Since I no longer get to watch the West Wing, I'm now reading fan sites. And admitting it publicly.

Charlie: You want me to tell Mrs. Bartlet she's gonna look like a dilettante?

CJ: I once had to tell the President he was wearing two different shoes.

Charlie: That's roughly the same.


Someone had better send me some tapes soon.

Am journalist only according to laminated id tag. No name in bold. No story on webpage.

I am an officially accredited journalist at an international sporting event. It's very cool. I get to go wherever I want with my media pass. I get free bottled water. I get two 6 oz cups of beer every evening after the events at the media reception. I get to use lockers for free in the main room of the Universiade Media Center. Sadly there's not computer for me to use as I don't have a laptop, but I get to write stuff on pages of paper in the big common room at my own table equipped with power outlets. I also got a free CD holder that smells like a cow, and a free umbrella with the same rip-off burberry pattern that so many of the Koreans covet so fiercely. And I haven't even written a story yet...

You see, I was really just a tag-along. The Gauntlet asked Toby to do some reporting of the games, as he's written for them lots and they have a high opinion of him. I went along with him. And I got accredited too. It was easy. All I had to do was give them my passport number. And now I get to watch all the volleyball games I want to. It's a good deal. But now I have stories to write. We'll see whether or not the paper accepts them. They don't know that I'm writing too, but Toby can't be at more than one game at once. Besides, I once worked for the Globe and Mail... I was part of failed dotcom...

Every other Friday Toby and I are required to spend one hour telling a story to the kids at our school. That's it for work on Fridays. 4-5:00 p.m. One story. Gets translated by Korean teachers. The catch: it's a bible story. Neither of us being especially keen on spreading the good word we look forward to the other Fridays.

Well, we're up this week. Somehow we've managed to have 4 weeks off straight due to vacations days and national holidays, which has been nice. But this evening (rather, early morning) we've been camped out at Lee Net, the local computer room, searching for bible stories for children. We seem to remember it being easier to find nicely worded stories last time. I mean, there's a lot of computerized Christians out there.

Well, Toby found the motherload. It's a website that is devoted to visualizing bible stories through the use of lego. The most interesting visual is on our Korea web log.

All I can say is UNCLEAN!

To look at the other lego lovelies go to brick testament.

Ok, so I wrote more about Saturday night here if you want to read it. What a mess.

Vomit. That's all I have to say. Vomit.

It's a good thing I have a ticket home, bookable until December 8th, 2003. Weeks or months, eh?

Brought to you by my astute friend Jeremy Haugen: the only American I know who reads the Globe and Mail.

Go throw up under a van, why don't you?

I started writing out my goals last night. I used to try to follow my dad's advice and write my goals once a year. He has one year plans, three year plans, five year plans, and I think he even has ten year plans. I haven't had a plan for the last year and a half. I decided I need a plan. Or at least some tangible things to accomplish. So I've been thinking about my goals for the past three weeks, and yesterday I decided I was ready to write them down.

I only have 6 articulated so far, and I'm not ready to share them here. There are at least 5 more to go. These are just the one year goals for now. The ones that are further away may take a few more days of thought before I write them down. Not that they'll be unchangeable once they're in a journal. They'll just seem less acheivable. But from that semblance comes motivation somehow, at least with me.

More interesting, though, is the story of where they are being written for now. My dear friend has sent me a new journal within which I am to record my thoughts, goals, dreams, observation and drivel. Upon completion of said journal, I am to send it to him, along with an empty one for him to write in. I wonder if any of his thoughts will be responses... hmm. Anyway, he sent the journal to me some time ago, but I've only just finished writing in the first one that I started for him. The remaining step is for me to venture out to Insa-dong (now that I've been paid) and purchase a fine, handcrafted, journal for him. I shall then be trusting my thoughts and my Korean handicrafts to international mail.

check out Terra Incognita or Burning the Morning Calm for weekend details. Or at least Toby's scattered side of the story. Let's just say that I took pictures of him worshipping at Bricx, we had to leave the bar around 5:00 a.m. and we spent a few hours sitting on the concrete, waiting for him to be able to lift his head. He may or may not post the photos. Beg him. I have no power over the camera.

So what if I'm condescending from time to time? Who isn't? You think you aren't? Bah!

Mosquitoes in Korea are horrid. It's not that there are billions of them around all the time. In fact, I think I come in contact with fewer of them than I do in Calgary. The problem is that when they get you, they GET you. I have these huge welts all over my legs from their many nocturnal attacks. And they itch like no bug bites I've had before. It's practically unbearable. I went out to Walmart to pick up some western essentials the other day, and these two bites on my shin were itching the full 10 minutes from my apartment to the subway station. Once I got onto the airconditioned car the irritation went away, but as soon as I exited Seolleong station and wandered towards the retail behemoth they started going again like crazy. It's either malaria, typhoid, or the humidity. Damn insects. And don't get me started on the pedes.

