Thank You Everland!

It was a great weekend. Friday night I met my friends Ting Ting and Wang Fang who are Chinese teachers and we ate some BBQ. Jessie and Rebecca came too and I was the only guy for a while, which wasn't a bad thing at all. There was a big party going down in Beomgye and we watched some singers perform on a stage in the downtown area. We went to the bar after that and sat down for beer, but when the beer came I was too tired and didn't feel like drinking anymore, so I went home. Also, I had to meet my brother because he was coming to stay the night at my place BECAUSE we were going to meet my friends at Suwon Station at 8AM Saturday BECAUSSSE we were all going to go to EVERLAND!

Saturday, I dragged my self and a half hour later, my brother, out of bed and went to Suwon Station to meet my chingoos. I thought were were taking a bus, but we rode in a van to Everland, one of three popular amusement parks in Korea. This was my second time to go to Everland. We arrived at about 930. (Ko's Friend Mi Nae(??), Ko, Yeni, and Me)


Everyone wanted to ride the T Express first. It has the title of 'The steepest wooden roller coaster in the WORLD.' I was scared because I don't like roller coasters or high places, but I was too tired to care too much, so I walked my death walk to through cute animal areas where skunks and meerkats slept near each other and lions had morning 'relations'.
We got to the T Express and it wasn't running! I felt the day get better and we went to ride the 'Amazon' instead, which is like the rapids at six flags. Circular raft that goes through a river and splash splash. I'd done it before, you don't get that wet. But that's alright cuz it was morning and the fall air is a little chilly these days. We went back over to T Express and surprise surprise! It opened at 1030, so it was now running. Well, ****. Anyway, I did it. We waited in line and found a good place to take pictures. There was even a bag on the ground so we could look fashionable.
Ko and Me in line for T Express
The ladies, looking cute.And Ryan being crazy...

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that everyone but Ko go animal ears after the Amazon ride. This is us being our animals.


Man, blogger is giving me trouble. Anyway, we rode T Experess and I closed my eyes during those 77 degree drops, but overall it wasn't bad, but I did duck down for fear of losing my giraffe head.
After that we rode bumper cars and smashed then we ate some hamburgers. It was good and bad to ride T Express first. Good because it was morning and the line wait wasn't long, and there wasn't time to build up stress about it but bad because after it, nothing was quite as exciting. There's one other roller coaster in Everland, but it was down for repairs. But we did the Hurricane which is kind of a cross between a Tilt A Whirl and the rocking pirate boat. Oh and we did some lame haunted house rides that were for Halloween. Haunted house wasn't scary at all and there was a thing called a rotating house that was just silly. You barely even move. And we went through the "Global Village" which was rife with stereotypes and to my friend Katie's dismay did not mention Canada. It's like the spelunker or now yosemite sam ride at six flags where you ride a little boat through a cave. And Africans are savages and Americans are football players or they wear stars and strips forever costumes and oh joy! After that we rode the log ride, which was short but sweet. While waiting in line, I saw a girl with giraffe ears and my friends got her attention so we could take a picture together.
We rode the Safari because Ryan really wanted to see the Liger
OH yeah, and another Ryan joined our group. He got there a little later than us, but here he is not looking very happy. He told us that 90% of American say ain't. Yeah, right...

