Banking in Korea

I'm a Korean multi-millionare.
It's pretty wicked to take money out of the debit machine and look at how big your balance is. But I guess it also sucks "Hey I paid 30 grand for this SHIRT!!"
But when you come around to converting it to Canadian dollars I'm not as "rollin" as I thought:
1000 Korean Wan is 90 cents Canadian.
What makes Korean money truly funny is the size of currency: the largest banknote is only 10 000 W (that's 9 dollars!). Some teachers get their first paycheque in cash (almost 2.5 million) and old people like to pay cash for everything= huge wallets, fat money clips, or sacks of cash.
AND the smallest currency is a 5 W coin (not even half a penny).



There's hope for Korea after all. This June they are coming out with a new bill a 50 000 Wannnner.
and it looks hella nice!
how's that for a red snapper?


-D

DAVIDEO

I finally got the instructional video that I made for the Koreans kidlets.
Without further ado (not adieu), here's my big break into Korean media:



It's a humble beginning, I know, but you gotta start somewhere (Leo in "Growing Pains", who woulda thought?). I'm huge here.

We give this video to all the new students, and it's featured on the website as well.
That song at the beginning is our "official song" the kids sing it loud, brimming with pride.
I can't really decide which letter action I like most? 'Q' is rediculous, but in 'M' it looks like I'm gonna fight the cameraman.

I'd like to hear your feedback, before Rotten Tomatoes gets to it.

-D

HEY THAT's MY BUTT!

One of the biggest suprises teaching Korean children is a practice they call "Ddong Chim"
Ahem! Let me tell you...
Boys, mostly, hold their hands together in a fist but having two fingers pointing out->like a gun. They then sneak behind you and basically shove it in your ass!
yelling "Ddong Chim!!"
They do this to each other, they try and do it to me -with a few successful attempts. Always with resounding hilarity.
What does Ddong Chim mean you might ask? Ddong means "Poop" which they love to say, draw pictures of, read books about etc. and chim means "Needle".
Ohhh You JUST got Poop Needled!

I don't know where they get it from and how they all share in this joke. But it's another thing that is fucked up about Korea.


(a drawring)

I'm on Buses (and other shit)

Shanna put up a new facebook pic that has been generating alot of interest, so I guess I gotta blog about it.
The Picture:

That's right. I'm on buses. My face is being used in an advertisement for our school. On 6 buses (at least) that drive all around Min Lak Dong and Uijeongbu. I'm a model. I'm kind of a
BIG DEAL



Supposedly there's a sweeeeeeeeet movie of me 'E' teaching (no I was not on Ecstasy) on our schools website, that I need to find and put up on here too.

Besides me being a minor celeb it was "Teacher's Day" last Friday. Teacher day is wicked. Students come to school with candies, food and gifts for their teachers. supposedly some schools have the day off that day because of outragious spending for students to be in the "good books"
Well we had school and there was plenty of "good booking". Shanna and I were showered with gifts: tons of fake (and a few real) roses, too many cakes- we were wasting them on students!, cookies, sweets, towels and beauty soap, I got baby size mens dress socks, Shanna got some beauty products, we got matching teacups, stickers, cards, bracelets, a scarf. Teachers day is something I'm bringing back to Canada for reals.

Koreans are crazy about Couples clothing. You see couples with entire matching outfits holding hands or canoodling on the subway all the time. Resteraunts even have couples items on the menu- special meals made for sharing with your squeeze. I think it's hilarious and so novel.
A co-worker bought us matching couples shirts :

we had a nice day in Seoul this Saturday. Shanna and I both got our hair cut, had Pho at PhoBay (our favorite Vietnamese restaurant), and went shopping in Myeon dong and Dongdaemun.
Dongdaemun is a crazy huge shopping area in Seoul. It has 4 giant 8 stories + shopping centers, underground mall, street stalls, and more. We've been here at night and were a bit overwhelmed our first time (it's open till 5am, and PACKED, and the store clerks in some places are overly aggressive). Anyways, we went in the daytime and went to the Doota complex. Doota is more up or alley. A bit more expensive, but much higher quality. Everythings not super packed and the price is the price you pay (haggling gets old EVERYTIME you want to buy something).
Shanna was super stoked in the Lego store:

-she's been talking about the new Harry Potter movie nonstop -for too long and we are going to see it opening day (which is a day earlier than you suckaz due to our "in the future-ness")

Q:What's the same about Dave and this Lion?

A:-yup we both like killin shit!

We also have a new favorite arcade game:


I don't know if you looked closely enough but it's called Pang Pang Paradise!
As if the game could be bad!!
..point of the game you may ask?
You throw small balls at the touch screen to: kill bad guys, shoo away bugs from eating your food, pop balloons etc. The game is tons of fun. Remember when you first played duck hunt? It's like that, but you actually get to throw shit and that dog never teases you!
We are practically pro's at it. Shanna and I got an "A" on level 2.
Also its kind of a workout: Shanna's arms were sore the next day. and my spaghetti limbs were getting tired of the frenetic pace of throwing at level 3.
Pang Pang Paradise -pure magic



-Shanna's upset because I left our umbrella's on the subway this weekend. Ooopsie!
Here's a pic of Shanna with her now lost purple umbrella

-she doesn't even look very happy. -that umbrella sucked anyways

That is it for me.
If your my friend send me an email. I'm a touch missing youz guyz

Peace,
D

itaewon

this weekend we decided to check out itaewon with our favorite canadian couple, alex and mark.
we rounded up later in the afternoon and caught the (thankfully, not packed) subway. for some reason, it was decorated in some sort of forest theme. artificial flowers and pine boughs lines every possible crevice. it was so strange, but nicely air conditioned, so i didn't mind. dave and i have discovered a new way to pass time: trivial pursuit pass and play on his ipod. i always win (of course).

