Best Game EVER!

I'm sure it won't come as news to many a reader of this blog that my favourite baseball team is no longer the Toronto Blue Jays. I still like them but I like the Kia Tigers of the Korean Baseball Organization, (KBO), much better. Even though they both SUCK!!!

I guess maybe that's why I like them. When your team sucks, it makes a win so much more valuable and you feel like you're almost privileged to have witnessed it. Case in point, last game I watched at the home of the Kia Tigers, Moodeung Stadium. Most of the time I can't make it to Kia games because they play in Gwangju, an hour and 20 minutes from Mokpo where I live. Plus I usually teach when they're playing or can't catch a bus home after the games. But this week was exam week and since I had given all my exams by Tuesday afternoon, I thought I'd make the trip. I brought some of the exams along to mark but that just didn't happen...

Kia finished dead last in the 8-team KBO last year. They have a stranglehold on dead last early on in the season this year too so far. As I write this they are 7 and 17. Pretty pathetic. But they have what I think will be a really great group of players. Just watch. Later in the season I'll be writing about how good they are instead of how crappy they are. At least that SHOULD be the case. I think they are one good slugger/average hitter away from contention in the league this year. And HEY, THAT'S ME!!!! They should take a chance on me, but I doubt they will. So in the mean time I have talked to the Gwangju News about writing a column about the Kia Tigers and they have agreed. So I am now a legitimate member of the press here in Korea. Cool eh? I think I'll go out and buy myself one of those David Letterman mikes and an old 1950's "Press" hat.

I've already written a sort of program in English for all the people who have no idea who they are watching. And that includes most foreigners who go to the games. It's just a run-down of the principals. I don't include all the players but there are some that could go from unknowns to household names this year. My best example of a guy who I think is a shoe-in for THIS category is #3 Kim Sun Bin. He's the shortest guy in the league from what I understand. About 5'6 I guess. And because height is as prized here as size in the NHL, sometimes perfectly good, short players are bound to be overlooked unless they are something special. I think, from early indications, this guy IS something special. In the brief time I've watched him he's made some scintillating plays at second and hit a few times under pressure. I'll keep you up to date on what happens to him.

As for the rest of the club, they are running into a huge pile of bad luck so far. That's not the only cause of losses but in a good number of cases it IS. I think Carma will turn around sooner or later and they'll start winning some games they don't deserve to win. They've lost a few that they should have won so far but none the other way around. And you have to understand that this is the KBO, not the major leagues. Things happen that would never happen in the majors. Like the other day I saw a home run hit by the opposition that was OBVIOUSLY a foul ball. The guy who hit it just stood a little ways from home plate and was more surprised than anyone when the ump told him to round the bases. Then there are some close plays at the bases that Kia seems to be getting shafted on so far. But things will change. I'm confident.

So anyway this game started at 6:30 like most other midweek games. Here's a pic of the crew warming up shortly before what turned out to be the best game of the season so far.

Notice the big scoreboard clock that reads just before 6:30. And also notice how light it is outside. And how sober the fans appear. LOL. Things were about to change.

There is a curious rule in the Korean Baseball Organization. Well, more than just one but I bring this one up cuz it comes to bear on the situation I'm describing. You see, unlike major league games, if KBO games are tied after 12 innings are completed they are just considered to be ties. (Interestingly in the playoffs the same thing goes for 15 inning ties. They just REPLAY THEM!)

I think you can guess where things are going from here. Sure enough things were tied 6-6 in the 12th inning. But being the home team Kia held off the "Woori Heroes" in the top of the 12th to ensure that they would not LOSE the game. And in their half of the 12th they managed to load the bases with only one out. The following video is one of the biggest disappointments so far in my film/pic taking days with this camera.

I think this vid will give you all a pretty good indication of what happens at a game here in Korea. It's non-stop chanting and cheering for the home club. I like it. So do a lot of people I've brought out to their first ball games here. It's just a really great way to spend some free time. At any rate, this vid was so big a dissappointment because the very next pitch turned out to be the game winning RBI single by Lee Hyeon Gon. He is not the best hitter on Kia but he did somehow manage to win the batting title last year. So he was the perfect guy to come up with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 12th. And he was hitless for his last two games too if I'm not mistaken. But he delivered. Just after I stopped filming. OF COURSE!!! The very next pitch was the game winning hit. Dammit.

Note the slurrrrr in my voice. Another thing that is maybe a bit foreign is the fact that there are ladies coming around quite often to serve the patrons alcoholic beverages at the stadium. I usually take full advantage of this. And, as you may be able to tell, this night was no exception.

Here is a pic of the final scoreboard just moments after the bench clearing mob that buried Lee Hyun Gon after his game-winning hit. Look at the time! It was almost a 5 hour game! But nobody in the stands was complaining. Including me. Bang for the buck, baby!

But if I were to have chosen the MVP of this game it would have been Lee Taek Geun from the other team. He had 6 hits! AND A WALK! What a night for him! But in a LOSING cause. I wonder how many times a guy has had 6 hits in a losing cause. Crazy! But it was an awesome game! Especially since, (as you may be able to tell), Kia was down 4-0 at one point.

Anyway, I just hope they do well this year and make it into the playoffs. 4 of 8 teams make it. So they have to work at it but it shouldn't be something they feel isn't deserved. Not in my opinion anyway.

Okay I better end this here. Catch a game any time you can.

Where do the cherries go?

As mentioned in the last post, (yesterday), the cherry blossoms are absolutely gorgeous at Mokpo National University. I figured the best time to get some pics of them would be in the early morning when I get there. (About 7:45). And today was a misty morning, just perfect for some added character to the pics. David Morris and I missed the 700 bus so we walked down Bipa Ro toward the main road where we could catch a 200 or 600 to work. This is what it looked like this morning. Nice! But not quite fully blooming yet. In a couple days this street will probly look as nice as the Uni. The name of this street remains a mystery to me as most streets do in Korea.

But it's the one where E-mart is. That's the closest grocery shopping to me. Well the closest major store for getting groceries. Anyway, I think we caught a 200 this morning and got to work at a little before 8 AM. The first thing I saw was the long driveway to the university with trees blooming their arses off on both sides. Fog in the background. So I took this pic:

Is that nice or what??? Almost made me forget I had to spend the whole day working there. By lunchtime it was actually warm. The warmest day of the year so far for sure. People were all over the place at the school. I don't think they were all students either. Plenty of people taking pics of the blossoms. Pictures like these...

See those blue and red lanterns? They look really great lit up at night after all but the overworked and underpaid have gone home from MNU.

And these...

The girl on the left is one of my students. Her name is Sun Ae. She was nice enough to pose for this pic under the blossoms. The book she's holding is our text. We had just finished class. Synergy 4. It's an advanced class. She's pretty good at English. Today I had another girl from Sun Ae's class ask me one of the enfuriatingly complex questions you always get from advanced classes. You know, things that nobody needs to know. She showed me two sentences: "All children under 10 fly free." and "Passengers may move about the cabin freely." Then she asked if free and freely were both used as adverbs. I said they were. Then she said, "Well then why don't we say, 'All children under 10 fly freely."? What do you say? Of course it messes up the meaning. Children flying freely brings to mind scenes of kids flapping their arms and flying anywhere they desire. And we don't use "freely" to express a price, or lack thereof. So I started to verbally hypothesize that maybe "free" is an adjective describing the flight, which is a noun. But that just ain't the case. So after arguing with myself for a while I ended up saying that there isn't any answer I could give her that would improve her English in the least. Why do Koreans use Chinese numbers to count books but Korean numbers to count papers? They just DO. That's the only reason I could give her. And it's probably the right one. But she was very dissatisfied. Advanced classes! I love them but they all seem to have these stumpers to pull out just to test the teacher. Anyway, see what I mean about the Korean peace pose? Sun Ae is doing it just like Alex was in my last entry. I have taught a lot of "show us your pictures" classes in this country and I'd say 90% of the pictures included SOMEBODY flashing the peace sign. The pic on the right is the magnolia tree in the foreground trying not to be outbloomed.

