Compunction Junction

Rueben deGroot and All Kinds of Trouble (part 2)

**If you haven't already done so, please read "Rueben deGroot and All Kinds of Trouble" to get the first half.  So we were left in the police station giving our descriptions of the lil' troublemaker with a bit of "the good stuff" in our pockets.**

Our statements given, the police (coviniently located in a strip mall) let us go with a heartfelt thanks. 

We walked across the parking lot.  My good buddy Roob noticed a sub place "Oh man, have you ever had a Quizno's sub?  They're awesome!  They toast the bread and it tastes gooood!".  Somehow I got finagled into buying a sub and roob bought one too.  That exhausted his (already meagre) funds and leaving me with only aboug 43$ in my bank account (no cash in hand).  We ate our sandwhiches, aware we may not eat again until we get home, as we walked back to the side of the highway (conviniently, across a small divider of grass.

We stood their, outside the quiznos in Chilliwack (I think it was anyways), for an hour.  There were a LOT of cars going by: Well over a 70 a minute. 

No one was stopping.

I came to realize that waiting on the side of a relatively deserted road felt better than a busy one.  It is one thing to not get picked up by a handful of people.  It is altogether another thing to get rejected 1800 times an hour.

We blazed.  We waited there for about 4.5 hours all together (we got picked up at around 430-5:00).  That was a long wait.  BUT, we finally got picked up.

It was a nice ride too: One of those old school Jeeps.  Remember?  Back when offroad folks actually took vehicles off road?  Well this thing was pimped the eff out!  It was a nice clean, good lookin' piece of machinery. 

He pulled over and openned the door, "You guys don't got any drugs do ya" he snapped before anything else.

I'm not a good liar.  Rueben was: "No sir.  We're just heading towards Jasper.  Think you could give us a ride?"

"I can take you as far as Hetley Creek [aka a deserted stretched of lonely highway]" the middle aged hipster said with a somewhat (inexplicably) dejected tone.

"That would be great!" Rueben piped in and we both crawled into our preassigned seats.

We made some small talk for a few minutes, with Rueben sitting in the front and me and 80% of our stuff in the back.  Again the man asked, "So you guys got any drugs?"

This time Rueben, and I don't know how he knew what to say, said, "Hell yeah.  You wanna smoke?"  In no time at all, we were puffing away.  It was nice to finally feel relaxed and comfortable. 

It was at this time, we heard from this guy that he was an electrical technicial for a studio in Vancouver.  He said that he had worked on a few X-Files episodes but that he had just finished working on a movie with Kevin Bacon.  This made ME very excited.  Just before I left on this trip, I had heard of the famous "6 degrees of Kevin Bacon" game.  I realized, after talking to this fellow, I skyrocked up, like 4 spots.

Nice.

But that feeling passed when, at around 8pm, the man dropped us off nowhere (aka "the Hetley Creek turnoff").  We waited for about 20 minutes where we got picked up by a old stanza filled with high school kids going out to get pissed on their way to a party.  There were already 3 people in the car so two bigger fellas and all our crap in that Stanza made for a tight squeeze.  It was uncomfortable but we were moving forward.

Those young guns dropped us off in Clearwater at around 9:30, right in front of a hotel.  And I thought I'd never forget the name, but I did.  If you ever drive through Clearwater, it's the only hotel on the highway.  So you'd know.

We didn't know what to do.  So what DID we do? Well we went to see about a hotel room.  They were 30$ for a single.  Nice.  So, lucky for me (and having 42$ in the bank) we managed to scrape up a single.  After we went in and cleaned ourselves (not bad for hitchhiking bums) we went to the ubiquitous hotel bar.  There was a band in the bar.

Stoner's Wheel.  At the time (and being a bit of a... you know), it was just a bit too corny for me to say it was a good name, but I have heard worse.  We sat and watched them play.  Then (forwhatever reason) we ordered beers.  I'm not sure how we were gonna pay for them.  The band was fine; just another coverband that didn't suck.  The bar was empty and a bit appreciative.  And i mean empty.  I kid you not, there wasn't a single person in the bar except the waitress, bartender, band and us. 

When the band had finished their, slightly rocked out set, Rueben talked with them.  Again, Roob, using powers beyond my scope of comprehension managed to scrape us up for a coupel songs with the band.  First roob and I played a couple songs by ourselves.  Then we did a few simple covers that they'd know.  It sounded good considering we'd never played together before.

