Hi all

Thanks for your comments on the poem. I'm going to take it, add a few bits and pieces, and turn it into a song.

Well, the biggest bit of news I want to relate to you is that there are 3 new Ticklish Brother songs posted and available to listen to! They consist of two new songs and a live recording. Here are the details:

Shootin' People: When Byron and I got together at the Provincial Drama Festival back in June, we tried out a lot of our new material on each other. This is one of the songs from that process, written by Byron, Inspired by the escalating violence in our society.

When All Else Fails: More immediately recognizable as comedy than Shootin' People, this is a rough and happy little ode to optimism and pessimism. It's the most fully-rounded of the three songs, recording-wise, though it's not in a finished state yet. Byron and I wrote this one together a while back. It features my brother Kevin (the band's namesake) on some spoken vocals.

3 Bears: This is the first song on the CD, and probably our most popular. It's a song about an anthropomorphic young bear's search for his roots. This is a live recording from a performance at the abovementioned Provincial Drama Festival. The crowd was great! I've put this one up to show how our songs have continued to evolve through performance over the years. The CD version is posted too, so if you're interested, listen to them both and compare!

I'm very interested in hearing what you have to say about them, so please give them a listen!

Tomorrow is going to be a weird day at work. We're taking 96 students to Kyongju World, an amusement park about 45 minutes from here. We have two big buses chartered. Should be a fascinating experience. I just hope that I don't have to be so involved in policing duties that I don't have time to try out any of the rides!

Anyhow, I have to dash off to my last class. I may be able to post and read over the weekend, but I'm not sure. All the best!

Take care
-Justin-

When time starts moving backwards
Banana peels picking people up
Glueing siamese twins back together
Bathtubs filling from the drain
Speakers absorbing all the sound
Squeezing toothpicks together to make trees
Mountains getting pointier
Ovens turning bread into dough
Teachers removing knowledge
Leaves rising from the ground and sticking to trees
Runners straining toward the starting line
Alarm clocks lulling us instantly to sleep.

Take care
-Justin-

Hi all

Well, our trip to Kyongju went quite well. We saw some sights, took in a couple of movies (LOTR and Harry Potter) and generally kicked around. Fun. We were pretty tired out when we got back though. Despite that, however, we're heading off on another trip tomorrow after work. We're going about 4 hours away to a Baha'i winter school. It runs tomorrow evening, Saturday and Sunday. We should just be able to scrape ourselves back to Angang in time to grab some sleep before work on Monday.

There are lots of pictures waiting to be posted too. Shots of our apartment, some of the neighbourhood and the school, and some shots from the Christmas parties for the kids. Unfortunately, they'll have to wait until some time next week when I get some time on a machine with Photoshop.

For those interested, I've been making progress with a few of the songs I've started here in Korea. I added a couple of lines to each today (that's a lot, for me), and was quite pleased. I've also begun uploading several new Ticklish Brother songs to our account, and I'll let you know when they're all up and running.

So, anyhow, wish us luck for our little weekend jaunt. As with all of our travel here in Korea, there's a whole pile of uncertainty as to when and how (or perhaps even if )we get where we're going. But I guess that's part of the fun of it all.

I hope the time finds you healthy and happy. All the best!

Take care
-Justin-

Hi all

I don't have much time, but I wanted to stop by and say hello to all of my faithful readers. As you're probably completely unaware, I've been here at Xanga almost from the beginning. In fact, December 28th is my 2 year anniversary here. Some of you (like Wakariyasui have been around that long, and I'm glad that you drop by at least occasionally to say hi. And to all of you who are newer, thanks so much for visiting. I'm always glad to find out that people drop by and find something worthwil to read. I'm sorry if my schedule these days doesn't let me do even a fraction of the posting or reading that I used to do...

A lot has happened in my life during the last two years. The most significant things have probably been my marriage and our moving to South Korea. There are lots of other high points, as well as some distinct low ones, but all in all, I'm glad to be where I am.

I have to go now. Tomorrow, we head off to Kyong-ju for a few days, during our winter break. I'll be sure to post pictures eventually. I have pictures of our apartment and surroundings, as well as lots of pictures of the Christmas parties here at English House, but they'll have to wait until we get back. I'll try to get them posted as early in the new year as possible.

