Oh how the lazy have caught up to all the Oscar worthy buzz. My fiance' and I (with some much appreciated help from Netflix) have finally caught up with the rest of the country and had an Oscar movie weekend. After weeks of avoiding blogs and tuning out friends and coworkers, we have finally sen three of the tops films of last year. The menu consisted of: The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire, and The Wrestler. And action...
Well first of all, my fiance' was totaly obsessed with watching The Reader. Not so good on our first try, the disc had blemishes on it and was unable to play in the DVD player, the PS2 or the computer... so back it went to be replaced by a better copy. Great way to start out a movie weekend.
The restart consisted of Slumdog Millionaire, which we would reccommend not watching while you eat at least for the first parts of the film. The portrayal of the slums of Mumbai (Bombay) India, are quite vivid and stomach wrenching. Despite the film's obvious charm and appeal dealing with three lives interwoven by the circumstances surrounding growing up in a slum. I found the movie to be very good and would go see it again... or if it were to get lost in the mail or accidently downloaded from iTunes. Even my fiance' agreed it was a very good movie, and after the incident with The Reader, I was glad she was happy.
Next on the list while waiting for a better copy of The Reader, was Mickey Rorke in The Wrestler. Great movie for guys. Of course that means that my fiance' got up and found something else to do halfway through the movie. If you've ever been a fan of wrestling or know someone who is, this is a good movie to watch. It follows the life and fading career of a wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson, who peaked in the 1980's and still competes 20 years later. Mickey Rorke does a great job in the film and I would go see it again... all be it alone. I still really don't know what the move "Ram Jam" was supposed to be... it looked like he jumps off the top rope and head butts people. Original and painful I'm sure.
Finally, a great version of The Reader arrives on Saturday and we are able to sit down to what can be politely called a German slutty film. I believe the main characters only had clothes for half of the movie. Despite this, the storyline was actually good, and I seemed to want things to work out for everyone in the end. It's about a young boy getting mixed up with an older woman, and this older woman ends up going to work for the Nazis as a prison guard at a concentration camp during WW2. Of course the couple was fated to meet again as the young boy is now a young man studying law and ends up watching her trail in court. Crazy thing is... she can't read... at all. Great movie, will probably end up owning it if my fiance' gets her way. By the way, the young boy looked an awful lot like that guy from C.S. Lewis' The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe as well as Prince Caspian, but I am told it is not the same guy... there is treachery afoot.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
South Korea
I don't consider myslef much of an international traveler, but i was able to add some stamps to my passport recently. My fiance' and I traveled to South Korea to investigate possible job opportunities for teaching English abroad. We had been in contact with a recruiter from South Korea who acts as a liason betweem job hunters and schools looking to fill positions. After hearing some basic details and presented with several job opportunities in Seoul and Busan (Pusan), we decided it would be fun to take a week and see the country and meet with the schools.
I am glad we were able to use our spring break and have the opportunity to explore South Korea for the very first time. I had traveled abroad before, most recent spent several weeks in Japan in 2005. However, I was vastly more prepared for that trip as I had learned the language and culture beforehand and was able to experience japan with a great deal of ease. Korea was a different story. The only real knowledge I had befre going was stories from my Korean students in the United States, and some rudementary Korean phrases. I was under the impression that most Koreans could understand japanese, but it was something of a taboo since the relations between Korea and Japan are not always on friendly terms, therefore I tried keeping my Japanese to bare minimum.
The term culture shock, to someone that has not traveled abroad, does not completely encapsulate the experience my fiance' and I shared together over spring break. I was very wrongly under the assumption that because of the history and proximety of Korea and Japan, that Korea would be very similar in many ways to what I experienced in Japan. This was unfortunately not the case. In fact, I kept waiting for things to look familiar either to my western culture or Japan, but Korea has a very unique and distinct look and feel.
The first obstacle was of course, the language barrier. Apart from a few simple phrases, I could not communicate with the Koreans in Korean, and many of them could or would not communicate with us in English. This made getting around very difficult and frustrating. Add to the fact that Koreans have an idea of neighborhoods and not street names (thats right, they do not name or label their streets) Koreans themselves seem to have a difficult time locating things in their own city.
Fortunately, we had a guidebook in English, a rather large metro map, and underneath all the Korean Hangul, there was the names of the stations in English letters. So the metro system was (in a small way) very much like what I had experienced in Japan, and therefore very easy to navigate. Once above ground, however, it was a completely different story. We found ourselves frequently visiting police stations and banks as these were places we could expect at least one person that could speak to us in English. At the very least, they usually let us use their phone to call and ask for help.
