The Misadventures of an English Teacher in Korea

How Do You Say Goodbye?

2010-02-26T10:21:00.002+09:00

I had to re-write the opening sentence like 10 times now. How am I supposed to write my opening for saying Goodbye? I have been considering this blog for quite some time now. This will be my very last one. There are so many words that I want to use to truly describe my experiences here in South Korea.

So here I go. One year ago I came to this country not knowing what to expect. The only thing I knew was that I was going to teach or try to teach English to people. There was no Honeymoon period for me. Korea started off very rocky. I had experienced things that I would not wish upon any new-comers here. I lied too and swindled into my position. I was caught in a catch 22 of life. I could not do anything about it. I had to make the difficult decision of staying in a bad situation. My feelings of course was to run home with my tail between my legs but with encouragement from my family I stayed.

You should know my story by now. I will tell you what I have learned on this journey.

Personal growth is something that I did not expect to happen. I also didn't expect to learn so much about myself. I found a long lost passion of mine and now I really want to nurture it. I found that people truly enjoy being around me. I found that I enjoy time to myself and with good friends. There were many times here in Gyeokpo that I went for a walk and really dove into my mind. I started to really meditate on me and my life. Though this place was lonely, I was able to use that to gain access to myself. People tell me that they admire me for staying in Gyeokpo for so long. They say that they would not be able to do what I do. I respond to them that they would be surprised at themselves. I believe that anyone has the same capacity to do what I did. They just have to have the same type of mindset or the will to stay. This place is hard to live in, especially alone, but one learns how to cope. This place had its ups and downs, but truly I will miss it. I had an opportunity to experience Korea in a different way. Most guest english teachers experience Korea with a hint of Western culture. I was able to experience Korea before all of that. Truly I think that was more valuable than anything else.

The culture itself is an oxymoron. I don't want to speak out of term nor talk down to another culture, but this is how I feel. This is a rich culture. They pride themselves on it, which is a good thing. This pride sometimes turns into arrogance. Some to many of the people seem to be shortsighted. Much of the fashion and thinking is in some type of box or cookie cutter. The good thing is that there is a small constituent that is trying to assert their independence. I have often compared their culture in terms of time. As of right now I believe they are going through the 1950 generation to the 1960s generation. The old guard is trying to maintain control and tradition while the youth is trying to break that mold. As far as being a foreigner goes, its a little bit of a up hill battle. Their people are still not used to seeing different faces. I was blessed with being able to blend into the society so that no one really bothered me too much. My friends on the other hand were treated as if they were Rock stars. That is a great feeling I would assume, but it would be quite frustrating after a while. Sometimes you just want to be left alone. There is also this underlying feeling of racism here in South Korea. There is a point in ones life where you know when you are being stared at for the wrong reasons. There also has been times where it was more obvious than that. I do understand where it comes from though. There are foreigners that give the good ones a bad name. So its no ones fault. All in all they are normal people.

To sum all of this up. My experience here wasn't great nor was it horrible. This adventure was like a normal year for me, just in a different country. I guess in the end all I can really say is thank you. Thank you to all the great people that I have met and befriended. Thanks to all the children that made teaching a pleasure. Thanks to all the Koreans that made this place feel comfortable. Thanks to my family that supported me with their words and love from home. Last but not least Thank you Gyeokpo for showing me that there is more to me than meets the eye.

___

The End

All roads must come to an end.

-Cezar-

Same Same

2010-02-25T22:36:00.004+09:00

Out of my 5 friends 2 had to leave earlier. Once they left our presence we decided to move onto Kyoto. I would have to say that Kyoto and Tokyo are by far different as night and day. There was more of a cultural aspect to Kyoto. Kyoto also felt like a small town in comparison to Tokyo. I really enjoyed that fact. My friend and I decided to take a bike ride through most of the town. We biked from 11am to about 5pm, and yet we didn't see all of it. I felt like I could really just get lost on the side streets and be okay with it. It was much quieter and the people didn't seem to be in such in a hurry. Its funny to say this but it was a small town with big life.

I would be able to see so many temples in such a small amount of time. Temples, shrines and places of worship were literally in spitting distance from each other. I had such a hectic schedule in Tokyo that on the way to Kyoto I joked about seeing 5 temples in one day. Funny enough I was able to do so just by walking down a street.

I had more of a familiar and simple feeling with that town. Most everyone rode a bike or walked to their destination. The town was much more English friendly. I really enjoyed gearing down and truly enjoying what the town had to offer. The best note was that everything was cheaper (relatively).

I highly recommend going to Japan. It had been on my to do list for a very long time and it did not disappoint at all. There were very few low moments. I enjoyed the environment and the people. Culturally amazing. They seemed to try to keep in their own culture while embracing the Western Culture. I have been in Korea for almost a year now and the difference is drastic at best. The Japanese make an effort to assert their Independence from each other. I was easily impressed by the way that they dressed and carried themselves. I was quickly reminded of New York or any major Metropolitan Town in America. The best part for me was that there was no shortage of Anime, Manga, video games, or technology anywhere. I was also pretty thankful that Godzilla stayed on Monster Island. I didn't want to have to fight him, but I was fully prepared to do so.

In Short, Japan = AMAZING

P.S.

Happy Birthday Mom. There are so many words I want to say, but I find it hard to express them. When it all comes down to it, Mom. I love you. I don't think I can say more than that. Thanks for everything.

___

The End

Domo Arigato Mr.Roboto.

-Cezar-

Tokyo Knights

2010-02-23T12:56:00.004+09:00

We left our adventuring filipino friend at the airport.

The flight was nothing spectacular, it was a normal trip from A to B. My excitement built up from the moment of take off. I landed at Narita airport and I was super excited. To my surprise, the airplane did not land into the terminal itself. I had to take a bus into the terminal. I was laughing to myself the whole way there. I was the first one out of the bus and into the terminal. I walked through a gauntlet of escalators and walkways before I saw the sign that simply said "Welcome to Japan".

It was this simple sign that really kicked off my adventure into Japan. I then ran through the gauntlet that is known as immigration. I finally get into the welcoming area and make my way to where I needed to go. I hop into a train heading into the town that I was staying at with my friends.

Two of my friends had arrived about 2 hours earlier than me. So I quickly checked into the hotel that we were all staying at. They had gone ahead into town. Tokyo is a big town, so I didn't expect to see them at all. I decided to walk around town alone. I wanted to take in the situation and moment of where I was. I had a long trip and what not. I was still feeling a little sick from the days before, but I was hungry. I wanted to eat and the first thing that hit my nose was the haunting aroma of falafels. I ordered and ate the food. As I made quick work of the food I made conversation with one of the workers finding out about the area. He informed me about the areas and what not.

I left him with many thanks. As I walked around town, I saw out of the corner of my eye that my friends were eating in a restaurant. So I surprised them with a my presence. We sat and enjoyed some sake and beers. We walked around for some time waiting for our other friends to arrive. They had taken a flight a couple hours after us. They didn't arrive until around 11pm.

I would love to bore you more with the gory details. There was so much to say and tell about Japan. I could sit here for days and write about the big and small details of my adventure there.

To sum it all up. The first couple days I was running around. Literally running around. The four days I spent in Japan felt like ten days. We spent so much time just going to different towns and areas. We saw all the touristy stuff and some not. We found some amazing food, especially ramen. I tasted the amazing creations that Japan made of ramen. It was so great that Japan has officially ruined me for any type of ramen ever. I saw some amazing sights. I met some amazing people. Tokyo was just great.

To be continued in Kyoto...

___

The End

Godzilla!

-Cezar-

Sea Sick

2010-02-22T22:26:00.004+09:00

It seems to me that every time that I go anywhere for a long time I get sick before hand. About 2 weeks ago I started preparations for my departure of South Korea. My contract is ending at the end of the month; so I decided to go to Japan. Japan had been on my top to go places in my life for a very long time. So my friends and I buy tickets to go. I was super excited for it. I am a big fan of almost anything Japanese.

A couple days before I left for Japan I had started going out with my co-workers. I wanted to treat them to dinner and what not, it was great. We sat and ate a meal and drank some beers. Then they in turn decided to take me out 2 days in a row for food. They fed me raw fish. I was not surprised at the food. I had been eating it for quite some time now, and I actually enjoyed it. I had no suspicion or fear of the food whatsoever. I was wrong. Two days before my flight it all caught up to me. I spent at least 24 hours near my bathroom. It had been the worst feeling ever.

I did not want to miss my opportunity to go to Japan. So I proceeded with my plan. The day before my flight I went to Jeonju. I had to run a whole list of errands. I kept on doing what I needed to do with my sickness. I powered through the day til about mid afternoon. Once I got to my friends place, I needed to sleep. So I did, I slept until I had to leave for the airport. I just wished that my sickness would go away by that time.

5:00am rolls around. My bus was supposed to leave at 5:30 am; so I woke up and found myself in a better mood. I had gotten over my sickness. So I hopped out of bed and made my way to the bus terminal. I figured that because of the weather and of the holiday that there would be traffic going to the airport. My flight wouldn't leave until 2:30pm. The bus usually takes about 3 or so hours to get there. With my luck, there was no traffic at all. I got there super fast. I ended up getting to the airport 4 hours before my flight.

So I sat in the airport waiting for my counter to open up. I wanted to eat, but I was still a bit sick. So I could only do fluids. I sat and waited until my counter opened. Luckily I ran into my friends. They were leaving on an earlier flight then I was. I had a quick conversation with them and what not. my counter opened up not too long after that. I breeze through security and everything. I sat there just waiting for my flight to take off.

I will continue the story of Japan soon.

___

The End

You are what you eat

-Cezar-

Outerspace

2010-02-05T11:25:00.002+09:00

The past three weeks I have had a semi vacation. The schools in which I work at told me that I did not have to come into work. This was an awesome idea. I would be able to have all the free time in the world to work on my projects and prepare for my home coming.

I wish that were the case. The past three weeks have been nothing but boring. I really wanted the time off so that I would be able to do things. Ironically because I wasn't working; my mind shut off and I was not as productive. The whole of my days had me laying in bed waiting for certain markers. I would wake up cook and eat breakfast then wait for lunch then wait for dinner. This was what I have been doing for the past three weeks.

I had to struggle everyday just to find motivation to go and do small projects. Small projects such as food shopping and daily exercise. The temptation to stay in bed all day was too strong.

Even though it is my dream to one day be able to do that everyday; I regret ever doing it. The stagnant lifestyle made my mind dull. I found myself too lazy to do even the simplest of tasks.

Today I had to come into work. Even though I do not like it here at work. The job keeps my mind active. It's fun how things like this work out. You try to fight most of your life not to work. Then you find out that work actually keeps you thriving. I had to teach only 1 class today and already I feel my energy levels higher then usual.

So my children gather around. The lesson of today is to keep your mind and body active. Living a stagnant life will not lead to a good life. You must find something to motivate and drive you to your goals. Wishing upon a star isn't enough kiddies. You have to go out there and get it yourself.

___

The End

If there isn't an opportunity, make one.

-Cezar-

The Final Countdown

2010-02-01T09:37:00.003+09:00

Wow. That all I can really say. A year has past and gone in a blink of an eye. I still remember this time last year I was trying to get all of my paperwork ready for my new adventure. It's funny how when you are nearing the end of a journey you remember all the small details.

It seems like I am talking more about my time here as it closes to an end. Last year I was talking about the excitement of the prospect of coming here. There are so many aspects to the experience that I cannot really explain.

Throughout the whole year I have been telling you tales of my big adventures. I think it was the small ones that really made my stay more memorable. The small moments that really made me appreciate everything.

Recently I was at a bar with my friends. There was a stranger at the bar that none of us knew. Most of the foreigners know each other; so when there is a new guy we welcome them into the group. He and I spoke for several minutes about my experiences here in Korea. At one point he told me that I showed a good amount of determination because of my situation. He actually shook my hand and bought me a beer. Moments like that really made me appreciate my experiences here in Korea.

Don't worry. This isn't my goodbye blog. I have plenty of more days left. I have more adventures to embark upon. I will start working on my goodbye blog separately.
Until then it's officially 27 days until I come home.

___

The End

Life is a series of moments, choose yours.

-Cezar-

Slippery When Wet

2010-01-28T07:31:00.004+09:00

This past weekend was interesting. A group of my friends decided to go to a mountain for some fun in the snow. They wanted to go skiing. I really only went skiing once in my life, so the opportunity to go excited me. I was also excited to go skiing in South Korea; an opportunity that many people do not have the chance of taking. The trip was to take place on Saturday around 7am. The night before we all were guessing on how far away the resort was, best guess was an hour and thirty minutes. So we board the bus around 6:45 am along with several other people from Iksan. The bus was full of people and seating was very slim. We all eventually find seats.

It was 7am and I was very much fatigued. I wanted to sleep but sleeping on a bus for me is nearly impossible especially when I am uncomfortable. So I had no choice but to stay awake and make conversation with people that I didn't know too well. I had a couple of interesting and funny conversations with people that kept me entertained for a while. The temperature outside was very cold so the bus driver decided to increase the temperature in the bus. This was a nice relief for me, for the first half hour. The bus driver put it on max heat. There were issues with that.

First the traffic was so horrible that it turned a one and a half hour trip into a 3 hour trip.

Second, it was so hot in the bus that at one point everyone started to take off all their layers to keep cool. We all had to suffer the temperature in the bus until about 10 am.

The bus eventually arrives at Muju resort. We were all excited. We were finally here to ski and we can get out of the hot bus and into the cold weather. Once I stepped out of the bus I was relieved. Then shortly after, like 1 minute, I wanted to retreat back into the bus because of the cold weather.

Prior to leaving the bus we were all asked what we wanted to do. I assumed that there will only be skiing at the resort, but they also offered snowboarding. They offered snowboarding only at a slightly higher price then skiing. I was amazed and excited. I have never snowboarded in my life and doing it in Korea really sounded like a good idea.

So I get off the bus after the 3 hour bus ride. I have my ticket in hand. The group was lead into the resort where we can pick up our stuff. We all fall in a huge line. Apparently everyone in South Korea decided to come that day to go snowboarding or skiing. So we all get in line. Eventually we get in front and are able to get the equipment.

After we got our equipment and accessories, we hunted for lockers. That took about another half hour to find an empty locker. So we didn't really get to go into the snow until about 11:45ish.

All the experienced people decided to go ahead. I lost track of the whole group all together. So I walked to the bunny hill and decided to teach myself. So there I was snowboard on hand and no clue on how to use it.

It took me 10 min to figure out how the straps worked. Then it took me about 3 hours to figure out how to stand up. After that turning and stopping was simple. Even though I figured out how to do all that stuff my confidence was not high enough to tackle the mountains. So I stuck around the bunny hills and the smaller hills to practice not falling on my face and what not. So I ended up spending all the day on my face or the other end.

It was a fun day but I ended up breaking my sunglasses that I had in my pocket. No fun.

So we return our equipment. We were waiting for some other people to come meet us. We were supposed to get to the bus around 4:20 and it was supposed to leave at 4:30. The majority of the people made it to the bus. We tried to stall the bus as much as possible, but we voted to leave. The people that were missing ended up at the top of the mountain still skiing. So we wished them luck and the bus went on it's way.

The bus trip was relatively short in comparison to going to the place. We got back before I knew it. My friends and I decided to rest for an hour then go out. We get some food and then go out. We made jokes about the people we left behind. Eventually they meet up with us. We gathered to hear their story on how they got back.

___

The End

If at first you don't succeed, try and try again.

-Cezar-

Torn

2010-01-06T21:11:00.006+09:00

So I left Manila on the 27th. I had planned to go to Bagiuo for one night and stay for most of the next day. So I did. I played and talked with my cousins for the whole night. My little cousin, 5 years old, had become obsessed with Micheal Jackson. He started to dance and sing for the whole family entertaining us for hours.

I after the day was done, I traveled to Cabanatuan. I was very excited. I was going to see all of my family again. I was going to be able to finally just relax with them. I will not tell you all the gory details. I saw all of my family. I had a lot of fun. I ate way too much food. I shot off some fireworks. I shot off some guns. I went and had tons of fun. I was able to blow off steam and reconnect with my family and my roots.

my family

though it may be small it packs a punch

The whole experience was just amazing. The people I met. The places I visited. The things I did. The things I saw. I cannot escape the feeling of longing for my homeland. I will always have a special place for my family and for my homeland. The Philippines is a place where I have never really felt out of place. I understand that they see me as American, because the way I walk and carry myself. I really throw that aside, because in my heart I will always be a true Filipino.

___

The End

Home is where the heart is.

-Cezar-

This isn't Kansas at all!

2010-01-05T20:36:00.003+09:00

The last time we left our Filipino hero he was on the airplane.

I was super excited. I was ready to put the past couple of hours behind me. I had only 4 hours until I arrived in the Philippines. I really couldn't sleep so I worked on my book. I put more pages and added more stories to the book. The next thing I knew I was in the Philippines already. I expected the Philippines to be hot, but not too hot. I thought I could survive for a few moments with my jacket on. I was dead wrong. The moment I stepped off the plane I started sweating. I started to undress myself, by the time I reached the baggage claim I only had a shirt and jeans on.

I quickly exchanged my money and bought a sim card for the Philippines. I was greeted by some family friends at the arrival department. We take off to their house. The details of my Christmas and the first few days in the Philippines. The one detail that one would need to know is that the weather was amazing. Beautiful blue skies and a warm to hot breeze on my face everyday.

I hung out with new friends and old ones for Christmas day. I traveled around town and really just enjoyed myself.

Since my travels abroad; I really have felt somewhat out of place. The people I have met and the experiences I have had so far have been great. The one thing that the Philippines offered me a comfort. I had been apart from the Philippines for a long time. I have been back several times over with my family, but this time it was different. It was my first real time being there by myself without the supervision of my parents and family. I have felt a strong connection and bond with the Philippines all of my life, and it did not go away. I cannot really explain what I was feeling about it all, but it was a good feeling all together. Even in the times where I did nothing at all, I still felt like it was a great experience all together.

That is it for now. That is my Christmas story. I will tell you of my New years story tomorrow. There is much more to tell and show.

To be continued...

___

The End

Home sweet home.

-Cezar-

The Journey that Cost a Dream

2010-01-04T18:44:00.007+09:00

Recently I have taken some time off to go to the Philippines. I had hoped that the time would help me relax. It had been a very long time since I have been "home" during the Christmas and New Year season, so I was very excited. My travels and experiences so far was always with hope of going to the Philippines. Even though I was raised in America, I have always felt a strong connection with that place. My experience there was nothing more then amazing for me. The journey, however, was a little rough.

For several months, I had planned to go to the Philippines so that I can see my family and celebrate the Holidays in a new way. I had asked my supervisor, which I hate with a passion (a story for another day), when I will be able to take my winter vacation. She had told me that the classes with all of my schools will end December 23rd. So I bought my ticket and started to plan accordingly. My excitement grew as the months passed by and I had high anticipations for the event. A week before my flight, one of my schools informed me that the classes will end on the 22nd rather then the 23rd. I asked if that was always the case, he said yes. I was pissed once again at my supervisor because she cost me valuable time in the Philippines. It was too late for me to change my flight and my plans.

So the 23rd came around. My flight was at 8:30am on the 24th. I stayed at a friend's place the night before so that I can catch the bus from the terminal to the airport.

There I am on the bus December 23rd going towards Incheon. I had a tinkling feeling in my head that there was something wrong. I asked the bus driver if the bus was going to the airport. He told me that it was going to the town and not the airport. Since I was already on the bus, I really could do nothing about it. I thought to myself that it would probably be better off so that I can bed down in the town and catch an early bus to the airport for the next morning. Prior to that I had plans of just sleeping at the airport until it was time to check in. I thought it was a blessing in disguise. As I stepped off the bus I asked around how far away the airport was from the area. Apparently it was about an hour away from there. I started to walk around with my huge luggage and backpack towards the exit, and a man called out to me. He looked like an official; he asked me where I was going. I tell him what my plans were. He told me that it would be better if I go to the town right outside of the airport, but the only problem is that the buses stopped running to the area. The only way to get there was by taxi, which cost about 60,000 won ($55usd) and a motel in the area would cost about the same.

I could see the malicious intent in his eyes. He knew that he was getting one over me. I knew he was liar, but I really did not want to take the risk. So I take the taxi to the area right outside of the airport. We drive around looking for said motel that costs 60,000 won and we find nothing. I had to settle for a motel 80,000 won.

The next day I wake up super early. My flight was at 8:30am and the first subway towards the airport was at 6am. I was cutting it really close for check in time. Luckily the travel time was only about 10 minutes.

So I get to the airport, worried and stressed. I get to the counter to check in. I knew that my bag was overweight, but it was Christmas eve I had hopped to get off easy. I checked in and the man at the counter tells me that my bag is overweight. I tried convince him that it would be nice not to be charged for it. He didn't buy it. He told me that I would have to pay about $30 usd for my overweight. Then he proceeded to greet me a happy Christmas.

I fly through security and wait for my plane. It was a relatively boring time. I was exhausted from all the money I had to pay. I had nearly spent $200usd and I was not even in the Philippines yet. The combination of events had a very ominous feeling for the whole trip.

To be continued...

___

The End

Bah-humbug! -Scrooge

-Cezar-

Jingle Bells

2009-12-21T08:36:00.003+09:00

Christmas time is looming, it has been in the air for the past couple of weeks for me. The difficult part for me is that I will be spending Christmas day and New Years day with the absence of my family. So I decided to buy a ticket for warmer climates. I will be spending some time in the Philippines with family. It has been a very long time since I spent Christmas and New Years in the Philippines, and that really makes me super excited. It will also be my first time going to the Philippines alone. As much as I like being with my parents and what not, I will be getting some good time alone in the Philippines.

I also cannot fight the urge to really get into the mood of it all as well. It has been snowing for the past few days, and I like it to be a white Christmas. Sitting in my room drinking hot coco and watching he snow fall; it makes me feel like a kid again. So I think this will be the last post before I fly out. I will be going on Wednesday and I have many things to do and prepare before I leave. I hope that this vacation will also clear some cob webs away from my head. I have been fighting some writers block for some time and has stopped my progress with my book.

___

The End

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

-Cezar-

Bitter sweet

2009-12-17T21:54:00.008+09:00

Last night it started to snow. I was extremely excited. It had been a very long time since I have seen some good fresh powder. I decided to go a little old school and make myself some hot coco. I sat on my floor with my window open and watched the snow come. For some reason I started to have a couple flash backs of my childhood. I started to laugh and giggle to myself. After a good amount of time I went to bed satisfied.

the mountain outside my appartment

my street

The next morning I woke up and looked outside my window to see the aftermath, it was great. It had snowed all night and it didn't stop. The snowflakes were huge and it really made my town look like a winter wonderland. So I prepared for the day with excitement of being able to play in the snow for a while. I also was heading out the door somewhat sad. It was my last day with my favorite school. I realized, as I made some childlike markings in the snow, that I would really never see these kids again. Over the months I have become fond with them. They are a funny and spirited group of kids.

