man with a cam and a plan to explore Asia

Keimyung University

2009-09-08T05:17:00.000-07:00

This is the university where I work as an instructor! :-)

5 Minute Introduction to Korean Food

2009-04-26T19:03:00.000-07:00

My apartment in Daegu!

2009-04-08T00:14:00.001-07:00

Here it is. A new video of my apartment. Enjoy! If you are jealous of me. Well, sometimes I am jealous of me too. hahahaha

Japan

2009-02-19T05:46:00.001-08:00

I am a teacher. This is a test. Here is a multiple choice question. Please see the attached picture to answer.

This beer cost how much?
A) $0.40
B) $7.00
C) $30.00
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

So, it was a trick question I guess, but the answer if you can believe it or not is a little bit of all of the above, and this is a little story about how it all came to be.

I recently had a chance to go to Japan and travel. First of all I would like to say that Japan was very nice; the people, the food, the streets, the shops, and everything else was just nice. I would have to say it is probably the nicest country I have been in. It really was amazing and I had a great time, except when it came time to pay for things, which was a quite sobering experience indeed quickly dissolving my euphoria.

I was walking through a Buddhist temple/shrine on my recent trip when a nice older woman and her friend approached me. They were maybe about 55 years old and very friendly, but only one spoke English. They said they worked at a bar and told my friend and I that we should come by it later. We decided to say, “Why not?” hahahahaha This time “Why not?” turned into “Pay more!” Or maybe when they said, “Come by,” they really meant, “Come buy.”

After we arrived we sat down at a very small bar with about five comfortable bar stools and two tables in a very small bar room. When I say small I mean small; like my bedroom is larger than this type of bar, but it is Japan and housing, shops, food, clothes and generally everything comes in small sizes so I wasn’t too surprised. We sat down and my buddy ordered a beer of which I had the small glass seen in the picture. Now, I don’t drink much at all but after a while I had another. In the meantime we were given a few free shots of sake of which I took very small sips to just see the flavor. What I found out is that sake does taste subtle, sweet, and smooth. My friend ordered another beer. A couple of hours later after sipping sake, drinking my two small glasses of beer and singing a Karaoke song (Yes, I sung a real Karaoke song in Japan!) the bill came. The sake was of course free as promised, but the bill total was at $180. I had to pay almost a third so that brought my total up to $60 for two small glasses of beer, some free sips of saki and a free karaoke song. The rest of the bill was for my friend. We got a little upset and in the end and got a discount. I paid about $15 total for my two beers and my buddy paid another $25. We left dazed and confused. Were these the real prices? Were we being scammed? In the end we found out that we weren’t. We learnt our lesson well. In Japan always look at the menu first. The bar we were at was just a high-end bar for old men to go and sit alone and talk with the bartender and pay $60 a beer. We saw one such man. (This man is seen in the second pic along with the bartender) As much as we were surprised, he must have been amused that such young foreigners couldn’t shell out the cash he was. In the end I felt a little embarrassed for also not being able to pay $60 for two very small beers, but at the same time now every time I see an $8 beer in Korea I think “What a deal!”

Anyway, I hope everyone is okay sipping on cheap drinks (alcohol or not) and enjoying good free music.

Here are some videos about the trip.

Ride of life to Korea!

2008-12-11T19:07:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about how I got to Korea. Sometimes I guess we all need the willingness to point ourselves in the direction of the unfamiliar, unknown, and possibly even unsafe. But still to look in that direction and take those first small steps that will inevitably lead us to hopping onto the "ride of life" that will lead us down a mysterious path, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad, but always with wonder. For me, it starts with something small like a "hello" to a stranger, a quick read of job advertisements on the net, or a "Why not?" to a friend proposing an idea off the top of his or her head, but soon I find myself across the city, state, or even world, totally inundated with an unusual variety of sensations and experiences. It has not all been for the good and I have missed out on many things. Not watching my niece and nephew grow up are at the top of my list, but Africa and Asia and all the other adventures in between have also made me richer in ways I did not know, or couldn't have known before. And for me, it all started with a willingness to look into a path of life that I either thought was ridiculous, unnecessary or strange, but regardless, to take a few steps anyway just to see where it led me.

Being a foreigner in an interesting country, I often go to bed at night wondering with complete surprise about the events of my day. These were events that I in no way had planned for myself when I started off my seemingly normal day. Here is a little story of something that happened to me just this week.

I have been in negotiations to buy an old car from and old friend in Seoul. One of those deals that may or may not go through, or may or may not be a great deal. Who really knows these things? So, I was talking around to some people and I told a girl at my gym about this little bitty blue car I was going to buy for about $1500. If you want to know what it looks like, just think of a blue golf cart on steroids. Yes, it is one of those. It has great gas mileage, is really easy to park, but definitely won’t be good for my image. Anyway, the price is right, so I went around asking my friends if it was a good deal when a girl at my gym told me, “No. I know a place where you can get the same car for half the price.” Well, half the price sounded good to me so I asked her if she could help me out. She told me that one of her mom’s friends has a dealership, manages one, or something like that, and she would be more than happy to take me there.

A couple days later I get a call, “Are you free?” she asks.
“Why not?” I say, and I was off.
This is how one little step in an unknown direction leads me down a path of surprises. First a “hello” to a stranger at a gym, then a “why not” to an offer for help, then next thing I know I am on my way. I was imagining a short little trip to the car dealership to look around for ten minutes and then back again, but just in case I brought a large chunk of cash and my debit card because who knows what can happen. First, she came to pick me up at around 4:30 PM. Her mom was in the car and we all set off together. Next, we got lost. After driving around for a while, then making a phone call, then driving around more, we finally figured out what to do; we picked up her dad. Now it was me and her whole family on a trip together. It turns out the car dealership was on the other side of town and that her mom’s contact is merely the husband of a lady in her exercise class. I realized that her mom has no pull. By the time we got there I expected a normal…. okay, maybe sleazy car salesman to come out and try to sell me a wrecked car for double the price. Actually, the man was really nice, but yes, the car was a wrecked and recently fixed for double the price, not half. That is the way it goes I guess.

Next, her parents decided to take me to get some dinner. I couldn’t really refuse at this point. Once I was already so deep in this experience, I was kind of locked in and on cruise control for the rest of the night. After quickly running some errands we were off to dinner. They took me to a little noodle place that was, well, I am not exactly sure where it was, but I had the best Korean noodle soup I have ever had. The noodles had a wonderfully soft but chewy texture and the broth was very richly flavored with little chunks of seafood in it.

Strange I know, this long blog for the point of telling how I stumbled upon the best Korean noodle soup of my life. But it came as a total surprise to me at the time and I had no idea when I woke up that morning that I would be in for such a small but tasty little treat. I guess my point is that sometimes saying, “Why not?”, leads me to have a big adventure that leads me across the world, although sometimes I just end up across town having a good bowl of noodles, and sometimes something far less, but regardless very often I end up with a surprise. So, I would like to say happy adventures and surprises to all of you.

School Days

2008-11-17T17:25:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

I leave class these days at 6 PM. It is dark. It had to happen sooner or later. The days get shorter and the nights get longer, but still it is strange going into a classroom during the day at 4 PM, still during the day by most anyone's account, and walking out of the classroom to the cool night air and moonlight sky.

These days I guess my life has been sneaking up on me like the nighttime darkness. Everyday it seems like before I know it the night has come, and every week before I know it the weekend has come. I can't remember even when the last time I have written a letter to everyone, but it seems like now the semester is almost over and I haven't even written to tell anyone what is going on.

I have been busy. It all has been fun, but very busy. I started teaching extra classes this semester. I am still teaching my normal first year English conversation classes. I have really come into my own with these classes and have developed them well. My students seem happy and are improving their English skills. These are the bulk of my classes and I am satisified when teaching them.

I am also teaching a conversation class for a business class. It is interesting, but I don't know much about business, and don't try to even fake my way through it. I usually come up with different exercises for them to do. I started off with 10 students. I maybe have 3 now. Hahahahaha. I guess you don't win them all.

The third course I teach is a class teaching the history of religion. I have always wanted to do this. It has kind of been a dream of mine for at least 10 years. I am having a lot of fun with this class, but it takes up so much of my time. I ordered books for the class. They never came. (Well, one did later. I use it too.) Like I said there are no books and no readings for the students so I teach off of powerpoint. This means no work for the students except listening to me talk, talk, talk, and talk. Easy and fun for them, (I am an energetic and goofy teacher) but it is a lot of work for me. Take this week for instance. I have prepped for about 10 hours making a powerpoint for 3 hours of lecture. I don't really get paid extra for this. I just do it for the "experience." My experience is sometimes high, but sometimes low. My students are usually happy, usually laughing, and usually there, but also sometimes none of these. :-) It doesn't help that the class meets at 9 AM. An afternoon class would have gone over a lot better.

Well, that is a little bit about my job and what has been going on here in Korea. I am including a couple of pics. One is of me with my students in class. Another is of one of my (cute) students that I nominated to an English presentation contest, which I later on ended up hosting. Unfortunately, she didn't win.

Riding around

2008-06-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

I had been walking up and down the hills of campus for a while. Campus does sit on the side of a mountain after all. It is nice at times. For instance, if I want to walk out my back door and start hiking in under 45 minutes I can have a view that lasts for miles. But when I don’t want to go on a hike, when I just want to walk to class and back, those hills seem to lose their beauty and more kind of just seem to be in the way.

So one day after being fed up with walking around in the cold day after day, I got a call from my buddy. “Do you want to go motorcycle shopping today?” he asked. And of course I was in. That night I was driving an old beat up motorcycle back home. I was told it was an old police motorcycle bought in a police auction and checked to makes sure the engine was still intact and good. It was and has been so far. But unfortunately for me, it still looked like a police motorcycle. I mean to me, it just looked like a normal old white motorcycle with a blue stripe on it. But to everyone else it was easily spotted for a cop bike a 100 yards away. I soon noticed people noticing me. Then soon got a barrage of cop jokes like, “Did you get the siren with that?” or “Oh no! Watch out. Here comes the copper.”….

At first I thought that maybe it was possible that people thought I was cool. Well, I still like to think that a bit, but the reality of the fact is that when people said, “Nice bike,” more times than not, it was sadly sarcastic. “Oh well,” I thought, “two old wheels were better than two feet,” and kept on riding. But soon, even when girls were pointing and laughing to my shame, I decided I had to do something about it.

A talk with my buddy and we decided that four or five cans of spray paint should do it. Maybe three white and one red we figured. Actually, nine cans of white and 4 cans of red later, it was painted. :-) I guess that is the way things go. At this point the painting was finished but I wasn’t. Now, I was going to put on some yellow tape and stickers. A long search around town and then via internet and I find my line tape. Only problem is that when it came, they sent me two different colors of yellow. I put the tape back in the mail, waited a week and then I was in business. This kind of thing seems to always follow me around in life, but for the most part I seem to get through. Finally, the tape came, well, most of it anyway. My bike is still missing a stripe and probably always will, but in the end, it doesn’t look like a cop bike. It looks like a little ole clunker, but I love it and ride it away.

Getting Started!

