Cheese

It's amazing how excited I get about cheese. Good cheese is such a rare commodity in Korea that finding it becomes an event.

Jen and I ate at a buffet/salad bar a couple of days ago....




Ashley the restaurant is next to Wayne the cake shop and opposite Kevin the shitter.



Jen.





A weird burger and potato thing....with a grim cheese sauce. Wait...what's that on top of the burger?




It's fucking fresh Parmesan!!! Wooooow!!

Restart

Well, as anyone who's checked this place will know, there have not been many posts recently. I just can't get on with writing a blog. It's seems like a hassle and a chore. So, I'm not going to be writing one anymore.

Fear not though, cos the blog is staying. I've bought myself a hd video camera. It's a funky little pocket-sized thing which I'm carrying around with me to most places now. The video below, of some of my pupils, was my first upload using it. Expect more where that came from.

First grade kids at my school in Korea.

Slow

Ooops. No posts in August. Lazy me.


There have been a variety of reasons why I haven't posted anything. I'll slap some posts up in the next few days. First off will be a review of my trip to Japan. Hold on.

Mike vs. Japan: Part 1

I recently got back from a trip to Japan. I'll give a detailed account of the trip at a later date, but right now I want to tell you about the highlight of the trip.

On one of my many arcade visits in Japan I decided to give Street Fighter 4 a go. I am a big Street Fighter 2 fan and happen to believe that Street Fighter 2: Championship Edition is the best one on one fighting game ever made. I had had one brief turn at christmas time at my girlfriend's house, but only in 2 player mode.

I sat down at the Lindbergh cabinet and dropped my 100 yen into the slot. There was no decision to be made on which character I would choose. I'm a Blanka man. I've dabbled with a few characters before - Ryu, Sagat, Guile, but none of them have been MY character. Blanka just has a great set of basic punches and kicks that suit my aggressive style perfectly.



SF4 feels a lot like SF2 but with big, modern graphics. Awesome. I was right at home and set about laying some beatings on the computer. I was surprised at just how much ass I was kicking and was soon at what appeared to be the final boss. I had just started this fight when the game suddenly paused. What the hell?!



"Here Comes a New Challenger!"

Motherfu.....

Just when my moment of arcade glory was upon me here comes some Japanese douche who was probably breastfed by an arcade cabinet.

Which character will he choose? Oh, what a surprise, it's Ryu. Sure enough, he comes out in the first round all specials blazing - Dragon Punches, Fireballs and Hurricane Kicks galore. I stuck with my tried and tested method. Flying kicks, sweeps, uppercuts and kicks. No need for those other pussy buttons, it's hard shots all the way. Just a matter of timing. To my surprise I found myself beating his ass. It was a straight sets victory for Blanka - and England.



My challenger had had enough and so I was able to finish my go and complete the game. Awesome. This was a great start to my SF4 career, but it was going to get better on my next attempt......

R.I.P.

Balloon Cow
2010 - 2010






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Fireworks

This past weekend was the Pohang International Fireworks Festival. It's the event every year here. The sites of Bukbu beach and Hyeongsan river are packed with people, food stalls, outdoor karaoke booths and all kinds of shenanigans. It's not just fireworks, as there's some watersports competitions and some theatre productions but, who cares about that crap? I wanna see shit go boom.

The highlight of the event was Saturday nights Fireworks competition between Japan, Canada and Poland. Korea also did a display but didnt enter the competition...I guess they didnt want to risk losing infront of such a big crowd.

Preceding the fireworks was a bunch of boring crap, including, some bad dancing, some bad singing (from a glut of fat dudes who looked like they were dressed in the dark by some talentless fashion students), a bad fashion show and videos of important looking people talking about Pohang and Posco. Presumably Posco (the big steelworks that basically owns this town) ponied up most of the dough so they made sure they got plenty of spotlight.


The one good act in the pre-show was the, actually proper famous, girl band KARA. Now, for my money, pound for pound, they are the hottest girl band in the world. We were too far away from the stage to get a decent pic of them, so here's a pic from the net to illustrate my point.



