The blog lives on

I have been on vacation for a few days now and have been forcing myself to do productive things while sitting in front of my computer, like putting pictures on Facebook and now updating my blog.

Obviously, a lot has happened since my last post about Japan. My school year is basically finished now. I am on break now and leave for Beijing Jan 1. In the next two months, I only have two weeks of school. I should be leaving Korea Feb 26 and arrive in MI the 26th.

This post will focus on my summer vaca trip to Thailand. Going to be a pretty long post. Sorry.

I went to Thailand for a week with a good friend I met here, Brett. Our trip took us to Bangkok, an island, Koh Phangan, and back to Bangkok.

We arrived in Bangkok around 2 AM and had a hostel reserved for the night. We caught a cab to the area where our hostel was located and then the adventure began. We weren't quite sure how to get to our hostel once we got out of the cab so we just started wandering with out vague directions. Luckily, we found it in less than 10 minutes. It was now close to 3 AM. I was content grabbing a beer at the hostel bar and then hitting the sack, but Brett insisted we go take a lap and see what Thailand had to offer. We got some directions from the hostel owner and went on our way. Within a few minutes we had our first encounter with ladyboys trying to proposition us. All of Thailand is a cash grab. You have to haggle for everything and are constantly being approached by people offering you a "great deal" "My friend, my friend..." After taking a lap we took a break at an ad hoc street bar (a few stools and a cooler of beer). We were quickly joined by a potential ladyboy (although, this person may have actually been a lady the ladyboys tend to keep up their appearance than this person). We talked to her for the duration of a few beers and then she tried to have a beer on our tab to which we promptly told her no. She wasn't happy so she left us. The people watching at our street bar was awesome. We definitely saw some prostitution transactions take place. We went back to the hostel, thinking we would get a few hours of sleep before taking on Bangkok. We arrived back at the hostel and there were about 10 people hanging out at the bar so we joined them. Minutes into our first beer back at the hostel a guest arrives with a hooker (the hostel has strict rules about not letting anyone except guests past the front desk) The hooker stood at the front desk as the hostel patron ran up to his room to grab more cash and then they left. We hung out with the other people for a bit and next thing we know it's 6:30 AM. I wanted to go to bed, but Brett was insistent we just head our for the day. I talked to the hostel owner and got the low down as what we should see/do while in Bangkok. He also told us about a Black Moon party that was on one of the islands that week. I had roughly sketched out our week before arriving in Thailand, but after talking to the owner we changed all our plans. After getting our itinerary for the day we hit the road and about 40 minutes later Brett started dragging ass.

We tried to book an over-night train to take us down to the islands, but they were all sold out. We settled for an overnight bus. We spent the day sight-seeing Bangkok. Lots of Buddhist shrines, including one where it is mandatory to wear pants (mind you it was 85+ degrees and humid). We took a private boat tour. The boat tour along with 8 year old children coming up and just grabbing at your shirt are a constant reminder that you are in a 3rd world country. It was my first time actually experiencing it and it's fairly disturbing to see in person. After our travel day + no sleep + sight-seeing all day we were exhausted. We were looking forward to the overnight bus and getting to our island. The bus + ferry were pretty painless, but didn't quite do it to rejuvenate us. After getting settled in our bungalow we headed back to town to explore a bit. Not a whole lot going on and we were pretty tired, so we bought some beer and a bit of food and just relaxed and got to bed early. We had some maps of the island, but didn't really have any plans except for the Black Moon party later in the week. Our answer to this was renting scooters (best decision we made all week). We started cruising on our scooters headed to a waterfall marked on our map. We ended up at a National Park, so we went hiking for a bit. It was beautiful, but the waterfall was pretty lame. We didn't have a place to stay that night, so that was our next mission. We continued to drive around for a bit and just pulled up to a few random bungalows to inquire about rooms. We ended up finding an awesome place on the West side of the island. It was super cheap, and we were right on the beach. This also served as our primary restaurant for the week, food was amazing! The next few days we would explore on our scooters by day, and then drink on the beach at night.

