Mr. Blonde Goes to South Korea

[Repugnant Abomination]

Yeah, the way I see it it's a great chance to travel and get paid doing it. With the economy in the shape that it's in right now teaching abroad looks pretty good from a monetary standpoint when you factor in the low cost of living and health care coverage. It also appeals to me because I won't have to work full time which means I can spend more time working on writing.

It seems the pendulum has swung again and it looks like we're going to Taiwan now. It doesn't pay as well and there aren't as many perks (like free airfare) but the teaching hours are less demanding and I find it a more interesting place from a cultural standpoint.

Piledes, maybe you could put me into contact with your friend? I'm trying to set up a social network before I get there so we feel less isolated (although I hear there is a solid expatriate community there).

[Pliedes]

Still more than a year off for them, but I'll keep you informed if you also end up there.

[Ugly Bastard]

Originally Posted by Repugnant Abomination

Yeah, the way I see it it's a great chance to travel and get paid doing it. With the economy in the shape that it's in right now teaching abroad looks pretty good from a monetary standpoint when you factor in the low cost of living and health care coverage. It also appeals to me because I won't have to work full time which means I can spend more time working on writing.

It seems the pendulum has swung again and it looks like we're going to Taiwan now. It doesn't pay as well and there aren't as many perks (like free airfare) but the teaching hours are less demanding and I find it a more interesting place from a cultural standpoint.

Piledes, maybe you could put me into contact with your friend? I'm trying to set up a social network before I get there so we feel less isolated (although I hear there is a solid expatriate community there).

If I didn't know any better, I'd say the Repug account is one big living parody of the content on stuffwhitepeoplelike.com.

[Mr. Blonde]

Originally Posted by Repugnant Abomination

ybe you could put me into contact with your friend? I'm trying to set up a social network before I get there so we feel less isolated (although I hear there is a solid expatriate community there).

Yeah, i'm telling you, setting up a social network before you go is probably not going to work. I remember before I went all these people saying "OH I HAVE A FRIEND DOING THAT DO U WANT HIS FACEBOOK!?!" and just thinking "No." I'd rather make my own friends and can always hit them up for contact information after the fact if its really that bad, but its not. You will meet new people there, and you'll also be with your girlfriend in the first place, as opposed to going completely by yourself without knowing anybody there (ahem). Quit being such a worrying bitch about it, you'll be fine, you little social party animal you.

[Mr. Mistoffelees]

are there lots of ladyboys in tawain? is that what you mean by more interesting cultural aspects?

[Repugnant Abomination]

Yes.

[DJ FC]

I support the real ROC. Props to you, Repug.

[angry pancake]

Originally Posted by Repugnant Abomination

* * * It also appeals to me because I won't have to work full time which means I can spend more time working on writing. * * *

How is that novel coming along? AP isn't allowed in the life projects forum anymore.

[Dent]

Originally Posted by angry pancake

How is that novel coming along? AP isn't allowed in the life projects forum anymore.

He missed nubblies too much and is pretending he finished it without providing evidence.

[Mr. Blonde]

Alright, so in the past couple of days we've had quite an impact on the English Teacher community here in Korea. I had heard rumors over the weekend of teachers getting quarantined but didn't pay much attention to it. Today, when I went into work for our monday meeting, our head instructor told us (amount rumors of us talking about other branches closing down) that our branch would be closed all of this week, and we wouldn't resume classes until Wednesday of next week.

This is huge; think of our school as the mcdonalds of english teaching schools. You have the main ones funded by corporate, and you have the franchises, owned by businessmen/individuals. I happen to work at one of the franchise ("branchises"...cute, right?), but even THEY have to close down as its some contractual agreement that comes all the way from corporate, because apparently some of the instructors in training (what i was in for the first week when i first got here) for our school had been exposed to Swine Flu and are currently in quarantine in Northern Korea, primarily because of the risk of spreading it to children. You can read more about there here and here. The latter is an actual blog from one of the quarantinees and a very good one at that.

After getting out of work without having to actually work, some of us met up at the local park to drink and hangout/talk about the events of the day and how we plan on spending our newly-found week and a half of vacation. Our head instructor came with us, and during that time got some phone calls alluding to that we were expected to "stay in our apartments" under some fucked up form of self-quarantine that obviously none of us are going to do, but its varying reports from some of the branches/branchises whether you have to stay home, whether its optional, some of us have been advised not to hang out with other "foreigners" (aka white people), some of us are getting paid, some arent' sure yet, so yah, its pretty much a shitshow. Some of the instructors even got their temperature taken when they got to work tonight.

