Teaching English in Korea

TESL in Korea Blog has MOVED!!!

2010-12-27T21:45:00.000-08:00

We are now at:

www.chrispalasz.com/blogs

Please update your links!!!

Brother Mark in Korea 2010

2010-11-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

It's sort of funny how it's been over a year since my oldest brother, Mark, came to Korea - and yet if you scroll down just a little bit you can see a blog post about the last time he came, as though it were recent.

Seoul, Myeongdong, and Namsan (Seoul Tower)

Well, Mark had business in China. Since he was in the neighborhood, he flew to Seoul just for the weekend to visit me. We had a good time catching up, and he stayed at my place in Bucheon. We ate Bulgogi for lunch and it was good. In the evening, we went to Seoul and he was finally able to meet Nuri! We met up in Myeongdong and, from there, we went and took the cable car to the top of Namsan, the location of Seoul Tower. The cable car ride was not spectacular, but we had a great time up top. It was a cool night and the view was nice. We walked down the road a ways, past the bathrooms, to my favorite look-out. It takes about 5 minutes to walk there. It's down a bit, but the view is well worth it, as it's comparable to the peek.

On the way there, we walked past some walls. My brother commented that they must be very old walls because they weren't built with mortar in between the rocks. Later, Nuri checked on the internet and learned that some of the walls on Namsan are roughly 600 years old.

That night, we ate galbi in Myeongdong. It was the same restaurant Chain that President Obama ate at during his stay in Korea for the recent G20 summit. The lady at the restaurant said, "Obama liked it!". lol - it was very delicious.

The Homeless, Crazy, and Drunks in Korea

We were tired when we took the subway back to my home. While we waited, Mark interacted with a crazy homeless woman. She was crazy in a nice way, but crazy all the same. He was surprised when she walked up to him and poked him in the gut with her pointer finger. Nuri stepped away and pretended not to know us. What my brother DIDN'T know, which Nuri and I DID know (and I had found out the hard way), was that the homeless, drunk, or crazy people in Korea behave a bit differently than the ones you might see in USA. IN USA - it's generally harmless to engage with them. You just talk, then say goodbye, and that's that. In Korea, however, I've had guys give me food, put their arm around my neck and harass a nearby Korean girl to translate his words to me (despite the fact that she was adamant several times that she did NOT know any English!), and another time a man started kissing my hand. He wasn't even homeless, just drunk.

Our Meals

With each meal, of course we drank Soju. Mark is quick to fall in love with this traditional Korean alcohal. It has a very smooth taste that compliments Korean food well. You'll notice that our first meal was Bulgogi, and our second was galbi. The next day, we woke up and had a late lunch. Sangyupsal, of course! To westerners, it's basically just thick cuts of bacon - but there are many qualities and ways of eating it. The place we stopped was pretty good and very filling.

I know - that's 3 meals of heavy meet! Plus soju and rice and kimchi, of course! But... hey, when my brother is here for just a short time, gotta live it up!!!

Korean TV Drama (2006): Jumong (주몽)

2010-11-21T07:10:00.000-08:00

I'm currently watching a Korean TV Drama from 2006 that was recommended to me by a friend who used to work with me at YBM. The name of the Drama is Jumong (주몽).

Here's the wiki link about this drama: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumong_(TV_series)

ABOUT THE SHOW

This is not the first Korean Drama I've watched - BUT - it IS the FIRST Korean drama I've watched that I will confidently recommend to my best friends back home! Although each episode is a little lengthy (running at 1 hour of PURE tv versus in US where a 1 hour show is actually 45 minutes of show + commercials) - it is absolutely excellent. It's interesting, unpredictable, and captivating. It can be funny at times (and not the kind of funny where you're laughing at the people who made the show. Trust me, they're intending you to laugh), and it's filled with drama and action.

This is a historical show, which follows the life of a prominent figure in Korea's history: Jumong Taewang. There aren't a lot of details in the records about Jumong, so of course just like any good non-fiction creative writing piece, the writers were free to create the drama - but you can still learn a lot from this show as long as you know what to look at.

KOREAN IDENTITY AND MY IMPRESSIONS

This is the first historical drama I've watched in Korea. For me, it has taught me more about Korean identity. When foreigners come to Korea, they usually feel (as I once did) that Korea lacks identity and still struggles to find itself. I'm not so sure that this even vaguely resembles the truth for Korean people, though. This show tells me about Korean identity: how they fought the Han (Chinese) for territory and how their ancient people are very distinct, separate, and different from other asian nations such as China and Japan.

'Foreigners' living in USA tend not to see that. I was telling Nuri that 'we' generally view Korean, Chinese, and Japanese people (as well as others such as Phillipino and Vietnamese etc) as being the 'same'. An unspoken popular thought might be: well? Look. Same color skin. Same color hair. Same kind of hair (generally silky black/dark brown, straight and thin), same color eyes, same body type... they're obviously descended from the same people with slight variance. This is all apart from culture, of course - which, even that, can be viewed as categorically the 'same' (rice consumption and chopsticks being common denominators).

Nuri could understand this because she said there is a similar sentiment in Korea regarding westerners. Many view 'us' as being the 'same' - white skin colored bread-eaters. lol

Jumong will teach you both history, and a lot about Korean identity - as in: how they view themselves. Of course it's flavored a lot (for example, the people in this show are using Taegwando! LOL), but it's still very fun to watch!

Check it out if you get the chance!

Teaching English in Korea - Renewed

2010-11-21T06:07:00.000-08:00

Although I've been away from my blog for too long, it has not been forgotten. I'll consider this time just an extended hiatus. I've taken pictures and gathered thoughts for many blog posts during this time - and I'm overdue in starting all of it flowing again.

My apologies to the blog lovers. I hope you enjoy the renewed flow of thoughts and information.

UPDATE:

Here's an update on what has been happening from the last time I posted until now.

1) I completed my contract working at YBM Premier Adult English Center in Jongno, Korea, after July, 2009.

2) I collected my severance pay as well as Pension. I moved back to USA and went to my sister's wedding.

3) I rented an apartment in my home town and worked temporary jobs as well as substitute teaching.

4) I took a vacation to New York for the first time, spent two weeks seeing the things I wanted, visiting my aunt Terry who lives in Hell's Kitchen as well as two Korean friends. By the way, my aunt is a singer. Here's her website: www.polishdiva.com - she's really great at what she does. I think she just needs a new webspage. :)

5) One of the Korean friends I visited in New York was Nuri, the girl I had dated in Korea. We got back together during that time and kept in touch via Skype. I began planning my return to Korea.

6) Ultimately, I hope to get a job teaching at a University in or very near Seoul. That's what I want. At some point, I wouldn't mind trying Public High School. Other than that - I just flat out love teaching English!

7) I accepted a job at SLP (Sogang Language Program) in Mokdong, Seoul. It's a Hogwon (or a private kindergarten + afterschool program for elementary school kids). I accepted this job primarily because it is only 10 minutes from my girlfriend, and I was hired to work daytime hours (9-6pm teaching kindergarten) but it never happened. After six months, I still wasn't working daytime hours, so I parted ways with SLP and found a new job.

8) I no longer live in Seoul. I live in Bucheon, which is halfway between Incheon and Seoul. I now work at a small private kindergarten. It's a family owned business and I absolutely love it. My kids are absolutely adorable and great. My boss and my coworkers are very nice.

Future Plans:

9) I will stay in Bucheon and finish this contract. I will probably resign and work at least until the end of February, 2012. After that - I might fly to Thailand and get my TESOL certificate. That will put me a big step closer towards a University Job in or around Seoul! BUT - these plans aren't set in stone! We'll see what happens!!!

My Brother Mark Visits to Korea

2009-06-21T05:11:00.000-07:00

Last week, my oldest brother, Mark, flew to South Korea to visit me. Before he came to visit, I hadn't seen him in about 3 years. Here's his official record and impression of South Korea during his stay. Enjoy another take!
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Click here to see all the photos from my brother Mark's visit to South Korea
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My Week in Korea Visiting Brother Chris

by Brother Mark

First Day, Thursday

After 27 hours of traveling through San Fran and Tokyo, I finally reached my destination of Seoul. Groggy yet elated to have arrived, I had prepared Chris for what I needed. Any international flight that crosses a major ocean, no matter how much I eat on the plane, leaves me starving. So off to get food we went! This was going to be a vacation with a lot of eating and drinking!!!

Walking on the winding streets of downtown Seoul there were SO MANY young women. I counted the number of men and women on the tortuous, bright streets full of convenience stores, hotels, and open air food stands, and there were 6 women for every 4 men. Chris’s efficient efficiency apartment is just a few blocks from Sungshin Women’s University. Why had I not visited earlier?! This trip was not to be about women though. Food was on my mind.

He led me quickly down a bright pedestrian street full of jewelry and clothing stores for women until we reached a restaurant that was happening. The table-grills were prevalent, ubiquitous and popular. Chopsticks and small shot glasses full of rice vodka were lifted in the air every second. I could see the Koreans like to have fun. We ordered grilled bacon. It’s called san-keaup-so. It was accompanied by kimchi, the famous hot-n-spicy cabbage that I adore. We pigged out. They kept bringing spicy vegetables, miso soup and rice vodka. It was great. I slept well that night.

While eating grilled bacon, I remembered a question I like to ask friends: If you had to give up all meat except for one type (chicken, beef, pork, seafood, or some other type of meat), which would you choose to eat? I had always maintained pork is the meat to eat. Think about it! You get ham. You get pulled pork sandwiches. You get pork tenderloin gently baked with figs. And you get bacon.

Second Day, Friday

Chris has adopted the Asian work ethic, and he must wake up at 5 am to be at work at 6am. Quite often he works 12 or 14 hours. This Friday he gets the afternoon off to go sight-seeing around Seoul with me. I slept in. zzz. For lunch we splurged at one of Seoul’s finest restaurants, Top Cloud Grill, at the top of a skyscraper. They do not know who they are messing with. We’re Americans. I order the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. We know how to eat, and we cleaned that buffet out. We pigged out. After lunch we toured the historic royal palaces of Seoul, planned to meet some friends and got ready for the evening of more eating and drinking.

For dinner we were cajoled by a group of friends to hit another grill. I love grilled meats. Grilled bacon again. One type of pork was plain while the other was marinated in spicy Korean sauce. We pigged out. I couldn’t get enough of the kimchi. Chris even likes to grill the kimchi. We wanted more food, so we ordered beef. They served us another helping of grilled bacon. This restaurant only served pork. Mmm… bacon. I was starting to get sick of grilled bacon. The second helping of bacon was devoured anyway.

Third Day, Saturday

We awoke early to take a scheduled tour to the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ). Stepping into North Korea, although only briefly, was surreal. The DMZ is still a war zone. Justin, a friend of Chris, wanted to come on the tour, but Koreans are not allowed. A special 6 month wait list is needed for Koreans. Instead, Justin invited us to his house for a traditional home cooked meal: grilled bacon. The thought of grilled bacon for the third night in a row began to wear on Chris and me. We sat on the floor of their living room, a Korean tradition, and ate grilled bacon. We pigged out.

After dinner we sang karaoke. The 90 minute bus ride across Seoul back to Chris’s apartment had me dwelling on grilled bacon. The next day was a big day. Chris and I were considering becoming vegetarians.

Forth Day, Sunday

After visiting Chris’s favorite Christian church, we head out for lunch. Anything but grilled bacon. Ugh. Chris tells me to try a Bob Stick, which is a rice stick with meat on top. I order the beef. He orders the pork. I don’t know if it was karma or fate, or maybe it was simply bad luck, but while trying his pork Bob Stick, I was clumsy and dropped a huge piece of pork on his lap. The God of pork was talking to us. No more bacon. Fortunately, a friend of Chris’s brought us to a restaurant where we ate beef vegetable soup, cooked over an open flame at the table.

After lunch we hiked. We hiked 5 miles up a mountain half a mile tall overlooking all of Seoul. The view was amazing. At the top of the mountain I begin to open my snacks, and I enjoyed a delicious Korean Oreo cookie. I don’t know if the thin air made it taste better or if the different recipe for Korean Oreo cream caused the party in my mouth, but the cookie was as amazing as the view. I did get pissed at Chris though. He took an Oreo cookie and then traded the rest of the 3 cookies to another hiker for a raw cucumber. I burned 5000 calories to hike up a mountain and then I had to eat a raw cucumber!? I grumbled as I ate my half of the raw cucumber. I was not happy. We were beginning to act like young brothers again.

After climbing down the mountain I threatened to take him to eat grilled bacon. We ate grilled beef instead. We pigged out.

Fifth Day, Monday

This was one of the 14 hour work days for Chris. We go out for lunch. He tells me to stop mentioning grilled bacon. I say it 4 more times just to spite him. We argued like when we were younger. It’s clear we are brothers. And it is nearly time for me to return to the USA. We order beef and cheese bi-bim-bap, which is a super hot rice bowl full of beef, cheese and vegetables. The stone bowl is seriously about 500 degrees, and the rice and vegetables cook as you eat. More kimchi. Koreans never get sick of kimchi, and I still adore the mouth-watering spicy cabbage. We pigged out.

Sixth Day, Tuesday

I flew back to the USA. My goodbye to Chris is short, fun and full of love. It’s a quick, manly hug and slap on the back. I don’t like sad goodbyes. It will be a long, long time before I can eat bacon again.

-Brother Mark

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Click here to see all the photos from my brother Mark's visit to South Korea
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My Birthday

2009-05-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

April 8th was my birthday, which I celebrated in Korea.

Near my work, I like to get coffee from a nearby coffee shop, and the owner has gotten to know me a little. She's Korean and her English ability is minimal, but when she found out it was my birthday, here's what she did for me. (^.^)

Dance Performance: Ballerina Loves a B-Boy

2009-05-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

Well, thanks to my friend Gahyun, I was finally able to do something that I'd been wanting to do for a long time!!! And that was: See the Korean dance performance called "Ballerina Loves a B-Boy".

It's a dance performance, like a play, which has no words. The title explains the entire story. Honestly, the story itself is nothing to rave about. It's pretty generic. It provides a backdrop for the dancing, a way of entertaining the audience and giving us something to follow along with.

The dancing, however, was amazing! I TOTALLY recommend this performance to anyone!!!

