"Party Join Us" by Marron Koshaku & Shinnosuke Nohara (theme from Crayon Shin-chan)

At the end of the summer of 2002, I had to say goodbye to my first girlfriend. I told her I'd miss her. I told her I'd call her. I did neither.

My family came to pick me up from camp, including my cousins visiting from Pennsylvania. The plan was to go back to my parents' place in the West Island for the night, then head down to Pennsylvania for a week, and come back just before school started.

That evening, we saw an old kung fu movie on TV, and decided that we should spend the next week making our own. Thus was born Son Kong: The Struggle Within.

"Redemption Song" by Johnny Cash & Joe Strummer

Corporal punishment is still alive and well in the Korean education system. At the boys' school where I worked, most of the teachers carried wooden dowels.  These were used to startle the kids, to get their attention, and, of course, to strike them with as much force as they saw fit. Needless to say, the students usually took their beatings honourably with a brave face.

In conversation, I tried articulating to some of these teachers the argument against corporal punishment, but with little success.  So I asked them to at least refrain from hitting the kids when I was in class with them, and to allow me to manage student discipline myself. When students acted out during my lessons, I had them go stand at the back of the room and meet me afterward during their break. The boys would cower, anticipating a blow, but instead I dragged them to the teachers' office and had them complete their task there.