Deck the halls with...um...bowls of squid chips?

Twas Christmas Eve at my little school...and our one Yuletide related activity (sum total of all Christmas related activities) was a small party. My classroom was awash with the very festive smell of squid chips! Everyones favourite christmas treat! (Gag me with like, a genetically enlarged buffalo or something...)Gotta love that. Really got me in the mood for Christmas.

Maybe I've never written about that before...it's just become so normal that I don't notice I guess....but I suppose for those sitting in Canada or some other non-Korean country, it would be weird that there are many squid/octopus flavored snacks. Oh and the movie theatres? Yes, they sell dried squid for your snacking pleasure....or to make me nauseous...not sure which....

Oh, and the cornerstores? Yup, if you have a hankering for dried squid/octopus you can get your very own dried/vacuum packed squid to suck on. Yum Yum. Just grab a tentacle and suck away. Seriously. My kids do that. Like it's a sucker or something....gag gag gag.

Moving on, Christmas has come and gone and it was really quite enjoyable...I opened presents with Jenny on Christmas...and I had fun teaching her about Christmas. Christmas in Korea consists of cake. Yes, everywhere sells this Christmas cakes. And no, not traditional Christmas cake (yuck) but yucky sickly sweet bleached flour Korean style bakery cake (also yuck). With cute Christmas decorations. And also maybe a stupid hat. And if you are Christian then church.

Or, if you're a student on winter break then extra private school classes instead of holidays! Awesome!

Almost none of my students were getting presents from their families. And Boyfriend/Girlfriend usually give like a wallet or a tie or something. Lame-o. Did I say that out loud? What I meant was um, every country has the right to celebrate whatever holiday however they want. Yes, that's what I meant, and gross cakes, stupid hats, and extra classes for kids instead of a break are all excellent choices. Riiiight. That's what I meant.

Anyways, like I was saying Christmas was great for me actually. Me and Jenny bought each other lots of cool presents (a first for her) , we decorated the tree (also a first), I showed her the advent tradition (also a first), we went skating on Christmas Eve (a first), did stockings (you guessed it), had a big dinner with friends (yup, this too) with turkey (first time, not a big hit), and white elephant gift exchange (first) and then sat around playing games and drinking hot drinks.

All in all, I was very grateful to have good friends here...Jenny and Kristy and Rene mostly I guess....but there were 10 or so people at our dinner which was nice. It will be hard to find good friends like Kristy and Rene next year in Canada. I'm kinda sad about leaving actually. I will miss it. Excited too. But I will miss it for sure.

It would be hard to find a job that pays as well for as little work. Hard (nee, impossible) to find a free apartment...and hard to find friends as good. I'm not sure if being here made me more open to meeting people and stuff...or if it makes everyone more

open and needing to reach out....but either way it seems like it's easier to make friends here, or something like that. Not sure.

Oh and I carved the turkey myself....me and my friend Jack from England who replaced Phil when he left. At Kyles old school. He has become my soccer buddy we played a game yesterday with my Korean friends in blinding snow...and he's been a lot of fun too.

Anyway, that's that. I now have a week off. And not sure what I'm going to be doing. I'm packing a big box of books and stuff to snail mail to Canada, so much cheaper than extra bags on the plane. And I plan on d

oing a lot of homework -photography homework...I am like half way done...so I need to get on that and finish it this month.....and maybe go to North Korea....I'm going to see if that can be arranged....Jenny has no vacation....and she can't go anyway....so now is the perfect time........

Magic Panty Returns in dream form

So you remember my early nickname at ELC? Yes, Magic Panty...for some reason kids decided Matt sounds like "Magic panty".

I may or may not have had dreams yesterday about teaching in airplane boxers that I made in grade 8, with all the kids whispering and laughing (in Korean). Not like "why doesn't he have pants" mind you, but "why is he wearing underwear in winter...." Or maybe my translation was a little off. It happens.

I also had dreams about starcraft, which we may or may not be playing a lot of these days.

I think those are the two leading symptoms of E.K.O. Extreme Korea overdose....

Korean language underwear teaching dream + starcraft dream= time to go home.

On a more serious note...I have a week off at Christmas time...which for those of you who are following is bizarre given the one day video shoot day debacle. I am quite sure they forgot I had holidays in my contract when they refused. The next day, they were saying we weren't going to have a winter break (public schools have a month...every other academy has a week) and I was like "um...actually we have holidays....so...yea". It was more eloquent than that - don't worry. And they were like "oh yea...." (and no it wasn't more eloquent than that). I was feeling very angry about being too nice and for some reason it felt really good to put a foot down and get some results.

So now they are faced with the embarrassing situation of me having the Christmas week plus one extra day after Christmas and not knowing when they want me to take the extra day having just refused my request. (Gee....I have an idea! How about the one day I asked for? Idiots) Like I said, I'm pretty sure they forgot I had holidays (Korean teachers don't) Idiots. One more time, just for good measure. Idiots.

The other unfinished story for those begging for conclusion is the camera, which I went to see in Seoul but was all out of stock and I couldn't see it, let alone buy it....alas and alack. I did buy a flash though, and Christmas presents and import food galore. Expensive weekend last.....

The Somewhat akin to a French Shower Boss

So, turns out, to make this epic video we need one day off from work. My boss said it was ok. And we (me and Jenny) were super happy. I mean...this might be the coolest, luckiest thing that randomly happened to me.... the whole coaching the Canucks for a day thing was a really awesome lucky break too...but I mean...this is pretty cool.....

Anyway, day off...Korea. This is not good. However, I was under the impression that at my school we have more than just a strictly business relationship....now things have changed. My second boss convinced my first boss to change her mind and say no. And when I went to work, she lied to my face about having talked to the first boss about it.

1. They didn't pay for my flight at the end of my last contract. I didn't care because it was cheap and I wanted to come back....they wanted me back, I liked it blah blah. Today I will be giving them a reciept for the flight.

2. That whole insurance thing was my bosses fault and I felt bad that she had to pay $700 for a mistake...so when they said they thought we should share the cost...I thought that was ok...now? Not so much. Her mistake, she pays.

