Busan

I spent the weekend in the beach city Busan to blow of some steam.

The last few weeks could be only describe as a summer heat wave to those Brits back home. Hovering around 28 degrees it has been hot for us waygooks and it is only April! Summer will be awful. After all this heat we decided to take a trip to the beach to soak up some rays and drink on the beach. Unfortunately it was cold and windy.

That didn't stop us however. It was good to be out of Daegu. Fresh air, good food and a nice hotel. The Orange Motel (Oranjeee in Korean) is such a good place for a one night gig. Modern, clean, big beds, big TVs and a computer for $20 each between 3. I thoroughly recommend it.

It was a pleasure just to drink with friends in a city where no one knows you and celebrating a good mans birthday is good enough reason for that. Quinn a Canadian who has reach the grand old age of 28. Alex and Phil joined us too, as well as few other guys from the gu. After food we hit a rock bar which played a considerable amount of tunes and topped up ourselves with beer.

I have one question though, why are rock bars always in the basement?

After a few hours of persuasion Phil and I decided to hit the casino for a brief detour before a night club. We won at roulette and when we sat at the casino we both hit a pair bonus immediately paying out at 11/1, much to the disgruntlement of the degenerates casted to the table. Haha, boom! 9 9, boom! Q Q!! And it just kept coming. In the forty minutes we won enough to pay for whole trip.

We hit a night club, jumped up and down for a bit before Norae bang beer and bed!

Good times.

Again I forgot my camera so no photos.

9.30am and the Wind Streams By

It's 9.30am and the sun is sparkling. It so bright that my eyelids provide no protection. I am wide awake. Not only because of the sun but I am sitting on the back of a moped (scooter) weaving in and out of the morning traffic. I haven't been on a a bike since I was about 11 and this time it wasn't for show. We slip in and out of the traffic at what seems to me 100km an hour. However I am sure it can't be that fast. I'm wearing a small white helmet and big goggles. On top of this my new military green jacket, couples with lapels and a million zips makes me feel at worst a 1960s movie extra and at best a 'Che' wanna be.

I am thoroughly enjoying this moment and will never forget it. The reason for the rush is not because I am on my way to work, or late for an appointment, but actually I am on my way home from a very big night. I was pretty wasted until 5 mins ago when the wind blasted off my face as we accelerated down a eight lane motorway. It started off at 11.30 when I met up with some mates and played some cards. I steadily drank and a roller coaster chip ride brought me from $50 to $1000. I am ecstatic and drunkenly concentrating on my pocket which has the equivalent of $1000 in $10 bills folded over and squished into my pocket.

I will go home and through this money into the air like a child and collapse. I have two and a half hours before I start work.

Korean equivalent to $750

Big Party

Come one come all to the big credit spending party!
The Patty has been so huge that the refuge is estimated at $4.1 trillion dollars .

Well now it's time, as after all parties, to clean up the mess. Throw out the garbage, pour toxic assets down the drains and replace some furniture (institutions) that got broke during the long night. As with most parties it takes time for the head to clear and the stomach to settle before you can pluck up the energy to sort the place out. It's only after a few bitter pills and some liquid stimulus that you realise the people who made the most mess, ate the most cake and drank the most beer, had long shuffled off home to retire for the night (or life) or maybe to cleaner climates.

Now only a future of careful spending and higher taxes can cure the hangover and restore us to normal life.

Hang on a minute!!!!

I wasn't at no party. I was at uni!
I had to scrape by on minimum wage, work full time, pay extortionate rent rates, get used and abused by the property owning classes. Who took out massive mortgages in order to 'buy to let' and make a profit off some of the poorest sections of society, which only fueled (started?) the party and added to the headache.

Now I have graduated and started to pay back a thundering student debt I find that I also have to pay to clean up a massive celebrity party with champagne, caviar, and cocktails? A party that I never even got invited too!!!

I am not too sure our generation will be quite helpful at the ballot box.

Clydebank T

I was looking on youtube for a mini documentary on the Titan Crane in Clydebank which was done by my friend Douglas King.

Unfortunately the first thing I came across was this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXuHAdjv9rg

Instead of this;


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Uk-KWK9Hsk

I'm not sure if I am missing back home now or not.

Ha, course I am...maybe.

Block

Well we had a video screening on Friday of a number of short movies by the upcoming director Douglas King.

His newest piece is an tribute to all those who suffer from writers block and seek imaginative ways to release their potential. Which, if he is successful, may be re-coined as 'the Block'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfFnMQkhEh4

A personal (humble) opinion having seen many if not all of Doug's movies I would say this is by far the best edited. It runs smoothly and looks much better that previous movies. All the scenes runs smoothly and timely which allows for a better enjoyment of the film.

