Fashion Profile – Shikha Dilawri

January 28, 2010
By Nicole Venegas

For the first blog of the year I decided to do something different. I usually walk around campus looking for outfits that catch my eye. But with the weather conditions I am finding a lot more Uggs and pea coats than anything else. So I chose to highlight some people I see on a regular basis who dress impeccably well — no matter what the weather is outside.

For this week’s blog I chose Shikha Dilawri. She is a third-year international relations student who is in my French class. Every day I’ve seen her since the beginning of this school year I’m always impressed by her vintage-inspired outfits and by the way she throws on oversized clothing.

Born in Ottawa, this shoe lover has an enviable wardrobe and an amazing shoe collection.

I wanted to know a little bit more about her, her background and her inspirations. So I asked her a few questions.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I grew up in Ottawa and I like lots of things like a good satire, music from the 1980s, driving with the windows down, history, HBO and a warm cup of coffee.

What inspires the way you dress? Do you have any influences?
Travelling, other cultures and the way people used to dress.

What is the thing you notice first in someone’s outfit?
Shoes, which may have been inspired by seeing just a few too many pairs of Uggs.

What item can’t you live without?
Clothes that are way too big for my body.

Do you have any fashion rules?
To wear at least one thing that was from another decade.

What is your favorite place to shop?
When I can get to a Steven Alan or Opening Ceremony they always pleasantly surprise me, but I usually end up in a barrage of second hand stores and stores in obscure alleyways.

If someone asked for fashion advice from you what would you say?
Don’t wear something if you know at least five people who have the same thing.

What is your next ‘must have’ item?
A classic round-faced men’s watch. Mine stopped working ages ago and I’ve been incessantly late for class since.

What is your favorite designer/brand?
Complex Geometries based out of Montréal is great, you can make anything with their clothes.

Your typical Saturday night:
When I’m not writing papers, anything that involves good people, good music, good conversations and wine.

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Seven things…

Of the Maple Leafs, Michael Peca and overpaid goons
January 23, 2010
By Arden Zwelling

1. I’m not feeling a lot of remorse for Georges Laraque after the Montreal Canadiens told the 13-year NHL veteran to go home and stay there for the rest of the season — a move Laraque called “classless.” Laraque is being grossly overpaid — the Habs signed him to a three-year contract to the tune of $4.5 million — for the one goal he scored in 18 months wearing red and blue.

It’s not like he was being a very good goon, either. Laraque only fought 13 times in that span or about once every five games. In the NHL, those who cannot score fight. And those who cannot fight or score should look for a new line of work.

2. Chris Bosh is the real deal. He showed everyone his aggressive off-season work out regimen is paying off by following up a 21-point, 10 rebound, 42 minute effort against Cleveland in which he was battling with Shaq the entire night with another 42 minutes of solid play against Milwaukee the next night, where he put up a career high 42 points.

It’s scary how much better the 25-year-old gets with every new season. If MLSE is serious about raising a basketball banner that doesn’t say division champion they will do everything in their power to ensure Bosh stays in Toronto past this season. That includes giving him the maximum salary and spending way into the luxury tax to surround him with quality, championship-driven players.

3. Third is the spot where the Maple Leafs will most likely pick in the 2010 NHL entry draft, assuming they stay in 28th place in the standings, which is where they sit today. Oh, wait. Traded that first round pick away. Well, there’s always next year. Oh, wait. Traded that one too.

Aside from proving my preseason prediction that they would fail miserably to be correct, the Leafs this year continue to demonstrate new ways to lose on a nightly basis — like in overtime to the lowly Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.

4. Unlike the aforementioned Laraque, Michael Peca was worth every penny he was paid over his 13-year NHL career which unfortunately came to an end this past week when Peca announced his retirement after he couldn’t find an NHL suitor. Peca was one of the best two-way players in the NHL, providing a scoring threat in the offensive zone while playing shutdown defence in his own end.

His contributions to the penalty kill were also greatly underappreciated, although 30 NHL teams felt his shorthanded services weren’t needed this season, including the Leafs whose 69.7% penalty kill sits dead last in the NHL by a mile. How Rickard Wallin and Colton Orr can find employment in the NHL while Mike Peca can not is a fact that will forever puzzle me.

5. Fifth is the number where the Ottawa Senators currently sit in the NHL Eastern Conference standings — also about five spots higher than anyone expected them to place. Albeit quietly, the Sens are piecing together a nice run in the new year, having won their last six games in a row. The team is only three points behind defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh who the Senators will play next Thursday in a game that may be a bit more intriguing than it was before the season began.