Definite foxes.


So, mercifully for my ass - sitting on a field, squashed between korean people for 3 hours aint too comfortable - the fireworks got underway. I have never seen such large scale fireworks displays in my life before. It was a feast for my magpie brain. Jenny managed to doze off though. Seems super bright lights and loud
explosions can be added to the many things that make her "snoozy".





After the event we went to the small tented village that had been set up and grabbed some food. It was really expensive but I couldnt resist getting some barbecued pork. I mean, come on, they roasted half a fucking pig! Awesome.



Oh and for the record...Japan won.

Eminem - "Won't Back Down" 6/25 Fallon (TheAudioPerv.com)

I'm addicted to the new Eminem album, especially this song. I reckon it's probably his best album overall. Drugs are bad. Okay?

Dangu

One of the best discoveries I've made since moving to Korea is Dangu. Dangu is Korean billiards. It's either played with 3 balls.....argghhh a mosquito just tried to suck my blood. Little fucker. I'm a peaceful man. I don't kill anything deliberately, we all have a right to be here. All of us except for mozzies. Nicking someone's blood is just plain out of order. Anyway, back to ball sports. Dangu is either played with 3 or 4 balls. I play the 4 ball version. You have a table, about the size of a pool table but, with no pockets, 2 red balls, 1 white ball and 1 yellow ball. The idea is to hit either the yellow or white ball and make contact with both red balls without hitting the remaining yellow or white. It's like only playing the positional shots in snooker.......which is a lot more fun than it sounds.






I think one of the reasons I enjoy it so much is the interaction with othe people. Dangu is played predominantly by men. I've only seen 2 women play Dangu and one of the worked at the place. It's like a men's club. Dude's play Dangu, chat, rip on each other, smoke and just generally hang out. I'm getting kind of addicted to it.



It's the first stop on many good nights out and it can also be the whole night out when you order take away food and booze to be delivered.

Speeling

A couple of days ago, I made a worksheet for my 1st grade kids to practice their spelling of words related to times of the day - lunch time, dinner time, etc. - and below is the effort of one the little fellas.






Well, it ain't quite breakfast time but, it's certainly how I'd like to start each day.

Fighting 2

Soccer is a big sport in Korea. It's not as popular as baseball but, there's still a lot of interest, especially for the national team. Koreans seem to have a lot of affection and hope for their team, which feels strange for someone used to being an England fan. We tend to look at our team with mistrust and jealousy. Anyway, when the World Cup began people started going nuts. Red t-shirts began popping up everywhere, as did Red 'devil' horns (they refer to the national team as the Red Devils) and also a million TV ads featuring the World Cup, Park Ji Sung and Lee Chung Yong. Kim Yu Na was also in a bunch of WC ads too but, that doesn't count because she features in 80% of adverts here anyway.

For Korea's opening match against Greece I decided to journey down to Busan to watch the game on the beach. The atmosphere was terrific. Thousands of excited Koreans...and a few whiteys...warm weather, booze and footie - it doesn't get much better. To top it all off, Korea won. Awesome!

Oh, and this post is called 'Fighting 2' because 'Fighting!' is a popular expression here. It's an exclamation of encouragement... a bit like saying 'Come on!' or something like that.

Fighting 1

I went to Yongsan electronics market in Seoul on the weekend. It's a huge complex with about 5000 stalls and shops selling all kinds of electronics. The electronics, like immigrants, are bunched into their own little areas. So, there's a PC floor on the building, a digital camera area and even a street solely devoted to lighting products........it's Magpie-man's dream. So pretty and flickering. Ooooohhhh.......

I, of course, went straight for the videogames section though. It was so tempting to buy a Japanese Famicom but, I managed to resist. I might have to return one day to grab that little Nintendo......I'm such a sucker for any old consoles. I ended up buying an MVS cart for my arcade - 'Art of Fighting 3'. I mainly bought it because the graphics, by Neo Geo standards, look pretty freaking sweet.

I might slap up a little review of the game soon.

