RANDOM CAMERA SNAPS

Here are some random photos that I snapped on my phone in the last few months. (Above are flowers on the Han River).
[Broken mirror in the street.][Bus driver watching TV on his mobile.][Coworker Faye and I in work.]
[Tyler checking the map on our east coast bike trip.][Rainy afternoon siesta.]
[Me and Jolie in work.][My friend HyonJong getting a facial.][A lady practising violin under a bridge at Yangjae stream.][A chipmunk or something at Soraksan.]

MY MOON

I gave you my heart
My love and my soul
It wasn't enough
You still wanted more

So you tried to take
What's bigger than you
Despite all I gave
You wanted my moon

But I didn't share
Cuz inside I knew
You'd destroy it all
My night heaven too

And now we're alone
All is dark and blue
And as I look up
I don't think of you

NIGHT SNAPS

I took some snaps last night around my neighbourhood just to have a play with the camera.

LOVE TEETH

I've been complaining to my students about my coming wisdom teeth. I had the uppers removed in Japan and maybe I'll need the lowers taken out here. I haven't been to the dentist yet becuase I'm already suffering too much with a suspected broken rib (thanks awesome boxing master!) and stomach problems (though getting much better). So surgery in my mouth is not what I want right now. I'll wait a while and hope it just goes away.
Anyway, my students taught me that the Korean word for wisdom tooth is 사랑니-sarangni, which translates as 'love tooth'. It's a sign that real love is ready to come in to your life. Hearing that really cheered me up. And I'd much rather be in love than be wise :)

JEJU ISLAND

This month when my brother was here we finally took my long awaited trip to Jeju island. I had been looking forward to this trip for over six months as I'd planned to do it with my best friend from Japan, Ryuta, when my contract finished. Although I extended my contract, I was able to get enough time off for a nine-day trip.
[Ryuta and Ronan: Enjoying the sunny "day"]Jeju is just south of peninsular Korea. It's the most famous and popular tourist destination for Koreans, especially in summer and for honeymoons. The climate at the start of October is supposed to be perfect; dry and not too hot. That suited us well since our trip was to be one of adventure and excercise. However, just before taking off, I heard there was typhoon warnings and lots of rain promised during our trip. 'Highly unusual for this time of year', I was told :(
Ronan and I flew down to Jeju on the Friday and Ryuta arrived from Japan on Saturday morning. We rented bicycles with a plan to cycle the 240km coastal path around the circumference of the island. We allocated four days to do the entire distance, with an extra day cyling and sightseeing on a smaller island called Udo.
[Out on the town, with no thoughts of tomorrow's hangover]The first day, amazingly we notched up 75km in the sunshine. No prob for Ronan, a fitness machine, and Ryuta had no problems. But I hadn't excercised in 7 weeks becuase of my hand and chest injury (at least that's my excuse). Man, I swear my thighs were in such agony for the last 15km I thought I wouldn't be able to walk the next day. But luckily we found a bathhouse near our guesthouse and could soak and stretch our muscles.
[Sibling rivalry. I won.]Day 2 and the weather was still holding up ok. Just fifty hungover km today, but it was even harder than day 1. But Ryuta and Ronan are great fun, never complain and regularly do dumb things on the bike to get a laugh, so it was always bearable.
Day three the rain came. It was definitely not fun then. Ronan and I had bought a couple of matching blue jackets last minute in Jeju city and we were sure glad of them when it started to pour. By this point we were on the southeastern part of the island and towns were few and far between, so we just had to keep going to our planned destination for the day. With everything wet and heavy, including our spirits, and the cumulative hangovers adding up, day 3 was pretty gruelling for us. But once shacked up in a cheap motel, we found another bathhouse and soaked ourselves as it continued to pour outside.
Jeju is an island and thus seafood is popular. We went to a fancyish seafood place one night, but most of the time we were so hungry from biking we just wanted meat and enjoyed BBQ with the local delicacy 'black pig'.
On day 4 we took a ferry out to Udo, a small, supposedly beautiful island nearby. It was pouring! But we got motivated, put on our damp clothes from the day before and headed out.
Bad idea really. It was just miserable. The island wasn't beautiful, nor was it different to the other places in Jeju that we'd seen. Well, at least not on grey day.
So our plan to cycle around the entire island was quickly aborted and we caught the first ferry back to watch movies in our room and eat cookies. My Canadian coworker, Tyler flew down from Seoul in the afternoon and seemingly brought some good weather with him. Because following another night's drinking of the infamous Jeju alcohol 'Halasan Soju' we had clear skies.With a new member in the group and only a few showers along the way, the energy levels were higher and we covered the last 60km or so to Jeju city in record time.
We spent two nights here drinking heavily to make up for our general disatisfaction of the beauty of Jeju. We also hiked Hala-san, Korea's highest mountain. Again, we were unimpressed, but it was nice to get into the mountains.[Me and little bro at Halasan]So in summary, the trip was pretty good. Great to hang out with the lads do something physical. But as for Jeju island; not beautiful and not really fun, especially in the rain. I'm glad I went, but I wouldn't go back. Or maybe I'm just spoilt from seeing too many pretty places.

[Ryuta taking a nap in the pub. Trying to keep up with two Irish and a Canadian isn't easy.]

