Closer to be Far Away

(this is not how we planned it, but we got ahead of ourselves)

This week I started off with a decent night of post-work drinking with Sue and Bora. It's real curious how the only foreigner with whom I spend any amount of time these days is Cahill; someone whom I knew for years before I came here. Coming to Korea to isolate yourself with weigookin (foreigners) kind of defeats the purpose anyway, so I'm quite glad with this.

Ben and Mike are both on their way back to Korea in the coming month, though, so the former ECC Canadian Trifecta will have a reunion soon enough.

Speaking of ECC (my school) the start of another new month meant a few changes once again. I lost a couple of classes that I've been teaching since the day I got here, so I bought them all pizza, whether I liked them or not. I also lost Julia, one of the nicest co-teachers I've ever had.

I've got some cute new classes, though; one of which speaks practically no English. They're little, and a little afraid of me or any grownup, but the fact that I share their child-like mentality and sense of humour puts us on frighteningly even ground. It also gives me a chance to use the few dozen Korean words I know with people who won't question my caveman-esque lack of grammar.

But speaking of my childish sense of humour and a limited ability to use language, I really need to stop exploiting the journal of one of my nicest, most likable students like this. But not when an eleven-year-old is trying to tell me politely that it looked like shit outside.

Oh, I also have an older student who's quite impressive at drawing, and often sketches disturbing things on the back of her paper. Like homicidal tortoise-hare what-ifs. Kids are awesome.

And hell, I'm kind of on an unfair make-Korea-look insane streak here, so I collected a few signs of Korea's insanity. Or 'slightly different from what I'm used-to-ity'.

Some of these aren't even funny or insane in the strictest sense. They're all funny in the sense that they're a little incongruous. But Korea's a little incongruous anyway, so that hardly counts. I do personally love that little picture of the octopus relaxing, reclining, and wearing sunglasses, though. Not only does he not mind the fact that he'll be devoured soon, but the fucker's so relaxed he looks like he's on vacation! I only hope I look as calm moments before being served alive, my tentacles still squirming after my brain's been impaled by a chopstick. Yeah, that's a popular way to eat them here, no joke. Hell, haven't you seen Old Boy?

And now that I've mentioned vacations and tentacles, I've got to reiterate that Lunar New Year is coming this month. Not that the Year of the Golden Pig has anything to do with flailing tentacles, but Japan sure as hell does.

It's official now, I booked my tickets today - I'm Going to Japan in February. I leave the morning of the 16th and return the evening of the 20th, spending little more than a really long weekend there. But I'm going largely alone (meeting Cahill in Tokyo for a night or two), with a complete lack of plans and proper preparation, so it's sure to be a bit of an interesting few days. I'm keeping up my Thailand tradition, and keeping a sketchbook journal of my travels, to be uploaded to the blog.

But that's all weeks away, and I'm not much of a long term planner. In the meantime, I'm still in Korea. I took a few pictures this week with the theme "What's for sale in Korea?" in mind. I got a few interesting answers. An all-too-common gatcha machine (like the bubble machines that promise robot watches and give you teeny, useless slinkies for your loonie) that sells tiny replica weapons. There's also a little food cart selling blurry, poorly-photographed tentacles. Then there are the little bowls of live-but-slowly-dying parasite-sized fish that old ladies sell outside the subway.

Then there's sex. That's apparently for sale far more prevalently than I realized before. When some of us accidentally went to a Noraebah instead of a Noraebang last month, we were told that since we had girls with us, it probably wasn't the kind of place we were looking for. Apparently, Noraebahs are 'men's only' kareoke rooms where you pay a heavy premium to have scantily-clad women come to your private room to (ahem) 'hear you sing' I guess. It's good that hey warned us before that night got really expensive and really awkward.

Even though I've already rubbed it in like salt in a long-distance wound, I close this week with an image that reminds me that there are a few strange little differences between this and the frigid block of granite on which I was born.


This is a stand at the food court of my local mall. The stand itself sells grilled dried squid carcasses. For a beverage, you can get a beer there. Seven months in Korea or not, the idea of sitting in a mall food court, eating dried squid and drinking a can of beer still seems a little foreign to me.