3 Days Before I Move Into My Own Digs!

The countdown is officially on. I have 3 more days to wait until I finally move into my own place. I can't wait, to tell you the truth. It will just be so nice knowing that it is my own place and not the school's, as in the past. I plan on staying there for at least 3 years. That means no more moving for that time.........yipeeeeeeee!!!!!!

I am sick of moving over the past 7 years since I left Canada and then returned and then moved 3 times again and then returned to Korea and moved 3 times again.......Wow! I can't believe that I moved that many times. No more, my friends. I can actually decorate this place and make it feel like home.

I had a good weekend, which ended up by watching a football game of foreigners, which if all goes well, I will be playing with next weekend. Mostly a mix of Irish fellas and a couple of English blokes. They look like a good team and they have a couple of Ghanan lads who are really good. Should be a good team to hang out with as well. Some good craic and some good laughs as well.

The weather here is warming up and should be getting really hot within the next month or so.....humid as hell. I like though, so I can't complain.

I went to the gym 2 out of the 3 days on the weekend. I am still losing weight and am happy to say that I am weighing about 209lbs now. For those of you who only know kilos, it is about 95 kilos. Those of you who only know stones, it is about 14 stone 10 0r s0........ a big improvement from the previous weight back at the end of March......just keep going Paul, still got another 10 kilos, 22 pounds or a stone and a half to go.

Glad to see that Michael Owen played a full 90 mins for England over the weekend and I am actually glad that McClaren picked Beckham for the squad for next weeks game against Brazil and the qualifier the following week.

Dave and I have tickets to see the Holland vs Korea next Saturday night in Seoul. That should be fun and I am looking forward to seeing a good competitive match.

I will post some pics of the new place later this week, if all goes well.

Happy Birthday To My Mum!

May 25th is the most special day of my life ever. You know why? It's because if my Mum had not been born, then I wouldn't be typing this blog would I.......lol.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to Margaret Irene Campbell!!!!!!!! I love my Mum to bits and I am the luckiest man alive to have a mother like her.......I mean that and am thankful everyday of my life. Have a great day, Mum.

Pic of the inside of Dublin's.

Went down to Bundang last night to meet up with Rob who just came via the Phillipines. We all met years ago in Ulsan and we have known Rob for over 5 years now. He looks good, as always and I am happy that he decided to come back to Korea.

Rob and Dave in Dublin's.

I have a few pics of the coffee shop in Bundang, "Coffee Bean" and also of the inside of Dublin's, the Irish bar that I used to frequent. Some pics of Dave and Rob and of Billy and Sara.

Dave outside Coffee Bean.

Billy and Sara having a laugh. They are not an item, just fooling around in the picture. Sara works at Avalon, where I used to work last year.

Off To Watch The Match!

Dave and I are off to watch the match at Hollywood's. First we will grab a quick bite to eat and then head off to watch the match, which doesn't start until 3.45am our time, here in Korea.

I am dead excited about it and a little nervous. Everyone is going on gangbusters about Liverpool being the underdogs and even Bellamy said it right yesterday in the an interview from last week, "AC Milan will not get the space that Man Utd gave them in their games against us. That is for sure!"

I hope we win it in regular time and I hope that it is a very entertaining, exciting game with Liverpool scoring a couple and hopefully, winning it convincingly. I don't think my heart could take penalties again, so let's do it normally.

There should be a good crowd at the bar tonight as tomorrow/ today is a holiday here in Korea. It is Buddah's birthday. How old does the old, fat bald guy turn today, anyway?

Richie and Nick and Matt and Winston and Dave and I will be the regulars that always show up at the matches plus drunken Simon who is always two sheets to the wind.

I met a fella, Simon, an Irish lad who said he will be there too. I may go and watch his team play football on Sunday and he said he could sign me up, but wasn't guaranteeing me a spot to start every week. That would suit me fine. Just want to start playing again and kicking that little round ball around the pitch.

Off I go. I hope that I have great news to put on my blog tomorrow. If not, then at least we got to the 'big show' and hopefully put up a great effort.

"We love you Liverpool, we do, we love you Liverpool, we do,
We love you Liverpool, we do, oh, Liverpool we love you...............

A Few More Pics Of My Students

Surprisingly enough, I didn't put any blogs on this weekend. Just kind of busy and burnt out from working and going to the gym. Not in a negative way, just didn't want to sit in front of a computer and type something over the weekend.