BOXING: FIRST WEEK

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse.... My first boxing class was on Tuesday. Despite the leg pain, I went again on Thursday where I got my shoulders slapped, feet kicked, and my own fist pushed against my face whenever I dropped my guard.
Saturday however was the icing on the cake (I hope). Although our 'master' hasn't taught me to punch or even defend myself yet, he asked if I wanted to spar a couple of rounds with him in the ring. Of course I thought I'd look weak if I declined so I 'enthusiastically' agreed. I jokingly told my friend to tell him in Korean not to break my nose. To which my friend laughed and said not to worry, he's just going to slap me around a bit. HA! Thirty seconds later blood was running down my nose. He caught me with a straight across the bridge of my nose. After a bit of towel work from my corner I was good to go again and managed to finish the first round giving him a cut lip. Second round I took another hammering, but not too many to the nose (he focused on my beer belly this time). To be honest, by the end of the second round I could hardly breath or defend myself so was mostly just taking shots and trying not to whine too much. And as hard as it was, I took a lot of pleasure seeing the bllod on his teeth when he took out his mouth piece, though I have a feeling I might pay dearly for that next time :(

[Photo: Don't worry, I'm still pretty ;)]

DEAD DOG II

When my little brother was here I took him to eat dog with a couple of Korean friends. I was very impressed that he was keen to try it. It was my second time and certainly easier than the first, but still not overly enjoyable.
Ronan ate three or four pieces. He didn't enjoy it, but tried his best, so I'm proud of him.

[Ronan with Korean friends Tina and Bria.]

BOXING: FIRST CLASS

All I have to say is, 'boxing is painful, so painful'. And I haven't even been punched yet!
Yesterday, my Korean buddy David (see climbing photos) and I joined Seoul Boxing Gym. My health club gym membership ended a couple of weeks ago and I decided not to resign. I hate gyms, I've always hated gyms and two years ago told myself I'd never go one again. I've always figured if your life is active enough you won't need them. And if you have to exercise, you should find a fun way to do it. But big city life changed me so I ended up lifting weights and running a treadmill like a hamster for months just to stop the over indulgance of big city life from killing me. But I've now decided that getting punched in the face on a regular basis will be better for my health...
A former student told me about Seoul Boxing Gym a while back and I decided to join when my gym membership was up. He told me it was reasonably priced, but warned me that the 'master' was a bit of a loose cannon and hot tempered with a habit of telling students "You're rubbish, just go home" (in Korean of course). But somehow this attracted me to the place more than deterred me. Images of me proving myself to my 'master' masked the realistic images of me vomiting in the toilet or passing out from exhaustion, or memorizing Korean for "I want my Mommy", in case of emergencies. I envisoned facing my master and replying to his scornful comments that "I might be rubbish, but I will not go home", or something really cool along those lines, even as he jabs a finger into my little beer gut.
Unfortunately though on the first day he wasn't mean enough to me for me to make my point. So I'll have to wait.
He did however grab my beer gut. Early on, before warming up he took a look at my paunch and then grabbed it. Instinctively I tensed up, but quickly reconsidered in hope that he would go easy on me. He laughed and gave it a shake. To which I replied 'mekju mani'-a lot of beer. He said something in Korean about not drinking anymore which I couldn't understand even when David translated it. Anyway, probably not important.
Then we did some stretching and he got us started on the jump rope. We had to do five rounds of three minutes each with a thirty second break between. There's even a real bell that rings at these intervals. Skipping mightn't sound that difficult, but you'd be amazed. And we had to alternate from one foot to the other and then at different angles. David and I were saturated in sweat by the end of the third 'round'. And in the fourth and fifth we were delirious and swearing, but too afraid to quit despite the cramps.
Then we got a short break followed by more jumping. This time though it wasn't with a rope. Just posing in front of the mirror in a boxing stance. It took about five minutes for me to get the stance correct. I couldn't understand the coach and David was too tired to translate so the big meanie resorted to pushing me and kicking my feet until the position was right. I laughed at these actions, but I was crying on the inside. Thought I felt better when I saw him do the same things to David. Ha!
Anyway, we then had another three gruelling rounds of trying to maintain this position while hopping up and down (like boxers?).
Then three more rounds of skipping even though we could hardly stand. Then he let us go home telling us we need to know how to do our own taping my tomorrow and and that today was just a gentle warm-up. I made some excuse about having a date and said I'd come back 'another time'. He laughed, but I could see he wanted to slap me. He said something about needing to practice a lot and reiterated his earlier point about alcohol intake, which I still didn't understand.
Now, the morning after, my calfs are a little stiff, but otherwise I feel good. And since I've already paid a months fees I might actually go back again. Watch this space...

INDOOR CLIMBING KOREA

When little brother was here he convinced me to take him an indoor climbing wall. Despite my passion for indoor climbing and bringing my equipment to Korea, I had yet to be to a wall. I had that one bad outdoor experience (see blog post), but apart from that, my shoes lay sleeping in the back of my closet.
But Ronan's enthusiasm was contagious and, along with a keen Korean buddy, we found a wall not too far from where I live.
It was a great way to spend the evening. Possibly the cleanest wall I've ever seen, well maintained and not too busy. And my coworker, David, despite it being his first time, was super enthusiastic and picked it up really quick. It was also awesome (and enfuriating) to see how much Ronan has progressed in the last year, while I've grown soft and weak :(
Hopefully we'll get back there again.

[Ronan; showing us how it's done.][David; already looking like a pro.]

DRAMA SET

I headed out of Seoul a little while ago to a movie set. One of my friends wants to be a drama manager and the setting looked like a refreshing break from the gray concrete of the city so we took a day trip.
Although I'd seen several of the movies that were partially filmed out here (JSA and Oldboy), it really wasn't that impressive. However, it was lovely to be surrounded by green on a beautiful day and the company was good so I enjoyed it.

Nice scenery.I don't know what this room was meant to be, but it was fun.Miso; camera shy? Maybe not.North Korean border set used for the awesome movie JSA.