I step into my school. I had decided to buy some chocolates for my co-teachers as a going away present. So I gave it out to them saying thank you and good-bye. I waited for my first class to begin. My last classes with my kids, I decided to just have fun with them. One of my co-teachers suggested for me to get the kids to write Christmas cards to me. I instantly thought that it was a great idea. It would give me something to do to kill some time and they would like the activity. I didn't expect it to be so touching. They spent so much time and effort creating some thoughtful cards. They also said many great things. I fancy myself as a tough guy kinda hard to keep my emotions down. I found that in Korea emotions are not shown too much on the outside. The kids, even the boys, were all very sad and many of them hugged me good-bye. I found it very touching.

Some of my boys

Some of my girls

One of the nicest things that really put the topping on the situation; was the scenery. The snow really did a number on the surrounding mountains. the snow covered trees actually glistened in the sun. There were little pockets of trees that didn't have snow in the mountains that brought out the color of the snow. As the snow was falling and I stared out the window, I could not help myself but sing songs.

My view from one of the classrooms

During lunch time several of my children came up to me and asked if I wanted to play in the snow with them. I said yes. I quickly ran to my office put my gloves on and played. I really haven't had that much fun in Korea in a while. Throwing snowballs, laughing, and playing with my kids. They seemed to have fun and they were actually practicing their English while we played.

All together it was a great day. As I left the school, I could hear most to all of my kids yelling my name and saying goodbye. A few of them actually started walking with me and talking while I left. I could tell that they really didn't want me to leave. I told them good bye one last time and gave each one of them a hug.

___

The End

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

-Cezar-

Curveball

2009-12-10T20:34:00.003+09:00

I didn't plan on writing today, but life has given me a little bit of a pick me up. By all means it was a normal day; I taught my classes and I went through my day. I enjoyed hot coco that I made to counter the cold day. I sat and played my video games on my computer while I was in my classes. On all accounts, I had a very boring day.

I came home thinking to myself that I did not want to cook dinner. I cook about 85% of the time for my dinners. Tonight I felt really lazy to do anything. So I strolled into the local Chinese Restaurant. I go there so often that they know what I like to order. So I walk into the place and the owner greets me with a smile and a small laugh. He says the food item that I usually order and I say yes. He sits down with me at my table and in broken English we have a conversation. He and I spoke about where I was from and how long I have been in South Korea. I ask him in tern about his history. He serves me a cup of green tea. While I waited for the food, he walks up and hands me a bottle of soda and says it's free. He pours me a cup and I return the favor. The food is served very quickly and I eat it just as fast. He then walks over again and hands me a cup of coffee. I thank him over and over again.

I walked over to the counter to pay for the meal. His wife discounts my meal from the regular price. She says in Korean "because you are a teacher in Gyeokpo." I thank her abundantly. I felt humbled by the show of care and friendship they showed. So I ran back into my room and grab a couple bars of Hersey's Chocolate. I walk into the place again and give her a small token of my appreciation. She smiles from ear to ear and says "thank you very much."

I have been back in my room ever since then. I have not stopped smiling. I had forgotten the simple pleasure of giving. I liked the fact that they gave me some free stuff, but something about giving them something as small as that kinda blew my mind. This all comes at a time where Christmas is just around the corner. I have been teaching my children Christmas Carols. I have been singing all my favorite song with them. This night almost just puts a bow on top of it all.

The weekend is coming and I will be spending it with some very close friends. I think it will really put me in the mood for Christmas. If I had the real verbal capacity to express my feelings right now I would, but sadly I cannot. I think one word can really express it all. Joy.

___

The End

Tis better to give than receive.

-Cezar-

Lost in Transportation

2009-12-07T21:30:00.005+09:00

The weekend was pretty interesting. I went down to Mokpo for another trail. The whole week I had been feeling a little down because of the recent departure of my friend, so going away seemed like a good idea. My friends in Mokpo invited the hashers to come and do a trail so I decided to go. The event wasn't going to happen until Saturday; so I decided to stay home on Friday and go in the morning. I had forgotten how boring it was in my town on a Friday night. I have been so used to going to Jeonju or Iksan on a Friday nights. So I sat around waiting until I was tired enough to go to sleep.

Saturday morning I had to wake up extremely early so that I could catch the morning bus down to Mokpo. It was easy enough, I had no real problems with it at all. I arrived in Mokpo about 2 hours later. I helped finish laying trail with my friends and what not. We grabbed a little lunch and waited for other people to show up. I thought that Gyeokpo was cold, but let me tell you Mokpo was freezing. It was actually snowing during trail. So I was happy that I had the smarts to wear several layers at a time, but that didn't stop me from being cold. So we finish up the trail. Then we proceed to go out into the town for some fun. It was nice being in a new town and just getting away from it all.

Sunday morning rolls around. I decided to sleep in. I knew that my trip shouldn't take too long so I had the luxury to sleep in that day. I started to move around and travel around 11am. So I take one bus to the big city Gwangju and into the terminal. I buy my ticket for Buan. I was told that the bus wasn't coming until 2pm; it was 1pm at the time. So I grabbed some lunch and waited for the bus. I see the bus pull in. As per my usual routine I ask the ticket receiver if the bus was going to Buan. She replies yes. I then proceed to ask the bus driver if the bus was going to Buan. He says yes. So I sit down and wait until I get to go home. I knew the ride was supposed to be an hour and a half. So I wasn't too worried. As we drove along, I started not to recognize anything. It had been already an hour into the bus ride, and there was nothing that I recognized. I thought to myself that he might be taking a different route. So I lay back and waited. As it approached the 2 hour mark; I knew that something was wrong. So I waited til the next stop. I walked up to the driver and asked the driver where he was going in Koren. He replied MUAN. I kindly tried to explain to him what had happened. He laughed a little bit and told the ticket officer what happened at the town he dropped me off at. So I had to get on another bus to go back to Gwangju. The bus driver and I had a conversation about what happened and he laughed too. So there I was in a town where I had no idea where it was. I had to wait. Then another 2 hour bus ride back to Gwangju. As I got off the bus, the bus driver was kind enough to help me get the right ticket. He literally held my hand the whole way. It was 5:45pm at the time. The very last bus to Buan didn't leave til 6:25. So I had some time to kill. So I waited some more. Then my bus finally came. I asked the ticket officer, the bus driver and several of the passengers if the bus was going to Buan. They all answered yes. So I lied back and waited some more.

I also had the issue of trying to make it to Buan in time. I live about 45min away from Buan. The last bus to my town leaves at 8pm sharp every night. Leaving Gwangju at 6:25 with a hour and forty minute ride; I feared the worse. I did not want to have to take a taxi home. So all I could do is sit patiently and wait. Luckily the bus pulled into the terminal at 7:45 leaving me with plenty of time to get on the bus. So again I waited. The bus pulls in at 7:59 and I jump in. I sit and relax cause I was on my way home. I got home and I was so relieved. All I did was go to my room and get into bed. I had been traveling for 9 hours for that one day. That was no fun at all.

I just wanted to touch on the feeling of being lost. It wasn't cool at all. That was the first time EVER in South Korea that I felt not only alone but lonely. I had no one to call or talk too. I had no one that spoke my language to tell me it was going to be alright. I found it to be a very weird experience all together. Once I realized that I was lost; I got that sinking feeling. I really wanted to panic and what not. I'm usually okay with not being in control, but that wasn't cool at all. Getting lost in that area really made me feel, for a lack of a better word, lost. I'm glad that I had the patience to get back and do what I needed to do. I contacted a couple of my friends. They were nice enough to laugh at me and help me through the situation. That made me feel a little better.

___

The End

Patience is a virtue.

-Cezar-

Thanks?

2009-11-26T22:41:00.002+09:00

So today is thanksgiving. It has been a while since I have actually appreciated things enough to be thankful for them. I am though. I am thankful for all the big and small things in my life.

I have been thinking about what my friends say to me all the time. They tell me that I have a lot of strength for staying in such an isolated area. I think that anyone could do the same. At some point in everyone's life they feel alone or lonely. I know my case is in the extreme, but is it that too hard to imagine being where I am. I understand it takes a certain type to deal with being alone, but it's also not too difficult. One would be able to first cope with it; then after manage it. The hardest part I think is finding motivation. I find it hard to dig deep now a days to do the simple things. My book is again fallen to the side because I lack focus and strength to pick it up. My supposed studies of Korean or even reading one of my several books has put aside. I keep trying to dig deep, but I find nothing.

On a happier note. I will be finished with work soon and vacation is around the corner. After vacation, I will work for a short time then wait to go home.

____

The End

We learn more in loss than in victory.

-Cezar-

We must endure

2009-11-24T21:03:00.002+09:00

I have been writing one of my books for the past couple of days. I have really picked up where I left off from a couple months ago, but it seems like I have hit a little bit of writers block. So I decided to do some free writing here to start the cogs again and maybe stumble onto where the story should go.

I have been dealing with a couple different things the past weeks. One of my closest friends here in South Korea is leaving to go back home. He is one of the bigger reasons why I stayed in Korea. Now that he is leaving; I feel at a loss. I know that it will not be the last time I will be seeing my good friend, yet I am sad to see him leave. We shared many good laughs and some good times together. His departure makes me long for my own. I keep on thinking about when I get to go home. I keep on picturing my family and friends being there. Being away for so long has really taught me the value of being home.

There are so many things that I tend to take for granted when I was home. I think I will have a new appreciation when I get back. On the other side of the coin; I will really miss the freedom I have here. Seriously, the things that I get away with and have done here in South Korea is refreshing. The societal norms here let me have a type of freedom that I was not afforded back in America. I feel that I am more bound by society back in America, and in South Korea I am able to do what I please (to a certain extent).

Anyways; back to my book. As far as a writer goes, I don't think I am one. I was talking to a good friend of mine and she suggested that I am more of a story teller, it seemed to fit what I had in mind. It also seems to be the case with my book, as I write them it seems more like I am speaking then writing. I will finish the book soon and see what happens.

I actually had forgotten that I had started writing the story on paper. I pulled up the document on my computer and found it to be shorter than what I had remembered. I also realized that I lost the particular book in which I kept all my notes. So I literally had to back track on all my characters and stories. Where I am supposed to be at page 9 or so; I am now only on page 5. It has proven very frustrating having to try to recreate the story and characters. I am making progress but it's slow and difficult. I set a high goal of getting to page 20 by the end of the week, but it seems like I will only be able to get to page 10. The story itself is taking on a new life and path then what I had anticipated.

I also wanted to share a piece that I recently wrote. As most of you know I have been active with hiking and what not. They made me an officer for the group and put me in charge of doing some write ups. This was one of my most recent ones. I was actually surprised on how it came out. I think it is one of my better write ups.

A naming and a goodbye
It seems to me when a group of people congregate there is a high chance of bonding. That is what the house harriers is all about; we try to create a sense of connection with other people. When you are in a place where you have no one else but each other; joining a group like ours is easy to do. The hashers hold a long line of tradition near its heart and it welcomes you to join into it. We had a typical run last weekend. A few virgins joined the group and an old friend left it.
The trail was simple; it was an A to B this time. We decided to keep it light and short because of time restrictions. I proceeded to start all the festivities around 4:30ish; so that we don’t lose trail in the dark. It was all medium hills with no real obstacles in our way to finding the beer. The FRBs (front running bastards) helped make trail easier to follow with laying more chalk lines. The trail lasted about an hour, walking.
We ended at a local restaurant. We ate and drank for a couple of minutes and started the ceremonies. The virgins were put through their paces and I was not disappointed. They were more than willing to bear themselves to us and the world. It does me very well when I see virgins willing to disgrace themselves to entertain the pack.
We sang song and went through ceremonies. We said goodbye to a fellow hasher. He has been a big part of the hash both in Seoul and in Jeonju. His name was Dirty. He was the epitome of a hasher. He had one of the biggest hearts and kindest personalities that I knew. His presence was always welcome and enjoyed by all; truly a hasher through and through. On a more personal note, I will miss him very much. He was a great man and a fantastic hasher.
Once we dispatched with those pleasantries, we went onto a naming. NN Nancy had been hashing with us a couple of times. She hashed enough to earn her name in Jeonju. We had given her a questionnaire to help us in her naming. After much talking and reviewing and storytelling, we came upon a name only befitting a fellow hasher. NN Nancy was baptized under some beer; when she emerged she was to be known as Back Alley Cabby (BAC). She was welcomed into the fold. We finished with that and moved to close the hash. We continued to drink and eat into the night.
That was our trail and my tail of it. We shed a tear for the hasher that left but in rejoice for the new hashers gained and for the newly named. For our fellow brother and sister hashers; the trail will never end. The trail will always find a way to bring us together. It is our way of bonding and our way to form a brotherhood. So if you have time; come find us on trail and join us in song and drink. You will enjoy yourself.

___

The End

Have faith.

-Cezar-

end game

2009-11-18T19:29:00.003+09:00

So yeah. I have been away from this blog for a while and I have missed it. It seems, even though I have nothing where I am; that I have no time for anything. I have been so consumed with trying to do some work for school and looking forward to the weekends that I have no time to really do anything. I have made some real connections with some new people in Buan. I have eaten with them several times already and they seem to be good people. Last Sunday I was passing through Buan I sent a text message to them and they invited me to have brunch with them.

I have decided to try to make this a column that you would read in a newspaper. So I will try to write in this at least twice a week. I would like suggestions on what to write about.

___

The End

The shortest distance between two objects is a straight line.

-Cezar-

Parents

2009-11-09T10:39:00.002+09:00

On a side note. It was my parents anniversary yesterday. I called them last night to wish them happy anniversary. I just wanted to wish them a happy anniversary again. I love you both so very much. Words cannot express my gratitude and appreciation for all of your sacrifice and work you have done for me over the years. I couldn't of asked for better parents. I know we have our ups and downs, but at the end of the day I will always love you guys with all of my heart.

And the survey says

2009-11-09T10:00:00.002+09:00

Okay. I know it has been a couple of days since I have last updated. So here I go.

Nothing really new has been happening. Hashing is hashing. Trails have been getting better and more interesting. Weekends have been going fast and weekdays even faster. I am counting the days until I am done with work and I go to the Philippines for vacation. Then I am counting the days until I go home. Until then I will be just going around doing the same thing everyday.

As far as new things going on. New friends in Buan have been more then accommodating to me. They have come to my town and broke bread with me. I have gone to their town and done the same. I will be going up there again this week for dinner.

I haven't made any head way with any one of my books. I don't know if its writer's block lack of motivations, it may be both.

That is it for now.

___

The End

Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get. -Forrest Gump

-Cezar-

Rabble

2009-10-30T08:53:00.002+09:00

I know it has been a couple of days since I have written in this thing. I have found myself less and less inclined to write in it. Even though I still find it a very nice outlet for me to voice my thoughts and actually practice my writing skills; I have grown tired of it. I am focusing on several things at the moment. I found out that my friend Stand is leaving South Korea early because he does not like his situation. He went to talk to his boss and they ended up agreeing to let him go early. He plans to leave December 1st. I am naturally not too happy about it, but he needs to do what makes him happy.

On a side note I have met a handful of foreigners in the town about 45 min away from me. I met them on my way up to Seoul. They were nice enough to invite me out to dinner one night. I enjoyed their company. They are a good group of kids; from what I learned there are about 9 of them in the town. It's a good thing I found them, but I will be leaving in a couple of months and I don't think I will be able to meet up with them much.

As far as the hash over the past weekend; it went extremely well. The GM left for japan for a vacation and put me in charge of the hash. So I made trail with another person. I also had to go through making sure accommodations, food, travel and drinks were together. I thought it would be an easy job, but it isn't. I was getting stressed over people, places, trail and everything that involved a hash. Honestly I didn't even do that great of a job. There were many aspects that I ignored or forgot about. Otherwise it was a great time; the people that came down and up from where they live had a great time. We had a large group of people, more than usual, about 17 people that did trail with us. I sang song with them and I had a great time making them act like fools.

As far as my week, it was relatively slow and boring. One of my co-workers decided to ask me to go and hangout with him and another co-teacher. Their English isn't too bad, so the night was pretty good conversation and what not. It was also nice to get out of my room and do something.

That has been the story for the past couple of days/weeks. I know that my posts have been getting less and less every time, but it takes a lot to try to find something out of nothing. I am making good use of my time I am reading more and starting to write my books.

___

The End

Idol hands are the Devil's playground.

-Cezar-

Time well spent

2009-10-20T20:19:00.002+09:00

The weekend jumped off in the same manner it usually does. I decided to jump into a bus heading to Seoul. It was Friday night once again and I wanted to see my friends. I take the bus headed up to Seoul like usual. The nice part about the ride was that I met some foreigners in Buan, the neighboring city to me. We chatted a bit and they told me that there were 9 foreigners in the city. We chatted and exchanged information with each other. It was a nice surprise to meet some foreigners in the area.

I eventually arrive in Seoul. I transit in between subways like usual. I end up going to a local bar that all the hashers we hanging out at. The week leading to the weekend was special. It was a hash-marathon in Seoul. All through out the week there was trail at least once a day. I was only able to catch the tail end because I live about 4 hours away. My friends were happy to see me anyways. Once I arrived in the bar, I hear the happy greetings. I go around making my hellos and introductions. I met Hashers that had came in from out of country just for the weekend events. It was a nice sight and experience all together.

Saturday rolls around. I had 2 trails that I wanted to take part of; so I did. Trail was regular. Up hills and down slopes; climbing up and jumping down obstacles. I had the Yeongsan Kimchi H3* trail first. Their trails are usually something that I look forward too. This time I had company as I walked the trail, which is a nice change of pace. Trail started at 11am ended at 1pm. I had another trail that started at 1; so I literally had no time to waste. It was a special event for the Seoul H3, it was their 2000th run. We took a bus to the start location, about an hour away. The trail was amazing. I took a trail that took me up a mountain. I saw beautiful landscape. I was also accompanied by another walker for the trail. We chatted for a while. The trail ended around 6pm. We ended the trail in their traditional way. We started a fire and ate and drank around it. This pack was consisted on only men. So we were just that. Men around a fire sharing stories and laughter. Later on that night we head back into Itaewon. We go to a couple bars meeting up with other hashers. We go onto the night until about 3 am. We have our fun.

At one of the bars, a stranger approaches us. He started asking questions about who we were. I kindly explain what the hash is about and who these people were. We talk about it for about an hour. I started pulling in other hashers to sell the case. We talk about brotherhood and the trail. One of the hashers got a little philosophical. I explained to him that the hash wasn't about getting drunk, finding girls or debauchery. The hash is about the people and the relationship that we build. One of the hashers chimed in and made a comparison to the band of brothers. I cannot fully recall it, but I knew what he said was true.

Sunday rolls around. I grab breakfast with the hashers. I have some great conversations and laughs. They leave for another trail that I can't take part of because of time restrictions. I walk around Itaewon and pick up a couple of things that I need for myself and head back home.

___

The End

Brotherhood isn't given it is earned.

-Cezar-

Clarity

2009-10-15T23:38:00.002+09:00

I have been reading a book that my parents gave to me when they visited me. Basically this book is trying to help me become a better writer. It has given me some real insight into the mind of a writer. It has actually given me better ideas on how to write which I really like.

So yesterday I had the whole day off so I really started reading the book. I didn't get a chance to finish it, but I got many good tips. The biggest and most important tip I received was that it's a conversation. A conversation between me as a writer and you as a reader. I need to visualize you as a reader. I need to make sure that I am clear as if we are having a dialog.

It's really something when you realize something as significant as that. I always had the reader in mind when I write, but never considered it to that level. I really had one of those "AH HA!" moments. I am excited to read more into this book because it seems to have golden nuggets of information for me.

___

The End

Limitation is where you find your imagination.

-Cezar-

New path Same road

2009-10-12T19:58:00.002+09:00

The weekend was interesting to say the least. I spent it with a group of new friends. They are in a neighboring town called Iksan. I have known them for quite some time now, but rarely spent much time with them. I had focused my energies into hashing and Seoul and Jeonju that I let them slip through my fingers. This past weekend I decided to spend the weekend with them. It turned out to be a good idea all together. They were a good group of kids that I could really connect with and have fun with. We spent most of friday night and saturday night going around doing some shenanigans. I haven't laughed or connected with a group of kids like that in a very long time. Which made me sad because I know what is going to happen. The more time I spend with them; the more time I will really connect with them. That will make it extremely hard for me to leave. I have grown attached to many of the people here and that is causing me some problems. I know that I will be leaving in a short amount of time and that will make things harder for me. I am really torn between states of mind. I want company so that I don't get too lonely, but I also don't want to get too attached. I know how I get. I am an emotional man. I have an open heart. This will prove to be more difficult when time comes for me to say goodbye.

Just to mention. I had duties for the hash on saturday. I had to lead the group in ceremonies. The trail was decent, but I got lost of trail for a while. I was lucky to run into another hasher, she helped me by calling and getting directions for me. I often complain about shiggy, trails with rough terrain, but I saw the non-shiggy trail and I didn't like it too much. After taking part in trails with a lot of shiggy and interesting obstacles, I kind of long for hurdles. I complain about climbing hills and mountains and going through rough terrain, but in the long run, it just more interesting that way. I would like a happy medium of a trail, that would be the best solution.

I digress, the weekend was great. It was a real chance for me to connect with people that I am starting to care for. It was also a nice change of pace; it felt slower. It was wholesome fun; I actually spent some time playing jenga at a bar and it was amazing.

___

The End

Lack thereof

2009-10-09T08:46:00.002+09:00

Ok. So Monday rolls around. I had another day off so I decided to take Manny on a tour of my town. We went to a local temple that I always show the visitors. He enjoyed seeing the history and oldness of the temple. I enjoy that area for its peacefulness. It is situated in a huge piece of land. There are trees and greenery everywhere. It is a peaceful 1km walk towards the temple itself. When you walk around the temple you will see the local mountains surrounding it. It is one of those sights that is best savored sitting on a bench taking in the scenery. There is chanting playing all through out the area which gives it more of a relaxing feeling.

After the temple I take him on a walking tour of my whole town. We share a couple of good laughs. Then we eat the local Chinese food in the area, which Manny instantly fell in love with. Then I try to take him to the top of a small look out point to watch the sunset, but we missed it. We just ended up having a beer and talking about life.

Manny had fell in love with Korea the instant that he arrived. I would like to think that I helped because I already knew the area and knew where to go. I also think that taking him to a Hash was a great idea. I made him a hasher, and I couldn't be happier.

Tuesday and Wednesday passed by rather quickly. Manny was still in town but he had to leave Wednesday morning. He planned to go back to Seoul to meet up with my friends and do some stuff. He really wanted to visit Harley again to acquire his shirt. My friends up there were kind enough to give him a place to crash and show him around town.

___

The End

The road split in two, right and left. I decided to go straight.

-Cezar-

3 days

2009-10-08T19:31:00.003+09:00

So I recently had a 4 day weekend. One of my closest friends came to South Korea to visit me. He needed an excuse to visit South Korea and I gave him one. These are the events that transpired.