I personally plan on leaving my town at 6AM tomorrow morning to go to the east coast and hike a mountain all day and spend the night there, then head down south for the weekend. We only get 6 days of *contractual* vacation per year, unpaid, and thus far this seems like a 9 day paid vacation to me, which i'm not going to spend in my apartment, nor does anybody else seem to be. I'll keep y'all updated.

[SittinOnDubsWGW]

Congrats on hitting the swine flu lottery!

[Pliedes]

Maybe with your time off you can head north and investigate the cause of that mysterious earthquake from a few days ago...

[Mr. Blonde]

It was a nuclear bomb. Mystery solved.

[Mr. Blonde]

Lost on Planet Earth

couple updates

[Orgazmo]

Those sand sculptures are badass.

[Μr. Blonde]

I think this is probably the best thread in all of existence past and present.

[SittinOnDubsWGW]

i gotta go with GWB's assessment that Drunk Things! is the best thread ever.

Although you guys rarely post in it anymore.

[Mr. Blonde]

Tomorrow morning I'm going with a bunch of people to a little southwest of where i live to attend the Boryeong Mud Festival - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. There are about 75-100,000 expats living in Korea, and I have no doubt a large portion of them will be there this weekend (it goes on next weekend too, but far less people.) Its basically a beach, where they bring in a fuckton of mud from the local mudflats, and its a gigantic festival with all sorts of attractions and shit and Westerners mainly go to get wasted. An informational video, you ask? why of course!

YouTube - Korea Festival - Boryeong Mud Festival | www.WorkNPlay.co.kr

YouTube - Korea Festival - Boryeong Mud Festival | www.WorkNPlay.co.kr

Cheesy music.

Anyways, it should be pretty fun. I have absolutely no idea what to expect, it will be by far the most chaos I have experienced not only since I have been here, but probably since a college spring break...which is why i'm kind of apprehensive. There will also be a large presence of American GI's there, so hopefully everybody just has a good time and doesn't do anything stupid. As of now I just have a bus ticket and a "pension" (kind of like a hostel except no beds and everybody just sleeps on the floors) space, although I wouldn't put it past me sleeping on the beach.

As for hookups, I know a few hotties going but with the overwhelming amount of eligible bachelors in Korea vs. all the fat crazy and ugly bitches, on top of being covered in mud most of the weekend, i'm guessing the mood and chances won't be that conducive to sex...for anybody who doesn't have access to a shower and a room thats not full of other people. So whatever, i'm just gonna go get wasted (which i haven't been doing a lot of really) and have a bunch of fun.

Only part that will suck is going to be the ridiculous amount of fat bitches in bikinis i'm going to have to see....

But who knows, maybe i'll see Miss America 2004 there?

I'll post an update when I get back.

[Mr. Blonde]

Had a pretty kickass time overall, even though it rained half the time, which, as Sittinon confirmed, you would think would add to the experience, but even so, you don't want to be wet all the time as much as play in the mud then just be covered in mud all day. Here are some pics from the event; if the weather is nice we'll probably go back for the closing weekend next week.

The following day was pretty dead everywhere because of how shitty out it was. Also, a lot of us got kicked out of our hostels (had to check out, but "kicked out" was what everyone was saying to be melodramatic about it), so if we would have gotten muddy again then we would have been pretty dirty/muddy/wet basically the 3 hour ride home.



Korean men are so fascinated by beards.

[Pliedes]

That looks hella fun! Especially that giant slide/ramp in the second photo.

[StabMaster Arson]

and especially the part where you got caressed by a cabbie.

[f3lix]

Good Morning Yahoo!

[Mr. Blonde]

Its asinine how much school these kids really take. And really young too. Sometimes I get frustrated at them not being able to understand an abstract concept and then i'll realize they have a fucking spongebob pencil case and they're only like 12. It can be really sad.

[Mr. Mistoffelees]

Blonde, just because you learned the word asinine last week doesn't mean you have to use it in every post you make.

[Mr. Blonde]

I like that word. It describes much of this country quite well.