No, I am NOT 28 years old!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

click me

I Finally Got a Fix

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

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

They're Calling Me

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

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

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

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

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Philadelphia is home to the least attractive people in the United States, a survey of visitors and residents showed on Friday.

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.

© Reuters2007All rights reserved

The Yonsei Soverance Hospital 10k

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

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

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

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.

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??

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?

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

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!

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

Next weekend...oh yeah!

A Great Story and More Photos

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

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!!!!

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

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.

Home Sweet Home

Korea feels a little more like home thanks to this website.

Ooooooh, E - A - G - L - E - S EAGLES!!

One...Two...Three...

Last night was the first time since I've been in Seoul that I could actually see stars in the sky. It was beautiful. After a month and a half without stars, you really appreciate them. Also, it was the first time in my life that I could count every visible star in the sky. There were three.

Vacation

So we found out today that we have off work from Saturday September 22 - Thursday September 27th. It's the biggest Korean holiday of the year. Korean Thanksgiving. It's kinda lame that we have to come back just to work a Friday. I'm sure we'll do a lot of teaching that day ;) If only they'd give us that day off too. Then we'd have 9 days off instead of 6. Anyway, we decided we need to travel. We're gonna try to head down to South-East Asia. We'd like to spend a few days in Vietnam and Cambodia. Unfortunately, it might be hard to get tickets since it's the biggest holiday of the year. If we can't get a flight, we're gonna bum around the Korean countryside. I'm looking forward to it. Should be a pretty good time.

At Last!!

So I spent the last month and a half constantly nagging my boss to make the call so I could get my own internet connection and phone line at my apartment. He's been really busy and has not had time to do it so I've been hooking onto whatever unreliable wireless connection I could find. Then, today I received a bill in the mail for my July phone/internet service. Perplexed, I went to my boss. It turns out that the last teacher here never had them disconnected. I've had internet and a phone line the whole time I've lived here. He called the company and got my username/password for the internet and my home phone number, and now I'm online. I thanked him for the phone call and assured him that I wouldn't be paying for July's service. We agreed, and now I finally have these last two amenities for my apartment :)

The Final Countdown

Press play on the video below before you start reading.....



That's right folks. It's Monday night. Tomorrow is the last day of summer intensives. No longer will we be forced to work 50 hours a week. We'll be back to just afternoons. 5-7 classes a day instead of 10. Thank God. The month is almost over. IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!!!

....and you'd better believe we've all been singing this song for the last few days because nothing expresses true, raw emotion like bad 80's hair metal. yee haw!

My New Home Away From My Home Away From Home

And here it is. The place I will be spending much of my free time. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you O2 World







Oh, and I almost forgot to mention...They have the world's largest indoor ice climbing wall (certified by The Guinness Book of World Records).