Details: We saw it at a theater behind Doksu Gong Palace - which is near City Hall.
Tickets were 40,000 won each.

During the performance, everyone was allowed to take pictures and encouraged to shout and cheer. After the show, the performers went on stage and invited the audience to come up for pictures.

The theater was small - so ALL the seats were up close and personal. At one point during the performance, there were 5 dancers on stage. Four of them stopped dancing and found empty seats in various parts of the theater, sat down and started cheering on the 5th dancer. It was really funny seeing some of the audience reactions.

My FAVORITE part of the performance is represented by the pictures below that are dark. The dancers put on dark clothes and creepy traditional Korean masks. Then they started moving in strange ways and dancing while creepy music was playing. It was really great. hahaha

Okay, here are some pictures and a video I found on YouTube!

On my left and right are dancers from the performance. ^^

Above are pictures of the ballerina and the B-Boy. I love that style. She's really cute.

The girl on the left is the dancer I got my picture with.

He's actually spinning. My camera is just that awesome.

Awesome picture, too, even though I think his leg should be more horizontal.

Here, she's trying to impress the B-Boys with her ballet. Great picture, though, eh?

Here is THE ballerina and her two friends before she met the B-Boy.

The two pictures above represent my favorite part of the show! It was SO cool!

I didn't take the video (below), I just found it on YouTube. The dancers in the video aren't the ones I saw, but the routines are the same.

Korean Baseball

2009-05-10T03:07:00.000-07:00

I'm a fan of Korean Baseball. They're really great - winning the Gold medal in the 2008 Olympics, and barely losing the Gold medal to Japan in the 2009 World Baseball Championship series.

So, in April, a student of mine suggested that I go see a Korean Baseball game. Admission is really cheap - only about 5-6$ (according to the current exchange rate). He told me that there would be an exciting game the next day, the final game in a series between two rivals: SK versus Bears! SK is an Incheon team and the Bears are a Seoul team. He told me it's a great experience and that I needed to buy some beer and spicy chicken.

Well, unfortunately he had to cancel at the last minute because something important came up. BUT - thankfully, after looking had for other people who would be willing to take me - I found two students! So we went, and we had a blast!

What's funny is that, before the game, they wanted to buy those long plastic balloon things. During the game, the idea is that you bang them together and it makes a 'PANG' noise. It might not be too impressive at first, but when you have a stadium of fans doing it - well, it works out pretty well. Okay - back to the story. So they tried to buy me the RED ones, which means I'd be cheering for the SK team. But I'm a Bears fan!!! And I'm from Chicago, and our American football team is also called the Bears... that and the fact that the Doosan Bears are the BEST! :)

Well, anyway, we sat near the SK fan base - but the Doosan fan base that night was about... well, at least 5x bigger than the SK. But actually, sadly, my team lost... ㅠ.ㅠ

But the fake contention between us during the game was fun and funny. I would make sure to be loud and obnoxious whenever my team did something good :) But it was hard because my team lost 8 to 2. Suck!

Thanks Jesse and Vivi!

Here's a bunch of pictures from the baseball game! Jessie is wearing the skirt and Vivi i wearing the jeans.

Korean Christian Evangelists

2009-05-10T02:18:00.000-07:00

Korean extreme Christian evangelists are taking advantage of technology. Some of them attach huge megaphones to he top of their car/truck/vehicle and drive around playing a pre-recorded message spreading the gospel... or rather, a "believe in Jesus or go to hell" message.

Other extreme evangelists take another approach, similarly. The Korean people tend not to like this way of spreading their message. I agree with them. It's inconsiderate, not personal, not loving... and not effective. But I snapped some pictures to show you!

You can see the megaphone on top of his little outfit. At the time took the pictures, though, he wasn't playing his message.

<3 I'm in love with Park Soo Ae (팍수애)

2009-05-04T23:29:00.000-07:00

사랑해요 팍수애!

I love you Park Soo Ae! (Her stage name is "Soo Aeh")

She's an actress in Korea. She plays in a movie as a girl named "Sunny" who goes to Vietnam in search of her husband. The only way she can get there is to become a traveling singer. The picture of her in the red dress above is from the movie. The movie is called "Somewhere Far Away" (or 님은만곳에), which is also the name of a classic Korean song which helps for the theme of the movie. The movie was pretty good - but the soundtrack was REALLY good, so I went out and bought it.

I always tell my students that I'm in love with her and I ask them if they can introduce me. :) Heck, South Korea is small. It should be pretty easy to meet famous people, RIGHT??? Especially since I'm in the capital!

In any case, Soo Ae is two years older than me (she was born in 1980) - she's beautiful - she's a good actress - she can sing - and from talking to people... I think she has a cool personality, so I'd like to meet her! (^.^)

In any case, although I'm not REALLY a fanatic (but sometimes I pretend to be because it's fun), this post is my tribute to Soo Ae:

To finish off my tribute, here are two videos from Youtube that have Soo Ae in them. The first one is of her being interviewed. I have no idea what they're saying in the interview, but it's related to that movie I mentioned.

The second video is one of the songs from the movie being sung by some famous Korean singer, and Soo Ae is in a lot of the video clips from the movie, so you can check it out.

Korean Roll-Away Restaurants

2009-05-04T21:21:00.000-07:00

Want to start a restaurant in Korea, but think rent is too expensive? Or perhaps the location you always wanted is taken? Or maybe it's too far from home? Well YOU'RE IN LUCK!!!

It so happens that in Korea - you can take your restaurant with you! OFFICIALLY, these restaurants are called, "To-Go Carts", just translate that phrase into Korean.

They have this rolling counter-top, probably about 4x6ft - and it has a little roof over it. That's where the large tent-like canopy comes from. And this cart has little plastic stools that sit on the counter and EVERYTHING you need tucks into it. It takes quite a while to set up everything or take everything down, but you can roll this little restaurant to the best locations in Seoul (although, I don't know how the system REALLY works, here. Once you have a location, they always seem to go back to that location).

Anyway - it's interesting... in the middle of downtown Seoul, among the skyscrapers - it's interesting to see little tent restaurants. It's like, Korea has two cultures mixed - old and new. I'll talk about that in another post. But these little restaurants are pretty cool (although, to my dismay, they most often sell SEAFOOD. YUCK.) And it's Korean tradition to eat here. It's pretty cool. I'll snap some better pictures > but for now, here's what you get!

The Biggest Church... in the world?

2009-05-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

OH MY GOSH - I have SO MANY new posts to make. I'm so sorry about this... keep reading!

This one's about the biggest church in the world - membership-wise. Korea is home of Yoido's Full Gospel Church. They boast about 1,000,000 members. Now, the church can't FIT that many people, as you'll see in the pictures, but adding together all of the smaller group cells and other parts... that's what you get. They own a Christian newspaper in Seoul and a University, as well as a small mountain near North Korea that they use for praying. They have a building and a bunch of other stuff at the top where people are constantly praying, all the time, and they provide free transortation there to and from the church multiple times a day.

Anyway - if you want to learn more about it, you can check them out on wikipedia or you can visit there website. There's so much information about this church elsewhere on the internet... I don't think I need to type it all out. It's not my church - I just visited once to see what it was like!

After the service, Ellie and I went in the Welcome Room for a long lecture from the only foreign elder of the church. I snuck a picture during his presentation.

Bob Sticks! (밥 스티크)

2009-05-04T08:17:00.000-07:00

I know what you're thinking! WHO IS BOB??? Well... Bob is great. He makes delicious snacks in Korea. But actually Bob isn't a man. "Bob" is a word you get when you take the Korean word for rice and translate it into English and then misspell it. If you want to pronounce the Korean word for rice, you need to say "Bop".

So, near my church in Dobong (도봉) there is a little snack stand, shown in the picture.

Anyway, a man and his wife work there, and they sell rice sticks. I Think in the picture you can see that they have hot iron molders. They start by putting in some kind of batter, and then they pack it with steamed rice. The batter is ONLY to allow the rice to stick together when it's all cooked. Then, they take toppings of your choice and spread them across the top. When it's all finished, they put it on a foil wrapper that conveniently slides away from a thin piece of cardboard as you eat it. It's SO delicious and cheap! About $1 each!

They have a pizza bop stick... a fried chicken cutlet bop stick with Japanese Tonkatsu sauce on top... and many many other kinds!

April Basic Plus Class

2009-05-04T08:08:00.000-07:00

Here's one of the smaller classes I taught in April. It was fun :)
The level is Basic English - which is almost the lowest level of English we teach at YBM Premier. Of 10 levels, it's level 2. In level 1, minimal English is actually spoken. It's mostly Korean.

The pictures look like antiques because they were ACTUAL photos taken, not digital - and I had to scan them and improve the color. :) I bet you think this class looks young. Actually, two of them have finished University, and the other two are almost finished.

Singing Room

2009-05-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

In Korea - Singing Rooms (노래망 ) are famous. These businesses are everywhere. You walk in a building and you pay about $10 to spend one hour in a private room that has a large TV, a couple microphones, and a couch or some nice chairs. The TV is only for karaoke and music videos. It's fun to go to these places with friends and dance and sing. You can bring food if you want, or you can buy some snacks there.

The only people I usually go to singing rooms with are Nuri and Ellie. They both have very good singing voices. I love listening to Nuri sing - so last time we went, I took some pictures. Don't get the wrong impression... I was very sneaky about it. She didn't allow me to take them - it was a surprise! (^.^)

She's not waving to the camera in that picture... she's trying to slap it out of my hand - I just got lucky :D

Ice Skating near City Hall

2009-05-04T07:20:00.000-07:00

In the capital of South Korea, Seoul, you can go ice skating at a rink in the middle of the city. It's near City Hall, and it's really cheap - under $5 for everything you need and hours of skating.

Well, in February, I went with my friend 수진 (Sujin) and her friend. We had a great time! I just forgot to post these pictures. :)

It's a lot of fun skating in the city and seeing all the people. The weather wasn't very cold that day, either.

MC Mong (몽) - Circus (서커스) English subs

2009-03-22T02:55:00.000-07:00

When I first heard this song, I honestly didn't like it. But as I heard it around... it kind of grew on me. Since I like it now, I decided to share it, expecially since it's not a girls' pop group.

Check it out.

Why I Post Korean Pop Videos... EXPLAINED

2009-02-20T19:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, many people draw inaccurate conclusions when they see the kinds of Korean music videos I post, so I decided to explain my choices. Here are my reasons for posting these videos, in order, according to how much each reason influences my decision.

1. Songs that I hear most frequently. In Korea, I don't listen to the radio and I don't watch TV. That severely limits the kind of music I hear and the types of songs. The only time I really hear music is when I'm out and about... perhaps a passing car, or (more commonly) a store is playing the music to draw people in or to get people excited... or when I'm on the bus... or when people are singing... or when I go to a singing room with somebody and they choose a certain song. So - this just happens to be girly pop videos, most often.

2. For one of the above reasons... the song has gotten stuck in my head.

3. The girls are cute.

Okay! There you have it! Now don't say I didn't tell you!

Korean Music Video: Girls Generation

2009-02-20T19:45:00.000-08:00

Why post THIS video?!?

LOL. Come on... give me a break. I'm AM guy... ... ...

South Korea's Professional Gamers

2009-02-15T23:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a news clip I found about South Korea's Professional Gaming industry. The news is calling them "athletes" but to me that's ridiculous. I refuse to call them athletes. Professional Gamers is MUCH more appropriate. They are no more "athletes" than professional debaters, speech writers, mathematicians, or authors. Sure, they can do something and they have talent... but athlete? no no no

Kim Yuna sets SP World Record

2009-02-15T06:50:00.000-08:00

Kim Yuna sets a new WORLD RECORD for the short program! Go Korea!

Here's her full performance:

My Apartment! Pictures

2009-01-27T02:13:00.000-08:00

I thought that it's about time you see what my apartment looks like! So I took some pictures. Here it is! If something in my apartment looks strange and you want to ask me about it - please do! As a foreigner, sometimes I get tricked into buying things I don't want, so I just end up keeping them to be practical!

CAPTIONS ARE BELOW THE PICTURE:

A picture taken from the entrance. The big pink thing is my futon. It's in its "reclined couch" position right now. The big pink blanket is something I bought... I couldn't pass it up! I don't really care for the color or design... but if you could touch it, you'd understand. It's SOOOOOOOOO soft!!!

That "junk" in the right corner isn't mine. I'm storing stuff in my apartment for a friend who moved.

I installed that fan myself. It's right below the air conditioner, so in the summer, it blows the cool air around the apartment :)

You see the back sliding door. There are a bunch of windows there, but I put some light green paper on the window because it's right across from a gym and people can see inside, perhaps. I enjoy privacy. if I want to see outside, I can just open the windows. That little room isn't good for much - but it's good for storage and for drying my clothes.

A picture taken from another corner. I'm standing near the fan you see in the first picture. You can see my little refrigerator and my washing machine.

Just another view!

That's my TV. It's 32" - I like it. I bought it for $100, used, and it has an S-Video input so I can hook it up to my computer and watch videos.

To the left you can see my door and the little area where you're SUPPOSED to take your shoes off.

That big white closet to the left of the door is actually for shoes... but I almost never put shoes in it. I just leave them on the floor, there. The closet is great because it has a bunch of shelves, but it reaches from the floor ALL the way to the ceiling! So I have lots of shelves to store stuff. :)

Also, my door is VERY secure, so I can stick magnets to it. That's particularly useful because now I have a markerboard on it, and when I leave my apartment I have to look at the markerboard and it reminds me to remember things. :)

Last but not least is my bathroom. It's pretty spacious... especially compared to my PREVIOUS bathroom, in Korea! Thats my shower. It's pretty traditional, if you've ever done some traveling. I've seen similar things in France and Egypt.

All in all, I'm pretty darn happy with the place I got! There's just one exception... and that would be the fact that my building is PRE-WIRED for high-speed internet. As I've mentioned, Korea and Japan have the fastest internet in the world. Well, the biggest internet company in Korea is called "KT" - and I HATE this company. I STRONGLY recommend against getting their service, if it's at all possible to avoid it! I'll make a separate post regarding my personal experience and opinion as to why I hate it. I wouldn't want to spread any misinformation, after all.

