Hey Jude

That's me and Plan (p.laaaaaan)
He's a goofy guy, he's the music teacher

Monday Nov. 15

8:30 a.m.
Damn its cold. I wore under armor underneth my 3 piece suit today. Don’t judge, I can’t feel my fingers as I type. Under armor is the stuff that football players wear when its cold. I know im no football player, but damn its cold, and I don’t wanna be cold. So…HA. It’s a bit of a tool thing to do to wear under armor…but then again I’ve got a black shirt with really dark black pokadots. It’s the only black dress shirt available in asia, seriously, I checked.

So…umm, is Korea making me soft?

Fantastic weekend though, gotta say…I met my neighbor Joel, really good guy…very interested in what I’ve got to say. He cooked some bbq, which was FANTASTIC!

8:37 a.m.

I’m supposed to teach with homegirl all week but homeboy just let me know that I’ve gotta teach his two classes after I teach with homegirl. So, 6 classes. 4 with fifth graders and 2 with 6th graders. Yeee hawwww!!!

So funny story from this weekend, I hopped a cab from my apt to Moes and the cab driver started speaking english to me…kinda went like this….

Me: New York Bahhh (bar, but the ‘r’ is a bit weird here)
Cab driver: Sounds good man
Me: Uh, you know English?
Cab driver: ohh, very little
Me: Nice, you’re very good
Cab driver: thanks! (then he turns up the music)
Radio: …don’t make it bad, you can take a sad song and make it better. Remember to
Cab driver: LET HER INTO YOUR HEART
Me: to make it better, better better BETTER BETTER BETTER WAAAAA
Cab driver: naaaa, NAH NAH NAH NAN NAN NAAHHHH NAHHH
(THEN the radio cuts off, at the best part of anysong in the history of ever, didn’t stop mr cabbie though, he kept jamming out. Show must go on guys!! )
Cabbie: NANANAHHHHHH HEYYYYY LOOOOOODDDEEEEEEE
Me: Dude, uh…its Jude.
Cabbie: HEY LODE LOODE LOOODDDIEE LODDIE LOOODIE
Me: Uh, we’ll go with it…

Then it we pulled up to Moes as about 12 of my friends were watching us just, make a complete ass out of ourselvs. It was AWESOME!

10:44 a.m.

ANNNNYWAY, little Jason has a brother. Jason is a 3rd grader from San Francisco and his brother is Jordan. They look A LOT alike!!! Apparently Jordan doesn’t like being called Jason. Haha, whoops.

Jordan says to me: dude, you’re from texas but you don’t have an accent. I explained the differences between ‘cool’ texas and…well the rest of texas. You should know what I mean. Jordan’s a 6th grader with a bit of a chip on his shoulder about learning english…wonder why?

9:48 p.m.

The Dallas Cowboys suck. Ugh.

Tuesday Nov. 16th

8:32 a.m.
I just got a big pat on the back from my principal. Literlly, he smacked me on my back…a bit harder than I would have expected. I got here like 5 minutes ago and I pulled up a psyche article I’ve been reading. I’m at that point with all the graphs and stuff. The stuff I usually skip over (no one understands it, really)…and principal man goes: you work very hard, I like this. Smack!!!

Honestly, it kinda hurt.

11:01 a.m.
Thank god no ‘thatta boy’ from the prinicpal. Got one of those from an old lady and a collegue of mine. Big test today for all my kids…so I’m done at 11. Hm. Now what?

Wednesday Nov. 17th

8:48 a.m.
So, big trip planned for sometime today. No idea where, or with who, or when or…well a majority of the: who, what, when, why, how…haha, oh how I love Korea. Seriously its awesome.

1:47
Ahhh dankas. Gooooooood stuff. Man dude for real its this deep fried steak (pork), cheese in the middle. Covered in ‘bar-b-que’ sauce. Num. freaking. NUMS!!!!

Friday, November 20

2 months ago, I was supposed to leave for Mokpo. I remember sitting at Sean Patricks drinking a Ziegen Bock thinking: SHANE CALL ME!!!!!!!!!

Sigh, all is well.

Anyway, I’ve got the morning off then I’ve got 3 classes of third graders. Little munchinks who are SO SCARED of talking to me. I feel so bad. They talk REAL loud in groups, especially when I say…what?!? But one on one, they’re just intimidated. As any 3rd grader, in any culture. Would be talking to a foreinger, using their language.

Anyway, its time to teach…But I’ll leave ya with this: North Korea has reported NO cases of Swine Flu.

…hmmmm I wonder why?!?

I shall also show you around my apartment:

...my (dirty) kitchen

ya walk in, around a fridge to the....

couch...then

hop in your un-made bed (who makes beds anymore?!?)