3. I found them a foreign teacher to replace Amy...usually costs the school $1500-$2000 to an agent for an American teacher. Did it even cross my mind to ask for that money? No...because our relationship was more than just money. And I was happy to help them. Now? Not so much.

I'm going to be talking to my second boss in a couple hours....we'll see how that goes....wish me luck....

The Day of Awesomeness (soon to be followed the Boss Akin to a French Shower)

So the awesome day I was alluding to on facebook....

Me and Jenny went to a wedding last weekend...the girl whose wedding photo's I shot last month...and that was great. After the wedding at a sort of after party... one of the other friends was chatting to us and saying we were such a good looking couple blah blah....and she worked for a tourism advertising company and that she was going to recommend to her boss that we be in their next feature (advertising the fun couplish activities available in some Korean city that none of you know about).

Didn't really think anything of it...but a couple days later she called and said we should come to Seoul and have an interview with the boss. So we had our (Korean) interview...which was somewhat stressful cause I had to speak Korea!

Anyhoo turns out that the company is sick of actors and actresses and wants some non-thesbians to film. So basically they want to pay for us to travel around this city and have fun...following us with video cameras and photographers. Super cool eh? Whenever anyone looks up the city on Korean youtube, or video will be the first hit. Plus it might be on TV too.

Yea!

What's more...it came up that they need a photographer for their magazine....and they were super excited that I was a photographer...so they are going to pay me to travel expenses on weekends and take pictures of festivals and tourist hotspots around Korea...cool? I think so.....I get two pages in the magazine to start with. Great practice and a chance to see some of my work in print...definitely cool.

Not to ruin the mood....but the next post..."The Boss who is somewhat Akin to a French Shower" is just dying to be written....stay tuned

To Buy or Not to Buy

That is the question in todays much- anticipated second-ever photography related blog. I suppose this will be an exercise in trying to justify buying a new toy. It will be interesting really. I promise. You can even vote at the end.

After revolutionizing the world of photography 6 months ago with a small camera (see picture below) that can take DSLR quality pictures (and HD video for that matter) ....... Olympus is about to release the E-P2...

I was so sorely tempted to buy the E-P1, and the E-P2 seems to have addressed the (very few) reservations I had about buying the E-P1. Namely slowish autofocus and no viewfinder. Aside from that....

Why is it better than my camera? I'm glad you asked.

Reason #1

It's smaller. Carrying heavy cameras is lame. The only reason anyone buys point and shoot cameras is that they're convenient, portable (and cheap I guess) . The reason you don't carry that DSLR you own everywhere is because it's not. I actually do carry mine everywhere... being one of the smaller SLRs...with the tiny lens below...it's quite portable. Still.....this new camera is 30% lighter and and 35% smaller than even my compact set up.

Reason #2

It's low light performance is much better than mine. Don't know what that means? Basically...if there's not enough light to take a nice picture...you have to make your camera really sensitive to light (higher ISO numbers) , so you can take a picture with less light. However, when it's really sensitive, it makes mistakes.

Some cameras are better than others. This camera...being about 3 years newer than mine does a better job.

Not only can it be set 4 times more sensitive than mine....it can take the same quality picture with about half the light. Which means I can take the same quality picture inside a cathedral or something with half the light that I need with my older camera.

Or because I can make it more sensitive...I can get a picture that would be totally blurry with my old camera, or require a tripod (speaking of lame...who likes lugging a tripod everywhere?)

Reason #3

HD Video! My camera can't take video. This one can.

In HD. Enough Said. How cool would it be to be able to take video with the worlds best optical lenses from Zeiss, Leica, Voigtlander...not to mention my Zuikos....this camera can accept all of these lenses (manually focused) (plus Nikon Canon, Minolta and Pentax if you so chose). Mine can't.

Plus, this camera can accept external microphones...so

you don't pick up the annoying lens zooming sounds or anything.

Having a video record of my life in Korea or Seo-Yeong being young and cute is a cool thing for sure...

As an aside...this camera is better than a camcorder too, cause I can choose what's in focus and what's blurry instead of just having everything annoyingly in focus....

Reason #4

More Megapixels. Not really that important. But slight improvements mean I could print a picture of the same quality about 20% bigger with the new camera than with the old....

I think that about wraps it up....

Oh, and that view

finder sitting on top of the camera removable and adjustable...it can pop up to 90degrees like a periscope if I was shooting macro shots or somehing....

Let me know... Do you think it's a compelling case?

Reasons why it is not better include:

1) I have to use an adapter for my current set of Olympus lenses.

2) Autofocus is slower than my current camera...so for moving animals or sports or running kids, my current camera would be better.

3) If I use big lenses, the smallness factor of the camera is kind of irrelevant.

4) Adding a viewfinder (you can see in the picture) makes it significantly larger.

5) No pop-up flash. I don't really care. But some people might.

You know you've been in Korea too long when....

You look in the mirror and are surprised to see a Caucasian face staring back at you. Seriously....I've been surprised a couple times now... I dunno.... I guess your body adapts it's self image or something....so that in my mind's eye I look like everyone else here....maybe if you never see white people?

On a different note...the insurance scam..... I complained some more to my boss....and she went back to complain to the government more....and it's all very complicated and they couldn't even explain it to me, so just forget about it...but long and short of it is I have to pay like $200 instead of $700....so that's better. In the end I could probably fight that too.....after much thought and listening to Korean conversations it seems that my boss was trying to cheat a bit, to save money (she pays half of the premiums) and got caught and is getting punished. Apparently this applies to a lot of schools.....anyways...so when it boils down to it, it was my bosses fault, trying to save money and telling me that setup was fine....and if I got a lawyer to go after my boss...I could probably not pay anything at all...but it's not really worth it for $200 is it?

Had Ppeppero day again....the polar opposite of our November 11th holiday....that was a blast.

Been thinking a lot about Canada lately....I want to go home for Christmas....not that I'm not happy here....it's really nice...comfortable...paid well...like the job....but kinda restless....I dunno....like I'm not gonna find out how I like doing photography for a job until I get to Canada....I'm not going to find out any more answers about my future with Jenny until we see how it goes in Canada....lots of things that I'm just waiting for....so kinda restless if that makes sense.

