25 Miles from the DMZ

All Quiet On The East Asian Front

2010-01-04T16:17:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, Korea had it's biggest snow storm in 70 years. Now, don't get too excited. That means they got 11 inches in one day. While that might not be huge back home (and definitely not a 70 year high), it basically crippled Seoul for the day. The streets near my home and workplace, usually loud and bustling, were almost completely silent with little to no traffic. The loudest noises were coming from the dozens of policemen and soldiers shoveling off the main intersections. The airports were shut down and several bus routes were canceled for the day. Three deaths were attributed to a car accident in the far south of Korea, but actually, since car accidents are the number one cause of preventable death in South Korea, I guess that means the snow saved lives.

Click HERE for an NPR article on the storm.

Teaching with Barbie, Vol. 1

2009-11-21T22:56:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-15T22:18:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-04T23:39:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-27T08:32:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-09T20:48:00.001-07:00

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

*click to zoom in

The Important Part

2009-04-15T00:57:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-06T19:26:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-29T06:22:00.000-08:00

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 ;-)

American Thanksgiving

2008-12-14T07:03:00.000-08:00

I know this is almost a month late, but I thought I'd would put up a blog about Thanksgiving. Korean Thanksgiving (Chuseok) is in September, but I just can't ignore American Thanksgiving. Last year, we had a potluck dinner at Brad and Steph's apartment with the whole EG crew the Saturday after. This year, I decided to do Thanksgiving on the proper day at my apartment. I invited Trash and her whole family over along with Pastor Robert and Jenny. I made the whole spread just like Mom would at home. Mashed potatoes, bread filling, candied sweet potatoes, corn and bread. I also made some gravy. I had to have my mom send gravy mix from home. This was actually the first time Trash and her family had ever heard of, seen or tasted gravy. It just doesn't exist in Korea....They all loved it. The main difference from home, there was no turkey. Just like last year, we bought some rotisserie chickens from a street vendor. It was delicious. We also appeased the Koreans with rice and kimchi ;)

We had a great night. There was good conversation, and Trash's family and my parents met for the first time....via Skype. I thoroughly enjoyed this holiday away from home :)

Preparing the Feast

The Table is Set

Enjoying the Meal

(Trash, her mom, brother, sister, Jenny and Pastor Robert)

Mr. Stuart's Request

2008-12-07T05:21:00.000-08:00

Well, John Stuart asked for some info about how this whole international, cross-cultural marriage things works so I thought I'd say a few words....

Overall, things between Trash and I are good and not nearly as difficult as you may assume. Of course, she is not your average Korean. She was born for Western Culture. For the most part, growing up Korean has just made her more polite than most Westerners. When it comes down to it, we both grew up attending church, hanging out with friends, listening to punk rock and playing in bands. It's not that different. Sometimes there are some conflicts that arise. Trash is just Korean enough that many times she will agree with me when she doesn't want to and keeps her feelings bottled up inside. Korean men generally don't want to know what their respective others are thinking, and the women have learned to deal with that. However, Trash is also Westernized enough that over a period of time, holding everything in will cause her to flip out a little whereas most Korean woman have accepted it as part of life. We're working on that though. I think it's just hard for her to get used to the idea that my mom taught me to care about the feelings and thoughts of the woman I'm with.

The issues with her family are a little bigger. They are also a pretty progressive family. Trash had never seen her mom shakes somebody's hand before we started dating (that's right, they still bow in Korea), but her mom understood that my culture is different, and the first time we met she shook my hand. Me being a foreigner was never an issue either, which is VERY different from most Korean households. Unfortunately, her mom hardly speaks any English at all, and my Korean is very poor. Some may see that as part of the American Dream. I have a mother-in-law who can't talk to me! Haha. In some cases, that would be preferable, but my mother-in-law is pretty cool, and I really wish I could have a normal conversation with her. All of our talking goes through our interpreter, Trash. Her brother and sister speak more English than her mom, but they are still pretty self-conscious about speaking in English to a native speaker so while conversation with them is better, it's still slightly belabored.

The biggest hassle has been with the Government. Trash and I have finally finished filing all of our paperwork, and I am officially a resident of Korea. I have a new Visa (I changed from an E2 working visa to an F2 spousal visa), and with it, comes more freedom and rights. I am no longer an indentured servant to my school and can take/quit any job that I want without notifying anyone. It's great to finally be at that point.

I'm sure we will find more differences in our cultural upbringings in the coming year, but thus far, we have overcome all the differences we have found. I don't see that changing.

Updates

2008-11-25T07:02:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I wrote anything so I thought I'd make a quick post. Things are going well, overall, in Korea. I've been spending a lot of time with Trash and her family which has been nice. I even spent a Friday night at their house making kimchi. Wedding plans are coming together, and February 28th is quickly approaching. I'm very happy that Ric will officially be traveling to Korea to be my best man. Also, we have officially set the date for our reception in Pennsylvania. It will be at my parents church, Morning Star Fellowship, on March 15th. We'll be arriving in PA the day before the wedding and staying for 2 weeks after. I'm really looking forward to that. We've set up a webpage for people to check out and get all the info they need concerning our wedding. That's about it for now.

Jeff and Trash's Wedding Page

Wedding Website

2008-11-19T23:53:00.000-08:00

Trash and I officially have a website for our wedding and receptions. Check it out and sign up for the mailing list. That way it will be easy to keep everyone up to date.

www.ewedding.com/sites/mosesyang

The Date is Set

2008-11-07T23:42:00.000-08:00

It's official. Trash and I will be getting married February 28, 2009.

She's a Rocker! She's a Roller Too Baby!

2008-10-25T22:26:00.000-07:00

Trash's band, BBLT, hasn't played in about 3 months because their drummer had back surgery. They've been big in Seoul for about 8 years so, being that she's the hot chick from one of the longer-lasting local punk bands and super cool, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, knows Trash. We can't go anywhere without people saying hi. Recently, two other bands, Sweet Guerillaz, and Vicious Glare, each asked her to do guest vocals on a track on their new album (the studio track with Sweet Guerillaz can be heard on their myspace page linked above). After the albums were released, the bands toured around Korea together. Last weekend was the last show of the tour, and they asked Trash to sing the stuff she recorded with them so of course I videoed it. So here they are, videos of my fiancee doing guest vocals with a punk rock band and a hardcore band. Yup, she's a bad ass.

Trash with Sweet Guerillaz:

Trash with Vicious Glare:

Batman Strikes Apgujeong

2008-10-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

A lot of things have happened lately, and I was too lazy to post about them, but I wanted to make sure I got this one up. Tomorrow is our school's Fall Festival. We got our costumes today, and I had one of my best ideas in a while. We decided to get some extra mileage out of the rental costumes. We hung around town for a little while, and then, rode the subway home....in costume. It was pretty fun, especially since I work in what most Koreans consider the Beverly Hills of Korea. We got some pretty fun looks. Check out the pictures at the link below......

Click Me For Pictures

Fame and Fortune

2008-10-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

Choi Jin-Sil

From today's edition of The Korea Herald:

"Autopsy Suggests Actress Hanged Self

Police yesterday provisionally concluded Choi Jin-sil, the nation's long-adored iconic actress "impulsively" committed suicide Thursday, based on evidence from a preliminary autopsy finding, her diary, mobile phone records and statements from her family and close associates.

"The National Institute of Scientific Investigation's preliminary autopsy results show that she hanged herself, and all evidence we have gathered so far indicates she killed herself on the spur of the moment," said an official at the Seocho Police Station.

Following the initial autopsy conducted Thursday night, the state coroner said that Choi strangled herself, and that there were no signs of foul play as no external wounds were discovered. It will take about two weeks to verify whether her death resulted from an intake of drugs or other substances, the coroner said.

The 39-year-old actress, whose stellar career spanned the last two decades, was found hanging in the shower stall in her residence in Seoul with a bandage tightened around her neck at around 6:15 a.m. Thursday.

Choi is said to have seriously agonized over what she contended were baseless rumors, which began circulating after the alleged suicide of Ahn Jae-hwan. Ahn, 36, another much-beloved actor, was faltering under snowballing debts from his moribund businesses. Choi was rumored to have lent a considerable amount of money to Ahn and pressured him to repay her.

Choi had frequently expressed suicidal thoughts days before her death, even saying that she preferred to be cremated and spread over a mountain, according to the police.

"Choi told her manager the night before her death that she felt extremely frustrated that she might not be able to attend her children's sports meeting Friday (because of the public perception against her amid the rumors)," an investigator said.

On Tuesday, Choi wept hard the whole night following the telephone conversation with the suspect charged with having spread the rumors on the internet, the police said. The next day, Choi went out for shooting for a pharmaceuticals commercial, but failed to finish it because her face was swollen due to lack of sleep and her crying the previous night.

Choi, then, drank with the head of her entertainment company, and told him that she would retire and wished to die, police said. On the day of her death, Choi briefly talked with a women-magazine reporter over the phone, saying, "This may be the last talk with you, and please carefully watch my kids growing up."

She had a son and a daughter, aged seven and five, respectively, from her ill-fated marriage with former pro baseball player Cho Sung-min.

Investigators are also looking into her diary, where she detailed her daily battles with living as a public figure struggling to maintain her star status in the midst of a series of false accusations.

"I am a loner and social outcast, and I felt choked," she was quoted by the police as saying in her diary.

Police have found no evidence yet regarding the rumors that Choi was a loan shark.

"At this point of time, no evidence has emerged about the allegations that Choi operated a private loan business," said an investigator.

"We also investigated the phone records of Ahn and other related people, and found nothing related to Choi."

The official said that there will not be any further inquiry into the authenticity of the allegation. Currently, police are investigating a securities firm employee who was booked late last month on charges of having spread the rumors.

The death of Choi has added to the recent calls to devise stern measures against cyberspace libel. The government and the ruling Grand National Party have been pushing for such measures, while critics have denounced them, citing the possibility of hampering freedom of expression.

Choi will be cremated this morning in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. The burial is set to be held in a cemetery in Yangsuri, Gyeonggi Province.

By Song Sang-ho
(sshluck@heraldm.com)
2008.10.04"

Both of her kids attend my school. Her daughter is in the room next to mine. My friend Chris is her teacher. I talked to her and played with her the day before her mom died. It's such a sad thing that this happened. I can't imagine what is happening in those 5 and 7 year old minds. It also goes to show that money and fame are not all they're cracked up to be. Choi Jin-sil was one of Korea's most beloved actresses and a good mom. Everyone in this country knew her, and she was about as rich as anyone could hope to be. But in the end, those things drove her to the edge and right over it. So sad. Please pray for her children.

Choose Your Battles Korea

2008-09-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

This article appeared in the Korea Times today:

"Chinese Sailors Detained for Killing Korean Coast Guard

By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

Eleven Chinese sailors have been detained for illegally catching fish in Korea's exclusive economic zone in the West Sea and attacking Korean coast guards dispatched to stop them, resulting in the killing of a Korean coast guard, police said Sunday.

Park Gyeong-jo, 48, a sergeant of the Mokpo Coast Guard, was killed Thursday night after being beaten around the head with blunt weapons wielded by the sailors.

An arrest warrant was sought for three sailors confirmed to have been linked to the homicide, investigators said.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, a patrol vessel of the Mokpo Coast Guard detected two unidentified 50-ton Chinese fishing boats on its radar 70 kilometers west of Gageo Island, within the Korean EEZ.

Seventeen coast guards including Park were dispatched to capture the vessels. As they were approaching, the Chinese workers wielded iron pipes, shovels and threw bottles and fishing gear to prevent them from boarding.

Park and two other officers attempted to get onboard but were pushed away. Park fell in the sea and went missing.

He was found dead in a lifejacket at 1:10 p.m. Friday ㅡ 17 hours after he went missing ㅡ about six kilometers south of the missing point.

``An autopsy conformed that beatings to his head caused his death,'' said a Mokpo Coast Guard official.

The life-and-death battles between Korean coast guards and Chinese fishermen have continued through the years as the Korean EEZ in the West Sea, which is close to China's mainland, is considered one of the most fish-rich areas around the Korean Peninsula.

In May 2005, four coast guard officers were severely wounded after being assaulted by Chinese sailors, whose ship was on the verge of being captured for operating within Korean waters without permission.

In August, a member of the Incheon Coast Guard was also beaten while inspecting an unlicensed Chinese shipping boat, resulting in him being hospitalized for five weeks.

According to the Korea Coast Guard, 159 Chinese ships have been seized for operating illegally in Korean waters so far this year. In 2007, 494 illegal operations were reported, an 18 percent drop from the record high of 584 cases in 2005.

Chinese fishermen fiercely resist arrest to avoid tens of millions of won in fines, which exceed their annual income, if caught operating without permission.

``We go on patrol with gas guns, electronic shock devices and clubs. But we do not take such life-threatening weapons as rifles or handguns to avoid possible diplomatic disputes,'' a coast guard official said. ``For this reason, we have felt our lives threatened many times.'' "

My thoughts...this weekend people were still protesting against the South Korean President for allowing American Beef in the country. Of course, Chinese baby formula has recently been recalled for containing various toxins, and a Coast Guard officer was killed by Chinese fishermen....but hey, let's work really hard to keep out that beef from the country that has done more for South Korea than anyone else. Way to pick your battles South Korea.

