Teaching with Barbie, Vol. 1

Yes, my Korean co-teacher's English name is Barbie...and she lives up to every expectation. We've been working together for almost 8 months, and I thought I would put up some of our more memorable conversations. It should be noted that these conversations are not word-for-word as I didn't write them down immediately afterward. However, they have not been sensationalized at all....and I guarantee Barbie's grammar was much, much, MUCH worse :)

I came in to find Barbie closely studying one of our 2nd grade reading books....
Barbie: Can you explain this to me? I don't understand.
Quote from the book: "Of course, the most well-known of all the big cats are the lion and tiger."
Me: What don't you understand?
Barbie: What does it mean?
Me: Well, it means there are a lot of big cats, lions, tigers, panthers, cheetahs, but if you ask a kid to name one, they'll probably says "lion" or "tiger."
Barbie: But why do they call them big cats?
Me: Because that's what they are. They're cats. They're big.
Barbie: They're not cats. Your pet at home is a cat.
Me: Well, that's a house cat, but they're all part of the cat family.
Barbie: Cats have families?!?!

Last Monday afternoon while I was preparing for classes....
Barbie: This weekend I saw a documentary called 2012. It really scared me. It said the world is going to end in 2012.
Me: Barbie, that's not a documentary. It's a movie.
Barbie: No, it wasn't that movie. It was different. It was a documentary. I didn't believe it at first either, but it was really scary, and it convinced me. They gave scientific evidence that it's true.
Me: Barbie, you can make anything sound scientific. The whole thing is based on the idea that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012. You'd have to be pretty stupid to think that all that was real.
Barbie: I told you, I didn't believe it at first either, but they had scientists, Jeff. SCIENTISTS!

While walking out of school at the end of the day....
Barbie: Use some of my hand sanitizer. It will protect you from the Swine Flu.
Me: You realize that your hands are actually covered with good bacteria that help fight off the sickness. That anti-bacterial sanitizer you're using kills good AND bad bacteria, and since you're not actually washing your hands, it leaves all the dead bacteria on your hands. Swine Flu is a virus so you're basically killing your first line of defense and leaving the Swine Flu virus unaffected on your skin. Technically speaking, you're making yourself more susceptible to Swine Flu.
Barbie: Okay. So here, have some of my hand sanitizer.

More to come....

The American Dream....in Korea

A bunch of American guys with their Korean and Chinese girlfriends (a wife in my case) watching NFL football while eating Mexican and Japanese food and drinking cheap beer in Korea. My friend James (American) and his girlfriend Mijin (Korean) were also there but aren't in the picture, and I think James put it best. "This is proof that we won the Cold War."

Another Autumn Gone

Trash and I have had a great few months. We have been busy as usual but are also really enjoying our time here in Korea. We've realized that, according to our plans, we only have another year and a half here in East Asia so we're really trying to make the most of the time we have left.

Two weekends ago we had a much needed weekend off from our busy band schedule. We've been playing shows almost every weekend, but that Saturday, we spent hiking at Dobong Mountain. It was absolutely beautiful! The leaves were at the peak of their Fall colors, and we had perfect hiking weather, not too hot and not too cold. We spent the better part of 5 hours on our round trip to the highest peak and back. That included a nice picnic at the top with some traditional korean meat, kimchi, kimbab (rice/vegetable rolls) and makgalli (korean rice wine).

Then came Halloween. Trash and I organized a big Halloween punk rock show/costume party in the Hongdae neighborhood. There were 7 bands, and it started around 10pm. The music lasted until around 2:30am, and when we left at 3:30, there were still a few regulars hanging around. At the busiest time (which is also when we were on stage), there were about 100 people having a good time and some exceptional costumes; Kim Jung-Il sang for a local hardcore punk band. Dr. Manhattan (the version with a suit) was seen walking around for a while, and my whole band dressed up as Swine Flu (Alex and I in scrubs. Honggu in a shirt, tie and Doctor's coat. Trash as a sexy nurse...all of us with pig noses). It was the Trash's first ever Halloween party, and we really enjoyed it.

(outside before the show)

(Kim Jung-Il singing HARDCORE!)

(Bint Eastwood)

(...Whatever That Means)

(My lovely wife and I)

On the Radio

Life continues to go well in Korea. Trash and I have a regular routine. Between our jobs, friends, the band and just everyday life, we are really busy.