I'm getting good at Starcraft now...haha....a bit of an addict now....we have had some fierce battles with Kristy and Rene and the new teacher at Princeton (Kyle's old school) Jack..from England....

If you hadn't heard I've been teaching Jenny to bake...haha....they don't really do that here...so brownies were mind-boggling....that's been fun and Jenny is so cute, having so much fun....being super depressed when one batch was like a rock... :)

Seo-Yeong was here and I thought it would be fun for them to bake together...and it was...Seo-Yeong insisted on adding animal crackers.....

Someone is going to feel the Wrath of Matt

Greetings and salutations on what so far (one hour in) has been the best day of an otherwise tragic week.....where to start where to start.....

There was another letter writing incident and follow up clash at work.....(not that interesting...and eclipsed in severity by the last incident)

If you didn't hear....my stupid Travel insurance company denied my wisdom tooth surgery claim which I am fighting and which I won't bore you with (agai

n because it is eclipsed in severity by what comes next) but puts me out $300 which is super lame......

Anyways, the main story....my boss sat me down and said..."I have some bad news.....". Long and short of it is....

-because of my stupid travel insurance (see above), I declined to have Korean Health Insurance when I came last year (August 2008)

-Every English teacher gets a pension from the government monthly....about $100/month...and at the end of your contract you collect that before going home....so that's a lot of money over two years right?

So, my boss sits me down and says the government called and told her I can't have a pension if I don't have health insurance....even though this has been the situation since day 1...

So they want me to pay retroactively for the last 16months

....and...I don't have a number yet but probably in the neighbourhood of $800. For no reason. Either the government made a mistake and allowed this setup, or my boss made a mistake....either way there's NO WAY I should be out on money on this.

So let me add this up for ya...

Useless Canadian Insurance 16months $300

Wisdom Tooth Surgery $300

Government wants $800

Approximate Total $1400....and for what?? Absolutely !@!%$%^ diddly squat.

Like I said....someone is going to feel the wrath of Matt. Soon. And it's gonna hurt.

Korea has professional hockey (and Swine Flu part II)

So this weekend, I made the best discovery ever. Korea has a professional ice hockey team. Actually more than one....in the Asia league, which has teams from Japan, Korea and China. We watched Anyang play a team from Japan....

Anyang is were Jenny used to live and where Seo-Yeong still lives. Hockey is starting to grow over here. Last year they televised Vancouver-Chicago in the playoffs on National TV and this year there's some of Anyang's games on TV as well. I was on TV this weekend too. Haha.

Anyway, Jenny and Seo-Yeong got their first taste of live hockey!

It was so much fun we went back for another game the next night.

Ah Polar Bears...Some of us may have cried when these Polar Bears had to go on the ice at the end of the game instead of answering us when we were calling them...

I don't know if any of you remember Jim Paek - the first Korean to play NHL hockey back with Mario Lemieux's championship Penguins in the early 90's...but anyway, his hockey store is next to the arena...so not only did I find an ice hockey team I found an ice hockey store....basically I rock.

The hockey was quite high quality...not NHL or AHL or even as good as ECHL (like the Victoria Salmon Kings) but the best 3 or 4 players could play in that league I think....so not a terrible level either. There was three Canadians and an American on our team, and the rest Korean.

Found out Esa Tikkanen played on the team after his NHL days were done. Haha.

SWINE FLU PART II

Swine flu part II is pretty short...um....the guy that I work with Chad...his girlfriend has swine flu. And he's still visiting her. Seems crazy....trying to decide if I would be doing that. Feel free to tell me I'm crazy and that I would...would you visit your significant other during their 5 days of contagiousness? Anyway, I hope I don't get it. And one of Jenny's coworker's kids has it too. So she's hoping not to get it. At Seo-Yeong's kindergarten they stand at the door with thermometers checking temperatures before they let you in....it's pretty intense.....

Weddings and Baking class

So after about ten days of intense photoshoping (and some avoidance of the mass of pictures thrown in for good measure) I have finally finished editing Sora's engagement pictures which turned out to be wedding pictures with full out dress and all.

I was quite happy with my first time attempting such a project, and I delivered the pictures yesterday and she saw them and also was extremely pleased. I had two worries before starting a) Not being in Victoria b) Not having a flash/artificial light. Turns out neither one was a massive problem. I scouted rather extensively and it turns out City Hall near my house is the prettiest place around here. All the pictures (except on the street) are from there. Check out a slideshow here -->

http://picasaweb.google.com/mattbrouwer/SoraSWeddingShoot#slideshow/5397278539516552050

Oh and Brownies? I was getting sick of the crap baking that is Korean bakeries, so I decided it high time to show the girlfriend how it was done. Jenny was in shock when one of my friends made a birthday cake for someone's birthday. So I thought it was time for another jolt. I don't have measuring cups and I don't have an oven, or a pan....and it was still better than the bakeries here. What does that tell you Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours??

Jenny was super cute "what?!? this is delicious! Not possible! Normal people can't make this!" So she made a second batch and wouldn't let me help. Never thought I'd teach my girlfriend to bake...

Wow four blogs in like a week....look at me go

Dorkorama

So for my friend Phil's going away party (sniff) he wanted to have a big game of Starcraft. For those not in the know, it's Korea's national sport (half-kidding...actually...more like 10 % kidding) and exactly like Age of Empires (blatant copy), or to put it in boardgame terms, a glorified cross between risk and Settlers of Catan.

Having never played before, I practiced once yesterday and then today was the big tourney. 8 players, 2 teams. Jenny is amazing at it....she tells me she once went 2 yrs without watching any dramas or anything on TV except for live Starcraft matches. Seriously, I said live Starcraft matches on TV.

It is a profession here....the games ARE on TV....live audiences pack in to watch, and the pros are both well paid and have rock star status. No joke. Koreans win the Starcraft World title every time I have been told, and people are crazy proud of it....(whether or not having the best/most dorks per capita is something to celebrate is another matter altogether but anyway) it was quite fun....2.5 hours flew by...Jenny was the best, we won one match and lost the second....