Okay, it's just after 6 PM here. I've already heard 3 election trucks go by announcing the candidacy of so and so. One was number 4, (They are all given numbers and colours. Four is orange, one is green and so on. If you think about this it will tell you quite a bit about both the candidates and the electorate), one was 1 and the other was a truck for candidate number 2 with a female voice on a very loud PA on the roof of the truck begging for votes in a voice that sounded like she was on the verge of, or IN tears. #2 must not be doing well in the polls. Everywhere you look you see banners for the various candidates. Canvassers have told me several times to vote for number 6 or yellow or whatever. ME! I can't vote!

The other day I saw a big orange number 4 double sized cube van looking vehicle pull up to the E-Mart intersection. The WHOLE side of the truck opened up and a troop of middle aged ladies decked out in orange uniforms including sporty orange baseball caps resting atop their permed hair piled out like stormtroopers and began canvassing, (not to say accosting), passers-by for votes.

At the bus depot yesterday I had to elbow my way through green uniform wearing ajjumas, (married ladies), who were doing choreography to a chipmunk version of a familiar Korean national hymn and forcibly stopping people like they were Sunday grocery shoppers at Home Plus or something. There are parallels here. I mean who are they trying to appeal to with the hard sell and all these hokey tactics? Every one of them makes ME want to vote for someone else. But maybe the candidates know their electorate better than I. I'm not gonna do a negative post. I've had a good day and there is one, (and only one), good thing to come out of all this political silliness: I don't work tomorrow. Yeehaw!

I DO hope the trucks aren't out in force early tomorrow morning drumming up the last percentages of support while I'm sleeping IN on a Wednesday. Note to self: drink lots tonight so this won't be a problem.

There is ONE last thing I'd like to add before I stop posting about the cherry blossoms and springtime in Korea. Soon to be followed by complaining about the wet, muggy, hot summer in Korea. It's a question that has puzzled me for many years. I've shown you literally thousands of cherry blossoms here. There are cherry blossom trees everywhere in Korea. In fact I've been told by several students that the cherry blossom trees were an example, (one of many they tell me), of things the Japanese "borrowed" from the Koreans during colonization. But in all my time in Korea, (and in Japan for that matter), I have yet to see a CHERRY on any of these trees. Once in a long while I see a package of 30 or 40 battered, well travelled cherries on sale at E-Mart for 15 bucks or so, but I've never seen a fruit bearing tree here. Koreans don't even LIKE cherries! A flower on a cherry tree turns into a cherry, right? I know it does cuz I used to live on a property that had cherry trees. Where do the cherries go? Like ducks in Central Park. Where do they go? It's a mystery. A riddle wrapped in a conundrum smothered in enigma. I am making it my mission to find out.

Bloomin' beautiful

By my count I've been in Mokpo for six weeks. That's a month and a half in new parent lingo. I think I'm starting to get used to it. Kinda. I still have the new town thrill of finding little shops and locations that might become regular visiting sites in the future. Like a couple weeks ago when I hiked up the hill beside the temple in town. That was nice. The cherry blossoms on the trees were just coming out there. That was the first I saw of any in town. A few days later I saw a tree at work bursting into flower. Now the whole place is alive with the smell and sight of what they call in Korea "putt gote" but don't quote me on that. Especially not the spelling.

Nice eh? These pics are from the tree at school. There are probably a hundred of these trees on the campus of Mokpo U. but this one right in front of our building got the jump on the others by a full week. I wonder why. The magnolia buds are blowing up too. And the yellow flowers they call in Korean "kaenari" that I don't actually know the English word for, they're coming into bloom all over the place too. It's a great time of the year for hiking. Which is why it's a terrible time of the year for hiking. Sigh. Because just like the time of year when the leaves on the maple trees turn red, EVERYBODY in Korea becomes a hiker and the trails are like subway tunnels at rush hour. Not my kind of hiking. I prefer hiking in winter when it's cold, I don't sweat my bollocks off, everything's dead and the trails are empty. THAT'S NATURE!

But I don't really feel like I live in Mokpo yet. There are a lot of things I have yet to do here. I haven't gone out drinking yet. I went out with some teachers for dinner a time or two and I had a party at my place but I haven't yet bought a beer in a Mokpo bar.

I haven't ordered a pizza either. I've been taking advantage of my oven. I just recently made my second lasagna and boy was it tasty! I used ricotta, mozarella and feta cheeses. Plus I put zucchini and Italian sausage sauce in it. Still got half of it left too. I will probably bake my own pizza before ordering one. I have a kilo of pepperoni in the freezer.

I think I know the reason. I've been visiting other places on the weekends. Last weekend I stayed home but didn't really go out because I was playing all the new computer and X-Box games I got from the visit to the Jackson family residence the weekend before. Things are a bit hectic there in Osan but the hagwon looks nice and the boys are dealing with the new life pretty well. The Jackson 4 were just moving into their new apartment when I visited. I even helped a little bit.

Kids can be so angelic at times can't they? Particularly nap time. Look how cute they are. Alex already has the peace and the pose perfected. A must for a Korean. Or a Korean/Canadian. And Justin is already taking up the piano. Tickling the ivory and belting out a song. So cute. BUT...

boys will be boys. The peace sign can turn into a raspberry and the belting out of a song can deteriorate into screaming as fast as you can say, "Calgon take me away!" Here I am talking like a parent. I'm not the one living with these dudes and trying to start a business at the same time! Thank God. heh heh heh. But Scott and Min Ju are doing a good job. I DID notice that they both drank a little more beer than usual when we went out Friday night. I think they might have even kept up with ME! Ahhh they've earned it.

So yeah, I got about 100 new games for my X-box and access to about 1000 on bigfishgames.com from the Jacksons for Christmas. That's all I've been doing in my free time, (what little I now have), since last weekend. I particularly like this game called Peggle on the computer and this one called NHL 2K6 on the X-Box. I made my own hockey team called the Tuktoyaktuk Seal-Clubbers and made players for my team. Scott is my high scoring right winger and Mike is my center. I have Wallace and Gil on defence and Tim and Corey between the pipes. We're undefeated. Two months into the season. Thank you very much.

So I reckon this week should be the week I go out for a beverage in town. I could even go tomorrow if I wanted! Tomorrow is Tuesday. The Tuesday before election day. Or phonetically in Korea, "erection" day. We don't have to work. Woohoo! Then the next two weeks will be exams. Next week speaking tests and the week after written tests. Then we're already half way through the session. WOW! A lot can happen in six weeks!

Security Breach

If there's one thing that burns my ass it's when people try to force protection on me. I particularly hate it when people make laws to force protection on me. I guess it's because it's a shot to my pride. It's like somebody is saying I'm not smart enough to protect myself so they are making it illegal to be stupid. Like seatbelts. I don't think the cops should be able to give an adult a ticket for not wearing one. It's rightfully the decision of that person. The only person he/she could be endangering is him/herself. Or marijuana. Pot smoking endangers the lungs of the users. Possibly the brain but I don't know if there's any conclusive science to that. I DO know that nobody has ever been attacked and harmed by someone flipping out on weed. If anything smoking pot protects other people from the smoker cuz it just mellows the user out. But it's illegal for everyone. It would make much more sense to have a law that makes marijuana use mandatory for highly exciteable people. By making pot illegal and forcing everyone to wear seatbelts lawmakers are sending the general public the message that they don't think we're smart enough to make the right choices on these issues.

