Japan!!!

"I'm currently on winter break, and i decided to go to Japan for 10 days. I don't have too much access to internet here so i'll post some pics for now and give the back story later

My New Bike

As i mentioned last time i became obessed with getting a bicycle. I went to about five different shops, telling them all that i wanted a single speed bike (or fixed gear)with coasting breaks. I thought hand breaks were not astheticly pleasing. Almost every shop i went to told me that sounded like a crazy idea. They said first of all, Korea has many moutains and hills so it's a good idea have a bike with gears. I told every shop that i don't want gears on my bike and if they insisted that i get a bike with gears then i would (and did) take my business elsewhere. While i was at one shop i heard about LSD bikes. But nobody knew the address, so i did some research on the net. I found a blog in which they mentioned LSD, i was able to get the phone number by looking at the pic. There were a few other blogs that mentioned them but none of them had a phone number or address. Also i really liked this blog becasue i thought the girl was cute. So i ended up calling the number but i got no answer, then i asked someone else to help me find their site and it turns they were closed. (they're always closed on monday and i just happend to be calling on a monday)

http://blog.naver.com/PostThumbnailView.nhn?blogId=soobin316&logNo=113793215&categoryNo&parentCategoryNo=19

So on Tuesday i had my co-teacher call and ask for the address, and that Saturday i went to their shop. When i got there i was greeted by growls from their dog penny. So i growled back at her, and that's when they called her back and someone came to help me. I told them what i wanted, a fixed gear with coasting breaks. He explained about korea having moutains and i told him i don't want no gears. He said okay and began to looking for a coasting break for his bike frames. He explained to me that a coasting break hub is different from the hubs on his frames. Later explained that no one imports coasting breaks to Korea so it would be impossiable. so i asked for a regular fixie bike with no hand breaks and he said that was no problem.

three weeks later i got an e-mail saying my bike was ready and i can pick it up when i'm ready. so i went to the store as soon as i got my paycheck and picked it up. I dub my bike with the name "Red Bull" for the time being. Until i get the new spokes i wanted by then i will change the name to "Red Star" Now i'm off to explore Korea with my new bike, or at least i will after i get back from Japan.

Open Class

Ok so you're probably wondering what an Open class is. Well for 2010 GEPIK foreign teachers its one class a year when other teachers from your area come watch you teach. It's a way for teachers to critique your class, so they can help you improve on your teaching methods etc. (since most of the foreign teachers don't have degrees in education)


As i mentioned in the previous blog, our theme was Christmas and we had six words for the vocabulary. 1) Santa Clause 2) Christmas tree 3) Star 4) Bell 5) Gift 6) Stocking. After the introduction of the vocabulary we played the whisper game (students make a line and whisper what was said to the student in front of them, the last student then holds up a card of that word).


After the game the students then made a christmas tree. They had stickers of the vocabulary words in three different colors Yellow, Red and Green for a total of 18 sitckers. They had to listen for the word and the color then place the sticker on the tree. We ended the class by singing ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS' "CHRISTMAS DON'T BE LATE"

When it was over we said goodbye to the studetns and went to another class for the critique to begin. Some teachers mentioned they were surprised that we had no Phonic lesson in our class. We explained that since it was 1st grade Phonics was too hard for them so we focus more on "flash cards" for our style of teaching. Other than that the teachers seemed impressed with our teaching method and our school was pleased with the work that Jin and I had done.

Catching Up

I've come the the realization that if anyone was reading my blog then they "was". ahahah, bad joke on my part. Anyway, i've really neglected my blog so here's the best i can do to help catch you up (if anyone is reading).


After my Summer English Class i went back to Chicago for about 15 days. Where i spent some time with friends, especially a few i haven't seen since elementary as well as some family.


After my 15 days i came back (i had renewed my contract to teach another year at the school) {the pic is from a Halloween role play with the 5th grade class} i was back to teaching.


Although some time shortly after Halloween i quit my private tutoring. One of the students didn't really study and she kinda got on my nevers. Only the oldest student actually studied (Liucia, the oldest student pictured above).


"Jin" my co-teacher/handler telling me that we need to prepare for my OPEN CLASS in December, and that we need to do a good job to keep up the school's reputation. Our theme was "Christmas" and we taught the children to sing ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS' "CHRISTMAS DON'T BE LATE". As well as played the whisper game. It took almost a month to finish the lesson plan (revisions and all), but once we were done we were told we did a good job. Jin was so nervous because it was her 1st grade class instead of 4th grade which planned earlier.