Like any major city, Seoul was broken up into parts that consisted of historical older parts, business sections, and newer urban sprawl. We found ourselves staying in what we would consider and older part of Seoul (meaning it was far dirtier and more run down than the places we were visiting schools). Luckily, the schools where we visited were a part of the newer urban sprawl and looked much nicer and cleaner than other parts of the city. I was very glad to see this instead of the other school closer to our hostel that had seevral strings of barbed wire along the tops of the walls and in a very seedy neighborhood.
Overall, it was a very eye-opening experience and I feel blessed to have that experience I can look back upon. I guess the lesson learned for me off the bat was being prepared. I spent the time and energy for years in advance of going to Japan to learn the language and culture and it was a very exciting and plesant experience. I can only wonder if the same could have been said about South Korea given equal preparation beforehand.
I am glad we were able to use our spring break and have the opportunity to explore South Korea for the very first time. I had traveled abroad before, most recent spent several weeks in Japan in 2005. However, I was vastly more prepared for that trip as I had learned the language and culture beforehand and was able to experience japan with a great deal of ease. Korea was a different story. The only real knowledge I had befre going was stories from my Korean students in the United States, and some rudementary Korean phrases. I was under the impression that most Koreans could understand japanese, but it was something of a taboo since the relations between Korea and Japan are not always on friendly terms, therefore I tried keeping my Japanese to bare minimum.
The term culture shock, to someone that has not traveled abroad, does not completely encapsulate the experience my fiance' and I shared together over spring break. I was very wrongly under the assumption that because of the history and proximety of Korea and Japan, that Korea would be very similar in many ways to what I experienced in Japan. This was unfortunately not the case. In fact, I kept waiting for things to look familiar either to my western culture or Japan, but Korea has a very unique and distinct look and feel.
The first obstacle was of course, the language barrier. Apart from a few simple phrases, I could not communicate with the Koreans in Korean, and many of them could or would not communicate with us in English. This made getting around very difficult and frustrating. Add to the fact that Koreans have an idea of neighborhoods and not street names (thats right, they do not name or label their streets) Koreans themselves seem to have a difficult time locating things in their own city.
Fortunately, we had a guidebook in English, a rather large metro map, and underneath all the Korean Hangul, there was the names of the stations in English letters. So the metro system was (in a small way) very much like what I had experienced in Japan, and therefore very easy to navigate. Once above ground, however, it was a completely different story. We found ourselves frequently visiting police stations and banks as these were places we could expect at least one person that could speak to us in English. At the very least, they usually let us use their phone to call and ask for help.
Like any major city, Seoul was broken up into parts that consisted of historical older parts, business sections, and newer urban sprawl. We found ourselves staying in what we would consider and older part of Seoul (meaning it was far dirtier and more run down than the places we were visiting schools). Luckily, the schools where we visited were a part of the newer urban sprawl and looked much nicer and cleaner than other parts of the city. I was very glad to see this instead of the other school closer to our hostel that had seevral strings of barbed wire along the tops of the walls and in a very seedy neighborhood.
Overall, it was a very eye-opening experience and I feel blessed to have that experience I can look back upon. I guess the lesson learned for me off the bat was being prepared. I spent the time and energy for years in advance of going to Japan to learn the language and culture and it was a very exciting and plesant experience. I can only wonder if the same could have been said about South Korea given equal preparation beforehand.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Headed to Korea
Well, here I am again getting myself psyched up for a flight over the Pacific. My first was in 2005 on a trip for a month to Japan, this time I'm headed to Korea to check out some teaching positions and enjoy WSpring Break. My fiance is accompanying me, so it should be a unique experience. We leave in about 2 hours bound for Detroit, Tokyo, and then Seoul. Checked the baggage and carry on like 5 times and have my passport basically stapled to me. Looking forward to this trip and hope to have some fun and share some quality time with my special bee overseas. This is apparently her first international flight so it should be interesting to see how the 20+ hours of flight time and layovers will affect her and us. Will post again when we get back to the States after Easter. Peace.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Twilight
So my fiance (and I) are obsessed with the Twilight series... ok she is way more obsessed than I am, I just really liked the books. She even bought The Host (another book by the same author) and enjoyed reading it despite telling me it was more of a script for a low budget television special for the sci-fi channel. I especially enjoy the almost daily reminders and teasings of how she is going to marry Edward Cullen or Rob Pattinson (the actor that plays Edward Cullen). It almost makes life worth getting up every morning to enjoy. So here is how the twilight bug got into our lives...
Not so long ago, I was an ESOL teacher for a public school district in South Carolina. Part of this fabulous job of mine included administering an end of the year assesment of the English proficiencies for our students that speak other languages. I was given a certain amount of time to test every ESL classified student within the district and of course that meant trying to coordinate six different schools and 200+ students to take this test. Long story short, I had a student miss the test on the day I was testing at her school. So I return the following day to make sure she took the test. Turns out, she was at school the first day I was testing and missed the announcement to come take the test because she was nose deep in some book. Naturally, I had to inquire about the book since it was so good that she missed a test for it.
