snapshots: April 2008

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Scootin'

I took my little piece of junk 89cc scooter for a cruise. It was great! I love that thing. It needs a name like Belle or Selena.

Anyway, here are some of the stops along the way...

The Duel

The Oasis

The Onion Man

The Ancient Tombs

The Wheel and Wall

The Spaceship

Friday, April 25, 2008

So for Art time I thought it would be a sweet idea to make kites. Well, we built the kites with a lot of cries for help, ripped paper, knotted string, broken wood and kite tails cut too short.

Then I took them to the stream. It was a disaster! And I laughed the entire time! And the kids probably thought I was crazy.

Fist of all, it was a perfect day for kite flying. There was a really good wind... too good in fact. In about 5 seconds every student was crying "Tape, Ryan Teacher, I need Tape!"

Then Jimmy would go running by... his feet would get tangled in the string from Michelle's kite, which would then get tangled with the string from Jake's kite. However, Jimmy wouldn't notice, he would just keep running, pulling three kites behind him and tearing them all to shreds in the process.

Oh man, I was laughing so hard.

As we left, an old Korean man said, in perfect English, "I don't envy you, how do you handle all these kids."

I replied, "Carefully."

I believe we had one out of nine kites that was still flyable when we headed back to class. I was so busy fixing kites that I was only able to snap a few pictures. Here they are.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Sketch Take 2

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Behind the Scenes

These are some of the Korean teachers at school. They deal mostly with the parents (which is a big job).

짝꿍(co-teacher, partner in crime)

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Etch - a - Sketch

Can't sleep. So I made these...

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Photos From the Last Two Days

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

The "Ex" Adventure

So one of my korean friends asked if I could help out with a film shoot. I was thinking, "Cool, just like at home, some college students who need a last minute actor for a film project." so I said sure.

It turns out I was actually helping with a Korean TV show called EX. Where they hunt down ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends. Hmmm... I started having second thoughts. What exactly did they want me to do? Was I going to get in a fight?

This is what I learned.. this girl dumped this guy 4 years ago, but after dating several other guys, she realized the first guy was the best. So she's trying to find him.

The TV show was pretty sure they found the guy, but for the show they do a number of "tests" to make sure he's the right one. Apparently, this guy's English is terrible (but I mean, come on, how many Koreans speak fluent English). Mostly it was just some funny stuff for the show.

So my friend and I went to the bar where this guy supposedly worked. We had a sweet hidden camera in a purse and everything. Our job was to try and get the "ex" to use English. If it was bad... well we had the right guy (or so they said).

Turns out, the guy is a student and only works at the place part time. That day he wasn't there. The funny thing is, my friend and I don't drink, so I got an ice-tea and she got a hot green tea. Then we left. The bar employees probably thought we were weirdos.

Wow. What an experience. I actually got a kick out of it. At first I didn't want to do it because I thought we might be hurting him. But the girl wasn't getting revenge she was just looking for the guy so maybe they could hook up again.

The "Ex" TV crew drove us back to my friend's place and then I rode my motorcycle home.

And somehow got lost... so I ended up driving through some places I've never seen before... finally stopped at a gas station and asked the old dude working there how to get to my station. He gave me some solid directions in Korean and I was off.

Riding at night is interesting, because most of the roads are empty. Anyway, I met some neat people, they asked for my number... so maybe I'll be appearing in another episode of "Ex".

Saturday, April 12, 2008

The Biker Gang

On the way to the west coast, a bus ran a red light and took out this delivery guy. The delivery guy had no helmet and zipped out ahead of us as soon as the light turned green (a big mistake in Korea). He was instantly hit and knocked off his bike. I will never forget the sound or sight. Our group and a number of other riders quickly blocked traffic with our bikes, checked to see if the guy was okay, and called an ambulance. The delivery guy will have some bruises, but seemed mostly okay. Once he recovered from the shock, his first act was to scream at the bus driver, I don't blame him. If you look at the pictures, you can actually see where his head hit the windshield. He was one lucky guy.

This was not the best way to start off a trip to the coast. Thankfully the rest of the journey went smoothly. I met some great people and had a lot of fun. More trips to come.

(It is much safer and often more enjoyable to travel in a group. There is a system to it. You have a tour master who leads and you also have a driver who takes up the tail. The formation of the other riders changes depending on the hand signals of the tour master. Sometimes single file is called for, while other times a "zigzag" pattern is best. Riders also warn each other of road hazards by sticking out a foot in the direction of the hazard.)