So here are some pictures that some of you may have seen on  Discover Channels show RIVER MONSTERS! The gentle man in front of me is the host of the show, Jeremy Wade. I was an extra but then got fired for out-fishing the host and he wasn't too happy about that. It was okay because he paid for the time out there, and more importantly a couple of beers. Which by the way is needed to lube up the joints in the arm that reels in those big suckers. 

Hooked a biggen'

A picture of Jeremy Wade for those who don't believe me. This is what he calls a fish.

Hours of fighting with the fish, trying to tire him out..........so close.......

 AND THIS IS WHAT I CALL A FISH !!!!!! Take that Jeremy Wade!

Stephen struggling to bring in a minnow.

HAHA! Landed another sucker, I think this one was about the size of a VW Beetle.(Yes I am that strong I can lift a Bug clean off the ground)

Another big ol fish, I call this one Big Bertha. So Big that my wonderfully talented camera man (Stephen) couldn't take a picture of it with out cutting my head off. Needless to say, he got fired, we are all feeling the pressures of the recession.   

I lost count of how many fish we caught that day, but it was a decent amount and was well worth the 15 bucks, bucket of beers and an awesome flip flop tan.

So a lot of little things have happened in the past couple of days. Today my littlest one showed me what the US looks like through the eyes of a Korean baby.

 Hard at work...almost finished....."wait where does Arkansas go again? Oh thats right upside down next to Alabama.....and....

 ........BAM! How the US should be!!!!"........I give it an A+.

Also what happened during lunch yesterday was the little one decided not to chew before swallowing her food and started to choke. The quick thinking of the Kindergarten teacher saved the child by drop kicking her in  the back like a pro wrestler....okay....well not really...even though I was cheering like a mullet bearing red-neck child all hoked up on Mountain Dew and Cheeto puffs to give her the mother of all choke slams...the Teacher picked her up and beat her on her back till she spit it up. It was pretty scary and I didnt eat much after that. She is all better and working hard on........making the US. 

 So you might recognize the man on the right, yup thats Ee-gey-mun again. And of course me (the one that looks like Clooney) and his co-worker. What Michael told me is that once a Korean befriends a Westerner, he wants to show them off to his friends. Like a trophy, I didnt believe him at first, till he called me up and wanted to grab drinks again, which is all fine and dandy, never going to say no to free drinks. But when he was sitting in there with his friend it all clicked and I knew Michael was right. I am not sure if it was around the water-cooler Monday morning Ee-gey-mun was bragging about his new friend and his buddy didnt believe him and they made a bet or what, but that is all of us there at the chicken joint enjoying more beer. From that nights converstaions I gathered that he works high up in a local Credit Union for the Government run Forest Conservation industry, or something along those lines. As well as he thinks I look like a mello-drama day time soap actor. So maybe not Clooney but hey Ill take that. WHOO HOO

My trip spent in the next city over from mine, Boryeong, was that of hard work, being whipped to death by cold winds, and almost dying. Let me explain.

 First as most of can tell that is a horse, and this is my attempt of taming the wild beast and riding it, with help from the Beast Master Michael. The saddle is too small and the horse is too crazy. After I got on her, Michael walked us around so we could get acquainted with one another. I should have got the message when I was trying to feed her that she didnt really like me. But I didnt care! Whats the worst that could happen..right? Well the worst that could happen is that the beast bucks you off and mid air cracks you in the face so you dawn a horse shoe imprint for the rest of Spring. Well that did not happen to me but she did buck and I did fear for my life. Soon after that I decided that being a jockey was not for me and I would stick to being an English teacher.

 This the one horse that did like me. Maybe because I gave it oats.

 The one picture of me looking happy on the horse, this was pre-bucking experience, hence the smile.The horse's belong to a gentleman that Michael knows, Mr. Lee. He owns a driving school (yea like they know how to drive decently. I think the course involves you drinking a ton of soju, taking a car on the open road and you pass, when you pay your bill). And after riding horses for a little bit, Mr Lee makes your earn your keep. AKA build me a horse trough and clean the much from the stables.

 Michael and I earning our keep.

 Feeding Ms Horsie.

 Cleaning the stables.

 "Wait you want me to go in there and clean it? Didnt this thing just try to kill me?

 Oh Lord, what did I get myself into?

 She likes me!

 Still have 9 fingers!!!!!! Enrique and Papa taught me well.

 Measure once, cut twice

 So when I walk home from school, or walk anywhere for that matter, people like to stare. Maybe because its a small town and not many westerners live here, or maybe because I look strikingly  similar to George Clooney, I know I know I am trying to be modest here. But people like to stare, like you have monkeys dancing on your head. Well regardless if they mean it to be rude, which I dont think they are, or they are just intrigued by my dashing good looks they gawk none the less. If I notice them looking my way with a puzzled look I try to be nice and give them a quick bow and say hello in Korean. Most of them time they just nod back and say Yes back in Korean, which is the same as saying hello back. Well this gentlemen knew who he was gazing at and wanted to get an even better look so he said something but I couldnt hear him so I walked over and ask him to repeat. This is the conversation went:

Me: (walking down street and see man staring at me) Ahn-yung-heey-se-yo (hello)

Man: Ne (yes) (mumble mumble)

Me: Huh?