2008-05-15T19:25:00.001-07:00

This is just a little note let everyone know how I am doing. The first 11 weeks of class have gone by and the midterms are done, graded, and handed back. Not all my students are happy with me after the test they just took, but in life I can’t make everyone happy, at least not anyway I have figured out. Overall my job is the best I have ever had and that is something to rejoice about. I often set back in certain classes while going to school and reflected on what it would be like to be an instructor at a University. My conclusion at those times was that as long as there was not too much in the way of out of the classroom responsibilities then it would be a great job. I seem to have landed one of those jobs and I just might have been right. J

Of course, I am not always right about everything or even most things. I have moved to the city of Daegu in Korea. It is the third largest city, pretty big by most people’s standards with a couple of million people, but still I find that I am left wanting more. I want more variety of food, more places to go, more friends, and of course as always more adventure, and an ocean view wouldn’t be all that bad either. If I had stayed in Seoul, I would have had the nightlife of Korea. Even if I had moved to Busan, the second largest city, I would have been better off then I am now and even had an ocean to play beside, which is something even Seoul does not have to offer. But I will get two months vacation between the school semesters and being only few hours away from Seoul one way and a couple of hours away from the ocean Busan the other way, I am hoping to get out more often.

I will probably be going to Busan to visit the ocean by bus or Seoul by train but here in Daegu I will be cruising my recently purchased 125cc motorcycle! Haha, actually it is a bit of an old and small clunker, but it gets me around town. I just have to tell myself that when people look and laugh that two wheels is all too often better than two legs. Still I would like to have something prettier and cooler, but I am happy for now.

Back in town!

2008-02-29T17:38:00.000-08:00

My mattress is hard. I might say it is the hardest mattress in the world, but I know better. Still it is by far the hardest mattress I have ever slept on, but lots of people I have met living in the same building I live have the same model, and down the road there is a store that sells mattresses literally made out of stone, STONE. So what can I say? I am back in the land of hard mattresses, the land of the hot chili pepper, and the land congested cities built in between beautiful mountains. I am in Korea. To be more exact I am in Daegu, one of the larger cities in Korea. To be even more exact I am at Keimyung Univeristy and I have a feeling that after I get use to a hard mattress, lots of chili pepper, and a few other things that this is going to be an exciting and wonderful trip.

I will be teaching introductory English speaking classes at Keimyung starting next week. I am really excited about this job, and for the first time in my life people didn’t tell me, “Noooo, Don’t do that!” Studying psychology but not getting a PhD, joining the Peace Corps, going to graduate school to study religious studies, and coming to Asia to teach English were all decisions that I made that people tried to talk me out of, but they were also all decisions that led me here today. Anyway, it was nice to do those things as difficult as they were and all the problems they entailed, but now it seems like I have good reason to be hopeful, and I am not the only one that thinks so.

It seems as if I have been lucky to get a very respectable job, even among the teaching jobs in Asia. If that wasn’t enough, I live in a nice enough residence. If that wasn’t enough, I have met a lot of wonderful and intelligent people already having only lived in Daegu for only a handful of days. And if that wasn’t enough, I will even have enough free time to do what matters most in life to me, be spiritual, have fun, and go on adventures. Some of these adventures I am hopeful to be able to share with you.

So for now I will just say hi to everyone. To all those I left behind, I will miss you, but will be back again. To all those I am coming back to, I would like to say hi and I am looking forward to going to party soon.

Hope and Happiness,

Jeff

The long one.

2007-09-09T23:36:00.000-07:00

Seoul has 10 million people plus, and a city this size I gather is good, bad, ugly and delightful at times. I like having lived in one of the world’s megacities. Yes, it has been crowded and that gets translated into most parts of life here. Smaller houses, heavy traffic (The road in front of my house is 8 lanes. I have not once ever crossed the street except at the light.) and smaller businesses are the norm. It is just all so crowded.

The good news is that many things are close by. With in a five minute walk from my house down the eight lane road in either direction, I can go to numerous small groceries as well as restaurants and bars, not to mention cell phone shops a computer shop, hardware store, bakery… In America, sometimes five minutes of walking barely gets me out of the neighborhood, and sometimes not even that. In Africa, if I walked for five minutes, well, I was just about in the same place a lot of the time as often not much had changed.

My gym here in Korea is hot. I haven’t figured the reason yet. Maybe they are cheap with paying the air-conditioner bill but I don’t think so as all my friends in all of their gyms seem to have the same problem too. It is hot. People sweat. It stinks. I wonder why. On the flip side, the gym is relatively nice and even has a dry sauna room, which is nice to stretch in before working out. In America, the gyms are always roomier, maybe a bit nicer, and far less people use the public showers. In Africa, well, where I was at there just aren’t any gyms. There weren’t swimming pools for that matter either.

Here in Korea the pools are not nearly as common as in America. There are no backyard pools. (First of all, nobody has a back yard. I mean nobody) But there are pools associate with some of the more expensive gyms or water parks. Funny thing is, the pools from my experience are all 3-4 feet deep. At a water park I went to, they made me where a life jacket in water this deep. I have been swimming all my life and it really irritated me. Again, on the flip side, like I said Korea is crowded and so are the pools. At a big water park, a pool is not so much of a place for a person to swim, as it is a place to bump up against other people in the water. (Yes, it is gross) When people are packed shoulder to shoulder in a pool and waves start, even if they are little ones, I could see how a person who wasn’t bobbing up and down on the surface with their life vest on could get tossed under and trampled and possibly drown, so I guess it makes sense. At a different pool I went to they made me wear a swimming-cap the whole time. Not just me but everyone. Why? I am not sure but again it really gets to me that I had to wear a swimming cap and life vest in any water over 3 ½ feet. I, by the way am 6’ 2” and have been working out a little. Funny.

Protective gear was not just for the pool. At the ice rink they made me wear gloves, which they conveniently sold. My hands were very hot the whole time.

The taxis are totally awesome here, numerous, and fairly easy to get. The taxi drivers drive like maniacs, way above the speed limit and are often totally oblivious to red lights. This means a nice fast ride that is good for me but also a lot of wrecks, which is bad for other people. This is exactly like Africa but on a larger scale. For a couple bucks, the minimum taxi fare rate, I can get a taxi to anywhere that would take me 10-15 minutes to walk. I do this often. The subway is even cheaper and can take me anywhere in the greater Seoul area. Most times on the subway I get a seat and get a chance to rest my legs but not always. In America, I usually just drive where I want to go and the traffic is a virtual dream come true to what it is here. In Africa one of the two main roads in the country was near my house and I could take one of its two lanes either North into the mountains or South to the capital. I almost always went South in an overly crowded, hot, and very noisy minivan or khombi as they say. At times, it was ridiculously uncomfortable, even dangerous, but I always got where I wanted sooner or LATER.

One of my biggest frustrations was the lack of diversity. I mean, I figured to some extent I was going to Korea and everybody would be Korean but I didn’t necessarily understand that also meant that there would be a Korean culture that most people, in fact practically all, would adhere to so strictly. This meant that to a large extent everything is the same. The Korean restaurants, which are numerous and easy to find basically sell the same thing. I live in a city, which literally might have 10,000 kimbab restaurants (kimbap = kind of like a Korean style sushi roll but with ham and vegetables). All said restaurants sell more or less exactly the same kimbap roll with no deviation at all. Once a person has had one kimbap, they have had them all. Good for me, I like kimbap. In Africa, it was worse. In my city there were three restaurants and they all sold exactly the same thing. That is when they actually had it in the first place.

It is not the kimbap restaurants that are repeated over and over and over again, it is all the restaurants. It is also the same style of high rise apartments, the same singing rooms (here it is called noraebang = small private karoke room), PC rooms, DVD rooms (these are actually very cool and one of the most novel things in Korea. Think a little bitty dark room with a couch and super large screen for watching any DVD you want), coffee shops, and of course bars, which is one of Korea’s favorite pastimes. To some extent, with the exception of half a dozen areas in Seoul, any area looks a lot like the area next to it and so on.

The half dozen said places in Seoul are a bit different here and there. Some of them rock on through the nights with parties while the rest of the city sleeps (Yes, I was very disappointed because I just kind of assumed that a city with so many people wouldn’t sleep but it most certainly does). Some of the other places might be artistic, or centered around the University. One good thing about this place though is despite the city being crowded, and everything being repetitious, it has some benefits. For instance, to me, when I go to the “Nice” part of Seoul, it really looks a lot like any other part. As well, the poor places don’t really look that poor. It is almost like everyone in the whole city is middle class, which cannot be true, I think. This homogeneousness of the economic class in Korea is a lot like Africa but in Africa where I was at, everyone for the most part was just poor. In America, one side of town has wide streets, flowers, big houses, green yards, swimming pools, and shiny new cars in the driveway, while the other side of town lives in little bitty houses or slums. They might have bars on the windows and no cars. Point is that, there is a lot more diversity in America.

Now, it seems like I have gone and bashed Africa here and made Korea and America sound so much better. I would like to say something though. It is often the people and not the things that make a place nice and the people in Africa are amazing. They are beautiful inside and out, so nice and loving, and can make a person cry with their way of life both for the good and for the bad. Here in Korea, the people are also both very friendly and they are very nice but there is just something about the Africans that makes Africa such a special place to live. In America, people are not nearly always as kind or nice as the Koreans or the Africans. I am not sure why. Maybe too busy or to concerned with other things but I was not rarely treated rude here. Or maybe I just understand America rudeness more. Maybe I might have often been treated rude by Korean standards but to me, I was still being treated fairly nice. I don’t know. I don’t think so. That being said, much of Korean culture has a lot of subtleties to it, probably more than I know or will ever know. Maybe all cultures do. What do I really know? Right? But like I said, it is the people that are so important in a place and here in Korea, I have been so lucky to meet some wonderful people that have made my life so much better.

Peace and Prosperity

The beats keep comin

2007-07-28T23:31:00.000-07:00

It all starts with a little bump and a tap. Then a rap and a few more taps. Before I know it, my whole class has got the fever and once again, I have to calm it all out and get everybody back into English mode. My kids love it and it has taken the elementary schools and the middle schools here by storm. There is not a kid here who cannot knock their pencil to a simple beat or doesn’t have a friend who can’t.

I first noticed it when it started with a little bit of tapping and beating by one of my students on his desk a couple months ago. This student seemed just a little too excited and enthralled in clicking and clocking his pencil but I dismissed it as the normal mind wandering that most students go through now and then. But it continued day after day and then other students started to join in. By now, many students were all beating there pencils on the desk. I am not sure how many times I had to say, “Stop! Stop beating your pencils on the desk¨ before I finally realized what was going on. It was “pen beat” as they call and I know it well by now. They love it. I hear it all day now. Rip, tip, tip, tap, and rip.

Pen beat is when kids try to rap their pencils on the desk to make a nice beat. Everyone knows or knew that person, that kid in school that loved to beat his pencil on the desk. But hip-hop is king today for the young culture not the rock music of my adolescents (although not to make myself sound old, I would like to note that I even listened to rap in elementary). Anyway, hip-hop = beats, even pen beats. You tube is also rampant and that means people can easily videotape their beats and put them on the net. A new age is born. Kids love to compete and a latest competition is who has the best pen beat and it has all been digitized and uploaded for the world to see.

After all, it is not that complicated, right? I mean after all, even a kid can beat a pencil on the desk. I have even got into it a little bit myself. But the key is that kids are putting the videos on the net and are thereby becoming “pen beat artists” that inspire other kids to do the same. Next thing you know, all the kids in my class are beating their pencils to different beats with aspirations of being like that one guy they saw on youtube and yes, it does sound bad. A few are good, but most are bad but this is what being a teacher is all about anyway so I like it. So now, here are some videos so you can see what I am talking about. The first one is a kid in Korea who would be good pen beater as far as my students would go but I have some that are better. And lastly, there is a beat of somebody who is clearly better than my students.

