Kung Fu Flu

Yes, yes I know, Kung Fu is Chinese but I don't think my sickness is Korean. Well anyways I've been sick for the past week and finally got over it just in time to ride a bike around Gyeongju the ancient Silla Dynasty capital. This place was thriving when America was a twinkle in Cristo Columbus' great grandfather's eye. Anyways I put together a little film strip about my battle w/ the Kung Fu Flu. Enjoy

"Kung Fu Flu you're no match for my Kimchi style!"

"Uggh!" Roundhouse Cough to the face. "I underestimated your skills, but wait..."
"Ha you still have much to learn, I have easily beaten you with antibiotics, Kaluha, and of course my masterful Kimchi style fighting ability."

I'm back

It's been about a month since I posted on this thing but that's because it's taken me a month to get settled here. It's been a steep learning curve here in Busan. At first your kids are angels because they are afraid of you, but after a month they can become nightmarish. I'm learning what to do and what not to do with the kids. Always have something to do and if you don't make sure there's something you can get your hands on quickly. The work is about the same amount as you would do in the US except you don't have to work as hard for the same money. Also you're not spending all of it on rent and food. This is not for everyone. It is a test on your nerves and your comfort zone. I've enjoyed my time here but there've been some bumps in the road. For example my hot water went out on Tuesday. When we complained about it our director just told us we didn't know how to work it. So after complaining about it a few more times she finally sent someone out to fix it on Friday at 1 o'clock. So we had to boil water all week to clean ourselves. Also our director believes that Americans are A) Mind-readers, B) All living like the people in her favorite show Sex in the City, and C) Very good at art. The last two she explicitly explained to us and found it weird that we were married. The first one though she has kind of implied through the way she just expects things to materialize within seconds w/o any prior notice. For example she comes up to us with about an afternoon's notice and expected us to have about 85 typed evaluations each from us of which we had no prior knowledge that we were supposed to do. So some things she just expects us to know how to do without any prior training, things that are very specific to her company, like knowing how to fill out her inventory sheets, and that even though she says she wants things to be changed up, she really wants them to stay exactly the same. Well that's enough bitching about my director. The real thing I want to address is disciplining bad children. Notice I said bad children, there are children who misbehave and children who are just bad. I have one in particular who is a constant disruption to class and his parents have actually told the director that he has no desire to learn English. I believe that it is only their desire. So, I'm helping this kid through his work and he turns to me and says "Teacher!" and I look at him just long enough for him to spit a big gob of phlegm into my eye and laugh. It was a short laugh because he was quickly dragged from his seat and out into the hall. I don't know what came out of my mouth, but it wasn't "Boy, I love spit in my eye." (It wasn't cursing either). So, I made him sit out in the hall w/ his work for the rest of the class and I started feeling bad for yelling at him. The next day when he came in he got it for about ten minutes from every other Korean teacher in the place, so much so that he missed my entire class except for five minutes. I feel awful for him, but I have to wonder how he could be that disrespectful of someone. If I'd done that to anyone as a child my mother would have beaten me senseless. I don't know what to do with this kid because he's terrible but I can't just throw him out for every class but I can't have him hanging around and being a horrible distraction either. This kid is decidedly not there for instruction and this has been told to me by my director. I've just got to find some strategies to deal with him. Well I have to get back my reading, I just picked up Mindreading for Dummies so I've got a lot of studying to do. Hope everyone is well where every you are.
~Cullen

*Disclaimer* Posted While Drunk.....Busan is the Shit!

Ok so I know I named this blog Cullen's got Seoul. The honest truth is that I'd rather call it Cullen's got Busan. This city is the best city I've ever lived in. I just finished teaching my first week of classes and I don't think that I ever want to come home. The kids come with an automatic respect button. The booze is cheap. The range of intoxicating liquors made from crazy unknown ingredients is endless. The music here is fantastic as you have people from every English speaking nation producing it together as a team. I've been here less than 7 days and I can tell that you are going to have to pry me away from this nation with a crowbar. I love it. I can't wait until tomorrow. I'm going hiking out my back door which has a hiking trail up into the mountains already provided. If you're not putting away more than $30,000.00/year in the states for your retirement then you are stupid not to come here. Work as little as 25 hours a week and save over $15,000.00/year. This place is awesome. Ok well I need to get to bed as it is about 3:30 am here.

T-Minus 6 hours

WE ARE READY! We're about to leave the house to go to Atlanta to catch our 10:15 flight. Our day will go like this. Fly from Atlanta to Detroit, wait 2 hours, Fly 13+ hours from Detroit to Tokyo, run thru customs for 2 hours, Fly from Tokyo to Busan arriving 9 pm Monday evening. So that's how it's going to go folks. I can't fricking wait. We're leaving the house in literally under 15 minutes and I feel terrible for the people on that airplane b/c I ate a huge cheeseburger and fries last night, something I never do but I felt like I needed to get in one last "American" meal and I am stinking up the place this morning. So good riddance to intestine fouling "American" food and hello to intestine fouling Korean food. Well hope that wasn't to much info for all you guys. Well I'm being called to the car. Next time I post will probably be from S. Korea.

