Summer Vacation

Summer vacation started with a night in a hotel in Busan, south of the train station where I saw some hookers get hustled into a waiting car. The street seemed much more innocent the next morning when I caught a pre-dawn taxi to the airport. Twenty-something hours later Ben was waiting for me in the baggage claim at Logan and Paul and Maury showed up about five minutes later. We met Adam and Chad at a house party outside of Boston, and I couldn't imagine a better way to start off a visit home than hanging out, as a single group for the first time in god knows how long, with my five best high school homies, most of whom just happened to be in town visiting on plans unrelated to my vacation.



The next day, I got home to see my parents and my brother, also visiting from out of town, and I got to spend the week with my family, the four of us not having been all together in Exeter also for god knows how long.



The first week I spent mostly with my family and Andy's girlfriend Allie, playing mini golf, running with Andy who finally started to exercise for once in his life, getting up into northern NH for Big Dave's wedding, going for a boat ride down the Squamscott into Great Bay, and eating American food unobtainable in Korea including, but not limited to: homemade baked mac and cheese, lasagna, homemade and deli-made sandwiches, decent pizza, strawberry-rhubarb pie, Cuban sandwiches, and barbeque.



The second week included an epic party at Alissa's farm house in scenic Kensington which featured a cornhole (game) driven all nighter and was capped off with probably the most beautiful morning I have ever seen as the darkness cleared and the mist began to rise from the marshland behind the house, two trips to the beach with two beautiful women, tennis, and visits with Ed, Scott, Lee and Stacy and their newborn Ava, swimming in the Lamprey, minor league baseball in Manchester, and was capped off by a visit from my Utah homies and newlyweds Mark and Annie who drove down from their new home in Burlington.



Summer vacation ended with me packing my entire apartment onto the back of a truck with a bed not much larger than a Ranger's, unloading the bed, fridge, washing machine, table, chairs, etc. at my old school, and dragging the remaining items belonging to me into my new apartment downtown, and then spending hours cleaning the ever living shit out of my new place before I could unpack. That took two days. Summer vacation ended on a Tuesday morning, September the 1st, when I went back to work at my new school Samdeok Elementary School.

New Photos

I have finally uploaded some new photos, check the slideshow to the right. Now that I have this "real" camera, I take photos in RAW mode which apparently means I can change the original data without losing any quality before I change it into a standard JPG. However, this also means I have obliged myself to go through each photo and tweak it before I upload it or consider it ready for general viewing. Editing 100 photos is just about infinitely longer a process than taking 100 photos. Oh well.

Twitter

One night I was sitting in Caffe and Stuff with Eric and Paul playing Go/Stop, which means it was a Thursday. Eric was mentioning how he had joined Twitter and I decided to sign up, which was convenient and instantaneous since I had my laptop with me that night, due to the fact that the cafe had just gotten a new computer that wasn't set up yet and Paul wanted to look something up on the Internet.

Also, I figured I would stake my claim to my Internet nickname cyphecks, 'cause if anyone else ever took that I would be pissed. So I am now the owner of aTwitter account. For anyone who doesn't know by now, Twitter is a "micro-blogging" service that people update with short (140 character max) sentences or notes.

So it's done. Check http://twitter.com/cyphecks occasionally to read about some stuff I don't put in here.

Phrasal Konglish #2

All of today's specimens are from items in the juice and toast shop right outside of the subway in my neighborhood.

I am in love
you don't know how
I feel when you
smile at me like that
can't you see that you are the on-e
to bring meback to life ahh
I like that

Mother and sister, let us go and live by the river
With golden sands stretched for our limle gerdem
And need -

We are going to the with beans.
My siblings are waiting for me in the forest

Fight!

Yesterday I was in class blabbing incomprehensibly in English like always, when, from the other side of the classroom, there was an unwelcome clatter of kids yapping and chairs sliding around, like always. I directed my attention to the two third-grade boys who were horsing around, play-fighting, and thought, "Great, more distractions." They were swinging their fists and wailing on each other pretty hard and it it took me a second to realize this was actually a fight.

I don't know really how the other 38 kids in the class were reacting because I was so surprised I had a real fight in my class, something exciting for a change. My co-teacher ran over and was yelling at them and trying to make them stop, but they were evidently too determined to keep wailing on each other so I rushed over and got in between them which proved still inadequate to get them to stop hitting each other, so I pushed them apart, sending one to the ground accidentally. I also had to drop my paper and pencil, dammit.

