Thursday, December 9, 2010

DEC update... Some good Some bad.

Geez, I'm sorry my minimal followers, I don't forget about the blog, its just I don't have time or just way to lazy to do it.
And once again I don't want to make this a "My life in Korea" type blog, so I try to steer away from updating it every few days with random facts about Korea. Although I dont mind telling you things that happen, but my days are pretty normal, and weekends are a bit out of control (which I will get into).

So where do I start?

The last update was around November, but Let me go back to October and things that happen in the States.
I missed Halloween, which I don't celebrate anyway, but I do go out and drink with the crowd (in my normal everyday clothes). Its hard seeing all these picture of people who went out and had a good time, and I'm in Korea and at a random bar that has no themes, just drinking.
I guess its not all bad but Halloween is 5 days after my birthday so I'm use to people bunching the 2 together.

My best friends Grandma died, who also treated me like a grandson.. I was extremely sad about that and with the combination of not being home to help him through it all hurt alot. it was still my 1st week of classes and I was hating teaching Elementary school All that built up and I honestly Shut down. When I say shut down, I came home that day at 5:15 pm, layed on my bed and slept til Midnight. (its not me, I hate sleeping in the day time, and don't take naps)

Thanksgiving... all I can really do is put a Sad face on this :(
I was extremely hurt finding out there are no turkeys here.
My family didn't make it easier since EVERYONE happened to be in town (back home) and it was a huge Thanksgiving dinner without me. I called and talked to everyone (mostly drunk people) and I missed home

Talking to anyone from back home makes it hard on me everytime.
I love it here in Korea I do, but I miss my friends and family. Its strange I guess I didn't appreciate them as much when I was home.

Those 3 events alone Has made me miss home and I debated, leaving for a weekend and going, but the money it cost to do that and the actual flight and days I would of even got off wouldn't of been worth it.

On more positive notes.

I've finally got accumulated to schools im at, and kind of like these little buggers.
I hate my 3rd grade but i only see them 2 days and I have kids in those classes I do like.
My 4th graders are really smart and fun to be around
My 1st graders are the smartest 6 year olds I know.
My 2nd graders try hard and their polite
My Kindergartens are cute, and really just enjoy being in your presence.

I actually like spicy food now. I think I said in another post, I tried to avoid Kimchi like the plague, but now I eat it like it is the cure to the plague.
My body and mouth just got use to it.

I joined a gym and got my protein, so my diet has improved and finally my body can be in shape.

I have visited a few places. I have yet to do anything Culturally though
On the Weekends I just get extremely blacked out Drunk (which I didn't do at home like this) But its been pretty bad.

I have to admit I feel like my maturity level has gone down alot. (although its not like I was mister responsible at home)
My OCD has went up though I feel like my apt is always dirty (when in fact I have the cleanest, ***shhh don't tell the people I live near that***

I feel like I had more to say but my mind is drawing blank right now.
but until then I guess I'm off


OH YEA

I finished my 30 days of Truth (a month ago) but I will start releasing Starting Tuesday the 14 Thanks for being patient

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Week 2 and 3 in Korea with Pictures!!!!



There is my picture gallery of Korea so far ^ above. (click the 1 pic to see them all)

This place is great thus far.
Week 2 I had a bit of a rough patch but other than that its going decently well. I still love it here, and have no plans of leaving anytime soon.

There is so much to absorb and observe there is no way I can do that all in one year.
I love all my Apartment mates.


Week 2:
I have been doing Middle school and Highschool for so long, I forgot the madness of Elementary School.
I was a little taken back and in shock because here the Kids run absolutely rampid through the hallways, In class they are fighting and yelling out. It is as if there is no class that taught school and classroom ettiquette. The kids can be controlled for maybe intervals of 2 minutes, but then its back to the same rambouchous behavior to which I had no patience for in America.
I understand these kids (who I teach) are under 10 years old, but the shushhh sign is pretty universal and should stick with a kid.
Also the fact that I have no idea what any of them are saying isn't helping me keep my composure.
My Mon-Wed school, I love the employees, but the kids I want to elbow drop.
My Thur&Fri school, I love the kids, but the principal intimidates me (not as a man but as a dumb American foreigner) by literally changing my fingers to hold chopsticks and spoons the Korean way. Also to eat int he correct food order. It border lines makes me want to get up and stone cold stun him.
I guess you really can't have the best of both worlds.
So Friday night, I decide I had the worst week in school one can possibly have. I decided to pull out he soju & diet coke. Then I proceeded to let lose, which was not a good idea. We'll keep it at that.
We also went out of my town Saturday to Busan. I had an amazing time with the people I met from orientation. I met some new people and decided to branch away from my buddies I came with to continue to party and hang out with the new people. (Damn when will I learn from these careless mistakes)
I decided at 5 a.m. in the morning (after partying) I didn't want to stay and sleep in Busan but I wanted to head home into my own bed, and beat my apartment mates home.
THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN
instead I got on the wrong bus and took a 9 hour joy ride (sarcasm) around Korea (no where in korea should take you more than 4-5 hours to get to and I was only 2 from where I lived).
I didn't get home til nearly 5 p.m. I was hungry, cranky and about to yell at or moon the next Korean to stare me down as if I was an alien.
Long story short, it was a shitty week.

