Good Evening World

Today is payday!  So after school guess who went to town.  Me!  Got money wired to the states to cover bills.  Went to the immigration office to extend my visa.  Finally stopped by S Dot and picked up some new art supplies.  I'm going to be trying to improve my art now with copics.  I can draw well and all.  However adding some color seems like a good idea.  Originally I thought about using a watercolor/pastel combo.  However that is a messy way to go on the small timeframe I have.  Then I learned of the awesome graphics tablet, but if anything is too expensive then that would definitely be at the top of the list.  Recently I asked how the color was achieved by some artists on Menewsha.  That is where I discovered copics.  Better than inking my drawings, they can have the look of a graphics tablet with the ease of a marker.  So I bought a few to start out with.  They are not cheap to get so will expand slowly.  I have the basics that I was wanting to experiment with first to get the skin tone, hair and basic shirt down.  After that, maybe I will expand from portraits to waist up or full body drawings.  Will have to wait and see.  There is a demand for chibis as well, but since that requires purposefully not being proportional I am uncertain I want to go there.  They are cute though.  Maybe I will do chibis someday with pixel art.

Anyrate, just wanted to touch base.  Town trip.  Weekend here.  Tired.  Oh!  Tomorrow is the start of a new schedule.  I will be teaching 3 government paid classes every Saturday morning from here on out.  The government has given almost 50,000 dollars for a supply budget.  We have to spend every cent and none of it can be returned or unused.  Not sure what happens if it isn't all used, but we were told that we had to spend it all in one semester.  That will be difficult.  The government had paid it law that teachers couldn't be forced to work on Saturday and students couldn't be forced to come to school on Saturday.  Our school is the only one disobeying that law.  The government found out and decided to pay us for our time, give us money to run our Saturday programs, and tell us how to do that.  Simply get students from nearby towns to come too.  Fun fun.

The Life of an English Teacher ;)

Good morning everyone.  It is Friday so I am running a bit behind schedule.  Just wanting to get through the end of the day to the weekend like all my students I suppose.  Went to class at first period to learn that there is indeed no class today during first period.  Wow.  Okay.  Well that leaves a class, lunch and a class left.  Then I have some appointments with others in town later.  So it will be a long, stretched-out day but that is okay.

I would like to give a shout out to my grandma.  I heard that you really love my pictures that I add to my blog lately.  I'm glad :)  I love you!!

Rain

Something I really appreciate about today is the rain.  It brought the outside temperatures down to a comfortable level as well as provided a nice wind.  It isn't a strong wind, but it definitely reminds me of home.  This school is well situated in the hills so that it is blocked by the stronger gusts of wind.  That is a mixed blessing.

Conflict of Convictions

So the school is proposing something new.  Instead of teaching one Sabbath School class and then going to church, we are being asked to teach three classes.  Two of them will be for elementary students who will be bused in from a nearby town.  Here is the catch (in addition to the extra work and hours.)  It will be government funded.  The government will pay us 30,000 won for each class which is 90,000 won a weekend for three weekends out of the month.  The government will also give us money to buy supplies with for teaching with.  As an SDA school, it is surprising that the school has allowed government help since it has led to the government dictating how the school is run in some areas.  Now we have the added worry of being paid on Sabbath.  It goes against our conscience.  Also, we are tired by the weekend.  So what to do?

We don't sign on for a lot of what happens here.  Figuring out when to nod yes and when to say no is tough.

Good Morn... oh wait, the sun is out.

So the sun is shining brightly without a cloud in the sky.  We all know what that means... a really hot day.  Sad.

Anyrate, though we barely were touched by the typhoon (rain and wind only) there were other areas that were hit hard (lots of rain and lots of wind).  We have water puddles.  They have downed trees, powerlines, and building that are torn up.  We have grumpy students.  They have fatalities and wounded.  So the lesson learned? Be grateful for the small impact and stop praying for another typhoon ;)

Change

Something that I have had trouble adapting to is definitely the food.  Our cultures really prefer different types of food.  I'm from the midwest.  In my family (in comparison with here) we eat a lot of potatoes with salt.  Here in South Korea (in comparison to back home, all is relative here) they eat a lot of rice (in many forms such as noodles, cakes, and soup) with several seasonings that I am not used to.