The most exciting thing to happen recently was having a song of ours played on the radio. Next month, we'll be playing in the Stomper's Battle of the Bands. It's a pretty big event in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul. qualifying rounds are on each of the first 3 Saturdays in November. The winner from each round, and the band deemed the best runner up from the three rounds, moves onto the final round on the November 28th. We'll be playing in round 3, and they expect about 200-300 people to attend every weekend.

Anyway, Summer Walker, the organizer of the event, went on the radio to talk about it. She talked about how the event is run, and then, started talking about the different bands that were gonna play. The first band mentioned, ...Whatever That Means. She talked about us a little and then, played our home recording of the song "Phase"

It was pretty exciting to hear my band on the radio and a DJ talking about how much she liked us. All in all, a great moment :)

The New Term Begins

It's been an interesting few weeks. As we were winding down the Summer Term, the school decided to replace the windows in our building. As they were doing it, they cracked the ceiling and discovered asbestos. That got us an unexpected 6 day weekend while the HazMat guys came in and cleaned out the building. Very nice.

This week, the term is officially over. We've finished our books, and the kids get their fun day of games and English videos. I'll be watching a lot of Wallace and Gromit in the coming periods. Monday, the new term begins which means another day of handing out books, introductions and games. Overall, it's been a good few weeks. There have been some hiccups along the way, but it's been okay.

Tonight is ...Whatever That Means' first real punk rock show. We're pretty excited. We'll be playing at Club Spot with 5 other bands. There's actually a bit of a mix. There are 4 punk bands, 1 indie rock band, and one hardcore band. Should be a good time.

Website Up

We have our website up HERE. As of now, there is only one live video on it. We're going to try to do some simple, live recording at practice this week. Hopefully, there will be more music up soon.

Our next show will be August 8th. It's a benefit for the local animal rescue organization. We're looking forward to it. We should have some new songs to play as well.

...Whatever That Means

After several months of practicing as a three piece, bothering everyone we know and putting up random advertisements online, our band "...Whatever That Means" has a lead guitar player. We've only been practicing with him, Alex, for two weeks, but we have out first show this weekend in a smaller city outside Seoul called DaeJeon (대전). We practiced a lot this week to get ready for the show and are pretty excited about it. Hopefully, all will go well, and we'll get offered some more shows in the near future.

2 Years and Running

I know my posts on here have been sparse at best. There are two main reasons for that. First, we are really busy. I work full time at the elementary school (of course, full time means 6 hours a day...sometimes 5), teach one on one lessons to businessmen in the mornings before school and do some private tutoring at night as well. Plus, we've been having band practice twice a week (we're hoping to have our first show soon!). The second reason, life here has become so normal to me that I don't feel the need to update nearly as much as when I first got here. That said, I have decided to do a better job in the future. Now onto the next thing.....

This Saturday, July 11th at 11:45pm Korea time (10:45am EST) will mark two years since my plane first landed in Korea. Trash and I will be celebrating the anniversary at the Boryeong Mud Festival again. It's amazing how much life has changed since then. I'm working at my third school, live in my third apartment, speak a little Korean, play in a local punk rock band, have been to Vietnam and Cambodia.....oh yeah, and I got married too! Amazing how much can change in two years. I never would've guessed things would be like this two years ago. I'm very happy with all these changes. It's been an amazing run, and it's not over yet!

Trash and I came back here three months ago planning to stay for about a year and a half to two years more. That remains the plan. We're doing our best to save money to ensure a good move home with as little stress as possible....especially since there will be SO much stress that just can't be avoided.

Anyway, that's where we stand for now. Life is good and we're very happy :)

The New Ride

Goodbye old, crappy, falling apart scooter. Hello new, awesome scooter!

*click to zoom in

The Important Part

I know a lot of people are waiting for an album of wedding photos. We haven't gotten around to that yet. Besides, the most important part of that day came later at night....get your mind out of the gutter! I'm talking about the punk show we had after our wedding. We had the usual wedding ceremony and reception and then headed straight to club spot for the 8 hour punk rock show we organized to celebrate the big day.

Ric, my friends Honggu and Shawn and I threw together a band to play at the show. Below are 3 videos that consist of our whole set. Enjoy (And don't be too critical. We only had one week to learn everything).

2 Months of Silence

While I've been too busy to keep my blog updated, life has been anything but slow. As I'm sure everyone knows, I'm married. I spent two weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia (that's right, a Holiday in Cambodia) with my beautiful wife and two weeks back on the East Coast of the USA visiting family and friends.