Since no one was listening, the band decided to forego their second set and just get wasted, promising the bartender that they'd get up if more people came in.  We sat around and talked.  Roob and i got to playin' some stuff.  these guys got out their acoustic guitars and tried to get a song in but when roob's taking off, goooooood luck!  It ain't possible.

At 2am, Roob thought it'd be great if we went to a house party (where there was promises of free booze and coke for musicians...great .

The bartender, the waitress (the only girl in th bar and, by default, the women Roob was serenading all night), and the two of us crawled into a hatchback and drove to someone's house where we were told the party would move to. 

Three hours later, the party had not moved and I had been asleep for two hours.  Rueben was making small talk.  We got a ride back to the hotel and went back to bed.

We (somehow) managed to wake up by 9am and we made it out of the room by 10.  We headed down to the restaurant that seemed to act as the local IHOP/Smitty's type place.  WE managed to eat only 12$ worth of food and we were on the road again at 11:20.

Clearwater will always have a hole in my heart: A hole filled with confusion and hatred.  We waited on the side of the road for 2 hours before someone picked us up.  The person who picked us up had a Pontiac Firefly with the passenger seat ripped out.  It actually looked like something you'd see in the funnies.  The rather dirty looking owner of the car said "It's for my dog.  She's big".

That dude managed to take us about 2kms outside of clearwater where we waited for another 4.5 hours before getting picked up.  So now it's about 5:30 and we're in a Volkswagon trailer with a couple of treeplanting hippies.  They ask us if we have any "stuff".  We say no and ask them.  They say no.  They tell us that they can't take us very far.  They drop us off at a rest stop.

Roob and I are pretty dishearted.  It's about 6:45 and we are at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere.  We go into the (thankfully heated AND flush powered) bathroom to warm up.  We decide to make the quintessential version of "Things are gonna get worse" a happy little ditty written by Rueben deGroot himself.  It was funny.  Not funny enough to make us feel better, but funny.

We managed to get a ride at about 15 minutes later from a guy in a truck.  He ran a heli-skiing outfit in the Kootneys.  He dropped us off in Blue River: A town that was little more than a Husky truck stop and a Humpty's breakfast diner.  In Blue River fell down the most depressing rain I have ever been in.  It was nearing 8:00 and we had no hope of a ride.  We were completely exposed.  We hunted around for a piece of particle board or something.  Nothing was to be found.  We musta been a miserable pair of losers there.  And yet, someone picked us up.  I can't remember a thing about him other than he had a big, and very clean truck.  I put my guitar in the back.  Somehow the wind LIFTEd up my guitar and flipped it over in the box.  The next smashed against the top of the tailgate and I winced.  Turns out it was nothing major.

He dropped us off somewhere around Tete Jaune. 

I remember as a kid seeing that name and thinking, "I know what that means" because I could read French.  I had these ideas that Tete Jaune was a quaint little side of the highway type thing.  An idyllic little spot that had an amazing ice cream and pie shop.

It did not, and was not.  I've crapped bigger towns than Tete Jaune.  There was only one identifying feature that we were even IN Tete Jaune: A weight station for semis.  I wouldn't have known there was a town there (maybe the ice cream and pie shop was on some hidden side road off the highway that twisted and turned to a lush, hook in the river).

It was now about 9:30.  The good news was that we were in Alberta, but barely. The bad news was that it was 9:30, we were SOAKED to our swashbucklin' bones, and the night was getting cold (in truth, it felt like it was going to snow).

It was pure chance that a trucker was nice enough to take us from there.  I'll never forget it all.

Trucker: Imagine what you'd expected a trucker to look and dress like.  This was the man.  Trucker says, "Hey.  Where y'guys headed?" .  "Edmonton" Rueben replied, "but we're having some terrible luck".  "The trucker replies, "Oh sorry.  I'd take ya but it's illegal".  "Actually," Rueben responds, for the second time in our trip, "It's only illegal if you're rig is owned by a company.  If you have a privately owned truck, you're allowed".

The truck driver gets this, slightly confused look on this face; slightly confused but a little content.  And then his arms swoops around into a circle and he points to the door of his cab while saying "Well, hop on in".  We're pretty excited.  I dang near shatted my pants.

Being that it was Rueben's turn to sit in front, he talked to the man for the whole trip.  The trucker warned me, "Be careful when you lay down, you might squish my hedgehog".  And there it as.  This white and pink little thing, lookin pretty scared but kinda cute I s'pose.  I grabbed the little tyke and put him in his little pocket and put my head down.