When  I saw the picture above, I felt inspired to share something with you.  Last night I had not felt appreciative of supper, so only ate the piece of honeydew melon.  It wasn't really filling and I put off cooking a proper meal back at home for several hours.  By the time I finally did eat, it had been long enough that my body thought I had skipped a meal.  Personally, for me, skipping a meal can have results that are similar to eating something wrong.  I get sick.

Worn out and feeling a bout of self pity, I prayed (rather pleaded and begged) that God would go change the menus so that breakfast as least would have something I really, really liked.  He came through.  God provided the bean paste vegi meat at breakfast.  Not in the popular form where I would pig out and suffer from the overload of spice, but scrambled with egg instead.  In addition to that was a nice, cool fruit salad.  Oh I was so happy.  Who said God doesn't answer prayers?

Then at lunch, they unexpectedly served what is supposed to resemble Chinese sweet and sour chicken but really is fried tofu chunks coated in something red.  It is slightly spicy, but well worth it.  That became most of my meal and I was grateful God was still looking out for me.  Then after lunch a bag of cookies ^_^ which I am still snacking on.  The best part was supper.  Sure there was their version of spaghetti and along with cherry tomatoes.  (The kitchen staff frown if I walk by with no rice, so I had some of that too.)  As I was getting ready to leave though, they brought out rolls of bread.  Nothing like that to bring back pleasant memories.

Pleasant memories by the way also coming back from the lovely weather.  We had a proper rainstorm, finally, and well as normal wind instead of the slight breeze they think is wind.  I was walking down the sidewalk back to the office filled with what felt like normalcy.  It is a rare feeling.  How can I not be thankful to God for looking after me like that?  Finding small ways to remind me of home is so like Him.

Back to the picture at the top.  If you don't like your life, change something.  For me it was the food.  Short of ordering the cafe to provide fruit every meal, I really can't do anything.  Except pray.  So that is what I did.  I prayed about something that seems super trivial.  What is the big deal with adjusting to another culture's food, right?  However God still came through and it meant a lot to me.  Now I am happy with my life because my God is taking care of me.  He is doing so in the small ways, which matter.

Typhoon Affects

Okay, this is my schedule.  The colorful boxes are my main classes.

Tuesday is the pretty column that has purple at the top and then pink after that.  Yeah, I'm only teaching two classes.  Today is as easy as my Mondays.  Pity those are my favorite classes.  You would not believe how hard the conversation classes are to teach with no training, background, skills, materials, goals, standards, or curriculum.  I'm a history education major though!  So I improvised.  They are learning their world geography!

Good Morning Typhoon

Good morning everyone!  I am excited to say that the typhoon is right outside.  Sadly, it isn't anything special. Kansas has much more enjoyable storms.  I might as well be on the Oregon coast for all the rain we are getting, or lack thereof.  How the wind is another story.  It isn't very strong, but it isn't acting normal.

I stepped out of my apartment this morning, noted the wind was from the south, opened my umbrella and turned around to lock my apartment.  Ready to walk to school, I turned back around and the rain was coming from the north.  Blinking, I wondered if I had imagined the rain coming from the south.  Walking out onto the street, I saw the rain falling from the west.  I stopped.  The rain kept drastically changing directions as the wind whipped around, but never from the east.  Shrugging, I made my way to school playing a game of "Keep-the-Umbrella-Pointed-Into-the-Wind."  It worked.

I'm the only one here, or so it feels like.  Of course, I'm early to work by ten minutes.  I got here around 8:30am and no one else will be here until 8:40am, so give them 5 minutes.  Those who live in Daegu will have the most interesting time getting here.  I'm glad I live on campus.

So I will relax with my peach tea (fruit teas here don't have caffeine, it is a dessert drink) and start grading papers.

Hobby - Pixel Word

Something I have picked up a little bit here is improving my art skills.  Working at this particular school has allowed me somewhat the time to work on expanding my art horizons.  Something of interest has been pixel art.  A picture is made up of thousands of small dots.  Each dot is a different color.  A pixel artist can draw and create pictures one small dot at a time.  I like to use the simple paint program that every windows computer has. You simply zoom in to the max, grab a paint brush, and start making dots.  The "mannequin" I use is a basic avatar body from the website Menewsha.com.  I want to show you my silly attempts at fashion, shading, and such that I have done.

Seriously, this was a lovely way to spend my Sunday.  Hours went by without me ever noticing.  My first attempt was decent.  I continued to attempt to improve upon it though.