This seemed to get them to stop trying to kill each other temporarily. My co-teacher led them from the classroom into my office which is connected to the classroom by a door in the rear. I foolishly tried to resume my lesson, which was a fun Scattergories-style vocabulary game since my week's intended lesson had bombed due partly to the fact that it sucked, and partly to the fact that it was the last week of school before summer break and the kids probably cared less than I did. My attempt to regain control of the class failed, needless to say. And furthermore, a moment after the two brawlers were led out of my classroom, we all heard the sounds of scuffling in my office, so I had to go see what they were up to in there.

When I got into my office the kids were separated again, but screaming at each other and cursing their brains off, which I knew because I have made a decent survey of Korean swear words, and I could pick out 'ssi-bal!' at least a dozen times, which is the Korean equivalent of 'fuck'. The co-teacher was by now leading them from my office out of the door and into the hallway, with me trailing behind, but before they could make it to the door their curses turned to blows again and the fists started hitting faces. All in all, this was a much more exciting fight than the only other fight I witnessed in Korea, which was in Bucheon, partway between Seoul and Incheon. That fight happened late at night, after some friends and I got out of a norae-bang with some random English-enthusiast Korean kids. That fight was outside of an arcade or something, and the kids were maybe early twenties and were throwing the most rubbery girl-punches I have ever seen, and kicking people like they didn't even care. It was entertaining for sure, and I give them credit for the duration, since they kept starting and stopping, but it was a pretty sissy display of violence.

So by the time I realized that my two students were pounding each other in the face inside of my office door, they had each landed a few punches, and I pulled them apart yet again. My co-teacher led the one she had control of out of the room to who knows where, and I had the kid that was still with me just sit at the little table in my office and cool down. I went back into my classroom where the kids were chattering about the fight, I'm sure, and put on a movie which I just happened to have lurking on my computer for months, a documentary film about an international breakdancing competition called Planet B-Boy, which is a sick film and features two Korean teams. This got the classes attention after the wild interruption.

The film was on for a bit and my co-teacher had returned and I just let the kids watch the film for the last 25 minutes of class rather than trying to get them to do something productive. Watching Planet B-Boy was a good choice, I probably haven't seen so many kids pay attention to something in my classroom ever, or at least not make any noise.

I had previously noticed a few drops of blood on my sleeve, but it wasn't until after class that I noticed there was a splash on my arm too, I guess from the kid who I had kept in my office. His shirt was also bloody and he had a black eye already and the teacher with whom I shared my office had come back to her desk and told me after class the kid said he was ashamed he got hit so much. I guess you could say he was the loser of the fight. He was also the one I had accidentally pushed to the ground when I was first trying to separate them in the classroom. I asked the reason for the fight, and apparently one of the boys had 'playfully' slapped the other one, who had not taken the slap so playfully. "Maybe it's because of the weather," she said, but I have never punched someone in the face because it was humid and hot. "Boys will fight sometimes," she said, and I asked if there was any punishment for them, or if their parents were informed or anything. "No," she said, "because they are good boys," she said, and I mentally added the obligatory "usually".

After the class, when I had removed my shirt to wash it in the sink in my office to try to get as much of the blood out of it as I could, the two boys came to me to apologize. Their faces were red, not from embarrassment, but from getting punched, and they were cheerful and unaccompanied, and comfortable with each other as they are friends apparently. I said it was no problem, and told them to be nice, and they left and that was the end of that.

Summer Blitz

Daegu is supposed to be the hottest city in Korea, which will suck when summer is in full swing. It's already been pretty bad, especially with the humidity. My friend Jeff lived here last year and said that he once simply lay on his bed with a block of ice slowly melting on his chest to cool off. That was only because he had no air conditioning in his apartment, and most people do here. I, however, am not most people and am lacking in such a convenience, so come August I may be laying around with ice melting on me. Another option is going to the beach, which I did today. It's officially summer in Korea when the beaches are officially open, which they are since July 1, and so that means people all of a sudden come out in droves, no matter if it was hot beforehand.