I am back in work mode again after a very good weekend. I moved some of my stuff over to the place that I will be moving in on May 31st. The lady is still there, but she was nice enough to let me drop some stuff off. She cleared out one of the wardrobes that I have bought of her. There are 3 big arse ones in all and I put my suitcases in one of them.

She is having an open house this weekend as it will be here last weekend in Korea. I will drop another suitcase and some bags off on Sunday again. I also need to talk to a friend of hers about the internet at the house as it is in her friends name and I would like to just transfer everything over so there is no 'down' time, as such.

The weather here is really nice. Very springlike weather. Sometimes a little cool at night and sometimes very warm during the day. I can feel the humidity sometimes, which for anyone that doesn't know about Korea, is so so thick in the summer. You can add 10-15 degrees onto the heat in the summer with the humidity.

My school has no a/c, so we will see how that goes. My Korean teacher has already asked the principal to think about buying two of them. One for each room that the foreigners teach in. i.e. Isaiah and I.

I hope you like some of the pics of my students. I am starting to really like teaching them and they are actually improving quite a bit. Except for my last class, who can't even read simple English, but are supposed to be advanced. I need to do some reading with them and make sure they can read what I write on the board.

2 days to go to the big show. Liverpool vs AC Milan. I am getting quite excited and am looking forward to going to Hollywoods and watching it live with friends. It starts at 3.15am our time, here in Korea. We have a holiday the same day, so it has turned out just perfect.

I am off to school now and then to the gym again later on. I am down to 210 lbs or 95 kilos. My waist is actually starting to show now......haha. I am still highly motivated and getting thinner is actually making me want to exercise more and more. I am weight training a little more now, but don't want to get back into doing an hour or more of it. I think 30 minutes and targeting the main body parts, is my aim. Not too heavy, but not too light. I also need to stretch my elbow too, which is sometimes a little 'pins and needles' feely. It doesn't give me pain anymore, but it is still a little tight sometimes.

Backpackers And Being Oblivious

North Americans take their backpacks everywhere and I mean everywhere. To pubs, bars, cafes and on and on and on. I think it is an extension of themselves, much like people that can't put their cell phones down for 2 minutes. Talk on them in the shower, in the toilet etc. Get over it people. Get a life!!!!!!

Korean people are oblivious. That is the best word to describe them when they are walking or in crowds or among a lot of people.

That is just the way it is and I wanted to just get those two things out there, as they really bother me at times.

I quit my telephone teaching at night. It was a bit of a joke. I had to give 3 days notice if I was going to miss a phone call. The students could cancel the same day and there was no penalty. I was not having that and I told them to forget it. Of the first 15 or so calls that I made, there were 5 cancellations. Not worth my while and definitely not worth hanging around the house from 10pm to 11pm from Monday to Thursday. A good experience, but now history. I was fair about it and asked not to be paid. The least that I could do!!!! The company needs to re-evaluate some of their policies and pay a hell of a lot more..........enough said............Next!!!!!!

From A Whisper To A Scream

The girl that I mentioned in my last blog is now history........haha. It happened as quick as that.

I called her tonight and just wasn't easy and I got a bad vibe. She came across as very cocky and arrogant and I hate that shit in anyone. I asked her if she wanted to have lunch tomorrow and she was very evasive and kept talking about how many guy friends she had........... forget that right of the mark.

Anyway, I am not the slightest bit disappointed. I sent her a text message and told that I might have seemed a little desperate as I was being so nice to her!!!!!

No bad blood or anything, just a gut feeling, which nowadays I am right in tune with. Number erased from the telephone............. next!!!!!!!!!!!

An Eventful Weekend

Friday night, I headed to a little bar and had a few drinks, which ended up turning into too many. I guess the main problem was that I had not eaten all afternoon and was on an empty stomach.

One of the things that I have started to do, is that if I am not hungry, I will not eat. I am listening to my body more carefully nowadays and when it tells me that I have to eat, then I eat. If not, then I just don't eat. Makes sense to me. If I have no energy, that is a sign that I need to eat.

Woke up fairly handy on Saturday morning and headed to Bundang for midday. I finished there about 4pm and then headed back to the Kangnam area, or thereabouts. I finally finished everything about 9pm and decided to head for Hollywood's.