After the first movie I decided to show his previous films and I report that in-fifa-delity still gets the best reception.

Writing Class

I just opened a new writing classs for a student who is going to Oklahoma Uni. The traditional goal of our school's sylabus aims at passing the entry English exams for Korean Universities and a possible chance at entering a foreign institution.

The new student, a 19 year old girl, was born in America and speaks perfect English (almost). She needs the same type of education which teaches a native speaker to write an academic essay. This leaves me with absolutely no help from my school. They gave me books to teach this student that would be worthless or repetitive for her.

So being the nice guy I am I have made my own course in academic writing using a selection of books that I found on Amazon. I hope it goes well. It centres around reading numerous newspaper an academic articles, checking for comprehension, and then writing an analytical essay. This is coupled with some in depth (for non-native speakers) look into sentence and paragraph formation and academic necessities such as citation an bibliographies. I also included an English guide book on writing better essays which I might actually benefit from too.

I hope it works.

Police Brutality

See the headlines catchy enough isn't it?.

The two recent videos released of police assaults on protesters are not pleasant to watch. The event turned into a media frenzy which seemed intent n seeking headline news. However it is unlikely that any investigation (like the one which has begun) into the events would have taken place without the throng of video cameras, mobile phones, and press.

I think in the future the police may have a hard time covering up brutal handling tactics, harassment and even deaths. This is a good thing. Also the same goes for the protesters who geode police and whose only reason to be there is to pick a fight. It seems that modern media led by the public can lead to a better interpretation of events.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsWJ9j8LuHI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59mMPw2aeI0

James MacIntyre's piece has a proper go at the police force

Charlie Brooker

This guy just disassembles the news right in front of you. Hilarious, insightful and thoughtful. Each episode gets better and better. His first series, Screenwipe, I always enjoyed but I find this show highlights his humour and skill much more.

Watch on bbc iplayer here or on youtube

Brilliant

Aims

Goal for this month.

• Read 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' by Nietzsche
• Finish Harrington On Cash Games Volume 1
• Get into the habit of exercising.
• Reach 25 wall posts on my blog.

Idea for next month. Read Conscience of a Liberal and get back on The History of Western Philosophy

30 day challenge

No longer burning off calories on the dance floor as often as I used too, I have turned to other means.

Yesterday I purchased the Wii Fit with my hard earned cash and began a 30 day challenge to spruce up my health. What a sad day it is when u have to rely on a machine for inspiration to work out. However the fact remains that not only are gyms expensive here but I have heard worrisome stories from friends who have been. Stocked with ajimas who stare at you, guys who take too much interest in your physical endowments in the shower, and gyms who charge you a monthly fee but then miraculously close down after a few days. I'll stick to some home weightlifting, wii fit exercises and then pick up some street running or hiking in a week or two.

Wii Competitiveness

Small World

Last night I met the first person in Korea who had actually been to Clydebank. Now I don't mean he knows where it is, or has driven through it. This guy actually stayed there for 2 weeks. He was Canadian, around 25 and was teaching English in Daegu. It turned out his girlfriend's parents had come from Clydebank and he had went back with them to their home town on vacation. It was fun talking about places we knew, common family names and the pubs and clubs of Glasgow.

But that's just it. I have met many people who have been to Glasgow: Brits, Yanks, Canadians, Irish and even Koreans, although the latter have always been quick to note that no one in Glasgow speaks English. One poor girl who plucked up the courage to ask a hairy Glaswegian what bus to get, mistook his '48' for '40a' and I know for a fact the 40a runs to Drumchapel. I just hope she got off before there. Everyone else recalls fond memories of a vibrant if small ( that may come as a shock but Glasgow is in fact very small) city. What it lacked in size it more than made up for in quality, and I total agree. However this Canadian guy and I only spoke about Glasgow fondly. He mentioned he never felt safe in Clydebank. Although most people were friendly and hospitable. Even the neighbours he met nice as they were, suffered him a warning about knives and taught him to refer to them as a 'chib'.

Crazy Korean

A 1980s hand book on how to live life from Korea. I came acroos it on Korea beat and found even more here.

A little Marx

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is therefore in embryo the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo
- Karl Marx

Courtesy of Hitchens.