decked out subway:



you know how big cities have enclaves of different ethnicites in one area, like little italy or chinatown? well itaewon is basically "little america". you'll never see so many foreigners (english speakers) in one place in korea than in itaewon. anything you want from home, you can find it here. because of this, i find the area a little sketch. well... alot sketch. theres a bunch of sketchy dirty alleys and blinged out gangstas with crocodile shoes. crocodile! and you just KNOW they're not tourists or teachers. korean tailors line the sidewalks yelling about handmade suits. one store, in particular, has an autographed picture of steven segal. THE steven segal. (dave's favorite action hero)

anyway. we shopped around a bit and found the greatest burger spot ever. patio dining, whole grain buns, homemade patties... so good!


delicious sunny burger:

kind of random to be excited about, but lets just say you don't get a whole lot of that anywhere here. especially where we live. mark's friend is also teaching english in korea so we met up with him and his friend at the rocky mountain tavern. i think i've blogged about it before, but it's a bar owned by canadians. it's seriously like being back at home.

rider pride? in korea??? yes!



poutine? in korea??? yes!


it actually was pretty disappointing.... kind of like fries and cheese in a thick chicken soup. i'm still holding out for the real deal at new york fries. i found out there is a couple here! crazy...

crazy lady selling flowers at the bar??? yes!



sure she sans tie and classy suit. and she's not at the scuz. BUT she's asian and bargained like nobody's buisness "okay, okay, 1000 won"

it was all around a pretty good time. keeping in the spirit, we went around to an irish pub called the wolfhound around the corner. it was like being at oshea's. and i'm pretty sure i saw only 3 koreans that night. so bizarre.


nothing says home like jager bombs...



the wolfhound where i found my twin!


we called it quits after that. itaewon is probably the only place in the world with street merchants selling baby bunnies on the street to drunk chicks. it's so sad. you just know these stupid girls are going to wake up in the morning wondering why the fuck they have a baby bunny on their bed. dave and i figure the mortality rate of these things are 85%. we decided to forgo a new pet bunny at 2:30 in the morning and instead made a better choice: SCHWARMAS! yum....


we had a relaxing sunday doing not much. the excellent weekend was capped off with our "family dinner" of bbq duck every sunday with alex and mark. and then i woke up monday morning thinking fml... why can't every day be the weekend?

-S

Children's Day and Beyond

Hey Y'all
It's been a great week in KOREAaaaa this week. Where do I even begin?
Well Tuesday WAS May 5th --also known as Children's Day Holiday here in Korea.
What is Children's Day? I asked some Korean's about it and the majority of them told me "it's a day for Children they are our future". I thought it was cute from the first person but after 10 people told me-so cheesie!
-It's a bigger deal than birthdays. The kids get presents and have a whole day of playing, picnics, parks and general fun.
Shanna and I had a nice picnic!
tasty breads salt cured meats and cheeses
picnic PDA


The day before that we went on a field trip with our kindie kids to a farm where we made ice cream
and cheese and the kids even milked cows!
ice creams:

Monday night was our friend Alex's birthday/house warming party:
The Birthday Girl Alex:
Shanna and Alex:
Connor Mark and Alex watching the Pacquiao fight-brutal knockout


On Friday night we went out for a staff dinner. Which was delicious and a gong-show!
We went to a raw fish restaurant.
sushimi fish plate: (seabass, and another kind of fish and decorative garnish.


here's a shot of most of our staff, most of us drunken (they say drunken rather than drunk. i'm going with this one!)
our boss and owner "che'" was smashed, and hilarious. he's the guy with the smoke in his mouth. his wife "agnes" -in the striped shirt. couldn't stop laughing
Shanna havin a smoke with all the dudes(Harry, che, shans, Kevin) Our boss was absolutley shocked when Shanna told him how long she's been smoking.

After manu shots of soju and maksoju (a sweet tasting soju) and me excusing myself to go to the bathroom and bringing back beer. Shanna and I were quite lubricated:
Our boss, Rachel and I (I was pretending his armpit stunk= Hilarious in Korea):
After a 2hour dinner and drinking binge we headed out to a Noraebong aka. "song room" aka. Karaoke.
One thing I learned: Koreans are serious about their Karoake.
Private rooms where you can program the lights etc., service staff waiting on us (with the press of a button), passionate Korean singing and Karoake shenanigans with some English songs.
The second thing I learned is when Korean men get drunk they are quite affectionate with each other (errm.. Massie)

Che and Kevin belting it out (with Rachel on the hook)

this song had every Korean up, clapping, dancing, singing, hugging and tamborining
Harry was drunken, hitting on all the lady teachers, and well....dancing

D Stones on the mic:
It was a fun night our boss footing the bill of course!

We're nearly up to speed here.
Today was a special event at our school. Today was "Sticker Party Day"
Whenever the kids are well behaved, finished their homeowork etc. we give them stickers as a reward. They stick these stickers to pieces of paper (30 stickers a paper). Twice a year (Christmas and Spring) the students get to trade these completed sticker papers in for prizes. Our gym had tables filled with prizes and the kids traded and bartered in English in this stickerpaper market. It was fun. The kids learned certain phrases like "Can I have a discount?" and "Is that your last price"..I was a sucker for bartering kids and gave some items away for INSANE deals.
It was also kind of sad. Some students had like 25 sticker papers, and others had 3 (maybe affording them an ice tea, an eraser and a glitter pencil).

It's been hot this week, Shanna and I are lounging in our air conditioner-cranked apartment.
Tonight we might go out for supper and maybe see a movie.

mizz you guys
Stones out