I woke up with a sore throat yesterday. I ignored it while strolling through the airconditioned halls of the COEX, but it was agravated by 3 hours worth of computer use in a smokey pc room last night. Alas, it was still with me when I got up today. It's just moved a little bit. Instead of being in my glands it's moved down towards my voicebox, making me nice and hoarse for my Monday of teaching. Thankfully the hellians were relatively well behaved today, and were even interested in hearing the storybook I picked up last weekend. They were somewhat ambivalent last week, but it must be getting more interesting. That, or they've figured out that it actually isn't extra work and that it's fun and creepy. I'm toying with the idea of writing my own little novel for them that mirrors the vocabulary that they learned in the last 2 or 3 semesters and then trying to sell it to Kang's. But that's an aweful lot of work for someone as unmotivated as myself...

I just spent 3 hours writing up progress reports on my 4 classes. Who knew it would take so long to write a few lines for each kid? I have a new appreciation for what my teachers used to go through.

My friends called me today. It was so nice to talk to them. It's been at least 2 months since I heard their voices. Although, they do sort of make it harder to be away. Knowing there are people that miss me makes me more homesick. Nevertheless, it was great to hear from them.

In other news, I kept with my retail tradition of the weekend and bought a book today. It should be an interesting read. Toby and I went to a place called COEX today. It's a huge mall in Seoul. The best things are the bookstore, the airconditioning, and the X-Box cafe. We played some lotus fighting fist game for about two hours over coffee. It was great fun, and apart from the coffee, it was free. Who knew I could enjoy video games so much? We may make a weekly trip out of it.

Vacation is officially over. It's 3:00 a.m. and I'm off to bed.

I'm on summer vacation. It's become a bit of pattern for me to start a job and then be rewarded with heaps of vacation time within the first month when you're not tired yet. Unfortunately summer vacation only amounted to a 4 day weekend, but I can't really complain. And what have I done with my summer vacation, you ask? The two things I seem to spend most of my time doing in Seoul: shop and drink.

The adventure began on Thursday afternoon when Toby and I met a few of his students for a movie and dinner. We went to see Terminator 3, which is not exactly the movie that I thought the wealth 30-something housewives would choose. Toby and I liked the movie, however Marilyn and Christine did not. Then we went for dinner and the "rich" student met us. Her name is Amy. She treated us to some good Korean barbeque. Then we went for coffee, where Amy told us that "Toby is not handsome." Such a nice lady. There is this tendency for Koreans to be what they call "frank" with foreigners. I don't know if they talk that way in Korean with their friends or university professors or colleagues, because I can't understand what they're saying. I don't think it's frank though. It's downright rude.

Then the three ladies took us out to the Hyatt hotel in Seoul. We weren't really prepared for the Hyatt hotel, but we managed (one of us may have had to wear hotel issue pants as shorts were not permitted). In the basement of the Hyatt there is a "famous" club. Famous is Korean English for a popular that everyone wants to be able tell their friends they've been to. Unfortunately, these famous places are seldom accompanied by the equivalent atmosphere to have made them "famous". The place was ok, and the music didn't suck, but it was 10,000 won for a pint. Luckilly, we didn't pay for much.

Then, on Friday it was a day of shopping. We headed down to Itaewon, the foreigner shopping hotspot to have a look around. We didn't buy anything, but I found some dresses that are bigger than a size 2, so it was a good afternoon. We dined at a Mexican restaurant where we got to hear several informal speeches made by American military personnel, always a treat, let me tell you, and then we headed to a nice garden patio at Gecko's for a couple of bevies. After a few hours on the patio we decided our wallets needed a break, and we headed to our favourite little pub in Itaewon, a place called Bricks. They serve pints for 2,000 won a peice, play funky music, and have a bar that's fun to sit at. We're becoming regulars there, so we're becoming friendly with the owner and one of the bartenders, who happens to be a former teacher from Edmonton. Not much else happened. I hit the gin after about two more pints, and it was soon time to go home. I don't drink gin very often in Korea. About 6 months before leaving Calgary I switched from tonic to soda as an accompaniment for my hard alcohol of choice. While tonic is plentiful in Korea, soda is very difficult to find. However, our dear friends Julio and Soo Jin keep Bricks well stocked with Canada Dry soda. Julio told us that he had to move out of his apartment and is currently staying in a hotel, so we offered him a room in our palace. If he accepts the fee will be a mere can of soda per night.

We headed home somewhat early, around 2:30, I think, after stopping for late night street food. Street food in Korea is fabulous. You can buy the most amazing things after the bar here. Lately I've been on a dduk-bogi train, but Toby always has his mandu. I had a fabulous drunken tirade while wearing a sarong and plugging in a fan at home that Toby *luckilly* captured in 3 separate videos with his fancy new camera. I'm really quite obnoxious when drunk and babbling. Who knew?

The liver needed a break tonight so I've just been grocery shopping, and now am at the computer room. I think I need to buy a computer though. I'm spending at least 10,000 won a week on internet use and it would probably be much better to have one at home. Anyone want to buy me a notebook?