The Dark Side

2008-09-21T17:09:00.000-07:00

I had heard of this map before, but my friend John just sent me a link to this article, and I thought I'd share it. I find it truly sad....

"North and South Korea have been separated at the 38th parallel ever since the Korean War (1950-1953), which has never officially ended. In the ensuing ‘ceasefire’, North Korea developed into a communist dictatorship with a centrally planned economy, while South Korea became a capitalist democracy with a free market economy.

Economic hardship in the officially ‘self-reliant’ North has led to mass starvation, while the South has a vibrant economy able to compete with the best of the world. In 1996, the per capita GNP in the North was $920, while it was $11.270 in the South. A 1999 estimate of per capita GNPs put the South’s at 13 times that of the North. More recent figures will probably show an even wider gap.

Due to the different economic results on either side of the Demilitarized Zone, the ethnically quite homogenous Koreans have even begun to diversify physically, with the average North Korean male almost 7 cm shorter than his Southern counterpart (165,6 cm vs. 172,5 cm). North Korean females are on average 4 cm shorter than Southern women (154,9 cm vs. 159,1 cm). By 2025, the height difference is projected to increase to 11 cm for men, 6 cm for women. Unless the North’s economic situation changes drastically, that is.

So the South dwarfs the North, not just numerically (50 vs. 27 million), but also economically and even size-wise. Another stark reminder of the different worlds both Koreas now inhabit, is this map, a picture of the night-time illumination on the Korean peninsula.

The metropolitan area of Seoul, the South’s capital, holds 23 million people and is the second-largest conurbation on the planet (after Tokyo). Its huge lit-up area, close to the border with the North, is clearly visible from space. Other Southern cities, while quite a lot smaller than Seoul, are also clearly distinguishable on this satellite map, for example Gunsan on the western coast, directly below it the inland city of Gwangju, the cities of Masan and Busan on the southern coast, and several other cities, much smaller still.

By contrast (quite literally, even), the only speck of light north of the DMZ is the North’s capital of Pyonyang, a single, neat pinprick of white punched through an otherwise completely black canvas. The minimal lighting belies the fact that Pyongyang is home to an estimated 3 million people. Gunsan, in the South, has under 300.000 inhabitants.

There is only one bright side to this darkness that I can think of: North Korea must be a fantastic place for stargazing..."

(taken from - http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/12/16/218-koreas-dark-half/)

Kindergarten Art Class

2008-09-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

Like many little boys, some of my kindergartners really enjoy things that little girls don't. Last week, we were drawing pictures of people on flying carpets. One of the boys colored a really nice picture and then proceeded to scribble red crayon all over it. Now, this kid is one of my favorite students, but every time we draw pictures of animals, his are in the wild eating each other (and yes, that's one of the reasons he's a favorite of mine. haha). The following conversation ensued:

"Moses Teacher, plane flew by and BOOM!" ~Student
"Hey, don't kill them and cover the picture with blood. These are people, not animals." ~Me
"Moses Teacher, it's not blood. They're on fire and not die. They're alive." ~Student
"Well, I guess as long as you didn't kill them...." ~Me

I was dumbstruck but really impressed. haha.

Please Be Nice

2008-09-03T05:03:00.000-07:00

With football season quickly approaching, I'd like to take this moment to remind people that I do not watch the games live. My local time is 13 hours ahead of East Coast Time. What that means is that a 1pm Sunday game is actually live at 2am Monday morning for me. While I can't watch the games live, or on local television, I have paid $200 to be able to watch them on the internet for up to 48 hours after the original broadcast. Usually, I will watch them Monday night after my Korean Language night class so that's about 9am Monday morning in East Coast Time. However, there will be times that I need to wait longer because of scheduling conflicts. All this is to say please, please, please don't send me emails or instant messengers about how amazing those last few seconds were or how angry you are that the Eagles lost a game. It already feels kind of different watching the games knowing that they are not live. Please don't ruin the excitement of not knowing what happens. You will not be doing me a favor by telling me to not waste my time watching them lose. So let's play it safe this year folks. Unless you hear from me about the game personally or see some kind of status/away message on AIM, MSN, Skype or Facebook which makes it ABUNDANTLY obviously that I know what happened, don't say anything to me about the game until it's been over for at least 48 hours.

Thank you, and of course, GO BIRDS!!!!

The Scrapbook

2008-08-25T08:11:00.000-07:00

I know a lot of people would like to see the scrapbook I gave Trash so we took pictures of it tonight. I was just going to put up a few pages but thought I might as well put them all up (even though there are a lot). It might seem like a little overkill. It's mostly for my mom and sister ;) If you want to see the pages closer, you can click on the picture to enlarge it. Here we go.....

The Story

2008-08-21T00:46:00.000-07:00

Okay. First things first. Yes, my fiancee's nickname is Trash. That is how she is known. No, she is not a "trashy" person. Her Korean name (which 90% of our friends don't know) has a very girly kind of meaning and she is not a girly girl, and a big difference between Korean and English names is that everyone knows what names mean in Korean. That being said, she has given me permission to tell people her real name even though she REALLY hates it.

What will surprise many is that she's been able to get away without divulging her name her in Korea very easily. Most Koreans have their legal, Korean name and an English name. The English names are not registered and can be changed at any time. That being said, signing documents with an English name you claim as your own is very common in Korea so she very easily signs credit cards slips "Trash" or "T-Rash" without any problem. However, much to her chagrin, I informed her that things don't work that way at home. First, she will need to sign things with her real, legal name. Plus, even people that are willing to call her by her nickname (which she LOVES) will insist to know her real name. Plus, while I call her Trash more often than not, I will not be taking vows to marry "Trash" at our wedding.

All this leads to the moment she has feared for years. Here it is, the international broadcasting of her real, legal name. It is "양정아." Hahahaha. Who is disappointed? I guess you need to learn to read Korean now.

On to the other thing people keep asking. How did I propose? Before that though, how about how I didn't propose? I was going to take her to the restaurant at the top of Seoul Tower (kind of like the Space Needle but overlooking Seoul). I made reservations, and the day before wanted to figure out if she had any idea it was coming. I mentioned something about having a special night at the Tower and she said that was so cliche and would be a terrible way to get engaged. Needless to say, when I go home, canceled the reservation and started making new, better plans.

Now, the final plan. In May, we had a long weekend for Buddha's Birthday (a national holiday here). We spent two of our three days off at Muui-Do, a small island off the West Coast. While we were there, we spent some time sitting on a boulder right on the edge of the Yellow Sea. It was while sitting on that boulder that, for the first time, we both said that we love each other. It was a pretty special moment for us so last Saturday, I convinced her to take the bus and spend the day at Muui-Do.

When we got there it was a little rainy and cold, but within an hour the weather cleared up and was beautiful. After relaxing on the beach for a little while, we walked down to the end of the beach and sat on our boulder (I actually picked the wrong boulder, but she corrected me. haha). We sat and talked for a few minutes, and then I told her that I had a present for her. It was a scrapbook.

I had spent the last two weeks picking about 300 pictures from the whole time we've known each other (I have MANY more). I got them printed and made her a scrapbook. It had all kinds of things in it, pictures, love notes she'd given me, ticket stubs, a caricature of us, etc. She was sniffling and fighting back tears the whole time. It took us about 20-25 minutes to look through the whole thing. Then she turned to the last page, and there was a picture of her ring with the words, "Will you marry me?"

At this point she started to cry for real. It as obvious that she was completely dumbstruck. Then she looked over at me and saw that I was holding the real ring in my hands (She later admitted that her first thoughts were, "Is he seriously proposing with a PICTURE of the ring he is going to buy me?!" haha). After about two minutes of her attempting to catch her breath, she turned and said, "Of course I will!" and that was it! We were officially engaged!

Then, the plan was to take some pictures to fill in the last page of the scrapbook. Unfortunately, my camera had turned on in my bag and the battery was completely dead so the few photos we took were with her cell phone (and people say camera phones are pointless!!).

After that, we didn't really feel like laying around on the beach so we headed back to Seoul to have some bbq and share the good news with everyone :)

Just Engaged :)

That's right. I got engaged in my Chacos.

...by the way. "양정아" is Yang Jeong-Ah. Yang (family name) pronounced yah-ng. Jeong-Ah (first name) pronounced Juh-ng-Ah ("ah" like when you realize something. ie - "Ah, I see." Not "Ahhhhhhhhhhh, I'm so scared!" hahaha. The "a" in Yang is pronounced the same way.). There. The secret is out for all the world to know :)

The Short Version

2008-08-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

Well, as probably all of you have heard, I'm getting married. I will fill you in on details VERY soon.....pictures will follow ;)

Vacation - The Final Installment

2008-08-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

First, sorry it's taken so long to put up these last two posts. Here is the last section of vacation. Pictures will follow soon........

We left Gyeong-Ju early early Wednesday morning. Thankfully, it was only a 45 minute bus ride to Busan, our final stop. Busan is the second largest city in South Korea, but it is MUCH smaller than Seoul, the largest. It's also Korea's busiest seaport/beach area. When we arrived, we checked into our hotel and headed straight for the beach. The waves were pretty big, but unfortunately, that meant we weren't allowed in the water. They weren't so big by American standards but big enough here in Korea.

We hung out on the beach for a while and then went back to the hotel to get cleaned up before dinner. Trash had never been to TGI Fridays, and they are currently having their three-course meal deal. I hated that while I worked there, but it's nice when you're a customer ;) This Fridays was located about 50 yards from the beach. It was on the third floor of the building and the entire side that we sat on was windowed and facing the ocean. We were able to watch the waves and see the sun go down while eating a small feast. It was great.

Next, we headed back to the beach to just relax, digest and take photos. We walked around for a while and then headed out for some late night drinks.

Thursday, our one full day at the beach, was busy. We woke up, grabbed a quick lunch and headed straight to the beach.

I spent a lot of the day in the water getting pounded by waves and the rest of it resting under an umbrella. It was the first full day I've had at the beach in a long time and exactly what I needed to lose what little bit of stress I had left at this point.

After the beach, we got dressed up and went to the greatest buffet I've ever been to. They had everything, seafood, Korean food, Japanese sushi chefs, Mexican food. I tried a little of everything and ate about 5 plates of crab legs. This was basically the end of the night for us.

Afterwards, we just relaxed and watched James Bond: Casino Royale back at the hotel.

Friday was our last day of vacation. We went to the beach. Some of our other friends were in Busan at the same time as us, but we hadn't been able to meet them so it was a pleasant surprise when we happened to run into them at Starbucks. That was basically the end of it all. We talked to the a bit, walked on the boardwalk, took some pictures and then took another 6 hour train ride back to Seoul.

We arrived back in Seoul around 9pm on Friday night. It was nice to have Saturday and Sunday to relax before heading back to work. Overall, it was a great vacation. We both had a fantastic time.

Vacation Part 2 - Gyeong-Ju

2008-08-07T08:17:00.001-07:00

We left the Bang household around 3pm on Sunday for another 6 hours of travel. We were on our way to Gyeong-Ju, the capital of the Silla Empire. Silla was one of the 3 Kingdoms of the Korean Peninsula that existed before they were united into Korea itself. This was about 1500 years ago. This part of the trip was definitely to satisfy the history dork in me.

We spent all day Monday walking around Gyeong-Ju. The landscape is covered with small, awkward hills. In reality, each of these hills is a tomb. A burial chamber would be built partially underground. The casket would be placed in the chamber. Then, the tomb would be covered with a large pile of rocks, and covered in soil so grass could grow. We spent the first part of our day visiting Tumuli Park, a main center of ancient tombs. There was even a tomb that we could enter.

The park also had a small pond filled with carp. This is where the first feeding of the day took place. No, we didn't eat the carp. Trash fed the fish. Apparently, she always wanted to feed fish at a place like this, but her mom would never spend the money for a bag of food. Throughout the day, we bought 6 bags of fish food, and Trash had a blast. It was fun to watch.

After the park, we did some more site seeing. We visited the oldest star observatory in East Asia, walked past many, many tombs and saw fields full of wild, Asian flowers. It was a great time. Plus, we rented a bicycle-powered carriage to cruise around it. Then we headed to Anapji Pond. This was a gathering place for kings and the wealthiest land lords of the day. It survived for about 700 years and was destroyed by the Japanese in the 16th century. It has been partially reconstructed and is beautiful but is nowhere near it's original glory. Many of the building materials used were actually the original building materials which were salvaged from the lake and restored for construction. They also have many artifacts on display that were found in the lake as well. We spent about two hours walking around taking pictures. Trash fed more fish too. There were SO MANY fish. It was such a good time.

We rounded out the day of Korean History with dinner at McDonald's. This might sound strange, but it was perfect. The food tasted great after a long day, and I've never had more fun at McDonald's (except maybe my 2nd grade birthday party).

We woke up late on Tuesday. Walking around all day Monday was exhausting. We had planned to get up early to go hiking and then head to the National Museum in the late afternoon. When we got up, we decided to do the hiking and go to the museum if we had time at night, which we didn't. The mountain was beautiful. It was very scenic, covered with ancient pagodas and Buddhist carvings. Some of them dated as far back as the 8th century.

