Brave New Warble

Note: I wrote this entry on June 20th, but I'm posting it July 20th. Things have gotten a bit behind on the site due to work, figuring out my new dSLR camera (!) and all that jazz. A really, actually new blog entry is coming within the next 48 hours. And so are a bunch more pictures. Stay tuned!



Hey! No big events these last six weeks. Korea continues to entertain and more importantly, educate.

One thing that happens a lot in this line of work is people coming and going. Due to the 12 month contract that everyone has, and everyone starting at different times of the year, my office has a constant turnover and arrival of people coming from all over the english speaking world. It's kind of fun and exciting to have people coming and going, but it's also kind of a bummer when cool people leave the office to go back home, or on to other adventures. This month, we are losing Justin, Irish Ryan, and Nathan, who are all great guys. It's been awesome working with you guys!

Speaking of Justin, he, Nate and I have been doing a fair bit of rock climbing these past 6 weeks. Nate (not to be confused with Nathan, who is one of the people leaving,) was a pretty avid climber back in the states, I had some experience, and Justin was just starting. We're pretty well into the groove now, thanks to the fact that we live really close to a bouldering gym. Bouldering means rock climbing without ropes, but it's generally low height, so you don't hurt yourself, and very difficult. The gym is an interconnected set of rooms with thickly padded floors, and angled walls covered in factory made holds that can be screwed into most surfaces. It's been excellent for making me stronger, dovetailing nicely with hapkido, which focuses a lot on hand strength.

Speaking of health, I've gone on a diet for the first time in my life. Don't worry, I'm not trying to LOSE weight, I'm actually trying to gain muscle. My new diet is gleaned from the book "Natural Hormonal Enhancement" by Rob Faigin. He asserts, after doing a huge mountain of research, that the best way to eat in order to gain muscle and burn fat, is to eat lots of protein and not worry about having too much fat. My meals are cycled, such that every 3rd day I have a big meal of carbohydrates, and then every 4th day as well. In between those times I eat very few carbs. The idea is that the human endocrine system is millions of years old, and is based on eating a diet that's very different from what most people eat today. Our ancestors ate a lot more protein and vegetables, and very few, if any, refined carbohydrates, like white bread, pasta, etc. Anyways, the book is well reviewed and makes sense, so I'm going to give it a try. Also, I'll be starting a weight training regimen next week, in addition to my martial arts training, so this could be the start of a whole new thing for me. I'll report back on how it turns out/is turning out.

In other news, I miss theatre and the arts desperately. I've got to find out about the english language theatre and other things like that in the Seoul area. I know it's out there, I've seen links and ads here and there. Time to do some research.

I've been pretty prolific as far as music goes. Pretty soon I'm going to start adding a few songs of mine to the website so everyone can listen.

My roommate Ryan Ellis is getting married, for those of you who don't know. He met a lovely british girl here named Helen Kenny. They don't have a date set yet, but I guess I'll post it when I know and when the time is right. For all those of you who love Ryan Ellis and want nothing but the best for him, let me assure you that Helen is a fantastic person and I'm 100% behind them getting married. They've moved pretty quick, but hey, when you know, you know.

What else? Teaching is a continuing process of self-discovery. Just when I think I have a pattern down and there's not much else to figure out, some new challenge or unrealized part of myself leaps to the fore to make things interesting. I feel that there are many days when I learn more than the kids by a good margin. Specifically, teaching these kids is really teaching me a lot about the meaning of patience. I thought I was a reasonably patient person before I came here, but I think now I'm starting to learn what real patience is. Real patience is teaching the same thing 4 times in one week to the same kid, who just isn't getting it, and persisting with it, until he DOES get it. There's usually a reward for patience in this job, but it's sad to say that sometimes there are brick walls that it's hard to break through. However, you never know when a breakthrough will happen, so it's best to just keep a clear head and take deep breaths. Patience is really the key here! It's incredible, though, because patience is really a way of creating stillness within yourself. And when you can do that, you notice things that have been there all along, patiently waiting for you to discover them. Or at least, that's the way it's starting to become for me.

Oh and one more cool thing that happened. A couple weeks ago, the birthday of Buddha was celebrated here in Korea with a massive parade in downtown Seoul. People came from alllllll over Asia to join in the festivities, and there were a bunch of performances of both traditional and modern musicians and artists during the day. There was everything from traditional Korean drumming to yoga demonstrations, as well as traditional Indian dance - Katakali, believe. The parade started at night. Why at night? Because the whole thing is called the Paper Lantern Festival, and there are thousands of paper lanterns everywhere! The buddhist temple near the parade area was decked out with a gazillion of them, and at night, every single lantern was turned on. With that, and the parade, the effect was really beautiful. I managed to snag some lanterns and take them home for decoration purposes. Check out the pics section if you want to see what I'm talking about.

Thanks for checking in. Remember to check out the new pictures!