Have fun and keep the beats a tappin,

Cold as Ice

2007-07-01T23:01:00.000-07:00

I was in Hongdae in Seoul. This is known as the ‘club’ district. People go out there at night. They talk, they drink, they dance, they have fun, and they go home when the sun comes up and I have many times done this exact thing in this exact order. Last Saturday I was walking around with my buddy Nick and saw a bar that I heard of a while back. I told him, “Lets go check it out.” We found the place in the basement of the building and started to check in. It was $15 for entrance but included was one drink. It was a little more than average for Hongdae but we paid our cover, and then we started to get ready to go into the bar.

The guy giving us our jackets/ponchos told us the longest anybody ever stayed here was a little over three hours. “That is not long,” I thought, “to be hanging out at the bar.” This bar was a bit different though. The catch was it was made of ice.

To enter the Ice Bar, I walked in a door that is much like a door to a walk-in freezer, and, well, that is what this place was, a giant walk-in freezer. It had chairs made of ice, a bar made of ice, ice walls, ice glasses for drinks, and ice decorations. It would have only been complete with an ice ceiling and Frosty serving drinks.

Fifteen minutes into the experience I started to realize that I was indeed getting cold. To make it worse, I had to pee. That was the secret I thought the three hours thing. The cold is hard enough to manage for three hours but to be in a bar and be drinking and not go to the bathroom for three hours, well, that is another thing.

Needless to say, thirty minutes went by and now I was dancing/shaking to stay warm. I thought I was dancing. I am normally an okay dancer, but I wonder if other people just thought I was shaking. I was thoroughly cooled off and put my sights on lasting an hour, not three. I made the hour and celebrated by holding one finger up to symbolize one hour as I stood next to an ice lady who I can only imagine had been there a lot longer. After that, I got a t-shirt to say that I have done that and been there and am probably not going back.

Cold times and cool bars,

Pimpin da Parade

2007-06-17T21:50:00.001-07:00

Raman, like myself, had been interested in spirituality and studied from people in his native India and even lived at a temple here in Seoul for a while. We have a good time here in Korea and he is one of the many friends I have made along the way that I like to hang out with. He told me, “It is Buddha’s Birthday soon and there will be an event. You should come. It will be fun.” Not knowing much more than this, I signed on and he told me a time and subway stop to meet him at. Sometimes I like not knowing what will happen because it makes the moment so much more enjoyable. How do I love to enjoy the enjoyable!

I showed up at the subway stop Dongdaemoon Stadium. The place was flooded with people and for the first time, I actually saw lots of people in traditional Korean dress. Sure, I had seen a person here or there before but today I saw many. Not even on Chusak the ‘Korean Thanksgiving’ or the Korean New Year did I see people in traditional dress like I had thought I might. But this day was different than those other holidays and this was my first sign that today would be different.

We walked right into the stadium and looked for the section that had been designated for Raman’s temple that he use to live at and still visits. We found it and he greeted his friends. Soon every single seat in the stadium was taken and people flowed into standing in the aisles, behind the seats, in front of them, and any other nook and cranny they could find. It was truly full and impressive how the people had all gathered to celebrate the Buddha.

Raman told me it was going to be a little bit like the movie Gladiator. We had our section and were representing a certain temple so when our dance directors on the field directed us too, we would stand, dance, clap, cheer, and/or wave pieces of colored paper that had been given to us. We waved the papers more often than anything else. Each section of the stadium was for each temple and each temple had a different color of paper that matched the dancers clothes and performers costumes for that temple too. It was all very interesting to see the different sections supporting and performing at different times or at other times everyone in the stadium altogether. This is different for me because I am use to there only being two sides to any event and they are always pitted against each other. Here it was different. At times each section acted differently but at other times everyone acted in unison.

After the show, we gathered for the march and then we joined in the parade. Somehow, I got chosen to be in the parade. Me! Before I knew it, I was walking in between a whole bunch of monks and some kids whose parents attended the temple. We walked and walked, stopped and listened, and then walked some more. The sun went down and the lights came out in many different bright colors. It was very beautiful. The parade went through a good part of Seoul but through and through it all, I was having a blast. While the monks in front of me walked slowly and knowingly, I walked behind them waving to the crowds, giving high fives, and meeting the other people around me walking in the parade. The whole time, I carried a lantern. Not sure why but everyone had to carry something and so that is what I ended up with a lantern. All in all, in was definitely a fun day and one to remember. By the end of the walk I had met many new people and seen Seoul from a completely different view, I saw it threw the eyes of a parader.

Me at 30

2007-05-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

I usually write about adventures or things about life in Asia that I find odd. I have a lot of experiences with both of these things to talk about but for now, I would just like to talk about being 30. This my reflection about who I am, where I have come from, and where I am going.

I do a lot of self-help, religious work, spiritual work, dream work, and it is this part of myself that I have come to identify as my largest passion in life. I could talk for hours or maybe even days with anybody who would be willing to listen to what I know or be able to teach me what I don’t. In this area, my appetite for knowledge as well as experience seems to be almost bottomless. And in my quest, I have become to identify with a self that exists behind the scenes of my stirring mind or racing body. This is my spirit, soul, my life, or whatever a person wants to call it. It is soft, subtle, and quiet but like water in many ways, always seems to get where it wants to go.

I am of course many other things. For one, I am a person who has been in one way or another, always sick. In my early childhood through my late teens, it was asthma, and it was very painful. But the suffering that it caused me was not without benefit. For instance, it was through my asthma that I had a couple of near death experiences and it was from one of these, when I was 19 years old, that I was able to have a concrete experience of spirit, soul, life or whatever people call it that let me to be able to clearly identify such a part of myself as spirit. Without such a unique feeling of knowing what it was to have this ‘spirit’ go out and leave my body, I might not have ever been able to really identify with something so subtle and quiet.

And I was also a drug addict, to many people’s surprise, and will always be an addict in recovery, and still have an addict mentality of sorts; though it no longer destroys my life like it use too but often uplifts it. Not only was my childhood plagued by drugs, and asthma but other things too like problems at school and at home, and just with accepting myself. Actually, I always felt like I had suffered many things in childhood due to circumstances that were out of my control but I now realize that I very well might have suffered just as much later by situations that were in my control, and maybe even because they were in my control the suffering would have been over much longer and painful periods. I have no doubt that this is true now. And I am no longer sour about my childhood as I once had been but look upon it with a taste of indifference. I know it was hard at times but also know that life could have been just as hard later on in other days in other ways.

I started off my early 20’s having been in trouble with the law, reeling from an NDE, and recovering from a drug addiction. I also had no friends anymore as I left my old life behind starting over in a new city, started a new school again, was working and trying to be the best I could be, which actually wasn’t much. By far worst of all, I was mourning the loss of my father who I did not know was going to leave me. Even today, it is still the biggest tragedy in my life but I am not alone in such affairs and I keep on going.

Year by year things got better but considering where I started off at, my twenties were not that bad, especially after twenty-three on. And so I am now in my thirties. I am a person who has traveled and worked on three different continents, attended many fine schools, and have been able to learn from many great teachers, my family, and friends, and others. I am employed as an English teacher in Korea, but this is just a means to my end and not my final goal.

I plan on going back to graduate school and getting a Master’s degree in non-profit management. By doing this, it will help me to achieve my goal of being able to work in the field of social justice, aid, and improvement. I feel like I want to dedicate the next stage of my life to working in this field to help others help themselves. I often ask myself what is more rewarding than a life of giving and decided this is how I want to live such a life. I will continue to improve myself along the way, travel, and have adventures, but I will also be giving to others what I think I can give. This is my plan for the future. I am looking for friends along the way that can help me achieve my goals, if you have any ideas or suggestions for me, I would love to hear what you have to say, good or bad. But as for now, I think I have found something inside of myself that is very satisfying. I have come to accept my past and have a plan for the future but more and more have learnt how to just live out of the moment and all that it brings. I might have taken a long time, 30 years, to settle on a path to tread but as I look back, I have been inching my way towards this life step by step and year after year. I look forward to the future, to my successes and failures and unique turns life will bring, and of course as always the adventures and experiences.

Lastly, I am adding a pic of me at the beach this weekend. It was nighttime and they had blue floodlights on the waves, which created a really cool effect so I thought I would to share it. Also, people can see how I look at 30 but, well, not really because the pic is small and fuzzy. :-)

living on the edge

2007-05-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

Everybody was putting on body harnesses. The people were a little more alert and standing in attention. The anticipation and tension filled the air. For most people, it would be their first bungee jump. I remembered what that was like but this time I was calmer. Maybe that is why I was the one that coolly spoke up as they started to put the body harness on me saying, “no, I want to go by my feet”. Other people heard me; a few guys already in harnesses turned towards one and me also spoke up, “Yeah, I want to go by my feet too.” We waited to the side and then they attached wraps around our feet, and our feet only.

These wraps were oddly enough just wrapped around a few times and then attached by velcro. No big, deal I thought. I am sure they knew what they are doing. Anyway, I would be jumping over a river, even if the cord breaks or the ankle harnesses slip, I will just get wet and that’s all, I thought. In fact, I wanted to get wet.

On the rickety skeletonized elevator ride to the top of the tower, people were now disturbingly nervous, a little shaky, and jittery. Soon 15 of us were now up at the top, hurdled behind a gate. This was the first of many groups that came on our trip that day but still nobody had jumped. The man comes up to us and says, “Who wants to go first?” The jaws drop, eyes widen and people slowly move their heads from side to side looking at each other. I smiled a little bit and said, “I’ll go”.

It seems volunteering was not ever easier. He didn’t argue with me or give me anytime to retract my somewhat courageous and somewhat spur of the moment decision and next thing I knew went from being towards the back of the group to peering over the ledge. I was going to jump over the edge of the tower over 50 meters in the air, go flailing towards the water and right before I hit the river come to a stop splashing down lightly. I was suppose to get my chest and head dunked before the last bit of the bungee grabbed tight yanking me back up towards the platform.

It didn’t happen. Seems that going first, they don’t always know quite how much the bungee is going to stress and stretch that day. You know, weather conditions and amount of strain on the bungee make different lengths for different days. They had weighed us before jumping and marked our weight on paper and mine was accurate so that wasn’t the problem. It was just that the operator erred on the side of caution for the first jumper of the day. It could have been worse, instead of a barely missing the water, I could have gone all the way under. Hahaha. It was a fun jump anyway.

The rest of the day was just as big of a trip. I visited a waterfall and later rode dirt buggies around a pretzel like dirt racetrack until I stalled/broke/went off the track with my vehicle. We also rode bicycles by the rivers side for an hour, and had a simple but nice feast to tame my hungry stomach from the day’s activities. All and all, it was an ‘adventure in Korea’ and my kind of day.

Pins and Needles

2007-04-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

I was talking to one of my friends the other day about his stomach problems. He was drinking a darkish brew that smelt of something that would make a person sick, not better. I told him, “If I had a stomachache the cesspool of brown sludge he was chugging away at would not be what I would take”. He laughed a little bit embarrassingly but then he told me that it was not the only thing he was taking. He was also getting acupuncture.

Now, I thought about this for a while. How can playing with a persons skin help their stomach? Seems pretty impossible to me. But then I thought more. Isn’t this acupuncture thing in a way just as odd as somebody taking a pill for their skin. I mean, somebody swallows a small pellet of who knows what and fungus on their toenails stops growing or pimples magically disappear? So, why not? Why can’t manipulating a person’s skin affect their stomach? Seems just as unlikely as swallowing a small white pill deep into one’s stomach and then having it affect their skin. Well, that is if a person thinks about from a non-western medical perspective.

So, in life when I'm faced with such a mysterious situation, I only do one thing; I dive in headfirst. I set out to go and get treated with traditional medicine and this is my journey.