Liberty

I came across the article via the FCOs website.
http://www.newstatesman.com/law-and-reform/2009/03/police-state-rights-freedom

It is about how we are not entering a police state and modern liberty is not under threat. It is interesting and I agree with most of it. Primarily that there is no 'golden age' of liberty to which we can roll the state back to. Often putting institutional powers on the statute serves as a protection of society, giving a reference of norms and allocation and proprietary over powers. However I do think modern technology has the capacity to completely infiltrate our lives and provide surveillance for all manner of groups who wish to control, cajole, or pressure the public to act, behave, buy and ultimately think in a certain way. We need statute law and protection over the next generation where the battle for privacy will be fought. Namely email, Internet connections, text messaging and phone calls. We can not only define between citizen and criminal, we must define between citizen and suspect.

Work and Drinks= sickness

After some fish and snails the director and co-teachers wanted a few more beers. Hey ok but I was still feeling like an early night. We didnt finish our food till 2am and a few beers meant a late one. The next 2 hours I sat in Norae bang listening to Koreans either singing Korean songs or murdering English ones. It was fun to begin with. I hit out with 'Purple Haze' and 'Don't Look Back in Anger' and I was done. But they kept ordering soju and singing and singing. I resigned myself to beer and soju and dreamt of bed.

I didnt ge to sleep until almost 5am. Luckily my first class wasn't until 1am the next day but it still was not a good one. Luckilyit was my only class so I just watched you tube for the rest of the day. My cold came on ten times worse and I spent Thursday to Sunday sneezing and coughing.

Fish Time...Oh and Snails!

South Korea beat North Korea with a late 87th minute goal in 1-0 win in the World Cup qualifying match. It was a fun game to watch however being a Wednesday meant that the bars were pretty quiet and people would be going home early. Which is what I was hoping for actually. I was already tired from a cold which was hanging over me and I had drank a lot over the previous weekend

.

However a light night was not for us. After the match we went to meet our director who was taking us for food for some celebration I was unaware of. It turned out to be a fish restaurant. Now I am partial to a fish supper now and then and a bit of salmon is never a bad thing, but in general I am not a fish eater. Moreover in Korea all the fish restaurants have open tanks outside displaying there live menu. However they are always open topped glass tanks with so many fish sploshing around you can barely tell them apart. They never look that clean and the contents range from eels to zebra-esqued ones, ugly shell creatures and mouldy things I would never like to have set eyes on.

However my first impressions were completely wrong; apart from the starter that is. Our first course consisted of raw snails with wasabi sauce. Now any Koreans reading this will probably see this as completely normal, in fact so would many European countries, but having to clench down on a raw snail (yes raw, pale green, cold and stringy) while yanking away the shell is not the most normal thing during British supper. This was accompanied by octopus tentacles, again raw, with a red sweet and spicy sauce. My worst fears were coming true. A meal in which everything would be raw, strange and highly fishy. Next up was a small fish called chung-oo or something, however this was good and after the myriad of bones I had to navigate through with my chopsticks.

The main course. I was informed, was called 'gin-rummy' which means fin in Korea, pure coincidence but true. Now it was raw, cold, chewy and looked like a pale amalgamy of jelly and egg white. However it tasted.....good. With a bit of chilly sauce or wasabi it was nice. My co- teachers ordered some 'chi-gay'(tofu spicy soup) and showed me how to boil the fish in the soup if you wished. You'll never guess what transformation occurred! After a quick dip in the soup and the pale gin rummy transformed into exactly the type of fish u get in your supper back home. Only without the batter and ten times fresher. I was pleasantly surprised and gobbled up a lot. The last dish was one of the zebra-esqued fish which was barbecued. And that again tasted good, no taste of salt or sea but fresh and thick. I was surprised.

All in all I would try it again. I have been promising Mimi I would go for some Sushi so I might give it a bash some time.

Unwell

It was only Monday when I made a complete recovery from Seoul but I could feel a cold coming on by Tuesday. What has become known as the Daegu flu usually attacks foreigners within their first few weeks of arriving and combines a regular cold with a headache and high fever. Usually it will clear in few days and come back again the next week before you immune systems completely deals with it. It is interesting how you can see the actual affects of an illness in almost real time. A new arrival will come and inevitably within 3 weeks you meet them again looking paled out and ill. It is nothing serious but it is uncomfortable.

On my return I expected to come down with it again but I think my immune systems pretty much knocked it out of me within a day with little more than a sore throat. Last week in late April where the air here is pretty polluted with the southerly wind blowing down from China, it is not unusual to catch a bug or cold.

I felt it coming on Tuesday and I was pretty sure it was about to depart on Wednesday if it wasn't for my co-workers bright idea to watch the end of the North vs South Korea world cup qualifier and have a few beers at the same time.

MIA

I've not posted all week, a bad start for the fourth month of blogging. I will make up for it today however with a selection of opinions, letters and updates. I am aiming to beat last months count of 20 posts which was pretty good.

As always; Comment is free, but facts are sacred.