I had my normal grilled chicken sandwich and baked potato there and actually did not have a drink. While I was there, I got a call from Jason that I used to work with at Avalon. He was in Sincheon, which is close to Hongdae and has loads of places to see and hang out at.

I grabbed a taxi and then met him at the big department store. We went to this little 'hole' of a place in the basement of a building. It was quite a cool place and they played some good cool music. Jason and I got chatting about our respective trips overseas.

He managed to go to South Africa, Cambodia, Argentina, Chile and Brazil. He had a great time and had some great stories. Especially about being in Johannesburg, where he went right into the ghettos against some people's advice. He hung out with an African fella and he said he was the only white person there. He said it was very cool and he got to see the real people of South Africa.

He had a few other stories and we had a good time chatting and having a good laugh. Then we decide to go to Hongdae and go to a place called "Tin Pan Alley." I had been there before and it is not a bad place, but mad packed. We met some girls there and flirted a little with them, but I decided to head out about 2 am or so as I wanted to get up and go to the gym, Sunday afternoon.

I woke up about 1pm and headed to the gym. Ran 7.2kms and felt great after my sauna and bath.

I met a girl called Tara on the subway last week. She is Korean and dead fit. I got her number and we decided to meet up on Sunday in Itaewon. I met up with Dave and his flame at the moment- a 20 year old Korean girl. We went for coffee at Coffee Bean in Itaewon and then I met Tara downstairs. Dave and Haejin took off for a walk before I met Tara. I called Dave and we decided to meet up and have some bbq pork at one of the local traditional restaurants that I frequent.

We all had a good time and chatted a little and laughed a little. After we were done, Dave and his girl headed back to Bundang and Tara and I decided to go to an Indian restaurant above the Hamilton Hotel. She had travelled to southern India when she was in her early twenties and now has a penchant for Indian tea. She must have had about 6 cups while we were there!!!!!!

We sat talking for about 2 hours and had a good time. She is a very energetic girl and has a good brain and a great attitude towards life. She was in a bad car accident 3 years ago and it took her that long to recover from it. She has a new outlook on life and is very positive about her life, more so than before.

She is very pretty and dresses very stylishly and I think I like her. We decided that we would see each other again. I think we hit it off really well and I enjoyed her company. We were very honest about a lot of things and that was refreshing. I am not going to even think about where this may be heading, I am just going to enjoy meeting her and hanging out with her.

Not much else happened over the weekend. Just had a good time relaxing yesterday and enjoying the gorgeous spring weather. I am gearing up to get ready to move, which is less than 3 weeks away now. I am looking forward to that immensely.

A Funny Comment Left On The Blog

I just finished reading one of the comments that was left about my blog, "Refreshing Honesty In Korea."

The individual mentioned about how corrupt the government was and the cheating husbands and the university professors plagiarizing everything in sight.......quite negative really, but exactly what I like people to do.

My blog is open to criticism at anytime and I really appreciate any comments left. That means at least you are reading the blog!

In reply to the comment left though, don't you think that those kinds of things mentioned happen in every country around the world? It is quite funny to think that Korea is the only country with womanizers and with corrupt politicians. America, the strongest nation in the world, doesn't have any of that does it! Laughable at the least!

Anyway, thank you to the individual that left the comment and I hope in the future, some of my readers will also feel compelled to leave some comments too. Read the instructions on the right side of the blog on how to leave a comment.

Today is a lovely sunny day and I am going to enjoy everything that it has to offer. At the moment I am listening to my students next door singing in Korean. It is choir practice and they have been praciticing for about the last 2 week or so. They sound great, by the way.

A pic of one of my classes.

Refreshing Honesty In Korea

I have included a few good religious jokes for those of you that like them. Got them off my Dad, of course!

One of the amazing things about Korea, is the people's honesty. It starts with the kids and goes through to the adults. Of course, there is always an exception to the rule, but most of the Korean people abide by their honour code and live their life adhering to it.

A Catholic driving too fast!

At my schools even the past ones, students very rarely ever cheated and they actually would tell you if someone didn't do their homework or got a wrong reward for something they didn't do. I saw so many times examples of this in the school. I was taken aback at first, but now I know it is the norm.

A Jewish, world class, olympic swimmer!

Today was another unbelievable example of a Korean being honest. I usually stop at one of the subway kiosks, as I am on the subway for 2 or 3 hours a day going back and forth from school to home etc.