Week 3
I had to make this week better, I had to be more prepared for my classes, I had to be accepting at whatever comes my way, and I needed to be smarter about my decisions.
Thats pretty much happened. Now that I'm in partial control, the Kids are better, I'm always studying and understanding alot more Korean(getting lost for 9 hours also pretty much forces the language upon you when your making frequent bus stops and have to hop off and figure out where your at so you can take the next bus home.
So it was a good School week.
The weekend was very restful, I found out my PS3 doesnt explode with the 220 volt power here. So this stay in Korea literally just got better.
I hang out with all of my Apartment mates that I live in the same building with. There all different but all great people that complete this friendship circle that we have bonded with.
I like them all as if we had been friends for years.
All in all I had a succesful Week 3.

I probably won't be updating this as if its a "My Life in Korea" Blog, but I will definitely share my highs, lows, funny, sad, whacky and spectacular experiences here.

Enjoy the little bit of pics, find me on facebook if you want to see them all.

Cheers

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Week 1 in Korea

Let me start of by saying that this experience has been the best I have had in my entire life.
Life wasn't going at its greatest and now I feel like everything is just going completely right and I love it.

I'm in Andong in the Gyeonsang buk-do Province of Korea. "An" stands for comfortable and "dong" stands for city and thats exactly how I feel here, COMFORTABLE.
I've never been much of a city folk but here is just completely different, people are nice, your a star here and there are so many places to eat, drink, shop, just have a good time.

I am not going to be teaching, I will be in a training facility making audio tapes and doing conference calls, which is very very convient because I am with 8 other english speakers which is very very rare in the program that I'm working with.
All of them are very cool people. But our building is under construction so we don't start til mid december and until then im teaching elementary school :( but thats fine because these kids think every english speaker is a Star.
(its hard getting use to saying english speaker instead of American lol)
Everyone I met this week have been great people, i see it as everyone has a common goal and interest so you put 100+ of those people together you usually click really fast.

I have met tons of UK, South African, Canadian, Irish, New Zealand and Australian people here. Everything I thought I knew about other english speaking countries has been thrown out the window. I love majority of these people upon first meeting them.

My apartment is futurist (in my eyes but almost all apts are like this out here) I have heated floors, i have a keypad lock which is awesome.
The only thing that is weird is that the bathroom doubles as your shower. so the Shower cord is connected to the sink and you basically take a shower where you wash your hands and use the toilet.

Food is great here, the only problem I have with this place is that I eat Rice and potatoes in about every possible form and its hard to get meat or chicken here.
You all know that I work out religiously and the fact that im eating majority Carbs now is killing me, what makes up for it is that I walk EVERYWHERE usually about 2 hours a day of just walking walking walking. I also have done a total of 20 push ups in 10 days which is No bueno, good thing we're joining the gym today.
My stomach is also just getting accustomed to the food here, between all the carbs (i mean rice and noodles) and then the Spicy its hard on the valves.

All in all its a great experience that I like and cant wait to explore more. Signing off.

btw, im at day 21 of my 30 days of truth so I'll be posting those hopefully with in the next week or 2

Saturday, October 23, 2010

I'm in Korea!!!

So I didn't die on my dreaded 14 1/2 hour flight
I'm in Seoul Korea at my teaching orientation meeting some cool Americans, South Africans, New Zealand(ers), and just multiple nice Korean people.

Its a shame I won't be here the whole time, there are more English speaking people then I imagined, still a pain in the ass to get around, but its fun.

Every Where you go every car has GPS/DVD/Navi and the speed limit is like 100mph out here. It blinks when your going to slow for traffic....Simply amazing.

Right now im in a Dorm room so its really close nip in here and the wireless internet sort of sucks So my laptop is dieing as I type because i don't quite trust the converters yet. (although there is an American plug in my room.....Weird)

Well I'm going to sign off for now but I may keep editing this post,

My 30 days of Truth is coming soon as well so be on the look out

Friday, October 1, 2010

NEW PAGE LAYOUT!~ Oct 1st Update!

Welcome to the new Digs!
I know im super late on re-designing the blog, but hey better late than never.

Quick Update. I could possibly be leaving for Korea in 3 weeks!
(if you haven't known I got a job offer to teach in Korea, I would link the blog but can't (well don't feel like) find it.

Maybe there is a reason why all the female situations in the past 4 months haven't worked out...

My birthday is Oct 26, If i leave though I'll be gone the 22nd.

just wanted to promote the new blog Lay out so I wont get into to much

The 30 Days of Truth are on there way. I'm halfway through it on my journal
There is an about me now "What's it all about" (which could randomly change)
The Classics, Old blogs that I feel should still be viewed and commented on!