By far the biggest example of what I'm talking about is government in general. That's basically what they do isn't it? Make decisions for us dummies? Yet they say they trust our decisions to vote for the person who will make the right decisions for us. Our system of government doesn't make a whole lot of sense but that's for another post.

There are all kinds of inconsistencies in security rules these days. I'll give you an example of one thing I think people are forced to be UNDER-secure about: signatures. Everything you do these days requires a signature. 99% of the time they're totally unnecessary and most people don't know this but in a large number of cases when people require us to sign some form it is actually illegal. Forms that you MUST sign are very rare. But it's become a habit hasn't it? Trying to make things look official you get a signature. Here in Korea it's a very big trend. And invariably the space they leave for the signature is too small. And often they force you to sign a paper and then they give it to YOU! That happened just 2 days ago when I had my cable box removed. The technician filled out some spaces on a form that was incomprehensible to me anyway, asked for my signature then gave it to me. Kept no copy for himself. He just gave me my signature. Nice of him. And it has happened to me quite a few times here in Korea.

Think of all the things people can do with a signature. They can sign for a hotel room or room service. They can write checks, even walk into a bank and withdraw money if they know your account number. And what if the form you are handed says something like "I admit to the planning and execution of the bombing of the WTC". If you sign it, you did it! Yet we sign stuff all the time don't we? Often without reading it or having any idea what it is. I've started just signing with my initials. I sometimes even write Homer Simpson instead of my own name. One time during my recent trip to the Philippines I was asked to sign a drink bill and I just scribbled and scribbled and scribbled until the bill was almost completely black with ink.

Yet some of the people who are the most cavalier about spreading their signatures throughout the world have triple encrypted, multi-password protected, firewall supported security systems on their computers. They wouldn't want anyone to see the last email they sent!

I've never been one for computer security. It has caused me far more problems than it has solved. I had Norton Antivirus for a day. It bogged my computer down so much and found so many viruses that I was beginning to think IT was the biggest virus I had. I removed it and haven't had a computer meltdown yet. There's no way it found as many viruses as it told me it did. But for a day I was getting pretty paranoid. I thought maybe people were reading my email or scanning my hard drives. Then I thought about what I have on my computer. Other than a few nekkid pics I don't have anything to hide. And if there really were people hacking in to see what I've got on here, I figure smarts like that should be rewarded. They can go ahead and view my nekkid pics.

But the people at Microsoft are trying to force me to be more secure. About 20 times a day I am told that my firewall is switched off or my computer might be at risk or there are important security updates I need to install. PPPppbbbbbttttthhhhhbbbbbbttttt! Generally they cause more problems than they solve. I do an Adaware scan, disk cleanup and defrag every so often and that's as secure as I figure I need to be. I sometimes even download a virus scan program, use it once then nuke it.

My recent problems with internet cable are, I believe, the result of too much security as well. I can no longer use Yahoo Messenger because it doesn't work when my computer's security level is at "medium" and the cable that I am using for internet, Hanaro, doesn't work when my computer's setting is any lower than "medium". The cable is too secure for its own good. It's the same thing as the seatbelts really. I am aware that through Yahoo Messenger I could get files sent to me that will be damaging to my computer. I am willing to take that risk and I resent anyone denying me the freedom to take that risk.

I really great example of how silly things are getting out there is my Canadian bank account. I live in Korea. I got the account before coming here with the intention of using it for 2 things: to make internet transfer payments on my locker where I have some of my belongings stored in Canada and for emergency withdrawals when I'm in, say, the Philippines and my Korean bank card won't work. I specifically asked when I got the account if I could make withdrawals from bank machines in the Philippines and was assured that it would be no problem. I went to the Philippines and had to beg for money in the airport because the card didn't work. Then when I convinced an airport security guard that if he lent me 50 bucks for the airport tax now, I'd send him 400 bucks later. He did and I did. So I made it home to Korea whereupon I undertook a lengthy process of trying to do something about my impotent bank card. What it came down to was that for security reasons they can't do anything online or over the phone. So there was nothing I could do. I eventually met a guy who was a banker in Canada and he made a few calls and got my problem solved for me. But what kind of logic is there to a bank account that allows me to make payments, transfer funds etc. online, but doesn't allow me to apply for international service, adjust my daily limit or things like that? It's not logic, it's paranoia.

I recently had my account frozen because I was "asked" if I would like to increase my security by choosing not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE additional new passwords for my account. When I chose to ignore the offer they froze my account. I eventually gave in and chose the damn passwords. A lot of good they did me. A very short time later some chick named Crystal McLeod tried to withdraw 1000 bucks from my account. It was a helluvan ordeal trying to get somebody to allow me to send email or talk on an insecure phone line to explain this problem but eventually after spending almost a grand on phone bills being referred from my bank to another person to another person to another person and so on I got an agency called the internet fraud agency of Canada or something like that and they were able to take my details over the phone and get something done. The 1000 bucks was returned to my account.

I wish I could remember that number.

I checked my account Friday. I was going to make an etransfer to the place where my stuff is stored. I found two withdrawals of about 700 bucks each that I hadn't made. I sent an email to my bank's customer service representative and he, (a guy named Jeff), said there was nothing he could do about it online and left me with a list of phone numbers I could call. I've tried several of them and they don't work. The number of my bank is the only one I know will work but I have to call them when they're open. And then I'll be referred to twenty different people again. For security reasons.

Somebody has hacked into my SUPER safe account! It's so safe I can't exchange information about it by phone or email. It's so safe I need 6 passwords. But for the second time in less than a year someone has stolen money from it! There were two payments made to a Canadian Tire Mastercard. I got the number on my list of payees on my account. So probably while the person was doing this, I could have used the credit card number to charge all kinds of stuff. But I didn't notice it in time. The payments to the card were made March 10th and 12th. After that the card was cancelled.

In order to do internet banking from my account you need my number and my password. There exists only one piece of paper that I know of with that information on it. It's beside me as I type this here in Korea. Also whoever stole my money created a new payee on my account which included the credit card number. There are no Canadian Tires here in Korea. Security was breached in Canada. Maybe someone was picking through the garbage behind my bank, maybe my bank somehow made a mistake and billed my account erroneously, maybe there is another David MacCannell and that caused a mix-up, or maybe someone stole my information from the internet or from the bank records. Either way I'm out 1400 bucks and I'm not too happy about it.

I've told the customer "service" guy that I want to close my account. Guess what the reply will be. Sorry for security reasons we can't do anything online or over the phone. Because of tight security I will have to go to my bank in person to close my account that has been accessed illegally TWICE because of bad security. What's to stop the Canadian Tire Bandit from getting a new credit card, maxing it out and paying it off from my account again while I'm wading through the "security" measures to try to secure my money? I don't see why I can't call somebody, tell them my 6 passwords, my bank card number, my Mother's maiden name etc. and get them to wire the money to my bank here in Korea. They probably need me to be there so they can get my signature. Cuz like we established earlier, that's so very secure isn't it?

The bottom line is I'm not going to try to make everything 100% secure in my life because then I won't be able to trust anyone. And can you ever really be 100% secure? I thought my bank was pretty secure. I trusted Canada Trust. And I don't know if I'll ever find out who's ripping me off but it might be one of the workers at my bank.