6. Why does everyone hate the Jets? A hard-nosed team who were considered by most to be nothing more than also-rans in the AFC East this year makes the conference championships on the heels of stellar defence, a solid ground game and a 23-year-old QB who has risen to the occasion in just his first year in the league. What’s not to like? Do I think they will beat the Colts on Sunday? No. But, will I be cheering for them to upset Peyton and his troops? No doubt.

7. We can all breathe a sigh of relief now that the rumours about Carlos Delgado signing with the Blue Jays have proven false. Aside from the nice sentimental value of having the greatest Jays first baseman since John Olerud return to the nest, Delgado would have provided absolutely nothing to this team.

His inclusion at first base or DH would take valuable playing time away from the Jays young guns: Travis Snider, Randy Ruiz, Adam Lind and Brett Wallace. Not to mention the age-advanced Delgado will probably hit around the same clip as Jays current first baseman Lyle Overbay, while providing an incredible downgrade in terms of defence.

The Jays have admitted they won’t be contending this year, so taking a flyer on a past-his-prime veteran is definitely a bad move. Let the kids develop and we can all dream of how good this team can be in 2012. Just like how in 2008 we all dreamed of how good the team would be in 2010. Wait a second…

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Top 10 most popular articles of the year

January 8, 2010
By Stuart A. Thompson

This was a busy year for the Gazette. After a website overhaul in the summer, we now post more content more often. We also started tracking website traffic. We watched with awe as traffic for certain articles exploded over days or even weeks. Here are the most popular posts of 2009 since our website launched in September.

10. Facebook forever, Twitter never

This column must have pulled at some heart strings. By justifying Facebook’s cyberstalking while condemning Twitter’s incessant updates and an overall “mountain of information,” Opinions Editor Jaclyn Haggarty was able to earn significant traffic very quickly.

9. Finding Solidarity

This was an article that we worked on quite extensively but we never got the comments we expected to see. It’s an article about Western’s Society of Graduate Students, something we rarely get the opportunity to cover. But after some controversy over  graduate students trying to leave Canada’s largest student lobbying group, the opportunity came for some coverage. In the end, while we fell short on comments, it seems this article found an online audience who were interested in the topic.

8. Fashion on Campus

Another new addition was blogs. This one, by Nicole Venegas, was our first and most successful themed blog. Hits for every post were unexpectedly high, but it seems like students enjoy this kind of blogging with an emphasis on pictures and the chance to see yourself or friends.

7. London Transit threatens strike

While everyone was awaiting news on a strike, we were planning our coverage because we knew this would be a big issue for students. This was one of our first articles on the strike and we plugged it in our Facebook and Twitter pages pretty thoroughly, adding a live updates feature and even a convenient landing page on the site. The result from all of this coverage was good organization and some extra hits on articles like this.

6. Fall Fashion

No surprise here. After a stunning debut, Nicole published this post on fall fashion trends, which was shared extensively on our social media outlets and plugged on the front page with some bonus throws. Read the article.

5. On Richmond Row, gay hatred grows

I wrote this column about a lot of strange homophobia I was experiencing on Richmond Street at night. Most of the traffic for the article came from Facebook profiles, meaning people were sharing it with their friends. What was especially encouraging about this post was the number of comments. With 24 comments, it was the second-most commented article we’ve ever had. There were also two printed letters-to-the-editor. At the time, some violent incidents were being reported in London which motivated people to post their feelings about the situation in the city. Read the article.

4. Quick, someone get Damien Rhodes on the horn

This blog post was written by one of most committed writers online, Sports Editor Arden Zwelling, who also has a Gazette Twitter account and runs live blogs during important sports games. Combine his enthusiasm with a timely piece about a controversial issue and you’ve got the most popular blog post we’ve ever done. Interestingly, it’s also the only post in the top 10 to have no comments. Read the article.

3. Six officers needed to take down student

The “take down” in the Social Science Centre became national and international news. When this story broke we knew the Internet would play an integral role in communicating information because the controversy was based on a YouTube video. In the paper edition of this article, we published four screenshots of the video. In print, we had all the resources necessary to fill in all the blanks. Read the article.

