From the Land of the Morning Inconvenience: May 2005

CNU B-Day Day Off Mix

1. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Howwhywuz, Howwhyam
2. Funkadelic - Funk Gets Stronger (Part 1)
3. Megadeth - Tornado of Souls
4. The Kinks - Death of a Clown
5. Scorpions - Big City Nights
6. Ska-P - La Mosca Cojonera
7. Grateful Dead - Touch of Grey
8. Frank Zappa - In France
9. Aqua Velvets - Martini Time
10. Smashing Pumpkins - Hummer
11. Wes Montgomery Trio - Too Late Now
12. Enigma - Age of Lonliness (Carly's Song)
13. Rush - Alien Shore
14. Guadalcanal Diary - Gilbert Takes the Wheel
15. Soul Asylum - Crawl
16. Dead Kennedys - Moon Over Marin
17. The Cult - Electric Ocean
18. John Coltrane - Lazy Bird
19. The Kinks - Only a Dream
20. R.E.M. - New Orleans Instrumental No. 1
21. Bad Religion - Ten in 2010
22. The Hooters - Johnny B.
23. Black Sabbath - Wishing Well
24. James Brown - I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me) PT.1
25. Agent Orange - Bloodstains
26. Bad Religion - No Direction
27. Dave Matthews Band - Stay (Wasting Time)
28. Collective Soul - Bleed
29. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - (Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?
30. Dillinger Escape Plan - Caffiene

Thinking...

I've been thinking a lot lately about the past and about the present. I wonder at the things that seemed important or bad or problematic or simply mystifying then. I look at the things now that worry me or make me happy or annoy me. I wonder about the connections.

It's like the regular email I receive from a person that I've raged at for years. I deleted the first few thinking to myself, "Why am I getting this? What is the point?" Then curiosity got the better of me. I found that I was interested and glad that this person was doing ok. That a lot of my anger, in retrospect, was really just a waste of time. It's like the family issues that seemed so insurmountable at one point but were found to be only a conversation or two away from being put to rest. More wasted time. It's like the things that I railed against today that seemed at the time so damned important, but now, only a few hours later, seem so trivial that I'm embarrassed.

I know I've changed. I'm certainly not as patient as I once was, and I'm definately far more cynical. Optimism is much harder to maintain these days. How and when did this happen?

Thursday at the Chungnam Festival

Thursday was a great day. The weather could not have been better for a relaxing afternoon drunk. Given that it was the last day of the festival, the students for my 2:00 pm class failed to materialize. Taking advantage of this, I decided to wander outside and watch the Golden Bel contest for a little while. In this contest, an idea taken from a very popular TV quiz show, students need to answer English language trivia questions in order to win prizes. This year I think the grand prize was a new computer. I took a few photos, and since I didn't have to participate in the contest this year I retired to one of the conveniently located beer tents.

I chose this particuler tent specifically to drive my fellow teachers, Greg and Ian, crazy. You see, they were stuck up on the sweltering stage asking the questions to the students. In true malicious fashion, I spent the next hour or so sitting in the shade where they could see me and sending them text messages extolling the virtues of cold beer on a beautiful afternoon.

Pretty soon, some of my former students showed up, and the drinking began in earnest. I spent the rest of the day, chatting with my students, wandering around the festival and generally having a very good time.

Thursday was a spectacular day for an afternoon drunk.

Mark, Greg, and Ian asking a question during the Golden Bell contest.

Students answering the question.

Students eliminated from the Golden Bell contest. They thought elephants could fly.

Ian taking a break. The beers are mine. Ian still had to teach a class that afternoon, the poor bastard, lol.

Myself and a former student Mick drinkin' in the afternoon. Mick and Angel (pictured below) were part of one of the best group of students I have taught since coming to Korea.

My former student Angel (sitting) and her friend.

Greg and his class of miscreants

Another of my students hard at work serving food to the drunks.

The first part of the Thursday night concert featured Korean traditional drumming. This was pretty cool.

Korean traditional drum music

Festival food can be a little frightening. Pa-jong (the green stuff), Oh-jing-ah (Dried squid, which has the consistency of 50 year old rubberbands), and "beerios" (a styrofoam-like snack that is flavorless, but one of those things that you can stop eating anyway.)

Alice's friend, Alice,and Claire

Festival Week at Chungnam!

Every year in May, Chungnam national University celebrates its birthday with a grand festival. There are two guarantees during festival week. The first is that it's going to rain buckets the first day of the festival, and second, I'm going to teach class hungover as stink at least two of the days.

Festival week is a double-edged sword of sorts. On the positive side, hardly any students show up for class because they're either working at one of the many beer tents sponsored by their major department or drinking at said tents, so it's a very easy teaching week. Another positive thing is that, as you wander around the festival tents, you always run into students who want you to come and drink with them. This is great because a) you have fun, and b) the students are usually more talkative in class after you've joined them for a few beers.

On the negative side, as you wander around the festival you always run into students who want to drink with you. This is despite the fact that you have to teach the next day at 7 am. Of course, this leads to a 7 am lesson on gibberish as a second language because your brain and mouth become seperated somewhere in the dark the night before and don't find each other again until sometime in the late afternoon.

Weird glow sticks + poor camera skill = high art

capturing the madness that is festival week.

My student Sae-rom working hard.

Rearranging the Philosophn tent.

Laura, Rob, and myself

The mad-cap Philosophn crew

For you allergy sufferers. This car is covered with a coating of pollen and yellow dust. Korea in the spring. Gotta..aahh....AHHH-CHOOOOO!...love it.

Friday Night Follies

Having been sick for the last couple of weeks, cabin fever finally got the best of me, and out I went.

The night started out at my favorite bar, Santa Claus, with a few quiet beers and a couple of shots of Gran Ma. Around 10 pm, I headed down the road to another little dive I like: Lucky Strike. The last weekend of every month, Lucky Strike has their $20, all you can drink, "Standing Party". Needless to say, now that the weather is warm, the crowd came out to play. Generally, a good time was had by all.