First, I had to think of an excuse for getting treated. Just as a person can’t just walk into a doctors office and ask for an operation if their isn’t any problems, I can’t get the brown sludge or needles poked in my skin if their isn’t anything a matter with me in the first place (from a legitimate oriental doctor anyway). So I determined my ailment for the purpose of this visit and my new afflictive condition would be pimples on my back.

On arriving at the doctor’s office, I was plugged into an electric chair. Connectors on my both of my ankles and wrists shot not large but still noticeable shots of electricity through me as sensors measured and recorded different organs/systems/functions in my body. After 5 minutes a colored paper chart recording 10-15 different functions came out. Results: I’m fine!

The doctor examined the chart. He says I have a “fever” (not the temperature kind) that causes my pimples. Calm the fever and my pimples will go away. Also, the charts claim I have low vigor and low energy. The doctor diagnosed me and I was moved onto the treatment room.

First, my legs were massaged. Yes, my legs were put into giant compartmentalized bags connected to an air pump(s) that would blow up one section at a time and then release. It felt great, the best leg massage I ever had. At the same time they put a ‘hot stone’ wrapped in a towel on my stomach. (note: still not sure how this affects my pimples)

Afterwards I was relaxed, I mean really calm and the doctor came in. Three seconds later he had needles in hand. Then poke. One needle was in my chest and then jab, jab two more in my belly not a second later. He moved to my hands, legs and feet. In about ten seconds, I had ten needles plunged in my body. That was it. It was done. The worst ones felt like a small pinch. The best ones didn’t really feel at all.

A nurse came in and added some substance to a couple. Then she lit them on fire and then blew them to smolder. The very familiar smell of sage rose from the needles and cleared the air, not that it smelt bad anyway.

Lastly, they turned on the heat lamp. You know one of those hot red lamps that keep food warm at the burger place by your house. Yeah, I had one turned on me. I wondered, “Could this be bad?” Then I wondered, “Will I stay fresh for fifteen minutes? And then maybe somebody could eat me!” In the end, it wasn’t so bad.

Surprisingly, exactly fifteen minutes later, same time it takes for a burger to go bad, the plucked needles were slid out and I was ready to go. (Maybe the fast food restaurants aren’t the only places with limits on how long those lamps can be used for.) All and all, I paid 10 dollars to be a human pincushion and I think it was well worth it. In fact, the leg massage alone might have been worth it. My insurance picked up the rest of the tab and I am not sure how much it would have been but I bet, well, I bet it would have been a lot.

Bibimbap Remix

2007-04-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

The lyrics in English are

Bimbimbap, bimbimbap, bimbimbap, its the best.
Bimbimbap, bimbimbap, bimbimbap, I like it.
Bimbimbap, bimbimbap, bimbimbap, I want it.
Bimbimbap, bimbimbap, bimbimbap, its delicious.

Do you love love songs?

2007-03-18T05:27:00.000-07:00

John Cusack in the beginning of High Fidelity has a moment of clarity about life and music. He is sad and reflects on pop music and how depressing it really can be and says something like, “Did I listen to pop music because I was depressed or was I depressed because I listened to pop music? Who knows?”

I recently had a similar question to ponder in my mind concerning Korea and love. Let me first say, far as I am concerned America is home of poppish songs with catchy words and melody (and now for younger people hip-hop). Africa is king for dance music and music with cool beats. But Korea, well, I think it has to be home of the ultra corny love song.

I found this out when I recently went to a ‘Norebang’ or ‘Singing Room’. It was end of the long and dreaded winter intensive and we all went to party. After a huge meal and a couple bars and many drinks, there we were spending the wee hours of the night (or start to the morning) singing our winter intensive stress away. After a couple songs, I was noticing a pattern. Everyone was picking cheesy love songs and then I would pick a fun song like Joy to the World. I was singing about bullfrogs and wine and they were singing about ‘the one’ that they just couldn’t live without. These weren’t even love songs like Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You. These songs, in both words and melody went more like, “I will always love you, and need you, and cherish you, and have to have you by my side, so I can’t live without you even for a minute of a day of a year because you mean so much to me, forever, and ever because you and me baby are made for each other perfectly and it is the most right thing since the beginning of time and you are my only true love ever.”

This type of thing went on and on until at the end of the night after two hours of the singing room we had a count of 3 fun songs by me and 22 intensely devoted love songs by them and with a total 0 songs of any other kind thrown in.

So, I can’t help but wonder if my other observations about dating and love in Korea and just how different, funny, and intense it can be compared to American dating is at all related to the music. Dating here as explained to me by Koreans is often times such a big deal and people are so intense on finding the one that they can spend years without having a date because their standards are so high. When they do find somebody they like, it can again take months or years to express it, and then the dating process itself can also be very intense. I think everyone here is looking for “the one” and is a little stressed out when they haven’t found him/her. So, I sit back and wonder, “Is the dating in Korea so melodramatic/conservative because the music is so sappy or is the music so sappy because the dating is just not laid back enough?” Or then again maybe everything here is perfect and I am just lost in a sea of misunderstanding when it comes to finding the one.

Ice Fishing

2007-02-17T23:13:00.000-08:00

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You know in life, things are not always what a person expects but time after time I have been shown that even if things are not what I expected, often I can still make the most out of it and have fun.

I had seen it on TV before and so I expected that it usually consisted of only men. I also thought that these were the kind old men with facial hair covering their wrinkles and they would wear lots and lots of clothing. They would be sitting around on cheap old lawn chairs drinking beer as their fishing poles hung over a freshly broken hole in a thick blanket of ice. They would sit around and talk as the patiently waited for a fish to not bite their line.

This is how I always imagined ice fishing and well, one part of this image did come true. I set around patiently for a fish to not bite my line over a hole I recently smashed in the ice. :-) In fact, I was not surrounded by old white men with thick beards but thousands of Koreans of all ages including men, women, grandmas, grandpas and of course, the children. We were all about a meter apart from each other and I often wondered how could anyone catch a fish in this environment. I thought it would be easier to snag one in the side with a hook than to get the fish to bite my bait and reel it in as I had always been taught by my dad growing up in Oklahoma.

But I did see people in the distance holding fish and catching fish and so I waited patiently. Obviously, this river or section there of had been stocked. This did not seem impossible to me to be managed even though it would take some serious engineering logistics. The task of stocking the river with trout could not had been anymore difficult than the much larger feat of getting the river to freeze over. See, this section of the river that I was on and only this section was frozen over with ice. The rest of the river, both ahead and behind this 600 meter strectch, was just running water, as it normally should have been.

I was at an ice fishing festival and what more could I expect then artificially made ice and stocked fish. So, later on when a couple people I saw caught fish and I went closer to examine, I was not surprised that their method for catching this fish was artificial too. Yep, they hooked them in the side instead of getting them to bite the lure. I should have known better!

About this same time, I saw men walking around with an ice chest full of fish. They were actually taking them out of the ice chest, putting them on other people’s hooks, and then charging for pictures. All the people like me, I guess who didn’t catch anything, could buy a fish for their prize ice fishing trip photo. Hmmm, about this time I quit fishing.

Needless to say after I quit fishing, I started to enjoy other activities in different sections at the festival. I watched the kids ice skate, the parents pull there kids in sleds, I watched other kids play on the ice, and I watched kids play on ice sculptures and walk through the ice cave. I actually watched the kids play a lot I guess.

All in all, it was a fun day trip and worth it, if only for the experience alone but there was one highlight that truly stands out as pretty cool. During the day, I hung out with some new friends that had been given some fish. I think the trout they had was even given by somebody else who wanted the picture and then after the picture did not know what to do with them so the fish were just given away. Lucky for me, the girls who received the fish did not know how to cook them so I stepped up to the challenge. We took the fish to a “cooking area” and wrapped them in foil to then cooked them on the open fire.

Mmmm, I don’t have to tell you these fish were delicious. Freshly harvested trout from the river, cooked on a wood fire with a little bit of spice were definitely the highlight of the day. I savored each bite of their soft and tender morsels. Yes, I have had a strict vegetarian past. And yes, I felt bad and well, I honestly hope I don’t ever do it again for all the reasons that I like being a vegetarian but in the moment, I definitely enjoyed myself.

Anyway, I hope everyone is well, and if your ice fishing trip is more authentic but just as fun as mine.

how to get a cell phone fixed

2007-01-31T04:25:00.000-08:00

It was the one of the worst maps I ever had. I have been walking all around the area where I live looking for a cell phone repair shop that is certified by the company that makes my cell phone and I just couldn’t find the shop. Somehow my cell phone broke last night and so I set off to get it fixed. (I remind you how I mentioned in a previous blog that my phone is not just my phone but also is my watch, my alarm clock, my subway map, my dictionary, my camera, my voice recorder, my calculator, my calendar, and my phone book and yes I do talk on it too).

Now this quest started off to be a little bit of a problem because I don’t exactly remember where I got my phone. It was my third day in Korea, jet lagged and dazed, everything seemed so new, strange, and overwhelming to me back when I purchased it. But regardless, I set out to find the shop that sold me the phone.

I gave up and just went into one of the dozen shops on what I thought was same street that look pretty much the same and well, it might have been the same store but who really knows. The very nice worker who actually spoke some English told me that to get my phone fixed, I had to go to the service center. She even drew me map and upon 1 minute of being outside the door of the shop, I realized it was going to be completely difficult to use because the landmarks on the map were not even in the right relationship to each other. In fact they were completely wrong, not even a one of them in the right place. But I set off and figured that according to the baffling map and landmarks that the place I could be looking for could be in only 1 of 4 or 5 buildings located on the 2nd floor of said ghost building.

So on the last building, still not having found the place I was looking for, I decided to start over and go into another cell phone shop just like the dozen other on this new street and talk to the people there. Bingo! As soon as I walk in, the very friendly guy who unfortunately did not speak English at all said, “service-uh center-uh?” I say, “yes” and he communicates through hand signals and all those strange things that people do when they can’t talk. Basically, he communicated for me to go to the next intersection and the service center would be on the 2nd floor. Yeeesssss! The first girl also said the 2nd floor. Although I have to mention that where I was going was now completely off the map, I still thought I was going to make it.

I stumbled my way around the 2nd floor into to service center put my phone down took a deep breath and said, “hand-uh phone opsoyo” which I think translated in English means “no cell phone”. Anyway, they understood and took it away. Thirty minutes later, I sat there at the complementary lobby computer typing this very message and I still had “no cell”. Hahaha.

Actually, nobody there spoke English and so I don’t really know exactly what was going on. After a while a technician came out and asked me if I spoke hungal (Korean). I said “hungal opsoyo” which of course means “no Korean”. He understood and acted out that my phone was broken. I knew that but at least things were happening.

Not too much longer there he was, he gave me my phone back in working order and ready to go. Well, minus all the phone numbers/pictures/ring tones/other important information in the phone as now the memory was wiped completely clean. That was the price I had to pay for getting my phone back because there wasn’t any other price. When all was said and done my bill was zilch.

So, the rest of this story is that I sat down to type this blog up as an intro to my blog about have gone ice fishing but as this story itself has turned into a tale of its own, I shall plan on saving my ice fishing adventure for next time. Hope everyone is well and I hope you have a nice day.