Well, so yeah, there were a lot of fun rides and we rode them. Haha. After the Safari we had to hurry over to the Magic Cat Show, that's right. Magic. Cat. Show. I wish I could have taken home one of the posters for it. It had a black and white cat wearing a bow tie and top hat and holding a cane and dancing. Ameowzing. Well, we got to the cat show about fifteen minutes early and Ryan and me went to the bathroom. We get back and the thing is roped off. I try to tell the guy at the rope that our friends are inside, but he just kind of yells at me and won't let us back in. I get really angry and call my friends to come help us out. They come and tell the dude, but the guy is being a dick and I see my day being ruined before my eyes. It was really a ridiculous policy because there were families where a husband or wife was showing up a little late and being kept from going in. It was like the Berlin Wall all over again. Really, it was. But most Koreans were just ducking under the rope and the guy wasn't saying anything or stopping them. It was frustrating because we couldn't do anything because we're white and kind of stand out, ya know. Finally, more of my friends came out and talked to they guy. He was still being an ***hole, but my friends told me that he said we should wait and they would let us in the back. So, we got let in the back. Yesterday I went onto the Everland site to complain about this incident, but there was no contact email or anything. Bastards! I was livid, but as the magic cat show music came on, which was like the music you'd hear before a basketball game mixed with intermittent strangled meows, I couldn't help but crack up and laugh all the BS away. The cat show was short and sort of thrown together, but who am I to complain about a Magic Cat Show. It was less magic and more show and cats jumped high and went through obstacles, and a couple of the cats were like, screw this, and just ran away, so the people on stage were visibly nervous, but that made it even better. They brought out a monkey at one point and the show finished with a dog. A DOG! That was pretty ridiculous. If you're gonna call it Magic Cat Show. Stick with cats. Dogs do tricks all the time. If anything just let the kitties hang out on stage. We want to see kitties!After the cat show, we ate a lackluster dinner and ran over to the Viking Boat to ride it. I wanted to stay on it all night, but we wanted to see the fireworks, so our tired feet ran to the fireworks locale. After fireworks we dragged ourselves to the buses and went to Suwon station then home. Ryan and I got home around midnight.

Sunday, we slept in and went to get donuts. Then, I saw Ryan off because I had a date. I met my girl and we went to a movie, dinner, hang out on a bench ^.~

It was a great weekend. Now I'm back at school. No classes today and fun classes tomorrow and Wednesday because the kids need to loosen up before exams next week. We'll sing and play a game and talk. Chuseok is this weekend and I get a four day holiday, I think. Maybe five? I'm not sure yet. I'll go visit Ryan and maybe go to another theme park next weekend. I'll try to bring my camera this time, because all these pictures are mooched off my friends' facebook pages.

Importants

Radio is important. I'm not talking about clear channel corporates who shovel out the same manufactured bands every hour every day like clockwork. And I'm not going to pretend like I know everything about NPR and talk radio. But there are a select few radio programs out there that are and have been doing some important stuff. This American Life has been around for over ten years but it upholds all the originality of its first shows. Ira Glass is calming and charming and sometimes he puts me to sleep, but I can't name a TV show that is as engrossing as one story from this show. Take one I just listened to, Kindness of Strangers. One of the stories took us back to Harlem and the Renaissance that happened there and you are transplanted there, your imagination fires up and you want to be part of something like that and where is that happening today?
Then there's Radiolab. It simply makes science interesting. It's like listening to a movie and it's so aurally inventive that you can forget everything going on around you. Two days ago I listened to one of their short podcasts where we learned that what we see might not be what we think we see because our eyes have yellowed over the years and children, babies have such pure lenses that the world is a bright blue blur to them.
I don't tune in to either of these shows, I subscribe to the podcasts along with ones available from the New Yorker. I suggest you download iTunes and listen to them too.

La Bamba

Had a great weekend. Saturday was an event for ESC, the group that I'm a part of that regularly meets in Sanbon. Hung out with all my Korean buds and a couple foreigners. We dressed in sharp threads, ate cheese and drank wine and listened to strings and danced to K Pop. It was classy and fun. ESC is a group started to help Koreans learn English but it's also to bring the people together (duh). And the founders are trying to spread it all over the Earth. That's right, they got plans for a world takeover. The party ended around 9 and I headed back to Anyang with the homies. We hit up Garten Bier for a couple pitchers and then went to Noraebang until about 2.
Yesterday I met my friend for her birthday and we went to Namsan Tower together, then a cafe, then walked around Myeongdong and found dinner. Myeongdong, so many people. There was a Mexican band at Namsan Tower and they played La Bamba which was AWESOME.
Back at school, gonna teach in about thirty, it's all good.

