Canoe trip 2008

Rob on Caddy Lake.

A really big turtle on Caddy Lake.

Canoeing the whiteshell.

Steak and potatoes. Mmmmmm.

Waterfall.

Whiteshell falls.

Bear paw.

Rob and I got stranded on a small island for a few days due to a severe wind storm. In the middle of the night the pressure from the wind broke the poles on our tent. As a result we had to get out, move the tent to a more sheltered area and re-enforce the frame of the tent with twine.

By myself on the lake. So peaceful.

Our gear at the end of the trip. Soggy and wet. Good times.

Being yourself is extremely challenging when you are in a foreign country. As strange as it sounds, I thought that it would be much easier to be myself in a place where nobody knows me. Here I have no background, no reputation and no history. I have no friends, no family and no companion. I have a clean slate and a blank canvas. There's nothing holding me back. No one to tell me what to do or bring me down to reality. No pressure to be somebody I'm not. Nobody to answer to. No rules to follow. I'm free! I've flown the coop. I've escaped from my cage. I can go anywhere, do anything!

But I can't move...

I'm frozen in fear. I'm afraid of this world that has finally presented itself. All of those years waiting to escape; now that I'm free I can't even flap my wings. I've been institutionalized. Years and years of being in a cage, waiting for the day I can fly away, I can't even move a muscle. That cage was so comfortable, so inviting, so safe. Now that I'm out I don't even know what to do with myself. I don't even know who I am. I'm lost.

Without a history or reputation I should be able to create a new identity. I can draw anything I want. I can freely express myself without having to worry about the consequences.

But there is one problem. I have no paint to express myself. No references to draw upon as inspiration. No experiences from which I can return to. No history that defines me. So who am I in this foreign world?

Your history identifies a person over time. The choices that you make and the way you live your life define who you are and who you always will be. Your experience creates your conscience. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, your conscience will always be there. That little voice in your head tells you what to do and what to think. That voice tells you what to believe and what to say and how to survive...

Week 4

Here are a few pictures and a video that I think you will enjoy. Make sure you turn the volume down when you watch the video. It is a little loud.

Every Friday afternoon we play ping pong in the school's gym.

Joonsang, Matt, Myself and James before the baseball game. We had to squeeze our way through a mob of people in order to get into the stadium. I think the concept of "the line" is new to Koreans.

Matt, Janelle and Katie. Some really cool and awesome people.

The Busan Giants warming up for the game.

The crowd got orange garbage bags to clean up the trash. Wearing an orange bag on your head is becoming wildly popular in Korea, especially at baseball games.

The aftermath of the baseball game.

The Wave!!!!!

I like to teach Engrish...

So far my experience in Korea has been great. Things could not have worked out any better. I have a great school, a great co-teacher, a new friend, a nice apartment and for the first time I feel as though I am making a difference in peoples lives. Yay!

Here are a few random pictures that I think you might enjoy...



Dr. Fish!!! It felt like I was being shocked by tiny volts of electricity. They really liked my feet.


Here I am serving some soju to the principle of my school. I was encouraged to do so by Mr. Choi, the gym teacher. All the new teachers had to do this. I was a little nervous about spilling soju all over my boss but I managed to avoid doing so. I probably drank two bottles of soju that night. So gooood and so cheeeaap.


I really like all of the teachers at my school. Matt and I played ping pong with them the other day. I was having expecting to get destroyed by my co-teachers but I managed to hold my own even against Mr. Lee who was wearing a complete ping pong track suit. Matt and I played with Mr. Choi and Mr. Bae as a double teams. Mr. Lee encouraged me to try the penhold grip as opposed to the shakehand grip which I am used to. After playing with the new grip I definitely prefer it over the old one.

On the weekend I went out with a few of my friends from the EPIK program. Jacob, Jack and I met up at the Seomyeon station in downtown Busan and from there we took line 1 to the Pusan National University. At the PNU we stopped at a Dr. Fish where we dipped our feet in a tank of nibbling fish that ate the dead skin off of our feet. Here's a video of the experience...




I took Saturday off so I could catch up on my rest and I did lots of e-mailing and movie watching. Sunday I went to a Starbucks in downtown Busan where a I met a group called the Socrates Cafe that meet every Sunday at 11am for discussion. Every Sunday the group makes a list of questions and vote on one question to discuss. The questions are created from our own life experiences. Recent topics include 'What is the relationship between memory and personality?', 'Is sexuality socially constructed?', 'Culture relativity' ,'Do we have a right to ignorance?'. My EPIK friend Mike was already there and invited me to come. It was a very enlightening and enriching experience. I definitely plan on going next week. After the discussion a few of us went to Gwangalli Beach where we swam for a few hours in our clothes. It was my first time swimming in the Pacific Ocean! It was amazing. The water is so much warmer then the lakes at home. We also went out for lunch and ate some really spicy food. I can't remember what it was called but it was great!

First day

My first day of school went really well. I got up around 7:15 and arrived at my school around 8:40. At 9 we had an opening ceremony in honor of the new teachers and the new principle. We had to say hello to all of the kids. When it was my turn the kids started to giggle. I was warned that the kids might react a little differently around me because I'm the only white person in the whole school. The kids have have never had an english native speaking teacher before so this is understandable. There are 5 new teachers including myself and Matt from Maryland. We are the only native speaking teachers. Matt does the after-school program and I teach the day program. There are about 24 students in each class and 2 classes per grade. The students start learning english in the third grade which means that I will have to teach the third graders very basic conversational english, like "Hello", "How are you?", etc...


We didn't teach any classes on the first day. We spent the majority of the day cleaning up the english classroom and setting it up. The classroom was relatively clean except for the odd pile of books on the floor. In the afternoon I went to the Busan National Bank just down the street and opened up my bank account. Mr. Choi, the gym teacher at the school helped me open it up. Their banking system is very similar to ours at home.

Now that I have a bank account I have to get my Medical Examination then my Alien Registration Card. Once I do that I can get internet in my apartment and apply for my Health Insurance card. It will take another week or so before I have internet. Oh well, one thing at a time.


It's now my second day at school and today I will be shadowing Mr. Lee, my official co-teacher. There are no english classes today. English classes are on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; about 4 classes a day, 40 minutes each. At the moment I have a very light schedule. The total hours that I'm working is about 12 hours. I'm supposed to be teaching 22 hours a week. Mr. Lee said that I might be teaching the teachers of the school as well as the students to supplement the missing 10 hours of work.

I've made a few lesson plans already. At the first class I'm going to introduce myself to the kids, tell them where I'm from, how old I am and a little bit about myself. I want to get to know the kids and find out what level they are at so I'm going to get them all to make nametags and draw a picture of themselves. In order to make this a conversational activity, each student must pair up and describe their partner. Then the partner draws him or herself according to his or her partner's description. As they do this I'm going to walk around the classroom to assess how they are doing.


Many of the kids are at different levels. I met one student in grade 6 who can fluently speak english. He said that he lived in London for 4 years. It's really cute because he spoke to me with a little British accent. Very funny.

Anyway, class is starting soon. Gotta run.