2. SOGS president called out

The interest in this article is what prompted the larger feature, Finding Solidarity (#9 on the list). From the number of comments, it was evident this was a very passionate and controversial issue to the people involved. For our regular audience it probably wasn’t. The comments were probably the main reason people kept coming back, wanting to keep up on the conversation and add their own rebuttals. So the article was allowed to find an audience online who seemed to be sharing the article through email and Facebook messages. Read the article.

1. Arrest in the SSC

This was the follow-up to “Six officers needed to take down student” but it actually came out on the same day. This was the Gazette‘s first ever live reporting. The first draft of the post was written in the morning after the incident happened. It was updated a startling 77 times by week’s end. The result was phenomenal. Not only is it the most read post, it’s also the most commented and the first to have accompanying video (of a press conference). It inevitably marks a milestone for online Gazette coverage and something we’re striving to replicate as we enter the second half of the school year. Read the article.

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Torrential brainstorm

November 27, 2009
By Stuart A. Thompson

Last Tuesday I represented all Londoners under 30 when I showed up at the Downtown Master Plan public workshop.

The night was more like a brainstorming session where board members, city folk and gray-haired businesspeople answered questions about what they want from downtown.

Maps and workbooks littered the Museum London gallery area where results from the first brainstorming workshop were on full display. A large map on each table showed what some previous brainstormers wanted from downtown: a bus terminal at York St., more green living space, a pedestrian walking centre at Dundas and Richmond, and more ludicrous ideas like a Godzilla theme park. (The City didn’t toss out any ideas.)

After a warm-up speech by a city staffer, each table was asked to come up with a mission statement. We were given a list of adjectives like “affordable,” “pleasant” and “24-hours-a-day.” Matching those were elements like “green space” and “cyclists.”

From there, my group came up with this concise little gem:

The downtown should be a place to live for young and old where communities are connected through green, public, pedestrian places that are always changing!

The second exercise asked us to tackle three challenges discovered so far. We were assigned these puzzlers:

Should the Downtown Boundary be changed?

The Downtown Boundary decides which businesses are given special treatment under downtown legislation and which aren’t. It determines whether the London Downtown Business Association and Mainstreet London will acknowledge their existence and help out.
We decided downtown needs to a two-tier boundary. Because the downtown is currently so big, it’s hard for the city to focus their resources. We need a downtown “core” and a downtown “fringe,” each getting special accommodation. As the market allows, the core will expand into the fringe. The fringe should also promote districts, like a fashion district and a restaurant district, with focused destinations for consumers. Currently, downtown has a few attractions, but they’re dispersed geographically.

Should the existing major entertainment policies be stronger?

The current policies mandate that any big business, like the John Labatt Centre, must be considered for placement in the downtown. We decided that bringing something like an IMAX movie theatre would help bring an assortment of consumers to the area. Like the JLC has demonstrated, major entertainment destinations allow the areas around them to grow. The JLC has promoted a restaurant district like we talked about in the first point.

Should Richmond Row be turned into a two-lane street?

The idea here is both calming traffic and expanding pedestrian walkways. But come on. Richmond Row would be a nightmare on any night of the week when the bar scene gets out. There are also few alternatives for navigating up and down the downtown. What might make sense is reducing the lanes south of King St. and north of York St. This area is currently used only as a through way, not as a gateway, so could be reasonably routed elsewhere and reconnected at King.
From the other tables, people emphasized how pedestrian walkways are important and how London should look to larger cities like Chicago and Toronto as idols. One man suggested we build a glass roof over Dundas St. Another said we need electric shuttle buses to move people from fringe parking lots to the core.

Overall it was an interesting night, but I’m not completely satisfied. I seemed to be the only person under 30 years old. There was little talk from most groups about investing in art. I never heard the words “Creative City,” which is an incredible model for downtown revitalization. As the city continues I hope students or young people will take more of an interest in the downtown and I hope city staffers recognize our benefit. Maybe it’s up to us to show them.

See you at the next meeting?

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How to solve the campus radio dilemma

November 19, 2009
By Stuart A. Thompson

Take a look at CHRW’s old magazine — a cool, irreverent little publication called Airshift that ran from 1981 to 1996. Inside, you’ll find local bands, feature articles, calendars and an incredible enthusiasm for the campus radio scene.

The March 1982 issue (see sidebar) has an article about the history of campus radio (page 8). In it, Pat Nagle writes about how campus stations started picking up the new FM signal and created their own broadcasts. The stations overcame technological barriers with rampant support from student councils, an army of volunteers and an insatiable desire to harness the power of radio waves.