I woke up once around Banff.  The snow was coming down so hard you couldn't see 50 meters ahead.  Back asleep.

I woke up again in Edson: About 2 hours from my home town.  I was excited.  I pissed in the entrance of some hotel and then called my friend in Edmonton collect.  Then we climbed back in and I fell asleep before we left the parking lot.

We pulled up to our road in Deadmonton, just off the Yellowhead, at about 5:30.  Roob and I hauled all our crap for about 1.5 kms to our house (the dear sweet Bedford). 

When we walked in, Garth, my good friend (who had dropped us off outside Edmonton on our way to Vancouver) greeted us with some strange news.

Apparently the fellow we had talked to the police about had stolen that huge flatbed truck from the Vancouver Fire Department lot.  He was taking it to Calgary to a chopshop he knew there.  The police wanted us to get back there ASAP so we could testify in court.  I didn't.

I managed to get to bed at around 630.  I  was supposed to go into work at 7:00 (starting my job) but I opted intead, to wait for their call, explain my situation and tell them that I'd come it at noon (I figured it wouldn't be a problem... and it wasn't)

The memories I have of that trip may be some of the most powerful from the first half of that year.  Itwas really quite an exceptional journey: It was about as close as I'm going to Kerouac.

Finish the Sentence...

how YOU think it should finish:

1) Korea would be a better place if ............

2) Korea would be a worse place if ...................

3) Busan is to Seoul as .................. is to ......................

4) Boon-dae-gi tastes like .................

5) Teaching in a ............... is like ......................

6) English is ....................

7) My favorite place in the world is .....................

8) The Pusan Univerity area is to Seomyeon as ................

9) Korean women are ............. and ..................

10) I am having the .................. time in Korea!

Rueben deGroot and All Kinds of Trouble (another epic)

9:43.  Two hours before my first class.  It's my last week of school before my summer vcation.  I'm pretty excited about that.  It's been raining all but two days for the last 2 weeks, but no matter with holidays approaching. 

Everytime I have a vacation coming up, I think back to April 2001 and the messed up experience I had hitch-hiking.  After returning from a hitch trip from Edmonton to Saskatchewan, I had heard from my musician buddy (Rueben) that we had a gig in Vancouver in two weeks. 

The two weeks passed quickly enough.  We were leaving Deadmonton on a thursday early morning with two guitars, a mandolin, an amplifier and a pack.  The trip down was uneventful enough.  We got picked up by this middle aged woman by Jasper and the three of us road loaded (drank as we drove) for about 3 hours.  In retrospect, it wasn't the smartest thing to do but no one was all that messed up: Roob and I had most of the 12 that we got.  In Kamloops, we were picked up by a trucker at around midnight and we moseyed into Surrey (to Roob's parent's place) at around 3am.

Roob's parents live on this fantastic little hobby farm and it was nice to spend some time going down into their gully and gettin' some blackberries and watch their two gay incestual cats mess around in his brother's barn/art studio.  We went into Vancouver in early mid afternoon.  I was struck by how green everything was in Vancouver in the middle of April.  Edmonton, by this time, had seen the snow melt to be replaced by flattenned dead grass that looked not too unlike a desert: bare branches with no leaves made clattering sounds.  Edmonton sans snow is sunny, but Dull.

Vancouver, on the other hand, was vibrant, lush, sensual.  It smelled like a rain forest and looked like a postcard, even though it was overcast and spitty.  I didn't see the sun the whole 36 hours I was there.

We met some friends that Rueben had chanced upon at a open stage a month before.  They lived in a fantastic little house with a beautiful set of steps which is a style in Vancouver that was necessitated to restrict the number of rats in the houses.  Somewhere I have some pictures...

We got ready.  We played out show at a "Smoke Easy": A place where smoking pot, though not technically legal is "not really noticed".  It was called "Blunt Brothers".  It was an institution among pot smokers travelling in, and native to Vancouver: That despite the incredibly unimaginative name.  The show (on a Friday night) went fine.  It was great to hang out with these amazing musicians who, in a few months, would become my neighbours.

I had to be at work on Monday and, though keen to stay in Vancouver for ever, hit the road on Saturday morning at around 8pm.  We went out to Surrey and then walked to the highway.  We waited on the side of that 3 lane for about an hour and a half.

As we were standing their with our thumbs up, we noticed a 10 tonne with flashing lights on the roof, safely but quickly, dart across the three lanes to mosey up beside us.  We openned the door "Where're ya headed?" croaked a rather deshevelled lookin older native fella.