At the top of the mountain was a small temple. The monk who lives there was gone for the day, but two caretakers were still there. They were very kind. They told us how to get to some of the nearby landmarks and let us drop our bags at the house. Plus, when we came back for our things, they had fresh, cold water and watermelon waiting for us. The lady sat and talked with Trash for about 20 minutes while we savored the much needed snack.

It was wonderful to be treated so nicely. It was also a good conversation starter for the hike down the mountain. It made me wonder why so many Christians see me, a guy with long hair and tattoos, and become judgmental, but a Buddhist woman sees a foreign guy walk out of the woods, sweaty and nasty, and offers me directions, water and food. Sometimes, the Buddhists I meet here seem to be better models of Christ than the Christians I meet.

The mountain was the end of our adventurous outings in Gyeong-Ju. After the hiking, we went back to our hotel, had a HUGE Korean dinner, watched a movie and relaxed. The next day, we headed out for a short 45 minute bus ride to Busan, the final stop on our journey.

Vacation Part 1 - Gangneung

2008-08-03T06:11:00.000-07:00

Trash and I left Friday, July 25th at 5pm on a train Eastbound for Gangneung. Gangneung is a town on the East Coast of Korea. It's famous for it's rocky beaches and sunrises. We didn't catch a sunrise, but did see the beauty of the beaches. We spent about 6 hours on the train. We were staying with Bang (the lead guitar player in Trash's band), his wife, son and father at their apartment. It was a nice little place. Bang didn't show up until Saturday night (he lives/works in Seoul) so we spent our first night/day with his family.

First of all, his son, Jee-oh (not sure how it's spelled when Romanized) is adorable. It took him about an hour to warm up to Trash and me, but geez he was fun. Hae-Seon, Bang's wife, was very hospitable, and after spending just a little time with Bang's dad, it was obvious why Bang is such a kind, giving person. He learned it from his father. After we got to their house, Hae-Seon ordered some food, and we just spent the night hanging out at the house. It was a little uncomfortable for me at first because Hae-Seon and Bang's father (like Bang) don't speak any English. You get used to that over here though. We just ate, watched tv and played with Jee-oh. It was a relaxing night.

We woke up Saturday morning to Hae-Seon making a big, Korean breakfast for us. It was pretty good. Then, Bang's father spent the day driving us around Gangneung. Our first stop was the Edison museum. That's right folks. The first stop on my first Korean vacation was a museum about an American inventor ;) It was a pretty cool placed. They have the world's biggest collection of gramophones, phonographs, and record players. They also have rooms full of Edison's inventions. It was pretty cool.

After that, we checked out the coast. It was beautiful. Amazingly, this area is famous as one of the only places where the Korean War did not travel. It's located closer to the DMZ than Seoul, only a few miles away. However, the General in charge of the North Korean military was from Gangneung. He ordered that the area not be touched. This order was followed so closely that in its three-year duration, the people of Gangneung never even knew there was a war.

The other thing Gangneung is famous for is it's pseudo-invasions in the 1990's. In 1996 and 1998 North Korean submarines were found off the coast of Gangneung. In 1996, a taxi driver was spending his early morning hours on the beach (cheating on his wife) and noticed the sub offshore. It had traveled for less that 30 mins from North Korea to South Korea and broken down just off the coast. The Korean military captured the sub and its crew. A little while later, the crew escaped and attempted to make their way back to the North. None made it, and only one crew member survived to be taken back into custody.

All that leads to part two of our day. We went to see a retired South Korean battleship and walk through the captured North Korean submarine. I know that submarines are not known for being roomy and luxurious, but the North Koreans do have a lot to learn about design. This sub was unbelievably small and cramped. I couldn't believe it.

The Famous North Korean Sub

Trash Captaining the Battleship

Just for Fun

After seeing the sub and battleship, we went to a small unification museum and then lunch. Bang's father bought us haebap. Basically, it was a bowl of rice, mixed vegetables, raw fish, sesame seeds and spicy sauce. It was delicious.

Haebap

By this time, it was late in the afternoon, and we went home to meet Bang. We went grocery shopping, and Hae-Seon made a great dinner at home. We watched Jaws and just hung out for a while.

Sunday morning, I made an American breakfast feast for everyone...farmer's omelet, bacon, hash browns, french toast and orange juice. It was delicious and felt good to do something nice, even if small, for Bang and his family. After breakfast, we drove around, checked out the beach, saw a small lighthouse and got coffee. Then we went to the bus station and said our farewells.

Overall, it was a relaxing and enjoyable start to vacation. Bang and his family treated us so well. It was a stress-free two days that Trash and I really appreciated.

Me, Trash, Jee-oh, Hae-Seon, Bang

My Korean Bar Mitzvahs

2008-07-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

In Korea, you become a man the first time you eat a "certain" meal...but we'll get to that. First, a short lesson in linguistics. Koreans are very literal when they name their meat. Sogogi ("so" = "cow" and "gogi" = "meat") is beef. Mulgogi ("mul" = "water") is fish. That "certain" meal I referred to is a soup made with gaegogi. I had it for dinner on Wednesday. It tasted pretty good.

That's not beef. By the way...."gae" = "dog"

More Fun Conversation

2008-07-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

Talking about their plastic spoons during snack time:

"Teacher, I'm pink." ~Student 1
"Don't say, 'I'm pink.' Say, 'My spoon is pink.'" ~Me
"Teacher, I'm yellow." ~Student 2
"Well, I guess that's true." ~Me

Fourth of July

2008-07-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

Well, this is long overdue, but I thought I'd put up a post about my July 4th in Korea. This is my first 4th outside of the country. I spent most of my day trying to indoctrinate my students about the awesomeness of the USA. We talked about freedom and then made some Stars and Stripes vests in art class.

Of course, before we could make our vests, we had to listen to the national anthem. I couldn't teach these guys to sing it (they're a little too young) so we just listened to it with our hands over our hearts. I tried to get a moment of silence out of them, but as you'll see, that was pretty much impossible. Click HERE to watch the video (Sorry for the link. I haven't been able to get the video loaded onto this page). I would like to say that I was a bit annoyed at trying to find a respectable version of the anthem online. Go to YouTube and search "Star Spangled Banner." You get a thousand versions of people singing it like it's "I Believe I Can Fly." O-o-o-oh say can you see-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee. Come on folks. This is a song about a battle for our country's freedom, not your tryout for American friggin' Idol.

But I digress....After work, I met Trash and we decided to have dinner at the most American place we could find. That's right. We went to HOOTERS. hahaha.

I still love those wings. Anyway, after that, we took the bus back to my apartment, and for once, living next to the military base really paid off. The American Military was setting off huge fireworks in the middle of the base and they were easily visible on the ride to my apartment.

Overall, it was a pretty good Fourth, but it'd be hard to top last year....seeing the premier of Transformers knowing I'd be leaving the country soon ;)

Boryeong Mud Festival

2008-07-14T06:53:00.000-07:00

Trash and I went to Daecheon Beach this weekend for the Boryeong Mud Festival. The mud there is known for being extremely good for your skin. Basically, over a period of 9 days, 1.5million people (mostly foreigners) travel to the beach for the festival. Things were quite different. On the ride out, almost every Korean on our bus was a girl....with her foreign boyfriend. As we drove down the highway, every bus was filled with foreigners. Truly, this weekend is the annual, great, white migration out of Seoul.

The festival itself was great fun. We arrived and immediately painted ourselves with the mud in the buckets strewn about. We COVERED ourselves. It was great. There were some foreigner cover bands playing....they were ok. There were wrestling pits and a huge mudslide. It was quite great. The ocean water was absolutely perfect. We spent a lot of time just floating around and cleaning off the mud...and then putting on a fresh layer. The whole day was great.

We cleaned ourselves up one last time. Then we had Pizza Hut deliver on the beach. We ate, met my friend Alana, and watched the most amazing fireworks I've ever seen. They were launched from a big barge just off the coast.

Overall, Mud Fest was fantastic. I wish I had time to go back again this year.

(Here are some pictures from the festival: Set #1 and Set #2)

The Year in Review

2008-07-10T17:24:00.001-07:00

I can hardly believe it, but today is the last day of my first year in Korea. I arrived a little before midnight on July 11, 2007...one year ago. This year has really gone by so quickly. So many things have happened. I worked for EG in 노원 (Nowon) for 7 months, not a good experience. I started a new job in 압구정 (Apgujeong). This place is much better. I went from living on the outskirts of town to being in the center of downtown. At the beginning of the year, there was a lot of time when I just sat around in my apartment. It was lonely at times. Now, I have to try to have nights alone at home because I've met so many great people and am out all the time. I was blessed enough to find a great church with amazing people (that you Google). I've read more in this one year than in the previous 3 since I graduated from university. When I got here, I could barely order a cheeseburger at McDonald's. Now, I've learned a decent amount of Korean and am taking classes to learn more (and I eat way more Korean food that Western food now). Finally, and this is probably my favorite one, I met, and started dating, the coolest girl in the world.

Yeah, I would say it's been a great year. There are definitely things and people I miss about home, and I'm looking forward to visiting next spring, but life is good in the R.O.K., and there is more to come :)

The Times to Come

2008-07-07T17:16:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile since I just gave an update simply about day-to-day life here in the good ol' ROK (that's Republic of Korea for those of you who may have just said to yourselves, "I thought he was in South Korea.") so I thought I'd give a quick preview of the next month. I will not be spending another weekend in Seoul for 4 weeks! This is actually a big deal. I've only been out of the city limits a half dozen times in this first year so getting out four weeks in a row is HUGE!

This weekend, Trash and I will be heading to the Boryeong Mud Festival. You can click that link to find out more about it, but the basics are that several tons of mud are dug up and dumped on the beach. Then, for 9 days, over a million people play in it. Some may find that disgusting, but for those of you who know me, you know that I'm pumped. Actually, last year's festival started the day after I arrived in Korea. I didn't find out about it until the day before it ended, and I was still just trying to adjust to regular life over here. I wasn't about to venture out of the city on my own...but I have been looking forward to this weekend all year.

The following weekend, I'll be reliving my first trek out of Seoul. Last year, I went rafting and bungee jumping with Adventure Korea. This year, I'll be heading to the same river but as a weekend adventure with friends from my church. The bungee jumping isn't a scheduled part of the trip, but I mentioned it, and we may swing by. I sure hope so. The nice thing is, this won't just be a day trip. We'll be heading out Friday night, rafting saturday afternoon and heading back Sunday morning. It should be a refreshing weekend spent with some of the people who have blessed me the most this year (Unfortunately, several of my closest friends at church have recently moved back the the USA).

The weekend after rafting, my summer vacation starts. I will be off work from Saturday until the following Sunday. This is my first full week of vacation is almost two years! I'm really excited. Trash and I went through several tentative itineraries, but since the last week of July is the absolute PEAK of tourist season, all the flights were just too expensive so we decided to just stay in country and spend the week traveling around Korea. We're going to visit our friend Bang's house on the East Coast, watch the sun rise over the East Sea (known as the Sea of Japan to every other country in the world haha), visit the capital of the Silla Empire (one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea - founded in 57B.C.), hang out on the beach in Busan and round out the week at Everland. It should be a pretty great week.

So that's the skinny of what's coming up this month. I'm really excited and will be sure to post updates and photos. I'll also have a post about this past Fourth of July pretty soon. Yes, there will be another video of my students that I'm sure many of you will find amusing.

Fighting TV Addiction

2008-07-06T08:28:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to start reading more again, like when I first came to Korea. I thought this excerpt moving enough to post here. This is taken from a personal letter of Leo Tolstoy:

"What about you, Lev Nikolayevich, you preach very well, but do you carry out what you preach?" This is the most natural of questions and one that is always asked of me; it is usually asked victoriously, as though it were a way of stopping my mouth. "You preach, but how do you live?" And I answer that I do not preach, that I am not able to preach, although I passionately wish to. I can preach only through my actions, and my actions are vile....And I answer that I am guilty, and vile, and worthy of contempt for my failure to carry them out.

At the same time, not in order to justify, but simply in order to explain my lack of consistency, I say: "Look at my present life and then at my former life, and you will see that I do attempt to carry them out. It is true that I have not fulfilled one thousandth part of them [Christian precepts], and I am ashamed of this, but I have failed to fulfil them not because I did not wish to, but because I was unable to. Teach me how to escape from the net of temptations that surrounds me, help me and I will fulfil them; even without help I wish and hope to fulfil them.

"Attack me, I do this myself, but attack me rather than the path I follow and which I point out to anyone who asks me where I think it lies. If I know the way home and am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side! If it is not the right way, then show me another way; but if I stagger and lose the way, you must help me, you must keep me on the true path, just as I am ready to support you. Do not mislead me, do not be glad that I have got lost, do not shout out joyfully: 'Look at him! He said he was going home, but there he is crawling into a bog!' No, do not gloat, but give me your help and support."
~Leo Tolstoy

I find the third paragraph resonates with me the most. All to often, God is judged by our feeble, failed attempts to live up to the calling He has placed on our lives. Being yet another example of failure and hypocrisy by which God is measured, and found wanting, is perhaps the most debilitating fear in my life. Here, Tolstoy pens a moving metaphor in which to respond to such accusations against the so-called shortcomings of God. I only hope that someday I may have the gift to produce my own words which people will find as thought-provoking and persuasive.