There may be more but who knows im usually lazy with that stuff and what I already did was alot of work.

Welcome new followers, please dont mind the random babble.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Teen Mom on MTV good or bad?

Ok so I'm 24 (25 in one more month) and I've been watching MTV since my family got cable t.v. back in 1991.
To get to the point I tend to gravitate towards MTV (if not ESPN) when I'm bored or its late night.
There is a show called Teen MOM that started from 16 and Pregnant.
I don't know how to feel about this show.
The Good.
It shows the true hardships that Teenage Moms go through.
There is not one really happy Mom on that show so I guess that serves as a warning for majority of teenage moms.
The ladies Love their babies and seem to want to do anything to make them happy, while barely scratching and surviving themselves.
I think only one of them Graduated highschool (not positive though).
I do see things like Help hotlines being promoted.


The Bad.
Could this be promoting, hey if you have a baby at a young age, you too can be on MTV?
Along with the bad, they show a lot of the good. Some of those things, ease the minds of teenage girls having babies.
I don't think I have seen One Safe Sex ad (condoms, birth control) being promoted on that show.


I know that this is reality TV and its entertaining for some people, but I can't really determine if this is a good message to send out to the youth of this generation.

I mean I'm sure shows like Jersey shore and house wives aren't exactly education tv, but should there really be a show about teenage moms?
I feel for some of them, but one of them really irritates me and that is Farrah.
No other Mom on that shows complains more about struggling and finding a guy more than she does. (When I feel she is the most attractive)
On top of that she claims to be so broke, when yet she had to get a new car, and gets a 2009 Dodge Caliber.
She has the nicest apartment of all of them.
We know MTV pays them, so on top of them "working" they also get paid from MTV (I don't know exactly how much but I do know Real world cast makes about 30-50k for the 6 weeks their on the show).

I know for a fact their are girls in worst situations.

I guess my gripe is Why have a show like this, and not constantly plug Safe Sex advertisement.
I mean we know their not going to preach abstinence so why not preach the opposite?

Monday, September 13, 2010

September Update 9/13

I don't know how I only manage to keep up with this blog once a month... Especially when I look at the blogs im following atleast once a week.

Since the last post... That situation didn't work out, but then another one arose, in which you guessed it hasn't been working out for the best either.
There are a lot of factors in to the new one that just isn't really favorable to either of us at this moment.
When there is a movie about my life, I would like it to be titled "Right Situation; Wrong time: The Life Story of Anthony Hawkins!" the other title would be "Half Naked, All man: The life Story of Anthony Hawkins!"

But I digress, its frustrating to say the least being put in good situations, but it not working out. That's when you always have to question Whats in Store for me, what can I help change?

Well moving on As I was reading Tiffani's Blog http://acceptedgirl.blogspot.com/
There was an interesting post about 30 Days of Truth. Which seems something that is just interesting but also something that I probably need to do.
It basically seems to have you review your life. and put out on paper/blog and helps you in so many terms.. Speak out loud.
So What I'm going to do is start on it this month. Then the whole month of October Work on them, and hopefully get them on this blog site. I may start a new one. (Time for some change so why not?)

Here are the 30 days of Truth questions.

Thirty Days of Truth

(1) Something you hate about yourself. (2) Something you love about yourself. (3) Something you have to forgive yourself for. (4) Something you have to forgive someone for. (5) Something you hope to do in your life. (6) Something you hope you never have to do. (7) Someone who has made your life worth living for. (8) Someone who made your life hell, or treated you like shit. (9) Someone you didn’t want to let go, but just drifted. (10) Someone you need to let go, or wish you didn’t know. (11) Something people seem to compliment you the most on. (12) Something you never get compliments on. (13) A band or artist that has gotten you through some tough ass days. (write a letter.) (14) A hero that has let you down. (letter) (15)Something or someone you couldn’t live without, because you’ve tried living without it. (16) Someone or something you definitely could live without. (17) A book you’ve read that changed your views on something. (18) Your views on gay marriage. (19) What do you think of religion? Or what do you think of politics? (20)views on drugs and alcohol. (21) Your best friend is in a car accident and you two got into a fight an hour before. What do you do? (22) Something you wish you hadn’t done in your life. (23) Something you wish you had done in your life. (24) Make a playlist to someone, and explain why you chose all the songs. (Just post the titles and artists and letter) (25) The reason you believe you’re still alive today. (26) Have you ever thought about giving up on life? If so, when and why? (27) What’s the best thing going for you right now? (28) What if you were pregnant or got someone pregnant, what would you do? (29) Something you hope to change about yourself. And why. (30) A letter to yourself, tell yourself EVERYTHING you love about yourself .


Thats the update for this month, I will try to get back to this as things progress!
October will Start my 30 days of truth. They won't be long (I think)

Enjoy