Chilling at the beach was just the most recent thing in a very busy string of events going back the past month. Before I went to the beach this weekend, I caught two shows, one in Daegu, one in Busan, both featuring my friend Dan as The Spookfish, Sighborg whom I had seen once previously, and some Korean-American DJ on a world tour. The weekend also featured much Go/Stop which is good because I was able to win enough money off of Eric for him to pay for my drinks and so on after I ran out of cash.

The previous week also saw me resolve to get a motorcycle since I am now committed to staying in Korea beyond the length of my original contract, celebrating Canada Day after I learned it was actually a holiday, and climbing in the gym after a two-week break.

Previous to that was a 5-day trip to Japan with mom. We continued our nonstop tour of tourist hotspots that began when she arrived in Korea and we went to Gyeongju and Seoul on the weekends prior to Japan. Never in two and a half weeks have I before seen so many temples, museums, castles, shrines, or tame deer.

Go/Stop

Recently, I've been playing a lot of a card game called Go/Stop. It's a Korean game played with a special deck of cards that looks like this:



A Korean friend named Jinju tried to teach me and some friends one night at a bar when I wasn't in a learning mood. That, combined with the fact that her English isn't quite good enough to explain the intricacies of game, which there are many of, didn't really result in me learning anything, or wanting to learn anything.

A few months later a different Korean friend named Amanda taught me successfully because her English is so good that I thought she was Korean-American when I first met her, thus giving her an adequate grasp of the language needed to properly explain the game. Also, it was a rainy weekend day and we had a ton of time downtown because we were on what I think was a date, even though I didn't really want to be on a date, so that doing something as innocuous as sitting in a coffee shop learning how to play a card game seemed like a good idea.

Like I said, I've been playing a lot lately: with my friends Eric and Paul on Thursdays in a cafe in my neighborhood for 200 won per point (which can add up if you have a good night like Eric did two weeks ago, that bastard) or with my girlfriend or with random Korean bartenders who are amused that a foreigner can play a Korean game until I win money off of them to pay for my drinks at their bar.

I've taught a few other foreigners, and have wanted to put together a set of instructions that detail the gameplay and scoring as simply as possible, which is difficult because I am lazy and there are a lot of rules and ins and outs to the game. What I've written so far is pasted below. Please note it is by no means complete. It totally leaves out the explanation behind the part of the game from which it gets its name: Going or Stopping. Also, I just pasted this from a text document I have in which I've added pictures of specific cards or sets of cards to help explain things. There are no pictures down below, as you can see, because those pictures don't copy into this blog's text input boxes. Oh well. Try to figure it out if you can...

Go/Stop

Objective
The point of the game is to score points. Once you hit a certain number of points (7 in a two-player game, 3 in a 3-player game), you have the option to Go (continue playing the game to accrue more points) or to Stop (end the game and collect your points).

The Deck
A standard Go/Stop deck has 48 cards in it. Unlike a deck of regular playing cards, which has four suits of 13 cards each, a Go/Stop deck has 12 “suits” of four cards each. Each “suit” in a Go/Stop deck corresponds to month of the year. Each month is represented by different flower.

Card Categories
In order to score points, you have to collect cards, which are then organized into one of four categories:

1. Gwang (Cards with a Chinese character in a circle on them, there are a total of 5 – although some Gwang have animals on them, they can NOT be counted in the Animal category.)


2. Animals (Self explanatory, although a couple of them – the one with the blue flower and yellow reeds from May, and the the one with the yellow and red flower and the Chinese character on the red leaf from September – don't exactly look like animals.)


3. Ribbons (There are 10 cards with ribbons on them – three red ribbons with writing, four blank red ribbons, and three blue ribbons.)


4. Pi (Pronounced “pee” - or simply called “Junk” - these cards have no special designs on them beyond their month's flower design. Basically, if there is no ribbon, animal, or Gwang symbol on the card, it is Pi. There are a few “special Pi” which are worth two pi, including the weird, not-so-obvious animals cards listed above.)


Dealing: The games first deal:

Two Player: One player shuffles the deck, and the other player cuts. The dealer places four cards face-down in the middle of the two players. Then the other player gets dealt five cards face down, then the dealer deals him or herself five cards. Four more cards are then dealt face-down in the middle, five more go to the other player, then five more to the dealer. In the end, there should be eight cards face-down in between the two players, and each player should have ten cards in their hands. To determine who goes first, each player flips over a card in the middle, and whoever flips over the card that represents the latest month goes first.