Friday:

It was a Korean national holiday, it was their thanksgiving. I went to Seoul the night before because there was a special hash one of my friends asked me to go to. He was holding an event. The hash was going to happen on the 38th parallel. So for those who don't know, that means near the DMZ. There is a hashing group that does runs near the DMZ and it was his turn to make the run. So I gladly participated. I mean how many times can someone say that they hiked near North Korea. It was an interesting experience all together. I had a good time running it. I had a chance to laugh and share stories with my friends again. The run was around 1 ish and ended around 4ish. My friend Manny landed at 6pm, so I had decided to leave around 6 for the airport. I thought that security would take much longer then usual because there is a scare of Swine Flu and the Koreans are being super careful. So I jumped into a bus around 7ish and arrived around 8ish. I find Manny already sitting and waiting for me. Apparently it took him only about 30 minutes to clear security.

So I picked him up from the airport and I thought I could just take him to one of my favorite spots in South Korea. I assumed that we would be able to get a Hotel room in the area, but I was wrong. We walked around for 2 hours looking for a room. We found no open rooms at all. So I place a phone call to a Hashing buddy of mine and she made some calls for me. She found us a place to sleep with at one of the hasher's house. He was on his way in to throw some darts for the night. We head into the bar ahead of him. I find a handful of Hashers already there. I make introductions and start having some laughs. We head to his place to sleep around 12ish.

Saturday:

Manny and I wake up early. I promised him a great breakfast. We head back into town to get some food. We take a bit of a walk to the restaurant. We find out that it is closed because of the holiday. I was really pissed. This was one of my favorite spots to eat at and they were closed. So we had to settle for Mcdonald's. So we relaxed and ate the breakfast. We waited for one of the hashers to pick us up from eating and take us to the beginning spot for the hash. Manny got introduced to the pack. He goes through his paces as a virgin. The trail was nicely set up. We had to do some crawling under fences and climbing over fences and scaling high walls. I complained the whole way through the trail, but honestly that was one of the most entertaining trails I have been on. Manny got to see how a trail was set. He caught on to the lingo and how to spot trail quickly. He enjoyed it very much. One of the most surprising moments was when he got unofficially named. The pack liked him so much that they gave him a name. He was referred to as "Exit 164", because they asked him were in Jersey he was from he answered Exit 164. They all laughed and started referring to him as such.

Later on that day around 2ish. Manny and I and some hashers jump into a train heading to Osan. One of my friends was leaving Korea forever, so we all wanted to say good bye. As a hasher saying good-bye meant going on trail and having a nice party after wards. I am not going to bore you with the details, but fun was had by all. A lot of the trail actually involved garbage. The hashers thought it would be funny to turn me into the garbage man. So any chance they had they gave me garbage and we all laughed about it.

Then we went off to have fun in town.

Sunday:

There was another hash to be had, but Manny and I had enough for the weekend. I decided to show him around Seoul. Manny had hopes of getting to visit and see the Harley Davidson of South Korea. So we walked and walked for about 2 hours asking directions and we eventually find the store. Manny's eyes were filled with joy. Then we get closer only to see the gates shut and the lights off. Then I quickly saw a vein grow in Manny's head. It was funny and scary at the same time. I felt bad for the kid. It was one of his major things to do while in South Korea. So after cooling off a little we walked around town more. We stumble onto a couple of gems, but that didn't make him feel better. So we hop a train then a bus and then another bus to my town.

___

The End

Friends are just really good enemies.

-Cezar-

On on

2009-09-28T08:40:00.004+09:00

So the weekend was interesting as usual. Instead of going to Jeonju on friday night, I ended up going to Iksan. I had a couple of friends that wanted to see me cause they haven't seen me in a while and sorely missed me, and I them. It was very interesting to say the least. Iksan is a smaller town then Jeonju and it has less foreigners in the area. They all pretty much know each other. Unlike jeonju, where the town is so big that foreigners don't really see or hangout with each other. When I was sitting down to drink some beer with my friends every person that passed by was greeted and they greeted back. It's one of those small towns that I could really picture myself working in.

Saturday:

There was the Hash event that my kennel was holding, it was called "the baboon circus". The event consisted of a couple main rules. First real rule was you come dressed an animal or at least some crazy socks. Surprisingly a good amount of people did dress up in at least some crazy socks. Since this was a relatively large event that we were holding, many people from Seoul came down to support us. Many of the hashers were from YKH3, SH3, and OBH3. They were nice enough to come down and make things interesting. We also had a couple of "virgins" take the run with us.

The trail was simple, it went up and down a mountain. The view at the top was simply spectacular. This also gave me an opportunity to talk with people and get to know them as usual. The trail was only a small part of the event. It was a scavenger hunt as well. We were formed into groups of 5 people, 4 walkers and 1 runner. That was the plan, but plans and people usually don't mix too well. We had some late comers and the runners out numbered the walkers. We did some impromptu moving around and it was set. The basic rule was run until you find a card with a monk sitting on a banana. On the back of these cards are questions. The teams were to collect said cards and try to solve them once they came back. This was the original plan, but it didn't work out as planned. By the time we got back to the end site, it was already dark-ish. The light was fading quickly and we still had to wait for many of the virgins to come back. Trying to organize and set the tone for a bunch of drunkards was difficult. The ceremonies had to be cut short and many things had to be ignored. It pained me, as acting GM, to do so, but I had to work with what I had. We finished circle and proceeded to head back to our relative motels.

on-after:
The on after was held at a local restaurant called Nasa. It was a relatively nice place to eat. It sat high above the ground, about 5 floors high. We ate enough food to satisfy anyone. An incident happened with paying for the bill, but it was all worked out. Then most of us headed to the local Karaoke place. We had reserved a room for all of us. We had enough beer to satisfy any thirst. It was an interesting night out. Even though we knew each other on many personal levels, we were still shy about singing in front of each other. It wasn't until someone, me, picked Bohemian rhapsody by Queen, then everyone started to really get into it. We started to pick songs that we all knew and would sing too in our cars. We all started to really let loose and have fun with it. When the beer ended some of us went to a local bar. At that little event we only had about 7 people, we originally stated with about 15 or 16. This is where we really just sat down and had some real fun. We talked and joked for most of the night. G.I. Hoe the all American zero, in his drunken stooper made us laugh through the night with his jokes. We all took turns making jokes and telling stories. We were all at this until about 3 am.

Sunday:

11 am trail with Southside Hash House Harriers. They ran a trail that started and ended in front of the motel. It was a relatively short trail, that not many people ran. I personally did not do the trail, I was too tired. From what I was told and heard at the circle it was a good trail. It was confusing, as any hash trail will be, but it was good. Some of us had a late lunch with each other when the hash was over.

This was just another prime example of how the hash has helped me expand my mind and circle of friends. I did truly enjoy the trail and everything that surrounded it. The hash gives you a great chance to really get to know yourself and people. I would highly recommend doing a trail in your local area if you can find one.

That was my weekend.

____

The End

"I'm too old for this shit." Danny Glover

-Cezar-

The wheels on the bus

2009-09-24T18:39:00.004+09:00

okay. So I was informed a couple of days ago that I will have a showcase of my teaching the children. This is naturally something I am worried about because I don't do much of anything in these classes. I basically come in and play games or sing songs with my children. I am the clown that comes in once a week to entertain my kids. Now for one or two days I have to actually try to teach them something. I have to come up with lesson plans and objectives like every other teacher. I am worried about what to do. The past months I have done nothing with these kids and now everyone will know it.

As far as my writing goes, I think I have narrowed it down to screenplays, short stories, and informational books. I had planned to write a short story here, but the story took a life on its own and I have to work on it. Now I am in the process of writing 4 different types of books. I am in the process of writing 2 short stories and 2 self help/informational books. I am jumping in between all 4 right now. It is not as difficult as it seems, my mind is always all over the place already. When I am writing one and get bored; I jump into the other books and start writing there. The funny thing is my mind is always working on all 4 things at one time, so I keep all 4 stories up and jump to the one that needs to be written. I would literally be writing one and suddenly I would have a eureka moment about the plot or events happening on another story. I think 4 will be good enough right now. I haven't really touched them in a while, but a sudden burst of energy and what not has inspired me to write. I think the flood gates have opened and I want to take advantage before the water runs out. I will have a couple snips of each one here. I would like your input on how it reads and what you think about it.

On a side note. I am also starting to read more. I am reading a novel and a informational book. I think that seeing the commonalities and differences will help me write better. I also guess that I am still looking for my "voice" so stay with me on this little journey of mine.

On a side side note. I know I started to write about "The Lost Boy" I have put that into one of my short stories. Like I said before, the story started to take on a life on it's own. So I wanted to finish it on my own.

___

The End

There is always room for improvement.

-Cezar-

Waiting for you

2009-09-23T20:30:00.005+09:00

OK. This was a little bit of a twist of fate. The past couple of weeks I have really been thinking about my past relationships and who is to come in my near future. I guess that is always on my mind. I have been doing what I have been doing for a while and I have really been considering my future. I was considering my future while taking into account of my past. I think we all do that at one point or another. The reason why I talk about this now is because life has a way to kind of remind you and focus you on what you want. So there I was at one of my schools. I was reading a book that my parents gave to me. It was a book on how to improve my writing style and what not. I guess while I was in class the vice principal saw my book. I was informed a couple of weeks ago that he was a well known and published writer. He wrote for children and poems. At the end of the day I get back to my desk. He had left me a signed copy of a book of his poems. So I opened it up. I start going through the poems and I wasn't surprised to see that it was all mostly in Korean. I stumble upon a poem in English titled "Waiting for you".

Waiting for you

I'm waiting for you.
Every day I'm waiting for you like a tree.
Every night I'm waiting for you like a flower.
Waiting for you.
Waiting for you.
If the sun won't rise.
I'll be waiting for you.
If the moon won't shine.
I'll be waiting for you.
Forever I'll be waiting for you.
Waiting for you.
Waiting for you.

-Namgu Baek

That was the poem that I read. It really hit close to home when I read it. I was actually almost distract the whole day about that topic and this found me. Like I said life has a funny way of reminding you about things. So I will take the advise and wait for her.

___

The End

I'll be waiting for you.

-Cezar

A Taste of Home

2009-09-21T08:41:00.003+09:00

OK. I know that I was supposed to update you guys on what has been happening the past couple of weeks. I have been so swamped with doing work and trying to relax that I really haven't had a chance to write anything down. I kinda feel bad about it, but here I am again. To the best of my abilities I will try to do a short update.

Within the past 3 weeks that I have been back, many things have happened that changed how I do things here in South Korea. First thing that was really a swift kick to the pants was that I lost all of my private students. As you may remember I took on some children to teach them English. Once I got back from America I was informed that I no longer was needed. The Koreans have become phobic of the Swine Flu. They assumed that I have it because I left Korea to go to America. I was pretty disappointed that I no longer had my students. That is a lot of money out of my pockets.

Changing the subject to the fear of Swine Flu here in Korea. I find it ridiculous how the media and everyone else here has made this swine flu out to be the next plague. The Koreans have such a fear of this flu it is almost funny in a sad way. I spoke to many of my students and my co-teachers, they feel that staying inside and away from everybody is a good way to prevent the spread of it. The swine flu is just that, a new flu. Yes, people died from this flu, but many more people die from the common cold then the Swine flu, especially here in Korea. They refuse to look at the bigger picture when it came down to it all. They only see what the media hypes it up to be. Apparently the Koreans believe everything the media says, which is a problem. I recently read a report that suicide takes about over 1000 South Koreans a year. These deaths are PREVENTABLE because many of them call out for help before they do it. Yet, they don't focus on something that is preventable and make a mountain out of a mole hill. Sometimes I sit back and chuckle a little bit on the oxymoron that is South Korea. They want to prevent the spread of the swine flu yet they still share cups, food, and still have the public bathing areas. I spoke to a couple of Koreans about that, their response was "we wash our hands." Yes, washing hands is good, but that is really not how the flu gets around. ANYWAYS, I am going to stop talking about this now and move on.

OK. The past couple of weeks have been relatively quiet. I have been traveling in and out of Seoul like 2 weeks straight. I went for a couple of Hashes and really just burnt my legs out. Basically the past 3 weeks I have been spending way too much money. Many of my friends also left the South Korea. Many of them were finishing up their contracts, it made me sad to see them go. Goodbye ToT and GYU, you were really good friends to me.

For the matter at hand, last week. My Parents decided to come and visit me for a week. They stayed in Gyeokpo for about 4 days. They toured the area and I showed them some sights. They also did a lot of nothing. They relaxed for the days they were here. I showed them the local foods, they seemed to enjoy that. We spent a lot of time together just bonding and what not. They also cleaned my room and bought me supplies. I had spent a week trying to clean my room, then my parents come in and show me what clean really meant. I quickly dispatched their work, because I am a slob. After a couple of days here, I sent them to Jeonju to enjoy that area. They visited the traditional village and then once I arrived we all went to dinner with some of my closer friends here in South Korea. I really enjoyed just sitting there watch as my parents were busting my balls with my friends. All in all it was good times had by everyone. The next day we went to Seoul together. It was really my first time going to Seoul with intentions of exploring it. My parents and I ended up catching a bus that did a city tour. We were able to hop on and off the bus, so we can just enjoy the area for a short time and hop back on. We saw a couple nice places, I discovered some really cool places that I intend to visit again. My last stop was Itaewon. I knew the area and I knew how to get to where I was going from there. So my parents and I ate lunch and a local Chinese food place, which was awesome. Then we walked around trying to find things to buy. It was generally a good time. When it came time for me to say goodbye I knew what to expect. My mom hugged me and wouldn't let go for a couple of minutes and my dad stayed silent. I said my goodbyes and as I walked down into the subway I turn around to wave and see my mom crying. It was definitely bitter sweet.

___

The End

"We love you" -Mom and Dad

-Cezar

Back on the Horse

2009-09-09T18:38:00.011+09:00

I do apologize to those who read my blog on a semi-regular basis. I have fallen off the course because I fell into a deep rut that I could not really pull myself out of. I had some great weekends that I thought would help me find myself back. As great as those weekends were for me there was something wrong, it may have been a relapse of homesickness. Spending so much time with my family and friends effected me more then I had realized. The thing that really brought me out of my rut was unexpected. On Tuesdays I spend some teaching time on an island about an hour boat ride away. The trip there didn't seem too fruitful, it had some really rough waves. I feared that I would have to spend the night at the island again. I taught through the day. I heard some rumors that the boats were no longer sailing because of the weather. I asked my one of the teachers and they confirmed that there will be no boat back until the next day. I was instantly flustered. Then as I walked down the hall to get some air, one of the teachers runs after me and tells me that the boats are running again. I was pleased to hear the news. I finish out the day until about 3pm ish. I start leaving and saying goodbye to everyone. Then one of the teachers pops her head out and says in Korean, from what I could tell, "the boat isn't going anymore." I see my supervisor call the dock and looks at me and says that I have to spend the night. I was instantly angered. There was nothing I could do so I followed as asked. I stuck around playing on the internet and what not. I ate dinner with some of the other teachers and then went back to playing on the internet. I finished up playing about 11pm ish at night. I was walking back to the place I was sleeping and I see the teachers outside smoking. They pull me over and try very much so to communicate to me in English. They spent about 10 minutes try to ask me if I wanted to join them for a beer. Seeing that I had nothing else planned that night, I said yes. These men had very basic English skills, but through out the night they made jokes in English and tried to make conversation with me in English. This was a very heartwarming gesture. I tried to talk to hem in my very limited Korean, to help. We spent about an hour talking about the same things and laughing at the idea that we can't really talk to each other. That was what really brought me out of my funk. The being said I have much much to catch you up on.

Back in Korea
So I was officially back in Korea August 15th and I had to make my way back to my area. My flight had landed late in the afternoon and it would not be possible for me to actually get back into my town. I decided to make my way to Jeonju and spend the night at Stan's place again. I arrived into town about 12am ish because of travel time and what not. What I had feared the most was that I would have severe Jet-lag. The past 2 weeks at home I had a fight with jet-lag that lasted for about a week. I thought that would be the case once I got back in Korea, it wasn't. Once I was able to settle down at Stan's place, I was able to sleep like a baby. I also had learned that I would have an extra 2 days off from vacation. So I had a nice 4 day weekend.

Sunday I was able to get home pretty fast. I settled down and unpacked everything that I had brought with me to Korea. After a short unpacking party by myself, I headed down to the beach to relax. One of the hashers informed me that he will be stopping into my town on Tuesday and leaving Wenesday morning. So I had that to look forward too. I basically spent all of Monday preparing for their arrival and sleeping on the beach. Tuesday rolls around and they give me a call. I spend the day with them eating food and showing them my town. They were all really down to earth people. They really loved the town and what it had to offer. I was just glad to have company to talk too.

Wednesday rolls around and I had classes to teach on an island. I found out that I would have to travel to the island 3 days in a row via boat. I didn't mind because I did not want to spend the night on the island itself. Every time I spend the night there I appreciate my little town even more. The same thing happens on Thursday. Normal classes and what not but I have news that I may have Friday off because the school may close for some reason. Then later that day I find out that I do have work on Friday. Luckily the weather was getting bad and they preemptively closed school. So I was looking forward to a 3 day weekend. As things worked out my friend Stan had planned to come visit me at my place over the weekend. So he comes to my town around Saturday afternoon and we go off exploring the area and what not. I introduce him to the local foods and specialties.

Saturday rolls around. He and I had grown tired of just sitting on the beach. I told him that there was a local water wall that I wanted to visit. I had wanted to see it for a long time but never had the opportunity or the company to come with me. So we take a taxi to the base of where the waterfall is located. We get dropped off and start walking. We find a small temple with amazing art work in it.

So we continue hiking and run into a melody of great scenic quality. Here are a few just to drive the point.

So that is what we encountered on the way to the falls. I was excited to see the falls itself. I would always see pictures of the falls everywhere. It looked big and gushing and what not. We hiked to the falls about an hour from the base. We get up to where we need to see it and yeah.

That is what I got. I am not saying it wasn't beautiful. I enjoyed the sight of it and what not. I was just disappointed when I got there. Stan was amazed by it. So much that he jumped into the water and started swimming in it. After a while in the falls, we look at the map. We see that there is another temple in the area about 6 km away. I thought, OK the trail is probably the same as the rest of it. I thought it would be flat land straight to it. Again I was wrong, we had to travel up and down the local mountain to arrive at the temple. This was no easy task for me especially because I have a crippling fear of heights. So Stan had to help me through some of the rougher parts. Basically through it all, this was the best part.

That was taken at the top of the mountain. The greater the obstacle the greater the reward. We finish the mountain and the temple that was connected to the mountain. We looked around took more pictures and left. Another one of my friends had decided to come down to hang out with us. So by the time we grabbed a taxi and headed back to my town she was there. We all spent the rest of the day on the beach.

Monday rolls around. Stan and I decide to head out to a open air sculpture area in my town. We check it out and the it was pretty cool. Some of the statues were interesting and complex. It took the artist much skill and time to make all of those sculptures.

Just an example of some of the sculptures.

Well, that was a lot to talk about. There are a couple of weekends that I need to talk about. I will take a break for now.

____

The End

It's not the journey it's about the road that you take.

-Cezar-

In the End

2009-08-27T21:42:00.004+09:00

OK. There is a lot to tell about my vacation. So much that I have decided not to tell it. There are way too many days and stories that I could and would tell, but I do not have the time nor the capacity to really tell it. I really enjoyed spending my time with my friends and family. Seeing some of my best friends; Tom, Brian, Olysar, Chris, Holly, Kate, Jon and Manny. Those people made my visit very special. They made me see why I should come back home in a couple of months. Lets not forget my relatives. My cousins, Aunts and Uncles; they reminded me that being with my family really is the most important thing in my life. Last, but not least, My Mother, Father, Brother and Sister-in-law to be; they are the ones that make everyday special. They make me feel like, even though we have problems sometimes, that blood ties will last forever. Everyone at home has a special place in my life and in my heart. They have made me who I am today. I always look to their examples when I need guidance in my life. If I lost all my money in the world, I would be thankful that I had my health and my family. They have taught me so much about the world and how I should be as a person.

___

The End

Home is where the heart is.

-Cezar-

Seriously?!?

2009-08-26T21:57:00.002+09:00

OK. The past post was about my first day which was Saturday. Sunday is now the topic. My friend Holly had found out that I was home. She was sneaky enough to find out that I was coming home. She and I had conspired to surprise her husband, one of my best friends, with me being home. When I spoke to her before I left she and I agreed to 6pm on Sunday night. So I had the whole day to kinda mess around. I told my brother to help me surprise my cousins. He told them that he was going to drop off something to them around 2:30ish. So that was set into motion. My parents and I spent the morning together. We had breakfast, went to church and then went to eat lunch together. It was nice family time together. 2pm-ish rolls around and I head off to my cousins house. I pull up and prepare myself. I walk up to the door and ring the bell. I hear some commotion inside and the door slowly opens. My cousin Erika opens the door. She looks at me with a blank stare. There was a long pause and a big grin on her face. The first words out of her mouth was "no way!" She kept on repeating those words over and over, for what seemed to be 5 minutes. Everyone was in separate rooms so no one knew what was going on. Eventually everyone started to come to see what was all the fuss. Their reactions were the same as my parents. A lot of crying, hugging and disbelief. I sat down with them and had a late lunch. I told stories and accounts of my experiences in South Korea. I spent a couple of hours just talking and having fun with them. Then I was was off to Holly's house. She had called me to see where I was. I informed her of my status and she told me to rush over asap. I leave my cousin's house and drive off to my friend's house. The husband had dropped them off from the shore back to their house so that he can get some groceries. So I ring the door bell and she answered the door. Once the door opened she jumped out and hugged me and welcomed me back. I walk into the house and say hello to some of the members of family who were visiting. So I waited until the husband came home. Then she received a phone call that one of our mutual friends was coming over. I told him several times over of my fake plans, so he was also under the assumption that I was not home. He rings the bell and I answer the door. All I see is a smirk on his face and disbelieve in his eyes. The first words were "I thought you were supposed to be in the Philippines." I told him that I lied. We laugh about it for a little bit. He comes in and we all wait for Chris. Then it happened. He called to say that he was going to be home soon. I run to get a light saber that he and I have. I wait behind the door. He walks in and I jump out with the light saber. His first words were "oh, hey." Then he proceeds to bring the groceries into the house. He gives me a quick hug and laughs it off. We spend the night laughing and telling tale. My jet lag was getting the better of me so I had to leave the place a little early.

That was my Sunday, there is much more to come.

___

The End

Liar liar pants on fire.

-Cezar-

You're what now?