This was an attempt to improve shading, light direction, and have fun at the same time.  I wanted to prove that Menewsha could incorporate riding animals into their avatars.  I presented this idea to the forum and got a mixed response from the art world.  Some felt it was innovative since the "mannequin" appears to be riding even though she is standing.  Others focused on my color choice and warned that less colors is what makes the pixel art beautiful.  So I moved on and tried again.

I was told that my art needed to stay within a color scheme, so I tried again and with each shade following the "Atlantis" color scheme.  I didn't like it since the darkest shade was too dark.  Learned later that I had not needed to be so literal and used every color in the scheme.

Armed this time with a color palette AND common sense, I worked to keep the theme "emerald" but ended up adding the secondary color as well.  As you can see, I expanded beyond a simple skirt or pants.  There are more details here and the skirt length is kept more proportioned.

So yeah, every few weeks I set aside my books, grading, lesson plans, and traditional drawing for a more electronic source of art.  It is one of many art forms I have found I enjoy simply for doing it.  There is no reward or goals.  I create art simply for the art itself.

Mannam

http://asiancorrespondent.com/88076/skorea-mannam-group-is-front-for-shinchonji-cult/

This article is worth reading before having anything to do with Mannam.  Just forewarning.  They are not as widespread outside of South Korea, but they are all over the place here.  I've been to one of their events and was largely disappointed since it wasn't what was advertised.  I didn't realize how much more was going on in the background.  They claim to be a group that promotes world peace via activities that bring people together from all countries.  They don't actually do anything at their activities though, just take pictures.

http://www.shinchonji.org/wp/
http://shinchonjiandthebible.blogspot.kr/
http://shinchonjiunmasked.wordpress.com/tag/cult/

Web Cam Picture: Hi!

Picture Update

Now that I know I can put a lot of pictures in here, I will most likely begin to do more of that from now on.  Especially when I travel or there are local events here.  That will make those of you without facebook particularly happy.

Picture Attempt! (It worked... there are 28 pics)

So when I copy and paste articles into my blog... the pictures come along too!  Yay!

I'm going to do an experiment and see if I can get the pictures from my last photoshoot earlier this month to show up in this blog.  Let's hope it is not an epic fail.

Camping

Title is camping.  Yes, I am dumb enough to camp during a typhoon.  Just kidding!  Just figured you would love to see this.  Koreans don't sit on the ground or put their bags on the ground: inside or out.  Here is an extreme example.

http://visitdaegu2011.blogspot.kr/2012/08/camping-areas-in-mt-palgong.html

[Tour] Camping Areas in Mt. Palgong

 

Camping Areas in Mt. Palgong

The test operation of a new camping zone in the Donghwa District started on Aug. 6 to meet the growing demand for modernized camping facilities and auto camping.

Located near Daegu’s urban area, the camping zone of Mt. Palgong commands beautiful natural views, providing a resting place for many Daegu citizens during the summer season. 

In addition, anyone can use communal kitchens, showers, restrooms and electricity for free. Especially there are someleisure sports facilities such as artificial rock climbing, inline skating place, and a playground that enhance your enjoyment.

* Operation Period? 

  : 2012. 8. 6. ~ 11. 30 (Test-operation period)
- Donghwa District camping zone: opened on Aug 6th
- Pagye District camping zone: will open as soon as construction is complete

* You can use one camping area up to a maximum of 2 nights 3 days at a time.

 : One day means from 12pm to the next day 12 pm

* Price? 

: 1,000 KRW ~ 3,000 KRW for one night (depends on the size of the area)
- Less than four people: 1,000KRW
- Five to ten people: 2,000KRW
- More than ten people: 3,000KRW

 * How to register?

: Registration is available on the spot
- ID card is needed for registration.
- Foreigners should bring their passports for registration.

* Contact Number

: ☎ 053) 982-0005

Pagye District camping zone will open as soon as its construction is complete. This one will be an auto camping site that you can pull over your car next to your tent area. Further information will be updated when it’s open.

* How to get there?

- To get to Donghwa District camping zone, take Rapid1(급행1) bus and get off at Donghwasa area Bus Stop and Walk about 5 minutes from there to the camping area.

- To get to Pagye District camping zone, take 101 bus and get off at Pagyesa Bus Stop which is the last stop of the bus. Walk about 2 minutes from there to the camping area.