So to all of my Xanga friends, I wish you all the best for this upcoming week (and, of course, beyond). I probably won't be able to check in from the road, but one never knows. If not, then I'll talk to you again next Thursday.

Take care
-Justin-

Hi all

Well, I'm completely worn out. The Christmas parties went great, all things considered. It's now 5:20pm and I'm headed home very soon. My boss cancelled my evening class tonight because she cuold see how crummy I look. I'm rather grateful. Tomorrow, of course, is a holiday, then work on Friday, then a few days of vacation. But I'll check in again on Friday, and maybe even show you some new school pictures!

Take care
-Justin-

Hi all

Well, whenever I complain about life, I receive either further difficulties or something so nice that I can't possibly stay irritated. The latter is what happened after my last post. We grabbed the subway back to the home of the person who had hosted the meeting, and ended up having the most wonderful conversation for about 5 hours. We didn't sleep. He even drove us to the bus station in the morning. It was just wonderful, and it more than salvaged that previously irritating situation. Yay!

Well, the exciting thing today is that our music order arrived! It was shipped two weeks ago today, so I'm mighty impressed with the speed at which it traveled! I really really want to open it, but I'm waiting for Crista to get here. One of the things we've always done is kept the opening of pacages special. Since half of the contenets are hers, I won't open it without her. The suspense is killing me, but that makes it all the more fun! I just hope she gets here soon!

This week at English House has been devoted almost entirely to preparation for the upcoming Christmas party. The kids are delivering little introductory speeches and singing textbook songs and Christmas carols. All of this is a little surreal for me, since I'm not Christian, but it's fun during the moments when it's not waaaaay too much work to squeeze into a few short days. Thursday is a holiday here, because of the Presidential election, so the week is extra-short. The party for the preschool kids is Monday, and the older kids have theirs on Tuesday. I'll be sure to post pictures.

Anyhow, I'd better get prepped for my next class. Hope you're all well and happy!

Take care
-Justin-

Hi all

Wel, the adventures keep on coming. We're currently in the city of Daegu, about a 2 hour bus ride from Angang, except that there are no buses right now. Contrary to what we were told, the last trains and buses left fairly early, so we're stranded here, at 11pm on Sunday night. Our best option, which Crista is pursuing right now, is to call the person we were just visiting, grab the subway across town, and stay there until the first bus at 6am. I hope to God that that works. If not, I guess we just doze on a bench or something. Unfortunately, it means that the 3 hours of work we had to finish when we got home will not get done, and we'll be pushing our luck to get me to my morning classes on time.

Anyhow, forgive my griping. Other than this, our weekend was quite wonderful, with both tonight and last night filled with wonderful meetings with new friends. As positive as those times were, unfortunately, I'm finding them hard to hold onto because I now I'm going to have to start my week (and its longest day) exhausted. Poop. Oh well. There are definitely worse things.

Ah, Crista has just returned from the phone to announce that we're clear to go and stay with our new friend. So, it's back to the subway we go... Ah, the joys of life...

Anyhow, I hope you're all well and happy, and that evening finds you with a familiar bed to sleep in, and a good night's rest for the week ahead.

Take care
-Justin-

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Well, actually, I'm feeling rather down today, as I have been since Sunday or so. Weekends are dangerous for me, since they allow me the leisure of thinking about things I'm too busy to dwell on during the week. So Sunday found me pondering my current situation, my immediate and distant future, and the various stresses that are at play in my life right now.

Through reasons I won't get into right now, my wife has just agreed to teach at a school about 1/2 an hour from here. For those of you who have been following our escapades, have no fear that we've given in to the lure of illegal work -- she'll be volunteering. What's frustrating is that she doesn't want the job, she should be getting paid (but won't, since that would be illegal and we won't do it), and it'll use up a lot of her time. It's 15 hours a week or so of teaching, but spread out over a lot of hours away. She'll have to commute early every morning, and get back around 5pm or so...