Man: (walking over) Beautiful, your face  bery beautiful 

Me: Kam-se-hom-knee-da

Man: Name?

Me: Fernando (then recognizing puzzled look at the letter F) Pur-nan-do

Man: Ahhh Purnando! Me Ee-gey-mun

Me: Nice to meet you Ee-gey-mun

Ee-gey-mun: Where you go?

Me: Home. Jeep.(Korean for home). Paleche Obbicetel (Korean way of saying Palace OfficeTel.)

Ee-gey-men: Okay okay, good bye

Me: Good bye Ahn-yunh-he-gye-se-yo

I then walk off and return to listening to my music, but not far down the road I hear some commotion behind me and see that Ee-gey-mund is chasing me down wavhing his hands motioning for me to stop. When I do he asks me if I want to drink. Now let me remind you that I know about 10 Korean words, of course one of them is beer so I understand what he wants to drink. Other than that I am lost, so whats the logical thing to do when random stranger, that just called you beautiful, asks you to go drink beer with them?

Of course, say yes and let them pay. I was raised by amazing parents. (shout out to Mama and Papa LOVE YOU!)

So we walk to a local chicken joint, and he orders two pints of beer, shrimp chips and then reveals what is in his little tote bag. What any normal Korean would carry with them, Dok, or some type of rice cake. This one was flat like a pancake and had nuts and some sort of brown dust that looked like cocoa on it. It was bland and tasted like dry wallpaper paste, as if I never tried dry wall paper paste before (once again I had amazing parents). After drinking some and eating some amazing rice cake. I figured out that he has lived in Cheongyang for most of his life. He is married with two kids, he works hard during the week and then works more on the weekend. He is mid 40's and that he wants to go out drinking again. I plan on gonig out again with him, but bringing my fellow English teacher that speaks Korean, so she can translate for me.

 My Korean friend Jessica helping out with translations and exchanging of phone numbers.

 The dok is on the left, then the shrimp chips closest to me, and the empty plate of chicken balls closest to him.

 My new best bud. CHAN! (cheers)

 My Kinders watching ABC videos.

 The littlest one on the left, and hellion on the right, stealing paper.

 My one student that never pays attention and sits doing nothing.

 Okay maybe saying "sitting" was an stretch of the term.

 Alright, he doesnt sit at all, he just thinks English class is breakdance class for him.

 JUNE!!!! showing off his half Korean half English Alphabet.

 My students sitting watiting for me to read, If you give a pig and Pancake.

 My 1st/2nd graders working hard on their name tags. Welcoming Jeremy, Beth and Sophia to the bunch.

 More ABC videos.

 My 3rd grader Kim figuring out on her own in English that, 25 blocks + 26 blocks is 51 blocks!

 Her proud of her work.

Paparazzi in my class room confusing me for George Clooney again. Damn them ruining my class room.

Here are some pictures of my kindergarten class. I teach them three times a week and it started out to be hell but it is getting much better as the weeks go by. 

 My littlest one has to get on the table to reach colored pencils placed in the center of the table.

 June, the "Quickest Korean on Earth" sitting, for once, plotting his next move.

 The one on the left is a little hellion, she doesnt listen likes to run around and get into things she shouldnt be in. my smallest one is playing a card game with her. The card game is them throwing them around and rarely picking them up.

 Hellion with the pack of cards all in its packaging, about to throw them all over.

 One of my smartest coloring and saying her colors.

 June watching the tv that plays kids tunes during class.

 Grace on the left and Kim on the right listening to me as we play English Word Jenga.

 They usually laugh at me.

 Grace using Google translate because I have no idea what she wants to say.

 Here Michael and I went to a Daejon, the closest biggest city to meet up with some of his friends for a Birthday party. Michael invited me so I tagged along. We started my going to Sugar Pie, a bakery that his friend owns that was throwing the Birthday celebrations. Had some coffee then transformed the place into a little club. Soju, champagne and wine came out and the drinking started. The man on the table was sitting across from me and insisted on taking soju shots, and a hell of a lot of them. He is the oldest of the group and what he said goes .After several bottle of soju and a couple of songs danced to, we made it out to Club Sponge. They got the VIP room and several buckets of beer. After about an hour and a half or two hours of dancing and drinking beer we made it to a Norabong (singing room aka Karaoke ). The oldest guy, the one pictured above then made me sing the first song. Half way through the Beatles Hello Goodbye, the Goodbye'd my song because of my terrible singing voice and they all took turns singing American tunes and Korean classics.

 The eldest on the left, me and the owner of Sugar Pie.

 Learned the hard way that if its clear and in a water bottle, it may not be water, but more SOJU. Smell first then drink.

Holding hands of course, because thats what grown men do here in Korea.