was "Why did I quit my previous job after 6 months?". I have no idea why, but I wasn't ready for that question. So, I just blurted out some generic answers. But this morning, I wrote down all the things that caused me to decide to quit that job. Three and a half A5 notebook pages worth, and still going.

Trapped

Shot some random video at school, and turned it into this. Got 4 days of
"nothing" at work to go until I'm "free".

The Final Five

Was snowing/sleeting yesterday, and is snowing again today.

I've got five days of work to go - today and four days next week. Three-day weekend this weekend, due to lunar new year, and I'm going to use this time to clean my apartment, and get ready to move out. The plan is to be living out of my suitcase by Monday evening/Tuesday morning.

Moving to Guro in Seoul on the 24th, before I leave Korea on the 5th of March.

Oh yeah, I got my phone disconnected yesterday.

Some Random Photos

My music setup

Dolsot Bibimbap from Lotte Mart

Thomas the Tank Engine Kids' training (pun intended) Chopsticks

"Love for Women" - The Mr. Pizza motto

Crazy Color - 미친색이야 - say it fast enough in Korean, and it's hilarious!

Patry Time?

Study Saturday - the video

Study Saturday

Went to Seoul to meet up with Hanna for some Korean study. Think it was the last time we'll be able to study in person ㅠ.ㅠ

       

After study, Marie joined us for lunch. The plan was to go to a Peruvian restaurant, but it was closed, so we went to Itaewon for some Ethiopian, but that was closed, too. But Hanna remembered a Latin American place she'd been to before, and we went there. It was fantastic.

          

The Ecuadorian ajjuma that cooked the food for us was the only person working there at the time, and we were the only customers. She was talking to us in spanish, telling us about how life was like back in Ecuador, and how much safer Korea is compared to there. She was really nice, and the food she cooked was really awesome.

 

Flow of information

From my experience of working in Korea, the people above you, do pre-filtering of the information they need to tell you. Basically, they tell you what They think you need to know. I have huge problems with this, mainly because I get told no useful information. When stuff goes down, I just put on the typical I don't know head on an angle + puppy dog/dear in headlights I don't know look that Korean students do very well. Koreans get that. Then I just blame my co-teacher.