Life in January

2007-01-13T08:33:00.000-08:00

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It has been a while since I have written. So 2007 has arrived and I am looking forward to a prosperous, happy, and healthy year. As for January though, well, it might be a bit prosperous but not as happy as I would like. I am working a lot these days during the dreaded and long “Winter Intensive”. Winter intensive is the time of year that the school kids get off for their winter break except that they don’t get a break. Instead they get “intensified” by attending my school and spending their break days learning English. To me, that doesn’t sound like that much fun. I feel sorry for the little guys having to go to school so much but I also feel bad for myself for having to work so much. Anyway, next month will be better as I shall go back to my normal schedule and so I will be happier and healthy (not so much as prosperous) but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Therefore, I would like to share some pics of my school kids, all of which had been taken by my camera phone. While the quality of the pics might that be that great, they are still good enough for you to get an idea of what my classrooms are like and to see a few of the personalities I work with, for good or for bad. So here they are, the pics that show what the largest chunk of my life in Korea is about (especially this month).

Naming Kids

2006-12-10T01:53:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to start this letter off by telling everyone how cold it is here in Korea, how the half-mile walk to work chills me as the wind gusts bite through the little gaps and creases in clothing that inevitably are always there but I have followed the weather in America and I am not sure that I have it any worse here then anybody else. Well, we also have had one big snowstorm here but by the next day a lot of it had melted off so for the most part, it has just been cold.

So, these days I bundle up in heavy coat, scarf and hat and make the walk to work everyday and when I am done, I do it again. Work itself has been getting easier and easier for me. I am getting better at teaching out of the certain textbooks I use and I think the kids are all getting more use to me too. More and more the bad kids aren’t so bad but at the same time the best students are no longer acting perfect. That is okay though, I actually prefer a little bit of excitement and chaos in the class (but not too much).

I have some fun parts of my job that I like and that keep me going. There are all kinds of things I could talk about but one thing that stands out in my mind is that on my first day of work my boss told me, “You are handsome so I think the kids will like you.” Haha, I laughed but the other week I took over a new class and every day one of the middle school boys tells me, “Teacher, you handssooommmme.” Funny.

Anyway, that class is going okay for me. The other teacher that taught it before had some problems with the class. I think the teacher might have said some things about Korea that was not exactly flattering. This in mind, on my first day of teaching that class, I went in and started talking about soccer (Everyone knows I don’t really care about it but as I guy, I can fake it). The conversation sooner or later moved to Korean soccer where I said that I really like the Korean team and that the other teams that beat the Korean team “really suck”. At this all my students exclaim loudly, “Yes!” and some even jumped out of their chair. I still am not sure why this hit such a nerve but by the end of class, they were all telling me how much better of a teacher I was than the other teacher. Kind of Funny.

Something else I really like about my job is naming the kids. Part of the job of an American teacher is to give the new students that only have a Korean name, an American name. As a teacher, I feel like I am helping to shape the lives of young minds but when I actually name somebody, it really hits home how much I am shaping them. Oh, I know that they only use their English names in my class but who knows? Maybe one or two of my students will go abroad someday and when they go to America or England, they very well might use the name they have had all that time, the name I gave them. Really funny.

But not just the naming is fun, it is what I name them. One of my first classes on my first day was a whole class of kids. I was told while walking to that class that I had to name them. Well, I didn’t know what to do off the top of my head so I named them after the Alphabet. Adam, Betty, Christy….. But that was only after being away from America for a couple days. Now, I get more home sick so I name my kids after all my family members. I hope to name a kid after everyone in my family before it is all over! Hilarious.

Staying up late and sticking it out with love and light,

Kids and Cops

2006-12-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

Everyday starts out the same way. I go to work and then I sit at my desk, maybe go over a couple of my lessons for the day, maybe grade some work, but usually just sit there and talk. A few minutes later the kids come in getting ready for class and I now know it is about time for class to start and about time for my starting work ritual.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday my first class is the 1st graders. Young kids, maybe seven years old and I presume like all kids around the world that age, they like to play hide and go seek. So I go into class and the kids are all hiding. Now, I mind you there are not a lot of places to hide in the classroom that is about 8 feet by 8 feet but these kids have figured them all out. There is the staple hiding place of “under the desk” in the second row (also the back row), preferably in a corner (the only other option is the isle and that is way to easy). Then there is the “behind the door” trick, which of course is always good. And lastly, my favorite is the “under the teacher’s desk” which I can always count on a sneaky 7 year old to pull. Surprisingly enough though, day after day, week after week, month after month, these kids play this game with me. They hide, I find them and tickle the hell out of them (think of the “claw” to the stomach) and then we start class. I wonder everyday, “When are these kids going to get tired of this game?” but they never do.

So this day started out like the rest but something different happened. During the day three oddly suspicious policeman dressed in suits came by my school. One spoke in perfect English, “May I see your alien registration card please (green card).” I start looking through my wallet and look up with a halfway anxious look on my face and ask, “What are you going to do to me if I don’t have it? Take me to jail?” No answer. I look through my wallet again, “Seriously, what if I don’t have one? What happens?” No answer. I look through my wallet some more bite my lip and make a nervous click off of the room of my mouth and say, “I am not sure if I have one.” One of my coworkers freaks out and starts going off about how you are always suppose to carry one with you so I just smile a little bit and say, “I am just joking, here it is.” as a whip it out of my wallet where it was all along. Just having a little fun, that’s all.

One of my friends comes over that night though and tells me that three oddly suspicious policeman dressed in suits came by his school that day but that two of our friends (they also live in the same building as me) didn’t have their registration cards. One of the girls let hers expire, the other never got hers but had been here the whole time on a tourist visa. Well, they were pulled out of class and taken to jail right then. No kidding, I couldn’t believe it. Next, someone who couldn’t speak English very well told them that they were being “banished” from Korea. End result was after a day in the slammer they were bailed out. The girl who didn’t have hers in the first place went back to America the next day and the girl who let hers expire was allowed to stay and renew her ID.

Well, that is the way it goes I guess. Just an interesting little experience that I thought I would share. Hope everyone is well. As for me, I got a humidifier and some sleep and am feeling better these days.

Phone Fix

2006-11-14T07:37:00.000-08:00

Over three months have passed since that day I got my cell phone. It is a nifty little gadget and it goes with me almost everywhere. Of course I use it to talk with to my friends but it also has four or five other features that come in real handy. First and foremost, I use the camera on it. Cell phone cameras have been around in Korea for a long time and mine has a 1.3 mega pixel cam on it. That is really top of the line for cams in America but here is where things start. Basically, my phone is a cheapie. One of my students has a beat up and old phone with a 5 megapixel camera in it. Hahaha, my real digital camera is not even 5 megapixels and this guy has one build into his phone. Can you believe it? I was never a fan of digital cameras in phones before this phone but this one actually takes good enough photos to snap quickly and send off in emails and actually some of my pics in my emails have been taken with this phone so it has proven itself a useful addition.

The second thing that is so cool is that I text message people. Writing messages in Korea is really popular and a lot cheaper so I have once again since Africa sharpened up my texting skills. In Africa people wrote in a kind of short hand slang more often than not and people here don’t. People try to use full grammar here. Not exaclty sure why but I kind of miss writing in slang.

The third thing I like is the built in English to Korean dictionary. This comes in especially handy as I have learnt (kind of) how to read Korean. These days if I am at a loss for good conversation material and I really need to say a word, I just type it in and find the Korean equivalent or better yet just show my phone to the person I am trying to talk to and let them read it.

The fourth thing that I use on a regular basis is the calendar. Makes it handy for figuring out what is going on and when.

My cell phone is just a basic one. Other people use their cell phones as MP3 players here and every time I go to the subway I see someone rocking out to music on their cell phone. Actually, mine has this option too but I just haven’t figured out how to use it yet.

What is more surprising is the people that have downloaded shows to their cell phones and even fast forward through the commercials. I have peeked over more than one person’s shoulder to check out what they were watching. But other people that are not watching movies just whip out their antenna and start watching TV. Pretty amazing to me that there they are, right in front of me, flipping channels. These video capable phones also have extra large screens that flip around so people can see the show more clearly.

My cell phone does not have these options, at least I am pretty sure it doesn’t, but I am not too upset. For all that my cell phone has, and it has a lot and I am happy with it, it does not have one thing that I really would like it to have. It has never had a phone call from America, not once in over three months.

So for everyone who was afraid to dial internationally because you did not know how much it costs or thought those extra zeros and ones were confusing (I don’t blame you) I have set out to make life easier for you to call me. Don’t call everyday. I am too busy for that but at least once while I am in Asia could be nice.

Here is a number you can call me at 903-551-@$52 when you want. Best times are early in the morning or late at night. Yes, it is a USA number so it should be free or cheap for you to call but best of all, it is easy. I have received this number through AOL instant messenger using VOIP technology so I will only be able to answer the phone when I am home and have the computer on but if I am not here, you can always leave a message.

On a side note, I am still sick and that sucks. Thought I was getting better and started to, well, I actually did get quite a bit better. Unfortunately though, I have also gotten worse since then. Seems like it has happened to a lot of people. In fact, it seems like at least half of the people I know are sick in one way or the other or just have been or are getting there so I guess that is how life goes here.

Hangups for Halloween

2006-10-31T20:49:00.000-08:00

“It is when you are sick that you get home sick the most” people say. Actually, I have heard this more than once since coming to Korea and probably have said it a couple times myself. Well, I work at a school with little kids that face me all day long and from time to time cough right on my face. I teach 20 different classes a week, which exposes me to lots of little kids and lots of little coughs. The weather also changed here and I went outside in the cold for a couple hours one night and so it was bound to happen sooner or later. For the last five days I have been sick. Just the average cold I think. I am handling it better than most and I should mention that quite a few people do have it too. At my work, all three of the guys are sick right now and possibly a couple of the girls too!

I had run into some other difficulties in addition to this. Seems like one of my classes hated me. Three middle school girls that didn’t speak English very well, that also couldn’t understand me, that were also using a book that was way above their heads complained about me. I complained about the girls and the book and so my class was transferred. I say I have failed in one class but it is much better to look at it like I have succeeded in 19. After all, teaching is a tough job, and working at a cram school (hagwon) is not the easiest job as far as teaching goes.

Despite losing the class and a few other problems here and there like being cussed out by one of my students topped off with being sick, I am getting by as well as can be. Also, for anyone who knows me well knows that October 30th is not my favorite day, in fact the exact opposite. Despite all this, I am not as homesick as what I thought I would be. Homesick? Yes, but not dying to go back but gladly would if I had too. Some days are actually pretty good here, like the weekends.

I have been here three months now. I can really feel like I can say, “I live in Korea”. Shorter than three months, just seems like an extended stay away from home. After three months, I really start to feel a part of the community but yes, also miss America. Three months is enough time to make some friends. Enough friends to fill a cell phone up with numbers. Three months is enough to go on a couple dates and have a girlfriend. Three months is more than enough to get use to Korean food and even start to learn how to cook it. Three months is even enough time to get use to living in a small studio apartment (officetel). Three months is enough time to learn how to use the subway and even learn enough Korean to do necessary small talk. Well, most of the time anyway. And lastly, three months is enough time to work at a hagwon to already start planning my long and extended stay in Thailand when I am finished.

Hope everyone had a nice Halloween. Here is a spooky picture of me on the subway.
October 31, 2006

New Videos from Vacation

2006-10-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

Here I explain what a "dongchim" is for the newbies who have not been loved enough to experience it.

This is the end trip video.

Chusuk (Thanksgiving)

2006-10-11T23:02:00.000-07:00

Melissa said, “It is a famous Korean holiday, come to my house tomorrow with Randi and help my mother cook pancakes”. Sounded fun to me, so I set the time to meet Randi at the subway at 11:00 AM. Now, 11:00 AM comes pretty early for me these days. I know all you out there might be crying out “WHAT!” but I don’t have to be at work till 2PM so sometimes I sleep till 11 or 12. Stay up late, wake up even later.