In any case, I'm forced to get the KT service, because of the way the buidling is wired. -_-

Playstation 2 Cafe: POST AMMENDMENT

2009-01-27T02:11:00.000-08:00

I recently posted about a Playstation 2 Cafe that I went to. One of my Korean friends read that post and went out of his way to send me a facebook message telling me that the game is NOT FIFA. LOL!

Okay, so the popular soccer video game isn't FIFA... it's another game that I don't know the name of. Apparently, FIFA isn't as good as this other game because, in the new game, you have more options and can use more strategy.

FYI

Korea is a FLOOR oriented society

2009-01-27T02:03:00.000-08:00

The history of Korea has always been grounded in... well... the ground.
Lots of Korean culture is based on doing things from the floor. In Korea...

Families eat dinner together by sitting on the floor around a table.

Apartments are heated by a special system (with a special name that I forget) where the FLOOR is heated, and that's what heats the rest of your home.

Brooms are half the size of a person.

I'm sure there's more that I'm neglecting to mention, but you can get the idea. I recently went to a friend's house and ate dinner with his family. Whenever they eat as a family, they cook, and then gather in the TV room and all sit on the floor to eat together. You'd never see this kind of thing in America, so it's pretty interesting to see. That's why I took some pictures for you!

Don't confuse China or Japan with Korea

2009-01-27T01:52:00.000-08:00

Most people I know... know I'm in East Asia. Most know I'm in Korea. Most know where Korea is.

Few know much more than that.

So let me give you a few basics. The East Asian countries are similar in the same way that USA and Great Britain and France and Australia are similar. You can group them... East and West, in many ways. But don't let that trick or confuse you into thinking there aren't many differences.

There are PLENTY of differences, not the least of them being different languages. I won't talk about languages right now. In fact, in another post, I'll give you a snippet of the Korean Language. And in another post, I'll give you a snippet of Korean history.

Right now, I just want to say: Don't be confused into thinking that Korea is much the same as China... or that it's much the same as Japan. It's not. I don't see it that way, and neither do the Korean people here.

Many East Asian countries celebrate a "new year" according to a lunar calendar. Because of America's economic courtship with China, and because of the frequency at which anything about China appear sin the US news media - many refer to this as "Chinese New Year". However, I'm not in China. I'm in Korea, and in Korea, they don't celebrate the Chinese New Year. They celebrate the Lunar New Year, which I believe is more politically correct terminology, seeing as how China doesn't own any rights to the celebration. :)

In any case, language matters. How you say something can be just as, if not more, important as WHAT you say.

Also, there is some disputing here about what is and isn't Sushi. LOL. I spent too much time talking about this. It was really annoying. ;)

Food: Delivery... and pick-up???

2009-01-27T01:43:00.000-08:00

In Korea, when you order Korean food from a local restaurant, they will deliver the food to you in plastic/glass dishes on a tray. Then, you pay the person, and take the food in and eat it. When you're finished eating, you take the dirty dishes, place them back on the tray, and set them outside your door. Later, the restaurant will come back and pick up the dishes from your house.

Sounds pretty crazy to foreigners!

And the food isn't expensive. Keep in mind... most Koreans live in some sort of apartment (flat, condo, apartment, studio... etc)

This idea is really cool... although it sounds like a lot of work for the restaurants. But, think of the practicality. They wash the dishes instead of creating more trash/recycleables for everyone. Perhaps it saves money. In any case, here's a picture that reminded me to tell you about this aspect of Korea.

A Playstation 2 Cafe... ?

2009-01-03T01:18:00.000-08:00

Young Korean guys (especially) love video games. If you can remember back to my first year in Korea, I posted about the Korean professional gaming. If you don't know what I'm talking about - browse my 2007 posts and look for something about Starcraft.

Anyway, Ellie and I met in Gangnam recently (that rich district of Seoul) and saw the movie "Yes Man" - with Jim Carry. It was good. Funny. You should go see it. And it's particularly appealing in Korea because Jim Carry learns Korean, so there's a part about that and it's pretty funny.

Anyway, while Ellie and I were waiting for the movie to start, I saw a Playstation 2 sign above the door to a business.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Aw, right! I reckon it's a place were you can play Playstation 2," Ellie said in her British/New Zealand accent.

So I went down to check it out... and sure enough, there were 20+ flat screen TVs in there with comfy chairs and a bunch of people playing Playstation 2.

And as if THAT isn't amusing enough - there's something much more interesting.

When you walk in, there's a little book where you can choose what game to play. There were quite a large number of games. Of the 20+ tvs, about 8-10 were being used... and EVERY SINGLE person was playing the newest FIFA game on it!!! I kid you not. That FIFA game is SOOOOO popular here. Everyone comes in to play THAT ONE game... and nothing else. Hilarious! So I secretly snapped a picture. :D

My Favorite Building in Jongno

2009-01-03T01:11:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of the Samsung Building in Jongno. At the very very top there's a restaurant that I haven't been to, yet. This building really looks great and you can see it for miles and miles around. In fact, if I walk just 10 minutes from my apartment I can see it. My apartment is about an hour walk from the building.

Click on the picture to make it REALLY big.

It used to be the headquarters of Samsung in Korea - but only a few months ago, Samsung moved their headquarters to a nice new building in another district of Seoul called Gangnam. Gangnam is what I like to call "The New Seoul". It's the up-and-coming. It has all of the new businesses and buildings. It's an INCREDIBLY rich area. If you own a business in Gangnam, or a building, you're rich.

I'll show you some pictures of Gangnam in another post, and I'll talk more about that. But this post is just to show you that picture. :) Taken on New Years Night!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2009!

2009-01-03T00:30:00.000-08:00

First of all... HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU! Let 2009 be the year that blesses and elevates you immensly!

On New Year's Eve I went to the center of Seoul, South Korea... which happens to be a few blocks from where I work. The area is called Jongno. Across from my favorite building (the Samsung Building) is a big bell that they traditionally ring on the New Year. Supposedly, there are LOTS and LOTS of people there.

So I figured... hey, if I were in New York - I'd have to go to Time Square for New Years just once. Since I'm in Seoul, I'll go to Jongno. And actually, I was in Korea for New Years LAST year, too... but I just can't remember for the life of me what I did - which probably means I did nothing of importance at all. :)

All my students and pretty much everyone I talked to said, "Oh no! Don't go to Jongno for New Years! There's too many people!"

And I said, "There's too many people everywhere in Seoul. There's too many people in Jongno normally."

And they said, "but it's different. There are even MORE people!"

And I said, "oh. So it's like Myongdong." (Myongdong is the most famous and popular district to shop in all of Korea, I'm guessing. It's immensely busy year round.)

And they said, "No... more people than that!"

Sure, when I got there, there were lots of people. But it was just like the mosh pit if you've ever been to a concert. You stand shoulder to shoulder and move with the crowd and follow the flow of it and share the energy. It was fun.

One thing that was funny was that they had police men EVERYWHERE. But they weren't actually police men. I mean, their jobs weren't to police anybody. Their job was to make a wall - a human baracade - so people could only go where there were no "police". It was crowd control, more or less - but there were THOUSANDS of police men, I'm not joking. I wanted to take pictures of them but I only snapped a couple because I felt rude.

I made it pretty close to the bell... perhaps 100 yards away or less. I was told that when they ring it, you can hear the bell in Dongdaemun (which is probably a 30 minute walk or longer. I'm not sure because I never walked there). I found a nice spot to stand and there was a huge building nearby with a large projection on the front that displayed the countdown from 2 minutes.

Okay - up until this point, I had a lot of fun. Now let me tell you about two pretty big dissapointments.

1) When the clock struck midnight... I was utterly shocked at the complete lack of enthusiasm. I was in the middle of a HUGE crowd (pictured below), and nobody started yelling at the top of their lungs and nobody started jumping up and down or such like that. It's like... I felt like everyone was expecting something EXTRAORDINARY to occur at the stroke of midnight. They just stood there, relatively quiet. I'm used to concerts where you go nuts. Otherwise... what's the fun?

2) I didn't hear the bell! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT! I have a conspiracy theory that they didn't actually RING the bell. I was told it would be loud! I was maybe less than 100 meters away! And I didn't hear it ring! Man... bummer!

Afterwards, one thing I realized is how meaningul a new year is to people. I passed one young man who had red watery eyes. I thought to myself, "was he crying?" And then as I walked, I started to notice that LOTS of people were teary-eyed. I mean... I guess I understand. There have been years where I have felt like that. I guess I was just surprised because this wasn't one of those years for me and I forgot about that particular reaction.

Okay - now for some pictures! There were lots of people dancing traditional Korean dances, banging drums, and wearing the traditional white costumes. All in all... it was a good, fun night.

Above: a shot of the large crowd in downtown Jongno.

Above: At midnight, they let loose some balloons and stuff into the sky.

Above: In the far back you can see some kind of glowing traditional Korean building... that's where they have the big bell that they supposedly ring.

Above: a shot of the large crowd in downtown Jongno.

Above: a shot of the large crowd in downtown Jongno.

Above: In the back you can see a wall of police men blocking the way.

Above: Traditional Korean drummers and dancers.

Above: You can see on the far left the police men - human wall!

Above: Traditional Korean drummers and dancers.

A Brilliant Idea in Korea

2008-12-28T07:23:00.000-08:00

In Korea, they have exercise equipment placed throughout Seoul. Most of the time they're in parks, but they're also on the side of bike paths and on top of mountains... and MANY people use the equipment. It's nice, simple, and weather proof.

What a great idea! One thing I really admire is the Korean's determination to be healthy and get exercise. Actually... I see it more in the elderly than in the youth, here. A LOT more.

The exercise equipment is a really great idea - cheap, and practical. This is the kind of thing that I think we need in the US, where so many people are overweight that it's considered "normal" to be chubby... and everyone who's not overweight is "skinny". It's ridiculous.

Here's an example of what the equipment can look like:

A Romantic Couple

2008-12-28T07:19:00.000-08:00

I saw a nice young couple walking along the stream near my house while I was on my way to the PC방 (here). It was a cold night, so the young man took off his jacket and gently placed it on the girl's shoulders. How romantic!

Then the girl pulled it off and pushed it against his chest.

Then the guy gently placed it over her shoulders again.

Then the girl pushed it off her shoulders and let it fall on the street before hocking a giant loogy and spitting it in the gutter.

Then the guy picked up the jacket, brushed it off, and forcefully put it on her shoulders and held on to it so she couldn't take it off again.

LOL

How romantic! LOL - Sorry, I don't have a picture of this one.

Police Officers like Donuts - Even in Korea

2008-12-27T06:10:00.000-08:00

Okay okay okay! I could NOT help myself! I was riding the bus home from work today... TODAY... and when the bus was stopped in traffic, I looked out the window and saw this. And this is one of the benefits of carrying your camera around with you everywhere you go!

Even police officers in Korea like donuts!

This is a police officer - this is what the uniforms look like. Of course, they aren't armed with guns. People in Korea don't have guns.

My First Suit and Tie

2008-12-27T05:57:00.001-08:00

Here's a picture of me wearing my first suit and tie. Actually... it's NOT the first time I've worn a suit and tie... it's just the first time I've worn a suit and tie that I've bought with my OWN money. My other suit(s) and tie(s) have always been rented/borrowed/handed down.

I wasn't going to buy a tie because I already have one that my dad gave me in high school. :) It's blue, and it's just fine - but when I walked past this tie, I had to buy it. It lured me in.

Cool huh?

My Neighbors

2008-12-27T05:34:00.000-08:00

In November, I started an English Discussion group in my neighborhood. The idea was that I wanted to meet people who live near me and who speak English. So I put up some fliers and got some responses. Of the responses I got, I met two people who consistently want to meet and have conversation.

Jay - is a Korean man who has done a lot of traveling. He's lived in the USA and Singapore and probably some other places - and he's visited many more places than that. He married a Chinese woman, and they're both very nice.

Amy - Amy is married with two children. She spends her time taking care of her kids, and has studied English in California for a while.

Both want to practice English so they don't lose it. We discuss anything, and it's quite good. I really enjoy it. We talk about politics, religion, and everyday stuff.

Anyway - here's a picture. :)

As a side note... you'd probably never guess - but we're in a Dunkin Donuts. They're a BIT nicer in Seoul. :)

Korea and Her Neighbors

2008-11-29T22:47:00.000-08:00

I decided to post a clip from a book I read about the History of Korea - 1900's till today. I thought it was very well written and a very interesting read. It cited lots of sources, including clips from other books like the following. If you take the time to read this post, I bet you'll be glad you did.

From a the book, "Korea and Her Neighbors" - written by a very respected travel writer, Isabella Bird Bishop, published in London in 1898. Her conclusions were not hastily formed but were the fruit of "long and intimate study" during four separate trips throughout Korea between January 1894 and March 1897.

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Her first impressions of Korea were mixed. She entered a peninsula through the southern port of Pusan (Busan)-- "a miserable place," similar, as she later found, to "the general run of Korean towns." When she arrived in Seoul, however, even though it was in the depths of winter cold, her reaction was much more favorable. She judged that its location, between North and South Mountains, was the most attractive setting of all the world's capitals. She admired the appearance of the typical Korean-- "resembling neither the Chinese nor the Japanese, he is much better looking than either, and his physique is far finer than that of the latter." She also learned, in her more than three years of traversing the peninsula, that the climate was "as nearly perfect as it could be," neither too hot in the summer nor too cold in the winter, with nine months of clear blue skies and pleasantly crisp temperatures.

She was surprised to find that Seoul, the capital of the nation, had no buildings with even a second story. Aside from its palaces and shrines, most other structures were small huts, with only one or no windows, and with walls of clay plastered on willow or bamboo frames, under thatched roofs. These houses had no running water and no toilet. Sewage was disposed of (as had been true also in Europe a century or so earlier) by dumping it in shallow trenches that ran along the streets, washed only by the rains. The air was polluted by human excrescence, causing the worst stench, Mrs. Bishop reported, that she ever had encountered except in Peking (which is in China).