2009-08-25T19:17:00.003+09:00

So where was I. The last time we saw our Filipino friend he was at the airport. Let's rewind a little bit. I had stayed at a friends place the night before. She had the same time flight I had and she lived an hour away from the airport. She offered to let me stay at her place then we head off to the airport together. I arrived at her place settled down for a couple of minutes then she and I decided to meet up with a couple of hashers for drinks. They thought it would be funny to keep me up until about 3am. When I eventually got to sleep at 3am-ish I needed to get back up in 3 hours for my flight at 11 am. I planned to wake up at 6am. That didn't happen at all, I woke up at 7 am. My friend and I had to rush out of the door and catch the correct bus to the airport. I was able to check in and get everything together by around 9am-ish. The first flight I had to take was to China and from there was a direct flight to America. My flight leaves promptly at 11 am and I arrive in China 2 hours after my flight departed from South Korea. I was informed that I had to go through customs and pick up my baggage then check into my flight for America. I had only 3 hours to do so. Once I got off the plane I started running. If I was to make my flight to America in Time I had to clear many obstacles; which included immigration into China, baggage claim, running to the correct terminal for my flight, checking into the flight, and finally passing through security. I had no problems at immigration and baggage claim. I found out that the terminal that I had to be at was at least 1 km away from where I was. So walking was out of the question. I had 2 check in baggage, one with rollers and a box. Trying to manage that with semi-running across an airport terminal was not fun. After my short 1 km sprint I make it to the correct terminal and find my way to the check-in for my flight. As I approached the check-in sweaty and out of breath, my first words to a random stranger was "is this the line for Continental?" The woman, who I had asked, looks me up and down and says yes it is. I breath a sigh of relief. Then I peer over to look at the line, it had wrapped around quite a bit with a large amount of people. Then I sighed in disbelief and frustration. At that moment I only had 2 and a half hours to get check-in and get passed security. I was pacing up and down in my area the whole time I was in line. The woman in front of me kept on looking back at me, or trying to make excuses to look at me. I was too distracted at the time to start a conversation and my flirting. After I check-in and get passed security, I run into her again. I had about an hour until my flight and she was on the same flight as me. She and I started walking together. I start talking to her and make conversation. I start flirting with her a little bit. The first round of questions went like this. Where are you going? She answered Boston. I replied with a few stories of Boston I had. I told her my destination. I asked her what she was doing in China. I told her I was a teacher in Korea and tell her some stories about that. I asked her what she does in America. She responded "I am a student." I thought to myself, oh she looks older then a student but oh well. I asked her what school she goes too. Then there was a long pause. She looks around a little bit and responds "yeah, I am in high school." She goes further into it and says "I just turned 16 last month." The first words out of my mouth was "no way." She proceeded to prove it to me and our conversation went to a dead stop. I tried to recover and pass it off as if I wasn't hitting on her for the past couple of minutes. She apologized to me several times for some reason. I told her that there was no need and I was just talking to her for entertainment. Then I pretended to get hungry, she pretended to have people to meet up with and we went our separate ways. The flight was normal, nothing out of the ordinary. I land right on time in America around 6pm. My brother had set up a dinner with my parents around 9ish. I get out of the security and immigration around 8ish. I call my brother and tell him I am here. He tells me he is a couple of minutes away. So there I was in Newark waiting for my brother. I couldn't believe I was home again. I was back in America, it seemed like Mars at the moment. I was in shock that I was in shock. Then I see my brother pull up in his car. I was wearing sunglasses and regular clothes. I see my brother and his fiance in the car. They are looking around in confusion. They were looking at me and I was looking straight at them. They could hardly disbelieve that I looked the way I looked. We all hugged it out for a couple of moments. Then we drive off for home. My brother and his fiance we super happy and still in disbelief. We were all excited to see the reaction from my parents. So we get to my area and my brother drops me off down the block so that no one suspects me being home. The plan was I hold on to my brother's cell phone and his fiance sends me a text message to come in. So there I was waiting and waiting and waiting until I get it. A couple of minutes later my brother comes running down my street. He informs me that his fiance forgot her cellphone at home. We have a quick laugh and he grabs the phone from me and tells me the new plan. He told my parents that he left his cellphone in the car. So he runs back into the house he told me to count to 60 before I come in. He walks into the house and I start counting. Once the 60 was over I started opening the door. I hear my parents talking in the background. My father was the first to see me and then my mother saw me a moment after. I said nothing to them. I quickly sit down and start eating food from the table. I wait for a few moments and I say "hey." My parents faces were just in shock. My father was half smiling and shock same as my mother. Everyone was in silence which seemed to last forever. Then my mother started crying. She cried for a while. She cried so much that we had to make sure that she was OK. After the initial shock we all start laughing and tell them what happened. Then I proceeded to yell at my parents for not listening to me about waiting to buy the tickets to see me. The night proceeded as normal. My parents were still in shock and I was just glad to be home. I ate some good home cooked food that I missed very much. We had a good night of laughs and happiness.

If I had a thousand words to describe the look on my parents faces I would. I do not have the capacity to write about it. I wish I had a camera at the time to show you all, but I did not. You have to take my word for it. I blew their minds and melted their faces.

___

The End

You can't pay for a good surprise.

-Cezar-

Lies and Propaganda!

2009-08-17T10:32:00.003+09:00

Hello all I am back from vacation. I need to confess something to all of you. I was not honest about my plans for vacation. I went back to America for 2 weeks to surprise my friends and family. I had to make a complete alibi about my whereabouts. I really wanted to keep my parents in the dark as much as possible. I lied to everyone that knew them and to people that didn't know them at all. The only people that knew were my brother and his fiance. So this is how the story unfolded.

Around June I had to make a decision on where I wanted to go to for vacation. I had several options. There was Japan, China or the Philippines. I had options and plans for any one of those places. I was on the fence on all three. I started to talk to my parents and my brother on where I could possibly go to for vacation. They of course pushed for me to come home. I was not completely sold on coming back so soon just for a quick visit. I was concerned that I was going to stay home rather then come back to South Korea. I think that is what my family wanted to happen too secretly. So I discussed the idea with my brother over an over. My parents kept on pushing and offering bribes for me to come home. Eventually I decided to come home. I wanted to make it a surprise to everyone. The issue was that my parents kept track of my bills, so I did not want them to be alerted with a ticket purchase for America. I asked my brother to pay for me so that I can pretend I had other plans for my parents. I bought my tickets and that is when the lies began. My parents initially thought I was going to the Philippines. I would have used that lie to sell the idea, but I have too much family there and my parents would have used all their contacts to help me find a place to sleep. So I told them I was going to spend 2 weeks in Japan. I thought that just telling them that would be enough of a cover story, I was wrong. Once I I sold them the idea, they wanted an itinerary for my trip. I did not know how or to show them a fake itinerary. So for a couple of weeks I played the card of I want to be independent. I booked my flight for August 1, so my I thought I could keep it up for a little while. I kept the lie alive for 2 or 3 weeks. They kept on insisting on the itinerary. I kept on insisting on not telling them at all. I got into a couple of verbal discussions with my parents about it. As August came closer my parents started not to believe the lies I told them. They started to suspect I was coming home.

It was nearly a week before I had planned to come home. My father had jokingly said that he knew what I had planning. I asked him what. He told me that he knew I was coming home. I told him that it was not true. This is the part where I knew my cover was blown. So I decided to make a new lie on top of the old lie. I asked my father if he wanted to know the truth, he said yes. This is the part where I had to make up a bigger harder lie. I told him that I met a girl. I told them that she and I will travel South Korea together. I had to make up her name, where she was teaching, where she was from, how we met and where we plan to go. I had to create this lie very early in the morning to my father. Once I set that lie, he lectured me about having a "special" friend. Then he went off to work. I was not surprised to get a call from my mother. She started asking me about my plans in Japan, as if she didn't speak to my father about my new "special" friend. I played along with her, then she started to ask about this new friend. I told her what I told my father about the girl. Since it was early morning all of my head was not in the game. I mixed up the state that she was from, but they both bought the lie. Then I received an email from the both of them. They bought tickets to visit me in South Korea in September. I kept the lie going for almost 2 months. I told my father not to buy tickets until November. Then they go and buy tickets 2 days before I come home. My brother instantly called me. He and I spoke about various options. We decided that nothing could be done and that they could try to cancel when I get home. So I wait until my flight to home.

I will take a break for now. There are many stories ahead starting at the airport.

___

The End (for now)

The tangled webs we weave when we first deceive.

-Cezar-

To the Grind

2009-07-28T20:52:00.002+09:00

Ah the weekdays. This is payment for a fun weekend. The hard weekdays make me appreciate the weekends so much more. I really enjoy my time with my friends, being with my friends reminds me of being home. The time I spend with my friends also lets me be me, I don't get much time for that now a days. It is a welcome relief and really lets me break out of my rut from that week. That is about all what I have for the past week. I have been focused on my upcoming vacation. By the way, for all of my readers and what not, I will be away for two weeks. These two weeks I plan to take a break from everything. That means I will not be writing in my blogs. I do want to take the time to thank those who actually read my blogs on a semi-regular basis. I will miss writing, but I will keep a pen an pad handy. I will log into that once in a while. The logs that I choose will make it into my blogs. For today's exercise I will do something that I do best, talk about food.

Fried Chicken
It seems to be lightly fried. The coloring of the chicken is a light brown almost golden color. The skin looks light and crispy. I could feel the heat still rising off of the chicken itself, almost as if it was just taken out of the fryer. There is an aroma that emanates from the chicken itself. The smell seems to speak as if welcoming you to devour it in one smooth motion. I am tempted to eat it, but how it looks and smells, it almost seems to be a shame to eat it at all. I take a step back from the chicken and take a deep breath it. This breath takes me into memories of childhood and eating chicken with my family. I eventually take a bite into the meat. The first thing bitten into is a combination of meat and skin. The skin crackles sounds like a melody of random sounds that keeps on inviting you to eat more. Then the taste of the meat hits my tongue. Just like the skin, instead of sound it is flavor. The combination of sauce and meat create a sensation of hot, sweet, sour and several other flavors that enhance the experience. The meat tastes of a musical symphony, it is a delicate balance that seems to have been done almost on purpose. In an instant I am consumed by an urge to eat this tender morsel of meat. Then in that same instance I have eaten it all. It was an experience, almost religious in nature.

___

The End

The best food is usually eaten fast for your soul.

-Cezar-

What's in a name?

2009-07-27T18:44:00.003+09:00

Ok. The past week has been kind of nutty. Summer sessions have started for me. I have been teaching the kids by myself in the English room. This is really the first time that I have the opportunity to teach the kids all by myself. It has been a fun experience. I really need to find ways to make the class more interesting and fun for the kids. The best part of the days is when it's over. My day ends at or around 12:10 everyday. That gives me a lot of time for and to myself. I have taken the opportunity to connect with my inner beach bum. I have been sleeping and swimming at the beach for nearly a week. The only issue that has come to my attention is the various sea life that shares the waters. It has become very clear to me that there are jellyfish in the water. I have come close on several occasions to making contact. I have no desire whatsoever to touch one. So recently my desire to jump into the water has been defeated by my fear of being stung. This phobia has become quite a problem for me. I truly enjoy the water, but now I do not enjoy it as much. When I am in the water I try to keep aware of my surroundings and that takes away from my relaxing time. I need to find an alternative to the beach now.

Now for my weekend recap.

Friday:

I get out of work around 12:10. I decided to go to the beach for a couple of hours before I go into Jeonju. I stayed on the beach until around 4pm ish. The bus ride was nothing special, it was a regular 2 hour ride into town. I get into Stan's place pretty early, he left me his keys so I can get into his apartment. He eventually gets in and we wind down and relax a bit. We head out to a spa to meet up with a couple of friends. Ruveena and Kevin had already made it to the spa. We go and grab some time at the saunas and grab some food. We were out until about 12am ish. The only problem was I was feeling a little sick. My throat was killing me and I had a viscous cough that really wasn't going away at all.

Saturday:

My sickness still hadn't gone away. There was going to be a hash this day and I wasn't up for it. I had found out the night before that this would be my 5th hash and I was to be named this day IF I were to hash. I was determined to do this hash in order to acquire my name. The day started off ok. There were a couple of clouds in the sky, it felt somewhat ominous. I shrug it off because my concerns were for conquering my sickness. My throat was so much in pain that I could not drink or eat. I spent most to all of the morning drinking tea or trying to sooth my aches. I had high hopes for that day because a group of Hashers from Seoul were coming down for the day for this particular hash. These hopes of the hash quickly got dashed because the rain had come in and it was angry. The Hammer had planned to set a dead trail, but the rain had other plans. In true hasher spirit we decided to go on with the hash itself. We all lucked out because the rain gave way for us to have trail. One of the hashers from jeonju volunteered to set trail while we follow 20 min behind. His name is Flash Me Nicely. So Flash ran the trail, but it was his first real trail that he set. We all followed trail and got lost. We got so lost, that at mid point we decided to get off trail and go to the end point directly. There were a couple of people that made it through the hash fully. By the time they made it to the bar most of us were already half into the tank. They eventually catch up to us. We all start talking and laughing. Sharing stories and jokes about each other. Start bonding as all hashers do. Some catch wind about my naming ceremony so they start probing me about my life and what not. I answer all questions honestly. Eventually the hash circle forms. All the traditions are taken place, but the management asked us to pick up the pace. The Virgins are dispatched quickly and what not. The main event was my naming. More questions about me were asked, mostly embarrassing ones. One girl was telling a story how she constantly drank a drink called "ceasar" in Canada and how good it was. In reply to make it funny, I said I go down easy. All laugh out loud. We continue with throwing names out. Eventually we finish and review all the names and then vote. At the end it came down to only one name "Goes Down Easy". I couldn't of asked for a better name. We all continue the night with more debauchery. There was a live show with a rock bands from different areas. Some hashers stay and others leave for more. We all end up going to clubs and parting for most of the night. We end up out until about 4am.

Sunday:

Southside wanted to do a hash. They started trail around the express bus terminal in Jeonju. Some go and some stay. I came to say my farethewells to the hashers. It was a nice treat for me to see them in the area and for me to hash with them. I just planned to say hi and bye, but got pulled into some bsing and what not. I spent about and hour or so just talking and having a good time with them. I eventually depart from their company. Good times were to be had by all.

___

The End

Slow and steady wins the race.

-Cezar-

Slow down

2009-07-24T19:54:00.002+09:00

Ok. I do apologize. I am making an effort to post on a daily basis. This is my new challenge to me in to trying to describe things better. I had a conversation last weekend with another tormented writer. I told her about my feelings about writing and all the insecurities that I go through. She re-assured me that she goes through the same things, which really gave me hope that I was not alone. So this is me on my efforts in improving my skills. I also want to comment on my last blog. I feel that I could have done better. I am really just trying to find my voice. I think my style right now is organic. I feel more comfortable trying to bring life into simple words. My last blog felt too cold. I guess that is one of the challenges in front of me. I will try to find a middle ground right now, until I figure it out. In the next couple of blogs, I will try to describe things that are cold and try to bring warmth to it. I will also try to bring more life into something that has meaning to it as well. I do hope you hang in there on my journey of finding my voice and style. I would love to hear from anyone reading it. I would like any suggestions. I will also make more of an effort to read more. I think if I read more I would be able to find myself. The only issue I find with that line of thought is that I might take on someone's voice and not develop my own. I don't want to be a carbon copy of a great writer. I just want to write well enough so that I don't seem like too much of a fool. On a last note. I find it deeply ironic that I am not a reader, nor do I really comprehend all the rules of writing well, but I find myself drawn to the stage of writing.

The Caress

It is a hovering sensation. A simple touch. An exchange of sensations between two parties. You feel it as if it is there and not there at the same time. It is a hand or a finger that gives a gesture of there and not there. Moved in patterns and directions that give a sense of air. The air that can only be felt like a breeze coming in from the beach or silk cloth on the skin. This feeling is shared, as if the moment were to never really end. It is the presence of the touch that is not really there. It is gentle so gentle in fact that one could not be really be sure that it is there.

____

The End

"Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda

-Cezar-

The Simple Things

2009-07-22T20:16:00.006+09:00

Here we are again. I think I will try to stay on this path of developing my ability to describe things. I have been reflecting on what it means for me as a writer. I believe at the end of the day this tool will help get you, as the reader, more involved in the story. If I were to just state that the object was a leaf or something like that, you will not be as engaged. The stories that I weave need to have details. I think I have to tell you about the object or situations as if you have never seen or heard of them before. I believe these exercises in description will lead me to a new path in my writing. I hope all of you enjoy reading it as much as I write it. On a side note. Something interesting occurred to me when I was reflecting on my style of writing and how to develop it. I realized that when I write I am on the same journey as you. I write as the stories develop. I have no forethought about what is going to happen in a particular story. I have a general idea on where the story will end, but how it progresses is a mystery to me. That is why I believe being as descriptive as possible will help in the stories I tell.

Breath
The diaphragm expands. Air is funneled into tubes into the lungs. The Lungs expand and exchange what is necessary. The waste is funneled back into the same tubes and out. All of this in a matter of seconds, it is simple as A and B. We breath in and out. An exchange of particles of molecules and atoms so minute that no human eye can perceive it. This exchange has been dealt many times in our lives. The true events of this "simple" exchange cannot be so easily described by words as small as the very molecules themselves. We think it as only an exchange. This event happens because it needs to happen. It is more of an age old bargain that was negotiated many Millennia ago. This act of breathing just as complex to comprehend as well as explain. We all enjoy this act of breathing from moment to moment. The systems that support the lungs can only really be described as a complex highway intertwined and interdependent. The nerves that shoot impulses to the muscles and the veins and arteries that give them blood. Each has a roll; and each cannot exist without the other. The breath that we take for granted is really seems like a purposeful miracle. This simple act of a breath is not so simple indeed. It is more simply taken for granted, much like anything else in the world. The breath is a gift that, for some, is easily taken.

___

The End

The past has happened. The future is unknown. Today is a gift, that is why we call it the present.

-Cezar-

so you say

2009-07-21T21:50:00.003+09:00

In an effort to improve my writing skills I will be taking some time to practice describing objects and or events. I hope that this will help me in the future. Let us see how it goes. Today I will try to talk about a leaf.

The Gentle Leaves
There grows a tree in a forest. This tree is not young nor is it old. It's roots are deeply intertwined and dug into the ground. It's bark is worn from bearing both strong winds and rain. It's has survived and thrived for many years. This tree grows. The limbs and branches are outstretched as if trying to embrace the sun and the sky itself. These branches thrive with the tree. As if by some miracle small buds spring forth from the branches of the branches. This is nothing new for the tree. It has been through many seasons and has cycled through this before. The days have passed into weeks. The buds are starting to bloom. The buds blossom into leaves. Each leaf can only be described as only as green. It's true colors and beauty cannot be so easily grasped. The leaves themselves, much like the tree, grow towards the sky and sun as if trying to consume it. The leaves are like little trees. Each one is rooted into the tree and they have small branch like extensions that reach upwards. Their roots are strong, like the tree. The winds blow and thrash the leaves about, but the leaves stay rooted. The winds howl in anger and frustration at it's inability to remove the leaves from the branches. The leaves themselves provide cover to those who seek it's shelter from the rain or sun. They possess a certain softness almost gentle quality.

___

The End

Speak as if only to say something.

-Cezar-

swing away

2009-07-20T10:14:00.003+09:00

This weekend was a nice relief from the past weekends. I have had such a packed july that it has been just a little crazy. I found myself back n Jeonju for the weekend. Friday night I went out with Stan and a couple of his students for dinner. We ate at a local Japanese restaurant which had some really great food to offer. We were eating and drinking for most of the night. After eating at the restaurant, they wanted to change venues to a local art gallery where we can continue drinking. Most of the night was spent trying to create an English name for the two Korean men that were with us. So we spent the night laughing and talking about potential names for both of them. Eventually we all came to the agreement of Kevin and Louis. In turn, we asked them for Korean names. After some thought and more laughing and talking, I was named chiho, loosely translated as "drunken tiger". I instantly fell in love with the name. The whole night everyone kept referring to me as Chiho and we would all laugh about it. We were out until about 2am laughing and drinking with the two gentlemen. The best part of the whole situation was the Korean men were actively making jokes in English. The type of jokes that you would only expect from native speaking English people. That's what really made the night a little more fun. The fact that I was being made fun of and vice versa by Koreans.

Saturday rolls around. I was still a little bit groggy from the night before. Stan and I had an appointment with another one of his students. We were to go golfing at a local area. It had been some time since I picked up any type of golf set, so I was naturally both excited and nervous. We didn't have time to go to the golf range before the game so I had to play with borrowed clubs and extremely rust in my golf joints. We get to the field and I naturally don't want to go first. I wait a little to swing the club. I don't know what came over me. I think I was channeling Tiger Woods. I picked up the driver. I set the form. I bring back the club and swing away. All I heard was a beautiful *TING* and saw my ball go straight and onto the green. And if you believe that really happened then I feel bad for you. What really happened was I took a swing and the ball went to the extreme left only to be saved by the net. I laughed it off, but really wanted to throw my clubs in anger. The rest of the game basically had the same tone. I spent more time in the rough then the gardeners. It was all in good fun though, I was able to pick up the clubs again. I didn't realize how much I missed being on the field playing golf. After golf was done, we all went out to lunch. We talked about the game and pretty much anything and everything. We all eventually part ways. Stan and I were so tired that taking a nap was in order. After a quick nap, a couple of friends called us to go out. So we go out to the local shopping area to meet up. We walked around tried to do some shopping and what not. Eventually ran into another set of people and some of them joined us in our night of fun. We went to a local watering hole for foreigners and then to what Koreans call a night club. We were out until about 3am.

Sunday was a little uneventful. Stan went out for more golfing fun, I had to try to find something to buy. So some of the people from the night before met up with me and we went searching for my items. During our search, we sat and ate at a local Filipino food restaurant. I introduced them to what was being served and what not. At the end of the time in the area, I didn't find what I was looking for. So I headed off to church then after church I went home like usual.

___

The End

You won't have it when you want it, but you will have it when you need it.

-Cezar-

Just a bit lazy

2009-07-16T21:45:00.002+09:00

July has been a roller coaster for me. I feel bad hat I haven't had a chance to really set myself up in the blogs like in the past months. I have been on such an emotional and physical roller coaster. I understand that this is a blog and I should treat this as a diary of sorts. There in lays the problem. I can not get to this thing as much as I want too. This blog will be more about how I feel about things. So bear with me, I need to get things off my chest. If you feel that you do not need to read more then stop here and wait for my next blog, when ever that may be.

Picking up the pieces:

I have noticed in my life that I omit a certain aura. People are generally attracted to me because of who I am and how I present myself. They stick around because I create a comfortable environment. That is all well and good. The more friends the better. The problem that I see and feel with that is I don't get the girl. The problem with being everyone's friend is that I get to be everyone's friend. In my opinion that really sucks, I get to be benched by the girls that I am attracted too. It's like hey your cute and funny and awesome but I don't want to date you EVER. This is an issue that I have been struggling with for a very long time. I have been raised in a certain way to treat people, especially women, in a certain way. No one told me that road leads me to not having someone special. Many people tell me to wait. Wait for the right girl and she will find you. I am seriously done with waiting. I have grown tired of waiting for the girl to date all the jerks and finally find out that I am the guy for her. This is not like the movies where the good guy gets the girl. I am constantly the nice guy that gets put on the sideline. Then I really want to change who I am into the guy that women are attracted too. Then again I cannot untrain 26 years of how to treat a woman. Ok. I'm done with that line of thought. The reason why I went with that thought was recently I was attracted to a woman. I thought she was attracted to me. I have gathered enough evidence and by now I have a good sense when it happens, she sees me as a good friend.

