Conor Meagher Fan Club

Two of our kids at AMS (Seung-gwon & Seong-woo), are on a soccer team that got picked to be followed by a Korean TV station. Also, their coach is some famous singer who played soccer at some point. So every Sunday, they show their games with sports commentators and they make them the games into a big drama. Lots of slow motion and replays. They are also doing a kind of profile of each kid and following them around during there normal routine. Today, they came to tape at AMS. Michelle told us the day before, so we just dressed nice and followed along. They stayed for a long time too. It should be interesting to see what they take and what they cut. I met the kids outside when they arrived from the bus and gave James (Seung-gwon) a double high-five. I thought it was Emmy material. Also, I was asked to play soccer with the kids in the gym while they taped, but I felt like it wasn’t my best work. I hope I can get a video file of the episode, so I can post it online. The next new one will be this Sunday at 5:55pm on KBS2. After that, I might have to start a Korean Fan Club.

Update:
I’ve got a hold of the episode and made a video with the kids going to AMS and the highlights from the soccer game. YouTube.com is a great place to host your videos. View the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/?v=n-dmMo9XKLU

First I want to say that a very special girl, who is a great friend, had a terrible tragedy in her life recently and is no longer working in Korea. If you know Erin, please be a friend and let her know that your thinking of her.

It’s nice to hear comments from people that they enjoy reading my blog. If I can put a smile on someone’s face, then I’ll keep them coming. Which means I got to update about last weeks drama, Young-eun. The day after I got the infamous email from her, I setup another date with a different girl. This girl is super cool and has a fun side to her. We actually went out last night for sushi and drinks at a jazz bar in I-tae-won. Yes, a jazz bar. She’s an avid jazz listener, because she lived in NYC for a little bit. She told me that, “jazz is like her alcohol” and I told her, “alcohol with jazz is even better”. That was my smooth comment for the night. The bar had a lot of character and a great atmosphere. The jazz was just so refreshing to hear. I wouldn’t be surprised if I went back in the near future. We had a great night, but I’m going to give it more time before I post pictures or her life story and jinx it. So I’m going to keep my fans in suspense. The second date is a go, because tonight I killed the idea of playing games and called her to setup another date. This Wednesday we will do something simple. Cheers!

Ok, I think I jinx it. Young-eun told me that I’m “too good for her” and that she doesn’t think she can give as much as I can in a relationship in an email this morning. The weird thing is we’ve only been on two dates and I’ve never asked for anything. She won’t return my calls or emails. I’m just so shocked right now because I was just going with the flow and taking what’s available. We are both busy people and she’s got an important exam soon, so I’m aware of what’s most important. I’m not crying or eating a lot of icecream, I’m just a little frustrated because I wasn’t told the truth in person or over the phone. There’s nothing I can do now. I’m sure time will bring out the truth. Girls are bad.

You may think this is not surprising, but I met someone really special a couple weeks ago that I have started to date since last week. Everything has happened so fast that I’m just going with it and not thinking too much about it. She is Korean, but has so many good qualities about her that make her unique. English is a second language for her, but it’s never a problem because we can talk for hours. At first, I wasn’t too keen on starting something this early, but why stop something that is going so good? Don’t infer that we will be married tomorrow and I live in Korea forever (, Mom). It only means what it means. Nothing more nothing less. We actually can only see each other once a week because she is studying for an exam in the first week of December to be a certified public teacher. Which is good, because it allows us to take things slow and keep our main priorities in check. But after December, we should have a lot of time to spend together.

Last night was our second date and we went to a famous traditional market in Seoul called In-sa-dong. First we went to a popular bookstore to look for some workbooks to help my Korean vocab. Then we had a nice dinner and walked around the market. It has a lot of expensive art stores that sell remakes of Korean furniture, jewelry, pottery, etc… It also has contemporary work for sale too. Nobody buys anything, just a lot of lookers. After walking the long strip of shops, we hit a real posh coffee shop with beautiful interior. Young-eun and I would spend the rest of night chatting it up about anything from international politics to my big hand size. It was a night to remember. Pictures are below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/conormeagher/sets/1353505/

Today is the sweetest day of the month, payday. Unfortunately, I owe the school some money from the beginning and I won’t get paid for my first week because it was my quote “orientation” week. So the check won’t be as full as it will in the future, but it still something. Last night I had the classic egg sandwich with ketchup because I was broke. Just recently people have asked how can they send me money. If you want to, you can, but you don’t have to. There’s an easy way actually and you can do it online with a credit card. It looks silly, but it’s a real and safe way to send money to my bank account which I can access in Korea.

The link is always at the bottom of the mailing list or on the top of the blog:
http://read.iloveconor.com/donate/

Then click where it says “Donate” with a Visa and MC logo. It should take you to another site which will process your payment and put in my bank account. No charge to you or me, just a very small percent.

That’s my one plug for the year

Yesterday after work, AMS took all the teachers and staff to a golf resort in Won-ju. It’s an expensive private club that the mother of the family who runs the school is a member of. We had sam-gyeop-sal (grilled pork) with lots of maek-ju (beer) and so-ju (strong wine). After that we went to a Nor-ae-bang (private karaoke room) and sang some tunes. The next day we packed up and took a walk around the campus before the 2 hour ride back home. It was great fun. I keep pinching myself, because I can’t believe how good of a school I work for.

My brother Patrick asked me to get more pictures with me in them. It’s hard getting pictures of yourself when your taking them, so I just use another teachers.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/conormeagher/sets/1296262/

I had one of those moments where you don’t have any idea what your doing because your a foreigner. Today was the day I had to stock up on the essentials from the “grocery store”. I put it in quotes because it’s in the basement of an eight story department store which is also a church… eight stories high. The first time I went to this building, I went to the church side and walked out with no milk. But I did find a Christian bookstore that felt like a Borders in the States, except I wouldn’t buy anything from it. Anywho, my mission was to get a plethora of items without getting run over. I took my pretty time and stocked up on a lot of goodies that are much need in my bachelor pad. Dish soap, tissues, toilet paper, air freshener, a bottle of Courvoisier, etc… After checking out, I realized real fast that nobody buys more then 20,ooow (~$18) of groceries at a time and sacks them by themselves. Which is surprising because everybody works in Korea. They’ve got a worker in every aile with well pressed skirts trying to sell you anything from baby diapers to sardines. But the one job they don’t do is sacking. So I had to sack like a champ and keep my sackage to a minimum. Well, I failed that because I bought too much and had some big items. Next step would be to figure out how to get my new purchased items in a shopping cart to my apartment across the street. I tried to ask information, but they had no idea and told me to go downstairs. So I did, but I ended up in the parking garage. Next I took the elevator upstairs and ended up in ladies fashion. Finally, I just went back to the parking garage and went out the car exit. I felt like a criminal haling all these groceries in a shopping cart outside, but I was on a mission. Crossing the street and pushing on the sidewalk during the evening rush hour was an interesting feeling. But I didn’t care, I just wanted to get to my final destination no matter how many weird looks I got. Pushing it to my apartment was pretty easy because most building floors in Korea are title or hard wood. They don’t use carpet that much. After unloading and packing them away, I thought it would be cool to have a shopping cart as a souvenir, but that thought quickly faded when I realized I wasn’t in high school anymore. After having a quick sandwich, I returned the cart to the store. The ironic thing is I saw a drop-off station for carts right in front of my apartment building after I came back home.

Ai-goo! (Oh God!)