Then came the Black Moon party. Not really knowing what we were getting ourselves into we decided we should pregame for the party. We arrived at the party a bit early so there weren't many people, yet, but it was still pretty impressive. It's basically a huge circus tent set up on the beach. At each end of the tent they have tables set up the width of the beach for the bar. The main drink at the various Moon parties is a bucket. It's a bucket, like you would use to build sand castles, they dump a bunch of booze in it then some mixers. The party is basically a rave on the beach. Then throw in some fire jugglers/twirlers. Brett and I got separated many times throughout the night. It was late and I couldn't find Brett so I decided maybe he went back. I bartered with a motobike driver and off we went. I arrive home and no Brett, not a big deal, but he had the only key to our bungalow. I figured I had two options, sleep on the concrete porch or sleep in the grass so Brett would see me when he got home. I chose the grass. I fell asleep only to wake up surrounded by two rather large dogs. They lived at the bungalow, but it was frightening to wake up and have two huge dogs staring at you, one on each side of my face. I jumped up and started yelling at the dogs. They walked away, and then a motobike started pulling up the driveway. It was Brett. The next day was a travel day back to Bangkok, we were both hungover, but Brett was miserable all day, including puking on the ferry and bus. We had one more day in Bangkok. We tried to go see Muay Thai, but it was too expensive. Our next stop was Khoasan Road, a backpackers ghetto. Lots of shops, restaurants, hostels etc... We grabbed an early dinner before things really pick up in the area. As we were eating the heavens parted and it started to rain harder than I have ever seen. The road was flooded in less than 30 minutes. We tried to wait it out so we could experience Khoasan Road, but it wasn't easing up. Tired and feeling defeated by mother nature we decided to just catch a cab to the airport.

We arrived home safely, early Sunday morning. I had that day to recuperate and then my summer vaca was over. Second semester started...

Second semester is already over. I have been in Korea over 10 months. Time has truly flown by. I leave for China a day and change.

If you made it all the way through, congratulations! I know it was long, and I tried to keep it manageable, but I cut out a bunch as it is. I think I am going to give the blog a major facelift in the next few weeks. For now check Facebook for pics.

Japan

(post under construction, pictures to come...)

I had the opportunity to go to Osaka, Japan for a few days, July 17-20. I ended up going alone. All of my friends still had class for another week or so. My class ended that week and I had a long weekend before my summer English camp started. My main reason for wanting to go was The Great Japan Beer Festival. The Festival is held in three different cities throughout the year. I had an adventure just trying to buy my plane ticket to get to Japan. I had some major problems trying to pay for my ticket online, so I had to trek to the far side of Busan and buy my ticket at a ticket office (mind you this is all the day before I was panning on leaving).

With ticket in hand I came home and realized I didn't have any clean clothes. I washed a bunch of clothes (not having a dryer is a problem sometimes, like this time). My clothes were mostly dry when it came time for me to throw them in a bag for the weekend. I arrived in Japan no problem (Korean Air is great). Going through customs in Japan was mostly ok, until they opened my bag and my clothes were a bit damp. They became a bit suspicious of this, but luckily we were able to communicate enough for me to convey that I don't have a dryer so it was just a bit of water. After we cleared that up, the customs agent proceeded to open a binder and show me a picture of various drugs (this was his way of asking me if I was bringing any of these with me).

I made it through security... the easy part. Now I had to try and figure out the public transit system. I still don't really understand the Osaka public transit system very, but much better now than when I arrived. There is just enough English to make you feel like you might be able to figure it out, but then you are really just left helpless and confused. I stared at the two maps for a few minutes (like 10) and then put some money in the machine and got a ticket. I am usually pretty good at figuring out public transit, but this was crazy. I somehow made it to the stop that would be home for the weekend. Upon arrival, I showed the station attendant a picture on my iPhone of the hostel I was staying at. He knew the name and it was about a 2 minute walk.

I hadn't really planned anything in Osaka, except the beer fest, so I grabbed some tourist stuff at the airport and also at my Hostel. I took an hour to relax and figure some stuff out for the weekend. Friday night I went to the Osaka Aquarium. I didn't know at the time, but I guess it's one of the only aquariums in the world that has a whale shark. There was a giant Ferris wheel near the Aquarium, so I ventured over there and got a decent view of the city (none of the pictures turned out that great, it was a pretty drab day). I went to a large mall/eating area for dinner. Lots of good restaurants, but pretty overwhelming. Finally, my attention was grabbed by a delicious looking picture (I used my Korean know-how and took a picture just in case the wait-staff didn't speak English). I was able to use my personal translator, better know as my index finger, to order from the menu. When I got back to my hostel I grabbed a few Japanese beers from the local convenience store and watched some of the British Open (the time change worked out well, I was able to watch it every night before bed).