Its time for an update

There's Hunni (aka homegirl), me and the gym teacher (no clue what his name is)

Wednesday 11-4

I taught alone today….it was uh…interesting. The co-teacher bailed on me half-way through the first class, so…I was alone…like ALONE alone. 30 korean kids, 4 times in a day….and just me. Not like last time alone. Like, the REAL definition ….of alone. I was a little weirded out by the whole thing. I guess I never realized that the kids would take me so seriously. When I talk. They stop. It was weird. Its all good, I've got my random stuff from home like my trusty cowboy woody:

it wasn't til recently that i found out i accidentally bought a doll of my good friend Josh....

its UNCANNY

...annnnyway

Theres this teacher here, she hahah, shes got this 2nd grader. Shes about, 6, I think. She always walks with her mamma to school and everytime they pass me on the way, the teacher asks her daughter to say hello. So I bend down and say: Hiiiii

Little girl: ….teeee heee
Me: hiiii
Little girl: …..tee heee hee
Me: good morning
Little girl: hello michael(r) teacher.

Friday 11-6

Uh, yeah, taught some english. Ate some great food. Got on Dallascowboys.com.....then facebook....That’s my day.

I just got a guitar though

I've named her Tracy. I don't know why...


Monday 11-9

Pardon the lack of bloggage, but there hasn’t really been anything going on. I’ve had a great weekend, with all my Canadian/British buds. Met a girl from Seguin on Friday, we spent most of the night making fun of Seguin. It’s a small freaking world. Seriously, like 92.55% of the foreigner’s here are from Canada. Remember, from just outside Toronto. Not, toronto.

…ey

(that's Neil..the tall one - he's from canada, tricks everyone, and Joe...good guys)

Anyway, the kids go to school from 9 AM til 2 PM with us. Then they’re off to private academy’s to learn whatever. Math academy, English academy, Karate…whatever. They’re there til like 10 PM!!! Poor 5th graders have 13 hr days, and like 5 hrs sleep. Poor kiddos!

Tuesday 11-10

Well yesterday was quite productive, taught 4 classes of energetic, borderline crazy 4th graders. They’re fun though!!!! Funny moment in class when we were going over “sorry, I can’t.” Homeboy (just found out how to say his name…Kwon…pretty easy :-\...) anyway, K - won and I were going over “sorry I can’t” and he was playing a song that is still stuck in my head. I was kinda out of it all day, and wasn’t really ‘paying attention’ (air quote!!)…and, uh…yeah…He goes: mike….mike ….mike ….mike, can you pronounce this?

Its not good for the teacher to have a.d.d

Wednesday 11-11

11:44 a.m.
Haha, whoops on yesterday. Happy vet’s day!! Great lunch today, I was supposed to teach 6 times today – it changed to 2 classes this morning. Homie’s gotta go to a wedding…(who has a wedding on Wednesday???)

5:55 p.m.
Ahhh, just got my hair cut at the E-mart (I think it stands for everything mart…haha) Old korean lady shaved my head and washed my hair for me. Rubbed my ears and used a que-tip to dry off my ears. It was kinda odd, “I’m like dwoode, hows a towel ay?”

I just said (typed) ay – I gotta stop hanging out with canadains…next thing I know I’ll be loving hockey and afraid of the dark…haha

Thursday 11-12

Quick week so far, all the sudden its Thursday. Taught a few kids the ‘rock on’ sign, similar to that of the longhorn. In case you don’t know….. Again, phenominal lunch today!! Good gravy that’s like, the second best part of my day. For. Real.

The best is when I get to teach one-on-one with the munchins. Theres this left-tackle kid in one of my classes. I’m sure I’ve mentioned him before. Who is he?!? Well I’m glad you asked…

About 11, maybe 12. 5 ft. 7in. 160 to 190 lbs. Dude, is, massive. He’s got a very, like ganster – laurence fishburn voice….and I call him left-tackle because one day…he WILL play left tackle for UT.

Anyway, he’s having a hard time with this lesson and I love it when I can teach him one-on-one and he finally gets it. It’s a pretty cool feeling. Then (as reinforcment) we always ‘fist-bump’ or as fox news called it…’terrorist bump’ (air quote!!) when he gets something right. I finally taught him to blow it up…going….

…boooooomahhhh (not a fart sound…you know what it sounds like…whatever)

Friday 11-13

9:12 a.m.
Lucky 13, I’ve got the morning off then its 4 classes. I had plans to go to Seoul this weekend but they fell through, we’re gonna try again next weekend. Stupid rain. I handed in my man card at a convient mart when I bought an umbrella. Its for my backpack that I carry my computer in. Seriously, Korea’s making me soft.

12:50 p.m.
So, apparently no more teaching today. Rock on. Wow.