the show

Lewis, Steven and I put on a show at the local coffee shop this past Wednesday. There was a great turnout, and everybody was super enthusiastic so it was really fun to play. Here's a link to Steve's Youtube channel where he posted some of the videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/kewlness0#p/u/1/3HbpY7hNce0

(Please disregard my slightly out of tune tenor parts and accordion hacking, I'm sure it was much more amazing live).

Here's a link to Steve's Myspace as well, where you can check out more of his great music: http://www.myspace.com/stevenmorel Here's Lewis' site again too in case you've forgotten how to get there, or missed the last time I posted it: http://www.lewisknundrum.com/music.htm

a touch of color

This is what it looked like when I walked home today. It's been gray skies mostly, but the trees have a touch of color that's nice to see. 가을냄새정말 좋아요.

a picture post

Here are some pictures taken by our new friend Alex. He's the co-teacher of our other new friend, Steven the Canadian. Alex is a great help with learning Korean and he's super encouraging despite my incomprehensible pronunciation, minuscule vocabulary and non-existent grammatical structures .



Once I was a yangban (양반).



Another time we were models for trendy Korean jackets.




That tepee is just like what we used when I was a young Korean boy growing up in the village. We were much shorter back then or maybe there was just food in it, I don't remember.


The point of the teeter-totter jumping game is not to knock the other person off or to break his legs, I learned. You're just supposed to keep jumping. It didn't make sense until I found out it was a girl sport.

Is this your book?

Is this your book? No, "The Stories of Anton Chekov" is not mine. In keeping with the subtle Russian themes, I tried using Rachmaninoff's third piano concerto as a film score. The melancholic folk melody and brooding accompaniment nicely underlined the tension we wanted to evoke in the "search" sequence. But in the end, it made the denouement feel somewhat preemptive. The drama speaks most clearly for itself against a backdrop of silence.

class materials

Since Lewis, Steve and I all teach the same classes, we decided we could do each other a favor and make a video together. We're using the sentence form "I want to ____ ."

The official video for this lesson is this . Obviously, we are not attempting to improve on the original -which would be impossible- but rather provide supplemental material.

Speaking English

I've got to say, I can speak English pretty well. I think it comes naturally to me, and I guess I've been doing it for as long as I can remember (missing from this video are the parts where I accidentally said "cheesebooger" instead of cheeseburger).

in other news

Outside

Here is a bit of the view outside my school. That's a chicken farm and church right next door. It smells really bad in the summer. The chicken farm I mean.

New Stuff

Here are some pictures of my new classroom and office. One of the wings of the school was remodeled during vacation and now we have a bona fide English Zone.

back in the temperate zone

The rain in Korea is much colder than in Saipan.

Siapan Day 9

Here are a few more of Tami's classroom all decked out for the first day of classes.



Above is Tami and Auntie Debbie, who teaches 2nd Grade at the school. Below is Tami and her mom, also Debbie.

Saipan Day 8

We had some beautiful weather the past few days, resulting in my sunburn and some nice scenery.

Tank Beach

Tami's friend Emily and I were planning to go hiking at a place called Forbidden Island. Despite the name, people apparently go there all the time. But the roads were really bad owing to all the heavy rain we've had. We were driving a Ford Explorer and it started smoking as we climbed the last hill. So we turned around and went to Tank Beach instead. I'm not sure why it's called Tank Beach because there are no tanks anywhere.

There are two tanks over by the school, buried mostly underwater about one hundred yards off the shore. They got stuck in the sand when US forces attacked the Japanese in the Battle of Saipan. Tami and I swam out there Monday. While sitting on the tank my left foot was attacked by a crab.

Tami's Classroom

Here's Tami (my friend from my Moody who lives in Saipan) in her 5th grade classroom. That they conduct classes entirely in English seems strange, but apparently they do that in English speaking places. Classes start on Monday, 8/10.

Saipan Day 2

Saipan Day 1