Also, 11 AM must have also been a bit early for Randi because she was late but it was no big deal. Randi is from Hawaii and she is very laid back. It is clear she has lived her whole life on the islands and so we get a long well; I like that style. In the meantime while waiting for Randi, two grandmothers who I am sitting next to try to talk with me. I don’t speak Korean, except enough to ask for the bathroom, get directions, and then say, “thank you but I don’t speak Korean.” Unfortunately, they don’t even speak that much English. Still they still manage to mime out the fact they have daughters or maybe sons and wanted me to meet their kids, maybe for dates or for English lessons, I am not sure but when it came time for them to ask me for my #, I didn’t give it to them, not because I wouldn’t have because I might have but I really didn’t have a pen with me. This is by far not the strangest meeting I have had with strangers and I expect many more.

Randi and I caught the bus and were on our way to experience the traditional Korean Thanksgiving, the biggest holiday in Korea. Here, it is called Chusuk and we were arriving on Chusuk Eve at Melissa’s house, a co-worker of Randi, to help her mother prepare some pancakes for the following day. I figured that for one, it would be really neat to see how a regular Korean family acted and lived in a house and two, that it would be cool to see the traditional food being made and assured myself I would get to try some during the process. Cultural exchange and good food is what I thought would happen and I that was pretty much right. It was a great time and here are some of the pics.

Recent trip to Suwon

2006-10-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

Haha, This trip went nowhere but we still made a time out of it!

Create Your Own!

"Police or no police?" That is my question.

2006-09-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

It was suppose to be another day, in the end it was. I was spending another Sunday from my precious weekend in Seoul because, well, that is what there is to do around here. A city of 9 million has a lot to offer. The little suburb where I live about 45 minutes to an hour away from Seoul doesn’t offer much but a quiet peaceful life to raise the kids. Part of this quiet peaceful life involves no crime or little that I can perceive. It really seems like there is no graffiti, nobody really stealing anything as the stores all don’t have little bars that have to be demagnetized (although I have heard that middle school kids do sometimes try to steal candy but that is about as far as crime goes where I am at), and also the streets are safe. In fact, I can walk the streets at anytime. Morning, noon, at night, it does not matter. Even little old gray haired grandmas can be seen walking down the street by themselves at 1AM carrying groceries and not even looking the slightest bit anxious or worried that something might happen. If they can do it, I can surely do it.

In fact, I rarely ever even see a policeman anywhere around where I live. It seems like life here is kind of on the honor system (oh but people do drive crazy) where as in the States there is always a police presence and it really is kind of a police state. So the other day I was kind of in for a surprise.

I was hanging out in Seoul, enjoying a nice touristy life of roaming around an ancient palace recently rebuilt. I had been watching people dressed up in traditional dress rehearse how the changing of the guard use to be in the old days (PS. I have a pic of me in traditional dress. If you all are lucky, you just might see it sometime). During the changing of the guard I noticed quite a few media people running around. Upon leaving the luxurious and quite expansive palace grounds I found out why. About six college students had gotten together, decided to protest and decided to do it on the entrance to the gate of the palace and do it during my visit. There they were, shouting anti-government slogans and hanging anti-establish posters. They were young and strong and proud holding their fists in the air, yelling well thought out one-liners. The media was taking pictures and the people passing by were all gawking, me included.

Then all of a sudden the person I was with said, “Lets go. The police are coming.” I turned around looking for a cop car and was thinking, “Definitely not leave, lets stay and watch the police take out these kids.” Then I could not find a police car with flashing lights, like a had seen maybe half a dozen times where I lived the whole two months I was there (By the way, police cars where I live always drive around with their lights on so everyone can see them coming from far away and they are not allowed to have guns). My friend said, “there” and pointed over the hill towards the sidewalk and there I saw the police. I cussed silently thought to myself, “That is not the police, that is a whole army.” They were lined up three rows wide and maybe fifty deep, all marching in a straight lines like the military might do. They were in riot gear wearing helmets, having riot shields, and big clubs that I could only think were for knocking people around a bit.

Needless to say, I was in awe. Six college kids in America means maybe twenty or thirty cops. Here was a hundred and fifty, seemed a bit overkill to me. I watched as they came, and then more came. And then more came. Some climbed on top of the gate to get the kids. I only snapped this one picture; I wish I had gotten more. Before the apprehension of the kids was complete, we left. Turning the corning, I saw many hundreds more police. Some of which were preparing to go towards the main entrance and some of which were guarding additional smaller entrances to the palace. All told, I would not be surprised if more than a thousand riot police were dispatched to handle the situation of six college kids protesting. So considering this astonishing display of police force, I thought to myself, maybe everything is not on the honor system here. While I defiantly don’t see many police where I live, that is not to say they aren’t here. Just get a couple of kids shouting slurs about the president and you will see.

Later on I learnt that the area I was in was a focal point for protests and that also the riot police just kind of hang out in the area waiting for a protest to start. Also, I learnt that unfortunately every single male in Korea has to spend two years in the military or two years on the police force so both are quite large and able to handle whatever might come their way.

So, to sum it all up, security in America is a cop on every corner. In Africa, it is a privately paid security guard with a machine gun standing in front of your shop or house. In Korea, it is hundreds or thousands of riot police that don't have any weapons but lots of pads and can get any job done due to their plentiful numbers.

My house in Korea

2006-09-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

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I would like to not only explain a little bit about what it is like to live in Korea but also show some pictures of where I actually live. These might be a little boring but at the same time kind of interesting to see what is the same and what is different with life in America. What is apparent is that most things are not too far different than how they might be in America. Definitely living quarters here look a lot more similar in Korea than they do in Africa. Anyway, I have always been the type to believe that being “well off” meant that you can be happy with everything you have, not having everything you can. So that being said, my life here is getting happier all the time, and while my place does not have as many rooms as the last place I lived, it is all mine and I am doing fine. Actually, I am at a point in my life where I don’t really need much to live comfortably and most (not all) of the basics have been met where I live now. Hope you enjoy the pics.

roller coaster coverage

2006-09-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

What it is like living in a new city across the world is sometimes difficult to describe but I can say it is filled with lots of highs and lows. Here is a recap of some of mine at 5 weeks in Korea.

Cons: First of all, I showed up in Korea with my luggage lost, showed to a small apartment and dropped off at 2AM Sunday morning and was told, “See you at work on Monday”. Work was 11 hours long (but I got some breaks), no training, no real guidance just a stack of books and a list of classes and times. I didn’t speak any Korean at all and didn’t know anything about where I was. Here I was by myself, me and my little book with Korean phrases, a key to my crash pad, a computer, a credit card, some cash, and only the clothes on my back. The apartment was empty and so was I in a lot aspects but I started going out and stumbling my way through the neighborhood, looking into stores for food to buy and on the side of the street for more furniture.

Now my previous experience of living overseas was of arriving in a country with a group of thirty other Americans all going through the same emotions and experiences of me such as confusion, frustration, awe, and excitement. While many Peace Corps volunteers complained that Peace Corps admin held our hand a lot more than they should have during the first couple of months of training, and maybe they did, for me it was not too bad and we had two more years to do what we wanted after life in training. Here in Korea nobody held my hand, in fact people were afraid to even touch it. I did quite a bit on my own. Sure I had help setting up the apartment and some other things but not much above and beyond the bare minimum that would be expected. Worse my air conditioning and hot water were broke at my apartment so life was more uncomfortable than what it should have been. With some complaining I got those fixed and with more complaining after that I was able to get internet and a cell phone set up.

My luggage finally came. One bag was perfectly fine, the bag with all my clothes. The other bag was a disaster. I should have foreseen in. I had a bag with bottles of spices, one of which was the extra large premixed Italian spice type of bottle. I figured correctly ahead of time there would be a lack of good Italian spice here but what I didn’t figure is that the bottle could break and the bag it was in could rip. Thus Italian spice was in everything. My bag of “stuff” had been effectively spiced, tossed and rubbed in with oregano, garlic, and basil through the hustle and bustle of my bags going who knows where (part of which was apparently them sitting on the curb in front of my office unattended for a while). Most of the stuff was salvageable, some water and some scrubbing and it was fine. I got the bag cleaned up and of course the Italian spice leaked all over my house because I did not quarantine my unpacking/cleaning procedure tightly enough. I got it all cleaned up and burnt some incense to kill the smell of little Italy in Korean but lost my electricity converter (therefore all my American electronics) and my really nice ergonomic keyboard (sorry Ryan but it was nice while it lasted). It took me two weeks to finally become officially unpacked and cleaned because of all the work I had to do left me with little spare time to just get situated.

There were also other little frustrations that I need not mention here but all this is starting to sound like a bit of whining so it is time to talk about something else.

So to some it up, Life sucked always working long days and not knowing what I was doing.

Pros: Korea itself is a really neat place to be. I am always turning a corner and finding something new like a new restaurant, grocery, or place to go. I have had a chance to talk to new people from time to time and it was cool. I met a stranger on the subway the other day and had a really nice talk. Subway rides are a trip in themselves and I have seen some pretty amusing things here and there on them.

Just today I went out with my new friend Kurt to a little flea market and we met more people on the street while we watched some kind of fight happen. All of it was kind of confusing and was some kind of dispute about a man not being able to have his booth at the flea market or something and was being evicted. But a crowd gathered and we went right up to some other Americans we saw and started talking to them.

Kurt has definitely been one of the best pros of being here. He is an American a few years older than me that lives on my floor. We hang out sometime and go here and there. He has quite a few friends through the school he teaches at and they are all pretty cool so I have met some people through him. We have been into Seoul a few times, twice for all nighters, which were totally worth it and a really cool experience. See the subways close here at 11PM and don’t start till the morning which means people like me who live over an hour away have to pay a hefty taxi price or have to wait it out till morning when we can get back home for a buck on the subway. We stayed out all night and had a time doing it. Nice bars, a little dancing, good atmosphere and a lot of good energy. Life rocks in Seoul, wish I was deeper in it.

Other cool things include getting to eat lots of nice foods. I love trying new foods and I have tried quite a few since coming here, no doubt about it. Some for the better, some for the worse but it is all an experience. Squid jerkey anyone? First few bites are a bit rough but then it starts to get to be alright but beware one piece can stink up a whole house for a day.

I am learning a bit of the language and it is fun to talk a little here and there and figure out what is going on. “Hello, How much is that? No way. Goodbye”

Another great pro is that in a week I will get paid. Once that money comes, I will be at the break even point, I think meaning that I will have about the same amount of money in the bank that I did the day before I bought the plane ticket to come to Korea but have had all these experiences. This job definitely pays more than others I have had so I am looking forward to reaping the rewards.

I do have to say that although it sucks working forty hours a week, it is something that makes me feel like I am a “productive” member of society as that is what it is expected of everyone that has a Master’s from the University. Not that I really care what everyone thinks of me or not because I feel like I will do what is right for me and not look back but it makes things easier when people don’t think bad things about me.

Other than that the Pros are summed up by having the excitement and adventure of being in a new country and learning a new way of rocking and rolling.

On the whole, I am still fairly lonely. While it has been totally awesome to go out with Kurt and hang out with some of his friends (now my friends too) I am still looking to meet new people. I am sure they are just around the corner and I will have good times ahead. Each week gets better and I am very hopeful that once I get my social networks setup and get to spend some of all that money I have been working so hard for, it will all be better.