We played in a 'PC Bang' (Bang means room in Korean) which if you haven't been here, is where students (more guys) live. Maybe it helps them escape the insanity that is their school system and all it's crazy life-determining tests. Whatever the reason, places like this are everywhere.

And yes Bethany, they're better in Korea than they were in China...Yuck!

Swine Flu Swine Flu

So at least seven kids from my school have swine flu....like actually have swine flu...confirmed and all....

The province where I live is the hardest hit in the country, the city where I live is the worst in the province, and you guessed it, the elementary school where all my kids go is the worst in the city. There are 70 students at the elementary school absent because of swine flu. Not good folks, not good. I don't recall reading about anything this bad in Canada, which has WAY more fatalities so far than Korea. Here's hoping I don't catch swine flu. Or maybe here's hoping they close my school for an extended break AND I don't catch swine flu. Haha. I can dream right?

Been busy photoshoping......some pictures from that wedding shoot will be up soon....probably this weekend.....cheers ~Mattsimus

Weddings, Allergies, Olympic Fiascos

Greetings and Salutations.

I seem not to have much of the blogging type blocks of time these days...but I guess if I get my butt in gear I can still hit the once a week average of the past several months.

What's new to update you on....hmmm

I now believe the allergist who told me that I am allergic to dust mites. As per his instructions I was washing my sheets etc quite regularly in hot water. And then while they were being washed I was lying on my bed (sans covers etc. ) The result when I went to work about 30 mins later was not pretty. The entire day was non-stop sneezing, fountains of tears and enough tissues to make anyones nose chaff. I think I need to buy another allergy cover (my old one had an unfortunate accident) , cause the symptoms aren't entirely gone. Still sniffing and sneezing up a storm....

On a related note, you'll remember my eyes have been bothering me for at least a couple years, I tried every eye-drop known to man, was given a special eye cleansing regimen and nothing really helped...anyway, I am pleased to report that simply stepping up the aggressiveness of the cleaning seems to have eradicated the problem almost entirely.....for about four months now I haven't used any eye drops....so that is really nice......

On a non-bodily related note.....I did my first wedding shoot this weekend. Jenny's friend Sora is getting married next month...and in Korea you do the pictures before the wedding....they are very un-Korean in that they are going backpacking in Europe for their honeymoon and didn't really care about staged studio formals that are the norm for weddings in these parts. So since I like taking pictures and I want to build up a portfolio and experience do that sort of work, and since they like free pictures we were pleased to make an arrangement. Maybe they were more pleased but anyway.....it went well...

I was worried about not knowing what kind of pictures Koreans like....and about jollying them into some nice expressions and not being able to etc etc but they were really easy going and couldn't stop smiling and laughing so it wasn't awkward at all.

I did yearn for Victoria where the scenery in phenomenal and I know where to go. But considering I was working with available light (i.e. I don't have an expensive flash) and in a strange country with models that don't really speak English....I am quite pleased. I will post a link to a slideshow soon....

Oh and the Olympic Fiasco? The tickets which everyone applies for are given out randomly...and we thought we found a schedule showing which ones were Canada but apparently we didn't. Our round robin games are two US games, and Russia-Czech. Russia-Czech will still be amazing ...Ovechkin and Malkin come to mind. Our semi-final should still feature Canada. Assuming they make it. So I think we're gonna sell the US games. Quite disappointing, but beats the Belarus-East Prussiajikstan games that my friends acquired....

Picking up where I left off

Sorry to those "who faithfully read to the end" of my last post waiting for the conclusion of my affliction/persecution stories. I ran out of time and only had from for the one subtle reference about discharge papers. Haha.

Starting with the affliction....um....right after I was finished with all my wisdom tooth medicine and all that junk...my stomach started performing a la two years ago when it was terrible. Actually still is....and it's been a good five days. Not fun. I was looking forward to feeling normal again after the jetlag and the surgery and the working through the surgery, but no such luck.

Moving on the the persecution, someone stole my bike. I know that doesn't qualify as persecution, but that sounded better with affliction. Someone stole Jenny's from the same place last month. And left my coworker's bike untouched. He hasn't ridden it once this year. Not once. It's not fair.

Anyway, back to class gotta go....

Meeting Daddieo, Someone stole my Bike!!

So in the almost eight months that have passed I hadn't met my girlfriend's Dad. Weird you say? I thought it was weird too...a little. I mean, in Canada if you were serious about your girlfriend you would probably have met her Dad in the preceding 8 months....but on the other hand not really that weird....I mean he lives in a different city and they aren't close and I think she's seen him like 2 times during that same span of time....so not really that weird.

Plus, apparently normally in Korea you only meet parents when you're like serious about planning the wedding so again not that weird. (And no, the fact that I met him does not mean we're planning the wedding....the phrase 'normally in Korea' doesn't really apply to us ok?)

We had planned to go on Saturday so we could visit and they could see their Granddaughter....but I was really sick...so we changed the plan to just go on Sunday morning in time for his church service. Anyway, sickness not withstanding (more on that later), we went Sunday morning and drove the 2.5 hours to get there in time for the service.

On the drive there it surfaced that there may only be 2 or 3 people in attendance at the service...and now I have a much clearer picture of what her Dad actually does.

It goes like this....his main job is being a travelling chaplain to prisoners in Korea. So that's what he mainly does. He also has a small church building (which doubles as their house, now that Jenny's Mom has sold the cows and gone to be with him). So every Sunday they have services (yes I said serviceS) at this building as well. For the prisoners who have been released to come to, as well as a couple random other people from what I could gather. There was more than two people actually.... a veritable full house of 10 or so including me, Jenny and Seo-Yeong....

So when he got sick and left the hospital instead of going to Seoul for dialysis -saying God was going to take care of him- he was going back to his prison ministry, and the little church he has.

His health by the way was decent...seemed weak, but was walking around and preaching and singing so he was doing pretty good.

The church service in itself was interesting....as in it will interesting to read about. Because it wasn't interesting to sit in that's for sure. My Korean is good enough to sing along with the powerpoint (not knowing most of the words) and understand um.... 5% of the sermon....("um...ok, he's talking about his family.....um....now he's talking about smoking.....um um....") Like that.