~Cullen

Two Days Left of Western Food (I suppose)

So here I am two days from leaving on the greatest adventure of my life to date. I'm still not really that excited, nervous, anxious, or scared. This is actually scaring me because after being a traveller for a while now. I always get nervous and scared before going to a new country, heck even a new state. I feel fine. It almost seems routine which makes me beg the question "Why am I going?" I don't know why I'm going but it seems like everything up until this point has presented itself to be an arrow pointing in this direction. The transition has been so easy that it couldn't have been easier if Amber and I had some type of travel tour manager. Anyways the real reason that I'm writing today is because recently I've been responding to a number of conservative christian and pro-war forwards that my parents seem to bombard my inbox with. I've usually just ignored them and let them slip gently under the ax of the delete button. But recently I've decided that if someone is going to put something in my inbox that is blatantly full of hate, then I'm going to respond with my own opinion, much to my parents' chagrin. I have two examples of this. One was sent from my father under the subject line "Stock Tip: war, terror, and disasters. Disaster Capitalism." It was an investment guide to companies that profit from natural disasters and war, but at the end it did ask what people thought about it. So I responded that I thought it was terrible and shouldn't be sent out under a subject line that begins with "Stock Tip." I then took a verbal beating about protecting the US, the only reason I could go to Korea was because of these companies, and how the only reason I was able to see the Dalai Lama @ Emory University was because these companies and the US allowed it. So I wrote some things back. If you'd like to see copies of the emails I'll be glad to send you the transcripts of the discourse. Anyways it ended in a good conversation. The next email I got was an email that showed the new George Washington $1 coin. It showed one side of it and said:

You guessed it

'IN GOD WE TRUST' IS GONE!!!
If ever there was a reason to boycott something, THIS IS IT!!!! DO NOT ACCEPT THE NEW DOLLAR COINS AS CHANGE. Together we can force them out of circulation.
Please send to all on you mail list !!!

and then above that it had a fake story that said:

Please help do this…

refuse to accept these when they are handed to you. I received one from the Post Office as change and I asked for a dollar bill instead. The lady just smiled and said "way to go" so she had read this e-mail. Please help out....our world is in enough trouble without this too!!!!!

I sent out an email to all the recipients of the forward that included a link(http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/$1coin/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=Washington) to the US mint site with a copy of the coin showing that it indeed still had IN GOD WE TRUST on it. Actually creatively added to the rim of the coin and I might have said something about idiots and this being a hoax that only spreads anger and fear. For this email I have received phone calls and threatening emails. Oh man. I was begged to apologize to the friends of my parents that actually sent me the email forward to begin with.

Anyways I encourage people to not send these types of things out especially if they don't know if what they are sending is true and please don't send them to me because I will lambaste you with my reply. I guess what I am saying is if you send out a forward, I believe that you are looking for some kind of response and you shouldn't be upset if someone responds by calling you out on your fear mongering message. After saying this. I invite anyone to call me out on whatever they want. I want to be fair about this so if I put something up on here that doesn't seem "kosher" then do a little research on it and throw it in my face. I'll post it up as my next post under the heading "I was wrong and here's why." Well hope everyone is doing well. My next post will likely be from the Republic of Korea.

~Cullen

Quickie

So as of today I am jobless, homeless, car-less, and will soon be able to work legally in the Republic of Korea. Amber and I are in Atlanta getting everything together for our trip. We went to the South Korean Consulate today to get our work visas and they will be ready by tuesday. We are currently staying w/ my aunt Susan in ATL. She took us out to dinner tonight to this awesome Chinese restaurant in Chamblee it was junky but honestly the best Chinese food I've ever had. Even better than in Chinatown (London). Well i'm a bit drunk and I need to sneak back upstairs to go to sleep. Good night all!

~Cullen

I've got Seoul but I'm not a Seoul-dier

Hey so this is the beginning of my Korean English teaching travel super adventure. Today I just found out that both mine and my wife's cars are completely inoperable at the same time. I'd like to just take a moment and say that I've had my White Beamer for over ten years now. So I'd like to hold a moment of silence for it....................Ok, well tomorrow marks my 26th year on this earth and I'm about to take the greatest adventure of my life to date. In exactly 2 weeks and 1 day I'll be leaving for Busan, South Korea to teach English in a hogwan there. Hogwan sounds a lot like Hogwart's so I'm kind of excited as I'm currently reading for lack of motivation to read something more "enriching," the Harry Potter series and for those of you who aren't fans, you obviously haven't read the books because they are very well written and just amazing. Anyways this is my last day here at Spintacular Entertainment of Asheville, NC and I am being required as part of my retirement to keep this Blog so we'll see how it goes. Well hope you all are doing well.
Cullen