Cooking was done in a dirt-floored hut attached to the main room of the house where the men entertained their male friends, and where the family slept on the floor. The floor was covered with oiled paper above flues that warmed the floor while it carried the smoke and heat from the kitchen fire. In the rainy season (which fortunately came in the spring and summer while the rice was growing in paddies) the women washed the family clothing by pounding on stones in the ditches--and during the rest of tee year in streams. Womens' work was interminable, from early morning until late at night. Men dressed in white garb; and to launder it the women ripped the garments apart to insure thorough cleansing, and after each wash had to sew them together again. Heat for cooking and for winter warmth came from small braziers, which required the gathering by women and children of small twigs, leaves, and branches, which they searched out from surrounding hills.

The role of women in the society was a curious mixture. Within the home, women exercised authority in all matters domestic, even over their husbands and sons. A wife was known as "the inside master," just as her husband was "the outside master." The family finances were managed by the women and, however meager these resources might be, the women were expected to stretch them to meet the family's basic needs. Young girls typically lived happily, but they were married very young and without a choice of their own. Generally they didn't even see the groom's face until after the wedding. Then they were taken to the home of the groom, where they came under the stern and normally harsh governance of his mother. Slavery, buy then nearly extinct, was restricted to females, except for a few males who had to sell themselves to pay their debts. A slave girl would be married by her master to a free male, who would be paid for his subsequent services with food, clothing, and a place in which to live. Daughters born of a slave mother were retained in slavery, but sons were granted their freedom.

The streets in the daytime were crowded with small Mongolian ponies and oxen loaded with huge bundles of straw, along with carts often pulled by hand. Men strolled the streets aimlessly or on errands, with many squatting by the roadsides to play the Korean chess game "go" or to chat. Other men carried on their backs, in wooden frames called "chiqes", loads weighing as much as two hundred pounds. Women were not allowed outside their homes except after dark, when men were forbidden to traverse the streets. To guard against occasional encounters the women wore shawls to cover their faces. Children rollicked in the streets or open fields, playing their many games with home-built toys, or flew kites, and young girls excelled in swinging on very high swings and in throwing one another into the air on teeter-totters. On street corners there often were story-tellers, groups of singers, fortune-tellers, or acrobats, surrounded by crowds of men and children. But Mrs. Bishop failed to note most of the fun and games. Seoul, she reported, "lacks every charm possessed by other cities. It has no ruins, no libraries, no literature, and lastly an indifference to religion that is wihtout parallel." This was her first impression. Later, she learned to love Seoul's easy relaxation and social friendliness. "I had known it for a year," she confessed, "before I appreciated it, or fully realized that it is entitled to be regarded as one of the great capitals of the world. Few capitals are as beautifully situated.

I Want Nobody but You

2008-11-20T07:31:00.000-08:00

Seriously, you can NOT walk around in Seoul, South Korea, without hearing this song. If you don't like music, if you don't listen to the radio, heck, even if you don't like to shop - you WILL, at some point, hear this song!

That being said, it's really catchy. When I heard it, I actually enjoyed it. When I later found out it was a song by the Wondergirls... I was truly shocked.

So, I decided to share this video with you. The first 2 minutes are extra. If you want the actual song, start watching at the 2 minute point.

Without further adeau - here's my favorite song by the Wondergirls.

This girl is cute

2008-11-20T07:26:00.001-08:00

I don't know who this girl is or what she's saying... but she's cute. See how cute Korean girls are?

So I decided to put her on my blog. Also - she likes to play in the mud, and that's always a good quality. Did you know that Korea has some of the world's LARGEST mud banks on the west coast? It's true. Actually, they have an annual MUD festival. I was going to go this year, but I JUST missed it. I think it's in August or the end of July. Anyway - I decided to go in 2009 instead. :) Can't wait! :D

Soraksan Mountain

2008-11-12T19:36:00.000-08:00

The last weekend in October, I had plans to visit Soraksan Mountain with a friend - but unfortunately, those plans fell through. So, on that Saturday, I woke up and decided I would go anyways... alone! So I pulled out my travel book and made some quick plans - cleaned my apartment - packed - and took the subway to the Bus Terminal in the south end of Seoul.

I was able to catch a bus to Sokcho (속초). It took 4 hours arrive, from 3:30pm to 7:30pm, where I quickly found an inexpensive motel near the beach on the eastern sea of Korea. That night, I knew I'd be waking up early and hiking, so I ate dinner and then just got some rest in the motel. The next morning, I woke up at about 6am, took a shower, and left to go hiking! A local bus took me to the base of the mountain, and the gate of Soraksan national park. From there, I took the 3.5 hour trail to Ulsambawi Rock - although I conquered it in much less time since I was a solo traveler and because I'm a fast paced type of person. I spent some time at the top before coming down.

Unlike many people in the City of Seoul, the mountain people were incredibly outgoing and friendly! They were happy to make small talk,or exchange a smile or word. In Seoul... most people just don't do that. They avoid eye contact with strangers (despite the fact that you are surrounded by dozens of strangers daily at any given time). They almost never say hello... unless they're selling something. It's a bit of a downer. So that made this escape to the mountains particularly delightful.

Korea, in general, has great land. It's really beautiful - filled with mountains and valleys. This is one reason why the Korean people are so tough. You wouldn't BELIEVE me if I tried explaining the average age of the hikers in Korea. It's probably about 40 (quite a LOW ended estimate). I'm not counting the kids that don't walk by themselves. YES - parents bring kids to the mountian who can't walk, and the parents end up walking for TWO as they carry their kids. And then there are the ajumas! I mean... I saw women who were DEFINITELY in their 50s or 60s climbing the mountain. And they weren't going all that slow. They are TOUGH! It's really shocking. You NEVER see things like that in America... at least I didn't!

Since this time of the year was such a popular time to visit the mountian - when I was climbing down, it was similar to walking down the street in Jongno, a very famous part of Seoul. A steady traffic of people were going up and down, and I was like the "crazy driver" speeding past everyone, weaving in and out and between.

I took lots of pictures - drank some natural mineral water - had some great encounters with strangers - tried some corn-on-a-stick (but it wasn't good... but then again I'm from Illinois where we grow some of the best corn in the world) - got some GREAT excersize - and saw some BEAUTIFUL scenery.

When I got back to the motel, I packed my things (I didn't bring much) and went to eat lunch before going to the bus terminal. After lunch, I learned that my bus wouldn't leave until 3:30pm, later than I'd expected. It was only noon. At first I was bummed. Then I realized that there was a sandy beach only 5 minutes away by foot! The weather was GREAT. The sun was bright, the air was crisp but not too cool, and the sky was a clear blue. So I bought an ice tea, found a great bench which was quiet and peaceful - close to the beach but not too close - and there I sat. I smoked a cigar and read my Bible... and just soaked in the atmosphere. After a day of hiking... it was really great. And 2 hours was the perfect amount of time.

I arrived back at my apartment in Seoul at 9:30pm. Here are some of my many pictures documenting this trip. I'm really glad I went. Wish you could've been there, too!

My not-so-Halloweeny Halloween

2008-11-05T19:33:00.000-08:00

Well... My Halloween wasn't very Halloweeny - but I still had a great time. My October work schedule ended and I had 4 days off: Thursday (10/30), Friday (10/31), Saturday (11/1), and Sunday (11/2).

I spent Thursday relaxing and doing lazy things. Friday- I was more productive, and at night I met a class of mine from October for dinner. We ate my FAVORITE Korean food, Yongyum Galbi. I'll make another blog post about that later - after I record a video on how to eat it. It'll be better.

Anyway, after we ate dinner, we went to a tea place; and after that, we decided to go to Namsan Mountain in the middle of Seoul. It's one of the most famous places for tourists to visit because it provides a GREAT lookout across Seoul. I'll probably have to make another post about that, too, so you can see.

Anyway, it ended up being a great night. Left to right: Christina, Irene, Me, Keira. Christina and Irene remind me a little of my friends Peggy Loo and Christine Chen, too. :)

Art by Korean Elementary School Kids

2008-11-05T19:20:00.000-08:00

I was coming home via the subway the other week in October and saw a bunch of pictures being showcased that had been done by some local Korean Elementary School kids. I thought they were pretty funny, so I decided to take a few pictures and post them on my blog.

It's just so interesting, especially in the case of kids. You can see what kinds of things they learn in school... and you can see a little piece of how they see the world in their heads... hahaha

Check it out:

Somebody stole my... WHAT?!?

2008-10-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I was in the subway. It was the same night I saw that dude spitting near the pay phones (see previous post). I was waiting to meet 김누리 Kim Nuri, so I stopped at a little grocery store attached to the subway - nearby. I bought a few cans of coke and pepsi - and a loaf of bread. When Nuri arrive, we were browsing some of the shops and I left my "bag of groceries" on a large metal freezer-type-of-thing.

I kid you not... it was out of my sight for TEN minutes - and when we came back? It was GONE! WOW! I was SO surprised! When we went to a shop, Nuri said "Chris! You left your back!" And I said, "No big deal. It only has bread nad some pop in it. Who would take that?" Well... SOMEBODY did take it! Crazy. I hope they were REALLY hungry and thirsty! I hope it was worth it. WOW. If somebody wanted that stuff so badly, I would just give it to them. No need to steal that.

Anyway - I didn't care... I was just shocked. Here's a picture of where I left my bag.

In the Subway - something gross

2008-10-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

So I was standing in the subway and I saw this guy leaning up against the wall, facing it, with his head against his arms. He was making a loud hocking noise and spitting some NASTY right on the floor between the pay phones! It was so gross... I can't believe he was doing it right there like that!

This is where he was standing.

Here's a picture of the junk he was spitting. Pretty sick, huh? :) I thought you'd like to see!

GaHyun

2008-10-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

I met GaHyun because she goes to my church and she also goes to the same University that Ellie goes to... and she's in the YWAM group... and she speaks English very well. So we're friends.

On this day, we played in the water after church and had a picnic. Sujin was there, too. She took the picture. It was fun :) Below, Sujin really wanted to take another picture of me jumping. She's surprisingly good at it... like some kind of bizzare talent. So - there I am.

One of my August classes

2008-10-02T07:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a class I had in August. Aren't they cute? haha - we had fun. This picture was taken after the last class. I just thought you'd like to see what one of my classes looked like. Depending on the time of day - they look differently. These students all happen to be University students, but it's not always the case.

October is here!

2008-10-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

It's here! It's here! My FAVORITE month! YESSSSSSSSSS

Oh I love this weather so much! It's probably thanks to my dad - for taking us camping every Fall season to "The Fall Campout" where we would drive up to Wisconsin and camp in Dundee near an awesome hill. We would always do cool things - definitely some of the BEST memories of my childhood. It started when my dad and his old high school friends decided they would all meet every Fall and camp together with their families.

We had a Chili dump - where we would make a famous food called "chili". Each family would make a pot of chili (which is like a stew with tomatoes and ground beef and peppers and a few veggies and whatever else you decide to put in) - and they would make enough for their own family members. Then all of the families would come together and dump the chili into one big pot - so you never know what you'll get! My dad loves to make HOT chili, but I remember that year, dad made OUR family's chili EXTRA hot to compensate for everyone elses chili which he knew wouldn't be hot! :)

Another time, my dad's friend Pete brought some hatchets and a wooden throwing board. We would take about 12 paces from the board and throw the hatchet at a target - such as a playing card. The goal was to cut the card in half.

At night, we would get glow sticks and climb the hill - but we always waited until it was really dark. Somebody always ended up breaking open their glow stick and dumping it everywhere to make random things glow.

Anyway - in Korea, I'm happy October is here. Tonight... perhaps I'll smoke a cigar.

Egg Church

2008-09-25T00:02:00.000-07:00

My friend Sujin lives in Dobong - near the Dobong Fire Station and a large department store called HomeEver. Also in this area is a very large church building that's shaped like an Egg, so when I went to visit Sujin for the first time she introduced it as the "Egg Church". I asked her why she doesn't go there since it's closer and she told me they believe some strange things that aren't really Christian teachings.

That was several months ago. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago - I was talking to the pastor of my church, and I told him I would catch a bus near the Egg Church. He laughed and then said I shouldn't let them hear me call it the Egg Church. So I asked him why and he said it's not an egg; but they believe it's a spaceship and when Jesus comes he will take the whole building.

"REALLY!?! That's SO interesting!" I said to him.

If you'll notice - the egg-shaped spaceship has little connectors to the building, just like a shuttle would have - and also, above the spaceship is a section of the building where people can buy lofts to live in - and within the church, it's supposed to be a really great honor to own one of those.

This is just one example of a cult church in Korea.

So I took a picture of the egg-shaped spaceship church for you to see. ^.^

Lee Hyo Ri - U Go Girl (With 낯선) MV

2008-09-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

Below is a video of Lee Hyo Ri. She's very popular in Korea. Recently, in one of my classes, I asked my students "who is the most beautiful person in Korea" and some of them said "Lee Hyo Ri". She's a pop singer who has been around remarkably long. Most pop singers are famous for some years and then replaced by newer younger ones. But Lee Hyo Ri has won many awards here and keeps coming out with hit songs.

Lol - I'm almost positive you will NOT like this song... but let me tell you... it's popular here. And it's actually really cute when Korean girls imitate Hyo Ri from this video when she dances around and says "okay!" - hahaha

Check it out. Also - do an image search for "Lee Hyo Ri" to see how beautiful she is - this video doesn't do her that much justice, in my opinion.

Koreans don't know street names

2008-08-15T08:42:00.000-07:00

Okay - well, here's something that's shockingly bizarre to Westerners when coming to Korea. In Korea - they don't know the street names of even the busiest and most common streets! No joke!

There's a very busy street running right down the middle of Jongno - a famous part of Seoul. It goes past a cluster of famous locations and tourist areas, such as Insadong, Myongdong, Seoul Tower, Doksugong Palace... and several other locations. When I first arrived in Korea I wanted to learn my way around as quickly as possible, so I asked somebody, "what's this street, here?" as I pointed the aformentioned street.

"I don't know..." they said.

I was blown away. Since then, I've learned, Korean people just don't consider street names. Nobody knows the street names! It's crazy (from my perspective)!

This probably brings up a bunch of questions. So how do Korean people contemplate directions? There are a few ways.

1) What area of the city do you live in? Different parts of the city have different names. The city is sectioned off.

2) Are you near any famous landmarks or mountains? Those have names.

3) Are you near a subway stop? The subway system in Korea is great. So you can ask a taxi to take you to part of the city - and you can just name a subway stop and they'll take you there.