Well, I guess 2 days ago, at this particular one at my school location in Sang-Il Dong, the man had charged me too much for a pack of crackers and a drink. I had no idea until today. He came up to me and explained in his broken English........"Yesterday, yesterday (which meant the day before yesterday,) I charge too much and feel really really bad, oh my heart feel so bad, I give you 500 won now back."

500 won is about the equivalent of 70 cents Canadian! It was unbelievable how bad this man felt and he kept apologizing and I think he was hoping that I would have come back the day before, so he could have given me the 500 won that he owed me.

As it was, I had not bought anything that day, as I had the wild shites and a really bad stomach ache and other ailments, which I am glad to say, are gone now.

Such a refreshing moment today for me. To think that honour is the most important thing to this small shop owner. I think it is great and it is once again, one of many reasons why I love living in Korea.

Figure this one out for yourselves......haha!!!

There are cultural differences wherever you go in the world, but in Korea the good one's make up for the bad one's, that is for sure.

I wish every country was as refreshingly honest as Korea is at times. Itaewon has a bad reputation for being a little 'dirty,' but that is because so so many foreigners work here........... the few always spoil it for the many. That is my philosophy anyway. Itaewon is not really that bad. Like anywhere, you learn to stay away from the scuzzy areas, especially late late at night. That is only common sense isn't it.

The nice thing about riding the subway for so long, is that now I am reading more. I have finished 3 novels in almost 2 weeks. The one that I am almost done is called, "The First Immortal." It is pretty good and it is about humans being able to live forever or as close to forever as they can. It was written in 1998, so it is interesting to see where the world has progressed, even since that time.

Oh No! The Mancs Have Won The League!

I will keep it short and sweet. I never wanted Utd to win the league, but with the behaviour of the Chelsea manager, there was really no team that you could support winning the Premiership title.

Today, I am the bearer of the sad news. Yes, the Mancunians have won the league. Some say it is well deserved on their performances this year. I just hope they are not their same-old arrogant selves, telling everyone how wonderful they are and rubbing it in everytime they have a chance.

That is one of the main reasons that Liverpool have the biggest rivalry with Utd. We are not self-serving and pompous. We actually try to have a laugh about it when we are good, by singing a song like the "We won it 5 times in Instanbul, we'll win it 6 times!"

Anyone that knows the furor that is caused by any team that is arrogant, just has to look at the piece of work that Morinho is at Chelsea.

Enough said, I have to accept the fact that Utd have won the league, but will not enjoy saying it out loud...........................

Standing On Buses

Although I have been here for more than 4 years now, I still cannot get used to the Korean concept of standing on buses that are travelling on the highway!!!

Yes, that is right. There are people standing in the aisle of the bus as the bus reaches speeds of 100km/h. I know in the West, it would not be allowed and there would be law suits all over the place if someone got injured.

I was actually taking the bus on Friday night from Itaewon to Bundang. The driver let 3 of us get on through the back doors, as the front door was blocked due to the people standing. I then proceeded to sit on the stairs facing the exit door. It was unbelievable really. Don't think that the drivers take any more care while driving with people standing either. They drive the same way; pumping the brake pedal, pushing the acclerator pedal up and down and in general taking quite a few chances, as always.

The drivers here would be fired in Canada or America, the way they drive. It is commonplace here also for the bus drivers to accost the other drivers in cars and honk the horns at them and sometimes even cut them off.......seriously!

I don't mind it much of the time, but you have to be weary when you get on the bus if you have a weak stomach, as the drivers will give you motion sickness everytime.

The Seoul Festival is winding down now. There were lots of sidewalk food stalls offering food from all countries around the world as well as other events all over Seoul. I never made it out to any of them. I just stuck around Itaewon and did my usual adventure walking routine. I am finding new places all the time and am enjoying all the delights that the area has to offer.

I am still keeping at my healthy diet and going to the gym 6 days a week. I am happy to say that I am now at 215lbs. That is 27 pounds lighter than when I arrived back in Korea, just over 6 weeks ago. I feel great, but like I said before, I have another 20 pounds to lose. I am targeting 198lbs right now as my ideal weight and figure I should be at that weight by the end of July. Once I reach that goal, then I will be heading for 190lbs. Consistency is the world and I will be Mr. Consistency.