“Campus radio clubs and fledgling stations sprung up on campuses all across the country. These groups were often supported by increasingly active student councils and relied almost exclusively on volunteers,” Nagle wrote.

Where are we now?
Today the situation is much different. The medium remained stagnant while the technology and culture surrounding it evolved. People are very individualistic these days, wanting exactly what they want and little more. The internet itself represents the fragmented nature of how society consumes: give me one article, not the whole newspaper; give me the definition, not the dictionary.

How does radio remain relevant when their product is counter-intuitive to how people consume?

All campus radio stations would benefit from a long study of the CBC Radio 3 model. Its recent upgrade allows for custom playlists, web streams and a library of podcasts — all on demand. CHRW already takes advantage of some of these, like huge music archive and constantly updated show archives.

But it’s hard to compare to CBCR3. Its blog style front page lets users post comments, interact with the DJs and give feedback. A mandatory profile registration brings users inside the community and recreates what used to happen at campus radio stations back in the day. When you’re looking to build a community around anything, the internet is an incredible tool.

Campus radio stations face a lot of challenges when it comes to building an online presence. Namely manpower and money, which are always in short supply for campus media of all kinds, including the Gazette. So while CHRW employees tell me a new website is in the works, they face an incredible hurdle. I would consider anything short of blogs, on-demand content and user profiles a missed opportunity.

But this requires a renewed mandate from the student council, students and the community — one that emphasizes innovation and upgrade. This simply can’t happen without more money, so the University Students’ Council needs to unfreeze the budget so the station can beat inflation and become more financially flexible.

To win over student hearts and minds, the USC needs to sponsor an information campaign about how and why campus radio is important. Work with the National Campus and Community Radio Association to understand better why the radio is important. This fits with the USC’s renewed mandate for service-oriented programming. CHRW’s bottom line is irrelevant if it provides a service to students, and it can only do that in the long term by upgrading.

So consider this a challenge for campus stations and the students who pay for it. Campus radio has a long, proud and important history. But it’s time for change. The powers that be need to invest in our campus radio station to give its employees the financial support to achieve the goals they’ve already recognized. The product needs to be adapted to the consumers. Keep the FM side and expand its online counterpart. This will allow campus radio everywhere to remain as relevant as possible for years.

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Strike plan announced by USC, UWO

November 14, 2009
By Stuart A. Thompson

A strike is now unavoidable.

London Transit workers will go on strike Monday morning after last-minute talks between the management and union fizzled on Sunday.

The strike leaves approximately 75,000 to 80,000 daily passengers stranded.

USC and UWO announce strike plan
Students looking for a solution received an email late Saturday night from University Students’ Council President Emily Rowe.

She announced a new website called Mustangs Moving Mustangs, which includes carpools, ride shares, and walking tips as part of the plan.

“So Mustangs, it’s time to help one another. Mustangs must move Mustangs,” Rowe said in the email. “Let’s help each other make those morning classes, get to exams on time, get home safely.”

The plan includes:

• Car pools — a website, located at student.uwo.ca, allows students to register and find nearby drivers or riders
• Flag-a-ride — bag tags and car signs for drivers who want to pick up students
• Walking, biking and taxicab tips
• A minivan service — 40 minivans provided by UWO (details to come)
• Off-campus shuttle buses — Limited off-campus bus service will be offered by Western (details to come)

While classes will run as usual, students struggling with transportation issues can also seek academic accommodation.

“While Faculties will strive to be flexible during the first few days of the strike, the onus will be on students to show how the transit strike caused undue hardship,” the website read.

Students should check their Western emails before leaving to see if any classes have been cancelled.

For students who may not be able to get home at night, the plan has a solution for that, too.

“[The University Community Centre] is open 24-7, and we are putting on extra security for the duration of the work stoppage,” the FAQ section of the website read.

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The original email sent to Western students from Emily Rowe:
With the London Transit Commission drivers set to begin work stoppage on Monday November 16th it’s time for Mustangs to move Mustangs. Visit the USC’s new site for up to date information regarding the LTC strike and what your University Students’ Council and your University are doing to help you get from point A to point B.
On this site you will be able to find links to information and iniatives aimed at helping students, faculty, and staff get through this strike. There is also a feedback forum to ensure that any questions you may have regarding this strike are answered.
So Mustangs, it’s time to help one another. Mustangs must move Mustangs. Let’s help each other make those morning classes, get to exams on time, get home safely. It’s time to pull together as a community.
Visit http://www.mustangsmovingmustangs.ca for full details.
Emily Rowe, 
USC President

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Plaid and Sequin

November 6, 2009
By Nicole Venegas

Last week was so exiting for me. I not only found so many well-dressed people around campus, but I got the chance to meet Sean and Samantha from the Fashion and Lifestyle Society. I also encountered a few people who were familiar with the blog and that was really exiting as well.