That's about it. And that's how you have to travel.

I hope this LONG overdue blog entry clarifies any misunderstandings! It's VERY difficult for my friends back home to understand why I don't know my own address - where I live! I don't know what street I live on... etc. It's not common knowledge, even for the locals! lol

Don't ask me how DHL or UPS or the mail system works... - I can guess, but that would make this post a lot longer and more boring. Suffice it to say, they have a system that works.

I know this is a poor analogy... but this is how I think about it. I think about a messy office. If a stranger walks in, you can't find ANYTHING because it's organized in a way that only the office owner knows (like a certain person's house that I know!). But to the office owner, when you ask for something, they can get it very quickly.

Get it? Got it? Good!

Wonder Girls! - So Hot [MV] English Subbed

2008-08-15T01:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry this post is so late!

If you've been following my blog since I started it - when I had my first job in Incheon - you might remember me talking about the Wonder Girls. They are a Korean pop group - and they're very popular. You can always hear their new songs playing when you walk down the street in front of shops in the city. I posted their first hit single "Tell me" when I started this blog. I thought I'd give you an update. lol - because they have a new song that is very popular. So here's the music video.

Anyway - of course, they are very cute girls - but they're very young. They're all teenagers. I think the youngest of them is... 15 or 16. I don't like the first video I posted "Tell Me" - but actually I don't think this video/song is so bad.

My friend Forrest HATES it and everything they represent. hahaha

Severance Hospital - EXPLANATION!!!

2008-08-03T06:01:00.000-07:00

Okay!!! One of my students at YBM was so curious after I told her what "severance" means in English, she looked up the reason why many hostpitals and medical services in Korea have the name "severance" on them!

By the way - if you didn't read my previous post on the huge, well known "Severance Hospital" that I wrote in July 2008, go read it! It's short and has a picture.

So, apparently, "Severance" is the last name of an English speaking foreigner that came to Korea and opened hospitals and medical services! Thank goodness! That makes a LOT more sense! And it just happens that, in Korea, many Koreans misassociate the word "Severance" with positive things instead of remembering the guy.

How interesting! If I can get more information on this dude, maybe I'll make a third post on this topic.

Sunday, 3 August, 2008 - a great day

2008-08-03T05:34:00.000-07:00

Today I went to church in Dobong, again. It's so nice! And every time I go there, I think to myself, "wow! Such a nice area." If I could live in Dobong, I might just do it.

Anyway, there's a special walk that I like to take after church. There's a nice stream and, in certain spots, lots of Korean kids and families like to play there in the water. It's probably about 2 feet deep, maybe a little more. Along the waterway, you can see lots of people doing different things: playing in the water, playing basketball, jogging, riding bikes, and other stuff; but you can also see the nice view of the mountains, the sky... it's just a great walk to take after church. I'm not sure if I could ever get tired of it.

So, today after church, Sujin and I walked back to the area near where she lives and she coaxed me into going into the water. I was reluctant, at first, but it was such a nice day! I knew I would get all wet.

Anyway, when I got in, there were some little kids. One of them could speak English. She was definitely in grade school - and not higher than 4th grade. Her English was actually pretty good, and of course the kids are cute. They started a splash fight with me and asked a few questions. She told me her mom made her study English.

It was a great day. (^_^)

Sujin and Jeong Eun

2008-07-25T05:18:00.000-07:00

I was also very happy to recently have had the chance to spend time with my friends Sujin and Jeong Eun! They're so funny and so much fun to spend time with.

Actually, I recently realized that when we hang out, we always eat. I don't know why! So I told them we have to start doing OTHER thing too. And we will go to a singing room soon. :) Korean singing rooms are awesome!

The first time the three of us were able to spend time together since I returned to Korea was pretty recently. I went to Dobong to shop at HomEver, and they met me there. It was my idea to eat pizza because there was a place called Pizza Mall that had inexpensive pizza.

Well... let me tell you (sorry Pizza Mall)... this pizza was BAD! All we got was pepperoni. The problem wasn't with the cheese, or the sauce, or the pepperoni, but with the crust! It was dry and SO bland. No, worse than bland! Of course we ate it anyways.

In the end, we had 1 peice left but we were all full, and the next 20 minutes were spent trying to decide which unlucky person would have to eat it.

My opinion? DON'T go to Pizza Mall! Here's a list of pizza places you should try BEFORE you eat at Pizza Mall...

1. Dominos (I think it's the best in Korea. It's better than the Dominos in US)

2. Mr. Pizza (surprisingly, I like it more than the following)

3. Pizza Hut

4. Papa John's

5. Etang Pizza

6. ANY pizza place (except Pizza Mall)

7. A dumpster behind one of the above pizza places

8. The floor of one of the first six pizza places

9. Pizza Mall

Ok ok ok... it's not quite THAT bad - I'm just being dramatic. Give it a try and see for yourself. It seems there are some other people who like it.

ANYWAYS - some people don't know - but I have problems being anything but honest. This includes telling white lies. I don't believe in it. So when we were leaving Pizza Mall, Sujin and Jeong Eun beat me to the register and the lady said something to them in Korean. Then they looked at me and said, "Yeah... Chris... what did you think about the pizza" and they directed me to confront the lady at the register and answer her question... ... ... so I said, "ummm... next time, I will choose a different kind of pizza."

Which is true - except there won't be a next time ;)

On the left is Sujin, and on the right is Jeong Eun. Sujin is the one who plays the piano at my church.

SEVERANCE Hospital??? WHOA!!!

2008-07-25T05:12:00.001-07:00

Ellie and I were walking around in Sinchon (pronounced Shinch-un), a well known area of Seoul, when suddenly I saw this enormous and well-known hospital called Severance Hospital.

Severance?!? How SCARY! I would never want to go there! Why on earth would they give a hospital this name??? Yikes!

"I'm sorry, we're going to have to cut it off." - and that's about all I imagine their solution is.

Of course I'm just joking. I'm sure it's a great hospital... but seriously, change the name!

I asked some of my students about it, and that never occurred to them. They thought severence had something to do with being saved. lol! I was like... "nope... guess again..."

French-Fried Korean Face?

2008-07-25T05:08:00.001-07:00

Ellie and I went to Burger King (seriously... it was her idea, so don't judge!) and I made a face out of french fries. My USUAL idiotic behavior. When I was finished... I realized the face looked Korean (with the exception of the burnt eye. No symbolism intended... it was just the only fry short enough and I didn't want to bite down a new one).

How bizzare. You be the judge. Agree? Or Disagree?

A Colored Dog

2008-07-25T05:05:00.000-07:00

When I was hanging out with Ellie once, I saw another colore dog in Seoul, so I had her ask the owner if I could take a picture. She said sure - then made the dog do this little trick. So here's another picture of a colored Korean dog.

Ellie

2008-07-25T05:02:00.000-07:00

Of COURSE I've seen my good pal Ellie Kang, again. She's on break from University, and has been taking advantage of it!!! Unfortunately, that means she's been out and about for most of the time I've been in Korea and we've only been able to hang out a few times, but it was fun!

Actually, strangely, I don't have pictures of when we hung out. Hmmm... well then I'll have to update again with some pictures when I get some.

June

2008-07-25T04:54:00.000-07:00

Coming back to Korea and having good friends around is the best. There were so many people I've been excited to see and talk to again - I'm not going to list them all!

One of them, however, is June. She's been extremely helpful, and was one of the first friends I was able to see when coming back to Korea. She helped me buy a futon over the internet, and has helped answer questions and translate for me... all without a complaint - just a smile and cheerful attitude.

Right now she's not working because she's studying hard to take the TOEFL exam, after which she'll become a teacher.

Here's June. Good picture, eh?

Back in Seoul, South Korea

2008-07-25T04:21:00.000-07:00

Well after about 4 months of being away from South Korea, I'm back. This time I'm in Seoul, the capital, working at YBM Premier in Jongno 2(i)-ga, teaching adults. Of course I miss the little kids, but I enjoy teaching adults much more, and also I'm more qualified to teach adults. When I went to UIUC, I got a degree in English Rhetoric, Professional Writing, but I also wanted to get a minor in Teaching English as a Second Language. After taking all but 2 classes for my minor, it came time to graduate and I didn't want to spend all the extra money to stay another semester so I stopped.

Anyway, my current job isn't easy, but I do really enjoy it. I love Korea, and I love working here. I love the Korean people. I'll get more into WHY another time. That's definitely a different post.

The area I live in, in Seoul, is Donam-Dong, in the area of Sungshin Women's University - which is on blue subway line 4 a little in the north end of Seoul. The area is great. There aren't many foreigners. It's mostly Korean families or University students. Actually, Seoul has lots of Universities and there are 2 that are about 10 minutes walking from my apartment. It's a nice area.

I take a bus to work every day, and it's about a 12 minute ride one way. On Sundays I take a bus to Dobong for church. One of my friends in Korea plays piano for the English service (which is how I found out about the church). So I went once and really liked it. Now I go all the time. It's called the Salt and Light church. Although I don't associate myself with any particular denomination of Christianity, the church I'm attending in South Korea is Presbityrian. It's similar to the Korean Church I attended for 3 years while at UIUC in the States. The bus ride to church is about 45 minutes one way... but it goes almost to the northern most part of Seoul, which is near some mountains that I love (Dobong San, Dobong Mountain). It's beautiful.

My contract with YBM is for 1 year. It will be finished starting July 1st, 2009. Right now, I'm very interested in staying in Korea and working longer than 1 year... but of course I'm not set on this. I'll decide when the time gets closer.

That's about it for now!

Here's a picture of Dobong Mountain, taken right after I get off the bus in Dobong on my way to Church!

Ending Japanese Rule of Korea

2008-03-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

I was in the center of Seoul on the day when Koreans celebrate the end of Japanese rule over Korea. It was a Saturday. There were Korean flags everywhere, and there were people selling Korean flags everywhere.

I saw a gathering across the street. So many people - so quiet... respecting the day with silence, just holding their flags high, and remembering.

My Korean Family

2008-03-18T07:16:00.001-07:00

This is my Korean family. This is actually Ellie's family - but they are also my Korean family. They were so nice and took care of me and treated me like family. I miss them. And actually, my Korean grandmother isn't in these pictures. They're all so nice - I really am looking forward to seeing them again soon!

Directly behind me is Ellie, then from left to right is Ellie's aunt, her mom, and her dad.

Doksu gong Palace

2008-03-18T06:41:00.000-07:00

Nearing the end of my stay in Korea, I started visiting lots of places that I wanted to see before I left. There a few old palaces to visit. I went to two of them. The first one I went to was Doksugong Palace.

I went with 3 other people and we saw the royal changing of the guards. They do this every weekday. It's pretty interesting.

One thing I thought was funny that I had to snap a picture of was - when the guards were marching to the front gate of the palace... they had to march past a Dunkin Donuts. :) hahaha - it provided such a contrast between this ancient reenactment and a modern donut shop.

Traditional Korean buildings are pretty cool.

And it was also cool to look down and see the traditional buildings, then to look up and contrast that with the huge modern skyscrapers in the not-too-distant background.

These are the friends I went with! :) I miss them already

They took me outside the palace where we walked around the wall and they told me that in Korea, it's bad luck for couples to walk along this wall. It means they will break up. So I quickly snapped a picture of some people in front of me that I think were couples, in prediction of their coming break-ups.

The reason it's bad luck is because there used to be a divorce court somewhere down this outer wall - so couples walking together were usually walking to the divorce court. As we were walking... I spotted one of the Royal Guards! I caught him in normal clothes!

Anyway, we had a great time.

Multiple Gender Bathroom

2008-03-14T22:42:00.000-07:00

After lunch one day at a restaurant, I followed some signs to the bathroom and this is what I ran into. Yikes! Normally in America when you find a bathroom for both genders, it's just a single toilet and you have to take turns... but not this time. How awkward! A large bathroom with a line of toilet stalls for men and women, and also some toilets just for men (for pee). I couldn't imagine using one of the special toilets for me and suddenly some ladies walk in... no thanks!

Music: The Namolla Family - "I Love You"

2008-02-26T02:17:00.000-08:00

So last week I was walking from Subway (the restaurant. yes... those people at Subway know me pretty well now) when I passed one of the shops. Shops in Korea often play music to set an atmosphere for their shop. Anyway - this shop was playing music and I'd heard this song before in Korea but I never had ANY idea who sang it or what the name was! It was all in Korean! But I really liked the song, so I stopped to listen to it. Then I went in the shop and asked the lady who sings the song or what the name is... and she didn't know.

Then the song ended.

So I went and drilled some students for the artist or name of the song by whistling the tune. NOBODY knew! But FINALLY one lady was able to find it for me! It turns out the song is written by a comedian group in Korea called "The Namolla Family" and they made this song for a movie (a bad movie, from what I hear). But I really like the song.

The only words I really understand are "I love you" which is the name of the song. In Korean, "I love you" is "Sara-heng-gay". It's one word. Say it real fast, then listen for it in the song. Anyway... here's the song. Also, if you type "Namolla Family" Into YouTube, you can see one of their comedy skits. I don't understand a word of it - but it really looks funny.

Keep A Person!

2008-02-24T02:59:00.000-08:00

Just something funny I saw in Korea. Oh graffiti - you gotta love it... and you also gotta wonder what the perp. is THINKING when they are spraying...

Sungshin at night

2008-02-24T02:49:00.000-08:00

Right now, I'm staying in Seoul - somewhere between Sungshin Women's University and Hansung University. It's really a great area - I'll definately add more pictures to this post later of the area. There are the normal HUGE apartment buildings -- but there are also houses and restaurants that are built in the old traditional Korean style with the nice wood work (I'll add those pictures later).

Here's just a couple pictures of the market-walk at night. This isn't seasonal or anything. Every night, these lights go on and you walk underneath. There are people everywhere - restaurants and shops and street vendors... it's a great area. During the day - these are just white. They still look nice - but at night -- wow.

Mr. Kim, meet Mr. Kim and his friend Mr. Kim

2008-02-22T23:32:00.001-08:00

Yes... Kim is a very popular family name in Korea (family name is a last name or surname). SO many people are named "Kim"! And there are a few others that are hugely common. 80% of the population must have only a handful of family names.