Pennsylvania-Dutch Koreans

2008-07-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

From my 1st grade Reading Comprehension class:

"What will Arthur do to make money?" -Me
"Arthur will to make money wash bikes." -Student

Sound Dutch to you too??

The Accidental Potty Mouths

2008-06-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

This week, in phonics, we are working on the long e sound. This can be difficult for my kindergarten class. A lot of the time, their long e sounds more like a short i. For example, when they say "EAT" it sounds more like "IT." One of our vocabulary words is "SHEET." I laughed a lot today.

American Beef

2008-06-23T23:41:00.000-07:00

There is a huge uproar in South Korea right now because the new president has agreed to import American Beef from cattle more than 30 months old. Apparently the United States is sending beef that we would NEVER eat and are trying to kill off the population of South Korean with Mad Cow infected beef. Now, I'm not one to blindly trust the Government. Nobody should do that. However, I do believe it's worse to always assume the Government is trying to infect their people to make a few extra bucks. I don't usually use my blog to talk about politics, but this has become such a huge issue over here that I couldn't just ignore it so here are some facts about American Beef that most of the Koreans protesting probably don't know...

FACTS ABOUT AMERICAN BEEF
June 12, 2008

*Do Americans eat U.S. beef?
You bet. Ninety-five percent of the beef that is consumed in the United States is U.S. beef. We eat U.S beef and we eat it a lot.

*Is the U.S. beef exported to Korea different from the beef that is consumed domestically in the United States?
No. U.S. consumers eat the same beef that is exported to Korea and every other country. The United States only has one food-safety inspection system for all beef, domestic and exports. By law, plants that do not meet these standards can not produce beef at all.

*Do Americans eat beef from cattle older than 30 months?
Yes we do. About 20 percent of all the beef we consume in the United States comes from animals over 30 months of age. U.S. consumers eat beef and products from all cattle of all ages. Processed products and ground beef can be made from cattle of any age.

*Does the U.S. export low-grade beef and dangerous beef parts to Korea that it does not sell domestically?
No. The United States would not export any product anywhere for human consumption that is not deemed by U.S. authorities to be safe, wholesome, and fit for human consumption in the United States. All beef that is exported to Korea is also consumed in the United States. It is the same beef.

*Is beef from cattle older than 30 months dangerous?
No. Tissues that could potentially carry BSE are removed from cattle prior to processing and are not allowed in the food supply. Once these tissues are removed, meat from cattle over 30 months of age is perfectly safe.

*Do Americans feed U.S. beef to their children?
Yes they do. In fact, most Americans believe it is very important for children to consume protein and significant portion of our protein comes from beef.

*How many U.S. cattle are tested for BSE?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been looking for BSE for over 20 years. In 2007 alone, we tested over 40,000 animals. This current testing rate is 10 times the standard testing rate established by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

*Are many patients with Alzheimer's disease in the United States actually variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) patients?
No. Symptoms for the human variant of BSE are clearly different from the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

*Have there been any cases of vCJD cases contracted in the United States?
No. There have been about 200 cases of vCJD in the world (most of these in the U.K.), but zero cases associated with beef consumption in the United States.

*Are Koreans more susceptible to vCJD?
Over 2 million Koreans live in the United States and are eating U.S. beef, and there has never been a single case of a Korean diagnosed with vCJD.

...Okay. That's my two cents.

(The facts above were taken from the website of the U.S.A. Embassy in Seoul, Korea seoul.usembassy.gov/ )

Back to School

2008-06-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

I'm taking my first organized class in 4 years. I've been attending a Korean Language night class once a week. I'm actually doing pretty well. I'm still just learning the basics, but I'm really grasping it. Every month we're required to take a test to move onto the next level. I just finished Beginner Korean 1 and got a 96% on the test. I only had one wrong answer, and that's because there was a word I didn't know. I feel pretty good about that and am looking forward to starting Beginner Korean 2 in two weeks :)

Dangerous in All the Right Ways

2008-06-04T07:16:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Demerit, a punk rock band from Beijing, China came to Seoul. They were really cool guys and put on a great show. My friends and I got to hang out with them all weekend and into the beginning of this week.

I have to say, some people (cough...Fat Mike...cough) always talk about how punk rock used to be dangerous. They say so much of it isn't dangerous anymore, but that they are. I mean, they have a point. So much punk rock is just fluff and image and doesn't stand for anything anymore. But even when it was "dangerous" to be a punk in the USA, that usually meant you'd get angry looks, denied service somewhere or in a fight. Yes, the US Government tried to censor punk rock. It's a FACT that Jimmy Carter gave tax breaks to any record label that agreed not to sign punk rock bands. It's a bit ridiculous, but this is far from life threatening.

Being punk rock in the last great, oppressive Communist power in the world has the potential DANGEROUS. Okay, so Tienanmen Square happened almost 20 years ago, but has much changed? China will snuff out any movement they think is too big. Being one of the internationally well-known Chinese punk rock bands and singing songs with lyrics like, "Voice of the people. We can't find a reason," and, "Beijing is NOT my home," you're bound to get some looks. Punks in the US hate the government, and it's far from perfect, but these guys really have good reason to hate their government, and speaking out against it takes big.....well, you know. All that to say, the guys in Demerit were really great and I really respected a lot about them.

Of course, it helped that they put on a great show. They had amazing stage presence and played a great set. The ending was incredible. They did a nice long medley near the end. It started with "Voice of the People" and then they broke into the intro of "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden followed by "Blitzkrieg Bop" by the Ramones and "Breakin' the Law" by Judas Priest. Of course, you can't end your international show with covers so they capped it off with some more originals. It was a great time, and I look forward to seeing them again.

Check out Demerit at: www.myspace.com/demeritamry

*I want to add that I know the Chinese Government is not out there hunting down these guys because they're punks, but I think you understand my point.

Time Goes On

2008-05-24T19:10:00.001-07:00

It's been quite some time since I posted anything. Life has been pretty normal. I made a short two day trip to Muui Island with some from friends a couple weeks ago, but other than that, life has mostly consisted of work, hanging out with Trash and our other friends, and.....well, yeah. Mostly just that. There are some fun things coming up in the next couple months. In July is the Boryeong Mud Festival which is exactly what it sounds like. Lots of people in a HUGE field of mud. Should be pretty great. Plus, I have 9 days off at the end of July. There is talk of visiting Beijing, China. Those are the big plans for the summer. We'll see what else pops up.

They're Learning From Me

2008-05-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

I know I just put up another post, but I really needed to put this up here. This is a short dialogue between myself and Grace, one of my 5 year old students.

"Grace, can you put this in the recycling box?" ~Me
"You're a recycling box." ~Grace
"What did you say?!" ~Me
"I said, 'You're a recycling box,'....recycling box." ~Grace

I was so proud :)

Ready...Aim...FIRE!!

2008-05-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was a three day weekend. it was fantastic. Saturday and Sunday were both pretty mellow. Saturday I went to Hongdae. I didn't go to any shows though. There just weren't any that I was interested in. Sunday, I was lazy most of the day and then went to church with Trash.

Monday was the exciting day. I went to Ilsan (a suburb of Seoul) to visit Morgan and Bomi at their place. We went to Lafesta and The Western Dom, the biggest outdoor shopping complex in Korea. It wasn't an outdoor market. It actually felt like a Western style mall. It was pretty cool. We wanted to see Iron Man at the Imax, but the only available seats were in the front 4 rows. Anyone who's been to an Imax knows that would have been terrible.

Since we couldn't make it to the movie, we went out to eat. We dined at the wonderful Grill One. It was about $25 for all you can eat steak, pasta, salad and fried rice...I had 5 steaks. My body has felt completely out of wack ever since then, but it was totally worth it.

Next, we met Ryan and just started walking around. Morgan notice a big banner with a gun on it so we went into the building to explore. We found Ilsan Shooting Club. When you walk in, you're greeted by beautiful Asian girls in black suits. They give you a "menu" that is basically pictures of all the different handguns you can choose to shoot. Plus, there is a HUGE mural on the wall of a black dude with a big smoking handgun. The whole setup was pretty surreal. It was kind of expensive ($10 for 10 shots), but it was just fun being able to shoot guns in Korea. Even cops don't have guns here! Soon after we got to the club, Trash called to say she was nearby. Bomi went to get her, and Trash got to not only see a real gun for the first time. She got to shoot it. It was awesome, and she did pretty well. I'm going to take her hunting in the States someday. Haha.

After shooting, we walked around beautiful Lake Park for a while. It was really nice. Then, we headed home and called it a day. I was exhausted, but it was a great day :)

It feels good to hold a gun again

The little lady getting ready :)

"So this is what it's like to shoot a gun."

Group Shot

Enjoying Lake Park's Cactus Museum

Happy Birthday to ME!!

2008-04-22T05:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the best birthday I've had in several years. I thought it was just going to be a low key, mellow night. I worked all day and went home for a much needed nap. Then, I headed downtown to meet Trash. She was supposed to meet me after band practice for a birthday date. We were gonna hang out, just the two of us, for a little bit and then go to hang out with her band members at the new pub that Park (her drummer) is opening on Friday.

I was on my way downtown, and Trash called to say she was running a little late and Yumi would meet me to show me the way to their practice studio. When I met Yumi, she talked to Trash and said it would be a little while because they were still practicing. I have to admit, I was kind of ticked off. I mean, it's my birthday, and my girlfriend let band practice run overtime by half an hour. Plus, I knew she'd need time to get ready before we went out. Anyway, Yumi and I were "walking to the practice studio" and we passed a little pub. Yumi said that one of her friends wass in there and wondered if I'd mind swinging in to say hi. My answer... "Sure. No problem." My thoughts... "Oh yeah. I'm in no hurry. It's not like it's my birthday, and my girlfriend is running late cause she has something more important to do."

We stepped through the door, and I saw that there were a lot of people but was so frustrated that I barely noticed when they all yelled, "SURPRISE!!" Apparently, band practice didn't go overtime. Trash just needed a few more minutes to get my AWESOME surprise birthday party ready :) Boy, did I feel foolish (Na neun Babo.). Now, those of you who know me may have trouble believing this, but I was speechless. I just kind of stood there with a dumb look in my face for about 5 minutes (in my head it felt a lot longer). All of my friends from Hongdae were there, and Trash even spent over an hour searching online for my church's website so she could invite Pastor Robert and Jenny. It was fantastic.

We were there until about half past midnight. It was the best birthday I've had in years :)

I don't like party hats.

That's much better.

It wouldn't be a birthday if friends didn't put icing on your face.

...but I got my revenge!

Honggu was more than happy to get some on him too. Haha.

Me and Bang

Jae

Yena stopped by for 2 mins to say hi and give me my present :)

Me and Park (our gracious host)

Hongu, Yumi, Diane

What a great night :)

Pictures Online

2008-04-16T23:54:00.000-07:00

When I first got here, I was posting photo albums on MySpace, Facebook and Webshots. That is a lot of work, and as I will probably be here for a long time, I'm not going to keep doing it. I have discovered, however, that I can post a link for people to view my photos on Facebook even if they aren't members...so here they are. These are the photos from my two days in/near Busan:

Saturday - Arriving and on the Island

Sunday - In Busan with Trash

Enjoy.

From the Kindergarten Halls

2008-04-16T02:34:00.000-07:00

When you spend a lot of time around large amounts of little kids, you hear some funny things. I heard one of the other teachers yell this while I was walking up the stairs yesterday....

"No, you can only throw the SOFT toys. Ow!! What did I just say?!?!"

:)

Delicious

2008-04-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

I've been taking a lot of videos lately and thought I'd share some. These are two of my favorites. I mentioned that I ate FRESH sushi when I was in Busan. Here are two videos of this wonderful experience with Trash :)

Get Out of Town!

2008-04-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I had a much needed trip out of Seoul. My friend, Jesse, is leaving Korea in a few weeks so we decided to do one, last, big trip. 13 of us took the KTX bullet train across Korea to the southeast coast. We went to Busan and then took a ferry to a small island about 45 minutes off the coast. It was beautiful there. We spent most of Saturday afternoon/night at an abandoned amusement park on top of the mountain on the island. That was so much fun. I was able to do all the things I ever wanted. Did you ever want to climb up to the dragon head on top of the swinging viking ship ride? I always have wanted to, and I did :)

Oh Yeah!

It was a lot of fun. We searched through the different buildings and climbed around on all the different rides. Who knew an abandoned park could be so much fun. We all (the better looking ones are Jon Dunbar's) got a lot of great pictures too.

Diane and Trash on the Carousel

Princess Cherry Blossom

Outside on the park's pool balcony

Saturday night was pretty mellow. We went out for dinner and then just chilled at the hotel. Sunday morning, most people left early. Trash and I stayed behind and just hung out in Busan. We had FRESH seafood. By fresh, I mean that we picked the fish out of a tank and they served it to us raw about 10 minutes later. We had octopus that was cut up, but still alive and moving...delicious! Then we just hung out on the beach until it was time to catch the train back to Seoul.

