Oh by the way: The title of this blog is a reference to stories from my good friend Sam. I was on an epic rafting trip with Jason, Nathan, and Sam. We put in at Warm Springs and floated down the Deschutes all the way to the Columbia in four days (100 river miles!). It was amazing. I think it was the previous summer that Sam led rafting trips down the Deschutes one time he had some Korean tourists in his raft. He said that they were the worst paddlers ever. For anyone who hasn't had the pleasure of rafting . . . When you are in a raft you must paddle when your guide tells you to. Its kind of important to avoid being stuck on a rock, popping your raft, to position yourself in the rapids so you don't flip, things like that. Now back to the epic trip with the buddies . . . This was my first rafting trip and I wasn't such a good paddler right out of the gate. Sam said I paddled like one of his Korean tourists. We had a huge cooler we kept in the middle of the raft where we kept our food and beer (mostly beer though). After the first day into the trip the cooler had a name . . . Korea. During the mellow parts of the river we would sit on top of the cooler where you couldn't really paddle effectively. So when you wanted a break you went to Korea, hence the name. Were we being bastards using Korea in this reference . . . yeah maybe. But it sure was funny. I wasn't sure how this teaching gig would go. I knew things would be fine, but only after getting my paddling under control here. I think I'm getting my stroke down and floating along fairly well now. YES!
Boring blog update version:
During the weekdays I go to school have classes and spend loads of time on the computer reading the news, talking with people here and at home on gmail chat, and finding out information on how to be a better teacher. I've even come to studying bits and pieces of grammar. But don't expect to see any significant changes here though ;) Then I go home and head to the gym. I miss my rigorous workout schedule I had at home and my bike the most. So I've been spending loads of time at the gym lately and have been feeling increasingly more amazing and more like myself. Exercise is my key to happiness I've found, no matter where I am. Then I go home make dinner and chill out. On Mondays I have my music meditation class, which is where the Tiger vision happened. Some weeks I get together with some people from my building and watch a movie on Jen's huge ass flat screen hdtv (42 incher). Not too exciting really but its nice to have a lot of down time. I need to start painting again but most of the time I'm too bushed after school, the gym, and a full belly. Soon - my famous last words. Oh and I'm beginning to train for some runs coming up in the spring. I think there are a handful of 10k's and a marathon or two. My goal is to do two 10k's and get a PR in a half marathon . . . maybe even a marathon but that'll depend on if I can be fit enough before the weather gets unbearably hot and sticky. We'll see.
End of the boring part . . . hopefully.
I bought a date. Huh? "Bought a date," you ask. Well its getting close to Christmas and a bunch of foreign teachers put together an auction to support an orphanage. So I went with a few friends. The entrance fee was about $8 and of course went towards the orphanage. But it included some snacks and a 'free' drink. I had a few drinks before showing up to the event . . . this will come in handy for my spontaneous behaviour later in the evening. Guys and girls were being auctioned off as potential dates. All the money goes to the orphanage. The guys were a hot commodity selling for about 300,000 won (about $220) or just a little less, while the women were not so spendy ranging from 80,000 to 200,000 won. All of the guys were Westerners while some of the women were Korean. The dates were set up with donated dinners and activities from sponsors. The bidding begins and is about to finish when the last 'date' gets up on stage. Her name is Maggie. She's friends with my group of cohorts who begin pushing me to bid on her. I have to admit that I had no intention on bidding on anyone. I was happy to give my $8 to charity and call that my menial good deed for the day. But Dave, Scott, Jared, and Jen were all saying, "C'mon man do it! Do it! Do it!" So I did it. I was mistaken in thinking that they were going to help finance this decision. There was no talk of it. I just thought they would because they were pushing me so much. I bid and I bid and I won. Maggie and I are going either windsurfing or kayaking (possibly both? I don't recall) and dinner sometime this spring when it warms up. It cost me 135,000 won (about$100). Part of me feels silly for spending the money, but the bigger and better part of me says its going to charity. After the auction was over I couldn't believe what I just did. But then that feeling was quickly replaced with a warm fuzzy feeling like I helped a child or two with no parents for Christmas. How was this money going to be used? Are they getting a sweet Christmas gift? Is it going to help pay the heating and electricity bill? I don't know. I'm not standing on top of a mountain thinking that I made such a huge difference. But I've been working on becoming less selfish here for the last couple of years ever since a few of my friends blatantly pointed out that they felt I was a bit selfish. I have been, but would never admit it to myself. So since then I've been trying to work on it. Its not easy to change part of your personality. Its a slow process like losing hair which unfortunately I'm doing as well, probably with more success. But I'm making progress . . . slowly. Along these lines I tried to find cool gifts for people for this xmas. I've been kinda bad about returning from my trips empty handed. I go to people's places and they have this or that hanging on their wall or whatever.
"Hey thats cool. Where did you find that?"
"Oh my so and so got that for me when he/she went __x__ place."
"Oh wow. Thats really cool."
But not me. I've not really done that. Sorry guys. So I'm getting you close family members something nice from Korea.
Back to the 'date.' I'm not in it hoping that Maggie and I will hit it off. I'm happy to have given some cash to the kiddies. I'm sure we'll have a good time doing what ever it is that we end up doing but thats all. This is a new feeling for me. I kind of like it.
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