Three Player: Similar to the two player style, but with different amounts of cards. After the deck is cut, the dealer puts three cards face down in the middle, then each player is dealt four cards, then three more go down in the middle, then each player gets an additional three cards. In the end, there should be six cards face down in the middle and each player should have seven cards in their hands. To determine who goes first, each player flips over a card in the middle, and whoever flips over the card that represents the latest month goes first.

Dealing: After the first game:

Dealing after the first game is done by the winner of the previous game. The winner also has the advantage of going first.

Game Play

Once the cards are dealt, the dealer goes first, and play goes counter-clockwise. Two things are always done on each turn. FIRST, the player tries to match a card from his hand to a card that's been dealt face-up in the middle. If there are no matches, he must discard one of his cards into the pile. SECOND, the same player flips one card from the top of the deck. If it matches nothing, the player must leave it in the middle pile. However, if the player matches any cards in the middle from either his hand or from the deck, then he takes those cards and arranges them on the table in front of him. Cards that have been matched are eligible to score points, whereas cards that haven't been matched and are still in the player's hand are not eligible. Basically, you have to match cards in order to score points with them.

However, if a player is taking his turn and he matches a card from his hand to a card in the pile, then flips a card from the deck over which matches the pair he just put together, then those three cards remain on the table until someone plays the fourth card that matches. You can ONLY take cards away in pairs or quads. When someone takes that pile with the fourth card, the other player(s) must give him one Pi card as a bonus. Also, if you have three of the same suit in your hand and the remaining match is in the middle, you can play all three at once, and again, you get a bonus card from the other player(s). If you do manage to play all three cards at once, you can take up to two turns where you don't discard from your hand, you just go straight to the deck and flip a card.

If a player cannot match a card from his hand, then discards one of his cards into the center pile, then flips a card that matches the card he just put down, this is called a Kiss, and the other players must give him one Pi in this situation.

Also, if at any time a player clears all the center cards, either by making two matches or by a Kiss, the player will one Pi from the other players.

Once you match cards and can score with them, you need to arrange them into the four categories listed from above. There are many different ways to score points, so it's important to organize your cards correctly.

Jokers

Each deck comes with six jokers, but games are usually played with only two. A joker is worth two Pi cards. If you are dealt a joker, you can play it, giving you two more Pi, and then you simply draw a card to replace it, and then start your turn over. Jokers can NOT be used to match cards that are on the table, they are simply used to give you another card. Once you play the joker and take your card, you must then play a card from your hand and then flip a card just like a regular turn.

If you flip a joker from the deck, you simply take that joker and flip one more card.

Scoring

Pi – to score with Pi, you must have at least 10 Pi cards. Once you have ten, you receive 1 point. Each additional Pi is worth 1 additional point. REMEMBER: there are four cards that are 'special' Pi cards, and that are worth two Pi each. See above. You might notice that two of them are also in the animal category. These two cards can be EITHER one animal or two Pi. If you collect either of these two cards, you can put them in the animal category first, and then opt to move them to the Pi category afterwards, but you cannot move them the other way.

Animals – to score with animals, you need at least 5. Each additional animal is worth 1 point. There is a special case with birds. You will receive 5 points if you collect the bird cards from February, April, and August.

The other card with a bird on it from December, does NOT count. However, if you collect the three correct bird cards, and two more animals, you will receive 6 points (5 points for the birds + 1 point for having 5 animal cards). Again, each additional animal card is an additional point.

Gwang – You need at least 3 Gwang cards to score points. If you have 3 Gwang cards, then you will have 3 points UNLESS one of the three is the one from December.

If you have three Gwang cards including the one from December, you only get 2 points. However, if you have any four Gwang cards, you get four points. If you get all five Gwang cards, you get 15 points.

Ribbons – Any combination of five ribbons gives you one point, with each additional ribbon giving you an additional point. However, if you can match a set of ribbons (3 blue with writing, 3 red with writing, or 3 red without writing) then you will get 3 points. However, if one of three blank red ribbons is the ribbon from December, you do NOT get points for collecting the set. You may get 4 points for having all four blank red ribbons, or 3 points for having the three blank red ribbons that are NOT from December. So, for example, if you have all three blue ribbons, plus two blank red ribbons, you will have 4 points (3 points for the set + 1 point for having a total of five ribbons).