Saturday was the day I had been looking forward to since I arrived in Korea, the beer fest. That morning I went to Osaka Castle. It was quite the sight. It's all rebuilt and in the middle of what is now a park. Back in the day the park was the ground of the castle filled with houses for servants, soldiers, and whatever else you need to run a castle. It was destroyed by fire, I believe, and they only rebuilt the main castle. At this point my only companion for 36 hours had been my iPhone. While leave the castle I made my first new friend of the weekend, Chris (he had just finished his one year teaching in Korea and was beginning his 3 month adventure home to South Africa). We talked for a few minutes and I asked if he was interested in going to the Beer Fest, so he tagged along. We had a great time at the beer fest. It was great to have so many great beers. There were about 80 different beers, most (65ish) we from Japanese microbreweries and even a few American brews from Ancor Brewing Co., a great brewery in San Fran. At the beer fest, I met a lot of cool people and heard stories of drinking PBR while peering at Everest. Ended up making friends with three Japanese people. They took us around Osaka for the night after the beer fest, including to some great Sushi.

Sunday, Chris and I make the trek out to Himeji Castle, possibly the most famous castle in Japan. This castle is all original. In all it's glory it has never been involved in a battle. We made out way back to Osaka by late afternoon and met up with, Tomoko, our Japanese friend, for dinner and drinks. She took us out to Oko-no-mi-aki (99% chance that is misspelled) and sake. I went back "early" that night. I was pretty much out of the money I was willing to spend and I had to get up early the next morning to make my flight.

The only thing I did Monday was go to the airport and fly home. I packed a lot into the two and a half days that I was actually on the ground in Japan. I had a great time and go to meet some great people and drink some great beer. It was a nice weekend vacation to celebrate finishing my first semester in Korea.

Sorry for the time lapse

Sorry for the massive amount of time I have let go by without a post.  I have done a lot since the last post, obviously.  I will try hard to get the blog up to date as much as possible this week.  For now I will at least give a small overview of what I have been up to.  

I will be bottling my first batch of homebrew this week and it will be ready for drinking in about two weeks.

I have explored much of Busan, but still lots left to explore.

I went to Seoul, the capital city, for a crazy weekend.

School has been good, it's starting to get pretty warm and humid here.  I had an evaluation class where all the other English teachers, the vice-principal and principal watched me teach and evaluated me.  (That was last week, I haven't gotten any official feedback)

This week I am helping conduct an English conversation test for the district.

I think a student is taking me to a PC bang (Internet cafe) after school today and teaching me how to play Starcraft.

Thanks to BIG I have been watching many of the awesome Wings' games!

I have been busy and have done a lot.  It's hard to remember everything I have done in the past two months since I have last posted.  Like I said I will try hard this week to catch the blog up full scale.  I have added some more pics to the link even though I have not posted an update, so check those out for now.

I am going to start micro-blogging more as well via Twitter, user name kparus or just search Kyle Paruszkiewicz.  I'm not sure if I am totally sold on this or not, but it might be interesting.  One of my main reasons for wanting to start Twittering is to use for K&B Brewing.

Mailing Address

This is my mailing address, just in case anyone wants to send me care packages, love letters etc...

Median Offistel Room # 1005

380-15, DeokCheon-Dong

Buk-Gu, Busan South Korea

I'm still alive...

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  Still no internet at my apartment and no sign of that happening anytime soon.  Short version is I need paperwork from my school so I can get my alien registration card.  My school doesn't have the paperwork yet.

Enough of that, things are going pretty well here.  I just finished my first full week of teaching.  The kids are pretty good, for the most part they pay attention and listen to me.  I have a Korean teacher in the room with me, so they do most of the disciplining, which is nice, I just have to focus on teaching.  Corporal punishment was made illegal a few years ago in Korea, but it still happens, so that may be part of the good behavior.  I witnessed it first hand the other day.  One of the other male teachers had three students lined up in the hall after class, in the push-up position.  He then proceeded to give them each three whacks on the butt with a wood stick, roughly the size of a ruler (a little longer and a little thicker).  The students just took their lashings and went on their merry way.  I was told that the students respect the teachers more, and understand that they are being hit for their own good...