Heard some other news this week also. Rob, the friend that I had a big row with in Canada and subsequently worked thing out with, is coming back to Korea around May 18th. Not sure where he will go, but I bet he will go back to old hick town Ulsan.

I hope he doesn't, as there are tons of more jobs here and loads more girls too. Well, whatever he does, I will be able to see him once in a while, if I feel like visiting there or vice-versa.

Watched the Liverpool second team play yesterday and they were absolute rubbish. The game didn't even mean anything, even to Wigan, as they ended up losing too. The last 2 games don't mean shit, so Benitez wants to make sure that he gets no injuries at all before the big final.

Found out yesterday that the day, or should I say the morning of the Champions Legaue Final (our time here in Korea,) it is a national holiday here and we all get the day off. That means that Hollywood's will be open, showing the match!!!!!! It should be great, as that means it will be full of the Scousers from around here or LFC supporters, watching the match. Can't wait ,to tell you the truth. I hope we win it 6 times.............

A Memorable Week!

First of all, Liverpool winning the Champions League semi-final was the start of a great week. The game itself was awesome. I was shitting myself watching it. Thought we had won it when Kuyt scored in extra-time, but the goal was given as offside....complete bullshit if you consider the officials have been told to give the attacker the benefit of the doubt to make the game more exciting and in favour of the forwards. Anyway, we did it on penalties again.

Morinho was an arse-wipe as usual, saying that Chelsea played better and that we were not trying to score. The man has no class, he is an arrogant piece of shite, that is what he is. He even bad mouthed Ronaldo, saying he has no class as he grew up in a poor neighbourhood and atmosphere. You are a class act, Morinho!!!!!

Then the next thing that happened, was even more invigorating. I got an email from my Mum and Dad and they told me that my son, Tyler, had dropped by the house to see them!!!! I was hoping that this would happen for so long. It did and I can't be more pleased. With all the history of the divorce and the bullshit attached to it, I was hoping that Tyler would find his way and seek out his grandparents to have a relationship with them. Well, it happened and like I said, I am over the moon. I feel great for myself, for Tyler and of course for my Mum and Dad. He is the oldest grandchild and hopefully he is back on track to have a great relationship with them in the future. He said that he was going to visit the next week and Mum and Dad told him to bring his girlfriend too. I am sure if she meets them, she will like them very much. They are very charming anyway and if somebody doesn't like them, they must be off their rockers!!!!

I couldn't ask for better parents and I mean that as my moral and ethical guides in my life. Whenever I think about doing anything, I always fall back to what they taught me growing up. They are the real deal when it comes to honesty, integrity and true human beings. They are my family and I am so proud to say that.

This week has been terrific on all fronts. I started my job on Monday and it went quite well. The levels of the students are very low, so I have my work cut-out to get them up to snuff. Some of them don't even know the alphabet!!!! I don't mind though, they are all so cute!!!!

I went to immigration to get my 'alien registration card.' Believe it or not, that is what it is called.....haha. I got sent to the wrong place first, then had to go to another place and when I got there, I didn't have the business number of the school plus something else. I had to phone my boss and get all that stuff of him. I was a bit angry to say the least and let him know so. He was cool and apologized and said that the English teacher at the school, should have given me all that stuff. Her name is Elley and she is Korean and a bit thick to say the least.

She was talking on her cell phone in my class while I was teaching. She also was in my class making up sheets and stuff, which I am going to put a stop too if she pulls it again next week. I told her already that I need my desk to get things organized for each class. She is nice enough, just thick as shit, like I said........lol.

Soldiers momento:

I am off to meet Dave tonight in Bundang and will meet up with Sara and the gang again. Sara has a friend visiting from jolly old England, so it should be fun meeting him and seeing what he thinks of Korea.

Things are getting close now. I move into my own place, June 1st. Can't wait to have my own place and decorate it the way that I want it. It will be nice to know that I am staying there for at least 3 years and that it is mine, all mine, all mine, oh yeah!!!

So, Liverpool vs A.C. Milan for the second time in the Champions League Final on May 23rd. Should be a memorable match and I can tell you one thing, we will not be caught like we were in the first half like in Istanbul. One thing about Benitez is that he makes sure the players don't make the same mistakes twice.

We have a holiday here in Korea the next day, so I am hoping that Hollywood's will be showing the game and I can hang out with a bunch of Scousers and Liverpool fans........would be awesome.