I will continue to be careful. Sometimes even foolish with my trust. And I'll probably continue to get burned for it because there are people out there, (bastards), who want to take advantage of people's trust. Money makes people do terrible things.

There are people who would use my story as an example of why the internet shoud be "regulated". But that would be just another example of other people forcing protection on us. I lost 1400 bucks and I won't likely get it back. But I made the decision for myself to use internet banking. It might have been a bad decision or a stupid one but I figure 1400 bucks is a small price to pay for the freedom to make that decision for myself.

There have been times when I was the guy who someone had to trust. What if the security guard at the airport didn't trust me? There are times in everyone's life when they need to be trusted. In an overprotected, paranoid society nobody would ever stop to help a neighbour fix a flat tire. Nobody would stop and offer help at the scene of an accident.

So I'm not going to let this incident turn me into a less trusting person. Maybe I should but I won't. But I sure hope they can get me my money back. I hope they catch the jerk who stole the money from me too. Just for the pain I'm gonna have to go through informing my bank about what has happened I'd like to beat that Canadian Tire Bandit about the head with his/her own computer monitor.

OINK

Another week goes by. Nothing really noteworthy happened at work. Classes are going well. This week there was a lot of M.T. That's "membership training". It's just a Korean euphamism for drinking soju with the new classmates, overcoming crippling shyness by playing drinking games, getting fall-down-staggering-sloppy drunk then suffering the consequences the next day together. You know, bonding!

It's part of the Korean drinking culture I really like. When I think of some of the benders I've been on in my time, there really are few things that can bring you closer to someone than helping each other through a night of inebriation. I mean how much do you love a person in the morning when you hear they had to clean up your puke? THAT'S a true friend! You'd give them a big hug if you weren't so hung over. And what words could be used to accurately describe the appreciation felt for a bud who hears you say something like, "Was your other eye as beautiful as that one, Captain?" or "Your kids could use a positive role model like me." or "A week off heroine? We should celebrate!" and diverts your attention? And then there are the nights when YOU are the person helping a friend. Alcohol. Its wonders are endless. I'm enjoying a nice bottle of Chianti now.

But students here go with the 75 cent bottles of soju. Can't afford Chianti. I guess it could be considered the Silent Sam of Korea. Remember when you didn't have enough to get a six pack of beer but there was a sale on Silent Sam? Next to Mogen David, (which I had analyzed at the lab and found it to be rotten Welch's grape juice), and anything home-made, (particularly by friends of Portuguese heritage), probably the nastiest wine on the planet. But it does the trick. It was Silent Sam for me. But everyone has their "Silent Sam" when they're growing up and learning to drink. You take what you can get sometimes. And despite the fact that it was the cause of some cranium splitting headaches, a few moments of social awkwardness you were informed of the next day, and maybe even a few big problems, the memories associated with it are mostly good ones. I think soju is the same for these kids. The other day I took a walk between classes and I saw quite a few kids just throwing blankets on any grassy spots on campus and breaking out the drinking apparatus. It gave me a few misty memories of underage drinking. Not that these kids are underage. But I did most of my drinking on the cheap in my high school days when I wasn't actually supposed to be doing it. Maybe the possibility of getting caught added to the fun. THERE'S a visit to the psychiatrist that I will never make.

Anyway, because of M.T. classes are not full. So I've been doing fun exercises and falling behind in the textbooks. Not to worry, I planned for this. I knew all about M.T.

But it's the weekend! And I'm spending it at home in Mokpo this time. I had to get my cable fixed. I needed the cable TV cancelled and removed and I wanted a technician to come to my house and explain to me why Yahoo Messenger won't work with the new cable. I had KT Telecom cable in Yangju and Yahoomess. worked like a hotdamn! No problems at all. I have made no changes to my computer since then, yet with the new cable Yahoo messenger won't work. It just disappears after I enter my username and password. When the guy installed the internet I saw him raise my security from "low-medium" to "medium" setting. I tried to lower my security setting and wasn't allowed to. A warning came up saying programs would not work on this setting. So I figured I needed to customize the security setting somehow. But I don't have the confidence to monkey around with that kind of technical stuff yet. So I asked if I could get the technician who is removing my cable TV box to give it a whirl for me. Completely forgetting that I AM IN KOREA! I do that sometimes.

I went to Hanaro Cable and talked in person with Eun Ja, the local "English" service provider. She deals with the English speaking customers and, bless her heart, she's trying but I use quotes because it ain't English she's speaking. She's got her own special version of our language that is quite worthy of analysis, (by someone who cares about stuff like that), because it's uniquely non-mainstream Korean, yet not in a better way. I suspect she got an English speaking hagwon teacher to write her an English sample to present at an interview which got her the position of helping English speakers at Hanaro Cable. Happens all the time. She is just fractionally better than trying to communicate to someone who doesn't speak a lick of English. Which is why I had to go in person because trying to communicate with her on the phone is an exercise in futility. But I have to say I appreciate the effort.

Anyway, she explained to me that the reason I wasn't getting any new shows on the cable system I was paying 8000 won a month for was because there ARE no new shows till June. When the guy(s) installed it they plugged the bare cable into my TV and I saw about 100 channels. Lots of English and sports channels. The ones I'm interested in, of course. Then they rerouted the cable through this box that flashes a friendly "Hello! Welcome to Hana TV." when I turn it on. It looks to be something like what I understand Teevo to be. The box records stuff and if you happen to miss a show you can just ring it up and watch it commercial free with fast forward, pause, rewind etc. Sounds good right? Well recently there was a HUGE game in the Olympic qualifying baseball tournament between Korea and Canada and I know for a fact it was on KBS. I searched and searched. But couldn't find it. The Arnold Palmer Invitational was on TV but wasn't recorded. NOTHING new was recorded. I looked through the entire library of stuff on the box an nothing was more recent than October. So it was a box full of old shows. WOW! AWESOME! And with this box connected I got 15 channels instead of the 100 I KNOW my TV can get. So I'm paying 8000 won a month for WORSE TV! OINK! OINK! OINK!

By the way Canada beat Korea in that game. I still haven't seen it but looked it up on the internet. Now Canada, Korea and Taiwan get to play in the Olympic baseball tourney in Beijing. Anyhoo, of course I wanted the stupid box removed. Not only was it limiting my TV from 100 channels to 15, it made this camera flash noise every 10 seconds that was quite annoying. So I told Eun Ja. She pleaded that there would be new shows in June. Maybe. I just didn't really feel like keeping the service till then. Paying 8 grand for diminished service is something I can't imagine people doing elsewhere. So we agreed to disconnect that. Then I tried to explain to her the problem I was having with Yahoo Messenger. It was not going well. But I gave up and just told her to get the guy who removes the cable TV box to check my computer. She agreed. I thought my problems were over. But I forgot I AM IN KOREA.

Close to the Hanaro office there's a little temple and a bit of a hike up a hill to a nice view of the ocean and the city of Mokpo. So I decided to get some exercise. The temple, (forget the name Seuk Nam Sa or something like that), was cool. Some interesting pictures at the base of the roof. I've seen many temples in Korea and other places. They're all basically the same but at the base of the roof are some pictures depicting stories of Buddhas and they are always very cool. This one was, (As far as I could imagine), the story of a monk who followed some footprints to an ox and eventually tamed the ox. The ox turned from brown to white as it became more enlightened. Soon the monk could ride the ox and play his flute while on its back. But then the ox died and the monk missed it and told children of it. I couldn't figure out the rest of the story. I'm sure there's more to the story but I enjoy making up my own stories as I look at the pictures.

