"sailing down the river alone, been trying to find my way back home"

quick setup: been having trouble working the heater in my room....

on picking me up last monday morning, the director turned to me "did you have a good weekend?", I replied "yeah it was alright, until my wallet was stolen from my room?", as i'm in that same breath he says with a smile on his face "how is your room, is it warm?". What a response, I instinctively felt the need to high-five the old man, but couldn't find the guts. I knew he didn't get my message when straight away the next morning on my hoping into the SUV, he blurts out "I heard your wallet got stolen". Anyway, the preceding dialogue is a perfect blueprint of how conversations predominantly get shot between locals and foreigners, the last word of the others sentence is understood to be the correct key for stating a completely unrelated response.

hopped onto a city bus and asked the driver in my best Korean English "bus go to 'Dong Bong Marte'?". received a quick "anneyo (NO)", but figured, 'what the hell, don't need to go there today anyways, I know this bus will take me home'. so, I strolled on, bus was quite packed (unlike picture), so I strutted my stuff to the back to find more comfortable breathing room. 5 minutes down the line, bus pulls up to a red light at a major intersection. I can be pictured standing right near the back, looking out the side window, with my headphones on, lost in my own music world. suddenly, I get tapped on the shoulder, look up...and its the friggin driver!! and.. he starts waving me to come with him to the front of the bus and is repeating "dong bong marte", so we wiggle our way through everyone and than he points across the street saying 'Dong Bong Marte', I have no idea what the hell he was getting at, but I definitely knew we were nowhere within 4 miles of 'dong bong marte', so I thanked him and went back to my spot, he went back to driving! However, this anecdote does go a long way towards exemplifying just how long the red lights are here. every single time i'm in my director's car and he hits a red light, he turns the car off,...to save gas i guess?

the 'Nazi' symbol(well a close alternative) symbolizes a 'temple' in Korea, its funny how you come to this understanding. Fresh off the plane, you are shocked to behold everyone in your newly inhibited country is an aspiring Kaiser. This leaves you scratching your head...bewildered,...puzzled,...which leads you to turn to a Korean co-worker and awkwardly ask "why are you wearing a necklace of the Nazi symbol?"...voilla! stepping aside,... I wonder how many Koreans reside in Israel.

introduced mini stick hockey to the students here at the school and they've burned an addiction. so, enough of this yammering on about the exciting and high scoring hockey i've been missing, its a bit far-fetched considering i seem to have no problems racking up scores of 12 - 3, and 14 - 2 against the kids on a daily basis.....and this during only 10 minute breaks between classes...man i'm good. kidding aside, its "hockey night in Korea" anymore, I just saw the Montreal vs Toronto game at a bar!!! and the owner told everyone from now on, every Thursday and Sunday she's going to show hockey games. so for anyone about to send me something in the mail, I'm changing addresses,.. I now live at KOP bar! Its funny cause there was like 15 Canadians there, and everyone mentioned they went the whole day avoiding the internet so they wouldn't see the score and have the game ruined.