About two weeks before my open class i became obessed with getting a bike, but not just any bike. I wanted one that had coasting breaks instead of hand breaks. (i think hand breaks are not astheticly pleasing) So i went to about five shops and finally found one called LSD (Lake Shore Drive) which is known for custom bikes. I was told to go there to get a fixie, and then they would install costing breaks for me. To my dissapointment they said it could not be done. There are no frames in Korea that have the same amout of holes as the special hub needed to install the coasting break. (hub is the part of the bike that old the wheel and the frame together)


actually it took me awhile to find the shop, and if it wasn't for this blog i probably wouldn't have been able to
http://blog.naver.com/PostThumbnailView.nhn?blogId=soobin316&logNo=113793215&categoryNo&parentCategoryNo=19
anyway i ordered my bike which should be ready in a week, and that's about all so far. (give or take a few more details)

English Summer Camp

Just some pics of My first day (and first Summer camp. Here the kids are taking a break and having a snack before we resume with classes. Some of the kids are camera shy so i had to sneak photos with my Camera. The first day was sports day, where i taught them about sports like Water Polo and Football. After the lesson, we went outside (got rained on just a little bit) and play some sports. The girls really seemed to enjoy football more than the boys. Because of the rain, and since i was actually playing with the kids it was kinda hard to take pics. So i don't have any of them actually throwing the ball.

small update!!

It's halfway past 2010 and i haven't been updating my blog. Well, here's my first attempt. It's July and the children are offically on Vacation. As summer begins i have no classes but i have to continue going to school and staying there from 8:30am till 4:20pm. As i write this i notice that one of the teachers is leaving early (it's only 12:30pm)as it is his responsibility to watch after me. I think i might go home early today. Especially since he's leaving i would have to walk about three miles to get into town and take a subway home. As you can tell from my pic there are no sidewalks to walk on, and I fucking hate Korean drivers. They drive way too fast and they all think they own the street. If you look at my pic you might assume where i'm stading and how close the car actually passes by me when i walk down the road. As for the pic the car only moved away from me when he saw that i stopped moving and i wasn't going to walk in the mud.

As i said, it's summer and i have no classes so for the time being i sit at my desk and update my photo album on facebook and send a few e-mails. Also i look for songs that i might teach the children during next week's english camp. The only problem i really have is that the computer is kinda slow especially when i open up more than four windows.

Anway i have mixed feelings about going to Chicago next week for a two week vacation. I have no idea what i'm going to do when i get there, but i think it would be great to finally get some really good mexican food. I'm just afarid of gaining weight when i'm there, and returning to Korea fat as hell. (i've just been handed my lunch for the day, two peices of sweet bread) Anyway, like i said, i'm not sure what i'll do when i arrive in chicago, since most of my friends work now and a few of them will be going on thier own vacation when i get there.


Anway the other day i took some pics of my students wearing my glasses, here are a few of the ones that i thought looked cute wearing them.

Last Sunday i traveled to 영등포 (youngdungpo) for the first time to meet Homin, whom i've been e-mailing with for a while now. The funny thing was she was standing behind the same pillar i was at when i texted her that i had arrived. As soon as i sent it she stepped in front of me. When i first saw her i was surprised to see how tall she was (she's about might height give or take an inch {i'm 5'10"}), because for no particular reason i thought she would be shorter than me. She was helping me shop for clothes for when i meet Sun-Mi later in the month. She took me to three different department stores, and suggested that i get something light to lighten my complexion. After a bit of window shopping she was finally hungry enough to have lunch with me. so we had some 갈비, with cider. After lunch we continued to window shopping, where i actually bought some clothes but nothing for my meeting with Sun-MiI told her earlier i had spent some money on a new camera because i wanted to take her picture when we met. But i told her that i would be returning in two weeks to buy what she had suggested for me. She said it sounded like fun and asked to join me again when i returned, of course i agreed. These are only a few of the pics that i took of her, there is one where she is wearing a Chicago cubs cap but she made me promise not to post it on facebook. I haven't posted it on facebook but i am considering posting it here. But if i do i'm afarid she'd get mad and won't let me take any more pictures of her in the future.