I see signs all the time! "Kim's piano instruction" - or Kim this or Kim that...

and I saw this sign and thought it was funny so I decided to take a snapshot. :)

Originally, I was going to wait and make this post when I had a whole collection of Kim pictures... but I realized I keep forgetting to take a picture when I see one so I'm just going to post it now and if I get more pictures I'll add them later! :D

Bizzare Claw Game: You win a WHAT?!?

2008-02-22T23:23:00.000-08:00

I was just walking around Seoul, near the Sungshin women's university area. It's normal for me to investigate anything I see that strikes my interest. Needless to say - I take a peek into every claw game I pass to see what the prizes are. WELL... I passed the most bizzare claw game EVER!!! The traditional yellow claw machine was filled with water, and HUGE living lobsters were just chillin' in the bottom.

I was SOOOO close to playing! But I was afraid I'd win! If I won - I'd have to run away. EEEK! A LOBSTER?!? ack!

And can you imagine what the lobster is thinking? hahaha... WOW! A random claw comes in and tries to grab you sometimes - I imagine they think something like what is represented in the movie "Toy Story" with those little aliens. Maybe they think they're going to a better place? Hmmm...

Korea: A Developing Nation

2008-02-22T23:14:00.000-08:00

Even Koreans are aware that Korea isn't yet labeled as "a developed nation". The offical label is that Korea is "a developing nation". They're certainly not finished. There's so much construction everywhere! Especially in Incheon. They're building entire neighborhoods, parks, highways - many things.

With almost 50 million people in Korea and a land mass that is smaller than some states in the USA... almost everyone lives in what Americans would consider apartments (or condos). I think it's normal in any big city. These buildings are everywhere in Korea and they're HUGE!!! Still, I look up and it's amazing to me... buildings as high as mountains. It really is an amazing sight.

On my way to Seoul I got a few pictures of some complexes under construction. Not just one... but an entire group of them - like they were building an entire neighborhood at once.

And when they finish... it looks something like this:

Remember the kid from "Jerry McGuire"?

2008-02-22T23:11:00.000-08:00

Remember the kid from the movie, "Jerry McGuire"? Well... at the elementary school hogwan, there was this kid who reminded me of the kid from Jerry Mcguire. He was so hilarious - I swear... he's the Korean version of that kid - so cute and acted so funny...

Businesses you will recognize

2008-02-10T17:18:00.001-08:00

I just thought it would be interesting for you if I made a list of businesses that are popular in both South Korea and USA.

Dunkin Donuts (It's the "McDonald's" of Korea... you can always find one. But what's interesting is that you don't really see people there early in the morning. Donuts aren't a morning food in Korea - they're more of an afternoon or night time pastry snack.)

Baskin Robins/31 flavors (If you see a Dunkin Donuts, there's a 60% chance you'll see a Baskin Robins nearby. It's so popular! And yes... it's just as if not more expensive. But, comparatively speaking, Korean people tend to get quite a bit more crazy with their icecream as they do with their pizza. For example... when I was doing Hapkido, somebody brought in icecream and it was the craziest icecream I'd ever eaten!!! It had everything of everything in it! It was all colors speckled with all colors: pink, blue, brown, white, red... there were blueberries in it, cherries in it, fudge, nerds, pop rocks... everything. I never knew what the next bite would taste like - and I half expected to find kimchi or chicken in it. I didn't, and the icecream wasn't bad - just crazy.)

McDonald's (yes, all the same meals you hate to love. You'll find the Big Mac, Sausage and Egg McMuffin, Big Breakfast, Pancakes - the McNorm)

KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken - it's not HALF as good here as it is in the USA).

Burger King (not nearly as frequently seen - but the same menu choices, from the whopper to onion rings.)

Starbucks (duh. And the coffee is MORE expensive. I haven't been there yet.)

Subway (YESSSSSSS!!!! The same goodness of Subway, here in Korea.)

Pizza hut

Papa John's Pizza

T.G.I. Friday's (the food here is MUCH worse than in the US.)

Bennigan's (the food here is MUCH better than in the US.)

Outback Steakhouse (haven't been there yet, but I see them around and I do plan on visiting on the right occasion.)

That's all I can think of from the top of my mind - so I'll come back and add more if I remember more in the future. If you want to ask me if I've seen a particular restaurant or business in Korea, just ask! But I have not seen the following common restaurants:

No Taco Bell
No Wendy's

Korean Kids are ADORABLE (post 2)

2008-01-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

Well I'll be teaching adults from now on. I'm really going to miss those kids... I'm actually sad right now. They're so adorable and fun - I don't know if they'll understand why I'm not teaching them anymore... ... ...

Oukryundong Market

2008-01-26T08:22:00.000-08:00

Different parts of the city have market places. The part of Incheon where I live, Oukryundong (in Yeonsu Gu) has a market place. The food here is super cheap compared to other places. Amidst a busy modern city, market places are reminiscent of India or my time in Egypt.

They sell all kinds of stuff. I have to hold my breath when I walk past the fish. ACK!!! It smells SOOOO bad. But you can buy some hot food, ready to eat, like waffles. They'll make you a waffle, put butter and syrup in it, then they fold it 'n half and you walk and eat it.

They also have these special green pancakes - Korean pancakes. They're real good. I forget the Korean name for them. Maybe I'll find out later and edit this post (probably not though :) - they have something sweet in the middle - like hot maple jelly or something, I don't know... that doesn't really make sense, but I don't know what it is.

BigBang (song): Last Farewell

2008-01-26T07:48:00.000-08:00

Here's another BigBang song. I think this is my favorite musician in Korea right now (that I've heard). Although... I DID hear this Korean violinist named Kim Chee-Yun and she was AMAZING! There are many amazing musicians out there... but the violin music she wrote and played was SO my style! It was like... Stravynski on violin!!! FYI: Stravynski is my favorite pianist... or wait, he is a close second. George Winston is first.

Anyway - this BigBang song is extremely popular in Korea right now. When you walk down a city block, it's likely you'll hear this song playing in front of one of the stores. It's not my FAVORITE song they do, but I do like it and it's catchy.

My friend Forrest Dawkins

2008-01-13T09:35:00.000-08:00

Forrest Dawkins came to visit (no relation to Richard Dawkins).

It was a blast. We had a great time. Forrest is a friend of mine from my days at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He's a real funny guy, and we have similar views. So it just happens that we both accepted teaching jobs in South Korea the same year. He started a few months before me. The only sucky thing is that he's real far away. He's in the extreme southeast of Korea. I'm in the extreme northwest.

But he came up to the area to visit some friends and was able to spend the night at our place. We relaxed and played some Halo 3 online (my gamertag is Psalm51 in case you care).

Forrest also gave me a sweet Xbox game called Assassin's Creed. MAN it's SO awesome! Basically, you're an assassin and you have to carry out all these missions. The game play is amazing, the world you play in is HUGE, the graphics and detail are awesome - it has a gameplay feel similar to the Grand Theft Auto games. Man... you have to get it, or at least rent it.

Our New Futon!!!

2008-01-13T09:30:00.000-08:00

Mike and I bought a futon. The room in our apartment that has the TV in it was pretty bare and uncomfortable. This futon is awesome. It's really comfortable and the cushions are thick. The back part is split in half and you don't have to just put it back all the way. You can put it back just a little so you can lean back and watch TV or whatever.

It cost about $200 - no tax - and it was delivered and set up for free. We're so happy with the purchase.

hash browns - or mini vege burgers?

2008-01-13T09:13:00.000-08:00

Just an example of a food mishap. This is NOT a rare occurance here! I'm always trying to find more things to eat that I like - so probably once a week I go to the store and try something that I THINK I want. Little do I know...

so I bought these things from the frozen section.

So I see these and I think to myself, "SWEET! HASH BROWNS! I'm going to buy these and make myself steak and hash browns!' So I bought them and cooked 'em up! ... ... ... ...

And I tried a little taste of one of these - even though it was immediately clear they weren't hash browns. They turned out to be mini vegetable patties... and they weren't very good. *sigh*

Korean toilets... and the squatting

2008-01-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

Pretty much all Koreans know how to squat. Professional squatters. Basically, this is what it's like. Stand up straight. Now bend your knees until your butt is touching your heals (NOT the ground). Your feet should still be flat on the ground, and you should be comfortable sitting in that position for at LEAST 15 minutes. That's squatting in east asia. At first, it's really funny. You can sometimes see people squatting while they wait for a bus or while they wait to cross the street.

Why is everyone so good at squatting? Because very often you need the squatting skill if you want to use a public restroom (especially if you're female). It's not uncommon to see a public toilet that looks like this:

So a couple weeks ago, I was waiting for a bus and there was this really cute little kid and her mom. This kid looked so young but also very alert and aware of her surroundings. She loved to smile and play little games - so I tried to make a funny face whenever she looked my direction. We ended up riding a bus and playing peek-a-boo for a bit. But anyways, here's the little girl and her mom, and they're also displaying the professional squatting. :) :D

I'm not a professional squatter... and I probably won't leave Korea with that skill.

Koreans and dogs

2008-01-13T08:50:00.000-08:00

I get a lot of comments from... EVERYONE... about eating dog in Korea. Yes, yes, Korea is pretty much famous for eating dog meat - but dog meat is on its way out. In the past, dogs weren't really seen as pets like they are today - so it was okay to eat them. With the younger generation in Korea - people are growing up seeing dogs as pets and in pet store windows. To them, the thought of eating a dog is appalling.

So most people don't eat dog, but you can still find it on a menu here and there. I haven't tried any - and I won't ever (on purpose).

But another thing Koreans like to do is dye their dog's hair different colors. Most dogs in Korea are really small (at least in the city where I live). It's pretty normal to walk past a pet store and see a dog in the window with blue fur. Accessorizing the dogs is pretty big. Some people like to put clothes on their dog, other people give their dog a funny haircut, other people dye their dog's fur.

Anyway - when I get more pictures to show you - I'll definitely post them - but for now here are just a few. :)

Korean Music - Rap: Big Bang (This Love)

2007-12-05T10:20:00.000-08:00

There is definitely some real good Korean music. Actually, there's a Korean rapper I really like called "Big Bang". He does a rap using Maroon5's song (This Love) and it's really good. I like it a lot. I'm planning on buying his CD when I get a chance. I don't know what he's saying, but here's the song/video.

Found the English translation of the Lyrics:

This love, yeah, yeah, yeah
This love in my thuggin' G's in, uh
I'm straight falling, that's right yeah, yeah, yeah,
This is song for y'all, yeah

For no reason today seems sadder than other days
I miss you
Now I can't say those words any more
I can't even be at your side to watch over you; this must be the end
No matter how I look at it I was stupid
I inflated false expectations and misunderstood
Yea you have a boyfriend I know that
I don't know why but it makes me like you more and more
My friends say I'm a fool
Is she really that fine? Get your act together, she was messing with you
I don't care, it doesn't matter to me
If this is the only way I can see you it's enough for me

This love I'm never falling in love again
When I see my haggard face I wonder why I'm so stupid
This love Hey you, already gone and disappeared
Never returning: fly far, far away to behind the clouds
My story has no real heart or meaning; this is like one minus two
September nineteenth I'm left alone on your birthday
Alone I'm a fallin' love shady

Do you remember? When I passed the night outside your house
I grew nervous as I waited for you
While holding a dozen roses I was already excited
But contrary to my expectations you didn't come out; the rain fell
It was only then I decided to let go
Inside your heart there must be someone else; comfort me
I'm sorry; I didn't even know that and put you on the spot (yes)
Now I'm alone again (one love)

This love I'm never falling in love again
When I see my haggard face I wonder why I'm so stupid
This love Hey you, already gone and disappeared
Never returning: fly far, far away to behind the clouds
My story has no real heart or meaning; this is like one minus two
September nineteenth I'm left alone on your birthday
Alone I'm a fallin' love shady

What am I supposed to do? Loving you
Feels like a crime; my heart is so tired right now
I want to find your guy and talk to him – we can't do this
Now I'm crazy, without you for me

This love now forgotten, buried in time
Erasing all traces from memory, why my heart hurts like this
This love so tender, too young to love
All those memories: fly far, far away to behind the clouds

This love, this love, this love, this love, this love, this love (ye)
This love, this love, this love, this love, this love, this love, ooh~
Ooh~ hoo, ooh~ hoo, ye, ye, ye, yeah yeiyeiye
Ooh~ hoo, ooh~ hoo this love ye, yeah

Hey J, look at me
After you left, it ain't the same
I'm not what I used to be
It hurts so much, you know
I need you girl
Always, all time… this love

credits: Claire @ aheeyah

My Desk: Eeyore and Sponge Bob

2007-12-05T09:42:00.000-08:00

This is my desk at work. Eeyore keeps me company. He carries my pencils and pens and stuff (my first pencil case since elementary school!). The kids like him too, although not many of them know he's Eeyore.

I also have a few GIANT erasers that I won from claw games. Several items in the claw games are weighted down with either clay or giant erasers. I like the erasers because at least they have a practical purpose when you win the item.

Anyway, one of the giant erasers is yellow, so I colored marker on it to make it look like Sponge Bob Square Pants. He's friends with Eeyore.

I also brought my mini-Totoro to work. The one my friend Christine Chen gave me! :) But the kids at work thought Totoro was too cute and they wanted to borrow him and give him back later... so I got scared and just brought him home. The others can get lost or damaged or destroyed and it's no problem - but not Totoro. He was a gift from a good friend, so I have to keep him safe.

Toilet Paper VS Mike

2007-12-05T09:33:00.000-08:00

In Korea, it's common - anywhere - to see toilet paper sitting around on counter tops and desks. Businesses and homes use toilet paper instead of tissue like kleenex to save on expenses.

Mike has a big problem with it. He refuses to use toilet paper to wipe his nose, and he hates seeing it everywhere. Basically... toilet paper reminds Mike of a dirty butt or a used toilet. Something like that. So... one day, as a joke, I "TPed" his desk when he was gone. Of course I didn't use too much. I didn't want to get in trouble with my boss. Mike was so mad. hahaha - I wish I could have seen it!

Another night, Mike went out for the night (he's a social butterfly) and, as a joke, I took one of our new clean rolls of TP and set it on his pillow. I felt a little guilty afterwards because I know it really bothers him, and I was a little afraid of the repercussions... but I went through with it. He was mad again (not a serious mad, a good-sense-of-humor type of mad).