I hear lots of broken English from students and staff.  The female students' favorite saying is "Hello, I love you!"  I hear that multiple times a day.  I am getting settle-in a bit.  I have obtained many essentials for my apartment, a 22" LCD monitor and computer speakers.  I am lacking many other things that some may call essential, but as far as I am concerned my place is livable now.  I have been exploring the city after school lately, partly because I have been meeting people to buy things from and partly just to explore.

I posted more pics.  They are a pub crawl hosted by the EPIK class that arrived in Busan last September, photos of exploring and some other random stuff.

Two of my friends got some pretty bad food poisoning and I guess a lot of foreigners have been getting sick lately.  So far I have been able to miss it, but I am not looking forward to when it does catch up with me, and I'm assuming it will...

I promise posts will become more regular once I get internet at my apartment!  Until then I hope everything is going well for everyone!  Feel free to shoot me emails or messages of facebook.  I also have AIM kparatumich

My apartment

I like my new place.  It's pretty large, considering it is a studio.  It's about 3x the size of Cliff's an Laura's apartments (more on that later).  Like I said, it is a studio, the main room is pretty large, maybe 10x20, just a guess.  I also have a small kitchen and a bathroom.  The bathroom is pretty interesting.  There is not a separate shower, the shower head just hangs on the wall and there is a drain on the ground.  It's a great space saving design and it works just fine, you just have to be careful because your bathroom floor stays wet for awhile.

I live on the 10th floor so I have a pretty cool view.  Cliff and Laura live about three blocks away.  I can see their building from my window.

Blogger is not being very user friendly right now and I don't feel like fixing the problems with the pics right now.  So from top to bottom...

Top: My camera zoomed in on Cliff and Laura's building, the one with the red rail around the roof.

The view from my apartment.

Bad pic of the bathroom.  You can see the shower head on the wall on the right side.

My kitchen/brew house.  I have a two burner gas range, under it is my washer (no dryer), the metal thing above the sink is my fridge or freezer (it can only be one at a time).

Half of my main room (my bed, desk, TV)  There was a leak in my room before I moved in so there is still a hole in the ceiling, which they are allegedly fixing.  Once they fix that I will be able to move some furniture so my bed won't be in the middle of the floor.

Hooray for School!

Yes, hooray for school!  School gives me the power of the internet, in English!!  It's quite amazing how much my quality of life is affected without the internet.  Not that things were bad, but once I got the internet back on my own computer things were just so much better.  Not going to lie, you can call me a big nerd or whatever you please and I will gladly accept it, I miss my iPhone already and not having internet at my apartment yet doesn't help.  

Enough of my griping, things are going great so far.  I'm having fun, no major problems yet.  School is pretty hectic for the Korean teachers.  This is the first week of class this year, so they are all trying to figure out their schedules and whatnot.  As a result, I don't have any classes to teach this week.  It's allowed me plenty of time to do some reading on teaching ESL and get my first few lessons planned.  They don't have my schedule done yet, so I can't do too much specific planning, but I have been developing some fun activities for the kids.  I am teaching at a middle school (equivalent of 7th, 8th and 9th grade in the US).  I will be working with the 3rd grade middle schooler for sure, and then it sounds like I will be working with either the 1st or 2nd grade students this semester and the other next semester.  

The bus to school is nice.  The stop is right across the street from my apartment building and is only about 8 minutes to school.  There is also a stop right in front of my school, quite convenient.  Some of my friends have to walk 20-30 minutes from the closest bus or subway stop, including one up to the top of a mountain (probably a great view though).  

I made the decision last night that I am going to be brewing over here.  There is absolutely no good beer in this country.  There are 4 or 5 generic varieties and then the imports consist of Heineken and Guinness, I settled for the Guinness last night.  I will be on the prowl this weekend to find some fermenting vessels.  I am going to be doing small batches, about 1.5 gallons and once I get rolling will be brewing once a week (should keep the stock of beer pretty nice).  Sorry, it's a pretty scattered post, but it's been awhile since I posted.  More to come momentarily...