Trash with live octopus hanging out of her mouth

It was a fantastic, much needed weekend. I love life in Seoul, but like anywhere, it's always good to get away for a little while. Monday, I felt so refreshed and ready for work. It's good to have a little more energy during the week :)

The Life and Times

2008-03-29T01:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I put anything up here. I've been so busy the last 2 months because of moving and changing jobs. Life is finally settling down. This week was the first time in over a month that I actually had a night I could just stay at home and relax. Actually, I had three nights like that, and it was wonderful. I'd really been neglecting my guitar and felt bad about it so we had some quality time together. I was also able to go out for dinner and coffee with Pastor Robert, which I hadn't done in a while.

I had my first field trip with the Little School this week. It was really cool. We went to a place called The Living Gallery. They had some pretty advance computer hologram projectors that made pieces of art come to life. For instance, at one point, it seemed as though we were looking at Renaissance statues, but then they "came to life" and started moving and talking to us. They had an LCD of the Mona Lisa with voice recognition software. You could ask her questions about herself, and she'd start to move and answer your questions. All in all, it was a really fun exhibit.

It's been such a blessing having my new apartment downtown. I'm able to see people throughout the week and don't have to worry about the subway closing. As I said above, I've been pretty busy, but it's been a good busy. I've had a lot of the normal nights out in Hongdae. That's always a good time. I have a great crew of friends over here. Below are some random pictures from the last few weekends in Hongdae.

Jesse and his namesake drink, The Jesse Sunrise

Aaron doing guest vocals with Suck Stuff

Honggu and Rachel

Zombie Trash

Mental Patient Trash - Yeah, we're all worried about her.

Almost Respectable

2008-03-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a really good day. First of all, the weather has finally turned. It's getting warm! I woke up early Saturday morning (not easy for me) and headed downtown. I met my friend Trash (Yes, that is her nickname. No, I'm not allowed to tell you her Korean name...she made me promise). We went to a local art museum because it was the last day of the Vincent Van Gogh exhibit.

The night before, we'd been talking about heading to the exhibit, and I made a joke that we needed to dress up. You see, Trash is the kind of girl you can know for years and never see dressed "like a girl." I was completely kidding, but she thought I was serious and agreed to dress nice and wear makeup. The catch, I had to wear a tie. So yeah, that joke kind of backfired.

Anyway, we both got dressed up all snazzy and headed to the museum. It took us about 30 minutes to get into the museum and a little longer to actually get to the exhibit once we were inside. It was CROWDED, but really worth it. It was cool to see paintings I'd only seen in books. Van Gogh put the paint on so thick that it looked fresh. Almost like they'd been painted that morning. It was really cool.

Afterwards, we went out for lunch. Bibimbap (rice and various veggies) with spicy octopus. It was delicious.

Next for me was heading uptown to jam with some guys. Then it was down to Hongdae for a normal night of hanging out. It was quite possibly the best day I've had since I came to Korea.

Shirt, Tie, Sweater Vest. Oh Yeah!

Holy Crap! Trash in a Skirt

We are Classy

The New Addition

2008-03-09T03:28:00.001-07:00

I like Korea a lot....can you tell?

Back From the Silence

2008-03-05T05:34:00.000-08:00

It's been over two weeks since my last post. I think that's the longest I've gone since I started this thing. So much has been happening that I've been too busy, and stressed, to take time to sit down and write. Of course, that means there's a lot to talk about. I'm just going to give some simple overviews.

I encountered some huge problems getting a new working visa for my new job. Korea has implemented a bunch of new laws/requirements to get a visa (very needed, but kind of overkill). I thought I was going to have to leave the country for a while before I could come back to work. Thankfully, my parents are amazing. Dad took a day off work and he, and Mom drove to Harrisburg to go to the State Police Barracks and the State Department office to get paperwork that, otherwise, would have taken far too long to get. All of my documents landed in Korea this morning and should be at The Little School (my kindergarten) by tomorrow or the next day. That is a tremendous load off my mind.

The new job has been very challenging. I mean, it's kindergarten so the material we're covering is not, in any way, difficult. However, it's new to me so I don't really know the methods or routines the kids are used to. Monday and Tuesday were pretty rough. I felt really bad for my Korean partner. The only way things were getting accomplished was when she was doing more than her share. Today went much better though. I was able to stretch the material for entire periods, and the kids seemed to be having fun. I actually enjoyed work today :)

These kindergarten kids are a lot of fun. Part of it is because they are the BEST behaved kindergarten students in the history of the world. Korean children are usually pretty disciplined and these kids come from the most affluent homes in Korea. There are so many funny things that happen every day while I'm at work that I couldn't possibly write them all....but prepared to hear about a lot of them.

Other than that, things are pretty normal. I've moved into my new apartment (I'll put up photos or a video tour next week sometime). Will is living with me for this last week before he moves to Australia. I'm still going to shows every weekend and have met a lot of people. I'm having a bbq here this weekend with a bunch of friends. I mean, basically, life here has become very similar to what it was at home. Sometimes, I forget I live in Korea.

Changes

2008-02-20T07:02:00.000-08:00

The end of February is almost here and with it, the end of my time at EG. I am so thankful to be finishing up at EG and moving to The Little School. For the past week, I've been doing observation/training at The Little School in the mornings and working at EG at night. It's been hectic and VERY draining but so good to be spending time at my new school. The kids love being there as do the teachers. It's such a great environment.

The lease for my new apartment officially began on Monday. I took some of my things down and moved in all the used furniture I bought. Thankfully, the guy I bought it all from lived approximately 40 feet from my new place. What a blessing. Tomorrow, Tae is bringing his car to move the rest of my stuff downtown to the new place so I've spent my whole night doing laundry, packing and taking things off the walls.

I can't wait to be settled into my new place, sit on the couch (that I haven't bought yet) and just relax. Life will be soooo much better in about 10 days :)

Suspect Arrested in Korean Arson

2008-02-14T06:50:00.000-08:00

By Hyung-Jin Kim
The Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea — Police said today a 69-year-old man upset over a land dispute has admitted setting the fire in Seoul that destroyed the 14th-century gateway considered South Korea's top cultural treasure.

The suspect in the arson at the Namdaemun gate, identified only by his family name, Chae, was arrested late Monday on Ganghwa Island, west of Seoul.

The fire broke out Sunday night and burned down the wooden structure at the top of the Namdaemun gate, which once formed part of a wall that encircled the South Korean capital. The structure collapsed as hundreds of firefighters attempted to get the blaze under control, officials said. The gate's large stone base remained intact.

Police have a letter from the suspect complaining about a land dispute with a development company. The suspect maintains he did not get enough compensation from the developer for his land in Gyeonggi province near Seoul.

Police found a bottle of paint thinner and leather gloves at the house of Chae's ex-wife in Ganghwa Island, said Kim Young-soo, head of a police station handling the case in Seoul.

Kim said the man had been charged in 2006 with setting fire to the Changgyeong Palace in Seoul, which caused $4,230 in damage.

The two-tiered wooden structure destroyed in this week's fire was renovated in the 1960s. The government built a plaza around the gate, officially known as Sungnyemun, in 2005 and opened it to the public the following year for the first time in nearly a century.

The Cultural Heritage Administration said it would take at least three years and some $21 million to fully restore the gate.

(Tuesday February 12, 2008)

Crime in Korea

2008-02-11T06:31:00.000-08:00

Usually, the only mention of crime in Korea is referring to how it is almost non-existent. Unfortunately, last night, there was a BIG crime in Seoul. Arson.

One of my first weekends in Seoul, I visited Sungnaemun (better known as Namdaemun, which means "South Gate"). It was really beautiful. 610 years old, this gate was once the main gate to Seoul. It was the oldest wooden structure in Korea, survived the massive bombings of Seoul during the Korean Civil War and designated National Treasure No. 1.

Sunday night, just before 9pm, someone set Sungnaemun on fire. Around 2am, the gate collapsed. All that's left is the cinder block structure. It's a true loss to the cultural history of Korea.

In 2006, a to-scale blueprint of Sungnaemun was created. The building will be able to be reconstructed to look like, though not be, the original. The government estimates this process will take approximately 3 years and 20 billion Won (around $21,300,000) to repair the gate.

All That's Left

SPAM!

2008-02-05T18:10:00.001-08:00

It's Lunar New Year so we get a 5 day weekend. Even better, we got gifts from school. We've been joking that this might happen ever since Chuseok, but never really expected it. We got the Spam gift set.

Obviously we were really stoked about a big box of spam and canola oil.

Brad was so excited.

Mmmmmmm....Spam!

18 and ONE!!

2008-02-04T05:15:00.000-08:00

I woke up at 540am today. Nick and I met downstairs a little after 6 and headed to the subway. It's about a 45 minute ride to Itaewon. Unfortunately, Rocky Mountain Tavern (a local Canadian sports pub) was the closest, and only, place we knew of showing the Super Bowl. That's right folks. I just had my very first Super Bowl MONDAY.

It was definitely different waking up early for the big game. The pub served their famous "Truck Stop Breakfast" which consisted of eggs, homefries, bacon, toast and coffee. It may sound pretty run of the mill, but over here, there aren't many places that serve an American breakfast like that.

The first quarter was pretty rough. They were streaming the Super Bowl from a website and it was constantly freezing. We missed almost every play and just saw the moments in between plays. "Hey look, it's first and ten. Something must've happened on that last play." After the quarter, they switched to a Korean website that was showing the game. It was a much better picture and no more freezing. Of course, that meant no Super Bowl commercials, but that's a small price to pay to see the big game, and since the place was so packed and loud, we couldn't hear much anyway.

It's always hard to root for the Giants. As an Eagles fan, you're conditioned to hate them, but I hate the Patriots even more. This was, by far, the best Super Bowl in a few years. There were a few Pats fans at the pub, but the place EXPLODED when Manning hit that game winning touchdown in the last 35 seconds...yes, apparently Eli really is a Manning after all.

To top it off, as we were leaving the pub, I was celebrating with a couple guys and mentioned how it is hard to cheer for the Giants since I'm an Eagles fan. The one guy just froze, looked at me and yelled, "oooooooooh!" and we all know what comes next.......E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!! Turns out he was in the same boat as me. We exchanged the usual, "There's always next year," and headed out. It had been a good morning, but it was almost 1pm, and Nick and I had class in a few hours.

Odds and Ends

2008-02-02T03:46:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy couple weeks for me. I've had a lot of meetings, finished intensives, found a new apartment and am starting my last month of work at EG. I went snowboarding again today too. That was a lot of fun. Overall, it's normal life. Nothing out of the ordinary, but things are going well.

I Earned That Nickname

2008-01-23T06:42:00.000-08:00

They didn't call me "The Puppet Master" at camp for nothing. Being a teacher is fun. These kids will do almost anything if I tell them it's cool. Enjoy the videos....

1. "No kids, you may NEVER sing this song while sitting or wearing a hat. Yes, it is ABSOLUTELY necessary to put your hand over your heart. No, those aren't ACTUALLY the last two words of the song, but everyone expects to hear them."

2. "Yes, this is the coolest way to celebrate that you did your homework."

3. "Don't worry. There are only two things you need to know about American Football. First, it is THE greatest sport in the world. Second, there is only ONE team that matters."

I know. I know. I'm a genius....an evil genius, but a genius all the same :)

A New Way to Spend Money

2008-01-22T04:52:00.000-08:00

Yup. That's exactly what I don't need. I went snowboarding this weekend for the first time in about 10 years. It was great. I had an amazing time and am hooked. I'm planning to go again in about 2 weeks. Fortunately, it's MUCH cheaper here in Korea. We went to a small resort. A full day lift ticket and rentals (board, boots, pants, jacket....yes you can rent the clothes too) cost about 50 bucks total! We snowboarded all afternoon and had lunch (kimbop and granola bars) at the mountain. Then stayed at a pension for the night. We barbecued for dinner and then just hung out and played games the rest of the night while eating waaaaay too much junk food. In the morning we had kimchi soup with ramen noodles and diced spam. I know what you're thinking. Maybe I've just been really Koreanized, but it was delicious. Overall, it was a great weekend with my friends from church. I'm really blessed to have these people.

Lunch at the Mountain

Dinner at the Pension

Slowly Waking Up

A Group Shot Before Leaving

Bloody Immigration Office!!

2008-01-14T07:05:00.000-08:00

Despite my last post, there are still definitely times where I know I'm a foreigner. As many know, I lost my passport a while back. I have a new one now. My old passport had my E-2 Working Visa stamp. I asked my current and soon-to-be bosses if I needed to go to immigration to get a new stamp on my passport. They both said yes.

Today was the last day of my 4 day weekend. I went to the Immigration Office. I took a number right when I got there. It was 644, and they were on number 403. At that moment, I knew my last day of vacation wouldn't be very enjoyable. I spent 3 hours waiting for my number to be called (I thought there was going to be a riot at one point. The computerized number system crashed suddenly and people who were waiting started to freak out!). Luckily, I'm reading 1984 and had brought it with me.

When the time finally came for my number to be called, I was so excited. I'd waited for 3 hours but would finally accomplish something....I thought. I got to the desk and was informed that everything is computerized now. The Korean Government knows that I've been issued a new passport. They have my alien registration number, old passport number, new passport number and working visa number in their central system. Since I have an Alien Registration Card/ID, I don't need anything new physically stamped on my visa. I felt so defeated.

I'm trying to be more optimistic these days so I keep telling myself that at least I know everything is worked out. The hard thing to swallow is that I need to go back in about 5 weeks to get a completely new E-2 Visa because I'm starting a new job. I really DO need to go for that one. I hope the line is shorter.