There were no repercussions - although he said he thought about it a lot. And I told him that was my last toilet paper prank. I COULD keep myself entertained for a long time with this... but I know he really doesn't like it so much. :) hahahahahahaha

Our Claw Game Stash (AKA: Prizes)

2007-12-05T09:21:00.000-08:00

I mentioned Mike and I's claw game stash in my last post about our wild night out. But I forgot to include a picture of it! Rather than describing the items in the post... just check it out for yourself!

A Wild Night Out: Casino and Claw Games

2007-12-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

In early November, Mike and I had a fun night out. We went to a Casino in Seoul. It's pretty far. We take the subway and taxi... so it takes about 2 hours and costs about $10 to get there. It's on the very far end of Seoul in a hotel. It's REALLY nice. The Casino isn't huge, but it has Texas Hold'em tables and other stuff. It has a little restaurant with a menu and free food. Anything you order is on the house... their way of getting you to relax and stay. As soon as they can, they play non-stop happy Christmas music (noticable). The waitresses are all really cute. Pretty much everyone there speaks English and is a foreigner. Koreans aren't allowed to gamble in Casinos. I don't know why! So all Casinos are catered to foreigners. Anyways, we went and had a lot of fun.

Mike loves Texas Hold'em and he's pretty good at it. I'll make another post on that another time. So he played cards the whole time.

Mostly, I sat and watched. But for kicks, Mike stuck $10 into a slot machine and said, "here. Play this while I play cards." He giggled a little as he stuck the money in and I was objecting. Slot machines are SUCH a waste of money!!! Mike agrees with me... but he just did it for kicks. Anyway, after pull after pull on the slot - I was down to my second-to-last pull and... DING DING DING. I won $63. Cashed out. I gave Mike about 2/3 of the winnings.

You can guess it. After watching him play cards... eventually I wandered over to the Roulette. DOH! House always seems to win. I lost $100 on Roulette. So, feeling pretty crappy, I wandered back to watch Mike play cards. Mike stood up and came over to talk to me again. The nearest seat to the card table is at a slot machine. So I told Mike I lost $100, and he stuck another $10 in a slot machine, then handed me another $10 and as he walked back to the poker table said, "play that." WHAT A WASTE! WE DON'T WANT TO GIVE THE SLOT MONEY WE WON BACK!!! So I considered KEEPING the $10 he handed me, but since he told me to play and it was his donation... that's what I did. Well, I ended up winning another $50 on slots. So as I sat there staring at my money... I thought... that would be nice to get my $100 back. So I took my newly won money and put it on red. All on red! Double up and I have my money back! Lose it, and I'm just back where I deserve to be.

It landed on red. ALWAYS pick red. It's the winner.

So I walked out even. :) Mike walked out with $200 extra dollars just from Poker.

We had this awesome plan for the way home. You see, as we arrived at the subway station near the Casino in Seoul, we took a taxi and drove from the subway to the casino - and we saw SO MANY claw machines!!! There were TONS!!! So we had this awesome plan to play EVERY SINGLE machine at LEAST once on the way back! It was a NIGHT OF CLAW MACHINES!!! And we also decided to take a picture at each machine we played.

The first machine sucked. It took our dollar, as expected. So we played the next machine on another corner. When Mike went to put money in, it wouldn't accept his dollar bill! Instead, it started SPITTING money at him! THREE dollars came out!!! So we put one back in and played the machine, and I won THREE torch lighters in a ROW from ONE dollar (which is 6 trys). It was amazing! Then we took a picture, and remembered that we forgot to take a picture at the FIRST machine we played! So we went back for another picture - but after the recent luck, I insisted on giving the first machine another try. I wanted something specific: a little lighter shaped like a mini golden gun. We put a dollar in... and I WON it!!! We were on a ROLL!!! The next machine, Mike played... and on one dollar, he won a BIG prize! On first glance, we thought it was an MP3 player - which is common in claw machines, but it turned out just to be a mini digital radio with headphones. But it's stylish.

Anyway... we hit claw machine after claw machine, and on EVERY SINGLE ONE - except two - we won at LEAST one prize! By the time we got back to the subway station, Mikes bag couldn't even FIT any more prizes! We were laughing SO HARD. I felt like a thief, we won so many prizes!

We started a box in our apartment collecting the prizes won from claw machines. We have all sorts of things - several lighters - a couple LED lights, a hand held game device, a volleyball net, a cell phone case, and some other stuff. One night (a different night) Mike won a HUGE lighter that looks like a pistol from the 1800s. You pull the trigger and a torch flame comes from the top. We didn't even know it was a lighter at first - but it's definitely my favorite item... well... that and the volleyball net. :)

Pictures range from us dominating the machines to us getting ready to destroy them. :)

Cute Hats

2007-12-05T08:32:00.000-08:00

They have these cute hats in Korea for kids. They're like stuffed animals, but just the head - and they're hats. One of the kids at our school wears one of a sheep. They have all sorts... so I was with Ellie one time and we saw them in the store. I couldn't help myself! So I bought one for my nephew Joshua. I'll have to send it ASAP. It's a tiger. I forced Ellie to take a picture of me and with me wearing it. :) :D ^_^

Music: Wonder Girls, Tell Me

2007-11-29T00:08:00.000-08:00

Okay, I get it. Anywhere in the world... there are 1 hit wonders. Anywhere in the world... at some point, some artist will write a bad song and it will catch like a wild fire and you'll hear it EVERYWHERE. Heck, it happens in America ALL the time!

In Korea... that song is "Tell me" written by pop artist: The Wonder Girls. 5 cute Korean girls, that sing and dance. The song is really not so good... and the dancing... gosh, it's just emberrassing. Yet - watch it... it's just catchy. The only English is "tell me, tell me, t-t-t-t-t-tell me". All the kids know it... so I purposefully bring it up in class often. Sometimes I'll mimic a few of their dance moves to be funny... or when I'm quizzing them, I'll ask a question somewhere in there and the answer is "Wonder Girls". Today we were playing pictionary as a review game for a book we read. At one point I drew a picture of the wonder girls. :) It was fun.

Here's the video. Check it out. It's pretty obvious from the video, who it's meant to appeal to!

I found the translation, credits ginaaax3 @ soompi.com.

I didn't know you would like me,
What do I do? It makes me so happy.
Because it feels like I dream I consistently pinch myself
I'm so happy.

Just in case you wouldn't like me,
I don't know how much I had to worry,
But since you say you love me,
Oh my. Say it once more

Tell me tell me tell tell tell tell tell tell me
That you love me, that you've waited for me
Tell me tell me tell tell tell tell tell tell me
Tell me that you need me, tell me
Tell me tell me tell tell tell tell tell tell me
I want to continoulsy hear it, please continue to tell me
Tell me tell me tell tell tell tell tell tell me
Please tell me this isn't a dream

How come my heart beats like this?
It feels as if, my heart will explode.
When you look at me, if feels as if I'm getting electrocuted,

I don't know how much I've waiting,
I don't know how long I've dreamt for this,
But since you say you love me,
Oh my. Say it once more

Tell me tell me tell tell tell tell tell tell me
That you love me, that you've waited for me
Tell me tell me tell tell tell tell tell tell me
Tell me that you need me, tell me
Tell me tell me tell tell tell tell tell tell me
I want to continoulsy hear it, please continue to tell me
Tell me tell me tell tell tell tell tell tell me
Please tell me this isn't a dream

Tell me tell me tell me you
want me want me want me too
Tell me tell me tell me you
love me too love me too

I don't know how much I've waiting,
I don't know how long I've dreamt for this,
But since you say you love me,
Oh my. Say it once more

Tell me tell me tell tell tell tell tell tell me
That you love me, that you've waited for me
Tell me tell me tell tell tell tell tell tell me
Tell me that you need me, tell me
Tell me tell me tell tell tell tell tell tell me
I want to continoulsy hear it, please continue to tell me
Tell me tell me tell tell tell tell tell tell me
Please tell me this isn't a dream

The rap part:
Hit me once time baby, one more time,
Ok, I know what you did just now, but once more,
Ye, keep telling me, even if I hear, even if I heard, I wanna hear it again,
Sometimes I wonder if this is a dream
Ohmy! What I do?

Facing the truth: Korean food

2007-11-17T10:49:00.000-08:00

I've decided to fess up to the truth... I'm sorry - I can't hide it anymore. I don't (generally speaking) like Korean food. I think it's more similar to Japanese food than it is to Chinese food... and I just don't like Japanese food so much or Korean food.

Korean foods I don't like that I've seen, heard of, and some of which I've eaten:

Seafood like clams, mussels, crabs, fish, fish eggs, and other sorts

dog meat

chicken feet (yeah, they eat the feet of chickens... those little claws. They fry 'em up in hot sauce and eat them. They look very chewy... but I think Koreans like chewy foods because there are a lot of things like that that are chewy and people seem to like them.)

chicken/pig intestines (I ate some for the first time yesterday. It was chewy. The flavor was good... but I wouldn't eat it again)

Cold noodles

Cold sweet potatoes

Kimba - it's like sushi... it's almost exactly like sushi, but generally speaking they don't usually put fish in them.

Anyways - that's pretty much it. It's not the taste... the taste of the food is usually good - but it's the textures that get to me... and other things like that. I know I sound like a picky eater here... and I probably AM a picky eater - but let me tell you some things, just to try and redeem myself more:

I love Chinese food. It's my favorite.
I love Mexican food. It's SOOO good.
I like Indian food a LOT.
I like American food (pizza, burgers, hot dogs, corn dogs... yada yada) of course.
I like Egyptian food. It's very good.
I like other Middle Eastern dishes - very good!
I love Thai food! Chicken Pad Thai! Where are you???

I don't like seafood... and Greek food is... okay. Not wonderful, not bad. Somewhere in the middle. Anyway - that's my confession.

Don't forget: I'm in the city

2007-11-17T10:48:00.000-08:00

Don't forget when you read this blog... I'm living in the city. Incheon is the 3rd biggest city in Korea... so some of the things I say might not be the same in other rural areas. In fact... I hear it's much different.

Claw game friends: Park No Hoon

2007-11-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

A week and a half ago, Mike and I sat outside for a while playing the nearby claw game. We were playing the heavy weight machine. Mike wanted the MP3 player. We almost had it SO many times - and we tried SO hard! But in the end we couldn't get it. It got so intense, there were a few people meandering around. One guy started watching us for a while (watchers are common). He started trying to communicate with us and tell us how to get the item. Mike smokes cigarettes lightly here because they're so cheap... about $2.50 a pack. So people sometimes watch us play and bum cigarettes - it's friendly and social.

This guy turned out to be pretty cool. He's a crane operator - of all jobs - and we're playing the claw game. He played the middle weight claw game, won a couple lighters, and gave one to each of us for a present. Actually - all in all, we've probably received 4-5 lighters as presents from those games.

Anway, when we finally called it quits - No Hoon started to walk home with us (we live only a block away from that claw game). But I stopped half way home and said "I'm hungry. I want some chicken."

"Chicken?" No Hoon said.

So he lead us to a place (it was about 1am) and we ate chicken and drank beer. We met some of his friends that worked at the place we were eating - and we had a great time. So we met a new friend at the claw game and we ended up going out with him again the next weekend.

The Claw Games... (Part 1)

2007-11-17T10:05:00.001-08:00

So in Korea, claw games are very popular. You know the ones I'm talking about - those game machines you see in movie theaters and places like Dave and Busters - the yellow ones with the claws. It doesn't matter what neighborhood you're in - there are claw games. It's not a question of whether there will be claw games on an outside street corner... the question is HOW MANY street corners will have them? Within a ten minute walking radius... in my neighborhood we've found 4 - but we haven't looked everywhere.

The claw games are actually pretty fun. (speaking in USD) You pay 20 cents for 1 try, or 50 cents for 3 trys. So it's normal just to stick in a dollar and you get 6 pulls. That's the official lingo - "hey, hey, lemme get a pull..." - Generally speaking there are 3 types of claw machines here.

1) light weight: candy machines. They're usually pink and the claw is smaller. You reach in and try to grab candy and put it on a platform where a moving block pushes it in the WIN pit if you get enough candy on it.

2) Middle weight: butane lighters with all sorts of designs on them, gold or silver watches (probably priced in the $10 range in the USA), and random other items in that category.

3) Heavy weight: Items that are probably $50 - $100 price range. MP3 players, mini heaters, mini tvs, dvd players, GPS car navigators... - these machines are such a waste of money. Mike and I know first hand. It's virtually impossible to win these! It's NOT impossible... but you're looking at spending a minimum of half the cost of the item - and that's only if you're successful! There's always a great chance you won't ever get it.

I don't want you to be confused though. There's a reason these claw games are everywhere. People PLAY them. When people leave bars drunk - they love to try a few pulls on the claw games. When little girls get out of school... you can see them trying a few pulls for candy. In the morning... you can spot a business man in a suit and tie, one hand holding a coffee and the other hand playing a claw game. It's popular here. Yellow trucks drive around to the different claw game locations and switch up the prizes and move things around probably ever 3 days, maybe once a week.

I say... if you started this claw game business in the USA... you'd make some money. :)

Hapkido

2007-11-10T10:49:00.000-08:00

Before coming to Korea, I knew I wanted to study a martial art at some point. I assumed it would be Taegwando since it's so popular and it originated in Korea and is used by the Korean military... but that's not how it worked out.

The husband of one of my co-workers has a very good friend who is a Hapkido master - and he expressed interest in learning English. So, I was able to get connected with him. He grew up in the neighborhood where I live and he lives nearby. He's been studying Hapkido for about 17 years, and he studied Taegwando for some years before that. But he has a center where he runs Hapkido classes.

Hapkido is like a mixture between Taegwando and Jujitsu - it's self-defense. Here's a little blurb about it form Wikipedia.org

Hapkido aims to be an effective form of self-defense and employs joint locks, pressure points, throws, kicks, and other strikes. Hapkido practitioners train to counter the techniques of other martial arts as well as common "unskilled" attacks. There is also a range of traditional weapons including short stick, cane, rope, sword and staff which vary in emphasis depending on the particular tradition examined.