"On our way to Jasper.  Think we can get a ride?".

"Sure, put yer stuff in the back and climb aboard".

We do that and get in.  He pulls off.  This truck is nice.  This truck is ......niiiiiiice.  Virtually everything was digital OR push button: EVEN the transmission was merely a set of glowing buttons.  There was a big crane on this bad boy too: In my construction days, we called this type of huge flatbed with a crane a "Picker Truck" though i'm not sure what the technical name is.  In any case, this truck looked to be very, very expensive.  We were not sure how such a messed up old far managed to get his job driving this truck but why ask questions when you got a free ride non?

Then we noticed the dude didn't have any shoes, or socks.

Then he started talking.

Then our ears perked up.

"Yeah, so I'm not really keen on pickin' up folks on account of my last experience", he mumbled.

With all innocence, we asked, "Oh really? What happenned".

"Well I picked up some guy and he pulled a knife on me eh?  We ended up running the border into Washington so he could find his kid and take him back".

We didn't expect to hear that.

Silence.

"Terrible day to be stuck outside eh"

"Well, it was worse yesterday.  It was a bit chilly today but nothing too outrageous," Roob had said to placate the man.

Somewhere along the highway twisting through the lower mainland, there is a huge lot that is basically a strip mall with car dealerships.  There was also a Tim Hortons.  He suggested we pull over and get some coffee.  He obliged.  While driving around in the parking lot, this fella got pretty confused and we ended up in the middle of a bunch of Miatas with this huge truck.  He backed up.  He parking this huge truck, NOT in the place designated for large trucks, but up the curb and into this abandoned lot.  He stayed around the truck, we went in to get coffees and donuts. 

Came back out, he was talking to another fella.  Saw us.  We went to the truck, loaded back in, and then spent about 15 minutes trying to exit this (admitedly) tricky lot.  In the end, we went the wrong way down an entrance road and he forced about 4 cars to back up.

By this point, we were feeling a bit sketched.

To get back to the highway, he missed a turn and we ended up driving along a service road parallel to the highway for about 15 minutes before he realized that the two didn't meet.  So he doubled back.

It's pushing 3 hours and we still haven't got passed Chilliwack.  When we finally got back onto the highway he really let fly:

"You see that stuff there? [a new sheen in his eye we hadn't noticed before]  You see these cars spinnin' on by?  You see this stuff in front of you?  That is real.  That stuff behind you, man, that ain't real?  It's all wires and circuits, there is nothing there".

"Oh yeah".

"Yeah, and you think that because one of them is back there, they don't exist, you don't see them cause they're behind you."

Slight pause.

"You know I got this computer at home eh?  And I talk to him?  You know his name?"

Roob and I exchange uneasy glances and start to figit a bit "No, what is it?"

"Fred.  Yeah, Fred.  "Fucking Retarded Electronic [couldn't think of the "D" word]"

Roob and I, "Haha.  Nice."

"Yeah, Fred tells me that there ain't nothing back there.  This stuff in front, it's..."  He stops for no real reason.  "Actually, this is my buddies gas station right here, I'm just gonna pull off here".  The man makes a right turn and is now driving perpendicular to the highway we should be on.

Roob and I now feel pretty uncomfortable: Well, I shat my pants.  Roob looked pretty collected.  We point out, "Hey dude, we have to be driving that way along the Highway."

He replies, a little more coherently than before, "Oh yeah, you're right.  I'll just turn up here".  About 10 minutes later he makes a left turn so we are again, driving in the right direction, perpendicular to the highway.  

We follow the road which makes another hard left and forces us to drive directly towards the highway and as we see the highway ahead, Roob, in all his quick thinking glory said, "Oh hey man, I think my aunt lives just over that hill.   You can just let us out here man, this would be nice to have some of my aunt's cookies".

"Oh yeah man" I reply, "That sounds gooood!"

The driver looks pretty uneasy but says, "Uh... Okay.  I'll pull over here".  He pulls over and we get out stuff out. He drives away, we remember the license plate.  There is a police man about 200m down the road giving someone a ticket.  My buddy walks over to the car and the effer just pulls away.  About 5 minutes later another cruiser comes and we talk to him.  He gave us a ride about 10 minutes into Chilliwack and sounded grateful.  He tells us a good place to hithhike and takes off.  He comes back 20 minutes later and asked us to come in and make a statement.  We did just that, though we felt pretty uncomfortable walking around the police station with pot in our pockets: not much but more than you want to take into a police station. 