Photos coming soon

Last Night i went to 하이마트 (High Mart), and bought a new camera. Nothing special just something small and cheap so i can take pictures when i meet some people later this month. I ended up getting a Samsung VLUU ES60. I did a quick image search on yahoo.kr but couldn't find anything. I did find a few links that will show you my camera model. I really like the first link cause it has gundams with the camera. The only difference is that my camera isn't red, mine's black.

http://www.samsungimaging.co.kr/learn/forum/message/view.do?boardName=92&messageId=937&messageNumber=5#5

While i was looking for more links that would lead to pics of my camera (so i could show you which camera i bought), i came across this site for another samsung camera this one is for the Samsung VLUU PL150. I'm guess it popped up in the search cause it's a "VLUU" model (or series, whatever you want to call it). Anyway the reason i'm posting this link cause i thought the video was kinda interesting. I just happen to be a sucker for cute girls and i can never get enough of photos of cute girls. For any of yous who are reading this right now and getting excited don't, it's only a link of a girl taking a pic of herself while she's at a coffee shop.

http://popco.net/zboard/zboard.php?id=dica_forum_samsung&no=1862

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school, but my lazy butt still hasn't bought a camera since sports day last semester (sometime in August), when i dropped my camera and broke it. So this is a pic from when i first arrived at the school. As it turns out, the new first grade teacher, apparently my new "co-teacher/handler" has just informed me that english classes won't start until some time next week. So as for this week i'll be doing more in school studying. Which also means i probably won't be meeting my new "co-teacher/english conversation teacher" till that time.

But i've decided to buy a new camera this weekend for sure. Since i'm going to meet 호민 (Homin) for the first time (a person i met on KoreanCupid), so i would really like to document this meeting. I've decided that i would have to go to 용산 (youngsan) to find a cheap camera. hopefully one that is compatable with my memory card (but more than likely won't be). Also becasue later in the month i'm going to meet a friend from college whom i've haven't seen in almost three years. For which i would like to have a camera on hand as well. More than likely i'm going to have to use 삼성카드 (credit card) despite already owing 2.2 million won on it, but it's not my fault that i owe that much. When i set up the account they were suppose to pull payments out directly from my bank on the agreed date. Which they have not done, so as it seem i will have to make a payment via telephone. Anyway i'm a little nervous since i know that most people in 용산 want cash, but i'm saving all my cash for when i meet both people. Anyway, the sales people in Youngsan are vultures only wanting cash. Who are quick to tell people to go to an ATM to get cash. So if all else fails i'll go to 망우 to E-Mart to buy a camera and all the accessories needed.

An Introduction of sorts (more like explanaition)

I know it's been a long time since i wrote anything here, but that's mainly cause i don't digital camera to upload pics so you (whoever reads my blog) knows what i'm talking about. So what i want to do now is explain the name of my blog. First is "Shuf" which is shortened verson of my nick name, Sheffy. How "shuf" came out of sheffy i don't know, it's just what my friends called me alternating between sheffy and shuf. (sheffy was just one of the many nick name's i had, in High school i was called Kaneda, you know like from anime "Akira", okay lets get back to the topic) The reason i chose to use shuf in the title was also becasue i didn't want people to just google sheffy and find it. As for "Way Of The" is a parodoy of "Way Of The Samurai" and "Way Of The Intercepting Fist". I really like asian pop culture so i wanted to incorporate that into the title of my blog. Bruce Lee has been a big inspiration to my life becasue of awesome personality on film. As well as some of his philosphy as i got older in life (i'm not that old, i'm only 26 right now). Originally i wanted to name this blog "Last Of The Shufs", again another parody of a film title LAST OF THE MOHICANS. Instead i chose "Way Of The Shuf" becasue of Bruce Lee. Part of his philosphy in relation to teaching and learning, where one should teach what they "learned" as opposed to teaching what one has been taught. I orginally wanted to use this blog to not only say what i did during the day but explain myself as to why i made the decision that i did. From everyday things like why i bought a baseball hat (becasue team, color, or maybe becasue it was used as part of the costume for a character in a film etc). And Hopfully philosphy of my own would appear. I had been wanting to write a blog for a while but hadn't started one because many people were writing blogs and it seemed trendy to me, and if you know me you know i hate trends or that i get into them really late. But I already mention the person i thought was most responsiable for me creating a blog in my very first blog entry. Kei, whos blog i constantly read because of her cleverness and unique style. I find her blog very entertaining and only hope that readers will find my blog as entertaining as i find hers. Becasue i enjoy her blog so much she was listed as one of my "heros" in myspace (i say "was" because myspace changed it's format, which i hate and now i'm no longer sure if the heros section is still there, also i rarley log onto it anymore because i have more actual friends on facebook and Kei just happens to be one of them)