Arcade

When I was a kid I used to go to a local snooker club on most saturdays. I wasn't there to be one of the boys on the baize though. I was there for the small collection of arcade machines they had in the lobby. One of my favourites was Spider-man: The Videogame. I remember the graphics being huge and colourful. It was an oracular treat and one that I revisited time and again. I have very fond memories of that game and that little arcade. Maybe it's why I've harboured the desire to own my own arcade machine for so long. Well, now it is a dream no longer.



Ok, so he aint a looker but, he's go it where it counts.



I managed to buy the machine and an MVS motherboard for about £100. My girlfriend bought me a 108 game Neo Geo cartridge from China. Metal Slug, King of Fighters, there's a whole lot of quality games to keep me busy.



I'm planning to gradually improve/replace parts on the arcade. It's gonna be fun having a little project to work on. Hmmm..... I think 'projects' might be a sign I'm becoming an old man. It's probably a good thing I don't have a garage.

Face

This is one of the many reasons why you shouldn't be the first person to 'party out'...

.....especially when you're sharing a sleeping area with a pair of Pollocks.

Footie

I went to my very first Pohang Steeler's game this past Saturday. A sunny day, football, friends, hot girls and men with cardboard on their heads. That is the way to spend an afternoon.

Shame we lost 1 - 0.

Birthday

The sun shines. You light a barbecue. You invite some good friends. There is meat, vegetables and fruit being eaten. The drinks begin to flow and everyone is having a grand old time. Stories about absent members and adventures taken are shared and the group strengthens a bond. Then the party moves onto a new destination. The groups disperse, people mingle into new groups, all the while the drink flows. Then the inevitable food cravings take hold and once again the group moves to a new location to sample a new atmosphere and new flavours. Then, at an imperceptible moment, a change occurs. What was once a person brimming with ebullience, joy and laughter becomes this....
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Comic

I've been feeling all full of cold recently. I hate being ill. I hate being ill especially when I still have to go to work.

I walked back to my office, after struggling through my lessons, and dropped my stuff on the desk. A package caught my eye. It was addressed to me. What was it?

It was these lovely bastards.....




Comic books...yeaaaahhhh!!!


"Happy birthday, Mike. Lots of love, Mike"

Damn

The 12th of Feb was my last blog entry. I'm such a naughty blogger.

Things have been super hectic for the past few weeks (it feels longer) and internet availability has been super crummy. Now though I am sitting in my apartment in Pohang with my free-with-the-apartment internet connection. Huzzah!

So, I'm going to tell you about my first few weeks in Korea. I'm gonna break it down week by week unless its a big event that needs its own post. Here we go.....

Week 1

First off we have the flight. I sat in the terminal listening to my Hypnosis mp3 desperately hoping it would suddenly calm my ever growing fear...it didnt. I was seriously considering just walking out of the airport and was the last person to board the plane. Still, I made it on there and after the takeoff I managed to relax. The thing that kept me busy and kept me relaxed was the wonder of inflight, multiplayer Tetris. That game has to be in my top ten all-time favourite video games. Really it's a work of elegant brilliance. I was bringing it in the two player matchup with Jenny and managed to repeatedly show her what Game looke like. Cos I gots Game. I hold the record for longest consecutive win streak.

Anyway, we landed in Incheon airport (see pic 1) and did all the paperwork stuff and was scooped up by the TaLK staff. A long coach ride, a small bout of snoozing and we were at the Korea University, Jochiwon campus (see pic 2) for our main orientation.

Continued in the next blog post.

Nothing

This post is just to explain why there haven't been any posts here recently.

I, like the fool that I am, didn't bring a power adaptor with me to Korea. No power adaptor meant no laptop and no laptop meant no blog updates. Thankfully, I know have an adaptor and can get back on track. I have a ton of stuff to post up here but for now here's a picture of a guy kicking the crap out of a board.

Goodbye

I went out on Saturday night for a few pints of Guinness with a couple of my mates. It came to the end of the night and I got a lift home from one of my friends. We pulled up, I got out of the car, thanked my friend's girlfriend for the lift (she was sober) and turned to my friend ready to say "I'll see you next......".