A few outfits that really caught my eye included plaid short shorts with black opaque tights to suit the weather, and this beautiful sequin sweater that Samantha was wearing, which definitely seemed like a one-of-a-kind. Here are some of the best outfits for this week.

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Rainy day fashions

October 23, 2009
By Nicole Venegas

With all the rain lately, I saw a beautiful assortment of trench coats around campus.

I also encountered an amusing trend and it’s shown throughout this week’s blog. It seems moccasins and Converse shoes are fairly popular among guys’ everyday attire.

You’ll see that most pictures this week are of well-dressed guys, which was a nice surprise!

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Fall fashion

October 5, 2009
By Nicole Venegas

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Fashion on Campus

September 23, 2009
By Nicole Venegas

My name is Nicole Venegas and I’m a fourth-year visual arts and political science student. For the next year I’ll be walking around campus photographing the most stylish of Western’s population.

The warm fall means campus is still full of many great summer outfits, and with cooler weather approaching I excitedly anticipate seeing an assortment of fall coats and boots.

I look for people with style — no matter what type it is. There is a difference between following a trend and having a unique style of your own. Follow my blog to see the most unique and creative styles on Western’s campus!

Welcome back to school everyone. I will see you around.

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I Want it All! The Terrifying Lows, the Dizzying Highs…the Creamy Middles

September 13, 2009
By Alex Rathy

I was warned from the beginning by my recruitment agency, Canadian Connection. A good friend of mine, who had been here for a year prior to my arrival, did his best to clue me in. What little research I actually put into getting ready for this excursion, half-assed e-mail trading with the teacher I was to replace and sporadic blog-checking, gave me a strong indication. All of the information I received more or less said the same thing: your first month here is going to be a roller coaster of epic proportions and you’re going to have to ride it out.

So I did the best I could all summer to prepare myself, mentally and physically. I bought a pair of hiking boots and spent an entire summer roller-blading, running and biking through Harris and Gibbons parks, to lessen the shock of traversing a country 70% covered by mountains. I packed three bottles of Pepto Bismol to get me through that lovely little transition to Korean food I now like to call “Kim Il-sung’s revenge.” And I spent countless hours, late at night, too exhausted to do much but too nervous-excited to sleep, convincing myself that no matter what the challenge I would keep an open-mind. Roll with the punches, go with the flow. Tortured cliché about dealing with whatever life throws at you. Something about lemons. You get the picture.

None of it did one damn bit of good.

After the proverbial lovefest that was orientation in Gurye, everything seemed to go wrong when I moved to Suncheon. My legs and ass were sorer than they’ve ever been in my entire life from constant hiking. After a brief love affair and general intestinal agreeance with Korean food, my stomach undertook the kind of rebellion that would have made a late 18th century French king tremble with fear (and which has only very recently subsided). My apartment resembled the kind of student ghetto-esque dwelling I was so sure I had left behind, at only a quarter of the size. I had four different cab drivers take me to four different hospitals one afternoon, none of which were the one I was supposed to go to for my medical check. And of course my co-teacher made the wonderful decision to not attend any of my classes, to give me instructions for everything I was to do in Korean and to tell me “oh, by the way, you teach extra classes every Monday and Wednesday from 3:50-4:30. You were supposed to start last week, so you should teach two this week.” At 3 p.m. on Monday afternoon. I was feeling very much like…how do the French say? Fuck my life.

And then, the following Wednesday evening, something funny happened. After a particularly exhausting eight hours of policing little demon fifteen year olds and enduring the head-on-desk bashing frustration of being unable to teach a seventh grader how to respond to the question “can you swim”? with “yes, I can” or “no, I can’t,” I decided to go to the gym to blow off some steam (post on the whole weird Korean bath thing to come). After my workout and a quick shower, trying desperately to make a hasty retreat for the exit without catching eyes with anyone, a tiny sixty-eight your old Korean man shuffled over and managed to get himself directly in my way. Resisting the immediate urge to Pedro his Zimmer, I managed to growl “can I help you”?