The music was Karaoke style canned music (including canned organ prelude) with dramatic pop drums and the whole bit. I imagine most Canadians would have been laughing at the cheesiness of it, but I think I'm immune to cheesiness now....I spent half the time wondering to myself why I didn't find it as funny as I would have one year ago.....

Um, after services in Korea churches always serve lunch....so we did that....and then, even though the number of people had dwindled down to 3 (as in the three of us that came from Wonju)...they were still planning a 2nd service....because that's what you do in Korea....

Luckily (on the one hand) my stomach was going crazy and we were granted discharge papers (no pun intended). I'll write more next time...gotta go to work.....

Living with one fewer tooth...

Alright...the drugs have worn off...the blood flow has stopped (almost) and I survived the somewhat scary experience of having surgery with people that don't speak English at all....(wait...I answered yes in Korean....did he ask me if I can feel my lips, or if I can't feel my lips?....oh crap he started cutting....)

My stupid tooth was completely horizontal and really deep so they had to remove a lot of bone to get to it too......still hurts actually....normal wisdom teeth pain is suppposed to wear off in 2-3 days....but this one is still swollen and still a bit sore....anyway, not your average wisdom tooth surgery....oh and I didn't get time off either.....gotta love Korea....

But it's done...almost finished hurting ( I hope) and life should be getting back to normal now....

I'm pretty tired from the jetlag x2 and then the surgery.....hopefully I will get more regular again soon....

(as in regular blog writing...hehe)

Mattsimus Returns

Sorry for the month long hiatus....

It began when I went to China and every conceivable fun/useful website I use was blocked...facebook, blogger, Picasa, the list goes on....that accounts for half of the time.....

The other half I have been at home in Victoria, and most of the people who read news from me are here so I've just been telling it in person instead... :)

Regardless...for those who haven't got the scoop.....I finished my contract at the end of July....Bethany my sister came to visit in Korea, and we travelled Korea, China and Hong Kong together, and then I returned home....in a couple days I will be heading back to Korea to teach 6 more months at my school. A job I like, a place I'm comfortable with, and oh yea, a certain girl that I like a little bit...

If you haven't seen...there's an awesome slideshow here http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2004493&l=0651d9c7d6&id=51504786

What else is new? I started a professional photography course from New York Institute of Photography and am looking forward to doing that.....

Impressions of being back in Canada: This time coming back to Victoria feels so much different than ever before, and I have lived away from here A LOT....as in the 5 of the last 6 years....I guess I've been farther away and longer than usual this time....anyway....

1. There's so many houses and so much residential space...it's crazy how spread out everything is....when we landed in Vancouver I was in shock....

2. The air quality and drinkable tap water are just awesome....I love that about Victoria.....

3. Hamburgers are sooo good. I think the first five restaurants we went to I had a hamburger.

4. There are no people here. Like at all. None. I walked to Uvic from my house...ten minutes, to the bus station....didn't see a single person or car. I felt like I was on a different planet.

5. English is distracting....I can now magically understand all the retarded background conversations that I didn't want to hear/know. No, the rest of the bus does not care how much you drank last night or how hung over you are...

6. Victoria seems uber multicultural, and Vancouver even more so...I found a street with like every Korean food I like, a Korean Karoake place, Korean restaurants/grocery stores....man I wish Wonju had streets of Canadian stuff....

7. Life is much more relaxed here....everyone I interact with now at stores and stuff seems almost small townish now, and people aren't in such a hurry here.....and of course it is really beautiful....the beaches and forests and ocean....gorgeous....

That's all I got I think...

Till next time....I promise it won't be a month......

Hi Deedley Dee

Hey everyone.....

So I am officially finished my 1-year contract, and about to embark on a crazy month long trip that will cover a good chunk of China, plus Hong Kong, more Korea, Japan for a brief moment, Canada and then back to Korea again for five more months of teaching....

Here's a quick update before I head off into the abyss of questionable access to computers/no energy to write blogs.......

-Bethany has been here a little more than a week and we've been having lots of fun.....she really loves the food! And she bought some sweet shirts....lego batman....how cool does that sound?

- My day to day boss Gabrielle told me yesterday she wa

s probably going to be gone when I came back.....which is really sad......she was great and I don't like my chances of finding someone anyone close to as good as her when I come back...... kind of a downer actually....her replacement is just going to be a secretary type....not a boss.....so that will be different too......

- It's kind of sad how useless my Korean skills will be across the border in China....depressing thought - going back to the feeling of not understanding

anyone or anything at all.

That's all.....

Things a Canadian Boy and a Korean Girl have to fight about.

I've been meaning to write this post for a long time....

I was going to write it one time when we were actually fighting....but this is not my "rant about relationship problems" blog.....so this is more of an amusing cultural difference narrative......

Our first fight....apparently one cultural difference is the way that way that boyfriends/girlfriends act with other members of the opposite sex. Our first fight was she was scandalized because I went to Kyle and Amy's house with Amy after work to wait for Kyle who was getting off work soon, but not yet home. That and apparently I talked about Amy too much....like "this is Amy's favourite restaurant" or whatever. I have plenty of good reasons...generally you talk about common friends right, and they were the only two friends we had in common at the time, plus I worked with the girl everyday, and on top of that, I was avoiding overt anti-korea sentiments, which ruled out sharing most of Kyle's opinions :)

Anyway, next, one time I had some zit going on on my face, and she was like "whaat is that??" And all wanting to see....and that was super weird and awkward. Apparently, if you don't ask in Korea, that means you don't care. Needless to say that is kind of offensive in Canada.

Um, when Kyle and Amy left we said bye to them at the airport just before going on vacation....and I was sad when they left, of course.....but right after they left she was super pissed, like "how can you look so sad when you're with your girlfriend!?!" And I was like "whaaat?" You can imagine how much you'd want your girlfriend to flip out at you for looking sad after your friends fly home. So that was not a happy conversation. Anyways, Korean's keep stuff in a lot more, so apparently boyfriends wouldn't look uber sad in front of their girlfriends. Because that means the girlfriend is lacking or something....anyway... I was sad, but no offense to Kyle and Amy, but a hug, and probably 15 minutes later, I would have been thinking more about the tropical beaches that I was headed to next then about how much my life sucked without my friends.