What all of this comes down to is that we're too nice by far. Again, I won't go into detail, but it should be clear that the current situation is not one which benefits us in any way. We're doing this to help someone out, even though it's their own stupid fault that they're in the situation. She'll be working there until they can bring in a new teacher, which will probably take around 2 months. 2 months of free work, unpleasant work, that she should be getting paid for, for a stupid reason.

Sigh.

The other big thing that's stressing me out is her plan after she gets through this stupid teaching period. Before we decided to come to Korea, my wife really wanted to do international volunteer work. Unfortunately, that meant raising the plane fare and expenses herself, which was impossible in Corner Brook. But now that we're here, it becomes a real possibility. I would love for her to be able to take part in one of these projects, and I know that it would mean the world-and-a-half to her. If she decides to, I'll support her wholeheartedly. But my problem is that it means she'll be away from me for 3 months or more. Even back in Canada, surrounded by friends and family, that would be tough, but here in Korea, with no friends and no family, I think it's going to be very difficult indeed. If nothing else, she's the only native English speaker within a half hour drive of here...

Anyhow, I don't mean to bum anyone out. I'll figure all of this out, but it just feels kind of heavy right now. I'll write something a bit more upbeat  tomeorrow, or at least soon. Maybe We shall see.

Take care
-Justin-

Just a quick entry for the sake of breaking my recent once-a-week posting habit. We're having the two Korean teachers over to our house for supper tonight, which should be nice. We've bought and cooked lots of stuff, including, for the first time since we're been here, beef. Yes, that's right, beef. For those of you who hadn't heard, beef is on the order of $40/pound here, so we don't eat it. In Canada, it was the meat we ate the most. Oh well. But since we have guests, we get to splurge a little.

My music order was shipped 2 days ago, so it's on its way. I'm so excited!

Drop by and congratulate my friend Byron on getting a cool film job with the Government.

Anyhow, there goes the bell for my last class of the day. Have a great weekend, all!

Take care
-Justin-

The sky is filled with a sickly smoke that smells of burning manure.

Hi all
Well, another week has gone by, and it's time for an update. It was a good week, all things considered:

- I had my first proper class with my new evening group, and they turned out to be very bright and participatory, which is great.

- On Friday, I sent off a big music order over the internet. I'm getting 7 CDs and a box set, and my wife is also getting 7 CDs. This is the first time she's bought music in 2 years or more, which bugs me since she tries to make me feel guilty when I do... Granted, we've been poor for an awfully long time up until now, so it was a reasonable sort of thing to get annoyed about. But my soul craves music the way some people crave cigarettes or promiscuous sex...

- Also on Friday, after school, Crista and I went with Jay to Pohang. We met up with a friend of Jay's, did a little shopping, then rented a booth at a fascinating Karaoke place called Demolition. The machines there were manufactured by the Kum Young corporation... It was a strange place, full of Geiger-like sculptured surroundings...

- Our weekend was fairly sedate, with a walk downtown and lots of sitting around the house. We did some more cleaning, bought some lovely plants for the house, and rented Men In Black.

Today has been good and bad. I had a great class with the TT2Bs this morning. One of them cut his arm in an accident during the previous class, so he was very sudued and sad. I played a matching game with them, and whenever one of them one a pair, they gave it to the boy who was hurt. They worked so hard to try and make him laugh and cheer him up, that by the end of the class, he was up and participating. it was so sweet. On the flipside, I just had a crummy class with the TT3Bs, and am faced with the dilemma of how to keep them in line...

As I said at the top of the post, the air has been filled with nasty smoke for several days. I had thought it was over, but it's returned with a vengeance. In the Fall, you see, they burn the stubble of all the rice fields. This fills the air with nasty-smelling smoke for days on end. We can't open our windows, and it's much less pleasant to go outdoors. It's been making my nose bleed too. All in all, I hope they finish with the burning soon.

I'm glad that you liked the pictures I posted. The pages will get snazzier, and I'll add more pictures, but for now I'm just glad that there's something up for people to see.

Anyhow, while I'm sure there are other things to say, I can't remember them at this instant and will therefore save them for a future entry. Maybe this will be the week where I finally make two posts!

Hope you're all keeping well and happy!

Take care
-Justin-