It turns out it was him who helped me more than he could have possibly known.

He proceeded to ask me if I was a new foreign teacher and asked me why I looked so upset. I told him about my day, and he proceeded to tell me that he had worked in the United States back in the 1970s for about five years. He explained that he tried to make friends with the ex-pats in my town because he was afraid of losing his English, which he had so little chance to practice. And he assured me that if I ever had a bad day – or just needed someone to talk to or explain things I didn’t understand about this place – well, he would be there for me. Apparently random acts of kindness are a universal language.

The next few days after that little incident were much better. A little elbow grease had the apartment looking better. The unadulterated abuse of a handful of online Korean translators made my cab rides infinitely smoother. Even my classes went better than I could have imagined. Nothing like a little compassion to put everything back into perspective, eh?

There are still good days and bad days. God, are there ever bad days. But the intense emotional wave I was riding has broken and been replaced by a gently rolling tide. The terrifying lows and dizzying highs have given way to the cream in the middle.

Mmmmm. Creamy middle.

T-shirt of the week:
Front: Sun Your Buns
Back: Oh Yeah!

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Cheer up! You’re the man

September 4, 2009
By Alex Rathy

About a month and a half ago, drunk as a loon and exuding a newfound, wholly unwarranted (yet very real) confidence in myself as the type of writer who people might actually enjoy reading on a quasi-frequent basis, I made a proposition to a man who bears a striking resemblance to one Hank Scorpio that, lucky for me, he apparently did not have the good sense to refuse.

The idea, hatched at a birthday/going away party in my honour after the better part of a bottle of Wild Turkey and shoved unexpectedly on the editor-in-chief of the Gazette, Ryan Hendrick, in front of thirty or so party guests, was to write a bi-monthly column as the paper’s first ever online Foreign Correspondent on my experiences teaching English in South Korea. Through the dense, bourbon-induced fog I thought to myself “hell, everyone has either done it before, has thought about doing it or knows someone who does it. It’s the natural next step after university for future educators, wonderlust kings, those who owe the next half decade of their lives to the educational-financial complex and that special breed of crazy bastard with no idea what to do with their life. Why wouldn’t people want to read about that? And who better to do it than the guy who showed up at the end of his last semester of university, wrote four articles and somehow managed to worm his way into the hearts and minds of the editorial staff?”

Of course, like a good editor, Ryan calmly put down his beer, looked me right in the eye and said something to the effect of “that’s not a bad idea. How about you think about it a little more sometime when you can stand under your own power, come up with a real plan and then put on a suit and tie and do a little song-and-dance for me?”

And so I did.

While the dream of a bi-monthly column in the print edition unfortunately died on the grapevine (and, with it, my dreams of a picture, byline, and “Honourary Editor” title), a new opportunity to reach all of you with my crazy stories, random obsevations about life and hilarious sayings from Korean t-shirts and signs once a week has manifested itself on the Gazette’s beautiful new website in the form of this little photo blog.

I’ve sat down to write this first post about a half-dozen times over the last week, but, as usual, I find myself working furiously to complete it about four hours after it was due. The usual culprit, a passive-aggressive propensity for procrastination which I can only assume will send me to an early, high blood pressure induced grave, is only partially to blame. The real problem has been trying to find the kind of peace, solitude and emotional stability needed to give my thoughts the proper kind of restrospection they need to keep this blog from becoming an angry, reactionary vent for everything that I don’t understand about this country.

To say that the experience thus far has been a roller coaster is the kind of utterance that might take home the prize for understatement of the year. While the first week was a relative vacation, an orientation/quarantine for H1N1 in the countryside full of seventy new friends and half-remembered nights, soju bombs and noraebong nights and toasts to the greatest job ever, the next was full of shit-hole apartments in new cities with no A/C, leaking ceilings and no hot water, cab rides in the wrong direction, failed bus trips and several near emotional breakdowns. And THEN I started teaching…

…but I think I’ll save that for next week. The kind of glowing review I’d love to give my first week on the job teaching middle school in Suncheon (replete with five hundred hi-fives a day, constant calls of “Alex-eu” and “handsome boy” and several proposals by thirteen-year old girls) will undoubtedly be tempered by next week when they, you know…start acting like teenagers. Ah, well. Until that time I remain, yours in relatively high spirits but weary of dong chim,

Alex

T-shirt of the week:
Front: You know what?
Back: Crack kills money and people.

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