There is MORE to this hitchhiking story: Like our exciting night in Clearwater; our close quarters in the hotel, how we managed to skyrocket up to only 2 degrees of Kevin Bacon, and the exciting conclusion of this mess with this wackjob.  I'll try to get it down later.

I write music...

did you know that?

Cause I do.  I have sorta gave up on trying to convince people to listen to my listen.  And I was never exactly sure why...until I got an online review.

I've realized my music is not easily accessible.  This dude was pretty adment about the fact that the song was weak because "it was short" and there was "no chorus, breaks, or hook".  Got me thinkin:: Yeah.  I've also realized that kinda thing does NOT work well when it's only one person playing.  When you've got a full band doing those things, you can throw in solos, and breaks and everything would sound more full and sensible: solos can act as breaks...get a solo instrument to make a hook".

I recorded my music in a studio here in Busan South Korea with a feller named Duk Ju.  A well intentioned lad but I should have stopped soon after I started.  I've ended up with something but not much.  It's mixed subpar...the performances are subpar...the space was WELL along subpar (no soundproofing and a window that openned above a busy street.  As I see it, it sorta works as a demo but that's about it.  But nuff *****in about that.

On Tuesday this week, I had what would best be described as a lyrical purge.  I haven't written a song here (with lyrics) in about 10 months..and THAT one was ****e.  On Tuesday, I finished off three songs; creating choruses, bridges and the like.  One song is a very simple country ditty except with no chorus or hook.  The song is basically 3 different verses together telling a silly country song.  Perfect Remcoe song.

The second one, that i'd completely forgotten about for a month.  I finished off two more verses and a good chorus. 

Blam.

Speakin of that: My buddies in Vancouver are most all musicians as well.  Cam Latimer, Ridley Bent, Aaron Grant.  Oh crap.  I just realized something TERRIBLE!  The set of them were involved in a website called "Tractorgrease.com".  Sadly, (I JUST find out now) it has become defunct.  Damn.  Well, to anyone who would be interested, you can go to www.myspace.com and search for those three fellas in the music section.  It is well, well worth the time.

If you rock your socks off, you may as well change your underwear too!

The temperature's 101/ everybody take off your pants

Started with a quote from Joel Plaskett cause its hot.  So freakin' HOT!!!!  And so humid, I'm sweating typing 40 words a minute. 

As my sister woulda said in 1986, "It's like hot to the MAX.  Grimace"

I don't know where the website will end up but that will show the weather for my homey town BUSAN. 

Korea has been flipping back and forth between English spelling styles.  The most recent switch was in the 90s when they went back to my personal favorite...whose name escapes me.

two months...and random crap

It's been a while.  This "crappy" blog space is terrible.  I can't swear; so words like "cock" ****, piss and ****" will end up being **** or beep or some stupid garbage.  That will require imagination on your part. 

But without further ado, more crap (in point form):

One of my kids has taken to grabbing my "chest" and poking my gut.  I hadn't really set myself up as a rambuncious teacher but suddenly this dude has become more grabby than an teenage octopus on its first date.  Not cool.  Hopefully that wears out.

*The school is still great.  Random days off here and there.  The students are fantastic.  I was voted "7th best teacher" by a grade 5 class.  Whether it was a school wide (35 teachers) or a class specific (3 teachers) poll, can only be guessed.  It's nice to see classes change from terrible pirate barges of malcontent to pleasant little English loving fairies of cuteness.

*Europe is only 3 weeks away.  We still haven't laid out our exact plans for our ever changing traipsing throughout France/Germany/Spain.  We'll see how it turns out.  I've got a gig lined up at the KHL cafe (NOT pot related coffee shop).  It seems like a realy classy joint.  I have a contact in Amsterdam who is trying to get me another couple shows (I would open for her) but I can't cross my fingers anymore.  Still, I'm content with one.

*I've FINALLY started actually GOING to my badminton club.  I was registered in June but the damn thing started at 7am.  I'm not a morning fella.  The club is generally okay but I have this kinda zenned out old fella who keeps giving me hints.  Watching other players completely disregard what he has to say is something less than inspiring to me.  And man, these cats are GOOD at badminton; I don't know if these guys are average or above average but geez, they bounce around and hit like freakin' electrons.

*I'm hoping that my wife and I will be able to procure some 100% FRESHLY ground whole wheat flour from the markets around town.  I wanna make some bread with our oven.

*6 More days of school and then I'm finish for the summer.

