I walk into a PC-Bang (er, “Internet Cafe”) and the girl behind the counter looks in shock when I ask for a PC with hangeul installed. She looks at me funny and I tell her I want a PC with “Korean” installed. She still doesn’t quite get why I would ever want that, until I say that I live in Korea, and may get email containing some Hangeul. “I’m Korean, you know! I am surprised…” she says with a curious, amused look. I wonder, is that how she would have looked at me if it’d been her in the PC-Bang? …

Right, I’m in Toronto now and I just got the info I was looking for in terms of cheaper accomodation, so I’m go to leave this PC-Bang (and, staffed by Koreans, for all of the Toronto slickness it is still a PC-Bang) and go call and see if there’s room at the inn. Prices for accomodation in Toronto are ridiculously high. Argh! I forgot so much about North America. Ah well… for those expecting email I’ll probably get to you tomorrow or the next day.

…about to leave…. 1.5 min left on my PC… coming to Toronto today… so if I’m out of touch that’s why… my girls’ the best, she phoned me last night (I think t make sure I caught my bus, though I missed her call) and while I was on the bus we messaged a few times as well… miss her already, but it’s only 3 weeks… checked my bags and the last thing to do is get some money and change it… and then I’m off! Everyone in Korea, I’ll be back in 3 weeks. Later!

There’s a writing contest about life in Korea on right now. So check it out. I don’t think I’ll get a chance to submit this year, I forgot to check the date months ago and now, seeing as I’ll be traveling and all, I don’t think I’ll have time. Huh. Ah well. Maybe some bored afternoon in Montreal, if I can find a PC for a couple of hours.

The other day, as I cycled around the city getting my last errands done, I passed a group of middle school boys. (Or maybe high school freshmen, I’m not sure.) Two of them were on bikes and one on foot. When I passed, on my bicycle, the pedestrian among them happened to look up and saw me, and I heard him say, “와, 외국인이다! FUCK!” (Oooh, it’s a foreigner! FUCK!) A few months ago I might just have kept cycling on, but lately I’ve gotten to the point where the little venomous bits of racism get to me enough that …

Whew. The President of the University has, I’m told, approved the continuance of the housing stipend for foreigners in the employ of Jeonju University. (Read: He’s decided it’s unfair to discontinue the provision of a stipend in order to force foreign teachers into on-campus housing.) This means we have a choice of either living on campus, or plunking down several thousand dollars (which we’ll get back after a year) for the deposit on an apartment, the rent for which is usually about as much as the stipend the University is offering. This is a worse deal than when I started, …

Well, my band (Dabang Band) has finally launched out new CD, which is titled Product. Our label’s page has a popup window announcing the release. Our page on the Cavare website has a couple of samples you can listen to, including Green Leaves, Delerium, and the first track on the album, The Deep End (which I am happy about, as that’s one of my two songs on the CD). All the lyrics are also viewable on the site. My two goofy sets of lyrics are Jeonju Zoo (it’s real title is Jeonju Jew) and Deep End, if you’re curious. I …

If you ignore the whackjob comments that some people made, and focus on the first news item, it’s interesting to see the extent to which trading in artifacts seems to have impacted on the Shilla court in Korea. Check it out. (PS: Yes this is under Gord’s life. I’m planning on making a new category for posts on Koreana, but until I hardwire it into the site they’re gonna be invisible once they fall of the main page. So for now all Koreana posts go into that category.)

Well, more frustration yesterday… all kinds of silly administrative plots, and it looks a lot more like an exercise in putting-us-in-our-place than in saving money. The sad thing, I think, is that it will turn out to be an exercise in dismantling the current staff and replacing us with hakwon teachers. But we’re still waiting to hear the final answer on whether (a) we will be required to live on campus and (b) whether we’ll even have a choice to live off campus, as teachers have been allowed to do and as, with the exception of foreign teachers, everyone is …

Yes, I think I’m going to make that big leap today. Tonight, I mean. I should have done it today but I was too busy trying to be productive. I wasn’t. But now, it’s dawning on me that I have enough other things to do that while I am doing those other things, I could be backing up the last few files that need backing up on my computer, and reinstalling Windows. I mean, after all, the only way I can watch DVDs is by going into the task manager, opening DOS, quitting half of the useless processes that are …