Um....haha....this one is still not really funny.....we were on vacation and it ruined an entire 24hrs...for seemingly no reason....anyways....Jenny is one year older than me....which doesn't matter two shakes at home...but is somewhere between slightly and a bit unusual here...so anyway, we didn't have any gas in the car, and neither of us had cash either, and we were on vacation so we didn't know where any banks were.....and she always pays with a card anyway, so I said "why don't you just use your card...?" Makes perfect sense right? Right.

Followed by 24hrs of icecold stony silence. Which was a real blast on vacation let me tell you. Apparently here older girls that date younger boys...because they're older, it's like the boys are doing them a favour, so they can expect to be used for their money, and their boyfriends will tell them to use their credit cards. So she was feeling bad. And trying not to because she knew that wasn't true, and that was only a Korea thing...but anyway, that was super laaame.

Um, one time I was under a lot of stress, having just come back from a 5hr trip, trying to sort out passport details....and on my way to work....and I was trying to figure out how to call Canada on my phone, so I asked the operator, and she only gave me the code for Canada, and assumed that I knew the international prefix.....before the code....and I didn't.....so it didn't work....so I said something biting like "seriously, how hard is it tell me how to call Canada, that's her job! Stupid!" or something to that effect.....and she was all upset..."the lady's not stupid....you complain too much!" And that's exactly what tired stressed frustrated Matt needs to hear at that moment....riiight. I thought maybe it was the Korea factor, like she took it personally....but it wasn't....just same thing, Koreans tend to keep stuff in more and not complain that much openly, but I don't think anyone at home would have cared. Maybe....If the operator was your Mom or friend or something.....but otherwise it's just blowing off steam......

Maybe I'll write a part two sometime......but for now that's all I've got.......hopefully and interesting insight into things that a Canadian Boy and a Korean Girl have to fight about.......

Attack of the Camera Dork

I figured since I am now a certified camera dork....having spent much of the last 11months studying cameras, lenses, (not only from Olympus mind you), reading books, scouring the internet, and now being able to tell you which copies of 30yr old lenses you should look for in the bowels of Seoul's never ending camera shops and with the newfound ability to bore even camera enthusiasts with the history of camera companies, I should at least have one post related to my passion for photography....

So here goes....I will keep this as straightforward and unscientific as possible.....I am comparing an old Olympus lens 50mm f/1.8 to a new one. I am looking at them for the purpose of taking picures of people.

The new one 12-60mm f/2.8-4 is a star and lives on my camera....Dpreview calls it "suberb...one of the best zooms available" so the old one is in tough. Then again, the old one has a simpler job, because it doesn't have to zoom.

I bought the old one because ( for reasons which I won't bore you with) it has the potential to be a perfect lens for shooting portraits, with the ability to really blur the background and keep the subject the center of attention. Basically it can remove the ugly cars, trees, people or whatever happens to be in the background.

So...with that in mind. The test was an identical(ish) shot, both at 50mm, with each lens's blurriest possible background....in my house, on a tripod....of a stuffed Vancouver Canucks bear. (for those who care, that's f/4 for the new one, and f/1.8 for the old one)

*To keep up with the new lens, I have to crank up the sharpening and contrast in camera for the old lens because it is noticable soft*.

Without further adieu....the old one followed by the new one:

So, obviously, bloggers max image size sucks...but if you're going to notice anything...look at how much more detail you see in the guitar in the second picture than the first. As well as how much more detail there is in the book or the curtains. Even though there's a only a very small distance between them, the old lens does a nice job rendering the bear and throwing the back ground out of focus.....check out the pictures below for a closer look.....


























These ones (again Old one first, new one second) give you a better idea...if you need some help, look at the guitar next to the bears ear....













The Contestants

1. The "star".... the ZD 12-60mm F/2.8-4 SupersonicWaveDrive, the world's fastest autofocus blah blah blah

2. The humble, admirably performing OM 50mm F/1.8

Crisis averted

So the job thing is sorted. Thought I should clear the air for those of you who aren't facebook stalkers...

They were shocked that we resisted, but they understand that I wouldn't come back if that was the schedule.

They got another foreign teacher from Jenny's school to take the class....(what kind of sucker is he? Or maybe he's getting paid extra I don't know. He's been here seven years, so maybe he has a different arrangement. Still, I can't see anyone in their right mind agreeing to that without significant compensation)

So I have to take his adult class that he was teaching. As it stands I'll be working an extra hour a couple times a week after my usual classes teaching adults...which is fine, because I work less than I am supposed to right now. I mean, nobody wants more hours for the same pay...but whatever.

The first thing they tried to make me do was a clear violation of my contract....in a different city, split shift, overtime.....
But this one is okay because I signed to teach up to 30hrs/wk...and now I will be working 28hrs or something instead of 24....so that is fine......

The day it all unravelled

Maybe I jinxed myself with my happy post about my coworkers. Sigh.

So I was merrily working yesterday....finishing my job at my school I really like, where I've had an excellent experience...where the pay and hours are excellent, the co-workers are nice, I can walk five minutes to get to work, where my girlfriends work is 10minutes away..... an oasis in a sea of corrupt bosses and contract disputes....an Oasis where I think they are the best bosses possible, and they think I'm the best foreign teacher they've ever had.....

I was merrily working, finishing the day, having reached the 11 month mark of my contract, and being quite sure of my desire to come back and work a few months more after summer....while I wait for said girlfriend to find out if she wins the working holiday visa lottery to go to Canada.

As I said, I was merrily working when my bosses sat us down (me and Chad, the American teacher) and said "Next week, starting Monday, we need to start giving English classes for this company, over the lunch hour....at their office....in a different town. Every day. Forever. And by the way, you don't get paid extra." (Of course, I'm paraphrasing....but anyways )

Followed by awkward silence. Lots of it. "Diplomatic conflict avoidant" Matt waged a brief, valiant, but ultimately fruitless battle against "That's insane" Matt. Diplomatic Matt lived on, but I'm afraid C.A. Matt didn't make it.