A Milestone

2008-01-10T21:56:00.001-08:00

Today marks 6 months since I arrived in Korea. I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. It's that strange phenomenon where I feel like I've been here for so long, and yet, it's like I just arrived to. If the next 15 months go by this fast, I'll be home in no time.

I was talking with Pastor Robert a few weeks ago, and he said that 6 months is usually the moment where you can tell how the rest of your stay will be. People either start counting down the time until they head home or they settle in. I definitely have fallen into the latter category. I don't mean that I want to stay here forever. If I've learned one thing, it's that I really do love life in the States. However, more often than not, Korea doesn't feel completely foreign to me either. There are definitely those frustrating moments, whether they be the language barrier or the rigid, sometimes nonsensical rules that govern so much of life over here. But despite those times, I feel comfortable here in Korea. I've met great people and am enjoying myself.

It's snowing outside. It's the first time it's snowing enough that it's actually laying on the ground :)

No, I am NOT 28 years old!

2007-12-31T17:19:00.000-08:00

Koreans measure age differently than we do in the west. I knew part of the system but not the whole picture. When you are born in Korea, you are one year old. They count everything from conception (even though that's only 9 months) so that means when I arrived, I was 26 back home but 27 here. The other part that I didn't know about is that everyone becomes a year older on New years day so even though I won't be 27 back home until April 21st of this year, I just turned 28 here in Korea. Another kind of fun example...my niece, Olivia, was born 12 days ago on December 20th. In the US, she is 12 days old, but in Korea, she's 2 YEARS old. On December 20th, she was 1 year old, and now it's new years so she's a year older.

It's kind of crazy. I'm not a big fan of it. haha. Students always ask what your Korean age is, and now I have to tell them I'm 28. When I leave, I'll be 29. I definitely can't stay another year after my next contract because then I'll be 30 in Korea when I'm only 28! I'm not ready for that ;)

The Long Christmas Post

2007-12-25T20:26:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy 3 days. Sunday was the Seoul Grace Church (the church that sponsors the English Ministry I go to) Choir Festival. Our EM did a little rendition of Elvis' "Blue Christmas" and no, I will not be posting a video of it. Haha. We had a fun time though. Some of the choirs were really good. In the end, we didn't win any of the trophies, but we did get some nice soap as a participation gift :p

Yulia, Me and Felix at the Choir Festival

Dressed for Success (2 out of 3 of us don't normally look like this)

JoAnn and Lara REEEALLY excited about our soap prize

Nastya REEEALLY confused about our soap prize

Monday, Christmas Eve, I woke up early and headed downtown to do some Christmas shopping. Then I met Nastya in Noksapyeong for lunch. She's Korean-Russian and is in the country for university. I found out she'd never had Mexican food so we remedied that right away.

I didn't buy anything here. Haha.

Nastya's first ever taco!

After lunch, I worked. It was kind of lame because we didn't really accomplish anything. I gave a few tests and watched The Charlie Brown Christmas Special in all of my classes. None of my students had ever seen it so I figured it'd be a good excuse to not actually do any work on Christmas Eve. I finished at 11 and headed to Nick and Ily's apartment for our EG Christmas party. It was a good time. We did a gift exchange and had a good mix of Americans, Canadians and Koreans.

I realized I haven't posted many pictures of the people I work with so I thought I'd put up a few. Now, you can finally see all the SUPER MATURE teachers at EG International School of Language.

Brad - The Picture of Maturity

Steph and Her Man

Colin - Working Hard As Usual

Me and Nick in our gay couple, Christmas sweaters

Will - Pictures from the office just can't show how cool he is.

Christmas was fun. I got up early (yes, Dad. 9am IS early for me) and headed down to Itaewon to meet friends from church. We went to Suji's Tokyo Cafe, which is an amazing, American-style breakfast joint. I had a huge omelet with potato, onion, bacon and cheese. That's not something you come by too often here in Seoul. Then we went back to Pastor Robert and Jenny's house. We hung out all day, watched a movie, had a white elephant exchange and played some games. It was a good time.

Felix, Tae and Yulia at brunch

Zoya, Lara, Pastor Robert, Jenny, JoAnn and Moses just before the gift exchange

All in all, my first Christmas away from home was good. I'm blessed to have so many great people to hang out with.

Relief

2007-12-19T20:48:00.000-08:00

Two very good things. I have a new Passport (I still need to get a new E-2 Visa stamped on it), and my boss gave me my official release letter. That means he can't decide to screw me over at the last minute. I can't start at my new job unless he releases EG's sponsorship of my current Visa to the new school. He's given me the paperwork so I don't have to worry about it anymore. Very nice.

Annie

2007-12-17T08:25:00.000-08:00

This weekend was definitely different. On Saturday I met friends from church for dinner, and then we went to see a show. No, not the normal punk show in Hongdae. We went to the Sejeong Center for the Performing Arts (King Sejeong is kind of a big deal in Korea. Everything is named after him) to see a Musical. "Annie" to be more specific. It was actually really cool. They did a great job. Everything was in Korean (Sorry Alice. They didn't sing "It's a hard knock Rife." haha), but each seat had a little screen on the back with English subtitles so I was able to understand what was going. While "Annie" is quite possibly the cheesiest story I've ever heard in my life, it was fun. After the musical we checked out some of the local Christmas lights and rounded out the night by going to Kyobo Bookstore. It was definitely a good time.

(Everyone At Dinner)

(Killing time before the show. Lara acting like....Lara)

(Crystal, JoAnn and Me by the Sejeong Center's Christmas tree)

(A bunch of us by the lights at Chunggye-Chun)

Hopefully Back to Normal

2007-12-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

It's been a rough week and a half. All of last week I was battling a chest cold. There was a show in Hongdae I'd been looking forward to for over a month, but I was just too sick to go. On Monday, I finally felt like I was starting to get over the sickness, which was a huge relief. I hate being sick. I turn into a complete baby. Then on Tuesday I woke up and felt kind of queezy. Just the thought of eating kind of turned my stomach. I went to work but "got sick" before my first class. I went home and spent all day curled up in bed watching CSI cursing my stomach. I think it was a mild case of food poisoning. I feel completely better today. I can still feel the cold lingering a little, but I was able to eat for the first time in about 40 hours so that was nice.

Wonderful Monotony

2007-12-06T04:13:00.001-08:00

Ya know, you move to a foreign country and expect everything to be an adventure. The truth is, I have this undeniable tendency to get into a monotonous routine. I try to wake up early. I go to the gym. I make lunch, watch some tv and then head to work. I teach. I come home, read, watch tv, talk to people online, maybe hang out with some other teachers and head to bed....then, I repeat. Sometimes I mix up the order a bit. Every now and then I throw something extra into the weekday mix....breakfast with Pastor Robert....lunch with Lara or JoAnn....but it's mostly the same. On the weekends, I usually try to get a taco or a real burger, hang out with those girls from Yonsei, check out some punk rock bands and go to church on Sunday.

Don't get me wrong. Life over here is good, and sometimes I get to do really cool stuff I'd never be able to do in the States. The funny thing is that I've gotten used to my schedule. I don't always feel like I'm living in a foreign country anymore (though there are definitely moments I wish everyone spoke English). I've heard 6 months is the turning point for most people. Either they start counting down the days until they're heading home or they start to feel like they have a home/life where they are. I've been here for 5 months, and while I know I could never live in Korea for my whole life, I'm really content with my life here for the time being. I have 15 months left until I'm planning to leave my job and the country. I'm really looking forward to this next year and a half.

Oh, and it's snowing in Seoul right now. That's kinda cool :)

Sometimes I'm an Idiot

2007-12-04T02:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I visited the USA.....in a legal sense. That's right folks, for the first time in almost five months, these feet stepped on sovereign US soil. This guy went to the US Embassy in Seoul. Why you ask? Was it a pleasure trip? Nope. Contrary to what I thought, I did NOT forget my backpack at Brad and Steph's house. I forgot it in a taxi. What was in said backpack? My friggin' passport! Yup. I'm an idiot. Luckily, it's easy for me to get a new one (don't worry Mom and Dad - no lecture necessary). My new passport will be here December 18th. Unfortunately, I had to waste almost 100 bucks to replace it!

I try to see the bright side of everything though. This situation proved that my new friends from church really do care about me. Everyone was quick to help me figure out if I could recover my bag. When that wasn't an option, and I knew I had to replace it, a good friend offered to loan me the money (without me asking) so that I didn't have to wait a week until I got my paycheck.....that's right folks. Always try to find that bright side.

On the not so bright side, I'm getting sick.....and I'm a BABY when I'm sick.

The End of the Term

2007-11-30T22:46:00.000-08:00

Well, our fall term ended on Friday. The last day of the term is usually pretty mellow, but since our director didn't come to work at all, that meant it was even more mellow. That's right folks. It was nothing but crossword puzzles, mazes and Spongebob videos all day. It was glorious. haha.

Monday marks the beginning of Winter term. That'll go until the end of February. Winter Intensives start December 27th and last about 4 weeks. My boss officially knows that I accepted a position at another school and has agreed to release me from my Visa without any problems as long as I agree to stay through the end of the term. That means I won't get any time off between the jobs so I won't be able to travel (the school also changed our Christmas vacation so I won't be going to SE Asia like I was planning). That's disappointing, but it gives me the opportunity to send a bunch of money home in February, which is a good thing.

I'm really excited to work this last term and get out. God has really blessed me in the last few weeks. It looked like my boss wasn't going to release me from my Visa, and I might not have been able to take the new job. We were able to come to an agreement though. Plus, I got a really good schedule for this term. I don't have ANY middle school classes, and they are the students that made me REALLY hate my job. Also, I get out at 730 on Tuesday and Thursday. I'm a lot less stressed out now. I think these three months will go by pretty quickly. Then it's off to the new job. I can't wait!

Thanksgiving

2007-11-25T17:17:00.000-08:00

Well, we had an American Thanksgiving this weekend. It was pretty great. All the US and Canadian teachers got together, along with some of our Korean friends, and had a FEAST in Hagye. We didn't have anywhere to cook a turkey. Fortunately, there are these street vendors all over Seoul who have a truck that is basically a big rotisserie cooker. We bought 3 rotisserie chickens from one of them (We actually spent all day roaming around town to find one and couldn't. Then right before dinner, one parked in front of Brad and Steph's apartment. Very Nice). Everybody brought something. It was great. Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus, Salad, Fruit, Rice, Homemade Korean Curry, Pumpkin Pie (thank you CostCo), Flan.....we had quite the feast. We sat around all night afterwards playing cards and then most everyone went to the norae bang (singing room). I was pretty beat by then and headed home.

Overall, for my first holiday away from home, it went really well. It looks like Christmas is gonna be at Pastor Robert and Jenny's house. I'm excited :)

Internet Addiction

2007-11-18T18:38:00.000-08:00

It's pretty amazing, but internet addiction is actually a HUGE problem in Korea. No country has more household, high-speed internet connections than Korea. I don't know that's happened here yet, but in surrounding countries, like Japan and China, people have actually died from internet gaming binges lasting several days. They don't eat, drink or sleep and freaking DIE! Here's what it's come to. This is one possible answer to the problem (thanks for the link to the article Dave.).

click me

This Past Weekend

2007-11-13T19:07:00.000-08:00

I realized that I didn't say anything about last weekend. It was pretty fun. I went to Lotte World with people from church. For those who don't know (which is probably most of you) Lotte is the HUGE corporation that owns a little bit of everything in Korea...ie - grocery stores, departments stores, hotels, and yes, a half-indoors/half-outdoors knock-off of Disney World. haha. It was actually pretty cool. I hadn't been to an amusement park in about 4 or 5 years. We went at night so weren't there for very long, but we still were able to go on a few rides. Some highlights:

1. The Gyro-Something - One of those free fall rides that takes you up REALLY high and just drops you to the bottom.
2. Bumper Cars - Koreans generally avoid each other on bumper cars. They were scared of us seemingly violent Americans.
3. The Ball Room - Big room. Three floors. Open in the center. Full of foam balls. Air cannons on the second and third floors to shoot the balls...there were a couple all-out battles :)
4. The Magic Donkey - There's this life-sized stuffed, cartoony looking donkey on a pedestal. You put 500 Won (about 54 cents) into the slot and the donkey lifts his tail and craps out a plastic container with candy. BRILLIANT!
5. Laser Light Show - The inside part of the park is so huge that I didn't realize we were inside at first. It's pretty cool. Towards the end of the night they did a laser light show about the constellations. They used all the same effects Pink Floyd used for their shows so it was pretty cool. Plus, they were shooting off fireballs and small firworks. Yup, that's how big it was inside (oh, and JoAnn jumped every time the fireworks went off...pretty funny).

After the park we all hung out for a while, but it was just too cold to stay outside anywhere. I was supposed to go downtown to meet up with Brad and Stephanie for their birthday extravaganza but was way too tired. Of course, I ended up staying up late talking to people online anyway.

Sunday was pretty fun. It was the normal church and dinner afterwards (Korean BBQ. mmmmm), and then Lara and I got everyone to go to a coffee shop. We were there so long that we almost missed the last subway home. It was cool though. Half the table was having a deep theological conversation, and the other half was playing 20 million questions with Jeff Moses. Hopefully they all still like me after that.