I've had problems getting into this damned account so posts (or whatever the hell they're called on this blog dealieo) could be sporatic.

*I think my new favourite term of derision is "Bollocks!"

Uppers and Downers

Downer: 

Just lost any chance of playing further in our volleyball tourney by losing.

Hurt my hand bashing it on the ground whilst diving for a ball.

We (specifically I) didn't play well.

Had an open class today.

lugged my crap everywhere.

Uppers:

The recording of my French song that my buddy recorded was sent to me!

My open class went pretty well!.

I love my wife and she loves me.

My dog is healing

Nice to remember that you work with very level headed kind people.

I've never really known if these blogs are supposed to be diary type sheet or ACTUAL, like, content.

other blogs

What a bravo life!

A popular cell phone company has been using "Bravo your life" as its slogan for several years now.

Terrible English is rife here in Korea.  Sometimes it requires eyestrain to see but usually it's nice and in your face.

Today in class, we were discussing some simple adjectives to describe a person.  I felt my heart break when one of the boys said "bravo".

sigh....

Police Spokesdawgs

The Busan Metropolitan Police guys just gave the kids a little presentation. 

I remember as a kid sitting through those "same" presentations: same in name only apparently.

Three "[monster dog cartoon] police officers" were dressed in normal police attire as well as big dog heads: two males and a female dog.  I found two things to be very strange

1) The fact that the students were NOT controlled in ANY manner whatsoever. They were running around rough shod, not listening... I felt terrible for the poor guy in one of the dog costumes as children kept trying to shove their fingers in his tooter. yeesh.  But they just kept talking: They gave the presentation on ABOVE the noise: As though the children were listening and learning. 

2) the highly sexualized "playing" that occurred when the presentation was done to a group that age. 

Some examples:

a) The female dog, grabbing the male dogs "gochu" (that means cock) twice

b) Male dog grabbing the female dogs "chest"

c) male dog lifting up female dogs skirt (twice).

It does seem wrong that these sorts of things are done in front of children, but I have a sneaking suspicion that cultural relativity has left her skid marks on this strange presentation along with so many past chocolate bombs..

While I don't personally know whether it was the right or wrong thing to do, it does seem a bit spurious to be giving lessons in childrens safety and then have these dogs full on body slamming and abusing each other.

I guess the notion of personal space is just different and that inappropriate sexual touching is how police man relate with children.

Volleyvall

Quick Donger Update to start: The vet has said (and proven it with a good explanation of an x-ray) that the bone has now fused together.  GREAT!  It is still very weak and she shouldn't walk on it.  But it is nice to FINALLY see an xray that has a bone fused straight together.   ahhhhh.  I believe we are in week 4 of an 8 week heal. 

So Volleyball:

I played volleyball in junior high.  I played intramural in high school.  I am, by no means, all that great, but let's just say I know the difference between a bump and a set if you know what i'm sayin'.

I am now playing on the teacher's team at our school.  We have just began our district "tournament".  There is only one every year and it is a month long situation where the teams play twice a week (we play mondays and tuesdays). 

Yesterday was our first game and we won.  Shezah!  If you think you can handle the excitement of teacher's interschool volleyball competitions but if not, you are warned!

This brought up a NEW aspects of Korean culture that absolutely baffle me.  The ladies volleyball game was a perfect example.

Our opponents (whose name's I'll leave out of it) were a pretty good team.  They had four really good players as well as one somewhat ample woman who was their setter: And the root of their problem as I see it.  In these volleyball games, we play 9 people on a much larger court than in North America.  Like N.A. the most important position is the setter whose job is to set up all the wicked ass spikes and smashes.

For reasons beyond my comprehension at the start of the game, they had placed an older, more rotund woman in the setter position (in front of the net and in the middle).  Being advanced in years or hefty truly has no bearing on someone's ability to play basketball and I certainly don't mean to imply that they did.  I am bigger fella but I'm capable.  Our principal is a fairly old bloke (50s for sure) and he's quite competent.

But this woman was terrible.  Really bad.  And moved like an Ent.  She seemed reluctant to shift and was having "a lot of trouble" making good sets. 

Throughout the game, she got continuously more and more upset as HER TEAM kept messing up.  She would start to lecture. If the ball landed right at her feet, it gave special license to spew out  vitriol.

I found it puzzling to me that they would put her in such an important position when there were four other players would could bump set and spike circles around her.  I puzzled over this for a while till it hit me in a flash: "It's because she's the oldest!"  And then it all made sense: Korean sense.