So I'm hiking up the hill and EXACTLY as I get to the summit, and am completely out of breath, the phone rings. It's a service guy from Hanaro. He speaks very good English. He asked me what I wanted to do. So I told him. He asked me all about my problems with the cable and... in ... very ... laboured ... sentences ... I ... told ... him exactly what I'd tried to tell Eun Ju. I need to do more hiking. I'm WAY out of shape. But eventually I caught my breath and told him what the problems were. I asked if I could get just the bare cable with 100 channels and he assured me that it was "impossible". Like I had been hallucinating. I know I saw the guy press the button on my TV remote. You know the button you press when the TV goes through all the channels and programs them into its memory. It went on for a long time. And I saw lots of good channels. But he assured me it was "impossible". So I said fine, just take the box out and cancel the cable TV. I was pretty sure that the cable I had was hooked up to some other service and that that was where the 100 channels came from. So I was hoping to save 8 grand a month and get GOOD cable TV.

Then he asked about the internet. I told him it was fine except that Yahoo Messenger wasn't working. Of course he asked the requisite questions you ask when you're dealing with an idiot. Did you use the correct password and username? Was your capslock button on? etc. After I patiently endured those questions, he went on to do the other standard move here. Get the customer to do your work for you. I swear the phrase should be "Pass the won" not "Pass the buck". Cuz even though they didn't invent it, Koreans are masters of it. He says to me, "Why don't you get another messenger program?" No I don't want to do that. "Well I'm sure lots of other programs like NATE or HANMAIL will work." Yeah, sure, get all my friends to download the same SHYTE Korean programs so they can chat with me. Also, the only way I'd be able to contact most of my friends and family is thru Yahoo Messenger and since it doesn't work I don't have their yahoomess. names and I can't for the life of me remember them off by heart. No let's just try to fix this problem. I told him to send someone who can fix it. He said it might happen next day at 2 or maybe in 2 or 3 days. I ask why the guy who removes the cable TV box can't be the same one to check my computer and he says it's "impossible". So I thank him and compliment him on his English service.

I continued hiking. Seconds later another guy called. He had zero English. I didn't understand what he said but I assumed it was the guy who was gonna disconnect my TV box. So in Korean I asked him to come the next day at 2. I am sure he understood before he hung up. Seconds later a girl with extremely limited English called me. She asked me when I'd be available to have my TV box disconnected. I told her that I had just talked to the guy about that. She didn't understand. I told her in Korean. She didn't understand. I then said a time, (2 o'clock), in Korean. She understood. Seconds later I got a call from Eun Ja. She asked me if I wanted my TV and my internet cancelled. I tried to rehash what we'd laboured over in the office maybe 30 minutes before but talking to her on the phone is impossible. So in Korean I told her TV-no need, internet-need. Seconds later I got a call from a guy who spoke passable English. He was the technician who was gonna check my computer. He said he'd come by at 2 the next day. Seconds later... I'm not kidding... I got a call from a woman who spoke Korean at lightning speed. All I could understand was Hanaro Cable. Then I said, "Hangul mal mot hayo." That means I can't speak Korean. She unceremoniously hung up on my ass.

So the next day I'm at work at 12:30 and I get a call. It's the guy whose gonna disconnect my cable TV. He's at my house! Imagine a cable guy coming EARLY!!! I told him in Korean that I was at work and I'd be home at 2. The time we'd agreed upon? He said okay. Seconds later... again I'm not kidding... I got a call from the technician who was coming to fix my Yahoomess. He was at my house too! I should have bought a lottery ticket that day I swear to God. Two cable guys being early! Those are the longest odds I'm ever gonna beat in my life. Just my luck there was no way to place a bet on it. So I tell him to come at 2 too.

They both came around 2 o'clock. The TV guy disconnected the box and left me with a vastly inferior bare cable wire than I had before Hanaro reared its ugly head around these parts. Somehow the cable is now only the 15 crappy channels I had with the cable box installed. The hundred channels I had previously on the bare cable somehow magically disappeared! I asked him how to hook up my Xbox so I could use Xbox Live and play games with other people online but he had no idea. Then minutes later the computer guy came. I showed him very slowly what happens when I try to log onto Yahoomess. Then I showed him the security settings and told him I thought I needed to customize them. I'm pretty sure he understood but disagreed on the basis that I couldn't possibly know more about MY computer than him. He sat down at my computer and started typing and clicking and doing all kinds of stuff on my computer like he was playing Starcraft. I couldn't follow him at all. But the upshot of the whole deal was that he couldn't fix it. First he told me I had to reinstall Windows XP. This has happened to me before. It's what they say when they don't know what the problem is but want to save face. By this time the TV cable guy was with us. They both assured me I had to reinstall Window XP. I told them I didn't. Repeatedly. They got the picture. Then they told me I didn't have enough space on my harddrive for the Messenger program to work. Well it just so happens that I did regular maintainence a few days before. I cleaned both my disks and defragged them too. I have 17 gigs on one harddrive and 11 on the other. Plenty of room for Messenger. So they decided to play the trusty virus card. They both assured me that despite their misdiagnosed Windows and harddrive problems, they were very sure I had a virus. Dipshits. They offered to take my computer and, (in 3 or 4 days), fix the problem. I flatly refused. I let a guy do that once before and he replaced all my expensive, superior hardware with cheap inferior stuff that it was hard to tell from the other. Not gonna happen again. Besides there's March Madness happening all week. You can watch all the game live, or recorded on ncaa.com. This is the only basketball I ever watch except the live stuff. So I'm not gonna surrender my computer at this time.

Well they tried to get Eun Ja involved a few times. They called her and she tried to communicate to me what they were saying. I had no idea what she was saying so I thanked her and hung up. Then when they changed their story from replace Windows to not enough space on harddrive they called her again. AGAIN I couldn't understand her but I had understood the guys who speak less English. Anyway, I asked her not to try to help any more. lol We didn't call her when they tried the virus story.

So I basically told these guys to hit the road thanking them and being nice even though they had lied repeatedly to me, done nothing to help me and may have attempted to screw me big time and left me with about 85 fewer TV channels and, (I would find out later), a TON of adjustments made to my computer that I would have to UNdo. While he was at my computer the guy tried all kinds of things that changed the settings from what I'm comfortable with to what he thought, (and was wrong), would fix the problem. I am STILL finding things that I have to fix. Word to the wise: don't let a Korean on your computer for more than 2 minutes or it'll never be the same again. He changed fonts, favourites, settings, erased websites, names, passwords all kinds of stuff that I have been boggling my mind to retrieve all day long to fix what he fucked up.

HOWEVER, in the spirit of the new positivity I've found in Mokpo, I still have effective internet and I won't be charged for the cable TV I had, as far as I know. I can still use Yahoo beta. I just can't use webcam or send files or talk into a mike. AND internet is about half the price of what the GOOD internet was in Yangju. So it's a small price to pay I guess.

Oh, and by the way, OINK means Only IN Korea.

Meatloaf and Scalloped Potatoes

MMMMmmmmmm. Just like Mom used to make. The meatloaf was good and the spuds were spectacular. Even better than Mom's I think. But her meatloaf was better. I'm definitely gonna cook this again. I just finished eating. I am so happy right now it's ridiculous! I LOVE my oven!!!

Ta I Guh Jeu!!!