Normally, I would have something to finish the sentence, but this time I didnt because I wont likely be seeing him for at least 12 months. This was the last goodbye before Korea. A weird feeling.

I couldn't think of a good 'Goodbye' pic so instead have one of The Secret Rivals' first gig.

Sick

The last few days have been a mixed bag.

On Monday I was hunched over the toilet praying to the porcelain gods for leniency in a battle to retain my stomach contents. I forgot how painful it was to vomit while sober. Due to my sobriety I was able to accurately identify all the components of my puke, which I'm not sure whether is a good or a bad thing. I ended up spending almost a whole day in bed with a nasty virus.

On Tuesday I found out more details on where I will be living in Korea. I shall soon be a brand spanking new resident of Pohang. A few nuggets of info that I've been able to find out so far about my new home are....

It has a large steel factory
It has a footie team in the K-League - Pohang Steelers
It's got a multiplex cinema
There's US naval base nearby
It has a lot of prostitues

Sounds like fun times. I'm getting more excited for my upcoming adventure but also a wee bit more apprehensive as everything is becoming more 'real'.

Possessions

Do you ever get attached to possessions?

I'm busy selling a bunch of my things to raise some cash for a new laptop. One of the things I've decided to sell is my movie projector. I dont' want to sell it, but hey, I need the scrilla, so it's gotta go. Out of all the possessions I'm selling, this is the only thing I'm sad to see go. I don't know why. Not very buddhist of me.

Absolute no prize if you can name the movie (screened on my, soon to be former, projector) in the picture.

Dinner

Went out with Jenny, my parents and my aunty for a tasty meal at an Italian restaurant. It was a 'farewell' kinda thing which added an extra pinch of festivity to the proceedings. My parents even sprung for a bottle of Bollinger champagne....the crazy mofos. Just for the record; I ate.... Oysters, crab linguini and cheescake.

I am really looking forward to exploring all the different foods that I can fit into my gob while I'm in Korean. It's going to be a food adventure.

Flying

I have a fear of flying. I don't know where it came from but it's definitely here. When I was younger I flew quite a few times without any problem, infact, I think I enjoyed it. In 2004 I went on a trip to New York...everything was different. Panic, sweaty palms, shaking, heavy breathing...it was all kinds of crappy. I was a wreck in the departure lounge, I almost turned around and walked the other way when we were boarding the plane. The take off was horrible. The flight was nervy. The landing was a relief. Then 1 week later I had to go through it all again. I have not been on a plane since.

This fear is a big problem for me, so I'm tackling it head on. I paid £14.95 to download a self-hypnosis mp3 from McKenna.com

I've gone through it a few times now and I think I feel less nervous about air travel. It's a little tricky to concentrate sometimes when Paul sounds like a sex pest local DJ ("Relax. Feel your shoulders sinking down. Yeah, that's it.") but hopefully it's doing the business. The real test of course is when I get on the plane to Korea.

Fingers crossed

Mike

Stacks

I'm trying to sort through some of my things at the moment. I need to sell some stuff so that I can afford to buy a new laptop. So my place is just piles of DVDs, gadgets and other un-needed possessions. I'm a natural hoarder, so its fighting my natural urges to be parting with anything. I just keep telling myself that it'll all be worth it when im stroking my shiney, shiney new lappy.

I'm testing the photo feature on here. I had to use my camera phone because I havent got a memory card for the spiffy new camera my girlfriend got me for Christmas. The quality of pics will improve soon.

Han

It's just over 2 weeks until I fly to Korea. It kinda feels like I'm in limbo at the moment.Like I'm between lives.

I have most of my paperwork done and TaLK are organising the flights and whatnot, so I don't have much to do in that regards. All I have to do is get busy selling a bunch of stuff that I won't be taking with me so that I can afford to buy a new laptop. Fingers crossed I can raise the dough before I go.

Man, I was really hoping my first blog post would be really interesting. I guess it kind of sums up the state of my life so far. Hopefully it's the calm before the storm. A nice storm though.