It was Twilight, and since she was the only person taking the test that day, she lent it to me while she was testing and due to lack of monitoring numerous students and a lack of other reading materials with me, I started reading it. Honestly, the next thing I know she is telling me all about this world of forbidden love and vampires and werewolves while bubbling in her answers to the test. After the test had finished, I immediately went to the school library and checked out the last remaining copy of the book and picked up where I left off earlier. Over the next few days I had acquired all three (then released) books of the series and was quite noticably reading them all over the house.
My finace was very skeptical of me and these books at first, since we share little in common as far as reading preferences and genres. Then, it was time for the fourth book to come out. I was halfway through the third book at this time because I did not want to read too fast and have it end abruptly for me. The local Barnes and Noble was having a midnight release party for the fourth book which was a Vampire prom theme. My fiance was not yet a convert to the series and talked me out of going. We both now regret that decision. Less than a week later, she had become a full fledged member of the cult of Cullen (not really a cult to my knowledge but she would know if there was one). We have now seen Twilight too many times to count both in theatres and online. She keeps daily checks on the movie and author's websites and rereads the books from time to time. We both agree that the fourth installment lacked a certain something... like it was written by someone other than the author of the first three books. Anywho, we anxiously await the soon arrival of Twilight on DVD (apparently we pre-ordered it). I think that things worked out pretty well overall and there is something of a story there to tell the grandkids one day.
Not so long ago, I was an ESOL teacher for a public school district in South Carolina. Part of this fabulous job of mine included administering an end of the year assesment of the English proficiencies for our students that speak other languages. I was given a certain amount of time to test every ESL classified student within the district and of course that meant trying to coordinate six different schools and 200+ students to take this test. Long story short, I had a student miss the test on the day I was testing at her school. So I return the following day to make sure she took the test. Turns out, she was at school the first day I was testing and missed the announcement to come take the test because she was nose deep in some book. Naturally, I had to inquire about the book since it was so good that she missed a test for it.
It was Twilight, and since she was the only person taking the test that day, she lent it to me while she was testing and due to lack of monitoring numerous students and a lack of other reading materials with me, I started reading it. Honestly, the next thing I know she is telling me all about this world of forbidden love and vampires and werewolves while bubbling in her answers to the test. After the test had finished, I immediately went to the school library and checked out the last remaining copy of the book and picked up where I left off earlier. Over the next few days I had acquired all three (then released) books of the series and was quite noticably reading them all over the house.
My finace was very skeptical of me and these books at first, since we share little in common as far as reading preferences and genres. Then, it was time for the fourth book to come out. I was halfway through the third book at this time because I did not want to read too fast and have it end abruptly for me. The local Barnes and Noble was having a midnight release party for the fourth book which was a Vampire prom theme. My fiance was not yet a convert to the series and talked me out of going. We both now regret that decision. Less than a week later, she had become a full fledged member of the cult of Cullen (not really a cult to my knowledge but she would know if there was one). We have now seen Twilight too many times to count both in theatres and online. She keeps daily checks on the movie and author's websites and rereads the books from time to time. We both agree that the fourth installment lacked a certain something... like it was written by someone other than the author of the first three books. Anywho, we anxiously await the soon arrival of Twilight on DVD (apparently we pre-ordered it). I think that things worked out pretty well overall and there is something of a story there to tell the grandkids one day.
The Adventure Awaits
As I reported in my latest blog post, me and my better half find ourselves needing to make a choice. We now have several job offers on the table for teachig English in Korea in the near future and each one is described as better than the previous ones. I am in a state of forward thinking because I know that to advance in the career path I have chosen, I must get teaching experience overseas. I wish I could say that the road thus far has been smooth, but life has a funny way of keeping things interesting. Well, whatever the final decision, I know that in the end it will be the right one and I can be happy with that outcome.
My fiance and I recently had a "date night" to go see "Bride Wars" at our local 2nd run movie theatre. On the surface I expected it to be the chick flick to end all chick flicks, but despite everything I found myself enjoying it. I don't know if it was the company I was with or the cherry coke, but afterwards I felt contented to have gone. You should have seen the look on her face when she saw it was playing, it was priceless. In a very small way, I think I enjoyed spending the time together more than the activity we choose to do. I won't go into the times we used to go get our nails done together. It took a lot out of me to "man up" and let some Vietnamese lady hack away at my fingernails with a file and clippers. Truth be told she was great at it, and I never told her or my fiance how much better my nails looked and felt when we would do that together. Just FYI, I had the clear coat nail polish, or no polish at all... I don't remember.