One thing about having a really busy week is a person tends to try to cram as much into the weekends as possible. Friday after work I came home, cleaned the whole house, took my short sleeved shirts to the cleaners to get one really good clean and iron before short sleeve weather, also took in my new pants to get hemmed, bought a casserole dish for scalloped potatoes on Sunday, looked for some shoes, made an entry to the blog, dug out my Kia Tigers paraphernalia for the game, packed a "just-in-case" bag for game day, charged the camera, did two loads of laundry, sewed a button onto a shirt, I mean I did EVERYTHING that needed doing. Everything but lesson planning for next week. That's for Sunday. Always has been for me. I am a firm believer that pressure turns coal into diamonds so I usually keep it until LATE Sunday.

Here it is early Sunday and all I have to do is thaw the meat for meatloaf, (which I will bake with the scalloped potatoes today), plan my lessons and monkey around on the old computator. That's what Sunday should be like folks. I'll probly take a nice Sunday nap too. Yeah baby!

But Saturday was awesome! I took the bus to Gwangju. It was full. Every seat had at least one person in it. One or two had a person with a kid on his/her lap. I got the seat in the very back of the bus on the very right side. Because the seats at the back are elevated I had to deal with the curvature of the bus roof so I was kinda kinked to the left for an hour and 20 minute bus ride. Not comfortable but worth it. I got to Moodeung Stadium, bought beer, and met my old baseball buddy Yong Hoon in the absolute best seats in the house. Unlike the bus, every seat was empty when I got there and every seat was free. So we sat in the second deck right at first base.

Here we are enjoying a Cass and an OB Blue. I hadn't seen Yong Hoon since the days I taught at Seogang College. He was one of my students. His major was tourism. Now he works for Hanatour, the biggest tour company in Korea. So I guess he did pretty well for himself. Musta been the good teaching. Heh heh. Hope he can pull some strings and get his old teacher some cheap tickets at vacation time...

The game itself coulda been better. It was a pitching duel. The Kia pitcher is a guy who I think is gonna get us a few wins this year all by himself. His name is Jose Lima. He used to play for the L.A. Dodgers. I suppose L.A. is a fertile hunting ground for Korean baseball teams since every scout probly has a relative they could visit there while scouting. I don't know if Lima's from Cuba, Puerto Rico, The Dominican, or Peru but I could hear him talking to himself out there on the mound in Spanish. He looks to be a good pitcher. He kept the Lotte Giants' bats pretty quiet. And in the 3rd inning the Kia clean-up hitter, (forget his name), and Choi Hee Seop hit back to back dingers to put us up by two runs.

The small pic is Lima throwin' heat. The bigger pic is Choi He Seop, (who played a while in the majors), trotting back to the dugout with Kia up 2-0. One big change I noticed is the turf. Moodeung had natural grass before so scores were higher. It's gonna be unnaturally perfect bounces now all over the field. That'll make it a better place for a defensive team to play. I HATE defence! So I'm not real happy with the turf. On the other hand, the Tigers have a pretty offensive squad this year. They should score a lot of runs.

Anyway, things were looking rosy for us Kia Tiger faithful. That is until Lima left. The only left-handed sidearm pitcher in the league was his replacement. He didn't fare so well. The bull pen gave up 4 runs and the Lotte bull pen surrendered none. 4-2 was the final score. For Lotte. Dang! Usually when I go the Tigers win. Okay, now with the excuses: A LOT of the regulars weren't playing. Lee Yong Gyu was on the Korean Olympic qualifying team so didn't play; Lee Jong Beom was there but didn't play; Chang Sung Ho only had one at bat; Hong Sae Weon is injured; Lee Jae Joo was there but didn't play... when I look at this lineup I can't wait to see what happens when they're all playing together! Add Wilson Valdez, who Kia bought from the L.A. Dodgers, (and who was hitting .343 in triple A ball), and the Tigers leading hitter last season to the mix along with regulars Shim Jae Hak, Kim Sang Hoon, and former Devil Ray Seo Jae Weong as a number 2 pitcher. Pretty darn solid! I think it's gonna be a good season.

So after the game I went to the batting cage, as I often do after a game, and slugged a few balls with Yong Hoon. Then we made a deal to meet at the Tigers opening day game April 1st against the Doosan Bears. I then walked to my friend Sam Shik's skin care clinic nearby. He was just finishing up. I sat in his office and talked for a while with him. Saw a few of his staff that I recognized and said hello. He showed me pics from his recent family trip to Guam and I showed him the pics on this blog from the Philippines. So then he wanted me to show him how to blog. Now he's got a blog too.

He invited me to go to a movie with his family. It was in celebration of his son Seung Min being elected vice president of his class. I wanted to go but, like last weekend, I was still on a mission to find some shoes that fit. I had recently been given a hot tip by another of my co-workers at Mokpo U. named Jocelyn. She told me they can custom make shoes at Shinsegae Department Store in Gwangju. It's right next to the bus terminal and pretty close to Sam Shik's clinic and Moodeung Stadium so I figured I'd better stay on task, (and in the same neighbourhood). Sam Shik drove me to Shinsegae in his impressive new Audi. Flash car, Sam Shik!

I tried on all kinds of shoes there and sure enough none fit. But try as I might, I just couldn't find the place where I could get shoes custom made. I was speaking sign language to a few Shinsegae employees but none of the workers on the shoe floor seemed to understand what I was on about. Finally I called up my friend Min Ha in hopes that he could help with some translation. Last weekend while I was eating at Outback Steakhouse, Min Ha was just across the street at T.G.I.Fridays. So I called him up and he was in Shinsegae! I was on the 3rd floor and he was on the 1st! He was meeting a girl for dinner and a movie. One of us must be stalking the other!

Anyway, long story short, he helped a LOT and I got some shoes!!! Well, I paid for them. They're being delivered next week Tuesday to Mokpo University. They measured my feet, traced them onto a piece of paper and everything. So these babies better fit. And they were on sale for a mere 188,000 won. That's about 188 bucks Canadian. Good thing I got them on sale... smirk. But at least I got shoes that'll fit now. So I got that taken care of finally. And for his translation services Min Ha got the Shinsegae points and a gift certificate for 10 bucks.

After that we went out for dinner. Guess where we went. You got it, T.G.I.Fridays. Here we are, Ji In, Min Ha and me. Do you think I'm underdressed?

I dunno if you can tell but I have a bit of a sunburn from the game. It looks like it may be short sleeve shirt weather already! Good thing I took the shirts to the cleaners.

After a super good burger and cheesy pasta dinner, I took the bus home to Mokpo. Got to my house around midnight. A full day to be sure!

In summation I'd like to say, na na na na - Ki, na na na na - A, na na na na na - Ta I Guh Jeu!

Mokpo University

For my 100th post I figured I'd introduce you all to my new school. I'm now working at Mokpo National University way down at the bottom of the country. I just finished my second week of work and so far it's been pretty nice. If you ever read my blog you'll know that "nice" has little to do with money. In fact I'm working longer hours for less money. 22 hours a week as compared to the 18 and 12 I worked the last two years respectively. Also I'm teaching four courses instead of one. Using 4 different textbooks means I have quadruple the lesson planning to do since last year and the year before I used only one text for all my classes. I will also be teaching kids. And I get 6 weeks vacation this year compared to 5 months. So how in the name of Frick can I like this better than my previous jobs? A few reasons: I haven't been scammed, (yet); the people I'm working with, including the Koreans, are sociable and nice, (so far); and I have a really great place where I can bake food in my oven, take a bath in my tub, get hot water at any time of the day, store a ton of stuff in my huge fridge, have guests stay in my spare room if they want, grow some tomatoes out on one of the two lanais if I want, and have a party where people can actually sit in my living room on my couch!

It's amazing how much of a difference things like that make to me. Really amazing! Take a look at the crappy schedule I have and you will see what I mean.