No Ice Cream Cake

Well, I was looking forward to coming home, having an early birthday in October and eating the ice cream that all my friends and family promised me. Unfortunately that's gonna have to wait a few months, because according to the school, I just can't skip out on the kids like that. So, my trip home will come in January and we'll all have to wear gloves or mittens while eating Ice Cream Cake. Yes, we're still gonna eat ice cream cake in January. Okay?
Yesterday I fell asleep around 10 and got a decent night's sleep, free from mosquitoes for the most part. I finished watching this French Film called L'Homme qui Aimait les Femmes (The man who loved women) and it got kind of bad toward the end even though it was Truffaut who I've been watching a lot of lately. (UN?)Surprisingly there was a remake of the French film starring Burt Reynolds and I want to see it because it's probably really bad.
I also bought a pineapple pizza last night and ate it. It was good except it needed more tomato sauce and they didn't give me any hot sauce or parmesan. : P
I also watched an episode of The Mighty Boosh, which I'm not so crazy about and Fawlty Towers which I should have watched a long time ago because it's funny.
Today's been good. Classes breezy. Especially 102, what smart girls! It's good when more than one person answers my questions. Got a Dentist Appointment tomorrow. Later Blogs!

No More Mosquitoes! (Pleaz)

I hate mosquitoes. Last night I went a little crazy staying up until 1AM trying to kill all the mosquitoes in my apartment. I thought at one point that we could read each others thoughts. I thought the mosquito knew I wanted it dead and maybe it did. The satisfaction of reaching into the air and crushing one in my hand was bittersweet as soon after I turned off the lights I heard another buzzing near my ear. I hate mosquitoes.

Tuesdays with Morrie

I added a few more words about the park in the post. There's an explanation of why I'm on one leg kneeing a teenager in the stomach.




I just read this book called Tuesdays with Morrie and it changed my life and now I'm going to get a dog and spend more time with old people.
I'm joking, I never read that book or saw the hallmark movie. I think it had the dog from Fraser in it right?
A week ago the Former President of Korea died and my school got shut down for swine flu and it was my one year anniversary in Korea! Party!
I was pretty busy last week, meeting friends, coming in fourth in dart tournaments and watching movies. I went to a park on Saturday and it was a really beautiful place called Mulhyanggi Arboretum. Mulhyanggi means water smell, so it's the Water Smell Arboretum.
We ate Jok Bal which is translated as "shaven pig's feet" which sounds really strange but is actually really delicious. After eating pig feet, we walked around and had a chicken fight. I got beat by my friend's nephew who is in high school. Then we found a maze where we raced to the center and our team won. After the park we went back to a friend's apartment and he made us all spaghetti. We was me and about five Korean friends. All the foreignors were off at some island playing Lord of the Flies or something. I felt special and also a little lonely when everyone spoke in Korean and I just had to sit there like I don't know what you're saying people, speak English, but forgot I was in Korea.
Sunday Ryan came by Anyang, and we hung out with my friends in Sanbon and walked around Anyang a little. I don't know if it was not enough Ryan or just enough Ryan. Probably just enough. Because sometimes he says things that I don't want to hear.
Yesterday I went shopping and bought a lot of vegetables and spaghetti and some other groceries. I sat in a cafe and tried to read and block out girls saying 'blah blah blah migookin saram, blah blah blah migookin saram" migookin saram means American person, so I kinda sorta felt like they were talking about me, which makes me uncomfortable. It's one thing I can't get used to and I'm thinking about getting surgery so I look Korean.
Today I'm back at school and I don't know what I'm going to teach my first class because the copy room's locked but whatever, if all else fails, dance party, right? Or hangman, I don't know.

Chinese Drinks

Last night the owner of the English cafe where i go often to meet my Korean friends and one or two other foreigners took my father and me and a few of the aforementioned friends to a chinese restaurant slash bar and bought us a lot of chinese liquor. There were two types. The first came in a porcelain vase like bottle and had masks all over it. It was strong but good. The second was a little smoother and sweeter and had bamboo in it but I'm not a fan of sweet and while one shot would have been okay, the remaining uncountable number was not good. A little hungover today but we had a good time and I think my dad made a new friend.