We've been back in Korea now for almost two weeks. Life here is good as usual. I promise to spend the time to upload honeymoon photos and stories very soon. Until then, you'll just have to wait :)

Life is Good

I spent Tuesday night at home folding wedding invitations with my fiancee....while watching The Terminator!! Nothing says "wedding prep." like a cyborg traveling back in time to kill the mother of its unborn enemy. I'm marrying the coolest chick in the world!

설날 - Lunar New Year

That's right folks, in Korea it's called either "Lunar New Year" or "Asian New Year." Don't call it "Chinese New Year." People will get mad. It's not just theirs ;)

This was my first time as part of an Asian family during Lunar New Year. That made it slightly more enjoyable and A LOT more stressful. I spent all afternoon Saturday with Trash at Lotte Department Store. We had several important family engagements this weekend so my Mother-in-Law decided I needed to look my best. Since "looking my best" usually means an old sweater, jeans without holes and my windproof fleece, Trash's mom decided to buy me a suit and nice coat. This was a painful process. I don't wear clothes like this. Trash was getting pretty annoyed, but eventually we found a suit and coat that I liked.

I found the suit by accident. I needed to wear a suit jacket to fit on an ugly coat (that I didn't buy) so the salesman gave me a random jacket. I hated the coat, but liked that jacket so we bought it with the matching pants and a fitted shirt. Then we went downstairs, and I finally found a nice coat I liked. I saw it from across the store and loved it right away. Remember those black winter coats the SS wore during WWII? It looked like that but without the cool silver letters and eagle. We bought it.

We got home and were able to rest for a little bit but then had to get ready to go out. Pastor Robert's American Visa was finally approved, and he and Jenny only had 4 days left in Korea. To celebrate his time here, the entire church met at a nice restaurant. I wore half of my new suit, the top half...with ripped jeans and old sneakers on the bottom half. What can I say? Old habits die hard. We spent several hours having dinner followed by coffee. It was a nice way to say goodbye.

Sunday, I had to wear the whole suit. I met Trash and her mom at their church to be introduced to the pastor who is going to officiate our wedding. He was surprisingly nice and accommodating. I've had a hard time with Korean pastors. I don't usually find them to be very humble, but that's a whole nother story. Anyway, we were worried about what the pastor would say about our wedding. Koreans are very traditional, and we want to pick our favorite Korean traditions and American traditions and just throw them all together for our wedding. The pastor said that it was fine and to just do it however we want. Very nice and very surprising.

After we met him, we walked around outside the church. Trash's mom had her arm hooked on mine, was smiling and proudly introducing me to everyone saying, "우리 사위! (This is my son-in-law!)" Afterwards, she told me to stop calling her 장모님 (Mother-in-Law) and call her 엄마 (Mom). This isn't as common in Korea as you may think and really showed that she's completely accepted me into their family.

Monday was the big day. I had to cancel my snowboarding trip to spend the day, the actual New Year's Day, with Trash, her immediate family and some of her extended family. Part of the suit got its final ride for the weekend. Just the jacket though. Jeans, a Johnny Cash t-shirt, zipup hoodie and my new, expensive black suit jacket. I looked like me again! The worst part of meeting the family happened right away. Trash and her mom introduced me, and then, Trash and I had to bow to the older members of the family. I mean, the deep bow. The one where we hold our hands/arms in front of our faces parallel to the ground and bow until we're pretty much flat on the floor (Here's a side note for my Christian readers. No, this isn't any kind of Eastern Religion thing. Their whole family is Christian. It's just a sign of respect. Think of it as Asia's version of a really firm hand shake, calling someone "Sir" and paying for dinner all rolled into one.). So we bowed, ate lunch, which was FANTASTIC, and then just hung out for a few hours. It was pretty painless, and her family really liked me.

My favorite part of Monday came after we left the family. I told Trash that since she made me skip snowboarding, she finally had to keep an old promise and watch an episode of Lost with me. We watched the first episode and immediately watched two more. As of today, she's seen the first 8 episodes. She's hooked. That may not seem like a big deal, but it makes me happy :)

Tuesday was a simple day. I woke up at 4:30am and went snowboarding at High1, the best resort in Korea, with my buddy Joe. It was a pretty good day, and I'm definitely getting better at snowboarding.

So yeah, that was the 4 day weekend. It was a bit more hectic than I anticipated, but rather enjoyable. Chinese New Year is fun....uh, I mean Asian New Year. Yeah, Asian New Year. That's what it's called ;-)