What does one say to that anyway? Let me break it down in case you missed it....

3 hours of extra work including travel time....every day being 11:30-8:00 instead of 2:30-8:00

0 extra pay.

0 known end date for this horrendous schedule.

3 (At least) places that this idea goes against the contract I signed.

Needless to say my "keeboon" 기분 (mood) was not exactly "cho-ah" 좋아 (good)

Not sure why they think we would agree to this....I mean, the teaching hours are within the

amount that we agreed to in our contract...that part is fine....but I can't help but think they

are using the fact that I'm dating Jenny and thinking I won't say no because of that...

Got news for them....there are a lot of schools that want teachers in Wonju....and this change

takes my schedule from the best to the worst....so what kind of idiot would sign that deal

again??

Illusion shattered. Comfort zone obliterated. Plans in flux. Inflatable Oasis hissing air and losing

its shape. Sigh.

Small comforts

So, Wonju has slowly been adding things that make it just a little bit more comfortable for me.

Over the last few months, the stores have started selling some of my favourites...Cranberry Juice, Ginger Ale, and Tonic water. All of which has made it a little more comfortable....plus a new restaurant Black Angus that actually has a real hamburger...wow...things are looking up. Plus they put workout machine in the park outside my house...so free gym...

And today, an internet store opened near my house, and they want someone to take pictures of their products...so I can practice some studio photography...they have lights and softboxes and stuff to practice my studio skills. Good times. The area is looking up....

The Cast Part II (work)

I couldn't find a picture of my uber boss. Esther. But she is the best boss I could possibly hope for in Korea. So many horror stories about bad bosses. I'm really lucky/blessed to be here. And it works both ways. She's lucky too. She really likes me and she's happy she has someone who comes more than 5mins before class starts and doesn't smell like alcohol (yes, sadly, that was the teacher before me) Sorry about the lack of photo...moving on to:






Gabrielle - The Day to Day boss of my school. Hmm. What to say about her. She is very cutesy...as a lot of the girls here are....um....

She has three purses over $1500....insane I know. Her english is very good. Um, I think she's seen every English movie ever made...has a list of her favourite directors....

She was my first Korean teacher.....she lived in Italy with her husband for a while, but she couldn't work, and said Italians don't really speak English....so she came back. And her (ex)husband is an idiot. I feel weird writing someones personal life who doesn't even know she's being blogged about, so, we'll leave it at that.

Oh and she's the one who wrote Amy the lovely letter.

This is Kate (the one on the left). The only co-teacher to make it onto the cast, beca use, she has been here for like 9 of my 10.75 months so far.... the other teacher has changed multiple times. Kate is a badminton allstar and always smiley and happy at work. She is good to have around the workplace.The one on the right is Judy who was around for my first 4 months I think.





This is Amy's replacement Chad. He has been at ELC for about 3wks now. I knew him before, cause when all the English teachers would get together then me and Him and Kyle would talk hockey. He is big and loud and American for sure....the coolness factor of the hockey is slightly reduced by the fact that he's from Detroit...but I let that one slide. I actually got him the job, because our school was looking for someone to replace Amy and having a hard time finding someone...and he got fired from his sucky evil academy. So I facilitated a meeting. People get paid $1000 for finding a teacher for these institutions...but I don't think I'll bring that up to my bosses. And now he lives downstairs in my building.




I should also mention Phil. Even though I don't work with him. He is the Englishman who worked with Kyle at the evil school and now works with Kristy (the South African in my last blog). He's hilarious, a fellow Korean studier, and I like him very much. These days, I don't see him as much but we play a lot of Bball together...you also may have seen him in the ski trip story back in winter.

The Cast of the Adventures of Mattsimus

Our Hero. Need I say more? The one and only Mattsimus the merciful, to whom this epic blog is dedicated. Our Hero embarked on this Asian Adventure at the End of July 2009. Since then he has travelled the country, fought vicious insects, (see photo), learned crazy languages, bought many lenses, captured beautiful images and found a lovely lass. 

The aforementioned lovely lass. Though our heroine made her first brief appearance only in month five of the adventure, and didn't start dating our hero until month six, she quickly established herself as the main character in this drama alongside our hero. Part English teacher, part princess, part farm girl and part mom. All parts fun and quite probably the sweetest girl ever. Let's just say the 2nd six months have gone much faster than the first six. Her English name is Jenny. Korean name Kim Jeong-Yoon. 김정윤

Ze Friends. Ze brown haired one on the right has been in our hero's life for many years. Through Imadene and family trauma, the Christian Book Store and Providence. Ze blond one met ze brown haired one at Providence and they've hung out since. A little. Ze blond one was the one who extended our hero the invite to come work in Korea. They worked together every day for a good 9 months. Ze Friends and our hero spent many a weekend together as well, going to church, exploring Seoul and some crazy mountaining adventures as well. Though it seems to have been a hard year away for Ze Friends, it was fun to be on the adventure together and our hero hopes they are doing well on their next adventure. Kyle and Amy if you aren't on nomenclatural terms. 

Ze Friends might actually have been a better title for these two (because of their Germanic connections), but anyway we'll call them de vrienden. So, de vrienden came in February just as Kyle and Amy were gearing up to leave and they have really been a godsend. They are from South Africa and are really cool. Kristy, on the left was a youth pastor last year, so they are also into going to church together which is awesome. Let's just say 2hrs to church by yourself in a different city would be lame. Kristy teaches at Kyle's old school, and Renee is a partime architect working from home They've been a lot of fun, and I can even practice my Dutch because they speak Afrikaans. Wow. 

To be continued...........Next episode....the "work" cast of the adventures of Mattsimus

A wonderful week for Korea (not)

Life has been pretty boring in the personal sphere, but it has been a bad week for Korea overall. Since most of the people reading this are not overly acquainted with Korean politics I'll keep it pretty simple. First off, the ex-president, who is being investigated aggressively for corruption by the current president, committed suicide.  The investigation was subsequently called off. I'm going to go ahead and say that this is bad for Korea's reputation, not to mention sending a bad message about suicide. . Not going to help a country whe's trying to shake an image of political corruption and backwardness. Not going to help a country with a epidemic of suicide. 