The ins and outs of the whole experience has in many was been worse then it has been better so far but to some extent it has been a really big trip being here in Asia so for that I am happy for the whole experience.

Here is a pic of my keyboard that I took a part and tried to unsuccessfully clean up and fix.

my job, call it that if you want

2006-08-26T03:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder myself but I am setting out right now to explain what it is I do or more precisely, what it is I have been doing at work. I say this because on Monday all my class schedules change and books change that I teach out of so it might be different but I am fairly confident I half-way know what to expect with the changes.

Just a little recap, I am an English teacher at a type of school that is known in Korea as a hagwon. These hagwons are quite the trendy thing right now in Korea and any parent who has got the cash to send their child to a hagwon sends the poor kid away. Hagwons can be described more precisely as private tutoring schools that a student attends in the evening/off normal school hours to further their studies. They might be translated into English as “private tutoring academies” or more accurately “cram schools”. My hagwon specializes in English but they come in all sorts of specialties like cooking, art, math, music, martial arts, whatever. My impression, and this is only my impression, is that all the parents want to be able to say that their kid does this or that and thus in Korea they have a school for it.

Strangely enough, I wonder sometimes just how much time a child actually spends at home with their family if they spend their days at school and their nights at school. Hmmm, but I am not one to criticize, I spent much of my young life either at school or in day care during the day and playing video games or watching TV at night as did many other kids in America of my generation so it is not much different, I guess.

During the last month I was teaching “summer intensive”, which basically means that the kids were out of regular school for a month and so they just went to the hagwons more. Schedules were mixed up and I am not sure if things were organized as well as they should have been at my school, in fact I know they weren’t (Probably the norm for cram schools though from what I hear). I would teach one class one week and another the next. It was all kinds of crazy. My days were too long, 11 hours on M, W, F but not as bad on T,Th, only 8. Way, Way, too much work though for me.
So in each of the classrooms I would walk in, always sure to give a big happy “hello” to get the kids excited, or in some cases a loud and sharp, “Sit down. Open you books” for those classes that were a little too excited to begin with. Then, I was off and class had begun. Usually, a class would last 40 minutes.

On my first day I was given a pile of 10 books for 15 different classes, no training and told “go teach”. Oh yea, they also failed to mention which classroom I would be teaching in and or the kid’s names. I was only given a schedule with the level of class and time I was suppose to teach, which led me to have to have to ask around to different teachers, “Do you know what book they are using?” and “Where is the classroom?”. More than once I ended up in the wrong class or had the wrong book with me. After a while I started getting the hang of it and learned some of the kids names and filled out attendance sheets via role sign in sheets and towards the end was able to make seating charts and even learn more of some of my 150 student’s names. Hmmm, I wonder how many I will have starting next week now that everything is changing (By the way I was told on Friday that I won’t know what I will be doing for sure on Monday until Monday).

So, I go into the classroom with my book in hand, ask the kids to open their books, look around and figure out what page at least have of them turned to, sneak a peak at their page number hopefully unapparently and tell the rest of the students to open to that page. (haha, how smart I am!) I have done this time and time again since the first day because I was able to get away with it then, so why not still do it now? But really from now on, I plan on trying to keep track which class is on what page and so on in hopes that I don’t look like so much of a dumb #@@.

So once I am there and they have their books open that is actually the easy part. I mean they are all elementary books so it is not that hard to teach. I skim over the page real quick and tell them to fill in the blanks/read the sentences out loud and correct them. Many of my books are workbooks helping to build English awareness. Some exercises work on vocabulary in which case I say the word, get them to repeat it, and try my best to act out or explain the word. Other exercises are speaking so I just listen to the kids and correct them. This part in itself, which is supposed to make up almost all of the job but really is only half of it, is not too hard. They hire anyone with a college degree to do this job and for the most part, any half way intelligent person should be able to walk through it fairly easy, that is as far as the content of the material that needs to be taught.

Ah, but that is not all teaching is now is it? Half of teaching, and the half that seems the most difficult, is motivating kids who spend most of their life in school already doing work, to do that next page, that next assignment, the next task, when I am sure to them it seems like such an onslaught of school work will never end, and for them it seems like it really doesn’t, at least until they are in their 20s, poor kids. So a lot of my job is telling kids to sit down, be quiet, go outside in the hall, stand in the corner, don’t do this, don’t do that, write down you answer, write down your answer, write down your answer.

When class is going smooth, it is going really easy. I explain to the kids what to do, they do it and everyone is happy. When it goes rough, I discipline the kids by first moving them to stand in the corner/not getting to sit by their friend, or make them stand in the hall. It seems to bring my desired result of good behavior most of the time for the kid and to a large extent for the rest of the kids but it is always a pain building up to the point of telling the kids to be good before I finally discipline them. Oh well.

So the recipe for what I do is: 1) Quite a bit of wondering where I am going and what I am teaching. 2) A good chunk of explanation, instruction, and feedback to kids about their English lessons out of different books. 3) And a liberal serving of shaping kids towards classroom behavior.

Teaching and taking the rest that goes with it. Hoping for health and happiness for the rest of you.

P.S. I am enclosing a humbling picture of my desk at work.

eating to live, living to eat

2006-08-17T04:07:00.000-07:00

Well, last time I spoke about how I thought my days would get a little easier and of course it seems like I spoke a little too soon. As of right now, I spoke about a week too soon. It seems like I got one more long week of scheduling ahead of me and after that then I will switch to the 2nd shift and hopefully better times. I know a lot of people want to know what I do. Yea, I know and I keep on meaning to explain it but I do it for a living and don’t really feel like coming home at night and talking about it so yes, sometime I will explain it more in detail beyond that “I teach English to elementary and middle school kids”.

I would like to say that my days do seem to get a little easier day-by-day. I am not sure why. Maybe it is that I am better at teaching, maybe it is that I am a little meaner to the kids and whip them in shape (don’t kid yourself though, I am still a pretty easy teacher), maybe it is I am more comfortable at home, maybe it is that I have a better command of my environment and the Korean language (not a good idea to move to a foreign country with only knowing how to say “hello” and “give me”) but it is probably all of these things.

Today, I would like to give my first of what will probably be a few rants on the food here. First of all, I need to talk about kim-chi. You have heard of this stuff, Korea is famous for it. Most commonly thought of as rotten cabbage, it does in fact come in many different varieties, flavors, and comes from many different vegetables but the cabbage variety is hands down most popular. It is really everywhere here and is served second only to rice. Anytime I go to a Korean style restaurant, maybe even other style restaurants (I think McDonald’s might even have some kim-chi in some way or another) they give it to me. Luckily, they usually give it to me for free. No kidding. Everywhere you go, they give you kim-chi for free. Kind of like chips and salsa at Mexican restaurants, it is just expected, in fact demanded. Korean food has to have kim-chi like pizza has to have cheese, if it ain’t there, its not the same.

I guess rather than calling kim-chi rotten cabbage, I should give a little bit better explanation. They take cabbage, chop it up small, soak it in saltwater, wash it, add a little bit of other vegetables like onion and or garlic and then add a ton of chili pepper and I mean a ton and stick all of it in a jar to ferment. After a few days, poof, kim-chi. No cooking, just a jar, saltwater, chili pepper and time. I heard in the old days and still in some places the kim-chi has set for months before being consumed but I am fairly confident the cheap restaurant variety I am so use to eating by now has only set for a few days.

The next surprise is the amount of chili pepper here. I am talking a lot of chili pepper, so much so that it has ceased being a spice and in some dishes become a main ingredient. It is not uncommon for me to get food with a thick layer of chili pepper oil covering and I am telling you it is hot! Ouch.

Chili pepper is popular here and Tabasco sauce is not hard to come by either. When I first came to my house, there were lots of little packets of sauce from Pizza hut. I wasn’t sure what they were but I ripped some open and to my surprise it was hot sauce. Hot sauce from Pizza hut I thought? Hmmm, doesn’t sound right. I was even more surprised when I put it on my eggs and thought for sure it must have been Tabasco sauce as I use to do this in the States sometimes and it tasted the same. Later that week, I went to Pizza hut and was totally redeemed that, yes indeed they do have a bottle of Tabasco on every table. These people love chili.

Another strange surprise was really good bread. What a strange place, not what I expected at all of Asia. Tons of chili on everything but at the same time, really good bread and I seriously mean really good bread. All over the place are these little bitty French bakeries. In fact, there are a couple on my way home from work. They have nice baguettes and really good although a little pricey loaves of bread.

I expected for the bread to be all bad as Asia is not known for good bread but I assure you, it is here. Another thing Asia is not known for is good cheese and that is because they do not have good cheese :-). It is available here and there though and so that is okay and I won’t go without too much.

Another very pleasant surprise I found is orange juice. Okay, supposedly it is not oranges but tangerines or something like that but it is really good and pretty cheap. In fact, it beats hands down any glass of orange juice that I ever had in the states except of course fresh squeezed which I only had a few times and this still might even bet better than that right out of bottle from concentrate. Who would know?

For all my African friends, they have a version of fat cakes here (for all my non-African friends, it is an African donut) at those little French bakeries. They cost about 60 cents a piece which would get you way more fat cakes in Africa but these have some kind of red sweet bean filling which makes them way better than the African ones.

So, how does the food in Asia compare to Africa? Well, African food where I was at was really very bland with very few spices and this stuff is loaded with one spice, chili pepper. I am not kidding, one restaurant I went too gave me soup but it was black pepper soup which means they just boiled black pepper a lot and I mean a lot of black pepper and called it soup. What a joke.

Street food here is really, really cheap. Food at nice restaurants is way too expensive. Food in Africa that is not home cooked is hard to come by outside of a few big cities but usually is affordable. African food is often eaten with hands; this food is mostly eaten with chopsticks. African food tends to have a handful of ingredients that are often repeated fairly often day in and day out. It is true too here with rice, pork, tofu, and of course kim-chi So let me put it like this. Rice=papa (maize boiled into a mush) kim-chi=moroho (any kind of greens but usually Swiss chard or cabbage that has been cooked well), and pork=chicken/whatever just died in the field. So, there you have it, not much different to me. Oh yea chili pepper=Aromat (MSG)/salt/whatever anyone used to make food taste good but times ten.

“Living to eat, eating to live” and telling you about it later

work, work, what!

2006-08-14T05:32:00.000-07:00

Anybody who knows me well knows I have said and has heard me say probably often, “I will not ever have any kids.” so I sit here in Korea and look in the mirror and wonder after a terribly long day, “why, oh why, did I sign up for being with kids 11 hours a day?” hmmm, then I am reminded of my answer, money, adventure, excitement and of course teaching is a noble living. So far, it is only the noble living that I have experienced. Well, let me take that back. I have had lots of excitement and adventure, just not the type I had wanted in the first place and I definitely have not seen any of the money. I was thinking more excitement and adventure by way of going someplace cool and doing some exotic thing, not excitement and adventure by way of trying to figure out how to get home or even order food or even figure out how to use a phone, subway or taxi (still don’t know about the Post Office or my washing machine because it is all in Korean).

All that will hopefully change soon. First of all, because I will finally get paid for all the work I am doing. Second of all, because my long workdays won’t be so long anymore. I am working 11 hours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; I work from 9AM to 8PM. Too much if you ask me. Tuesdays and Thursdays are a little shorter 9AM till 4PM, just a normal job. If everyday was like those, I would be fine.

“Soon” I tell myself “soon”. Starting next week everyday will be much more like my Tuesdays and Thursdays. I will start working at 2PM till 10:15PM. Not too short but still better than what I was doing before, plus I don’t have to wake up early. But Tuesdays and Thursdays will be where life is nice, 5PM till 9:30PM. Well, this is how I think it will be anyway, who will really know but I will keep you all informed. But wouldn’t it be a sweet deal? How sweet the sweet is when the sour is so sour! Maybe in a little while I shall have more time and money to experience life instead of just work.