___

The End

Your heart will lead you to the right place and the right time.

-Cezar-

getting dirty

2009-07-13T08:36:00.010+09:00

OK. I'm back with stories and what not. I think I have re-energized myself enough to try to get back on the horse with my writing. The time away felt wrong. I enjoyed the time off from writing, but writing provides me with a much needed outlet. I am not going to bother you with the particulars of the past week; I'll just fill you in about the weekend.

Friday:

Normal Friday. I get out of school and jump right into my place. My friends were going to wait for me. We planned to go to mud festival together so I had to rush to their town. We all eventually get together at the town and mosey to the festival. The trip looked to be about 1 and a half hours long, so good company was needed. Road trips are always interesting. We had some good conversation and some really bad music. The driver was a Korean friend of ours. It was suggested to him to download a couple songs from the mid to late 80's and the 90's. He wasn't given instructions to download the good music. He was lucky enough to catch a couple good songs, but in the majority not that good. We all made fun of him during the trip.

We eventually get to the town that we needed to be in for mud fest. And in true hasher style, there was a trail set to lead us to the pension itself. We knew the name of the place, so we ended up just asking around where it was. We stopped by many people who gave us the worst directions ever. Basically they told us to go in circles. We eventually find the place by luck. We get into the rooms at about 11ish. The rooms were empty, the other hashers decided to go to the beach and start drinking. In an effort to join them we walk to the beach to try to find them, after about an hour of walking up and down a very long beach we found no one. We call them only to find out that they went back to the pension to finish drinking. So we end up going back to the pension, and find that they decided to party in the room I was sleeping in. We sat down started drinking and talking and having our fun. They didn't leave or stop partying until about 4am.

Saturday:
Now this is where my curse of beiong able to sleep late and wake up early comes in. I wake up at 6am. I sit up and just try to figure out what to do. I figured out nothing. I showed up and started to walk around town alone so this way I can kill some time. Around 8ish I run into another hasher by the name of G.I. Hoe, thats not his real name but I don't really even know his real name. So he and I decide to start exploring and what not. We end up back at the pension around 11am-ish. People started moving around at that time. We join a couple of people in getting breakfast. After breakfast, we go to the mud fest.

Mud fest is eactly what it sounds like. People get together and play in the mud. There were stations for self painting and what not. We were in a big group when we started out but we all get separated in the crowd. G.I. Hoe and I end up walking around together agian. Now let me explain how this all works. There are different types of pits in the area. One pit, I call the pit of war, basically a large group of people mud wrestling each other. Another pit, I call the kiddy pool, where it isn't threating at all. You go into the pool of mud and just roll around to get a nice coating of mud. There are several other stations at are game like. So I dipped into the kiddy pool. I walk around get some other muds put on me and what not. Eventually we meet up with some people. Then the fun really began. I had some stuff in my pocket that I did not want to get ruined by the mud. So I asked someone to look after it while I get into the pit of war. Me and a couple of the hashers get into the pit. Mayhem instantly insues. There is an outter ring in the mud for people to take a break or a breather and the inner ring where people get tossed around. I instantly get into the meat of the ring. I start getting tossed around and what not. People tripping me or lounging at me, and I do the same. The best part was; after you take someone down we have a laugh give a handshake and proceed to try to take other people down.

I am some where in the middle of this crowd of mayhem. If you look at the bottom right of the picture you can see an example of the type of fun people have in the pit.

That's me after G.I. Hoe decided to give me a nice swift leg sweep.
That's me again trying to take a breather in the outer ring.

We all played in the mud until about 3ish. The hash started at 4pm so we wanted to get ready for it. I end up taking a shower at my place and yeah. There was mud everywhere. We all meet up outside of the pension and wait for the trail to be set. I am not going to bore you with the details of the trail. Basically we ran up and down a mountain full of thorns and other dangerous plant life.

Most of the town from one point on the trail.

I eventually finish the trail with my friends. We have BBQ and beers. Then after that we hold the hash circle and talk about the events of the trail and what not. We sing songs and have fun at the night. I ended up leaving the group at the end of the circle. Some friends from another town were in the fest too. I met up with them for a different type of fun. The hashers party hard, I wanted a more toned down personal hangout session with good people. We hung out for a while and had many many laughs. I end the night with them at 1am. I truly had fun with the Iksanians. They are a good group of kids with my type of humor and personality. I miss all of them when I am not hanging out with them. So, I get back to my room. I find all hashers semi alseep. I get to my spot on the floor and proceed to wake everyone with the noise I make. We all proceed to talk and make jokes and for some reason start singing the Oscar mayer bologna song together. We do that for a while until about 2 am.

Sunday:
Nothing to tell here. It started to monsoon in the area. The rain was really bad. Ironically no one wants to play in the mud while its raining. Three of my friends who decided to camp out on the beach for the weekend got rained out. Their tents actually got destroyed in the rain and wind. They ended up coming to the the pension for a shower and to try to find some clean dry clothes they can borrow. We all chip in some clothes. No one wanted to go play in the mud in the rain so we grab breakfast then head home. I eventually get home at 4pm to try to rest. I had no engergy for anything, but i had to do my laundry and what not. I couldn't cook so I bought food.

___

The End

To have fun, sometimes you have to pretend to be a kid.

-Cezar-

sorry

2009-07-09T20:14:00.002+09:00

Sorry all. I think I may have to take a little bit of a time out with this whole blogging thing. I have hit a little bit of a rut as far as my creative juices go. I have really come to a screeching halt with my writing. That makes me sad, but I have a refreshing weekend coming up with my friends and hopefully it will re-energize me to come back.

___

the end

Take a moment. Take a step back. Take a breath.

-Cezar-

so little time

2009-07-06T09:02:00.003+09:00

OK. I know I have been missing for the past couple of days. I wish I had a good excuse, but I don't. I have been so tired and burned out the past couple of days. Lately I have been burning the candle at both ends and I think its starting to meet in the middle. I have just been going to one event to another.

Last week:

Here is how last week worked out for me. It was nothing special, a regular week with nothing spectacular. I was really just looking forward to the weekend with my good friends. So the days kinda crawled by.

The weekend.

Friday was interesting. I came into Jeonju around 8:30ish and got to my friend's place by 8:45. He had a guest over, so we all ate dinner and had some good conversation. Later that night we went over to another friends place to help set up for the night after. There was a charity event that my friends were hosting and I was asked to help out as much as possible. So we went over our friend's house and we were supposed to start preparing, but we didn't. We ended up just sitting around drinking and talking and laughing most to all of the night.

Saturday:

I had been informed that there was a filipino store in Jeonju. I was given instructions on how to get there and what not by two of my friends. I got to the general area and got lost for about 30 min. I eventually find my way back to the starting point and stumble onto the area I really needed to be in. I find the filipino place and it was great. I came in and introduced myself to the owner and she fed me some good filipino food. As I ate I saw that she was holding onto a lot of filipino food. So not only did I find an awesome place to eat at, but also a place where I can buy my filipino groceries. The only issue is that the place is small and what not. So I did more shopping in the area, and went back to Stan's place to help prepare. All I needed to do for that day was to chop up som fruits and call it a day. It took me a couple of hours to actually cut the fruits up. I started around 1:30ish and finished around 5ish. The event started at 7, so I had some time to rest up. 7 rolls around kind of faster then I expected. Stan and I jump into a taxi with the rest of the food and what not and head to the event. I was told to man the bar. First of all thats not a good idea at all. So I started maning the bar. Taking tickets and serving drinks. People start to pile up and want to eat and drink. I joined them in the drinking part only. The night went off very well. There were a few minor situations, but nothing that we could not handle. People generally had fun and a good time. I had an opportunity to talk and have good conversations with people coming up to the bar. So much so that people started buying me drinks. I really appreciated that. The event ended around 11ish. I was ready to hit the town. My friends were there and wanted to blow off some steam from the night. We went out to a local bar and started drinking more. We all ended up leaving some time after to go to a club. We all started to do more debouchery there too. My night ended at the club at 4 am. I headed back to Stan's place so that I can crash on the couch. I end up sleeping around 5 am.

sunday.

I wake up promptly at 8am. The first thing I said to myself was greeeaaaat. I didn't have a hangover. I just wanted to sleep more, but my body is a wierd thing. Stan eventually wakes up around 10ish. We have a little bit of a re-count of the night and have some good laughs. We head out to meet hammer and highly strung at a local coffee shop. They stay for a while, but end up leaving early. Stan and I stay to talk to the owner and have a good laugh. As we left the shop we go to his scooter. We went to where it was parked and it was gone. Someone had stolen the scooter while we were relaxing. Let's just say that Stan was more then livid. I didn't even know that Korea had a crime problem. I had gotten used to the area so much that I had my gaurd down. Now, it's back up. I really felt bad for Stan. He had given and sacrificed so much for the charity event the night before and this happens to him. I was at a loss for words. All I could do was try to comfort him. I eventually depart his company. I get back home in time to greet my father a happy birthday. Now my father and I usually are not on the same page or note. That doesn't mean that I don't love him more then anything else. I had written him a birthday greeting on a family website and I want to share that with you today.

hey dad,

I just wanted to drop a line and wish you a happy birthday. I know its different feeling me sending my wishes to you from half way around the world. I also wanted to tell you that I miss you from the bottom of my heart. You have always been there for me as a rock. Even though you and I bump heads more then one occasion, you always have the best interests for me. I have and will always admire your strength and character. I can only hope that when I grow up I can be at least half the man you are. I don't always have a chance to say this, but I do look up to you. When ever I am in a situation, your voice is always there to guide me. I have found on several occasions that your words come out of my mouth when I give advice. Through it all dad; the good and the bad; you will always be my guiding light. You will always serve as my beacon for what type of man I should be. I appreciate everything you have done and will do in my life. Happy birthday dad, and with all the sincerity in my heart, I love you very much.

___

The End

Strength of character is tested in the fire of life.

-Cezar-

Meeting with the moms

2009-06-30T08:20:00.002+09:00

As you already know I have taken in a couple of private students. It has been going well and the students seem to be progressing. I thought all was going well until yesterday. The moms called a meeting with me. They took me to a restaurant just outside of town. Now before I start telling you about the meeting I will tell you about the restaurant.

I was sitting in the front seat of one of the cars. We pull into the bottom of a hill. I am looking around and all I see is a couple of houses and many trees. We start pulling up a little further. I see this huge Buddhist statue next to a beautiful traditional Korean house. I also see lanterns hung from many places. As we pulled into the parking lot, I turn to see the view, it was nothing short of breathtaking. Green grass that rolled into a couple patches of farm land and after the farm land was the Buddhist temple. surrounding us was mountain. This night also provided fog. The fog wasn't too thick nor was it thin. The fog was rolling over the mountains just enough to make a great scene. I have been here in Korea for almost 4 months now, this was possibly one of the more beautiful sights I had seen. I was just annoyed because I did not have my camera. I usually do bring my camera with me everywhere, but it had been out of batteries so I left it home charging.

So the meeting. The moms just wanted to know how I felt about changing up the groups. They wanted me to teach them in 3 groups rather then 2. I told them what I thought about that. In short, I told them the big groups work better because it's a better support group for all the kids. After a healthy debate with each other, they agreed to what I was saying. They no longer wanted to split them up.

*side note*

The food at the restaurant was really good as well. They served some of the best soup I had in a very long while.

___

The End

Always be prepared. -Boy scouts

-Cezar-

It's only rain

2009-06-28T20:51:00.002+09:00

This hash was such a mix of events. I find it only appropriate to name it “if at first you don’t succeed”. This hash really took place in two days. I will start on the first. Friday. I was asked to take care of the hash in Gyeokpo, since it was my town I was to set trail. I was very excited to create a trail that was not only challenging but interesting as well. The weekend prior I did a dry run of the hash, it went well and the trail was great. When the actual day of the hash came I decided to try to create the trail as early as possible so I can spend some time with the hashers. I thought I had enough chalk to last me for the whole trail. I woke up early this day. I started to set trail with the chalk I had and I didn’t even make it to the half way mark of the trail. It was early in the morning and there was not a cloud in the sky and the day seemed to hold good weather. Since I could not finish the trail I laid in wait until the group came into town. A couple hours later I received a phone call from Highly Strung asking if I could text my address to her via Korean Language to her. I had no idea how to do it, but I tried and it took me quite a while to actually text it to her successfully. So there I was again, laying in wait until the hashers came into town. They all eventually got to my town and I directed them to where they needed to go. I was resupplied with chalk. Once the chalk was in my hands I started to reset the trail. I followed my trail that I set a while ago. I was nearing more than half way when I saw in the distance a looming dark cloud. These dark clouds were in the distance, but I could see that they meant trouble. I sent a text to Highly Strung to inform her of the imminent threat of rain. As I continued doing my trail I felt a couple drops of water. I was quite confused on where they were coming from. I had worked up a sweat and I was near the water; so naturally I brushed it off. I finished the trail and got back with the rest of the group around 1:30ish. The trail had taken me about 2 hours walking with all the check points and challenges. So I sat down to grab a beer and relax with Hammer and Highly Strung. Then it happened. There was a slight drizzle. The Slight drizzle became heavy rain. My hard work just got washed away in a blink of an eye. There are no words on how angry I really was.

In an attempt to salvage the situation, the hashers decided to make lemonade with the lemons that was handed to us. We set up the BBQ in front of a motel with cover from the rain and started drinking and waiting for other people to arrive to eat. While preparing and chit chatting the skies started to clear up and there was an opportunity to continue with the hash. We took a vote amongst the hashers and they were up for the hash. The problem with that was the trail was gone. I was asked to be a live hare with no name Isak. I was fortunate because Isak had lived and worked in the area the year before. He and I started the trail again. We set out on the trail and everything was going well. We get to a certain point and I find that it had suddenly become high tide and my original trail was no longer possible. Again, I was pretty angry with the situation. We continued on and on with the trail. We were near the finishing line when the hashers that had left 15 -20 after us caught up with us. Since our trail was not done they had to stop running and keep pace with us until we finish the trail. Upon arriving near the finish line we saw the walkers only at the beginning part of the trail, we all laughed. It wasn’t for another 2 hours until they all arrived at the finish line. We start eating and drinking again. We are all chatting and being the loud hasher group that we are. The night continues with great conversations and people. Short to say fun was had by all.

As the night continued, the hash group finally came together. We were to wrap up the hash and do the traditional ceremonies. This night was more than tradition. It was the naming ceremony for two of the no names. No name Stan and no name Tori were to be officially named this night. Hammer and Highly Strung had the difficult task of not only trying to quiet a rowdy group of drunks but also officiate the naming the two people. Eventually they get everyone in order and they start they do the ceremony. After a couple minutes of debate and talk Stan became “Tequila Mockingbird” and Tori became “Tipsy Tori”. I was more inclined for “mouth from the South” for Stan, but I did not win that battle. After the naming ceremony we were asked politely, not really, to move our party elsewhere seeing that we were being too loud. We move to an open patio and start drinking more. We played the old, but good, game of “I never”. This really got the group to bond more. We told a lot of jokes and stories that night. Most of the hashers called it a night around 1amish, some stayed out til later for more debauchery.

Sunday:
This will be short. Woke up in the morning met with all the hashers and we head out for breakfast. We tell tale of night of fun. Some come in later on and eat while the others headed to the local carnival. We jumped into a ride called the turbo disco. The operator sees that we are all foreigners and starts having fun with the ride. He starts throwing us around in the ride and speaks konglish over the speaker. Makes us suffer whilst he laughs like an evil genius. After the ride, we come out sweaty and beat up. The other eventually catch up and some of the group get back on the ride for more fun with the operator. He again begins to torture them via carnival ride. After the ride, we all jump into ATVs and go. The nice Korean man let us take his ATVs, he lead us to a temple. At the temple we found a group of Koreans praying, the Koreans decided to give us water and food, we all laugh a little out loud. After a while there we get back on the ATVs and head back into town. We all eventually jump into the water and cool off. They all finish up and leave around 4ish.

*Side Note*
Part of the trail, I forgot to mention, brought the hashers to a random ostrich farm in my town. That was possibly the best part of the trail.

Again these weekends are bitter sweet. I am fortunate enough to meet great people and have fun with them, but it is only for a short amount of time. Days like those make me long for home sometimes. Being surrounded by good people and friends is something that I have grown accustomed too. I am thankful for the time I did have with them. I will have more moments for me to enjoy their company.

____

The End

If at first you don’t succeed. Try and try again.

-Cezar-

Moment of silence

2009-06-26T15:49:00.004+09:00

I just learned a couple of hours ago that Michael Jackson has passed on. He was a legend in his own time. He was possibly the best performer and artist of my time. I feel the loss of him. I am not too attached to the man, but I grew up with his music. It's hard not to mourn the loss. I feel the need to just mention him. Through all the good and bad this man has been through, he was still a man. He had flaws like us and most of all he was human. My prayers go to his family, friends and loved ones. Please join me in a moment of silence.

I feel I should write more about this man. A paragraph isn't enough to pay tribute to such a man. I am at a loss for words.

__

The End

Legends are not born they are made.

Filling the gaps

2009-06-24T19:08:00.002+09:00

Well here I am again. It's Wednesday and I have nothing to show for it. I have no real news. I decided to take my learning of Korean more seriously. I am being a little bit more proactive. I also decided to try to exercise more often. There is a mud fest coming up and I want to look decent shirtless. I am not aiming for like model thin, but enough to be able to take my shirt off and not have to hide my moobs, man boobs for those who don't know. Both of those goals are at a very slow crawl. I have been feeling more motivated. I have have to turn that motivation to action.

As far as the story goes with Bobby, I have no real idea. I started jotting things down as far as story and characters. I want to make a really good plot. I want to make this a good read. That is where the problem falls. Every time I get ahead I feel that it isn't enough. I always feel that there should be more and there could be more. I want to make it perfect. Well not perfect, just readable. I find it hard to be creative. I want to make a story that is new to the world, but how. The greatest stories have already been told. How am I supposed to compete or even get on the same level? I am a novice at best when it comes to writing. I don't know the rules on how to make a good story. I don't even know the rules of grammar. Which I find very ironic because teach English. I often wonder to myself if this is the type of struggle every writer or wanna-be writer goes through. I feel like, when I write the stories or blogs, I am back in high school. I just want my stories and posts to be accepted by everyone. Every time I write something, it's like being back in gym hoping that your not the last guy to be picked for the team.

___

The End

Life is made of moments. You have to pick yours.

-Cezar-

utter boredum

2009-06-22T21:01:00.002+09:00

So I decided to write a story over the weekend. I decided to stay at home all weekend. Now I see why I decided not to do that ever again. I know that the weather hasn't been great, but being stuck in my room for 2 days isn't fun. I am pretty sure that I was catching a little cabin fever. There was a little break. The church group that I join a while back took some time out to have a BBQ in my area. I joined them in the BBQ, sadly it was rained out. I spent the rest of my Saturday in my room bored. Then in my hours of solitude, I decided to write a story. I was recently inspired by "The Little Prince" so that is where I get most of the story. I will be adding more to it my spin. If you read a little bit of it, you should realize that Bobby is me. Sometimes writers usually put themselves in the stories they write, I made it more obvious. Sunday wasn't too much interesting. The fog had rolled in early in the day. I thought it would another Saturday. So I spent most to all of my morning doing work that I was ignoring for the past couple weeks. Around 4ish I went for a 4 mile walk. Some of my hashing friends will be making a cameo in my town next weekend. I had to finalize the trail that I need to set. After I set the trail and walked a while I came back home and rested. This weekend wasn't action pact like usual but something did come out of it, the story. Interestingly enough; I have the ending to the story. I think it's a really good ending. The funny thing about it is I don't know how to get to the ending. The weird and funny thing is that I will be on the journey with you. I am really excited about this story. I really hope it turns out well. I hope you enjoy the story too.

___

The End

Life is like a box of chocolates you never know what your gonna get. -Forrest Gump

-Cezar-

The Lost Boy

2009-06-20T21:36:00.006+09:00

Preface:

I felt the need to write this story. I was recently inspired by "The Little Prince." This is a story about a boy. This boy is not extraordinary nor does he think of himself as special. He is a normal little boy. He finds himself following a path that he never thought of. Life has thrown him into a path and we will follow him on it. He does not know where the path will lead all he knows is to walk it. The amazement of the world and the beautiful surprises it holds for him.

The first step

Bobby was born in April. He was born healthy and with no problems at all. He was the second born of this family. His family was not rich nor were they poor. The family that he was born into was wealthy with love. The warm embrace of his family and loved ones was something that he will come to depend on. His parents were not famous or important to society. His parents were normal people who decided to have a family to share their love with. Bobby was a very fortunate boy, but he did not know that yet. Now Bobby has started his life. He is a young boy with no aspirations of greatness, yet. He does his job as a boy. His job at the moment was to play and explore his world. He was born into a world and society that welcomed him with open arms. Bobby doesn't know it yet but that is where his story begins.

Home

The place where he was born was not a rich area. The people were did not have much as far as possessions. The only thing they had was their family. Bobby set out into this world. He walked and walked. He greeted and talked. His parents had to make a very hard decision. His parents wanted to give Bobby and his brother an opportunity they never had. This was the parent's job. They not only needed to do it but wanted to do it. The opportunity cost the parents a high price. They had to leave Bobby and his brother behind for 5 years to start a new life in a new world. Bobby, of course was upset, but he didn't realize what sacrifice his parents had to take. One day the parents left Bobby and his brother in the care of his family to start a new. The parent's story ends there, for now.

Bobby constantly found himself surrounded by people who loved him very much. They tried everyday to impart the ideals and values of his family. Bobby was a little boy. What does a little boy know about ideals and values? All B0bby wants to do is play and play. He was not a bad boy, but how was he to know what everything meant. He constantly thought to himself that adults were very curious. They did things over and over again. These people had something they called a routine. Bobby was very confused. The world of adults seemed to be very complicated. That is when Bobby decided to find out why the adults did what they did.

Bobby grew up into a normal boy. He made friends and bonded with his family. He was raised by the ones who loved him the most. Bobby never realized or thought of anything less then that. One day Bobby went for a walk. This was his town and these were his people, this was his home. He walked and walked. He looked and gazed into the world that he knew. He ran into some curious adults.

The man who was too busy.

One day Bobby was walking along and he met a man that was very busy. This man seemed to be walking back and forth. He seemed to be waiting for something. Bobby stood there and watched this man for a few moments. He stared at this man. The man finally sat down and started to do something. Bobby walks over to him. "Excuse me sir", Bobby said. Bobby's words are not heard. Bobby tries to get the attention of this man. Talking louder and louder. "Sir, what are you doing?" Bobby asks. The man looks up at him. "Look little boy I am much too busy for you right now, please leave", said the man, in a very annoyed voice. Bobby looks at him, "busy with what?" The man looks at Bobby again, " you aren't going to leave me alone are you?" "Well if you have to know I am working on something special. Something so special that only I can do it", said the man. Bobby looks around the area, "it doesn't seem like you are doing anything at all." "I am waiting for my materials to come. These materials are going to help the town become a better place" said the man. Bobby looks around again, "so all you do is wait? When the materials come will you build?" The man laughs out loud, " no my boy I am waiting for the material, then I will have other people build it for me. That is what I do. That is why I am important." Bobby raises his eyebrow in curiosity, "if you do not build it and all you do is wait, how does that make you important." The man looks up in anger and frustration, " I don't have time to tell you the details of my job. Leave me alone I have to get back to work." The man shoos him away with a gesture of his hand. Bobby walks away thinking that adults are very curious indeed. All he wanted to know was what that man was doing. Bobby spent a few moments with that adult and never got the answer he wanted. Bobby walked away anyways in disappointment.