I'm waking up before 6 am every day to catch the bus that gets me to work by 8. Then if I don't want to sit at school jerkin the gherkin during the long breaks I take a bus home and back again for the 6:30 class. The bus takes only about 20 minutes from the school to the bus stop BUT I have already waited for the bus for well over 20 minutes on several occasions. It's a lot of wasted time, I'll put it that way. So I really see no choice but to get a vehicle. The problem with that is my Canadian licence expired a couple years ago. I now have to take a test here in Korea. I'm not really sure where I guy can do that. Hopefully I'll find out soon.

Then I gotta decide what kind of vehicle to go with. I don't need a licence to ride a scooter and they're only 3 million won, (3 grand), brand new. But a scooter? It is okay to do things a bit on the gay side here but I think I'll go with the more heterosexual motorized bike. For that I'll need a licence. Well, truth be told I rode my bike for 2 years in Seoul without licencing it. But every time I was stopped by a cop I showed him my Canadian driver's licence and the shape of my eyes and I was waved onward. I had to fake like I didn't understand what I was being told a few times but I got by.

I am going to try to do it all legal like this time. But I swear here and now if it's as much hassle as the work visa is every damn year, screw it, I'll pay the ticket for riding without a licence if I ever get caught.

I swore I'd never drive a car in this country but I am thinking that might be the way to go. And I'll really have to get a licence then. I'll blog more about that story as events warrant.

I went hiking with Sam and David Morris during one of my long, long, long breaks last Thursday. First I need to clarify that there are 3 male teachers at Mokpo U. right now, all named David. Sam is a chick. She's the one on the left. Ar ar.

We went up into the mountains that surround the university. The pic below is of a graveyard nearby. You see the parking lot? To the left is the building where we work. Brand new. Nice too. Also a benefit to this place.

The pic of Sam and Morris drinking water was a little after the graveyard. I'd say an hour into the hike. I was starting to worry a little about just how far we were getting away from the university. I had planned on doing a little hike and then going back into Mokpo city to do some things. I slowly saw those plans go by the wayside. But it was okay. We sat down at this site where there were benches and a gazebo and ate some kimbap. I brought cheese and crackers that we shared too. It was the best part of the trip I thought. But rather than turn around and go back the way we came, we pressed on.

The university got farther

and farther

away.

It wasn't a stormy day, that mist is just Chinese sand. Sam said her contacts felt a bit fuzzy from it. I'm sure it did none of us any good to be breathing it in either. But whatever doesn't kill us just makes us stronger, right?

I was lucky to be hiking with two so well traveled individuals and they regaled me with stories of world travel. David talked of his adventures in Italy and turning down a job offer in Tuscany because the woman he loved couldn't get a visa and join him. They're now married. Angie works at Mokpo U. too.

Sam talked about backpacking around Europe too and rooming on the cheap. David and her exchanged scary hostel stories. I had nothin'. Never been to Europe.

Then Sam talked of visiting her ancestors in India and seeing how some of the folks there lived with no phone no lights no motorcars not a single luxury. Like Robinson Ca rusoe as primitive as can be.

I gotta say I felt a bit like Bilbo Baggins leaving behind the comfort of the Shire and reluctantly leaving a warm bed, oven, tub, big fridge etc. and knowing that every step left them farther behind. But as Sam(wise) and Morris (the grey) talked of their journeys the old muscles started getting used to the strain. And even though I envied them for having been to so many places I'd never been, (and for having virtually bone dry and saltless clothing relative to mine), before I was able to develop a healthy grudge, we were back at the school.

The building on the far right is ours. So the knees felt a bit arthritic for the rest of the day, but I was okay for classes Friday. In fact I felt a lot better than expected. After classes I walked quite a ways to Lotte Mart and bought two bags of groceries, which I lugged home. So I'm getting some exercise here in Mokpo. That's good. But so far the best thing has been the people.

I've already had a little wine and cheese mixer at my house. I invited another co-worker, (and the gal responsible for recommending me), Joan over for some lasagna one night. And the teachers have met together on a couple other occasions. Already more socializing than the past two years combined. I'm liking that. And I'm close to my Gwangju friends too! I went out for beer at the German brew pub with Kasia, Min Ha and a couple of Kasia's friends. It was really great beer there! I wanna go drink more soon. Since it was a pub I met quite a few people and had a pretty good time. I even ran into one of MY friends there. And this weekend I'm going to Gwangju again to watch my first, (of many), Kia Tigers game of the year! It's an exhibition so it's free. I'm stoked about that! Exhibitions are better. No concessions, no crowds, no endless chanting and cheering, B.Y.O.B., just baseball for baseball's sake. I'll probly post some pics of that in entry number 101. See you then.

Camaguin Island, (part V), Pedro's Restaurant and Bar

Okay, one last post about Camaguin. I had to leave this till last but it was one of the greatest times I have ever had at a bar. And not that this is necessarily a good or bad thing but I've been to a lot of bars! For those of you who think you might go to Camaguin someday I would highly recommend going to Pedro's. The food is nothing special. The service is fair to middlin'. But Friday and Saturday nights are a hoot!

While at the falls, Mally, Shella, Alana and I ran into a Canadian guy named Jim. He was from Edmonton. Big guy riding a big enduro that he rented to get around the island. I think he said it was 700 pesos a day. Next time I'll probly do that. He informed us that Pedro's might be a good place to go. Boy was he right!

The reason I left this till the end is because I didn't bring my camera that night. What a mistake that was! So all these shots were taken by Mal and Shella. Thanks for sending them guys.

So we were gonna meet Jim at around 8. We got there and waited a bit but decided to order. I wanted to make sure they had gin. They said they didn't. I was disappointed but I noticed some criss-cross wooden shelving with bottles of whiskey in it. I went over and started pulling out bottles to see if any were gin. The LAST bottle I pulled was a bottle of, (believe it or not), San Miguel gin. So I asked if they had tonic. Nope. But I settled for Sprite. I ordered a gin and Sprite. The next thing you know the waitress is bringing the entire bottle of gin to the table with one small bottle of Sprite! I gathered mixed drinks were not very popular orders at Pedro's.

After we finished eating, just after 9, the band started playing. They were playing lots of really good music from my era. Mal and I really liked it. AC DC, Eagles, The Knack, Journey, Bob Marley, Joan Jett, The Police, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd etc. I had been told by Alana not to dance and since I'm not much of a dancer I was okay with that. Mal and I watched as others danced. Here's a pic of Shella dancing with some of the locals.

Then Jim shows up and proceeds to eat an inhuman amount of food! I mean this guy ordered three things off the menu then when I mentioned that I liked the buns that look like really big dimsum, he bought one of those for each of us. But he didn't drink. Said he used to but now he was off the sauce. After seeing him eat I can only imagine how he must have drunk! Probly a good life decision on his part. This is me talking with Jim. Notice that there is still plenty of gin left in the bottle. It was early in the night. He was an interesting guy to talk to. He'd done some drilling in the past so we talked a little bit about that. Then he told me that he used to operate a big crane and he was now retired. Then we chatted about his travels. He was doing a really quick tour of the Philippines and he told me where he'd been. I suggested a few places he should go and he wrote them down. Then he told me he was gonna go to Thailand next so I gave him some information on that too. Jim left quite early before the band really got hot. But as you can see by the sweatiness of the dancing pic, everyone was hot, not just the band.