(If you wanna read some more detail, this is a more detailed blog about it -->  http://roboseyo.blogspot.com/2009/05/ex-pres-rohs-suicide-wrong-in-so-many.html)

And the other thing which I'm sure you've heard in the news, is that North Korea did another nuclear test, underground, and then launched two missile tests swiftly after. Lovely. So far since I've been here, NKorea's stuff mostly just sets off rounds off political rhetoric from Seoul and Tokyo. You don't see much effect on your day to day life. Read BBC if you want some more details  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8068619.stm

The worst part (aside from the human tragedy of the suicide, and the global instability our Northern friends are causing of course) is that the Won (Korean currency) has dropped like a rock. And I have to send money home every month to pay some bills. Booooooo!

I have had a sticker shoved up my nose (and some cute video)

Yes, Seo-Yeong (Jenny's daughter) shoved a sticker up my nose and thought it was hilarious. I thought she was just pretending. But I kept asking her and she kept saying she really did...then Jenny asked her and she said she really did....then Jenny pretended to phone the hospital because it was really dangerous....then she said she didn't do it. Haha. Then I went to the bathroom and sure enough....Korean alphabet sticker....haha

Anyway, here's a couple really cute videos....they are not uber exciting....just for the cuteness factor....

This is a special blog. Not only does it contain footage that is out of this world cute....but there is exceedingly rare footage of Matt dancing!!!!!

THE ABC FILES: TAKE ONE (Note the vicious sticker blow to the face)

In take 2: her performance was much better....but  she couldn't say "w" for the life of her.....which leads us to take 3...where "w" has improved...but at what cost????

POSSIBLY THE CUTEST VIDEO EVER

Her first attempt at English ever.....

The words for this song are "how's the weather, let me see, let me see, let me see" x2 "Oh it's Sunny!"  And the sticker on my head says "Grasshopper" which she thought was hilarious

And take 2...stunning masterful performance

This is the video that started it all that made us realize we should teach her ABC's.....

The Text is:

Seo-Yeong: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, You shine so beautifully. From East, to um East ..... And...................

Matt and Jenny: (Laughing) 

Jenny: Abc etc 

Seo Yeong: Twinkle Twinkle......

Matt: Again??

Jeju Island

So yea, last weekend, I got a bonus day off that gave me a four day weekend. Mike and Derek and Tyler and the other lucky teachers that already knew they had vacation has booked stuff on Jeju Island long before. (Jeju is the biggest South Korean Island, south of the peninsula and of a warmer climate that the rest of the place. Volcanic Islands and recently named a world UNESCO heritage site )

I on the other hand had to spend hours scouring every possible airline and managed to secure the last two tickets on a flight to Jeju from Seoul.  So me and Jenny didn't even sit together on the plane. Haha. Anyway, I was still excited. 

Apparently everyone in the country tries to go to Jeju on national holidays...anyway, we didn't really encounter any crowds...just problems finding a car, a scooter, etc. 

It was so beautiful....reminded me of BC a lot actually....as well as Hawaii...for most of the time it actually wasn't very warm....but the last two days it was pretty hot....

We saw beautiful oceans, and beaches, and palm trees, and waterfalls and rivers. Ate delicious pineapple on a stick for $1 multiple times. A day. Hehe. And delicious oranges. Hmmm. 

Some really crazy lava caves (biggest in the world) and lots of weird rock formations on the coast. Some of the coast looked like BC and some of it looked like space. 

A crazy cedar maze that we decidely to randomly wander through instead of analyze. Big mistake. 

And yes that is a "lighthorse" in the picture. Interesting no? 

Anyway a nice holiday and a break from the dysfunciton that was Kyle and Amy's final days here....

Matt's rating?

 8.5/10

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The Rascist Letter

Sorry for the delay between installments....it was punctuated by a four day weekend I didn't know I was going to get. Which was very nice and enabled my to fly south to Korea's Jeju Island for a vacation. In that time Kyle and Amy went home as well, so I have a few more things to blog about after this letter business. 

The letter....yea the letter I wish I hadn't read. I told you about the horrible week at Kyle's work...well the week at our work wasn't much better. If Kyle had legal problems...Amy had relational problems.  Amy and our defacto day to day boss. We will call her G-Boss. Because E-Boss splits time between our two ELC campuses. 

I wrote last time that Kyle and Amy didn't want to work that last day of their contracts after their visa had expired...I think our school kind of took that as a snub...they were upset by that. And then in a weird twist....during the course of a phone conversation, Kyle's boss told our G-Boss that some Korean teacher at Kyle's school has overheard Amy calling G-boss " our secretary" instead of "our boss". For some reason this fourthhand overheard snippet of questionable reliability from a non-native english speaker provoked a wild unleashing of emotion unlike anything I have every seen. (It's important that you know the G-boss and Amy and me were all pretty chummy. Good friends. That's what made it so much worse. )

Anyway, amidst a week of high tensions, uber-awkwardness, crying fits and stony silence an unbelievable letter was produced which I really don't want to dwell on....but among other things called into question Kyle and Amy's intelligence, work ethic, maturity and integrity. Worse than that, how all caucasian people are lazy, dishonest freeloaders, disrespectful of Korea, and that she will never trust another foreigner again. Um. Wow. Pretty sure you would lose your job if you wrote that in Canada. Maybe even some legal problems. 

And no, the letter was not for me....but I am included in "all foreigners".  And she had to know Amy was going to tell me about it. So I'm not sure how to look at her anymore...I've never felt a hint of that before. But there the words are, right on the page. Not sure which boss is the real one anymore. 

CULTURE FACTOR - I dunno...in every place I've ever been it's kind of like Murderers, Thieves, Rapists and Rascists go together...not so much here apparently. Jenny didn't understand why it was so offensive either. She said Koreans are often like that, bottle it all up till it explodes...uber-dramatic language etc etc.  And from my experience that is true...they definitely suppress feelings a lot more here than in "Western" culture. But that doesn't make it much better.