The man who had everything.

The next day Bobby set out into his town again. He was walking around. Again, he noticed a very strange adult. This man was gathering things. He kept on piling objects up and up until they reached the sky. Bobby stood there again. He looked upon this man as he went out to get more stuff to pile up. Bobby made his way to this man. "Excuse me sir", Bobby exclaimed. The man looks up, "do you have a wheelchair?" Bobby looks at him, "what is a wheelchair?" The man laughs, "you don't know what that is? It is a device that helps people that can't walk. I can't believe you are so dumb not to know what that is." Bobby looks at him with saddened eyes, "why did you have to say that? You don't even look like you need it. You are able to walk." The man laughs louder, " I don't need it because I can't walk. I just want to have it." Bobby says baffled, "if you don't need it then why must you have it?" The man looks at the boy, "well I am special because I have many many things. I have so many things that I can't even begin to count them. If I were to have that too, my things will grow in numbers. It is very important to have many things. You need many things to be very important. " Bobby looks at him, " so you have many things, but you don't need them or use them." The man looks at the boy again, "you need to have things all the time. If you don't have it, then you will have nothing." Bobby asks, "will you share some of your things with me. I would like to play with some of your things." The man yells is anger, "these things aren't meant to be shared or used. You are a very naive and annoying boy. If you do not have something to give me you must leave now." Bobby leaves the man. He walks away thinking that adults are indeed very strange. This man wants everything to himself, but does not want to share. Bobby laughs at him and says out loud, "what is the point of having many things and toys if you don't use it. He walks back to his house thinking that adults are not only very busy with work but they also want everything they don't have. Bobby lays himself to bed saying, "adults sure are strange."

___

This is not the End of Bobby's story. We will follow his journey.

My life is an open book. All you need to do is turn the page and read.

-Cezar-

right on the beach

2009-06-19T21:00:00.001+09:00

Sorry for the late post, I got busy on Friday. I spent the day on the beach. Friday was especially hot. I was in the classrooms pouring sweat. All I could wish for and hope for was the beach. Once classes were out, I ended up picking a couple things up from the market. When I got back to my room I changed and went to the beach. I spent about one and a half hours in the water. It was amazing. The water was clear, a little bit salty, but great. After I got out of the water I headed out to my room. I washed up and my skin never felt so good. Being in the water and afterwards was just a relief from the day and from the heat.

Oh, when I went to the market. I had been out of rice for a couple of days. I really needed to buy rice at that point. So I find the rice in the store. I see a bag and it said 20kg. I am not used to the metric system yet. I knew that 1 lb = 2.2kg. So in my head I did the math. So i was like oh ok, 10 lbs. I walked up the the clerk. She charged me abour 45 dollars for the bag. I didn't want to make a scene. So I bought it. I threw it over my shoulder and started walking. As I was walking, I kept saying to myself this bag is heavy for 10lbs. Then I re-did the math. It was more like 40 lbs. As I was walking away I was saying to myself. First of all you are an idiot. Second of all you are an idiot. I kept on thinking. Who buys 40lbs of rice for one person? Well at least this bag of rice will last me a very long time. I probably won't have to worry about rice.

___

The End

"Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't" almond joy

-Cezar-

The silver linning turns into a Sunny Day

2009-06-17T09:35:00.005+09:00

It has been a while since I have felt this way, so I will try to captialize on it. The past weekend was really good for my soul. I have not stopped smiling or giggling to myself. I have been in such a better mood then I have been in a very long time. I have a lighter step now, and I have found myself wanting to do more. I was at the point where all I wanted to do was stay in my room and in my bed. Now I find myself walking around more and just enjoying the situation. I am now interacting with the children and co-workers on a more personal level. This is a nice re-newed strength that I thought I had lost a long time ago. So this feeling is great. I really hope this will last long. I even find myself singing along to my songs on my mp3 player.

Wed.

I went on a walk again today. I walked a very long time, about 2 hours. Then I decided to go find some food to make. I go to the local market and buy all the required pieces. Then I get home to find my supplies of rice is null. I was not pleased because I spent most of my money on the food I planned to eat. That I found just a little ironic. So I improvised on my dinner and it was amazing.

Edit:

I decided to change the layout of the blog. I feel that this more "me". This feels better and in my opinion reads a little better. I hope you agree.

______

The End

"Don't worry be happy." - From a song that I don't know the title nor the person who sang it

-Cezar-

The best laid plans

2009-06-15T10:36:00.000+09:00

The weekend, it was as much fun as it was rewarding and refreshing. I actually relearned a lot of old lessons that I had forgotten. I do the big reveal in later on in the blog itself.

Friday:

It’s a usual Friday. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. I went to school. I taught all of my kids and what not. I jumped into the bus around 5:50ish for Seoul and arrived around 8ish. Hopped into the subway and trained it to Itaewon. I found myself in the same place again and in the same motel. It was a nice 4x 4 cell. I met up with my buddy Stan. He had already been in Seoul for the past couple of hours. He headed into town to do some business with the American Embassy. Once we met up, we headed out to get some food. For all of you who know me and the history of food, it did not bode well. Stan had suggested a kebab place for me to get some food. I agreed and proceeded to get some food. The food was nicely wrapped in a bundle. I take a couple bites and then one of the flaps that kept the thing together opened up and proceeded to leak the juices on me. I look at myself and laugh. It had been a while since I’ve spilled something on myself; I had let my guard down. I also think that happened because of karma. I had been making fun of someone I knew that always spilled something on his shirt. I referred to him as a mess. I had been joking about that for the past couple of weeks. I guess karma has a way of coming back at you. I ran back to the room to change shirts so this way I can look presentable. We went out to have a little fun and wait for the others to come into town. Again, we had come into Seoul for another Hash. So Stan and I went to the local watering hole for the hashers. We were drinking for a while, it was a couple of minutes until all of them arrived. Our friends came in and we joined the group. The night proceeded to continue as business as usual. We were out until about 3ish. Some of us got more inebriated then other, which provided a good laugh to be had by all.

Saturday: We are going to call this day “the hash that never happened”

So Saturday rolls around. I am cursed with being able to sleep really late and waking up really early. I had gone to sleep at 3am that morning and proceeded to wake up at 7ish in the morning. My friend Stan was reported to have slept at 5am. So I started moving around. I was completely awake and bored. So I left the room and started walking around the town. If you ever go to Itaewon, remember that most to all the stores don’t open until about 11am. Apparently because most to all the stores are open until late they don’t open until late. So there I was, the only person on the streets looking for something that is open. I ended up eating at dunkin doughnuts. I had also noticed something that my friends had mentioned last time I was there. Some bars were still open. It was 8am and there were people still drinking and partying. Apparently most people stay out until the sun comes out and then some. So I was amazed and taken back as I see people just stumbling out of a bar or walking into a bar at the time. So 10 am rolls around. My friends call me to see where I had gone too. I inform them of my location and we rendezvous. Since I was the only one awake at the time I had already eaten, my friends needed to eat. So we walk around more and eventually find a diner that is open for breakfast. This place had possibly the best breakfast I have had in a while. So we sat there enjoyed our breakfast and conversation and storytelling of the past night events. In the middle of the conversations, my friend Stan informed us that he had lost his credit card. This credit card was from his Korean bank. Now the Korean security isn’t as tight as America or other countries. Most to all of the time you don’t even really get ID’ed when you use the card. So Stan was worried. He had a sizeable amount of money in there. So we had one of the waiters help him call the bank to see what to do. Apparently Stan needed some information that he didn’t have at the time. So he was given the phone number to call. So breakfast was finishing up, we had to leave by 11am to be at the hash on time. It was a baseball theme, so on the way there we picked up some baseball gear. We had run into another hasher. She had told us if we wanted to come there on time, to get into a taxi and go. So we all piled into the taxi. We inform him of where we are going. The taxi driver starts driving. Apparently He didn’t understand what we told him. He had taken us clear across town, basically in the wrong direction of where we needed to go. He gets to the place where he thinks we needed to be and we told him no. We show him AGAIN where we needed to go. So while in transit to where we needed to go, we called someone to help translate. We eventually find someone and the taxi driver finally understood. The issue with that was it took 45 min to get to the first wrong place. Someone in the taxi was still drunk from the night before, so being in a taxi for more than an hour was not a good idea. He was saying that he was going to hurl if we did not get to the place we needed to go to and soon. So about an hour or so in a taxi and 40,000 won later we get to the area. We are there kind of, we were stuck in traffic. As we were all tired of being in traffic and upset about the situation we pay and get out of the taxi. We decided to start walking from where we were to where we needed to be, by the time we get to the place it was well past 1 o’clock. Seeing that the Hash started at 12, we were running late. On a hash usually you have to find yourself to the start point first before hashing. So we spend a lot of time roaming the area looking for the hash marks. We kept on looking. Then we got a call, everyone had already finished the trail. So we were informed of where to go to meet up with everyone. Seeing that the group that we hash with is more like a big family, I was expecting to get made fun of. We start finding our way to the group. We eventually find them and they are in numbers that day. I think there was at least 20ish or more people there. I was expecting mocking and jokes from the group. Instead we were welcomed with a little laughter and understanding. We stood there as we told our tale of the taxi and of the walk. As usual we there was food, beer, and drinks. This hash was a little special. One of the older hashers was leaving Korea forever, it was his goodbye party. The festivities of that day were geared towards in saying goodbye. People from many parts of Seoul were there to hash and to say goodbye to the hasher. We were also to go to a baseball game that day. Since all four of us were tired from the cab ride and the walk and from the night before, we decided not to go. So we decided to go back to Itaewon, via subway. As we were walking to the subway someone suggested taking a taxi, because it will be easier and we won’t get lost this time. I was opposed to this idea, so was another person, but no one listened to us. We jump into a taxi again. Their hopes were up. They were saying don’t worry about it and what not. So the taxi starts driving and boom traffic. We sat in traffic for a while before we got to Itaewon. I had given my two friends the I told you so look and speech. We ended back up in Itaewon around 3 or 4ish. We agreed to meet back up with each other around 8:30ish. 8 rolls around, Stan and I decided to walk around first to find a place to eat with our other friends. We walk around and find a long hill filled with food places. We find a suitable place and call our friends. We were informed that they were not joining us for reasons and will be meeting us for drinks afterwards. So Stan and I go get food. We ended up at this place that looked fancy, and fancy it was. We order food that sounded good. We get the food and find the portions were lacking at best. We were laughing about the situation for a while. After eating, we call our friends to see where they were. We were instructed to go meet them at a bar at a certain time. We walked around a little bit more. Then we heard live music from a place. We walked up there to see the commotion. We stumbled upon a place with amazing live music. We stayed there for a while. We told our friends to come join us, but they didn’t. Stan had started a conversation with a girl at the bar, she was to join us for the rest of the night. So there we were at the bar with amazing live music. At one point there was some down time and the drummer of group starts beating away like a machine. It was basically one of the best demonstrations of drumming I have seen in a while. So I move on out of the bar. Stan was making progress with the woman, so I wanted to get out of his way. I meet up with the rest of the hashers at another watering hole in the area. The bar had some live music as well, not as good as the other but live music none the less. So I sat there made conversation and Stan and the girl eventually mosey their way into the bar. We all partied there for a while until the place got too hot. I stepped outside and what not. I was making conversation with other hashers outside. Stan and the girl decided to join us too. We ended up moving to the bar next door with a dance floor. We hung out there for a while. Another hasher (Frank) and I were getting a little board. We decided to leave Stand and the girl alone, because of well you should have the idea by now. So Frank and I started to stumble our way around the area. We went to a couple different places. We randomly met other hashers in the area doing the same. For the sake of the story, the readers and myself, I will be omitting certain details. So I ended up finishing the night around 4am.

Sunday:

I wake up at 7ish. I was cursing the world for giving me an internal clock that woke me up so early. So I woke up. All my friends were still asleep, or so I assumed because of the time. I showered up and made my way back to the diner with great breakfast. I ordered some breakfast food and drinks. As I finished my meal, my friends walk in. They join me and I have conversation with them. They were heading into another hash for the day. I had declined to hash with them. I was too tired to hash. I decided that a 3 hour bus ride home is going to be hard enough. So they finished eating. We jump into the same subway. They keep on trying to convince me to join the hash. I was almost inclined to join, but in the end I didn’t. I get to the central bus terminal. Jump into the bus that I need to go to. I got back to my apartment around 3ish. Since I didn’t hash the whole weekend, I felt bad about myself. So I decided to start walking on my own. This was going to be a good thing, because the hashers decided to do a hash in my area at the end of the month. So I walked around setting the trail in my mind. I did it for about an hour or so. Once everything was finished it was about 4 or 5ish. I finished the day by sitting by the beach enjoying the weather and the sun.

Lessons:

I learned a couple of things this weekend. Sometimes all you need to do is say hello to start a conversation. This is a lesson that I had forgotten and not used in a very long time. This is a lesson that I will not soon forget. Thanks Stan for reminding me of that little notion. The other lesson was, sometimes you just have to find it in yourself. This weekend I learned that strength and character is in me, I just have to dig deep enough. I forgot that things aren’t easy. Sometimes you just don’t have to care and do what you need to do, be yourself and you will be fine. Hopefully this will get me out of the whole wallflower thing. I need to start getting comfortable with people faster. I think the first step is to really not care what they think of me and just be me.

___

The End

Sometimes all you have to do is look in the mirror and convince yourself that you are a good person.

-Cezar-

The hand that got caught in the cookie jar

2009-06-10T19:28:00.002+09:00

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I acquired some private students. Well apparently it's not looked upon in great light here doing a second job. One of my private students accidentally told one of the other teachers that I am tutoring him. That didn't go over well. Apparently that teacher has been complaining about me. About my work ethics and what not. I haven't had a chance yet to really defend myself yet, but I will. I will come back at him with so much anger. I work hard and I am good at what I do. This guy is a joke. In the first few weeks that I was teaching "with" him in our class; he did nothing but sit at his computer and do other work. There were times where I had to do the class when he wasn't even there. Now every time I try to teach the way I want to teach, he hijacks the lesson. Then he complains that I am lazy and I don't do my work because of the privates. He is just mistaken. I just stopped caring because he wasn't teaching with me. Now this guy has the balls to complain about me. This guy just asked for my anger. I usually let things go on by. I don't get angry, but when someone says that I am a bad worker, no deal. I am a hell of a hard worker and I know it. I never give less then 110% when I work. This guy is giving me a bad name, I will not stand for it. I will fight this and him until something is resolved. I might even get fired over it, but I don't care. I know who I am and how I work, for someone to say the opposite, um no thanks. This guy will see the wrath that is Cezar. I am a damn good worker.

I am sorry for this current blog. I am not usually so angry, but this guy is bringing it out. I will update on results soon. I will be heading out to Seoul again for another Hash on Friday night. So I might not be able to log in and blog.

___

The End

Some times you just need to punch someone in the face.

-Cezar-

It's just like riding a bicycle

2009-06-07T21:13:00.003+09:00

This weekend was interesting just like the past couple of weekends. Lets start at where i usually start.

Friday:
The usual things happened. Work and what not was pretty much the same. I was being encouraged/forced to start making a lesson plans for my after school classes. So I had planned to take the weekend to hopefully to get something in my head to work for the classes. That didn't happen. I ended up leaving for Jeonju around 6ish and arriving around 8ish. I dropped my stuff off at a friend's house and met up with another friend. We were out until about 12 am just walking around and relaxing. It was an entertaining and relaxing friday night.

Saturday:
My friend Stan had recently acquired a scooter. We drove around in it for a while on Saturday morning. Because I felt like I needed it, I went to a spa to get a massage. Stan had informed me about a spa in the area that had a great massage place. He took me there and left me to do as I will for the time that I needed. So I got into the spa around 11ish and I got out around 1ish. The spa was pretty cool. It had 4 floors of relaxing and what not. Started out with a nice relaxing massage for about an hour. Then I proceeded to go walk around to the saunas and healing rooms. It was a very relaxing couple of hours. When I was done, I called up Stan to come get me from the spa. He picked me up and we proceeded to go back to his place. He had another appointment that he needed to be at so he left me to my own whims in his place. He gave me the keys to his scooter and told me that I can go and do what I need to do if I want. So I hop on the scooter. I didn't know how to do anything on this thing. It was my first time ever on a scooter and what not. So I get on the scooter and try to start it up. So I sat on the scooter and tried to think of how to start it. I sat on the scooter for a good 10-15 min before I figured it out. After I turned it on, the first thought in my head was, how hard could this be? So there I sat with my hand on the throttle and on the brake. I pulled back on the throttle and boom, before I knew it I was out of control and on the ground. I was tumbling and the scooter was just on it's side. I managed to wipe out in front of a group of Koreans. They asked if I was ok and I said I was. The only thing that was hurt was my ego. So I get back on the scooter. This time I didn't pull back so hard on the throttle. Once I got used to the whole situation, I was good to go. I drove it around for a while, it was pretty cool. I got back to Stan's place and I told him what happened. After 20 min of verbal abuse and general mockery, he asked if I was ok. He kept on mocking me for the whole day. I guess he could do it, cause it was his scooter that I managed to damage. Apparently I was the only person in the world to wipe out on a scooter. So after I wiped out and the general mockery, we set out to make the trail for the hash. We ended up meeting up with the rest of the hashers at what we call the batcave. So we met up with all the hasers. We had a couple of new hashers in the group so that was fun. This hash was a little different. This time around we were to run and or walk to the nearest 7/11 and buy and drink some beer before we go to the next one. We were chasing two guys who were seting the trail as we were going on it. This hash was pretty fun. So we hashed it for a while. At the end of the hash we ened up back at the batcave. I met the guy who was at Gyeokpo before me. He and I exchanged stories and tales of the area all night. We had the same stories and experiences. It was pretty cool night. We were out until 12am drinking and having fun. I met more people that made me laugh and generally all around fun. I was tempted to go out more, but with the crash and the the hash my body was all torn up.

Sunday:
A usual sunday. Stand and I were too torn up to really do anything. We grabbed breakfast and what not thats about it. We were both too tired to do anything. We ended up going to church and what not, after church I went home to get some rest. This was the day that I had planned to get some work done for the afterschool classes. That didn't happen. I ened up just laying in bed tryin to rest up.

___

The End

Apparently not all monkeys can ride a bike.

-Cezar-

I can sleep when I am dead

2009-06-05T08:36:00.002+09:00

So for some reason for the past couple of days I have been not sleeping well at all. I have no clue what is going on with my internal clock. I used to be able to sleep at 2 am and wake up at 6:45. I I find myself falling asleep at random times and waking up at random times. I'm also having some really weird dreams. I have no real clue as of what is happening. My body is so in and out of a regular schedule that it just made its own I guess. Some days I would sleep at 10 and wake up at 3 am some days I sleep at 12 and wake up at 5. I don't know it has been a weird couple of days. I don't know what has thrown me off so far from my routine. I will need to find out soon cause I'm definitely going to need to fix it so I can sleep better.

Side note:
I have been deciding on where to spend my vacation time. I will be having some vacation days coming to me. I would love to go to the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, and New Zeland. Seeing that I am brokeish I can only really afford to go to one. I was also offered to come home for my vacation. There in lays the problem. I would love to go to all these places, especially home, but I can't. I have to choose one. If I go to the Philippines, that would be cool cause I would be there alone for the first time in a long time. I would really get a chance to experience my hometown in a different way then I am used too. If I were to go to any other country, I would end up doing the same but spend more money at the same point. Then, if I were to come home, that is also another issue. I do miss home, my friends, my family, and everything else about home, BUT am I ready to come home. I know it is only for a short time, but if I come home will I be willing to go back to Korea. I have found myself between a rock and a hard place. Each option is viable and tempting. I want to be able to do all of it. I kept on promising myself that I would make a decision by today, but I haven't. I need to figure all of this out really soon, because if I don't I won't be able to go anywhere at all.

I think I already figured out where I am going to go. I guess what is left is to convince myself that I want to go there.

___

The End

"Whatever you do DON'T GO TO SLEEP!" - The girl from nightmare on elm st

-Cezar-

sometimes you can't fight nature

2009-06-03T14:58:00.006+09:00

So Tuesday was a fun day. On Tuesdays I usually go to an island to teach in 2 different schools. The boat usually leaves around 7:10am. I do my regular routine and wake up at 5:30 am and get ready for work. Whilst I walked to the port I was thinking to myself its awfully cloudy and windy today, I was hoping that the boat was canceled. Well my boat was on time. I get to the island and all is normal. I taught at one school and proceeded to the next one. Nothing out of the ordinary was happening; it was a regular day for me. Then it happened, I was told that my boat was canceled because of the weather. The teacher who told me said that some teachers knew and didn't warn him. I am pretty sure he knew but forgot to tell me. So I had to spend the night in the island. That wasn't fun at all. I always wondered what it was like sleeping there, now I know. I thought that Gyeokpo was bad, this place was just short of horrible. It's a beautiful island, don't get me wrong, I would like walking and exploring for the day, that is about it.

Tuesday night:
So I finished classes around 3ish. I was led to my "room". This room was an empty dorm room with a tv and some blankets. It wasn't too bad at all. I was invited to eat dinner with the other teachers around 6:30. In between the time I spent waiting for dinner, I hit a couple of golf balls. 6:30 comes around and I was hungry. They gave me some type of chicken stew, it wasn't bad. 7:00 rolls around and I was done eating and extremely bored. I was able to go use the internet in the office so I did that for a while. Then I went back to the room to rest up a little bit. I got really bored because there was no american programming on the Tv on the island. I decided to start texting my friends. One of friends started texting me back. She kept me company for a couple min via text and the internet chating. That lasted me until about 9ish. After chating with her online, I left the office. I didn't expect the island to be so dark. Walking from the office to the dorm was maybe a yard or so, and it was creepy. First of all there wasn't any lights on, second of all there was a vicious wind kicking up a fuss. Those two combined just gave me the creeps. I was actually informed earlier that there might not be a boat in the morning. I didn't want to to believe it, so i slept early so I can wake up early.

Wednesday:
I wake up again at 5:45 am. I was determined to find out if that boat was there. The port was about a 30 min-ish walk from the school. I decided that I had to leave at 6:45 to see if the boat was going to leave at 7:50. I thought to myself, the worst thing that could happen is that there would be no boat at all. If there were no boat all I had to do was walk back or catch the bus back to the place until someone told me when the boat was going. So I arrive at the port around 7:20 ish. I walk up and ask if the boat was coming, and the answer was yes. I was excited. I was really having nightmares the night before about being stuck in the Island for the next couple days. So I wait for the boat, I grab some snacks to tide me over for the day. The boat arrives promptly at the right time. I get back to Gyeokpo at 8:45. This gave me enough time to walk back to my room and grab new clothes. I change and once I was done changing I had to catch the bus to another school. The day went on the same, just not as fun and me more tired. I was dragging myself around as if I were carring a sack of bricks.