Although hapkido contains both long and close range fighting techniques, the purpose of most engagements is to get near for a close strike, lock, or throw. Hapkido emphasizes circular motion, non-resisting movements, and control of the opponent. Practitioners seek to gain advantage through footwork and body positioning to employ leverage, avoiding the use of strength against strength.

The guy in the blue uniform is one of the instructors. The guy in the black uniform next to me is the master who runs the classes, and the guy on the very right is the other instructor. They're all great guys. There they are below again. We went out for a few drinks a couple times - the second time I brough my roomate and it was a lot of fun.

Korean version of my roomate, Mike

2007-10-27T06:13:00.001-07:00

I came into one of my classes at work and the kids had a big picture of my roomate on the marker board. It was so funny I decided to take a picture. It's Korean-Mike! hahahahaha... it's like a little Korean version of Mike - it's so hilarious. If they ever draw one like this of me... I will definately take a picture and post it here!

Work

2007-10-27T05:49:00.001-07:00

I work at Shim's Language Academy, known as "SLA". It's a chain in Korea. I don't work at a Public school, I work at a Hogwon. Hogwon's are private schools that only teach English.

Kids here always go to school. I work from 1pm until 8:30 or 9pm, Monday - Friday. I teach elementry aged kids through middle school. That's ABOUT age 8-13. The kids here are SO cute. It's a lot of fun teaching them - MOST of the time. Some classes are very hard. The first week - it's VERY hard to imagine being here for 12 months teaching... but after the first week, you start to get to know the kids and the classes and you get into a routine. That makes it much easier to teach and know what to do - and it makes it easier to write lesson plans.

Many kids here go to school from 7:30am until around 3pm. Then they go to a Hogwon to learn English. Then they go home and do homework... and they don't finish everything until 9pm. In addition to that... they go to school every other Saturday (the first and the third Saturday of every month). Because of this... I try hard to make my classes fun AND do everything I can to teach them English. Their parents pay a lot for them to learn English - and it will help them get a good job.

I work with one other American, my roomate Mike. And I work with two other Korean ladies that speak English fluently. My boss also teaches some classes and his English is very good. All in all - I really like work. The kids are great most of the time - the co workers are very helpful and nice, and my boss and his wife are both very nice, honest, and generous. They really do a lot to take care of us here.

The teachers all share a big office/room for making lesson plans. The windows at our school are partially private windows, but there's a little clear strip so you can see in the rooms. Anyway, there's one of those windows in our office - and the kids ALWAYS walk by and put their faces up against it to peek in on the teachers. It's pretty funny. My friend Peggy (in the USA) calls things like this "creepy"... so I named it the creepy window. You never know when you turn around if there will be a little kid peeking in. hahahahahaha

The first two pictures you can see the creepy window - my roomate Mike - and my desk is that empty one. Here are my two other co workers. I'll put up a picture of my boss and his family soon.

The first class picture is one of my favorite classes. They're so good! They do what they're supposed to, so I am happy to reward them by doing fun things, too.

The second picture is another one of my classes. We're reading a book about sports. Every day, at the end of class, we play the game Simon Says. It's great for them! They learn the words head, shoulders, chest, hands, knees, elbows, mouth, hair, eyes, nose, ears, toes, heel... and some other ones like jump, turn in a circle, sit, stand... they have a lot of fun and it's perfect to go along with what we're learning. Each time, I make the game a little more tricky. I've started saying "Simon Says touch your knees!" but then I'll touch my elbows! So the kids get tricked if they just copy me instead of listening to the words and knowing what to do. Anyway, it's really good for them.

This is a picture of the first class in the day. I don't teach it, but it's such a cute class! hahaha- I hear they're a little wild sometimes. Three of the boys in the class wear their martial arts uniforms to class. That spells trouble from the start! But... I don't have to teach that class so I just get to have fun with those kids. :)

Korean TV

2007-10-27T05:38:00.001-07:00

Korean TV? Interesting that you ask...

well, it's not as crazy as Japanese TV. Mike and I get about 76 channels or so. Maybe about 10 of them have things in English either all the time or some of the time. Two of those channels are dedicated to the computer video game called Starcraft - 24 hours a day, every day. Once in a while, you'll catch them playing some other game... but it's very, very, very rare.

Another channel is dedicated to a traditional board game... gosh I forget the name! I'll post the name when I think of it. It starts with the letter "B". Basically there are circular checker-like pieces. Half of them are black and half of them are white. The board is big and light brown with a grid on it (like graph paper). You place the pieces on the grid intersections. I wish I could explain how to play - but I have no idea! And trust me... you CAN'T learn JUST by watching. I've tried.

I'm going to learn how to play it, eventually. It's a big part of the culture. So are video games.

There's a channel here called ACTION - and pretty much all the time it's playing an action movie. MOST of them are English - so we've seen cool movies like Alien Ressurection and Predator and Dawn of the Dead and several others. It's pretty cool.

Another channel here is broadcast by the US Military - and it's for the soldiers that are stationed here in Korea. So what they do is they take all the good TV shows from America and play them all on this one channel. :) It's pretty cool. They play Leno and Letterman and that other Irish guy... The Office, Lost, Heroes, and several other shows. It's a good fix.

Korea is 13 hours ahead of US Eastern Time. So... when it's night time in the US... it's "tomorrow morning" for me here. As a terrible, terrible consequence - it's VERY hard to catch NFL games on TV!!!

BUT! One thing Mike and I have found out is that they ALWAYS have "Monday Night Football" on TV! But to us, it's "Tuesday morning football" - which is a LITTLE less exciting, but still awesome they play it here. Unfortunately the announcers are speaking Korean.

Sometimes I watch Korean channels and it's interesting. They play Tom and Jerry in Korean, and music channels, nature channels... and sometimes a funny drama. I watch too much TV here... but I hope to get out of that habit when I start learning the language more and getting set into things such as Taegwando or Okido.

Our Apartment

2007-10-27T05:23:00.000-07:00

I hear that the apartment Mike and I are sharing is much better than each of us having our own place - bigger, more expensive, more room... it's nice.

Here are some pictures of our apartment, inside and outside. The second-to-last picture, we're in the building on the very right side of the picture. The last picture is actually just looking down the street from our building, about 3 blocks down. Mike and I teach in one of those buildings on the left, on the 3rd and 4th floors. There are a lot of Hogwons around here (Hogwon is a private English Academy/school).

We work at Shim's Language Academy - SLA for short. It's a chain, but we work at the one in our area - I can't spell the name of our area, but I'll put it up here when I can.

Mike, my roomate

2007-10-27T05:15:00.001-07:00

When I got here, I found out I had a roomate. My contract says I might have a roomate, but before I came, I asked about it and they told me I would be living in my own place. So that's what I was expecting and I was really looking forward to it! When I arrived, my roomate was out having fun, so I went to sleep in the apartment not knowing who the heck I would wake up and see. I was a little angry because I really wanted to live on my own.

As it turns out, my roomate is really cool. His name is Mike and he's from Pittsburg. He has a few flaws... you know... like, for one, he's a Steeler's fan - not a Bears fan. :) That was a joke. hahaha - no we get along great. We have very similar habits (good and bad, and we work together to find creative ways to get around our bad habits). We have similar taste in food and a lot of other things - so really we get along great. We both like to talk (too much). When we do laundry, we have to hang our clothes out to dry on the little balcony - and we both leave our clothes out drying for a week before taking them in - out of pure laziness, even though they dry after about one night.

We have trouble finding motivation to do dishes... so we made a pact that we would get rid of all our dishes except ONE plate and bowl and spoon/knife/fork/cup for each of us. That way, we use our own stuff when we eat and we HAVE to wash it if we want to use it again. hahahaha - hey, it'll work!

But we have fun, so I look forward to a good first year, here.

Some Korean Food

2007-10-27T05:01:00.000-07:00

The most well known Korean food is kimchi - a side dish. Basically...it's aged lettuce smothered in hot juice and sauce. It ranges fromokay to excellent, depending on the quality.

Rice soup. It... doesn't taste like anything, to me...

Water with radishes floating in it. This is like another type of very spicy. Then eat the radishes (only about 3 small strips of radish in a wide tea cup). You're supposed to use a spoon and sip the water, which isvery hot/spicy. Then eat the radishes (only about 3 small strips ofradish in a wide tea cup).

Lettuce with chunky strawberry yogurt on it. It's surprisingly pretty darn good.VERY spicy soup with tofu and various veggies in it. I loved this!

Beef/pork/chicken cooked on an "upside-down metal bowl" or somethinglike it so the juice drips to the rim. Usually it's marinated, andsoooo good! One way of eating it is to wrap it in lettuce leaves(always on the table), put some chili sauce on it, a snippet ofgarlic, and maybe a few onions as you like - then wrap it up and eatit in one bite. This is good... but my opinion is those leaves ruin the taste. I don't know why but I don't like the way the leaves taste.

Seafood is really big here... and I've eaten shrimp and mussel... butnothing too exotic. They like to cook whole crabs, half the size ofyour fist, smother them in hot sauce, and you just take one and eatthe inside... but they couldn't get me to do that. :D hahaha - youknow me. Sooorrrryyyyyyyy - no thanks!

I tried to pick some pictures here that showed the food. I've eaten out several times at traditional Korean restaurants. This is one of those times. The first picture is myself and my roomate Mike (by the way, I have a roomate). The second picture is my friend Ellie and her mom. The third picture is just of Ellie (just in case you didn't know which was which in the previous picture), and the last is just me - mmmmmmm!

Oh! By the way, there's lots of pizza here! There's probably a pizza place every 2 blocks at LEAST! YAY! I love pizza! Also, I learned from the kids I teach that they eat Kimchi for BREAKFAST here!!! Yikes! I can't imagine... but that's the culture! They eat Kimchi for every meal. Other breakfast items you might see are rice (every meal), hot soup, or fish. I told the kids what I eat for breakfast. When I mentioned Orange Juice... they all gagged. :)

McDonalds: Located

2007-10-27T04:56:00.000-07:00

I've located a McDonalds... haven't eaten there YET. I'm going to holdoff as long as I can - until I start missing American food. But theKorean food here is good as long as I Americanize it. Let me tell youabout some of the things I've eaten. First of all... I have NOT eatendog, and I haven't encountered it yet. I have eaten out several timesat traditional Korean restaurants.

Phone and Address

2007-10-27T04:48:00.000-07:00

If you know me and you want my address here, e-mail me. If you don't know me or haven't been in touch much, e-mail me at chrispalasz@yahoo.com - I'll try to get it to you. But the addresses here are pretty confusing. It's hard to get clear address information even from Koreans because of the system they have set up. Numbers and addresses don't always go in a sequencial order...

My phone number here is: 010 4000 0594
If you are dialing from another country, you will not use the numbers 010, you will only use the last 8 digits and you will need to dial the international code first, which I think is 001 10 then my 8 digits.

I have an awesome phone. I'll put a picture of it on this post very soon. It's the SKY IM-U140. It only cost me 10,000 Won (about $10). It gets TV (free for the first 6 months, after that who knows if I'll keep the service, but I figured out how to get CNN! So that's one English channel I have). It does internet, e-mail, text messages, movies, mp3s, 3 megapixel camera, camcorder, expandable SD card slot, games... and other features that are normal like voice recording and alarm clock... it's an awesome device. I just need to figure out how to use the darn thing. And realistically - I won't use half of the features - but I couldn't pass it up! I thought "why not get an AWESOME phone for once in my life if it's that cheap?!? Oh, and it has a large, wide touchscreen and comes with a stylus! hahaha

Hey, if you HAPPEN to know how to use some of this stuff - PLEASE tell me! My friend is going to sit down with me and help me figure out how to put music on it when she has time. The instruction book is 90% in Korean! At least it does provide 10% of the most important instructions in English.

How I came to Korea

2007-10-27T04:25:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about where my life is going. For a long time, I knew I wanted to travel and go to East Asia, but there were a few things on my mind. Back home in Illinois, there were a few things I thought I should take care of... but my life was going astray pretty consistently and I wasn't being very faithful or obedient. I kept making the same selfish choices and as a result my relationship with Jesus was suffering - but I always looked to God to bail me out. I always expected that I could keep making choices for myself and being disobedient and He would just fix things for me - but that's not how it works. It wasn't until I realized this that things turned around. After reading Phillipians chapter 1 with a very good friend of mine and really having that accountability to sit and consider what God was saying to me, I understood what the right thing to do was.

So I started making choices for Jesus again, and immediately, it's like the gates of opportunity opened up and prayers that I had been saying to God all started to be answered at the same time. It was as if God was just waiting for me to take those steps of devotion towards Him again. I listened to some good advice from one of my other friends. I asked her, "how do you make important decisions in your life?" And she said that if a good opportunity is there, she usually takes it. So I thought more seriously about my ambitions to go across seas and decided I would look and see if there was opportunity.

I went online and searched several jobs in Taiwan. That's where I wanted to go. But none of those jobs seemed to work out for me. It didn't seem like there was opportunity. I was also searching for jobs in the USA on Careerbuilder.com. I came across a job listed for South Korea, and the offer was VERY good! So I thought, it's a good opportunity. I never thought I would go to Korea, but I decided I should apply and see if there is an opportunity for me. It was such a good deal that I thought if there is opportunity I might take it.

The very next day after applying, I got a phone call from the company: G'Day Korea. They asked me several questions and I seemed to be in the perfect position to go to Korea and I already had all the documents I needed. So they told me I would have a short phone interview with one of the schools. I asked them if I could have any influence about where to work in Korea. I have a very good friend there, Ellie Kang. She and I did our YWAM DTS together in January 2007 in Nicosia, Cyprus. She happened to be one of my best friends while I was there, so I wanted to be close by if I lived in Korea. I called her and we talked and she was very, very helpful - she still is.

So I asked G'Day Korea if I could work in Incheon, near Dohwa Dong. They said they just happened to have a school that needed a teacher near there. And that was it - that was what I was praying about. I asked God, if He wants me to go, then let everything work out and give me accountability and fellowship in Korea. Everything worked out - and much more.

It took longer than I expected for me to get my work visa, but that gave me extra time to say goodbye to my friends and it all turned out fine.

I flew here on October 11th and arrived on October 12th at night.

Coming Soon

2007-10-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

Check back on Saturday, October 27th - and see pictures and stuff I've been up to!