Written December 14, 2010:
A year isn't as long as it used to be. I tell ya, back in my day, they used to stretch far as the eye could see. I'm already one-twelfth down and I hardly done anything yet.
A year isn't as long as it used to be. I tell ya, back in my day, they used to stretch far as the eye could see. I'm already one-twelfth down and I hardly done anything yet.
I did get to visit this cool fortress that's walking distance from my apartment. It was built around 1800 to honor some dead guy's dead father, but really the Joseon family just wanted to expand their territory. It's a decent walk of almost six kilometers (about three'n a half miles) with a nice view at the highest point (I've got some pictures of it on Facebook). I also got to go to Gyeongbok Palace which is in the middle of Seoul with skyscrapers towering over it. If only King Taejo could see his palace dwarfed by a hotel.
I met a few interesting people at a three-day orientation supplied by GEPIK (Gyeonggi English Program In Korea) with whom I feasted upon vegan cuisine. Sam has yet to grasp the illogicality of veganism on a peninsula. Whatever. The boy can cook.
This is all of course when I'm not working. Though I can hardly say I work at all. It's like fantastic amazing fun time, except it actually is fantastic, amazing AND fun! (This is a reference to a middle-aged Korean man garbed in a black felt suit complemented by a silk pink tie from GEPIK orientation who inadvertantly demonstrated the complete lack of functional conversational English taught in Korean schools before the year 2000 while hosting a game show of sorts with "mysterious prizes," which later turned out to be crackers and shit from the convenience store, that ended with some zealous nutcase jumping on the table and swinging his sweater around in an attempt to get a "mysterious prize." Our game-show host, who insisted we not address him by his Korean name, but as Sexy Handsome Man, called this one-and-a-half hour torture-fest Fantastic Amazing Fun Time.) I don't wear a black felt suit or pink tie, I don't even suggest my students call me sexy or handsome, and I (usually) don't encourage leaping on tables, but I guarantee I have twice as much fun as Sexy Handsome Man seemed to be having on stage. And I tell ya, he looked as happy as a hyena on laughin' gas.
Did you know four is such an unlucky number here that the fourth floor is always labeled as "F" in the elevators? Now you know.
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