So yeah, that was the weekend. Overall, very enjoyable and pretty cheap. I'll post some pictures once JoAnn and Lara send them to me.

Hmmm

2007-11-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

I just got paid. Tomorrow I'm having Mexican food for lunch with two of my favorite people in Korea. JoAnn just introduced me to a friend of hers in SoCal who wants to show me the local climbing when I head out there. Church was great tonight. There are times when I feel down and kind of lonely, but then there are times like these, and I don't understand why I deserve to be so absolutely content with life. God is good.

Big News!

2007-11-09T18:52:00.000-08:00

Welp, I have officially signed a contract with the new school in Apgujeong. I start there on February 25th. My current boss knows I'm leaving and seems cool with it. He went through some crazy crap firing one of the guys we work with, and even though I'm leaving, I think he appreciates that I do a good job and isn't going to try to screw me. The nice this is that if he does try to stick it to me a little bit, I have an easy out. If I leave this job before I've worked here for 6 months, I have to pay back the cost of my flight to Korea. My new boss said that if EG starts treating me poorly because I'm leaving, she'll call my current boss, give him a piece of her mind and their school will pay back my ticket so that I can leave right away without losing any money. While I really don't think it'll come anywhere close to that, but it's nice to know that If I would need to get out, I could :)

The other piece of big news is Christmas vacation. According to our contracts with EG, we get one week of summer vacation that they choose and get to choose another week at some other time during the year. Well, that is always a hassle because we need to cover classes, and nobody can vacation together. What EG has decided to do is give us a week off for Christmas instead of letting us pick a week at some other point. Now, I can go on vacation with a bunch of my coworkers which is really cool. All that said...Jeff Moses will be spending Christmas 2007 in the tropics of Vietnam! We're going to Vietnam, Cambodia and might even try to make it to Thailand or Laos. The cool thing is that if we don't get to go everywhere I'd like, I can make up for it later. I'm going to take off a week in February before I start the new job so I can travel a little more.

This whole job and vacation situation actually worked out pretty well. I had my first paid vacation almost immediately after I arrived and I'm getting my second before I leave. Essentially, I only worked for EG for 6 months and got both of my vacations for the year. Plus, I get two vacations in the upcoming year with my new school. I feel really good about all this.

...and by the way

2007-11-05T08:36:00.000-08:00

I'm famous now. I'll be signing autographs at my next appearance. haha.

click me

I Finally Got a Fix

2007-11-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

Despite working all Saturday afternoon, having dinner with EG people, going to a punk show in Hongdae and getting home MUCH later than planned (around 4am instead of midnight), I got up at 9am and went hiking with Lara. It was great. It took us a little longer than we planned to find the trail head, but once we were there, we had a great time.

The leaves are starting to lose their color a little, but the view was great. We hiked partway up Dobong Mountain. Lara had to get to church early for music practice. We were taking a break and realized there wasn't going to be enough time to reach the summit and still hadn't had a good view. Then, I saw a big rock outcropping off the trail to our right.

"Let's get on top of that." -Me
"Okay. Lead the way, mountain man." -Lara

We had to walk around a bit and do a little scrambling, but we made it, and it was really cool. Plus, we got away from the millions of Koreans that were clogging up the trail.

I felt much better about life in general right at this moment :)

A great view from the rock (ignore the smog).

I guess Lara's Korean half just couldn't resist.

Sweet

2007-11-02T11:23:00.000-07:00

We got a new teacher today. He and his wife are awesome. Enough said.

They're Calling Me

2007-11-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend, no matter what, I'm hiking. I can't begin to describe it. I really like living in the city. I've always wanted to live in the city, but something happened to me in those 3 years in the woods. I don't feel "even" if I'm not enjoying Creation. The woods, the cliffs, the mountains, I need them.

I've never been one for day hiking. It doesn't have the same feel, especially when all of the overlooks are of Seoul, but I'll take what I can get at this point. I started losing touch with my inner-woodsman and now he's forcing himself back to the surface. I wish I could build a fire somewhere or live out of my backpack for a few days, but I'll settle for half a day on the mountainside.

Random Korean T-Shirts

2007-10-28T20:58:00.000-07:00

So one thing foreigners always notice is the copious amount of random, nonsensical t-shirts here in Korea. I found this shirt in Hongdae a little while ago and had to put up the picture. I thought it was hilarious, just not $30 hilarious (aka - I didn't buy it).

Peace in the Far East

2007-10-24T16:51:00.000-07:00

In response to (soon to be) Dr. Sam Negus' most recent comment, I'm not sure what the deal with with Asians making the peace sign almost every time a camera is pointed at them. I can't explain it, but it really does seem to happen. I don't question it. When in Rome......

Good times.....Good times.....

Uglidelphia, PA

2007-10-23T09:12:00.000-07:00

A special thanks to my "friends" JoAnn and Lara for sending me the link to this article. They sure know how to make a guy feel special....

Looking for attractive people? Don't go to Philly

Fri Oct 19, 2007 6:07pm EDT

The city of more than 1.5 million people was also found to be among the least stylish, least active, least friendly and least worldly, according to the "America's Favorite Cities" survey by Travel & Leisure magazine and CNN Headline News.

About 60,000 people responded to the online survey -- at www.travelandleisure.com -- which ranked 25 cities in categories including shopping, food, culture, and cityscape, said Amy Farley, senior editor at the magazine.

For unattractiveness, Philadelphia just beat out Washington DC and Dallas/Fort Worth for the bottom spot. Miami and San Diego are home to the most attractive people, the poll found.

But Farley pointed out the results don't mean people in Philadelphia are ugly or the city is a bad place to visit.

"We were asking people to vote on attractiveness, not unattractiveness. Travel & Leisure editors believe there are a lot of attractive people in Philadelphia," she said.

"The relative attractiveness of its residents is only a minuscule factor in evaluating a city's merit."

Philadelphians' self-esteem has been undermined by national surveys showing they are among the fattest people in the United States. The American Obesity Association ranked the city in the top 10 for overweight people every year between 2000 and 2005.

And sporting pride in a city known for the fierce loyalty of its fans has been hurt by not having had a national champion in any of its four main sports since the 76ers won the National Basketball Association title in 1983.

The Yonsei Soverance Hospital 10k

2007-10-20T03:26:00.000-07:00

The Yonsei Soverance Hospital held a marathon today as a fund raiser. While I'm not in good enough shape to run a full marathon right now, I did run the 10k. It was fun. I was part of Team YAY! (I didn't pick the name, but I guess it suited us. haha) which consisted of Lara, JoAnne and me. Lara decided to keep an eye on the competition coming up behind us so she, very graciously, started walking after about a quarter mile. JoAnn and I jogged the whole time. We finished in just over an hour. It's not a crazy, fast time, but it's respectable, and we had a lot of fun. The Seoul Marathon is in March. I'm definitely going to participate. Worst case scenario, I'll run the half marathon (20k = 13.1mi). I'm in good enough shape to do that right now so hopefully I'll be able to run the full marathon by then.

Team YAY! - JoAnn, Me, Lara - We're a good lookin' bunch if I do say so myself.

Sporting our Completion Medals post race

Serious Runners....Serious Pose

No day of picture taking in Asia would be complete without this shot.

Santa had it Coming

2007-10-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

The Eagles won this week. It may not have been very pretty, but they won. In honor of my weekly, near heart attack, I thought I'd put up this article from USAToday:

Santa snowball incident shrouded in myth

PHILADELPHIA — No surprise Philadelphia fans were rough on the Eagles at 0-2. After all, they once threw snowballs at ....

Hold it. In a new book titled The Great Philadelphia Fan Book, co-authors Glen Macnow and Anthony L. Gargano contend Philly fans get a bum rap in frequent mentions about that 1968 day when they hurled snowballs at Santa Claus. Not that they didn't do it.

"No event has been used to tar-and-feather Philadelphia fans as much. And no event has been as exaggerated, misconstrued and inaccurately recalled," they write.

Macnow, a talk show host along with Gargano on WIP radio in Philadelphia, says it's all about the circumstances.

"Everybody just thinks that people pelted Santa with snow balls for no reason other than we're mean people," he says.

A crowd of 54,535 showed in a snowstorm that Dec. 15 day at Franklin Field to watch the last-place Eagles finished off a 2-12 season with a loss to Minnesota.

The book says that team owner Jerry Wolman had "dismantled a strong, proud franchise" and hired Joe Kuharich as coach and general manager. Kuharich, who inspired the "Joe Must Go" slogan, traded Hall of Fame quarterback Sonny Jurgensen to Washington for Norm Snead.

At halftime, there was supposed to be a Christmas pageant. Then there was too much snow and muck for a float to parade around the field. Instead, according to the book, a 19-year-old fan wearing a Santa suit and fake beard in the stands was recruited to jog onto the field between two columns of cheerleaders.

The authors don't deny boos were heard and that snowballs were tossed. Are they saying Santa had it coming?

"Santa had it coming for a different reason actually," says Macnow. "Santa was a surrogate that day for Joe Kuharich and Jerry Wolman and Norm Snead. The poor kid just happened to be representing the frustrations."

The authors tracked down the Santa, Frank Olivo, who now lives in Ocean City, N.J. In the book, Olivo says he has no hard feelings. "I'm a Philadelphia fan, I knew what was what. I thought it was funny," he is quoted as saying.

But Olivo recalls that when he was asked if he might want to play Santa again the next season, he balked. "No way. If it doesn't snow, they'll probably throw beer bottles."

Fly Eagles Fly!

High and Low

2007-10-15T07:10:00.001-07:00

Today had an obvious high point. I woke up early to go to Apgujeong (known as the Beverly Hills of Seoul) for a job interview. It went great, and I was offered a position at The Little School. Starting in March, I will have my own group of six year olds at a Christian Pre-School :) Yup. You heard it right folks. The guy who always pokes fun at Elementary Education majors and gave his former boss an especially hard time for being "so el. ed." is now a Kindergarten teacher. It's cool though. I'd never want to be El.Ed. at home, but it's great over here. Plus, I get a raise and am moving to the center of Downtown Seoul. I'll be working a normal 9-5 schedule too so I'll actually be able to have a normal life and hang out with people.

The obvious low came a few hours later when my middle school students came to academy. Ah, middle school students...how I loathe apathy is ways that words can simply not express. It'll all be over in less than 4 months, but it's gonna be hard to stay motivated knowing how much fun my new job is going to be.

On another note, I came awfully close to feeling a little of "it" today. For those of you who have never worked in the camping industry, campers are never "homesick." They merely have "it," "the sickness," or "the disease" because once you use the word "homesick" life is over and the condition spreads like wildfire. Now, I'm not homesick, but I got that unmistakable feeling that I wanted to be at Spruce Lake.

Many of you know the exact feeling I'm talking about and how hard it is to shake it. I left school tonight at 11pm in my heavy cargo pants and Millersville Univ. fleece listening to Ben Folds on my iPod. The moment I hit the cold air outside, I seriously had to stand still and look around. I just felt like I was walking home from Outdoor Ed.

Just the other day, I was telling JoAnn and Lara that while this weather makes them miss SoCal (because they're so flippin' cold), it makes me miss home for completely different reasons. Don't get me wrong. I love Wilderness Camp. I have always lived for the summers there, but there was something special about the fall. Camp would end, and I'd be so stressed out after a summer of dealing with everything. I'd go on vacation to unwind a little, but there was always a moment around the 1st or 2nd week of October that was so perfect. It usually involved me sitting on the roof of my apartment or on the step outside my door (which is basically the roof too) where I'd be sitting there in the cold staring at the brilliant stars. All of a sudden, I'd feel completely relaxed and realize that I wasn't stressed out anymore. I wouldn't be able to stop smiling and would feel more content that I ever remember feeling at any other time in my life. This is the first time in three years I'm not going to get to have that moment.

I made sitting on my roof for at least a few minutes, sometimes an hour or more, a nightly routine. I miss that apartment. I miss those stars. I know leaving camp was the right decision, but sometimes I really miss it. Tonight, I got done work stressed about my middle schoolers but thankful for the blessing of my new job, and all I wanted to do was go to the ball field, slide in my mummy bag, lay on my back, and stare at the milky way until I passed out. That would've been the perfect end to the day.

I miss checking my email in the Wilderness Camp Office after lunch and getting my daily updates/moments of wisdom from Kent. I miss hanging out with Richard and Jesse. I miss the smell of the Pavilion on a cold night after it rains. I miss those moments where you know that camp is, beyond a doubt, exactly where God wants you to be at that moment. I don't think I'll ever stop missing Spruce Lake. I lost a little bit of that "awe" living there for three years, but I know the next time I drive up that rocky road, I'll get the shiver up my spine that I haven't felt in years. THAT will be a moment I've been wanting to have for a long time.

Koreanization

2007-10-13T22:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a pretty good Saturday. I knew I was going to be out all night so I forced myself to stay in bed until noon. I did some cleaning and got that, as Colin put it, "old sleeping bag," smell out of my apartment.

