Best and Worst.....

Over a year has passed since I arrived (where has that time gone???) so I thought I would review some of the ups and downs of the year. This is a light-hearted (or brain-farted) look at the good and the bad - I don't want to make it a month-by-month recap - so obvious, wholesome events such as the family visiting and meeting wonderful people won't be covered. But, this doesn't mean that they werent my favourite moments!!

Best moments;

- Choi and Annie ironing my clothes:
After a month or so after arriving I had formed quite a close friendship with a couple of lovely girls: Annie and Choi. Im not sure what it was about me that drew them to me. Maybe it was my looks, possibly my charm, certainly my humor and definately my smell (but NOT my height). But regardless, we all became good friends almost immediately. The girls would come over to my house in the evening to drink on my "verandah", or hang out or whatever, and it was always a gay old time. One evening, when discussing what we should do, I suggested (probably with a few beers under my belt) that Choi and Annie could iron my shirts if they wanted. I reflexively brought my hands to cover my face, fearing a violent reprisal. To my astonishment, nothing was thrown at me, but rather a friendly "sure". Ironing is by far my most frustrating chore and would do anything to avoid it. So to have 2 beautiful women in my house, ironing my clothes, while I sat back in my chair, beer and celebratory cigar in hand, was not only my favourite moment of the year, but maybe my favorite moment of all time. I leaned back, and thought "It doesnt get any better than this".

-Being crowned fastest man in Jinju:
We all know I like to think im a hotshot when it comes to sport but ive never been confused with being the fastest person in any game or sport. Quick maybe, but not particularly fast. So I was filled with joy when I won all sprinting events at the beer Olympics. Maybe the alcohol aided my speed, im not sure, but I do know I kicked everyones arse, infront of everyone else, and that there were plenty of chicks watching. Since that night I have defeated all subsequent challenges from young upstarts trying to take down the top dog. All hail the champion!

Im so fast you can't even see me........

- Winning Poker 4 times in a row:
I have a reputation for being a pretty horrendous poker player until the last couple of months when I reeled off back-to back-to back-to back wins. I don't think that this has ever been done before (In Jinju or even all of Asia) and certainly made me look like a competent player for a short time. It also almost covered me for all the times ive lost. ALMOST.




Worst moments; (and yes there are far more of these)

- Soju chugging contest:
Ill conceived idea at best. Was thinking I was buying a bottle to mix into drinks, but no, it was a straight chugging contest. I lost approximately 1.4 seconds into the contest when I began to vomit violently.

- Bus ride to the beach:
Ive covered this before but basically I caught a bus to the beach at 6 am in the morning, straight after a long night out. I thought id get to the beach, pass out, then wait until everyone met up with me. The perfect plan. However, I passed out before I got to the beach, and when I awoke I was in the same place as I left, 3 hours later. The bus driver neglected to wake me up at the beach, then turned around and came back to town. So much for my great plan. I got out of the bus, into the blinding light, half asleep/half dead, and into the path of some friends who gave me a look that said "Dude, sort your life out".

- Sleeping on the floor of the subway in Seoul:
Did this while waiting for the subway to begin after attending a concert. The dirty, slimy floor isnt the place you want to put your head after a day and night of drinking and dancing. Lucky it was for an hour and was on a piece of cardboard. Total bum style.


- Running in -2
I got sick of not being able to excercise in the middle of winter so one day I just said "screw it" and decided to put some hair on my chest and man up. It was a clear day, so it looked warm, but it most definately was not. Definatley goes down as the worst weather ive ever exercised in. I wore gloves, a long sleeve shirt and soccer socks and it wasnt nearly enough, and the warm water from the shower afterwards stung like crazy. There wasnt anything enjoyable about that 30 minutes.

- Arm Wrestling a girl
I learnt a very valuable lesson from this the hard way: Never, ever, ever, ever arm wrestle a girl. Even if she challenges you, create some excuse - im allergic to arm wrestling, the last time I did it my arm fell off, something, anything - or just do not accept. Her calling you a pussy without doing it is better than her calling you a pussy afterwords. You can't really gain anything from it; if you win, well, big deal, its a girl, you are supposed to win. Plus, if the girl likes you, she will hate you for not letting her win. If you loose then you are forever branded a complete loser. Its a no-win situation. So with all this in mind, I accepted a challenge from a female friend in a bar one night. Now, I maintain that she never actually won. I don't beleieve she ever fully wrestled my arm to the ground. Was it hovering 1-2 cms above the ground for about 5 minutes? Maybe. But she never won, and if she did, she was technically cheating. But this doesnt mean anything. Technically. Fully. Whatever. The fact that I didnt kick her arse, and was utterly dominated was all that was necessary for me to loose a whole lot of masculinty. Oh, and never let someone take photos of it either.....