I could comprehend why they would do such a thing but I did not understand the reason behind it.  If, of course, the opponents weren't playing to win but merely for a good time, I would understand it.  But why would they do that?  It's a tournament: Who joins a tournament to play "for fun?"

It's something that has puzzled me about Korean culture:  There seems to be, reverence and respect given to people who shouldn't really get it (from a western perspective).  Does it make sense to listen to a volleyball player who is terrible?  To take their advice to improve?

To an extent, it happens on our men's team as well.  We have a "coach" who DOES seem pretty capable.  We have a young man who is, in fact, an EXCELLENT player, but yields his opinion and knowledge to the older man.  I can see on his FACE that he would LOVE to correct him, instead he just subverses him inconspiciously.

Both of these men yield to our principal.  Now I feel bad about saying anything other than glowing things about this wonderful man.  He is kind, friedly, even makes an effort to speak what English he knows.  Certainly he is a treasure to work for.  And I actualy feel a bit guilty about this but the simple fact is that he is not the BEST player on the court; sufficient oh my yes, but he really talks the ear off the teachers.  I don't really know what he is saying but all of the other teachers yield to him completely and it doesn't really make too much sense to me.

My Alberta mind is telling me I should be listening to those people who know what they want and who have the ability and knowledge to know that they are right.  Maybe i'm just a simple suburban boy, but i'd always given an ear and my respect to the able and smart.

On the other hand, the principal is a great leader.  And perhaps, in the Land of the Morning Calm it only requires a semblance of leadership ability and a whole bunch of Chuseok's under your belt to have a willing audience.

The Struggle of the Donger: The Epic

My dog: Dong Soon.... the Donger.  Quite an animal.  In her prime, she was sharp as a razor, fun, energetic, had bounce to spare.  This dog would NOT stop running, digging, chewing, smelling.  With the exception of a formidible will she is pretty much the perfect dog.

In late September of 2005, my wife Kim was taking her out for a walk in the neighbourhood park.  He had done it before and she would always heel or stay close: She hadn't really ever been too tempted to disobey.

Needless to say, we found out the hard way that children with balls are simply too tempting for her.  I was sitting in my apartment a full three hundred meters away and I heard her howl when her leg got ran over.  It was a "big sound".  The children across the street got scared and the people UP the street at the bus stop looked really worried.

I ran out (knewing something bad happenned).  We took her straight to the only vet we knew of in our city.  Yangsan (where we were living at the time) is a large town and we found out later that there are a lot of more competent, vets in the town.

We took her to the only vet we knew of and we were told by a young man posing as a doctor that her leg was broken and that she would require surgery. 

"Well that's too bad", we thought.  It wasn't too expensive in the end; around 300,000W (340$CAN) which was pretty reasonable.  They showed us the xray and everything looked fine to us.  So, she stayed to have her operation, and we went on our not so merry way. 

We did our best to keep the poor donger off her feet over the next few weeks.  Taking her to the bathroom the first few days ended up being very difficult and scary for her.  I'm not sure if it was painful or if she just didn't like being held while she peed but she made a bit fuss over it.

After a few weeks,  the doctor had removed the pin he had "put" in her leg without telling us.  It wasn't any real problem until she rebroke her leg when she was moving to fast for us at one point. 

But the tough little ***** didn't make a sound for about half an hour.  Then suddenly, out of the blue, she started yelping and yelping.  We got a lot of terrible looks and we felt rancid, feeling certain she rebroke it.

Back to the vet.  And yes, it was rebroken.  They would need to perform the surgery again.  However, this time we would only pay half as the vet had admitted to taking the pin out much too early.  When we went to go pick her up later in the day, we were told that the doctors had actually killed her. 

Apparently, they had given her too much anaethetic since they forgot to ask whether she had eaten (something no other vet has said was necessary to know).  She was dead for three minutes and then they realized it.  And shocked her back to life.  So that was ****** up.

She had the pin in her leg for 3 months after that.  By the time early january came around, they thought, "Well, we should take another look at an x-ray".  Surprisingly enough, SOME healing had taken place but "inexplicably", very little.  And when a layperson, such as myself, would look at the xrays, the bones looked like jackstraws.  But I thought i'd still give them the benefit of the doubt.  My wife was a little more distrustful but I convinced her that it'd be ok.

And then, come mid March at the end of a routine check up and x-ray inspection, the crazy shyster of a doctor says "It looks like we may have to amputate".  Needless to say, I took the Donger AWAY from that vet. 