Then it was off to Hongdae. I was supposed to meet JoAnn and Lara at six so, being a guy, I got there at six. I was greeted by a phonecall. "Where are you? Oh snap! We're gonna leave in about 10 minutes...maybe 20." 45 minutes later, they arrived. Girls ;)

Apparently, when they got close, they were just going to start yelling, "We're looking for a white boy from Junggye! Has anybody seen a white boy from Junggye?!" but that idea got nixed at the last moment of the countdown by Lara. haha. They found me, and I was informed that I was about to be Koreanized. That included three basic parts. First, we went to Korean BBQ for Samgupsal (basically, thick cut bacon....it's delicious). That was nothing new for me, but next....oh next. We headed to the Noray Bong (translation: singing room). Basically, it's karaoke, but not in a bar in front of a room full of people. You pay to rent a room with your own personal karaoke machine. Koreans LOVE these things. Even in crappy, little Junggye, there are three of these JUST ON MY BLOCK! So we went to the Noray Bong, and I rocked it out with a little Johnny B. Goode, some Oasis, CCR, and the Beatles just to round it out a bit. JoAnn showed off her MAD rapping skills (does anyone know how to type sarcasm??).

After the noray bong, we walked around town for a little while searching for a sticker picture booth. Yup, it's just one of those photobooth things, but Koreans get so into it. Some girls will spend forever getting ready. We just kinda went for it, and they came out pretty good.

(left to right: Lara, JoAnn, Me)

Last was a trip to the Coffee Bean. I don't think this was so much being Koreanized as just hanging out for a while.

The girls left at midnight, and I headed off to Club Spot for the midnight show. My buddy Hwangyong's band, A Vicious Glare, was playing so I told him I'd come check them out. They put on a great show. Unfortunately though, since the subway shuts down at midnight, and I didn't want to spend $30 on a cab, we had to wait for the subway to start running again at 530am. It was a good night overall though, just long at some points when I started getting really tired.

I made it home around 630 in the morning. It was a good night.

It's OK. I'm Still Alive.

2007-10-11T02:40:00.000-07:00

It's been over a week since I wrote anything. I tried to post earlier at school, but the internet was being stupid. The big news that I can share right now...my guitar is in Korea. I'll be getting it on Sunday. I'm pretty stoked about that. The amp shipped separately two days after the guitar so hopefully that'll show up by Saturday so I can get it too. I have some other things working in the mix that I'm sure will get posted on here sooner or later.

Other than that, life has been pretty run of the mill here in Korea. I work a lot during the week. I've been trying to be more disciplined and run a 5k at least three times a week. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesn't. Next weekend, I'm running a 10k with JoAnn and Lara, but apparently they think I'm in better shape than them. They're planning to walk a lot of it. That's fine by me. I'm not looking to set any kind of record. It'll just be fun to do it. I get a tshirt, medal, and certificate of completion as long as we finish within an hour and a half. That shouldn't be too hard for 6+ miles. I've been going to punk shows every weekend in Hongdae too. That's always a good time but makes for some late nights (or should I call them early mornings?).

I've started reading a lot again. I took a few weeks off. I'm reading Phillip Yancey's, "The Jesus I Never Knew," right now. It's pretty intense. Next is, "The Brother's Karamazov," by Dostoevsky. I'm pretty excited about that. Then it's on to Tolstoy. I'm actually really looking forward to that. I'm going to post an excerpt from Yancey's book about Dostoevsky/Tolstoy sometime soon. It really hit me pretty hard.

I've been pretty introspective lately. It helps to be in a completely new environment in some ways, in others, it doesn't. I've just been thinking about a lot of big things lately. My life, my future, my philosophy/theology. Overall, it's been good. We'll see what comes out on the other side. All things considered, those of you who are waiting for the same old Jeff to come home will probably be disappointed. I'm not sure who it'll be that heads home in a year and a half, but it won't be the same old guy you've always known, and I'm excited/scared about that.

Do I Still Have a Job??

2007-10-01T20:46:00.001-07:00

This last week and a half has been great. Obviously, last week was Chuseok, and I only work Friday. I had a pretty great weekend. Friday, I came home and Colin, Will and I watched the season premier of The Office. Saturday, we went down to Hongdae for another punk show. Again, the bands were pretty good, but this time the crowd was really small (there was an all day punk festival at another place by the river). At any point, there were never more than 20 people there. The lamest thing was that the bands didn't stick around. Any show I've ever been to, the bands all show up near the beginning and stay until the end. At this one, they would show up just before they played and leave right after they were done. After the show, the guys who run the club too us out. We had a pretty good time. One of them was a drummer from one of the local bands, and he wants to play with Will and I once we get our gear over here (I should have my new Strat and amp in about 2 weeks).

Monday was EG Sports Day. We canceled classes and several different branches of EG Learning Institute came together to have a sort of company picnic. They divided us into 4 teams and we spent all day playing soccer and basketball. We had lunch and finished the day with a tug-of-war and relay race. My team made me run anchor for the race and we won. Oh yeah! We actually got first place for the whole day and they gave us this really nice set of stainless steel, engraved chopsticks and spoons (last time they gave out hairdryers so we were all happy with the gift this time). Plus, each branch that came was given an envelope of money to go out to dinner so our boss took us to a nice Korean BBQ for food and a few drinks. All in all, it was a nice day. Too bad I had to come home to watch the Eagles play like a bunch of middle school girls.

I have to work today, but none of my middle school classes will be here because they have midterm testing in the public schools right now so they all skip our program. That's fine by me. I have a meeting at 2, my first class is at 4, and I'll be finished at 630.

Tomorrow is another National Holiday, and I'm actually going to a Korean wedding. That should be a really good time. Then Thursday I have to work again, but I have the same schedule as today, minus the meeting :) After this week, we'll be back to a more normal schedule but the middle school student won't be back until the week after next. This has been SUCH an easy month! It's great!

Has It Really Been Six Days?

2007-09-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

In a few hours, my six day vacation will be over. That's ok though. Tomorrow is Friday. I can handle working one day and then having a weekend. Besides, most likely my two middle school classes won't show up because of their midterm exams in the public schools. It should be a pretty easy day.

Chuseok was nice. I have had a really fun and relaxing time. Saturday I spent all day in Hongdae with Brad, Steph and Colin. We checked out the college student art market, and I went to a punk show. The Queers (from New Hampshire) played. They were really good, and I was happily surprised that the four local bands that opened for them were pretty good too.

Sunday was normal. I slept in, watched a little tv and went to church. Pastor Robert got ordained last Friday so we had a little celebration for him. Then, we all went out for coffee. Those times are always my favorite. I sat around with Pastor Robert and two other guys and just talked about life for almost three hours.

Monday was probably the best day of vacation. I woke up around 10amm and Will came down. We made an American breakfast....coffee, oj, scrambled eggs with cheese, toast and pancakes. This may not sound like a big deal, but we don't get this stuff here in Korea. Then, we turned on the football game, and I watched the winless Philadelphia Eagles beat the Detroit Lions 56 to 21. That was nice. It was the highest scoring Eagles game in over 50 years, and Philadelphia needed that right about now. Then I made a few grilled cheese sandwiches (again, don't eat them very often), and we watched Will's Bengals. Unfortunately, they didn't fair quite as well. After football, it was back to Hongdae for me. I met up with some people from church. Since Chuseok is a family holiday and most of us are from the States, we decided to hang out. We had Korean bbq and coffee.

Tuesday, I didn't do ANYTHING and it was EVERYTHING I knew it could be :) I slept in, and when I woke up, immediately started watching season 4 of 24. I watched 4 episodes and decided to get food. Then I watched about 8 more episodes before will, colin, brad and steph came over to play cards (I taught them how to play shanghai). We got some more food and after they left, I watch more 24.

Wednesday, I met Moses and Sungha (from church) downtown and finally saw The Bourne Ultimatum. Then we walked all over downtown Seoul. We went to one of the biggest shopping areas (Myeong-dong), a traditional Korean village, and just walked around for a while. We went to their house for a while to hang out too. That was nice. Plus, I had the new Foo Fighters album to keep me occupied on the subway. I'm totally addicted to it. Everyone should get a copy. If you don't like it, you don't have a soul. After I got home later in the afternoon, I finished watching Season 4 of 24 (yes, I watched the whole thing in 2 days) and then went out to Hyehwa and Itaewan for a late night with Will and Colin. I didn't get to sleep until after 5am, but it was a lot of fun.

That brings us to today. I slept until almost 2pm. haha. I didn't do much. I read a little, watched some tv, kept listening to the Foo Fighters and went to Brad and Steph's apartment for a while.

So that's all of it with probably way more details than anyone cares about, but I've been getting a lot of messages about not being around all week. As you can see, I've been in and out the whole time (mostly out). I just need to get back on a more regular sleep schedule now, but since the weekend starts tomorrow night, that probably won't happen.

A Change of Plans

2007-09-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

I've come to the realization that while having a motorcycle or motor scooter here in Seoul would be really sweet, I can do without. However, contrary to what I originally thought, I can't go a year and a half without an electric guitar. Sorry Mr. Acoustic. I've tried really hard, but as with most of my relationships, your's and mine is doomed to fail. I can't afford a scooter and an electric/amp so it looks like I'll still be living on the subway system for a while. This really is the best choice. I'm ashamed it took me two months to go through enough withdrawal to start shopping. Oh god of rock, forgive me! Never again shall I live without the tools necessary to partake in all you have to offer. Long live ROCK!!

Happy Chuseok Everyone!

2007-09-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

It's Chuseok (Chew-Sok)here in Korea. Basically, it's Korean Thanksgiving, but it lasts for several days. I have off through Thursday of this week. We were hoping to get out of Seoul, but apparently every seat on every plane and bus is completely booked. You need to book your seats months ahead of time to get out of town for Chuseok. This is the time of year that everyone goes to visit extended family.

Despite staying here in Seoul, this should be a pretty good couple days. Today, I'm heading to Hongdae, my favorite area in Seoul. Hongik University is there. It's mostly full of art students which makes for a fun environment. There are students on the street showing/selling their art. There are usually bands playing outside on the weekends, and there are two punk rock clubs with shows most weekends. I'm really hoping to end up living down there before I leave Korea.

Besides Hongdae today, I'll be spending my time bouncing around Seoul looking for things to do. I'm gonna do a little hiking and check out some of the historical sights in the city. There's a chance that some people from my church might drive to Seoraksan National Park. I'd be fine with heading there again. We'll see what happens. All I know is, I'm off work for six days in a row!! :)

Punk Rock in Korea

2007-09-15T21:58:00.001-07:00

Next weekend...oh yeah!

A Great Story and More Photos

2007-09-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

So I completely forgot to tell the funniest story about our weekend at Seoraksan. Will and I are on the beach and this young, Korean couple walks past with a cute little girl, maybe a year and a half old. She sees us and walks over. We smile and say hi. Then, her dad comes over, says hi, picks up his little girl and hands her to Will. He takes a few steps back and I'm thinking we just inherited a young Asian baby. Instead, he whips out a camera and takes pictures of his baby with the white guys. We made sure they were keepers. It was hysterical.

I thought some of you might be interested in seeing the rest of my pictures from the weekend. Check them out HERE.

Seoraksan National Park

2007-09-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend was pretty cool. Seoraksan National Park was beautiful. The hiking wasn't easy, but it wasn't rustic either. The whole path had stairs, some metal/wood and others made with the natural rock. There were never any points where you felt like you were really away from civilization. If you've ever climbed the main trail up Seneca Rocks in West Virginia, you know what I mean. That aside, the park was beautiful. The views were great. We could even see the East Coast from the top of the mountain. That was cool.

There was a group of Korean rock climbers having a pretty good time. I was definitely jealous of that. I also got to see a HUGE buddha.

After our first day of hiking, we went to our accommodations. We stayed at a Korean Style (that's code for no bed, just blankets and mats on the floor) motel by the beach. It was a fun night. Hanging out on the beach. Shooting roman candles. I got to touch the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life.

Sunday morning, we woke up way too early and went for a short hike up a small stream, and some of the guys decided to swim by a waterfall in their skivvies. The water was pretty cold so I did not partake. We hiked back out and headed back to Seoul. Overall, the trip was nice. It was great to breathe clean air and climb a mountain that didn't overlook skyscrapers.

I missed church because of the trip but was able to meet up with a bunch of people afterwards. That was nice. We had our weekly dinner/coffee/whatever else we decide to do. It was fun. That's always the best few hours of my week. I'll put up some more picture soon for those of you who don't have facebook.

FOOTBALL!!!!

2007-09-06T21:57:00.000-07:00

Football season started today. I know the first game already happened, but that was 930am my time. Come on, everyone knows I'm not getting up that early (unless it's an Eagles game). I'm able to watch the games for 48 hours after they end so after work, most of the EG teaching staff is coming back to my apartment for some good ol' American football. I can't wait. Go Colts!

(Oh, and I'd appreciate if nobody decides they wanted to be funny and emails me football scores throughout the season. Remember. I'll be watching games about 10-20 hours after they're over. Please don't ruin this for me. Football is sacred.)

Old Man River

2007-09-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

I must be turning into an adult. Up until just a few years ago, I lived for second shift jobs. I really liked sleeping in and staying up late. It still doesn't bother me too much, but I find myself being more productive on the days I work early and not accomplishing anything on the days I start/end later. If I ever switch to a new school over here, I think I'm going to try to get into the public school system. They actually pay a little better, and classes are from 8am until 2:30pm. Not too shabby.