- Tim Cahil crying in the soccer"
This just gave everyone something to point at whenever I tried to say how good Australia is, especially at sports. There is no comeback to "yea, well at least we dont cry when we loose".

Im back!!!

So I know that I haven't updated in a while but there has been pretty good reason for it........ Im pretty bloody lazy.

Well thats not exactly true, in fact its the exact opposite. Ive been extremely busy volunteering my time to help teach kids English. Im so generous aren't I? So how did this happen? A teacher had a back operation and couldnt walk for about 3 weeks, so I was asked if I could cover for him. It began straight after school until 9 for the past 6 and a half weeks. That means 12 hour work days, and make it at least 13 hours door-to-door. Sure it was difficult at times, but at the end of the day I chose to volunteer because of the personal satisfaction, and it feels so good to see smiles on kids faces. I didnt care that I had no free time during the weeks. All that mattered was the knowledge that I was doing something good, and volunteering has to be good for karma. So, thats why ive been away from the blog for so long. It finished last Thursday..... ahhhhh, it's nice to be able to dinner before 9:30!

I guess I'll just give you a quick run-down of whats happened in my life lately.

• I passed my 1 year anniversary in Korea on March 29th, so I'm officially in my 2nd year! I will be teaching at the same schools (unless my school get wind of my volunteering) which is a major reason why I want to stay on for another year. I will be making a year in review post soon talking about my favorite and most regrettable moments of the year.
  

• I havent felt any earthquakes or seen any tsunamis since they began in Japan. Im safe and sound. Until last week, there hasnt been any noticable effect on the lives of people living in Korea, but that did change. Last week, we were lucky enough to have "radioactive rain" bucket down all-day Thursday. It was a miserable day, and compounded by the fact no one told me it was radioactive until Friday. I went for a run in that rain!! No, I kid, I knew it was supposed to be toxic and against my desires gave in and used an umbrella for the day. Im not sure just how bad the rain was and I guess I wont know for another 20 years or so, or until I start growing new limbs in strange places. But I do know that my umbrella now has large holes in it and my shoes are a different colour. Just to clarify; I didnt drink the rain.
  

• Spent a great weekend in Busan with Choi that included staying at a hotel right on the beach that had the following views....... Not to bad for Korea hey?
  

• I was also served something during that trip to Busan that i'd never seen before, nor really expected to ever see; ice cream in bread. Now, Korea typically doesn't seem to make bread products that meet my lofty expectations. A loaf of bread is fine, but buns, rolls, and special items using bread always have something wrong with them. Usually it is a confusing usage of sugar. But iv'e never seen anything like this. Its basically a hollwed-out loaf with ice cream and berry puree. Not that great.
  

• Also came across this delicious combination of pizza with lettuce the other day. Wasn't too bad actually, but I won't be going out of my way to order it again.

• I know I always get crap from various Roberts family member for eating foods that Roberts' usually don't eat, but I need to add one more to the list. Im now clinically addicted to banana milk. I have 2 a day without fail. Seriously the best drink ever made. Works really well with Kahlua as well. Get ready for it Macka!

• Had a really nice weekend as Spring is finally upon us. Went into the castle with Choi and a few bears and soaked in the awesome saturday. Jinju is just looking stunning at the moment. Not a bad place to down a few coldies right here.....
  

• Then went to check out the Hadong Cherry Blossom festival on Sunday. Cherry blossoms are the pretty trees with snow white flowers on the that come from Japan, but are plentiful in Korea as well. They are also the trees that makes every Korean and Foreign girls hearts melt, knees shake and give an irrepressible desire to be photographed under, next to, on top of and in. There is seriously a weird attraction/admiration/obsession that girls have with this tree. I guess, chicks just like pretty flowers. Anyway, they only really bloom for 2 weeks, so the window for seeing them is really quite short. Thus, roughly 46 million people (out of 50) go to various Cherry Blossom festivals throughout the land, or so it seems. I think 42 of the 46 million went to the Hadong festival. We had a lazy start to the day, which turned out to be a bad idea. After a train to Hadong, we needed to catch a bus to the site of the festival. This trip usually takes 20 minutes, but for us, took over 2 hours. When we arrived, we ate, and since we were worried about getting a bus back, we only ended up walking around for about 25 minutes, and never actually reached the main site of the festival. So it ended up being a looooong day of travelling, albeit a fun one. Luckily there was plenty of Cherry Blossoms to be seen out of the windows of the bus.
  

So this is my quick little update. I just wanted to give you a little something to prove to you that I havent succumbed to any earthquakes, choked on my own vomit after drinking too much soju, or thrown myself off a bridge after eating bondeggi. I am alive an well. I know that this was a little disjointed and without much purpose, but better things are to come!!