As the night wore on Shella and Alana were dancing with the local guys and me and Mally were drinking. They ran out of ice so I started drinking warm G&S. Not the greatest but after about 10 or 12, who cares? I was pretty happy not to dance because I was pretty sweaty just sitting at the table drinking. So there was a lot of this:

You can't tell I'm getting a little bit drunk, can you? Alana ended up trying my Gin & Sprite and liking it so she drank a few too. That's more than usual for her. But I think she was perspiring from dancing too. Even though I wasn't dancing I wasn't bored. I would have been happy to spend the rest of the night emptying that bottle of gin and watching the band. They had a couple female singers and the one had a voice really similar to Janis Joplin. She sang Journey well. Than the guys sang too. All kinds of songs. But suddenly they started playing one of those songs that made both Mal and me say, "I can't believe they're playing this!" And we jumped to the dance floor. We had to. I just wish I could remember what song it was. Well I busted a few moves and Mal was getting funky in his bare feet and people were cheering, high fiving us, the place went crazy! The dance floor got really crowded and hot. But man it was fun!

I sat down after a few dances and noticed that my bottle of gin was empty. This was my reaction:

So I switched to beer. After downing a bottle of gin. And this may be an overshare but I didn't go to the little boy's room a single time that night! Hard to believe, but true. These are the crazy things you do when the atmosphere is just right. But it was about to get even crazier!

Round about then the band played "The Sultans of Swing". THAT I was into! So I went up closer to watch and gave the singer a 100 peso tip. He didn't know the words 100% but he heard me singing along so he handed me the mike. Just handed me the mike. So what could I do? I sang the last verses and airguitared during the solos with my San Miguel in hand. I was the Sultan of Swig.

There's a crowd of young boys fooling around in the corner. Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and platform souls. They don't give a damn about any trumpet playin band. It ain't what they call rock and roll. And the Sultans played Creole. Ahhh Creole. So the fat, yellow shirted man he steps right up to the microphone... and he says at last just as the time bell rings, "Good night, now it's time to go home." And he makes it fast with one more thing. He is the Sultan, yeah the Sultan of Swig. Shella got into the act too. She didn't sing that I can remember but I think she played the drums a bit. I went back and talked to the drummer a little too. He was a nice guy. I gave him a tip cuz by this time the band had hit its stride. EVERY song they played was a good one! And not a single stoppage! All night they played and played. I think they let us sing and drum just to get a little break. Here's the drummer and Shel shmoozing:

And here's my best Mark Knopfler impression. See my beer? I was bottlenecking, baby. At least in my mind I was the best guitar player in the world that night. But the hilight of the whole night for me was when the drummer handed me the drumsticks. And I'm not talking about chicken! No air drumming either! I was drumming in a live performance! Really! And not doing too shabby either. At least not to my drunken biased ears. And lots of high fives were exchanged afterwards so I couldn't have stunk too badly. What a gas! Go to Pedro's if you get the chance.

Look at me! Five minutes in a band and I already have groupies! Look at the smile on my face! I can't imagine how I could have had more fun. Do you see that white spot on my shirt just below the collar? That was the only dry spot remaining. I'm giving that shirt away too. Rob, Mark or Jen, whoever gets it, you may want to boil it before you wear it. lol. What a night! What a trip. I can't wait to get back there!

Camaguin Island, (part IV), White Island

Ahhh. White Island. It's white. And it's an island. But look at the water. So clear! It makes for great pics like these:

Hey, with any luck I'll be able to fit both of these pics on one line since the one of me is a little scrunched. That's the one I was talking about where I look like a serious snorkeller. I think the volcano on the right is the Old Volcano and the other one might be Hibok Hibok. Not sure. Both of these pics were taken on what would be the convex side of the smiley face shaped strip of white sand that is White Island. On the concave side the snorkelling was much better cuz the water wasn't so rough. It was better for swimming and even windsurfing too. I think other than vendors who sold snacks, beverages and barbecued fish for us, there might have been 5 other people on the island. It was fantastic if you like secluded places to sunbathe. I'm not much of a sunbather so I went out in search of some good underwater species. I particularly like the underwater species in the above left pic! Heh heh heh.


Here are the gals going out to try their hands at windsurfing. The guy on the board is kinda like the caretaker or lifeguard of the island I guess. He was on the board right beside me when I was snorkelling. He told me where the best snorkelling was. I think he was hitting on the girls a little bit. And I think they were probly hitting back a little bit too. He was a nice guy though.

Soon the girls gave up with the sail and just went for a paddle on the board. They went out pretty far and the guy didn't mind too much. Then they decided to pose for a few pics. And I'm glad they did! Know what I'm sayin?


By the time these pics were taken Mal and I were sitting comfortably under one of the blue tarp tents eating snacks and drinking some beverages. We were both too sunburned to do much playing in the sun with the girls. But we were happy to watch. I had finished with my snorkelling and got what I think was my best picture of the elusive clown fish. I saw him chasing all kinds of fish away from his anemone and just stayed in the one spot taking picture after picture until I guessed I had a good one. I didn't get a really GREAT one but I like the one below. It still doesn't have the side view of the clown fish I was after but you can see some of the fish he was chasing away.

Here's a pic of Mally getting grossed out by Shella sucking the fish head. Those CDO girls eat the WHOLE fish lemme tell ya! You can really see the smiley face shape of the island in this pic. And note how deserted it is! Noice!

See how sunburnt Mal is? I was like that too. The girls just got browner. Lucky! The boat behind Shella's head is the kind we took to the island. They look like sailboats but they have motors on them.

And here's Alana eating lunch. I think it was barbecued bangus, (milkfish), some noodles and Chippies. I'm looking skyward and probably doing some number crunching trying to figure out how many more years of working in Korea it'll be before I can just go to the Philippines and not come back. If I ever get myself a diving licence and start seeing how much better the critters are deep below the surface, I think I might just go A.W.O.L. forever. Maybe I WOULD make my living diving for pearls or something. I could probably be a diving instructor. Or maybe I could discover some new species of fish and name them. The Simpsonian Bartfish. The Blue Haired Margerie. Blowfish Homerius. Things like that.

Anyhoo, that was the best vacation I've ever been on in my life! Due to the fact that there were practically no seats available on flights going back to Korea and I had an open ticket, I stayed about 20 days longer than planned, so it was a lot more expensive than I wanted. But I regret nothing! I can always teach some extra classes and do kids camps to make some extra money to make up for it.

Now let's see... my next vacation is in June. I could go back and stay part of June and all of July... There's still stuff to be done on Camaguin. It could happen. Watch for it here.

Camaguin Island, (part III), Sunken Cemetary

This is where I did the best snorkelling of the trip. And I went snorkelling quite a few times. But I saw all kinds of nice stuff. You can kinda see the life under the water in this shot. And lemme tell ya it was lively down there! In the cemetary. Hah. A couple nice pieces of coral I saw. And they were just shallow enough to get that nice wavy sunlight on them. I love that. I just wish I could fit them in side by side like I can while I type here. But then when I see the finished product they're always on top of each other. Oh well. Still nice.














I was always careful not to step on anything alive, fragile, poisonous or things like that. But I did have one little scare. I stepped on something that felt like a piece of glass. But the pain just kept going. I thought I'd better get someone to look for me so I hopped over to Mal and asked what was on the bottom of my foot. And there was this little, tiny crab holding on for dear life. It was cute. I got a pic of him but it's too blurry to include here.

There are just too many to post. But I'll post one last pic. My favourite fish, the clownfish, swam right up to me to say hello. It's hard to get a good pic of them because they are always looking at you and so you can't get the side view with the nice colours. But I like this pic. You can see the sea anemone in the background where he calls home. I wonder why they only allow clown fish in them. Maybe they like them like me. I have other clownfish pics too. But I'll make a new post for White Island.