It has not all been work and getting adjusted to Korea. I did have a nice time this weekend for the first time since coming. I got to see a movie and climb a hill about twenty minutes away from my house on foot. Pretty cool, here is the pic. Looks pretty cool from far away but when you get close you realize it is not perfect, too crowded and a little grimy.

Long days and short nights, not much longer.

Still settling in.

2006-08-04T20:16:00.000-07:00

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The rain stopped and the sun came out and wouldn’t you know it, it is hot and muggy. Not so hot like Oklahoma in the summer with temps over a hundred but the lifestyle is different here so it might even be a little worse. It is also almost a hundred percent humidity and makes for me to feel sticky all the time.

In America, I had an air-conditioned house, car, school, workplace, ect… That was just the way it was. Here people have air conditioners but they don’t use them so much. I literally walk everywhere and so I am constantly enduring the elements.

Luckily, I have an air-conditioner in my house now. Well, theoretically I have two but one doesn’t work and one does so I really have one. That is not the only trippy thing about my house. First of all, for those who don’t know, I live in an office building. Kind of crazy in a way. I am walking down the hallway to run an errand in shorts and a t-shirt and Korean businessmen are passing me in suits. Oh well. Like I also mentioned the building itself is not air-conditioned so the hallways and especially the elevator are really hot to be in. Almost every time I get in the elevator it is scorching hot and I hope that this time will not be the time it breaks down.

Otherwise the house is turning out okay. I have been making myself more comfortable in it, picking up things here and there to make life a little easier. I wish I had a couch or something in my place for friends to sit on (if I get any) when they come over. The house was a bit rough to begin with, especially before my luggage and stuff arrived. It was made worse by the fact I had no hot water or air but like I said I have air now and even an instant hot water heater in the bathroom just in case the hot water ever goes off again. I have got a cell phone, which even though I haven’t used it much, makes me feel good because I feel like I am at least partially connected to the world. Also, I am supposed to get internet soon. I was supposed to get it today but it is not going to happen. After it happens I won’t have to be standing at my window with my computer on a trash can trying to tune into and piggy back on my neighbor’s internet signal that may or may not be there.

I have met some Americans in my building though and they seem pretty nice so it is not as lonely. It is hard be a loner in a strange city but hopefully that will all be over soon.

Other than that I don’t really have a lot of crazy stories. My life has been mostly about working very long days, coming home and trying to make myself comfortable, and sleeping. The sleeping has actually been pretty important; maybe it is the jet lag.

So my new cell phone has a decent enough camera in it so I have taken some self portraits and put them in a slide show for people to see. These are of walking around the market that is about a 10 minute walk from my house.

Busy day, getting situated

2006-07-31T05:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess I am starting to feel a little more comfortable in my surroundings. You know I am starting to feel that familiar feeling when I walk in the door. I have unpacked and done some basic cleaning, picked up necessary things for my apartment, finally got my address figured out (I think), got a foreigner ID card (green card), picked up a cell phone, got a bank account, got a medical book and medical insurance (happens all at the same time, I think because health care is nationalized). So, even on my days off, it seems like I have still been really busy.

First, let me explain about my apartment. It was furnished with a bed, table, chair, reading chair, desk, TV with stand, two wardrobes, washing machine, sink, fridge, microwave, toaster and some dishes and blankets. Not so bad, I think. But I still felt like I needed other things. Like a toothbrush holder, trashcans, fan, drying rack for clothes and an extra chair would have been nice so I did not have to drag my one regular chair back and forth between the kitchen table and the desk. Last night I went walking around after dark. In different peoples trash piles and brought home a couple of chairs. One is an almost new and quite comfortable computer chair but it has a nasty burn on one corner, maybe from a heater, I don’t know. The other chair is old, worn out and maybe belonged in the trash but I brought it home to put next to my door so I can put groceries on it when I come home or maybe sit on while I tie my shoes.

Getting the ID card has been pretty pivotal on the rest of my activities. Sure, I got a visa before I came and that let me get across immigration but it is an ID card that anybody and everybody wants to see whenever I do anything else. Last Monday, after a trip to Seoul and a long wait to speak to someone, I signed a bunch of papers and gave a lady my passport. She said in a week I would have my passport back and I would have an ID too. She was right. After I got my ID, then I was an officially registered alien in Korea.

Next I was off to the bank. After another long line and the signing of some more papers, I was given my new check card and the Funny Looking Checkbook (FLC). Then I went to the cell phone shop and showed them my FLC and my ID card and I was given a cell phone that presumably will charged to my bank account, who knows?

Lastly, I was off to the medical issurance, health department place where after a long line, I was able to get my Funny Looking Medical book. It is some kind of book you take to the doctor and he writes prescriptions/diagnosis in (Again, I think). Like a lot of things, I am not too sure about all this but I was told I would have to pay about 180 dollars every four months as my insurance premium. Not too bad, I guess.

I am not really too sure about all of this but it does seem like my cell phone works pretty well, I have sent and received calls on it already. Most of the day, I have been just walking around with a person that speaks very broken English and was directed in sentences like “bank now”, “phone now”, “medical card now”. I don’t really know what my cell phone plan is or how my bank account really works but I was given a debit card and the PLC and at one point they had me type a four digit # into a keypad so I can only gather that is my new pin. Pretty funny, I am all amazed but also tired.

Back from a day in Seoul

2006-07-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

The rains have been coming. Its monsoon season, they say. It is not too bad, just a steady rain that does not stop, no wind or bad lightning, just a lot of rain. Monday it did not rain but on Tuesday it started and did not really stop until Friday evening/Saturday morning.

I got rained on to and from work everyday, which really sucked. It is only a two and a half block walk, maybe a quarter of a mile, maybe a half mile though, I don’t know. Anyway, it is not so far so that is good but I mean it is not so far when it is not raining that is because when it is raining anything more than a trip through the parking lot is too much for me.

The rain is good for killing the pollution though. Seoul is really bad air pollution but Anyang where I live is better, still bad by American standards though. I have been in Seoul a couple times now and I am glad I don’t live there, close enough to visit but far enough away to not feel like I live in a giant smoky bar. I always feel dirty, I don’t know if it is because of the pollution or the humidity but my skin always feels sticky and so I think it is a combination of both.

Otherwise the city is amazing. The buildings are everywhere, it doesn’t stop. One after another and on and on. Business area, housing area, shopping area, restuaruant and bar areas. They are all mixed but all together somehow in pockets. You are never to far from any of them.

The subway lines are cheap and really easy to figure out and I think once you figured out a subway system anywhere else in the world, using the Seoul system is no problem. Buses are another story and I am not sure what I will do about that.

Taxis are suppose to be expensive so I haven’t taken them and so far the most part I am walking everywhere. Good for the waistline and the heart.

Hmmm, I think next I will write about my job so if you want to know what I do for a living please stay tuned.

Tired legs and tickled to be in Asia

Hope I can update more often than this

2006-07-28T19:12:00.000-07:00

I know I haven’t written very much in this blog or responded to almost any of the emails that have been sent to me. For those that are checking in to the blog or waiting for the email responses, please hang in there, I shall respond.

I have been working so much and I don’t really have internet access. If I stick my computer on the trashcan on the window ledge, I can (sometimes) get a signal from a neighbor, otherwise no net.

While my workdays have been long and my frustrations many, I am starting to get things worked through. I haven’t even finished unpacking yet! When I do, I plan on responding to emails and telling about my first adventure or two.

Waiting to talk and wanting to walk,

what shall I eat now that I am in Korea?

2006-07-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

Above is what I might eat if I was in Korea.

Below is what I might eat if I am in America.

Well, I am might actually stick to the America food for a while, since it is here anyway. Sooner or later, I will probably eat more and more Korean food though.

jeff

intro

2006-07-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

Well, what can I say? To some of you I didn’t say goodbye, to others I didn’t even say I was leaving, and I apologize. I have been busy, really busy. First, it was getting a job, then it was packing my stuff, lastly it was moving and packing and it has all been long and intense to get here.

So where is here? It is Seoul, Korea. Actually, it is a city called Anyang but I like to say Seoul. Anyang is a little South of Seoul and could be considered a suberb.

What am I doing? I ask myself that too but it seems like I have found my way into a position as an English teacher doing after school tutoring at a private school/academy known as a haegwon in Korean. Such schools are extremely popular and almost every Korean school kid attends such an academy.

I am staying in a little place, kind of dorm roomish I guess but still good enough to live in. I am still working on getting a phone, internet, and who knows what else so my communications will be spotty for a while. On top of that I won’t have a lot of free time to write because my first month here happens to be during a “summer intensive” session which means lots of hours, lots of teaching, and lots of work for me to do. Hope I can do it all ready. I was only in the country for less than a couple hours before I was given a stack of nine books by my boss at my school that I am suppose to go through today and start teaching out of tomorrow.

Worse, I don’t know what I am going to where tomorrow for school. Seems as if all my luggage from America has been lost so yes, I have been wearing the same pair of underwear for the last 40 hours. I shall let you all know when I get clean pair on and until then. Peace and light.

Also, I am starting a blog with my Korean adventures. It will be cool, have lots of neat pics, and should be worth checking out now and then.

Jeff

http://aseoulman.blogspot.com/

Night before, 7 hours and counting

2006-07-19T20:36:00.000-07:00

It is later here, I should be in bed. In 7 hours I have to wake up to go to the airport to begin my voyage to Korea. The last few days have been really hectic. Moving from Kansas, packing for Korea has taken all my time. I am so tired and my days will still be completely full. Hope all goes well.

First frustration

2006-07-09T22:49:00.000-07:00

This little piece of paper was difficult to get. First, I called three different consulates. Then I even had my girlfriend call and ask what the process was in Korean as some of the people did not speak English well. Chicago was nice and Houston was very rude but and Alanta was also short of complete instructions. The lady in Houston was very short, could not speak English well at all, and just plain rude. She had a terrible tone of voice and was eating while she spoke to me on the phone. In the end, it was her instructions I went by and it was her instructions that were wrong.

I had not got the copies of my diploma certified. During my second go around, I was suppose to get the certified with a stamp that embroiders the paper. These are impossible to find. Nobody uses them anymore. After calling the consulate, I was able to get them to accept the rubber stamp notary that are current these days.

Anyway, I have received the stamped and notarized copy of my diploma and have sent it to Korea along with my employment contract, copy of my passport, passport photos, copies of my transcripts and my resume. After this material is processed then I can begin the next part of my visa application process. After sending more information and an application to Houston, my E-2 visa for South Korea will be issued.

Hope all goes well and if it does, I will be in Korea by July 24th teaching English.

How Big is South Korea?

2006-07-08T15:33:00.000-07:00

So, how big is South Korea? Well, not very big, in size that is. For instance, South Korea is about three times larger than the country of Lesotho, a country I love and lived in for very long. But at the same time, the state I am from, Oklahoma, is almost twice the size of South Korea. So, the country itself is not a very big country. I like that because it means I will be able to travel around and really be able to get a feel for the country.

So, how big is Seoul? Very big. The Seoul proper area has about nine million people in it and the greater Seoul area has about twenty-three million people in it! What a city! This will be my first time to live in one of the worlds true mega cities.

A Seoul man

2006-07-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

Looks like I have gotten a job in Anyang, Korea, a suberb of Seoul. I am working on getting my visa. More later.