___

The End

Home is where the heart is.

-Cezar-

it's a deep kind of burn

2009-06-01T09:21:00.003+09:00

So this weekend was a little bit of a adventure. Now that I have started hashing with some really cool people, they had invited me out to Seoul for a hash. So me and a couple of other people went to Seoul. These are my stories from friday.

Friday:

Normal day of work, nothing spectacular. I had finished work around 4:30ish so I jumped right out of class and into my room. I packed as fast as possible and headed out to Buan. I eventually get to Buan around 5:45 and my bus to Seoul left promptly at 5:50. I was inforemed by a co-worker that it may take up to and including 3.5 hours to get to Seoul. So I prepared myself for the long haul. I brought snacks and music for me to listen too on the way there. The bus driver probably was in a rush because I got there in less then 3 hours. I get off of the bus and try to make my way to the subway. I was given instructions to where to go via internet mail. I tried to follow the instructions given to me carefully so that I wouldn't get lost. And of course I get lost, I hopped on the wrong subway train. The good thing was that I realized what had happened so I jumped off and got on the correct train. Apparently Seoul subways work the same as NYC there is an up town and down town, but no one told me of that little fact. So I get to Itaewon before anyone else does. I see the place and I am instantly awed by the sights. It was exactly like new york but with more life. I started to walk around and eventually find my way to the hotel my friends wanted to stay at. I was in Itaewon for a good 2 hours before my friends showed up. So I decided to get some food and start relaxing. I was told of a bar that was owned and operated by filipinoes so I decided to go there and partake in some beer. My friends eventually all show up. We stick around and drink a little more together and then drop off their stuff in the hotel. Then we were off to have more fun. We decided to just hop from bar to bar having fun. We did so and ended up at a local bar, which was pretty cool. We met some really cool foreigners and hung out with them. We ended up out until about 3 am. I was informed that most bars were open until 10am. I am no longer that young and cannot withstand a party until 10am. So we all ended up going back for some sleep at 3 am.

Saturday:
My internal clock usually wakes me up around 7am. Even though I had partied until 3am, my body decided to wake up at 7am. I was dragging myself around for a while. My friends decided to wake up at 10am. I was not as fortunate as them. After everyone woke up we headed out for breakfast. It had been a while since I had a good American breakfast, so this was a nice treat. We ate and just relaxed for a couple of hours. Some of the people in our group decided to go to a couple different hashes on saturday. I was not in the mood nor did I have the energy to go to a hash. Stand and I decided to stay back and relax. We both didn't want to hash that day. Instead, we walked around Itaewon and took a boat on the han river. We were out until about 8pm, just in time for our friends to be done with hashing. We all took a nap for a little bit of time. Woke up and went out around 10pm. We met up with other hashers in the area and had drinks with them. We had just started to bar hop with them. It was pretty interesting. We went to all the local watering wholes for the hashers. We all did some dancing and had some fun. Again we were out until about 2am. This time we didn't do too much drinking, just enough hahahaha.

Sunday:
Sunday rolls around and I am all torn up. My body felt like it just came through the grinder. Today was supposedly a big hash. So the group and I wanted to go. So we all started mounting up around 1030am. We get to the start sight, kinda. We had to walk 1 km to the start sight. Since this was my first time again hashing, I was considered a virgin. The good thing was that I did not have to go through anything too embarrassing. The hike was a pretty thought on me though. It had very steep hills to conquer. I actually had to stop and really catch my breath for it. This actually gave me even more of an excuse to get into better shape. I felt like I was literally going to die on the hill. My heart was beating through my chest and I could not catch my breath for the life of me. It was good times. So of course, my stopping constantly and for breathers and near heart attacks put me in last place. So I was walking and walking and walking. I eventually meet up with another guy that had gotten lost. Him, Stan, and I walked the rest of it together. As we were getting to the last leg of the trail, we were met by other hashers dispatched to find us. Apparently we were so late and took so long that they actually got worried about us. We all had a good laugh about the situation. After some traditional fun with the virgins, we all went to get some food. At this time i was super worried about catching my bus back to gyeokpo. It was already 2ish and it takes a good 3 hours to get back to buan and I still had to transfer to another bus to gyeokpo, the last one was at 8pm. So I was told not to worry and to keep my panties on. So I was like ok fine. We all joined the group had some food with some really bad service. I had some really good conversation and what not. It was a good time. we left around 3:45ish. Jump into the subway to get to the bus terminal around 4:30ish. I find out my bus doesn't leave until 5:00, and that wasn't good at all. Considering it takes 3 hours to get back, it had seemed that I was going to miss my bus back home and I would have to find my way back to Gyeokpo. So I spent the whole trip back looking at the clock. I wasn't really able to take a nap or rest. So the trip was closing in around 3 hours, realistically around 2 hours 45 min. I was sitting in my chair rocking back and fourth until I realized where we were. We had made it to buan but the time was closing in on 8pm. Once we pulled into the station I jumped out of my seat and right into the bus I needed to be in. I had made the bus time within 5 min of it leaving for my town. And I got home promptly around 8:30pm.

That was the majority of my weekend. I spent a crazy load of money on hotel, food and booze. What I got back was, good friends, conversation and stories. I also had to relearn a past lesson. I really need to get into shape. I am only 26 years old. I shouldn't be struggling to go up hills and do mild hiking. I was beaten to the finish line by guys nearly double my age. How am I supposed to react to that? So I don't know, hopefully this time the lesson will stick and get me motivated to be able to walk up hills without nearly dieing.

_____

The End

Sometimes it's as easy as putting one foot in front of the other.

-Cezar-

this blog is brought to you by the number 3 and the letter C

2009-05-27T16:24:00.002+09:00

I have recently acquired some private tutoring time with a couple of children. It is really nothing big, but the pay is well worth it. I still don't know what to teach the kids. I guess all of that will come with time. I have decided for now to try to teach basic ideas of English. That means I have to really think about English and the uses of it.

The one thing that I have really come to appreciate is the English language. The more I teach it, the more I see how complex it really is. As I am trying to learn the Korean language too, I realize how much of a gap there is. The nice thing about me trying to learn Korean is that I see what the children go through. I understand their frustration and amazement of the new language. I know what they struggle with as far as language goes. I am always questioning why they do things and how things came about, the answers are usually just because. That is what I tell the children sometimes, just because. Again I find myself ranting, that is a nice little theme I have now a days.

I know this update is kind of short in comparison to my other ones. The truth is that nothing really new has happened, but I promised every other day so here I am.

So the lesson of the day. A new challenge is in front of me, I am excited to see how i react and grow from this.

___

The End

Sometimes you can teach an old dog a new trick

-Cezar-

my mind is willing but my body is old

2009-05-24T19:42:00.006+09:00

A typical weekend? I think not.

Friday:
I was invited over the weekend to Jeonju for a couple different events. The first event was a BBQ at a good friend's house on friday night. So I grabbed one of the last buses from my area to Jeonju, it was about 6:30 pm. It was a typical 2 hour bus ride to the town. Once I got to Jeonju I went to Stan's place to put my stuff down and unwind. We end up relaxing and doing much of nothing. The party wasn't starting until about 9:30; so we had plenty of time to kill. We ended up just getting food and getting a couple of drinks before hand. We decided to be fashionably late and ended up getting to the BBQ at 10:30. We get to the party and find the men to women ratio to be compelling. We get into the room and find a group of people sitting talking and laughing. Stan and I grab a couple of chairs and catch up with the group as far as talking and or drinking. I was in rare form as stand and one of my other friends had pointed out. It felt like the good old days. I was talking being the life of the party and most especially getting the attention of some very pretty ladies. I am not gonna bore you all to death with the details but I did end up walking away with a phone number. Mind you that I got this number after I was making a fool of myself by dropping water on the floor and stuffing my face with bread because I was hungry. I was a great time. I was really able to let myself be myself, I hadn't done that in a while. It was a lot of unexpected fun and what not. That was my friday night. It was filled with fun and debauchery; I couldn't of asked for a better time.

Saturday:
My body was put through the grinder this day. I had woken up on Saturday morning feeling like a freight train had hit me. I was out until 2am drinking the night before. I am not a young man anymore, so Saturday morning was no fun for me. I tried all of my cures for a hangover, but none worked. Then Stan had suggested a sauna. I had never been in a sauna, and it seemed like a good idea. The sauna was the cure to all my aches. I sat in the steam room for an hour or so then sat in the hot tub for another hour. After we left the sauna, I felt like a new man. I had regained all my energy and found myself very relaxed. So after the sauna Stan and I were committed in a social event for hiking in Jeonju. This group of people were called the Hashers. I was informed that the Hashers is a world wide group that hikes or runs a planned route. It was my first time in this group, so I was to be initiated as a "virgin". This involved many acts of public embarrassments, one of them was to carry a balloon around being sure not to lose or pop it. So we start on the trail. Some of the experienced Hashers start running ahead. While the others laid back and walked. We follow a route that is outlined in chalk. Many of the signs are placed, but often you had to keep your eyes open so not to miss your mark. Many of these marks were called a check point, and if not marked by group leaders you are to explore all other revenues to find the right route. The person who had set up the route would tries intentionally to make you walk or run more to find your true route. Then there are certain markers that you have to do certain acts. As I was a virgin to this whole event, every time I saw a sign of a box with a V in it, I had to do a certain act. I was to spin around and say I am new and I am a virgin three times in a row. So this took place in a couple different places. So I did the walk with great people. I met some great people and had some good conversations. So 4.5 miles and a couple of hours later we finished the route. We get to the end and we find booze and food. We eat and drink and have more conversation. After eating, the virgins were lined up for more fun. One of the virgins was tired and tried to sit down. On his way to sitting down on the floor accidentally popped his balloon. His punishment was to come later on. So as virgins we were asked to do one of 3 things, either sing a song, tell a joke or do an interpretive dance. I chose to dance. I made a fool of myself, and it was great. So at the end of the day, I was extremely tired and embarrassed from a full day of exercise. It was worth it. After a couple hours of walking and sweating and more walking, we went home. We showered up and rested up. We all met up again at a local bar. We started talking and chatting and laughing. I really started to have fun with the group. After a night before of drinking and chatting, another night of more drinking was really something I did not want to do. I still had a couple of drinks and laughs. So we finished the night pretty early around 12ish and went back to sleep.

Sunday:
Sunday morning was tough. I woke up and everything hurt so much. I had two days of drinking with friends and 4.5 miles of hiking. Stan and I ended up going to a local coffee shop to relax and what not. We grabbed some really great natural fruit drinks. The owner of the coffee shop recognized that we were both foreigners and started talking to us. He was a retired man that just up and decided to open a really cool shop. He had told me that he spent 4-5 years in the Philippines doing land surveying. He was a really cool shop owner, his nickname was "sm". SM started to just really talking with us just because, but ended up telling us really cool stories. Then he received a phone call from one of the hashers, Kevin or "Hammer". So Hammer wanted to do some trail blazing. Stan looks at me and asks if I wanted to do some more hiking. I was not one to say no, so we went for another hike. This one was different. Hammer decided to hike a mountain steeper then the one that we did the day before. Not only was it steeper, but also longer. I was really not dressed to hike I had on jeans. It was a really hot day, and hiking up a mountain with jeans is really not a good idea. I was pouring buckets of sweat, but again it was worth the pain. On part of the trail we found a local Buddhist cemetery. The cemetery was full of tombstones that were amazingly beautiful. These stones looked like it took much time and effort to complete. We walked around for a while in the area and I saw some really interesting pieces. So we get done with that, and get down from the mountain. I had soaked through my shirt and had to re-shower. Stan and I had planned to go to church, but I was so torn up and tired that I chose to go home instead. 2 hours later, I was home and I just had to crash for a couple of minutes before doing chores. That was my weekend.

What I learned from this weekend was to power through it all. I realized that I have to keep on going even if my body is in shambles. I realized that sometimes a good friend and good conversation can keep you moving through anything. I also realized that I am extremely out of shape. I always knew I was not in shape, but I didn't know it was that bad. I guess one of the better things that came out of this weekend is that now I feel motivated to get into some type of shape. I realize that I have to do something to just get the blood pumping more often. I used to run 6 miles a day once upon a time, and that gave me great insight about many things. Maybe I can start doing that again. I remember when I used to run, not only did it get my blood going but also my mind. Hopefully this will be a nice way to kick start myself to getting back into shape.

If you want to see any of my pictures throughout my trips feel free to visit http://photobucket.com/etisk .

____

The End

The mind and the body is your temple be sure to treat it as so.

-Cezar-

something blog related

2009-05-22T14:00:00.002+09:00

I have decided to post every other day, and maybe on days when I feel like it. It seems to me that I post every 2 days. So I decided today that I will post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I will take a break on the other days, I can really write about things so much. Like I said, if something happens that is of major significance I will write, otherwise I will post on every other day.

___

The End

Sometimes you feel like a nut... sometimes you don't - Almond joy (the candy)

-Cezar-

insert witty title

2009-05-21T18:10:00.003+09:00

I find myself at an impasse. I find myself struggling at my progress. I never really fancied myself as a real writer. I never really saw myself as a serious scribe of the world. There seems to be a little part of me that wants to do and be more. I don't really know to make progress as one would do in this field. Do I want to try to sound smarter? I have always believed that sounding smart and having the actual intellect is quite a difference. I really don't know. I often find myself at a fork. As with all my life decisions, I really just let things happen as they may. I am not one to plot or plan for any foreseeable situations. I also find myself struggling about what to write and how to write it. As I re-read all my past logs, I see my flaws of story telling. Even now I find myself trying not to make the same mistakes, yet habits are hard to break. I know that stories need and want to bring the reader into a world of that particular event, I find my stories lacking. Maybe I lack the verbal and intellectual capacity to actually write a story that really brings you into the journey. Then again, I am not writing stories, as they are experiences. But aren't these experiences just another form of a story; shouldn't these stories involve the reader? I don't know. Maybe it is me being self aware of my flaws as a writer. I don't even know if I can call myself that without, actual writers of the past turning in their graves. Do I really want to pursue the perfect story? Should I keep writing as is? Can there be more? Can I be more?

Some time ago, when I was young and foolish, I thought of myself as a writer. I would always try to write down my thoughts and ideas. When I was in school, I found myself happy to write essays about stuff that I had no idea about. I always found a way to comment on life. I always saw myself as someone that stood outside of the crowd and looked in the window. I thought of myself as an observer of life not a participant. Is that what it takes to be a writer? I don't know if I always enjoyed writing. It was always just something I did for fun or out of boredom. Even now I write because I am bored, but I also feel a sense of freedom. This is a world that I can be me. I can truly express who I am and what I think. I always put on a facade of a goofy unknowing kid. Here I can be who I truly wish to be. I can be a well spoken and unlighted person. I can step outside of the person I project and be the person I want to be. That is a relief. I don't pose as a smart person, or something that I am not.

In today's post I think I will actually air myself out. This post will be more for myself then anyone else.

I don't think I have much experience in life, yet I always find myself giving advice. I don't fancy myself as an intellectual, yet I find myself roaming the halls of wise men. I think I can explain who I am in a couple of words, a planned spontaneous oxymoron. As I write this blog I am thinking about my younger days in college. I never saw myself as a well read or experienced person, but I always found myself as someone who always gave advice. I didn't give advice when it wasn't wanted, friends would seek me out to ask, and for some reason I always had an answer. I always found that odd. I never really told them that I didn't have too much life experience, and I never did. I have helped people out of situations that I have never been in my life, and it all worked out. I also found myself in leadership positions. I never thought of myself as a take charge person, I am by all means not. I am not one to jump head first or run in front of the pack. I would always be in a group. Someone takes charge and before I know it I'm in charge. I ended up delegating and ordering people, and they seemed to follow my lead. I never really understood why that happened.

There are many mysteries in my life. Things happen to me and for me at different times. I always accept it for what it is and move on. I think one day I will find my answers to my questions. I am not going to look for the answers. Knowing how my life usually works out; the answers will present themselves to me. Again. I find myself rambling on.

I also wanted to thank those who actually read my posts. I would love to read comments and hear from you.

____

The End

I am who I am for the sake of those who need me to be me.

-Cezar-

can you say road trip?

2009-05-19T21:05:00.007+09:00

A couple of weeks ago I had a little bit of a random road trip. It was a weird series of events. It all started when I had a 4 day weekend. There was an international film festival going on that I really wanted to attend. This international film festival sounded like an awesome idea to really get a feel for something new. I am by far the least cultured guy I know. I thought that a film festival would do me some good, with my luck all the good shows were sold out. So I was standing there with a couple of friends playing pool bummed that most to all the movies were sold out. Then a voice of hope comes from left field. We should go to Seoul. After a couple minutes of mulling over and pondering, I was in. Random road trip to Seoul, sounds like a good idea. My bags were already packed and I had no real responsibilities that weekend. So the next day early in the morning, there I went with one other person to Seoul. So I jump into the bus with my friend and take a 3 hour trip to Seoul. We get into Seoul and it was exactly how I thought it would be. I was basically walking in the streets of New York. The funny thing about that was I am in a small town in South Korea, so my reaction was something like this "wow, you city folk sure are fancy." My friend and I start making our way to where we need to be. We find a taxi and take a 10 min drive to the town we were needed to go to. The part of the story I forgot to mention was that there was a lantern light festival going on. That was partly or mostly why we went to Seoul. So we get to the town that we need to go to. We find our way to an information booth. We needed to find a place to sleep. The idea of a hostel crossed my friends mind. By the way my friend's name is Stan. I will refer to him as such for the rest of the story. So Stan had the idea before to sleep in a hostel. When we get to the information center we get the hostels in the area. The first one that was suggested to us was called banana backpackers. I kid you not, that was the real name of the place. The joking ensues for and about the name. Such as, really?!? banana backpackers. In America a place like this would not be a place to sleep at, actually it would be a club for well you get the idea. I started to rename the place as banana hammock packers, to really drive home the point. I really wish I had taken a picture of it. It was quite a funny event slash story slash situation. So Stan and I walk into the hostel and ask for rooms. Apparently they were all out of rooms. So in a scramble we asked where the nearest other hostel is. We luckily found one and booked the room. We asked where it was. It was about an hour away. Thanks desk lady for giving us a warning. So we asked her to un-book it and asked for the nearest motel. We were told to go somewhere and we followed instructions as told. So we found a motel and what they called rooms. It was a 4 by 4 cell hardly enough room to walk and or sit, but we got the rooms for sleeping and not much more. So we put our stuff down and start walking towards the festivities. We walk back to banana backpackers, well because there was a cute girl there that I wanted to finish flirting with. I decided not to walk into the place for reasons unknown, reassuring myself that she will be there later. So we walk away and into town. We check out all the local stuff like handcrafted everything. I saw Monks from all over the world walking around. I saw beautiful lanterns hanging from everywhere. I saw all walks of life just mixing together. It was really a cool experience. We had decided earlier that we would go back later at night when the lanterns were on. So we walk back to the rooms and rest up. We wake up later on the night and leave the rooms. Then decided to go back to banana backpackers to find where the local flavor was, also to finish what I started with the girl. With my luck she had left, her shift was over. So we got the info we needed. Stan looks at me with the I told you so look, he had warned me earlier that if I didn't talk to her earlier I would lose my chance. So we move on, we retrace our steps and find the lanterns all on. A monk who had been drawing people's energy all day picked me out of the crowd. He told me in his best English to put my hand on a piece of paper and draws a picture. Apparently the man is and the writing means ghost killer. So I guess he drew me something to protect me from evil spirits. Which is a really cool thing. The night went on. We took some really cool pictures of some really cool places. At the end we were both a little bit thirsty. We also wanted to interact with some people. Some company wouldn't hurt any bit. So we go bar hopping. Finding that the local bar scene isn't any different from back in our respective towns. As a last hope and or ditch effort to find some other people, because it was basically a empty night, we walk to the last bar which can really be explained by the picture. Yeah, I think that explains why we went into the place. Despite the name, there was no such things going on there. If you look closely at the picture you will see that it is technically the second one in existence. We went in there for the kicks of it. We wanted to go just because of the name, if we didn't then the story wouldn't of been as entertaining. We finish our night there and head back to the room beaten from the day. The next day was a little more relaxing. We knew the lay of the land, so we had nothing on the agenda. We had met two other travelers that stayed in out motel and decided to join them on their journey. We grab breakfast at a local coffee shop. We all ended up sitting on the roof top of the coffee shop eating and enjoying the sun for what it had offered. It was a good way to really relax. So after an hour or so we started to mosey along. Walked around enjoyed the sights again and found a local park. At the local park we ended up just laying in the grass. Not long after that, the two travelers left and we left soon after. Our trip had come to an end. I get back to Jeonju and found that I had spend most to all of my money. I had made plans earlier to meet up with another friend, she had to pick me up via cab. I ended up spending the night at Stan's place and went back home the next day. That just sums up the trip.

___

The End

Be sure to take the road less traveled; you might just find out that was the road you were supposed to be on.

-Cezar-

By the power of greyskull

2009-05-17T20:42:00.002+09:00

Today's blog will has been inspired by a book I just finished reading, "The Little Prince". It has also been brought to you by the letter C. I really don't fancy myself as a reader of books or anything written, which is a little ironic because I do tend to write a lot. I guess you don't need to read too much to be able to write. You know the old saying, you put a hand full of monkeys in a room full of typewriters and you will eventually get Shakespeare. Aside from that little tangent, back to the topic at hand. Seeing through the eyes of a child. I have not had a real opportunity in my life to work with children or to really interact with them, until I came here. I have been teaching many youngsters the ways of English and what not. The combination of my teaching experience and the book that I mentioned earlier has given me some insight. As I interact with these children, both in and out of the classroom, I find a general amazement in their eyes. As I walk about and talk to them I see the cogs in their minds turning. I can see the amazement and wonder that fills their minds of thoughts and fantasies.

If you have not read The Little Prince yet, I advise you to do so. It was one of those books that really makes you step outside of yourself. The basic premise of the book was that a man gets stranded in a desert. All alone he needs to fix his plane and try to survive. Along comes a child that tags along the journey of the author. This child tells the author stories of his journey to the author's home planet. These stories are of the various adults that he had met on his way to Earth. What I took away from the book was how children must see adults. After reading the book I reflected on the people that I have met and the person who I am, and found that it is mostly true. Adults or grown ups seem to only care about themselves and their own tasks. Some are consumed by it and others are blinded by the responsibility. We often think that our own little world is the biggest most important and others should not only respect it but acknowledge it. We often get consumed by the task(s) of our little world that we lose perspective. The child in the story often commented that adults were confusing. Do you remember when you were a child? Or, have you run into a child that only asks why things work the way they work? Did you respond to them, just because? That is what the basic idea of the book. This child goes from one small planet to the next asking why each adult did what they did, most of the time the answers were confusing other times there were no answers at all. A child's world is simple. Things and places exist and they are tasked to take care of them or watch them. They are not consumed with monetary things or the idea of having the most things. They simply play and enjoy the world for what it is and wonder why adults do what they do.