My fiance and I recently had a "date night" to go see "Bride Wars" at our local 2nd run movie theatre. On the surface I expected it to be the chick flick to end all chick flicks, but despite everything I found myself enjoying it. I don't know if it was the company I was with or the cherry coke, but afterwards I felt contented to have gone. You should have seen the look on her face when she saw it was playing, it was priceless. In a very small way, I think I enjoyed spending the time together more than the activity we choose to do. I won't go into the times we used to go get our nails done together. It took a lot out of me to "man up" and let some Vietnamese lady hack away at my fingernails with a file and clippers. Truth be told she was great at it, and I never told her or my fiance how much better my nails looked and felt when we would do that together. Just FYI, I had the clear coat nail polish, or no polish at all... I don't remember.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
A New and Exciting Journey
I have in recent months been planning for my fiance and I to travel overseas to teach English in Asia. Personally, I can't wait to go, and she has slowly been warming up to the idea of accompanying me. It has been a dream of mine since I was a younger man to travel around the world and see different places and experience different things. Now there are several opportunities to do this and I get the chance to share this dream and experiences with the woman that I love, so it's a win-win. I have been fortunate so far and have traveled to all 48 contiguous United States in 1999 as well as Japan in 2005, while my better half has been slightly slightly less ambulatory. No problems, we're going to change that together.
We're currently in negotiations with several schools overseas for both of us to teach English and continue to be together (same country and city, possibly the same school).
This should prove to be a wonderful experience that will be something we can share together (and in her case blog about excessively the entire time we're there). I have recently been on a blog hiatus and found myself not really missing it for the time I was not blogging, but to be fair to my fiance, we're doing a new travel blog together so I must find a way to participate in that endeavear. This resurgence of my blog (I guess) is more of a test to see if I could still do it after not blogging since last year. Well, I gave it a good run and managed to stay blog free for over four months. Now that this is starting to sound like some sort of intervention or AA meeting, I think I'll leave it here.
We're currently in negotiations with several schools overseas for both of us to teach English and continue to be together (same country and city, possibly the same school).
This should prove to be a wonderful experience that will be something we can share together (and in her case blog about excessively the entire time we're there). I have recently been on a blog hiatus and found myself not really missing it for the time I was not blogging, but to be fair to my fiance, we're doing a new travel blog together so I must find a way to participate in that endeavear. This resurgence of my blog (I guess) is more of a test to see if I could still do it after not blogging since last year. Well, I gave it a good run and managed to stay blog free for over four months. Now that this is starting to sound like some sort of intervention or AA meeting, I think I'll leave it here.
Snow Day
Geez I almost forgot I even had a blog it's been so long since I posted to it... Anyway, just sitting here at the computer enjoying the news that we have a snow day tomorrow. Thinking about snow days and all of the activities you enjoyed as a kid pales in comparison to the activities you get to avoid as an adult. For example: As a kid you might enjoy making a snowman, while as an adult you may enjoy not having to drive to work surrounded by a bunch of people that do not know how to drive in the snow. Also, as a kid you may enjoy having snowball fights while as an adult having to find adequate parking beside snow drifts caused by plows can be somewhat of a nightmare. On a tangent, my sister who wanted to move where she could enjoy snow has learned to dig her car out of these "snow drifts" before she can even get to work. I'll take that as 1 point for me.
I must admit that after having lived in a state where snow was no big deal and a fairly regular occurance, it is mind-boggling to now live in a state where the mention of snow causes the town to shut down. Several weeks ago there was a chance of a "dusting" of snow accumulating to less than an inch, thus no school. Grocery stores were raided and the town was in panic mode. When I look back on going to school in several feet of snow accumulation, I sit back and enjoy how good things are here. This circus of a performance for snow is calling for some accumulation between 1 and 3 inches, I expect we shall be out of school the majority of the week, maybe longer.
Other than the recent craziness in the weather, things down here are pretty good. I just want to know where global warming is when you need it... (I seem to be adjusting to the weather down here and find myself needing to wear coats and sweaters at 50 degrees where that would be t-shirt weather for me a few years ago)
I must admit that after having lived in a state where snow was no big deal and a fairly regular occurance, it is mind-boggling to now live in a state where the mention of snow causes the town to shut down. Several weeks ago there was a chance of a "dusting" of snow accumulating to less than an inch, thus no school. Grocery stores were raided and the town was in panic mode. When I look back on going to school in several feet of snow accumulation, I sit back and enjoy how good things are here. This circus of a performance for snow is calling for some accumulation between 1 and 3 inches, I expect we shall be out of school the majority of the week, maybe longer.
Other than the recent craziness in the weather, things down here are pretty good. I just want to know where global warming is when you need it... (I seem to be adjusting to the weather down here and find myself needing to wear coats and sweaters at 50 degrees where that would be t-shirt weather for me a few years ago)
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