And for the first time it really hits me....REALLY hits me "This guys had absolutely no idea what he was doing".  It was primarily a livestock clinic but they DID do small animal operations.  I just assumed they could do them competently.  I was wrong.

We have sinced moved to Busan: The planet of a city to which Yangsan acts as a satelite.  We took her to another vet who sent us to a very inspiring vet on the other side of town.  Nice guy and pimped out, equipment wise.  And FINALLY an xray machine that didn't look like it was pulled out of the Chernobyl medical room.  It took a beautiful xray of her pin that left them absolutely (and literally) flabergasted. 

They just looked at it and shook their heads.  The two vets looked quite exasperated.  When we questioned them they told us the following bits of info.

1) Our Yangsan vet had literally slipped a pin under Donger's skin and that was it.  Just a pin... not attached to ANYTHING.  Not screwed.  Basically, it was like having a pin splint outside your leg except more painful if it moved.  And to top it, the x-ray that our NEW vet was looking at (taken only 1.5 weeks after the Yangsan vet's last shots) showed the bones still in the same place.  That place was: Fucked Up.  Capitalized for purpose.

2) Our Yangsan vet had not really taken the time to insert the pin properly not seemed to care enough about its placement to attempt to move it.  We had heard them murmur over the placement of the pin but at no point did they mention that it was misplaced (They had an assistant who spoke enough English that we could understand the gyst of what was going on). 

The new vet had said that the pin they had inserted in her leg was TOO LONG.  That's right... that is exactly how bush league these Yangsan vets turned out to be. 

The pin extended past her "elbow" joint, all the way over her "wrist" joint.  And since it would hurt her too much to move EITHER of these joints, she wouldn't move them. 

Of course, any old person will tell you that if you don't work your body enough, if you don't flex your muscles throughout your life, move your bones etc, you find that, when you're older your bones become brittle.  In other words, excercise keeps your bones strong.

And poor Donger, not being able to move either of these joints, has developed arthritis in both her joints as well as having weak (porous bones).  You can feel it when you move her paw especially: It is very very stiff.

Since visiting her new vet, she has had her operation.  And boy oh boy, if this new vet did the operation according to procedure, no wonder the Yangsan vet can blow me.

They have wrapped a metal plate around the break.  They attached the plate on BOTH sides of the crack, to either bone (with three screws in each bone).  In addition to that, the plates are held in place by 4 sets of pins that are bent in such a way as to provide more ridigity.  So basically, she looks bionic. 

But dang, it sure inspires confidence. 

These days, we still take her once a week to the vet for check ups and we now put iodine on the surgical wound at home.  She is relaxed and kinda dopey.  She's a dog that really needs to run around to be happy and she still can't do that.  Kim and I are struggling to keep her in her cage all day (it's tough knowing she's locked in their when she probably wouldn't walk around our apartment too much).  Playing with her entails a lot of chewing games and rolling things at her. 

I'm taking her to the vet today and i hope that her break will be doing better.

We're on week 3 of an 8 week heal.  I'll put up some pictures of the Donger as soon as I get to our home computer.

Remember happy time

U-School

My elementary school was selected to be part of a pilot program called U-School ("U" being short for "ubiquitous" of course).

Today we have a pant load of classy, classy gentlemen and polite older women wandering around the school suffering to look interested in anything going on.

U-School in itself is pretty harmless: Long story short, there are wires, computer screens, scanners and cameras in every hall, room, nook and locker in this crazy school.

The talks are all pretty dull.  But what I found of great interest was the school ground cum parking lot.  There are 120 cars in soccer field.  There is one blue car, one green car (that seems to be from a garage) and 118 cars that are either black, grey or white. 

It reminded me of when I was poor and living in vancouver.  Anytime I'd seen a grey car go past, regardless of the make, I always thought that it was a classy automobile.  Seeing this crap everywhere though is really getting tiring: I expect Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin to step out of seperate Sonatas and pleasantly shake hands. 

Another thing I would consider strange is that they've hired "professional greeters".  If you have been in Korea longer than say, 3 weeks you've probably noticed pairs of girls in short skirts and skipants (or thick nylons) dancing and talking into microphones that make them sound like little more than a foghorn.  Well, if those dancing girls were to change their hair to a more conservative cut and wear a dress suit instead of booties, you'd have our greeters: two twenty somethings who are so obviously not teachers here I have to wonder why they are here at ALL.  I'm thinking that this is probably the graduation pool for post galbi house dancers.

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