The more that I think about it, I see that adults feel dulled down by life. Adults are set into routines or habits they feel that they cannot break away from. In an adult world, there is no time or point of being a child. Yes, many adults have many child-like tendencies or habits, but that does not mean they are in fact children. I don't know when we lose or have lost the ability to have that wonderment in our souls, but it is hard to achieve. I often joke about my little cousins. I joke that I can spend hundreds of dollars on a toy, but they will play with the box the longest. As adults we see it just as a box, but children see a world of possibility. Somewhere in the translation of life, we lose that ability to have fun with absolutely nothing.

I do encourage you to try to get that wonderment and childlike amazement back into your lives. I don't mean acting like a child. I mean try to dig deep into yourself and find what most of us have lost over the years. I don't mean just being silly or goofy. I actually mean try to see something that isn't there. Try to look into a pile of sand or a box as a possibility of a fort or a land far far away. Try to look at something common and ask yourself what would have I done when I was a child. When was the last time you actually tried to swing on swing set and try to jump off at the peek of the swing?

I think everyone's first step should be to buy and read The Little Prince.

____

The End

"One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes." - The Little Prince

-Cezar-

sometimes you need to laugh part deux: eletric dynomite

2009-05-16T06:54:00.002+09:00

So I decided to make this post about the power of laughter again. I was at dinner with my co-workers again. We were at this restaurant in a very remote area. So we sit down and start eating. I ended up sitting next to 3 teachers, 1 can speak fairly good English and the other 2 are at a very basic level. I hear the normal chit chatter of the people talking. There had been something wrong with the stove at my table. The gentleman sitting next to me tried to fix the problem by throwing a paper cup into the fire hoping to ignite more of the fire. The whole table started laughing at his antics, and for my sake all of them in perfect English says "fire!". At that moment we started to laugh a little bit. The whole night this gentleman tried to make conversation with me through hand gestures and jokes. His English skills are at a basic level, but he still tried his hardest to make that communication. I think he knows that I like to laugh, so he tried to make gestures or try to communicate something funny. So the night continued. We had been ordering drinks and beer for most of the night. One of the teachers said to me, "can you order beer for us?". I was like ok. So in my best effort to ask for beer in the language. The waitress turns to me and says in Korean that there is no more beer. So i turn my head and everyone was looking at me like I had 5 heads. They were astonished at what I just had said in their language. So they start asking me what else I know. My level of Korean is at the most basic level, at best. So I start spouting what I had knew in the language. They all were laughing and also impressed with my grip of baby level Korean. One of the people in the group says in Korean that I was cute for trying. The funny and ironic thing was I feel the same way when they try to speak English. When they speak English and are struggling, in my head I am always saying "come on you can do it". It was funny to me to see the tables being turned. After that, we had continued to eat. My co-workers tried more and more to communicate and what not. Now, at the table and generally in the area, I am a pretty big guy. Being overweight is not a common thing in Korea, so my co-teachers always talk to me about that. At the table after I was done eating, the gentleman next to me starts making jokes about my size. I start laughing with him. At one point, he puts his hand on my belly and says "pregnant?". I said yes, with twins. He starts bursting in laughter. We start laughing together. He turns to the vice principal and translates to Korean and she starts laughing. The rest of the table caught wind of what he had said, and we all start laughing. One of the people at the table asks how long. I told them 8 months. They start laughing even more with me. After that I start talking to the people who can speak English and to some who can't too. We start talking and what not. Again joking ensues about random things. We end the night and go back to our respective dorms.

I wanted to tell this story to really drive home the idea of my last blog. Even at a basic level of English or no English at all, laughter is the easiest way to communicate. I think that joking and laughing opens up doors of communication and bonding. When they started joking and laughing with me, I really felt at home. The simple act of it or the effort of doing it was comforting. One part of the story I for got to mention. While I was eating. The gentleman beside me picks up what we were eating, it was a small piece of duck. He turns to me and says "mickey mouse leg?". He starts laughing and so do I. Again it was a simple level of communication, but at least he was trying to communicate some how. This is why I think the power of jokes and laughter is undeniable. This is why I chose comedy as my personality, because at a very basic level everyone likes to laugh. I really do think and believe this. This is how I live my life. One joke at a time.

____

The End

"If you can't laugh at yourself, then who can you laugh at?" -somebody

-Cezar-

sometimes you need to laugh

2009-05-14T20:58:00.007+09:00

The funny thing about being out here is seeing what we share in common. I thought, as many people do, that a foreign land and people means a totally different place. The thing that I see that transcends color, race and religion is laughter. I found that sometimes even when trying to communicate in a different language, that laughing is the best solution. There have been many moments in my experiences here where me and the person that I am trying to talk to laugh about not being able to actually talk. I find that this common connection is one of the many glues of society that we often over look.

Now that I have started writing again, I find myself people watching more often. I didn't really do it as much when I was back at home. Now that I am doing it again, it is a fun little hobby. I think I might have an advantage here, I blend into the crowd and I don't stick out so people go about their business. Seeing that I am not from this land or culture I get to see more of who people really are. The funny thing is that the people I am around aren't really that different. I have constantly been invited to go to dinner with my co-workers. We have no real way of communication, but often share a laugh through hand gestures. From what I have seen, heard and experienced, its all the same. We laugh at the same jokes and I watch them interact, it's like siting at home with my family making the same jokes. I assumed that it would be a lost in translation situation. It's really more like a familiar stranger, if that makes any sense.

I have always enjoyed the gift humor. Like I said humor is one of those things that kinda glues our societies together. Even if we can't communicate, sometimes pointing and laughing at something that we find commonly funny will build that foundation of true friendship. If not a friendship, a good laugh is usually a cure for anything. Our values may differ in many different aspects, but laughing at something stupid or ridiculous helps people bond. This is one of the many little things that give me comfort over here. Even though sarcasm is a foreign and misunderstood idea over here; I still get to enjoy a good laugh at stupid things.

Again, I find myself rambling. I guess what I am really trying to say is. I found that one of the fundamental things that makes me happy is laughter. Sometimes when I feel not at home or really frustrated, I look at the situation and laugh. Because sometimes I can't help but laugh at what is going on. There is no point at being angry, because in the long run it's easier to laugh then to get angry. Things tend to seem better and feel better when you laugh; even better when you get to share the laughter.
____

The End

There's a thin line between to laugh with and to laugh at.
Richard Pryor

-Cezar-

self actualization

2009-05-12T17:48:00.004+09:00

Self actualization is an idea. I first ran into this idea in college. It was in a psych course that I had signed up for. I read into it more and more. Self actualization is the idea that one has the ability to understand one's own potential. Once that potential is realized, you can begin a path of true greatness. I enjoyed this idea for many reasons. First, because it really give you the control to do what you need to do to realize your potential. Once you realize it you can obtain a higher level of awareness and self control. You can maximize your path in life and really control what is to come down the path. It wasn't until I came here did I actually start the path of self actualization. I didn't realize how much I was stunted by staying where I was in life. I was content with the grind and with my little world. I never really knew my real abilities as far as anything. I had a feeling of who I was and what my purpose was, but really why. My personal bubble back at home kept me from really getting into the world and taking it on. The day I got here; that bubble was burst into pieces. My values and my fortitude was tested and retested. What I have found was that I was not as prepared as I hoped. I thought that I would or could handle most to anything that life threw at me until I came here. I am not saying I am a weak willed person or my fortitude lacks strength. I really thought I was going to leave and turn tail. I guess I needed a kick in the pants to really get me moving in the right direction. I guess this is the time for me to really re-evaluate everything. I don't know nor do I have high expectations for this year as far as anything, but I do hope to grow a little bit. This is a real opportunity for me to get my head out of the sand. There are many steps that I need to start on. The first few steps are always the hardest, but I really need to find the motivation to start. I believe one of my first real goals is to break the bad habits. I know it's easier said then done, but I might as well as try and fail for fear of not trying at all.

Right now all of this is talk. Talk with no action at all. Of course I want to be a better person, who doesn't? But, often I find the true path to change is the path with most resistance or the least traveled. I find that my life has always been in the wind. I don't plan nor do I have any plans to plan. I think that most of the time life just pushes me in the direction I need to go and I just flow with it. I like that aspect of my life. I guess that is my greatest strength and weakness at the same time. I guess that is what need to change first. I am just rambling right now.

I think my path to self actualization is going to be different. I really don't know how to start on it. This is really the only time I can do it. My misfortune in luck may just be the opportunity my life needs for me to jump start on finding not only who I am, but also what I can really do.

How about you? Have you started on your path or are you following what you were told? Remember sometimes the path to self actualization may be a path that no one wants you to follow, but you. Sometimes the bad ideas might be the best idea. I am not promoting making stupid decisions, but I am telling you to take a risk. Those risks will lead you to a path that you may have never seen. It is ok to step outside of your comfort zone. It is scary doing so, but leaving your comfort zone will show you a lot of things about yourself.

Maximize your potential. Step outside of yourself and your bubble. See where what happens, you will be surprised not only the result but your reaction. It's never too late to learn something new about yourself.

____

The End

"one often meets his destiny on the path they choose to avoid it" The turtle from Kungfu Panda

-Cezar-

open minds, hearts and arms

2009-05-10T07:50:00.001+09:00

From day one in this country; I have found something that I am not accustomed to, kindness. Most to all of everyone I have met has welcomed me into their lives. No one has turned me away or down. I am always greeted with smiles, handshakes, or a simple bow. Whenever I am lost, people generally help me find my way. There was this one time that I asked for directions. Not only did the gentleman start making phone calls to find directions, he offered to walk me to my destination. To drive this point more about the kindness of the people here, the people in my church are equally amazing. I am sure that they would offer the shirt off of their backs if needed. I met this couple in church, and I have been a constant guest in their home. I feel that I have become an adoptive son into their family. They have gifted to me a slew of helpful tools. These gifts ranged from teaching materials to a good conversation. Their help, advice and gifts started from day one. This was a new and strange feeling. In America everyone is so guarded, that it feels wrong to ask for help or a favor. At first I resisted, well not resisted just weary. This was a type of hospitality that I have not experienced in a very long time, but it was more than welcome in my life.

The one experience that is also very new is acknowledgement. People generally acknowledge that fact that you do exist in the world. You are not just another face in the crowd. You are a person and you are there. This is again something new to me. At home I am nobody, just another lost face in a crowd of lost faces. The great thing about being here is that you are everybody’s friend. When I meet someone or talk to someone; they react as if I am a long lost friend. They welcome me with open arms, mind and heart. Back in America you must earn the right of friendship; here friendship is given away like candy. If I were to talk up to a stranger and start talking to them as if they were my long lost friend, a dirty look is the least of my problems. Here in Korea, this stranger will literally try to hold your hand to help you. Sometimes I feel a simple thank you is not enough for all the kindness I receive.

I think this is one of the biggest lessons I will take away with from Korea, the idea of universal kindness and friendship. I think this idea can really change people. If we all just started smiling more and giving people more acknowledgement, we would be in a better place. If we let our guard down for just a moment, would it be so bad? I once read a bumper sticker that said “have you hugged someone today?” I am seriously asking this question to you. You don’t literally have to hug someone, but have you shown some type of kindness to someone today? If not, why? Many of you are probably saying what is in it for me? Let me answer your question with these questions. Does kindness really need a reward? Do we really need an excuse to be kind? Can’t we give without expecting something back? Is that what our society has come down to? There has to be something in it for us before we do anything. There has to be a reward for our effort before actions are taken. I always believed that kindness it its own reward. Many of you may scoff at that statement. Many of you may call me naïve. I look at you and feel sad that you think that way. Our society has trained us or has lead us to believe that if we do something a reward has to be physical, monetary, or praiseworthy. That reward can never just be an idea or a feeling. It can never be just a handshake, a simple thank you, or absolutely nothing at all.

Just as an example of me practicing what I preach. Yesterday I was walking around my town and I saw to foreigners. They were just walking and they had two large back packs with them. I simply walked up to them and asked, “do you need help?”. Their response was “yes we do.” So I helped them around my town. I walked them to everywhere they needed to get to. I showed them where the stores were, I showed them how to get to certain places. At the end of our little adventure, all I received was a handshake and two new friends. I walked away smiling that night. That was all I needed and wanted from them, a good conversation, a good laugh and friendship.

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The End

Give with no reason, because you need no reason to give.

-Cezar-

question of the day

2009-05-07T21:56:00.003+09:00

So I've been thinking about it. I have not made the decision of what to do as far as my posts go. I am not too sure if I want write on this on a daily, monthly or weekly basis. I think I will write in it randomly. So I bought a notepad today, this way I can keep track of my thoughts and not have to over do it with my postings here. I guess I will just write in the notepad then just transcribe and add on as I please. Tell me what you think. I would appreciate some feedback.

As far as my blogs go. I haven't really thought of a tone, but then again its a blog. Tone doesn't really matter, its content. As you can probably tell, I am grasping at straws for this particular posting. I am going to keep this one short and sweet.

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As always I will end it with something that I have heard or thought about in my life.

"do or do not, there is no try" yoda

-Cezar-

Catching up part 2: the electric boogaloo

2009-05-06T19:26:00.003+09:00

So, where was I? I left off with the church. It was an interesting experience. Nothing more to it then that. The first month was a bad month for me. The bad experiences really took away from the good ones. It really weighed heavily on my thoughts of staying or leaving. I kept on trying to give it a chance and every time I did, road blocks and problems kept on coming up. I powered on, even though I really wanted to leave. The biggest source of strength was actually my family. Without them, I really don't know what would have happened. So that was basically my first real month in South Korea. There were some really funny stories that I will tell tale of later on.

The second month, April. This is where I think I started to actually accept everything. For the first month and into a couple weeks of the second month I was miserable. Then one day I realized the more I fought my way up stream, the harder it would be for me. So I decided to finally just stop fighting because I won't be able to really enjoy where I am and what I am doing. I started to bond with the children that I was teaching. I started to bond with the teachers. The better part was I was starting to make more and more friends. I started to enjoy myself a little bit. Now this month was also a bitter sweet time for me. It was a birthday that I would be celebrating it alone. The nice thing was the church I am attending decided to have a picnic. Now I didn't tell anyone that it was my birthday. It was special anyways. I spent the weekend with good friends and when I got back to my appartment, I found a slew of well wishes from friends and family. This was also very meaningful to me. My parents actually sent me a second care package. I thought it was a regular package. I was wrong. As I was going through the package, I saw many items and what not. They sent me a card and all that. Then I had found an easter egg that had a simple label on it saying "happy easter". I opened it up and found cherioes. I kid you not, I almost started to cry. I don't know what set it off, it was so simple. I was on the brink of crying and laughing at the same time. Now this is the month that I had also gotten into a fight with one of the teachers that I was teaching with. She and I had been clashing heads for a while. It finally came to a full on fight one day. I had gotten many things off of my chest and her as well. The next time I taught with her, everything was so much better. And that was basically the end of the second month. I was able to get a better lay of the land. I was able to get a better hold of how to handle myself and the situation. I was able to really start being ok with everything. This is the month that I started to really come into my own. Thanks to the support from my friends and family at home, and also the friends here. I think it has gotten better because I do not hate waking up in the moring in this place any more. I have found a routine, kind of. I have started a path to trying to pick up the language. I am starting to find ways to deal with the isolation and what not of the area. This is the month that I realized that I like my area. I spend many weekends in the nearest large city. I forget that I hate to hear the ambient noise of the city. The simplicity of my area, having the opportunity to have my windows open and not have to hear cars or people wizz by. I also have the oppotunity to enjoy amazing sunsets on a daily basis. This place has also let me appeciate the small and big things in life.

Well that bascially covers March and April. May has just started. I have stories and what not. I don't think I will write about those yet. The month is still too young for me to start writing about it. I don't know how many times I will be writing on this blog. I decided to carry around a notepad and a pen. I want to start jotting down stuff. More then likely, you will be reading some random thoughts and events of the day.

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I also want to start writing some pearls of wisedom that I come up with. More then likely these will come from a source. Others, may be from my head. I will be sure to inform you of which one it is.

I will end this blog with something that I read from a book titled "The Little Prince". The passage goes "One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes."

The End
-Cezar-

catching up

2009-05-05T22:25:00.000+09:00

Hello. My name is Cezar Francisco and I am a teacher in South Korea. I wanted to start blogging about all my experiences from day 1, but as per my life, nothing really went according to plan. So now I am forcing myself to start logging in at least once a month to write about my journey in South Korea. I really want to do this whole thing justice. Even though I missed the first couple months, I will try to write about them now.

Let me start at my goodbye party. I think it was on the 25th of Feb. It was a bitter sweet day, it was my mom's birthday as well. This day was a private session for only my family. The last day they could really say goodbye to me. This was possibly one of the hardest days I had faced in a while. I am not an emotional man, but that day it took all my strength not to cry. The best way I did that was to tell everyone not to cry in front of me. I even instructed my mom not to cry, her punishment would be not being able to go to the airport with me. The funny thing was that my brother was the one that almost made me cry, I had to not talk to him as I left. What is even more funny is that now that I am trying to remember all of this so I can write about it, brings back all the emotions of that day. I really don't know how to capture it in words, basically bitter sweet.

So I get into South Korea. It was about a 16 hour flight. It was not too bad. I had slept for most to all of the fight. My fight had left around midnight of the 25th. I arrived in Korea on the 27th. This is where the story gets twisted and not fun at all. The first 48 hours in South Korea. The first 48 hours was filled with excitement, anger, frustration, and regret. So I get off of the plane. I find my baggage and walk out into the receiving hall. I was told that someone would have my name on a card to pick me up. I get outside the doors and there was no name that I could see. This is where I proceeded to walk around to try to find this person. After about a half hour of walking around I finally decided to go to the information booth. After trying to communicate with the woman behind the desk, the person looking for me went up to the booth to try to look for me. This was the first laugh had in Korea. So the man takes me to a ticket booth, buys my ticket to Jeonju. We are at the bus stop and he gives me a little slip that says, once you are in Jeonju please get off at the first stop. The funny thing was it was in English with no Korean Translation for anyone to read. I am not familiar with the town that I was going how the hell was I supposed to know where Jeonju was and where the hell the first stop was. So I get onto the bus and take a 4 hour bus ride to Jeonju. Of course I miss the first stop because at the first stop I asked the bus driver if this was the first stop in Jeonju, he spoke no English. I ended up getting off at the last stop that the bus had planned. Luckily the slip had 2 numbers in it and I asked the bus driver to call the numbers. Someone from the education office in Jeonju came to pick me up. This is the part of the story that made me want to turn back and go home. So I get into the cab with the person from the Education office. I start talking to him about my assignment in South Korea. I did not mention this before, but I was recruited to teach in a city called Namwon at a High school. So back to the cab ride to the education office. So I start talking to the person in the cab about my assignment in Namwon. My first question was, what is the name of the High school I will be teaching in Namwon. He turns his head towards me and says "Namwon?", your not teaching in Namwon you will be going to Buan. My first inital reaction was WHAT! I didn't raise my voice, but I kindly asked him what happened and why I was switched to Buan instead of Namwon. He answered, it was always in Buan, who promised your Namwon? I responded with "my recruiter". He said, "well I don't know, but you will be in Buan." At that point I wanted to just jump out of the cab and run back to America. I really had no choice at that point, so I stayed and went to the office with the gentleman. I stored all my stuff somewhere and followed him to the office. I met some Newzelanders that were also here on their first day. So we sat and talked and waited for our guides to pick us up and take us to our towns. I was last to go, for good reason. My guide was late about half an hour. Eventually when he picked me up he told me even more news. This news made me want to murder people. He told me that not only is the town NOT Buan it is a small village outside of Buan about 45 min. Also that I will not be teaching just one school I will be teaching five schools. On top of that two of the schools that I have to go to require me to get onto a boat for an hour. Again my reaction went something along the line of WHAT THE F**K! To add insult to injury, my room was NOT ready in the town of Gyeokpo. So I had to stay in Jeonju for about 2 days before the room was ready. The funny part about this, well it wasn't funny at the time but it is now, he wanted to take me to a spa to sleep in for the 2 days. And, as I am fresh from America, I was ok with the idea of a spa. Apparently spa meant a public bath house that naked men tend to walk around with their junk just flopping about. This is again one of those moments where I reacted with "WHAT THE F**K NO!" I informed my guide that I will sleep in a motel for 2 days, I don't care how much it costs. Those 2 days were relatively ok. I was still pissed at the situation. I sent emails to my recruiter, who decided to go on a vacation the day I came, so that was a fun fact. So Sunday comes around, I get taken to the town that I will be teaching at and what not. The town was exactly the opposite of what I wanted. I did not want to work in a town with more rice patties then people, but I kept on rolling with the changes. I still wanted to turn back and go home. This was a situation that no one wants to be in. I am not a violent man, but this is a time where I wanted to really just bust some heads in and do what I needed to do. Again, I stuck with it and the 48 hours was over, that did not mean it was the end of all the bad stuff.

The first week in Gyeokpo. I had taken some medical tests prior to coming to Gyeokpo. These tests were taken to clear me for work. of course when the medical tests come back there was a problem. They told me that I might have liver problems. And that I am technically still not employed yet if i don't pass the tests, so I had to pay out of my own pocket to get more tests done. Eventually I get retested. At this point I was already tired of South Korea. All I wanted was to go home. So on the way to go see the Doctor for my results, I was praying for something to be wrong. I wanted something that would disqualify me from working there but also something I can be cured of back in America. I was out of luck, apparently I was too fat. That was my first week in South Korea.

My first month. I was still adjusting to this whole situation. I wanted to go home. I wanted to punch someone in the face. I just didn't want to be here at all. Teaching in 5 different schools. Being in a situation that totally just sucked and what not. Who in their right mind would stay in a crappy situation like this? You know who, me. I had no choice. What am I going to do, turn back go home and tell the everyone that I failed at trying to be alone and be a big boy. I was caught between a rock and a hard place. So I stuck with it. I started to try to get a grasp on how to teach kids and how to teach English. I was really at a loss in the first month. I didn't want to be there and my teaching and attitude showed it. That is my biggest regret in the first month. My situation had nothing to do with how I was supposed to be acting as a professional. I let the situation affect how I perform, that wasn't me. So I continued in the first month. All I had was money in my pocket from America and a Couple of Korean Won. But, I managed to power through it all and make it a decent month. The most ironic thing happened to me in the first month in Korea. I started going to church. My Korean guide introduced me to a church in Jeonju that spoke English, it was a Christian Church. Now, I say ironic because for the past 10 years I have been agnostic. I had little to no faith anymore in anything. Then I come into the Christian church and all I felt was a warm embrace of something that I can't really describe. I am not saying that I have re-found my religion, but I really don't know what it means, but ever since then I have been traveling about 2 hours every week just to go to church. That is something that I would have never thought I would do in my life. I think I will end the story of the first month on that note for now. I will continue writing about the first month in a couple of days. There is much more to tell.